Vacation renews ties with family and dear friends

Few things in life are better than a two-week vacation that allows one to fully unplug from the day-to-day routines of life — both at work and at home — and just relax, have fun, visit with family members and long-ago friends or just enjoy seeing new sights in a different location.

Kim Chamberlain and I recently returned from just such an adventure together in which we explored the cities of Dallas and San Antonio in Texas and spent more money and time than we ever should have done in Las Vegas, Nevada.

They don't just jokingly refer to that town as "Lost Wages." For many who visit there, I am sure it is literally the truth. Lucky for us we don't gamble much, except maybe on the advertised quality of a casino resort's hotel room.

We had a wonderful trip, starting with the June 26 wedding in Dallas that joined the life of my oldest nephew, Trevor Lunt, to that of his lovely fiance, Codie .

Along the way, we also celebrated my daughter Kristina's 20th birthday surrounded by more Winship family members than she ever knew existed. She and three cousins and one very young-at-heart aunt spent the following day at Six Flags Over Dallas while the rest of us "old folks" relaxed, did laundry and prepared to either return home — as most of the others did — or move on, as we did, to our next adventure.

A short hop via Southwest Airlines to San Antonio brought us to the lovely and gracious home of Owen and Becky Keiser, friends of mine since high school and college days on the campus of Washington State University in Pullman.

Although I had corresponded frequently with them during the ensuing 40 years and had lately resumed our annual tradition of a long-distance phone call to wish Owen another "Happy Birthday" on Jan. 6, we had not seen each other for more than 25 years since they had been living most of that time in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, programming computers and writing code for ARAMCO.

Safely back in the United States since 2002, I finally was able to arrange a mutually convenient time to visit with them and introduce them to Kim, with whom they fell instantly in love, as had my three younger sisters the week before in Dallas.

Of course, we explored San Antonio's fabled River Walk despite 100+ degree weather and high humidity, did a drive-by sighting of The Alamo and toured several old Spanish missions that are now national parks as well as functioning churches.

The final leg of our journey brought us to Sin City, where we enjoyed people-watching, high-quality shows, great restaurants, stunning decor and window shopping in high-end boutiques where you could literally smell the money needed to purchase even the smallest trinket.

By the end, however, we were more than ready to return home to Anderson, familiar surroundings and jobs.