Must be something in the blood …

Anyone who has followed my LJ for considerable time has picked up on the fact that, without any deliberate intent in that direction, my immediate family somehow became a group of inveterate international travelers. (Especially given that my son Kevin and daughter sroni are now married to foreign nationals and living in their spouses’ home countries.) My wife Susan was the first of us, making a European mission trip either during or right after high school, but eventually all of us climbed aboard. And along the way we acquired an interesting set of records in comparison to one another. As follows:

Each of us has been to at least three countries never visited by any of the others:

• Me – Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Bulgaria
• Susan – Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Tanzania
• sroni – France, Scotland, South Korea, Switzerland
• Kevin – Jamaica, Malaysia, Thailand

Each of us has been to another country with at least one of the others:

• Kevin and sroni visited me at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba
• Susan and I were briefly in Canada together (to board an Alaska cruise ship)
• Susan and I went to the Netherlands and Belgium together
• Susan and I visited Kevin in China
• Susan twice visited sroni in Ireland

Each of us has been to the same country as at least one of the others, but at a different time:

• Susan and I were in Ireland at different times (airport stop only for me), and in the Netherlands at different times (again, airport stop for me, though we visited it later together)
• sroni and I were in Ireland at different times (airport stop for me, as I said, while she’s been in residence there twice)
• sroni and Kevin were in Mexico at different times, and also Taiwan, and also mainland China
• Kevin visited China after (and because) sroni had been there, and Susan and I last of all

Each of us has an area of specialization:

• I’m the only one of us who ever visited a Middle Eastern country (and I racked up five of them)
• sroni has visited more European (and UK) countries than any of the rest of us
• Kevin, of course, has specialized in the Far East and the Asian Pacific
• Susan’s trips have been mostly European, but she’s the only one of us ever to go to any African country

Excluding nations of residence, there is no country outside the U.S. that ALL of us have been to. (All four of us have been to China, but Susan and I both went there while Kevin was living and working there.)

Kevin has spent the most time actually outside the U.S., but is the one who has been to the fewest non-U.S. countries.

I was the oldest of us (at 49) the first time I ever got outside the U.S., but I’m the one who’s been to the most non-U.S. countries.

And one last thing: I’m the only one of the family who never visited another country on a mission trip (unless you count ‘missions’ for the U.S. Army).

Except for visiting my kids and their families, I’m probably done with adventuring. It could be interesting to see how that plays out with the third generation, however.