More than a decade ago, this column featured the adventures of the traveling Biondos of Del Mar.
Vince Biondo is a former Carlsbad city attorney and attorney for the San Diego County Water Authority. Betsey Biondo, a retired teacher, is a former trustee of the Del Mar Union School District.
Their past travels took them off the beaten path — along the historic Silk Road in Asia, to spend time in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and even to the legendary Timbuktu.
Not slowed by his 80th birthday, her leg fracture or the coronavirus pandemic, the Biondos have been traveling again.
They’ve had to make some adjustments because of the pandemic.
But this year’s trips by one or both have included Dry Tortugas National Park, Pitcairn Island where descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty live, and lesser-known European countries like North Macedonia and Kosovo, where they noticed a statue of former President Bill Clinton.
As always, their travels are outlined in an annual Christmas letter.
The Biondos go some place almost every month, so she details their travels chronologically beginning with January, when they spent time with family in Arcata in Northern California, and helped son Vincent III, professor of religious studies at California State University Humboldt, split firewood.
February’s trip to Eastern Cuba had been canceled, so the Biondos used the airfare to Miami, rented a car and stayed in Key West where he enjoyed walking in the footsteps of American author Ernest Hemingway. Not venturing with her surgically repaired femur onto a seaplane, Betsey Biondo let her husband fly alone to Dry Tortugas, where a 19th-century fort is considered the largest brick building in the Western Hemisphere.
March’s trip was more conventional — to Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, where they discovered a new arts district with an “Alice in Wonderland” entry.
April was spent in Florence, Italy, where its Easter celebration was “a feast of medieval pageantry.” There were day trips to Tuscan hill towns and four days in Venice.
There’s no mention of May, but Betsey Biondo gave her husband a birthday present in June — going with him trout fishing in Utah and salmon fishing in Alaska.
COVID-19 had canceled their July tour to Macedonia, but they already had their air tickets so they decided to go on their own via 10 days on the Greek island of Corfu and in the relatively new nation of North Macedonia, they were surprised by its capital Skopje, filled with public art museums, bridges connecting pedestrian walkways, a plaza and a fountain crowned with a “heroic” statue of Alexander the Great.
A day trip to nearby Kosovo revealed the 10-foot-tall statue of Clinton, whose Balkan bombing campaign is credited with saving the emerging nation.
August’s arctic cruise, in and out of Greenland, had been postponed three times, so it was “use it or lose it.” Bad weather forced partial cancellations, so it was a disappointment.
September’s trip to Tahiti and Pitcairn Island was another paid-for and postponed previously.
Pitcairn, famous as refuge in 1789 for mutineers from the ship Bounty, is the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean.
The Biondos signed the condolence book for the late Queen Elizabeth.
Only three students remained in the one-teacher school, and it was to close this fall as they went on to secondary education in New Zealand. There are no more children. Immigration is discouraged, Betsey Biondo said, so the population is dying.
She says nothing about travel in October, but last month the entire family went to Maui for Thanksgiving Week — and to watch the San Diego State University Aztecs in a basketball tournament (Vince Biondo is an ardent fan).
The Biondos were home for only two days before taking off on another previously postponed rescheduled trip — two weeks in Israel and a week in occupied Palestinian territories.
Betsey Biondo promises a full report — and, no doubt, many more — in next year’s holiday greeting.
Sherman is a freelance columnist. Contact her at lola@seaside-media-services.com.
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