Uncategorized

Options and Other Pleasures

It’s almost time to leave San Diego for the next short chapter in My Year of Living Travelly.  I  leave on Friday for Vancouver, where Dan and I will spend a few days before boarding Seabourn Sojourn for 11 days (him) and 25 days (me).

I have only been once to Alaska, briefly,  about thirty years ago, but really it is unforgettable.  I am excited to be hitting the road again, not just to see it again, but because my year ought to be spent as travelly as possible, and it’s time to end a lovely hiatus and move on.

I do have a few observations, or should I say a few points of gratitude to share before leaving, so here they are.

I really appreciated the  ease of being here.  When I am traveling, in some ways my world is smaller.  I have fewer options in a unfamiliar place—no idea where to go if I can’t find what I want at the place I was told to look, no sense of how to get around blocked streets or traffic jams,  few ideas about the best place to get what I feel like eating.  Options are nice!

I appreciated cheap sports.  On the ship, a round of golf costs hundreds of dollars.  Yesterday, nine holes at a municipal course cost me ten. Tennis outings never seem to happen on cruise lines , but if they did, I doubt I could afford to go. Here a couple of bucks at the public courts gets me all the play I want.

Friends.  That really should come first.  My dance card has been so full with getting together with friends, and I have loved seeing every one of them, from people I have known forever, to others I just met on a recent cruise.

Familiar routines have been fun too—walks in the park with Dan, going to minyan at the synagogue, walking to the gym.  Sometimes I feel like a tourist, taking photos of Balboa Park, the golf course, even the American and California flags, as if they are something exotic. Which of course they are, with different eyes.

Overall, the feeling I have had is that I am still traveling, Even here. I lived out of a suitcase, didn’t have a car, and didn’t  set foot in my own condo.  That’s fine with me.  Seeing my life from a different perspective works both at home and wherever else I lay my head, walk my feet, or share my thoughts.