A 'Surprise' Branch of My Family Tree
Last weekend Scott and I made our annual trip to Newport Beach to see a surprise ‘branch’ of my family tree. This side of my family, the Swansons, are my birth family. I am the oldest sibling, adopted to another family at birth. Rod and Dorie are my full-blooded brother and sister and were raised by their parents never knowing there was an older sister. A number of family members knew about that first baby-but not these two.
Surprise!!
Dorie always thought she was the oldest sibling (nope!). I think that makes us even more alike-two first born sisters. We’ve never had a fight, though she laughs and says maybe we should “just to say we did”.
Scott and I used to whisper it to each other over the years: “We aren’t really cruisers.” We happily schlepped our way through cobblestoned Italian hill towns, wandered along Mediterranean seafronts, and checked into luxurious beachfront resorts, proudly proclaiming ourselves land‑lovers through and through. But after one too many grueling European trips spent hauling luggage from place to place every few days, we realized that small‑ship cruising deserved a place in our travel repertoire.