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Get inspired by these people who made their travel dreams come true.
“How amazing it is to be alive for this!”
| 1 | The Ultimate National Park Road Trip
When genetic testing revealed that Abbi Whitaker carried a BRCA2 gene mutation that vastly increased her risk of breast and ovarian cancer, the news came as a shock. Having already survived anal cancer a decade before, Whitaker, 46, wasn’t about to wait and worry; she made plans to have a preventive double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, followed by a hysterectomy.
But she also knew she needed something joyful to look forward to, so she decided to visit 20 national parks in 2021, interspersed with her surgeries. “Nature is my church, it’s where I feel the best, and I wanted something really magical to hold on to,” she says. Joined by her husband, Ty, she headed to the Grand Canyon and Death Valley in February, followed by the Petrified Forest and Saguaro in March.
The Whitaker kids, 15-year-old Ever and 12-year-old Eden, joined their parents on about half the trips, including a spring break road trip to visit Utah’s Mighty 5: Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef.
Over the summer they hit White Sands, Yellowstone, Lassen, Redwood, Crater Lake, Pinnacles and Glacier National Parks. At Glacier, Whitaker had an epiphany: “We were driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road and it was just mesmerizing, and I thought, How amazing it is to be alive for this!”
Along the way the family purchased a Sprinter van, something Abbi had dreamed of for years. “Having a double mastectomy makes you do some impulsive things,” she jokes.
The Whitakers completed their odyssey with a memorable weekend in Yosemite, staying at the historic Ahwahnee Hotel. “We saved the crowning jewel for last,” she says.
| 2 | Alaska in Winter
Seeing the aurora borealis had been a dream of Marilynn Mastrella’s since she first saw photos of it in high school. The clinical social worker from Somerville, N.J., 56, saw the northern lights twice on a recent trip to Alaska, in Fairbanks, a prime viewing destination. “It was so amazing,” she says.
She also hiked with a herd of reindeer, soaked in a thermal mineral pool and went dog sledding with a team that had been in the Iditarod. “Dog mushing was so much fun. The dogs were so happy and fun to watch,” she says. Next, Mastrella plans to return to explore the state’s national parks when they’re not blanketed in snow.
| 3 | Petra, Jordan: A Wonder of the World
“I had been desperate to visit Petra for so many years,” says Ann Swinford, 63, a radiologist from Ann Arbor, Mich., about the site renowned for its ornately carved temples and tombs hewn directly into rose-colored rock.
Founded by the Nabateans in the 4th century B.C. and all but abandoned a thousand years later, Petra became famous for its starring role in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Swinford, who traveled with her husband, Mo, was awed by the grandeur of the ornate structures hidden within the towering cliffs. “When you’re walking down the long canyon and then the rocks split and you see the temple appear, it’s so magical,” she says.
They also visited Jordan’s historic sites, including the Roman ruins of Jerash, where the stones still show the grooves of chariot wheels, and the colorful city of Madaba, famed for its Byzantine mosaics. And she swam suspended in the saline-saturated waters of the Dead Sea. “Ever since I went to Bible class and they told me there was a sea you could float in, I've wanted to to experience that, and it was so much fun!”