A traveler I was...(and maybe still am)

 

 

"What was Australia really like? As good as you as you could imagine, and then still some!"

Not to sound like Yoda from Star Wars, but what a traveler I was! Am I still a traveler? To a degree, maybe so. In the past, I have not traveled as much as many of my contemporaries, however maybe more than some others. In any event, it really does not matter. Travel is a personal thing, a financial thing, and maybe even a health thing. For most of us, it is a luck thing - being in the right time at the right place. If you have the means or the fortune to travel, that is okay. If you do not, that is also okay.

I will admit I have been very blessed in my life to visit places far away. Much of my overseas travel has been due of my Naval career as well as my civilian jobs. This past summer, my wife and I took a long planned visited to Alaska. It was a great trip. However, the best part of the trip was this, it was great having my wife experience it with me. I did not have to tell her about it once I returned home.

After Alaska, what else could be on our bucket list? I have been to London, Nottingham and Scotland. Spain, Holland, and Japan.  Of all these, I would love to take my wife to Japan and Scotland (I am a bit Scotch). However as much as she would like to see both of these, she would love to visit places that I have not. Where is that? Truthfully, that might be Norway, Sweden, and Finland. After seeing Alaska, it would be nice to see it there was anyplace on Earth more spectacular.

Not to sound Freudian, but the "ID" inside which lives inside of me wants just to sell the house, take the money, and just travel. SUPER EGO, just sit down and shut up! Tomorrow will bring what tomorrow will bring. If I could ever get clearance from the DOD, I would love to visit Russia and then China. I would also like to visit Viet Nam and Cambodia. Then to top it all off, Chile and Peru. If I could live long enough, and if the money would hold out, that would be a gas.

We have already signed up with Princess Lines to do a follow up cruise in the next two years. We are debating if it is Hawaii or to go through the Panama Canal. I like both options to tell you the truth. After Alaska, I am ready for anything. Even though I have been to Hawaii twice (while in the service), I have not really explored Hawaii. That might be the next step on the bucket list.

This summer we learned quite a bit about Alaska. Next year, I would like to learn more about the Sandwich Islands, or the canal which flows from west to east to get you from the Atlantic to the Pacific...