They say travel broadens your horizons. (Sadly, it isn’t my just my horizons that have gotten broader; my waistline really should be included in that equation.) Traveling as much as I have has given me a perspective on certain things in life that I would not have had I stayed closer to home.
On my Facebook profile page I have two tabs for maps. One is of countries I’ve visited; the other is cities I’ve been to. The international cities were pretty easy to fill in...the US stuff’s been a bit harder, because there’s been so many. I hadn’t really realized how much I’ve traveled until I filled in the maps. I’ve been to Canada, Mexico, Guam, Japan, Ireland...and have been in just about every state in the union. I have the pictures, by and large, to prove it. Most of them have been taken from the time I was in high school on. Traveling is generally a safe, fun thing to do (unless you are moving, and then it’s a royal pain). It can, however, have its dangers: I have a flat spot on the bridge of my nose where some serious yardage of Daytona Beach, Fl. sandblasted it away body surfing. (Ask me about that sometime.)
In the last few years I’ve had a chance to go to a couple of the Hawai’ian Islands. I can hardly wait to go back. I’ve also recently been to Victoria and Vancouver, BC. I’m already thinking about what I want to see when I return there.
Having gone to Hawai’i as an adult means that I ate in more of the local restaurants, saw a few more sights than I might have otherwise, and learned more about the culture and appreciated it more as a result, instead of the “been there, done that” which would have resulted had I gone there as a teenager.
And that’s one of the problems of having traveled so much as a younger person. You have to go back to see what has changed and sometimes it’s better, and sometimes you find places that were more fun or more “magical” at the time have changed. You look at them and wonder what the big deal is/was. I still feel somewhat that way about Las Vegas. I’m going back soon for a few days, and I intend to see a few more things than I did my last trip. Having said that, there’s not all that much I really want to see. A few days should do it.
They say wherever you go, you can’t see everything in one trip. Once again, “they” are right. When we went to the Grand Canyon, we didn’t try to see it all in a day. The same held true for Las Vegas, Montreal, Killarney and Cork, and several other places we’ve been. (And yes, there are places we’ve been that if we never go back it won’t really break our hearts, if you know what I mean.)
This article really comes down to places I’d like to go back and see more of. For example, on O’ahu, since we were there for a Sweet Adelines convention, I want to go back and explore some more of the island, without having to worry about getting Deena back for rehearsals and competition. I want to spend more time on the beaches, especially Waikiki. As an aging surfer, I’d like to leave a lei at the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, and have a chance to actually surf there this time. I want to spend more time on the North Shore in general, and at places like Waimea Bay and Hale’iwa. And there’s more I’d like to do even after that.
On the Big Island, I want to take the observatory tour. I’d like to go back to Volcanoes National Park, and see lava flowing this time. I’d like to tour the Mauna Loa macadamia nut plantation. I’d like to see more of Hilo, and spend a whole day just loafing around Kona proper. I’d like to surf here, too.
This only covers the two islands I’ve been to. I also want to go to Maui.
I’d like to see what Killarney looks like these days. I’d love to take the Ring of Kerry tour again, this time with a digital camera. Same with Blarney Castle. I’d like several days to really explore Cork. I want to go back to Montreal (again, without a barbershop convention like we did in 2003) and spend several days there poking around a bit more. I’d like to spend a whole day in Niagara Falls, ON. See the falls, from both sides of the water again. See a bit more of the city itself. I enjoyed going back to Victoria, BC for a day last month. I hadn’t been there since 1983. I knew I couldn’t even begin to do that city justice in a day. Two days in and around Vancouver, BC wasn’t enough, either. I need to return to both because there’s just so much more to see.
Oddly enough, I don’t care if I go back to Guam. The few memories I do have are kind of special, and I don’t want them ruined by what things look like today, because I know there’s been a lot of development there over the last batch of years.
Enough for now.
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