I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 From The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Where the People Are Not

June, 2025

I recently saw a t-shirt that said, “I want to be where the people aren’t.” It was a play on lyrics sung by Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Her lyric is “I want to be where the people are” in her longing to live on land instead of under the sea. The shirt made me chuckle and think that I should get that for my husband. He definitely wants to be where the people aren’t. For the nearly 34 years of our marriage, my husband has successfully avoided most parties and many family gatherings. He goes to the big important things like weddings, graduations, funerals and a few parties that are important to me. It’s not that he’s anti-social. He’s heard the stories and had the conversations and that’s enough for him. 

Being where the people aren’t has been an unspoken theme for most of our family travel plans. More often than not when people ask where we have been or where we are going, their reply is Where is that? or I’ve never heard of that. For us, that’s a good sign. We are going where the people aren’t.

We are not going to wildly exotic places. Most often our destinations are not that difficult to get to and we find comfortable places to stay. We are definitely not roughing it. Typically, we are taking the left turn when most people turn right. In The Bahamas for example, most people opt for a cruise stop in Nassau or a stay at the Atlantis Resort. We opt for a small out island called Eleuthera. The people are friendly. It is remarkably safe. The beaches are pristine and usually empty. The restaurants are owned by locals and usually feature the fresh catch. The challenge and the reward is having to make your own fun. Amazing memories were formed by making our own fun.

My husband is a great skier. Growing up in New Jersey, he took countless road trips alone or with friends to destinations in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. As a dad, his pick for teaching our kids to ski was one of the most challenging mountains on the East Coast, Whiteface Mountain, affectionately known as Ice Face. There are no ski in ski out accommodations, not much of an apres ski scene, in fact not many amenities at all except for bathrooms and a warm lunch when you want it. It is notoriously cold, windy and yes, icy. Consequently, lift lines are minimal because, as you might guess, we were where the people aren’t. Fast forward, our kids, who are now adults, can and will ski anything.

When our children were ages five and nine, they were perfect ages for a trip to Disney World. My husband suggested Iceland instead. It was a trip full of natural wonders and exhilarating experiences. Even there, we ventured beyond Reykjavik which is the typical stopover for most travelers when they stop in Iceland on their way to another European destination.  We drove to the northern city of Akureyri, less than 100 kilometers from the Arctic Circle. (Ask us about our whale watching trip.) We happened upon the Icelandic National Arts Festival. Opera, symphony, folk music, performance art . . . it was one of the most serendipitous experiences. There were carnival rides and some magical Norse characters walking around but it was definitely not Disney World. 

We can thank the British novelist Patrick O’Brien for inspiring trips to Mallorca and later Menorca, two of the three Balearic Islands of Spain which were important ports and key battle sites during the British, Spanish and French naval wars. The Azores? Nine Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean which are Portuguese. Incredible trip.

There are more. If you ask me about our destinations, I’ll tell you about them but I usually use the phrase “Amazing place but it’s not for everyone.” And that is why we choose to go where the people aren’t.