Welcome!
This site is part of our celebration of our 60th anniversary. When we are asked how we have managed so many years (and more to come) we both answered that in addition to love, you need to be each other's very best friend.
Our Story
We love to travel. We're not sure when the travel bug bit us but it did, and 7 continents and over 50 countries and we're still at it.
During the 1960's we were busy with vacationing with the children and taking vacations without them only when Les had a GI meeting usually in interesting places in the US. As we recall our first international (the Caribbean doesn't count) was probably in 1972. The American College of Gastroenterology had a travel club led by David Dreiling, MD, a gastroenterologist, surgeon, and physiologist who always had "fellows" studying with him at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York City. It had been announced that a group of ACG fellows and members had been invited to Lisbon for an international conference. Les was invited to participate and present a paper at the conference. So we went to the Annual Meeting of the College of Gastroenterology being held in Montreal where it was quite cold and then flow to Lisboa, Portugal where it was quite warm. Our host group of Portuguese physicians immediately flew us down to the Algave. We didn't even know what it was. We found ourselves in this magnificent coastal area with one hotel and little fishing villages.
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Our Story
After a couple of relaxing days our hosts loaded us on a bus to travel through the countryside to Lisboa. We stopped at a former Monastery (now a Pousadas) and after touring had lunch it the great hall. On to Lisboa. We now found ourselves at the Ritz Hotel (Now the Four Seasons Ritz Hotel). It was overwhelming and our semi-suite was as well with a terrace overlooking the Hotel’s gardens and Eduardo VII Park. In the sitting area was a hugh bouquet with an invitation to a reception and dinner given by the mayor of Lisboa in our honor the following evening at the Castelo de Sao Jorge. I could go on and on but we'll save it for the slide show that I'll put together one of these days. Suffice to say that this trip just had to be followed by others, more and more, and we're still at it.
Joannie & Les
