I grew up traveling. Well, we were basically "global nomads," when I was a kid, seldom spending more than 8-10 months — tops — in any one place before moving on.
Vancouver Island BC at sunset, from our back deck
When I came to the USA for University, I pretty much stopped.
Well, not entirely.
I did go back to Denmark on a regular basis, to work during the summers (at first) and later just to visit family. But that wasn't really traveling, so much as just visiting family, which just happened to be on a different continent.
There was a certain sense of rootlessness that came with my upbringing, and it left a strong enough impression on me that I had no great urge to go anywhere else, anytime soon.
Some 40 years later, I still don't have any great desire to go gallivanting around the globe. I think I pretty much had my fill right out the chute!
Day Trippin'
Paradoxically, I'm quite fond of "day trips" where we just go see something new that's within a day's drive from where we live. You know, up to three hours each way, a nice time there, and we're done.
Back home.
It's not a mystery to me that my childhood lack of a sense of "home" has been responsible for an adult life in which I am all about building home and not straying very far from that home.
The exception would be our periodic trips to Denmark.
From a recent day trip to Roslyn, WA... bonus points to anyone who knows why this mural is iconic!
Not so long ago, a friend asked me where my "bucket list places" were, as far as travel goes. I really had to pause and think about that. Are there places I actually want to travel to? Enough that I would consider going there to be bucket list items?
I did long want to visit the Fiordland region of New Zealand... and I had actually contemplated moving to Queenstown, back in a not that distant past... except property there is even more prohibitively expensive than here in the northwestern USA... something similar to our "million dollar house" would be another 20-25% higher in Queenstown.
I have no idea how people can even afford to live!
Another place I often have thought about visiting is Ushuaia, in the very bottom tip of South America. Known to some as "the gateway to Antarctica," it is almost exactly as far south as my birth city of Copenhagen, Denmark is north.
A third place I wouldn't mind visiting would be the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland... maybe it's partly old "Viking lore" that makes them sound appealing to me.
Interestingly enough, all these of these locales have in common that they are far north (and south), maritime, cool weather and mountainous. Which is very much like where I live now.
Makes me realize that I spent a lot of time figuring out where I wanted to spend my life, and after almost two decades here, that preference still holds! The places I think of visiting look a lot like this one.
The fourth and only place that does not fit the profile would be the area around Cape Town and Hermanus in South Africa where my mom and stepdad spent a great many northern winters, and there was "a vibe" from their photos and my mom's letters that gave it a "familiar" sort of feel.
Sometimes I consider the many places I have already been, and ponder whether any of them stand out as somewhere I'd like to return to.
I usually end up at "no" because I know that the places might still be somewhat the same, but the person — that would be me! — will have changed to such a degree that they will almost certainly not feel anything like they did in the past.
In that sense, I am quite content with our periodic expeditions to Denmark!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!
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Created at 2024-03-25 00:24 PDT
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I think that as the years go by we prefer to be in our house, where we create the conditions to feel comfortable and good. Where we have our favorite chair, our bed, our garden and our family.
It is also nice and good to travel and see new places, new landscapes. Thanks for sharing your experiences. greetings. 🤗
I am thankful that I had the opportunity to travel when I was in my late teens and early twenties. As recently as ten years ago I thought it would be great fun to explore England, especially the Cotswolds. But I didn't have the funds at the time. Now I have the funds, but not the energy. I can't imagine sitting on an airplane that long, and dealing with jet lag, missed flights, lost luggage, etc. I have a neighbor, just 4 years younger than I am, who frequently travels to Europe, and as I listen to her tales of travel woes, I think it's not worth the hassle any more.
Now that COVID seems to be entirely in the rearview mirror.... knocks on wood.... I hope to take some extra time to travel around the US. I don't anticipate any global travel, but there is enough diversity in culture and geography just in the contiguous 48 states to give a lot of variety without any language barrier or currency issues.