“What has been your peak experience so far?” asked an American tourist sitting with his wife at a nearby table at a sidewalk cafe in Madrid. My husband and I stumbled around for an answer, but none came. No single experience on our visits to Paris and Madrid stood out as “peak.”

The man’s “peak” was a walk through a cave in northern Spain, its walls covered with prehistoric drawings.  Our conversation ended about the time the tourist’s soup arrived and he became angry with the waiter because the soup didn’t meet expectations. He said, “I know how this soup should be prepared and this is not right. Don’t ever do this to me again.” His continued rant and refusal to accept a substitute provided us with a memorable experience, but I wouldn’t call it “peak.”

This brings me to an article a friend sent from the “New York Times” (Sept. 24, 2013) called, “Sign of the Times/The Virtues of Fine in the Age of Awesome.” Andrew O’Hagan writes, “In an era of extreme travel and desperately competitive bucket lists, it’s worth recognizing that “‘good’ is often good enough.” He talks about the “Ultimate Experience” holiday that involves traveling by private jet, mountain climbing, or deep-sea diving and warns that, “The Ultimate Experience now poses a threat to the kind of small revelations that can make us happy.”

We’d enjoyed strolling through different neighborhoods in Paris and Madrid, visiting art museums and cathedrals, testing out new dishes and desserts in restaurants, bakeries, ice creameries, and trying to read unfamiliar signs, menus, bits of text and maps in French and Spanish.

We were pleased that everyone we’d talked to or asked for help had been friendly, often generous with their time and knowledge. Two nights earlier we’d eaten at the same restaurant, when my husband realized he didn’t have enough euros to cover the bill. The waiter took it all in stride while my husband walked the four blocks back to our hotel to get a credit card.

It’s true that we hadn’t seen everything we wanted to see, but that meant we had a reason to return. We were content. As O’Hagan describes vacationers like us, we weren’t seeking the ‘awesome,’ but “travelers who wanted simply to find a lovely part of the world and dwell in it for a week or two.” Without peaks or piques.

Ann Oxrieder has lived in Bellevue for 35 years. She retired after 25 years as an administrator in the Bellevue School District and now blogs about retirement at http://stillalife.wordpress.com/.