Discovering The Mature Lifestyle
Don’t let hearing loss inhibit your travels Column inside
Travel & Adventure December Issue
December 15, 2017
40 percent of Apple Valley travel agency’s clients are seniors and Estonia. “It w as v ery historical,” Hunter said. “It was fun to use the train system. All the countries Senior citiz ens comprise have such good tr ain sysabout 40 per cent of her tems, and it’ s not e xpenclientele, says Sara Butruff, sive.” owner of T ravel Leaders Since one of her tw o in A pple V alley. Se veral grandchildren w orks f or seniors w ho ha ve w orked with her ar e gr ateful f or her travel guidance. By SUE WEBBER Contributing Writer
took some kind of v acation, either a trip up north or to W isconsin to visit relatives. They also tr aveled to T exas, Yellowstone Park and the Black Hills , she said. Cynthia f ormerly worked as a n urse’s aide , and also a t an insur ance
Leaders in Apple Valley. “We ha ve such a good time to gether,” said Cindi Anderson. She and her husband T ed often tr avel with J oAnn and Ste ve LeClair, who live in Burnsville. “We’ve been friends
Cynthia Hunter Cynthia Hunter of A pple Valley said she did some traveling ear lier in life , “mostly with my husband, to someplace w arm,” she said. Those trips included Jamaica, Cancun, Aruba and several other islands in the Caribbean. When her dad was in his 80s, she took him to Ir eland in 1983. Hunter took her two daughters to England, Scotland and W ales in 1983, and to Puerto Vallarta in 1989. Five y ears a go, Hunter was widowed. But her traveling days weren’t over. She and her daughter , Amy w ent to Ir eland together in 2015, and then to England, Scotland and Wales in 2016. This y ear, Cynthia decided she wanted to see the east coast of Canada. “My neighbor, P at, w as going to go alone, but then Amy and her friend Ma vis and I ended up going to gether. It was a really nice trip. We don’t kno w m uch a bout Canada, and w e really enjoyed that.” Cynthia and Pat traveled to Nova Scotia in September. Also this y ear, the f our took a trip to Denmar k, Sweden, Norw ay, Finland
PHOTO ABOVE: Cynthia Hunter and her daughter, Nicole, spent some time in Los Angeles. PHOTO LEFT: Pictured outside the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, are, from left, Ted and Cindi Anderson, and JoAnn and Steve LeClair. Sun County Air lines, Cynthia said, “She gi ves me ideas of things to do . I want to see mor e of the U.S.” Cynthia and her other daughter, Nicole , w ent to Gulfport and the Florida Keys in 2016, and r ecently returned from a trip to Los Angeles and San Diego. Future tr avel plans include going up the East coast with a friend in spring 2018, and a trip to Ireland in fall 2018. A native of Albert Lea, Cynthia recalls that her father always made sure that his famil y of five children
company. She enjo ys w orking with Sar a Butruf f, o wner of T ravel Leaders . “Their wonderful of fice is w onderful,” Cynthia said. I recommend them highl y. Our trips ha ve turned out nicely.”
The Andersons and LeClairs Two couples who got acquainted w hen their children w ere in elementary school and have continued as friends for 30 years also are tr avel companions , working thr ough T ravel
since our kids were in grade school,” Cindi said. “We’ve moved several times within the metr o ar ea, b ut w e’ve always stayed connected.” The Andersons , no w residents of Chaska, gr ew up in southern Minnesota, Cindy in Fairmont and Ted in St. James. The two have always tr aveled, since T ed formerly worked for a German firm. Cindi worked at Continental Machine in Savage bef ore she r etired. The couple has two daughters and six grandchildren. “We’re going back to Belize in February, one of our favorite places, to celebrate
our 50th anni vero sary” Cindi said. They also enjoyed a National Geo graphic trip to the Galapagos Islands, she said. “We lived on the ship for several weeks and each day we hik ed in the islands ,” she said. “W e did things I thought I w ould ne ver do and thought I might ne ver get the opportunity to do a gain. We did a lot of climbing out of r afts and hiking.” Now, she said, “We take at least one trip a y ear. We’re trying to figure out where our ne xt one will be.”
When she w as gr owing up, J oAnn, said her family camped and vacationed every y ear w hile the children were young. “We traveled some where, though I hadn’t seen the r est of the world, e xcept Me xico,” JoAnn said. “Man y times we took a car trip somewhere in the U.S.” Now she and her husband try to tak e one trip a y ear a broad. “We lo ved Italy and w ould like to go back there,” she said. “Australia and Ne w Zealand
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