Fortunate Travel

I don’t know how we’ve been so fortunate to do so much traveling over the past 20 years or so. It can’t be karma. I doubt it’s genes. Part of it’s money, yes (we somehow make more than we should, but so far we haven’t been caught). But much of our travel has been wrapped around our jobs, one or the other of us attending conferences or trade shows or whatever on the company dole and the other tagging along for just the cost of airfare and food. And a few times we’ve travelled just on our own because we wanted to and could get a good deal. About 12 or 15 years ago we decided that we should travel while we could, while we had the money and health and still-living brain cells. But as I look back over our travel of the past two decades, I’m both surprised and thankful:

Domestic

We have of course travelled often in states adjoining Iowa: Minnesota (Minneapolis, Duluth, Grand Marais, several times), Illinois (Chicago, once or twice a year), Missouri (St. Louis, Kansas City), and Kansas (Wichita).

Beyond the upper Midwest: Indiana (Indianapolis), Ohio (Columbus, Dayton, Oxford), Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville), New York (Rochester, New York City), Massachusetts (Boston/Cambridge), Washington D.C. (numerous times to visit our granddaughters), North Carolina (Raleigh/Durham), Georgia (Atlanta), Florida (Clearwater Beach), Louisiana (New Orleans), Texas (Austin), New Mexico (Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos), Arizona (Phoenix), Colorado  (Boulder), Utah (Salt Lake City, Park City), California (San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland), Oregon (Portland), Washington (Olympia Peninsula), Alaska (Anchorage, Seward, Homer).

Foreign

And then there’s the fortunate foreign travel: Canada (Victoria, Vancouver (not far foreign)), Belize (San Ignacio, Caye Caulker), England (London), Ireland (Dublin), France (Paris, Burgundy, Alsace-Lorraine), Germany (Berlin), Czech Republic (Prague), Italy (Rome, Florence, Amalfi Coast), Spain (Barcelona), India (Mumbai, Goa).

It’s not the longest list – we have friends whose would be about twice as long – but we like it, we’ve taken advantage of what we can. And we’re hopeful of more. It’s something of an old saw, but whenever we come back from a trip – here in the US or overseas – we never fail to comment on how much more of the country (the Northeast, the South, Hawaii) or the world (Mexico, South America, Africa, the Far East, Australia) we have yet to see. If one spent one’s whole life doing nothing but traveling I don’t know if you could cover the earth, or even all of the earth that you would want to visit. I don’t think I could. A lifetime isn’t long enough to take in the whole of the world. But we hope that we’ve still got another decade or so where we can at least add to our list and take in what we can of it while we can.

The Surprise of Travel

One of pleasures of travel is surprise, particularly the surprise that rewards a seeming setback or hitch in plans. Our plan (recommended to us by guidebooks and the Tourist Information office) was to take the bus from Positano to Sorrento, take a short bus ride up from the dock to the train station, catch the Circumvisuviana local train to Naples, and from there transfer to a national train from Naples to Rome. But the morning of our trip, the receptionist at the hotel told us that there had been a rock slide and the road between Positano and Sorrento was closed. But she recommended we take a ferry (leaving Positano in an hour) to Salerno (stopping briefly in Amalfi), and then walk the short distance to the train station in Salerno and catch a direct train from there to Rome. And that turned out to be the way we should have gone from the outset. Of course, up until the day before, the ferries hadn’t been running along the Amalfi Coast because of rain, wind, and waves, though none of which had affected us much on shore. But this morning the weather was perfect: calm sea, blue sky, 70°. We pulled away from Positano to a marvelous view of the town, and the hour-plus ride was a constant trail of one sight after another along the rock-ribbed cliffs of the coast. I can’t imagine – no, I’m sure – that the bus ride, train ride from Positano to Naples couldn’t have touched the ferry to Salerno. The pleasure of surprise in travel.

Chicago

Chicago — the best city in the world, “that toddlin’ town,” “Second City” (not to me), “The Windy City,” “City of big shoulders,” blue collar city, sophisticated international city, city of melded cultures and races, city of blues (living on the south side, embalmed on the north) and jazz (alive throughout), city of fabulous food (street to steak house to, yes, seafood), city of theater (Apollo, Goodman, Steppenwolf), city of tacky tourism (“Untouchables Bus Tour,” Navy Pier), city of grand museums (Field, Science and Industry, Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium) and hidden museums (Smith Stained Glass, Chicago Botanic Garden), city of architectural history, city of exploration (walk, boat, El, trolley), city of views (Willis Tower, Hancock Building), city of festivals (Blues Festival, Printers' Row Lit Fest, Grant Park Music Festival, Taste of Chicago, Folk & Roots Festival, Jazz Festival, etc.) — the best city in the world.