Good times are multiplied when you travel with friends

By Meghan Streit
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Travel is one of the most anticipated pleasures of retirement. Your kids are grown up and raising their own families. You’ve worked hard for many years to build up a nest egg. Now is your chance to visit all of the faraway places you’ve imagined for decades.

See the world with friends
The joy of travel is multiplied when you share the experience with friends who share your sense of adventure, rather than joining a tour group of strangers or traveling alone or only with your spouse. Monarch Landing resident Elaine Brinkman spent many years of her life seeing the world in the company of friends while working as a cruise ship singer.

So when the energetic world traveler moved to the Naperville community last May, Brinkman said she wanted to form a travel club so she could continue to take vacations with friends. Less than a year later, Brinkman has rounded up about 15 fellow travelers and the enthusiastic group already has two trips planned and a couple of others in the works.

“How wonderful to travel with people you actually care about,” Brinkman says in anticipation of the upcoming journeys with her new friends.

Emilie Mulac, a member of the travel club, says she and her husband have taken trips as a couple as well as with other friends. “When you go to shows and out to dinner, it’s always more fun to be in a group,” Mulac says.

More friends, time, and money for travel
Mulac and several other members of the club all say they have made more friends to travel with since moving to Monarch Landing. In addition to expanding their social circles, the bunch has also found themselves with more free time, giving them added freedom to travel.

‘Wanderlust’ is contagious
“There’s definitely more free time,” says Tom Butcher, who has lived at Monarch Landing with his wife since November. “I have more time and money to do anything I want to do.”