Oh, the places I've been. (Nothing too exciting, but still...)

I'll be spending this weekend in Washington, DC, visiting a friend who re-lo'd from Boston to be closer to her daughter and grandkids. 

After not much happening during covid, this has been a year when I put my traveling shoes back on.

Nothing too adventurous. I don't do too adventurous.

My travel has been extensive. To some extent. And that extent is the USA and Europe. I've hit almost all the states. If I were bucket listing, I'd say I need to tack on Alaska, North Dakota, Kentucky, and Tennessee. But who's bucket listing? Not eye said the fly(er). 

Elsewhere in North America, I've been a bit to Canada (Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, New Brunswick for Campobello). Less of a bit to Mexico: a walk-in trip to Tijuana. And Bermuda. I've been to Bermuda.

In Europe, I've been to lots of countries - England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Germany (East and West), Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lichtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, Yugoslavia (when it was Yugoslavia; I'm not 100% sure what countries-to-be I was in, other than Croatia and Macedonia; but hitching from Croatia to Macedonia, I'd have to have gone through a few other places), Czechoslovakia (when it was Czechoslovakia), Hungary, Poland, Greece, and Turkey. 

Some of these are, to date, one shots (c.f., Yugoslavia, the Scandinavian countries, Spain, Turkey, Greece and a few others). Others I've been to twice (Czechoslovakia, Scotland, The Netherlands). Still others I've visited multiple times, where multiple is >2 but < lots. These are France, Italy, Germany, England. And one country I've been to lots would be Ireland, where - top of head - I've been between 15 and 20 times, most recently this past May.

This latest trip was just to Dublin. Not my favorite city on the face of the earth, or even on the face of Ireland - that would be Galway - but I had my reason. (I.e., my niece Molly was in school there.) While there, I did something I'd never done before, and that was visit Glasnevin Cemetery, where many of Ireland's Greats are buried: Daniel O'Connell, Maude Gonne, Michael Collins, Kevin Barry, Countess Markievicz, and Brendan Behan, among others. (Sorry, I can't bring meself to mention Eamon deValera.) Among the others resting in piece there is one Maureen Rogers, whose grave we happened upon while strolling around. 

Where else did I get to this year?

Tucson, where I've been a handful of times - my sister Kath and my BIL Rick have a house there - but this was the first time I spotted a rattlesnake. Fortunately, it was dead. I also saw a live Gila Monster. Fortunately, they move pretty slowly. 

Long Island, lamentably, to visit a dying friend and, a couple of months later, for her memorial gathering. 

Chicago, with my sister Trish and my nieces Molly and Caroline, where we got to catch up over lunch with a couple of cousins, and I got in a nice long visit with my cousin Ellen. (I love Chicago, and if it weren't so flat...)

Ocean Park, Washington, where my brother Tom and my SIL Betsey live. The Pacific Northwest is so very, very beautiful. And wild. Although T & B have had bears looking for food in their cars, I didn't see any bear on this trip. (I have in the past.) But there were plenty of deer wandering around, and some marauding racoons. And a bat got in the house. (Somehow I slept through this incident.)

We stopped by Cape Disappointment, which wasn't a disappointment at all. 

And I got to meet my adorbs doggo niece, Grace O'Malley, who's just a year old and still very much a pupper.

A few weeks ago, I was in NYC for a few days with Trish and Molly, a trip built around a Noah Kahan concert. For all the times I've been in NYC - over 50+ years, it's got to be at least 100 - I've never been to a concert there. Even during the year I spent in grad school there in the early 70's, I don't remember any music. I've been to plenty of movies in NYC, a number of plays (off and on Broadway), and even a baseball game at old Yankee Stadium. But nary a concert. 

Mostly we did serious meandering. 

When it comes to serious meandering, there is no place like New York City. 

From the first time I set toe in there - on a Trailways Bus from Worcester, Massachusetts in April 1967 - I fell in love. I still get a rush whenever I come into Manhattan over the 59th Street Bridge. (Feeling groovy, as it were.)

I miss New York.

My country-boy husband loved The City, where he had lived for years before moving to Boston for grad school. We went all the time, and our last trip - shortly before Jim began home hospice - was to Manhattan. 

There is nothing like walking around New York City. Nothing.

Noah Kahan was great, by the way.

I'm happy to be doing some traveling, happy to know I still have it in me. 

I'd like to get to Portugal. Iceland's a maybe, as is Finland. And those missing states. 

I also want to see Pittsburgh for some reason. 

I would like to see Japan. And New Zealand. And Vietnam. But the thought of long flights gives me the ughs. 

I have no interest in going to anyplace that's hot (other than Vietnam, where I'd suck it up) which pretty much eliminates Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East. 

South America holds little appeal. 

I'm not the beach type, so the Caribbean is largley meh to me. 

Cuba does hold plenty of appeal. Maybe someday. 

There is absolutely travel ahead of me. 

That said, there's no place like home, even though when I got in from Portland, Oregon a few weeks back - after a long day's travel that began at 6 a.m. in Ocean Park, Washington, and ended in Boston, Massachusetts at 9:30 p.m., for 12.5 hours on the road - I found that there had been a minor backup in my shower. So there I was with my tile scrub and bleach, cleaning up when all I wanted to do was hop into the shower, followed by a hop into bed with my book.

Next trip? Who knows where? Who knows when?

But now that those traveling shoes have been dusted off...