Far Afield

Helen and I have plans to travel once we are retired. This is just a general ambition with only the vaguest destinations figured out.

What places will we hit in our first ten years?

We both love California, and go there quite often already. I'd guess there are a few trips there in the next decade. Particular targets will be San Francisco and the LA area.

Just one state over is Vegas, which we also get to fairly often. No reason for this to change.

Farther a field in the continental US is another favourite of ours; Florida. The entire state is fabulous, and we really enjoy both Miami Beach and the Disneyworld area.

We might get to Alaska again on a cruise, but maybe not.

We haven't been to Hawaii, and everybody says we have to go, so we will.

The Caribbean? Likely we'll go there again on a cruise out of Florida.

We both want to really "do" Europe. We've been there once before, but it was a visit focused on family in Germany. Our only non-family stop was a few days in Vienna.

We need to see London, York, Edinburgh, Brussels, Paris, Carcassonne, the Cinque Terre, Rome...well...you get the idea.

Japan would be fantastic, with a mixed Karate and tourist vacation.

These are all the easy destinations to figure out. All the rest we have to decide on the appeal. We both have to want to go or it makes no sense. Luckily we match pretty well in this respect.

For example, neither of us is drawn to Australia. Many are, but we aren’t. That saves us an entire continent. Neither of us are drawn to painfully poor countries.

The only African local I’m drawn to is Egypt. In the Middle East, only Turkey holds appeal. Parts of Asia are interesting, as are parts of Latin America.

With one or two trips a year, I think we can see a lot. It also means we cannot see everything.

We are both the kind of people that like revisiting our greatest hits over and over. I still find fascinating new stuff exploring Vancouver.

Imagine how long Rome will hold my interest.