December 30: Wherever You Go...

If you could go on a trip regardless of cost, where would you go and what would you see? (Dana)

I'd spend the summer in a house right on the water on Bainbridge Island (Washington)...or the winter in a house up on a rocky outcropping of the north shore of Lake Superior (Minnesota). I'd quilt and cook and be a total recluse. In fact, you may never see me again, should this particular dream trip come to fruition.

I'd go to Prince Edward Island and pretend I was Anne of Green Gables...tracing her fictional steps and remembering the ways these stories shaped my childhood.

And since I'm already in Canada (though nowhere near by), I'd go on one of those polar bear adventures...in hopes of seeing all sorts of bears in their natural habitat. Manitoba? Is that where I go to see the bears? Buy me a warm hat and sign me up!

I'd go to Florence and see all the Renaissance art they talked about in my undergraduate art history course. As my professor said, "When you go to Florence...because everyone goes to Florence..." I'd go to Venice, assuming it's still above water...and I'd hunker down in Cinque Terre for an obnoxious amount of time...after an obligatory trip to Rome, of course.

Scotland? Ireland? Norway? Fine. All of them. Yes. Sign me up.

South Korea? Japan? Hong Kong? Absolutely. I just need good interpreters, so I can really appreciate and understand my experience.

I have romantic notions of spending time in a little fishing village in Maine. Watching boats come in...observing a town full of folks whose lives revolve around one particular industry. Cracking open shellfish with a wooden mallet at a table covered in butcher paper...laughing loudly and drinking beer and wandering outside after dinner, smelling salty sea air and seeing a sky full of stars.

I'd have Jay's pal Raj show us India through his eyes and life experiences. Raj is a dreamer and a debater and a filmmaker...so I know it would be a special journey. Observing he and Jay as they traveled together...that would be priceless.

I'd travel to Mexico to see ancient Aztec ruins at Teotihuacan and ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. Hiking the Andes in Peru to see Machu Pichu? A thousand times, YES. All because I fell in love with the Aztec calendar stone on a trip to Mexico with my high school Spanish class.

I'd go home to Mom and Dad's for as long as they'd have me. I'd have Buster wake me up every morning by jumping up on the bed.

I'd go absolutely nowhere at all...and be just as happy as if I'd seen the entire world.