China Tour Debriefing Party

Our tour to China was incredible and we all had such a great time.  However, the thing that stood out for us was how our group gelled and became a family unit caring and sharing with each other.

We were dreading the day when we would all be parting, so Art and I "volunteered" to host a post-tour get-together which eased our separation knowing we'd see each other again.

Art and I have been on a few other tours to Turkey, Egypt/Jordan, Netherlands and Alaska.  We enjoyed all the people we met immensely, but aside from Jean and Mike who became long lasting friends after the Netherlands, we've drifted away from everyone else.   We certainly wouldn't have been able to have a post tour party because everybody lived in different corners of the US.   Hawaii is different, of course.  Except for one couple who live on the Big Island, the rest of us live on Oahu.

This past Saturday was the BIG day.  I wondered what it would be like.  Would we still feel the same even though we no longer spend almost every waking minute together in a foreign place?

Soon... everybody arrived.  Joyous hugs, kisses and smiles confirmed that nothing had changed. We were still a loving travel family.


Mom took this photo of our fun group for us.

We spent lots of time enjoying photo albums that Roy and Chieko had made.  We talked about termites, ants, cockroaches, illnesses, other trips, health insurance, photography, plant diseases and of course, China.  We shared our albums from China and the National Parks and gave out little goodie bags you can see on the table containing a few essentials for everyone's next trip.

The buffet table was groaning from the weight of all the dishes.

(We didn't take many photos because we were too busy talking to everybody.)

There were spinach rolls, little pizza hors d'oeuvres on English muffins, Korean salad (all made by Janet and Richard), taro duck (Allwyn and Audry gave DVDs of all the photos he took), crispy gau gee min noodles (Roy and Chieko also gave everyone DVDs of their photos and videos), lucky bamboo plant, beer, grilled steak (from master griller Gerald and Eva), a huge sushi platter, barbecued teriyaki chicken (compliments of Pearl and Guy) and Mom's famous macaroni salad.  I also served some grilled veggies in olive oil and Italian seasoning, mango slices and pickled cucumbers.  Darn!  I forgot to take a photo of the desserts.  Mandy and Marilyn brought a Magic Cake and Orange Chiffon cake (along with beautiful anthuriums).  Janet also made a fantastic apple crisp.   

The lovely thing about Hawaiian pot lucks is that at the end of the evening, everybody gets to bring home food for the following day.  We were able to savor all the left overs at Sunday's dinner.

As Pearl said so many times, "The best part of the tour was the friendships and camaraderie we all shared".  And we're still not saying goodbye.  Allwyn and Audry have volunteered to host the next party!