Our family planted an apple orchard while our kids were still growing. We had t-shirts made that said, “The family that picks together sticks together.” I’ve always wanted to keep my family close. I speak internationally all over the world and have for the last 25-30 years. So, when we go, I always see if we can take a kid or a few grandkids with us. When the family expanded to 19 of us, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get together once in a while to do something special?’”

Special Memories

The first time we did this was a hiking trip to the Canadian mountains. Afterwards, our son-in-law who had joined us mentioned this trip as a special memory just before he passed. And that inspired me to plan more of them, like our family’s Paris & Normandy river cruise with AmaWaterways.

Paris & Normandy was the first river cruise we did all together. And it was an ideal approach because it allowed for us to do individual excursions at our own pace or focus on our own interests, while still getting together for dinner every night.

A Rare and Lovely Experience

At 19, we were a big crowd to manage, but AmaWaterways is a wonderful group to work with! In fact, when my husband and I had a difficult problem, they came to the rescue. Our flight was delayed. Everyone was going to be on the cruise ship but us! AmaWaterways had friendly representatives meet us at the airport and drive us to the next location where the ship was docked the next day. We didn’t do anything special to deserve that – they’re just a wonderful company and they made the experience effortless and lovely for us.