We Knew About the Camel, But There Was an Elephant, Too?

I've posted this photo of my mother on the camel before. It was taken, perhaps in Egypt, on one of her many trips. My father died before they could go traveling together as planned. Now, I know she's not going anywhere in particular on that camel, but I am still impressed that a widowed school teacher would sign up for many foreign travel tours on her own.

I didn't really ask her much about her trips, but I inherited many albums of photos from faraway places. This one on a camel came as a surprise.

Just yesterday, I found this elephant photo. It appears that Elva split the cost of the posed photograph (note the two men helpfully pointing at the camera) with a fellow traveler on the tour. I'm suspecting they were in India, and I remembered giggling when I received a postcard from Mother of erotic statuary at some tourist stop. I believe that would have been around 1974, because I was sitting in our breakfast nook in Montesano, Washington when I read that card.

 Posed or not, these pictures make me marvel at the idea that a woman born on a farm in New Brunswick, Canada at a time when autos were a rarity, would eventually find herself flying to strange and exotic places on the other side of the world.

What do you suppose the men in suits were discussing?

Detail: That's mother (Elva Crabtree Harris) on the left, complete with necklace and pocket book