This morning's question of the day was: Which, of all the places you've been, would you visit again? For most of my lifetime I would have answered without much thought, "All of them." But, since I'm now of a "certain age," I believe that I should project a degree of decorum, so I'm working on measured and thoughtful answers. Hmm, favorite places...
For starters, I must include Colorado in a "Favorites" list. Now, that would be Colorado straight north and south of Denver and then west. I'm pretty picky about Colorado, because its eastern half looks very much like the area of southwest Kansas where I was born, raised and lived nearly forever...and that scenery is just one step up from desert. I think I love the Colorado mountains because when I was very young, our family began spending a week in Evergreen every summer. We stayed at Davidson's Lodge which consisted of five or six cabins facing onto Bear Creek. It was heaven, and I knew I belonged there but, sadly, at the end of our cool, green week we loaded our un-air-conditioned car for the long drive home. The road from Denver up into Evergreen was always much more exciting than the exact same road leading out of Evergreen down onto the flatland.
I would take a Mediterranean cruise again...in a heartbeat. I might even visit every place we stopped the first time. I would spend extra days in Venice and take a full day tour of Ephesus instead of just half a day. I'd want to go back to the little village near Ephesus, high on the hill, where St. John took Mary, Jesus' mother, to live after the crucifixion. Raised as a good Catholic Girl means you never get enough of Mary. Legend or Fact...the stories are charming. Oh--Pompeii. Definitely another tour of Pompeii. And, just one more glass of chilled white wine on the sweet, sandy beach of Mykonos. I'd spend more time in the Pantheon and not skip the Coliseum. And, this time I'd visit the catacombs. What were we thinking when we missed them the first time?
I still haven't walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, nor spent nearly enough time in Central Park. I'd walk the Highline again, but detour over to the Whitney. And, then, back to Times Square where I'd twirl like Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis, throw my hat in the air and dissolve into the lights and colors and honking horns of New York City.
The United Kingdom? Every square inch. I'd put on my hiking shoes and never take them off.
Vermont. Ah...Vermont. I grew up pretending I lived in Vermont...and that's hard to pull off in western Kansas. I don't know how, when or why the essence of Vermont captured me, but it did. It took nearly sixty years before I finally visited Vermont, when we rented a tiny cottage among the trees above Lake Champlain. Our little love nest, as it had been advertised, should have been condemned long before our arrival. But, redemption was at hand every evening when we sat on the rickety front porch and watched the sun, in all its glory, dip behind the Adirondacks across the lake in New York. One sees the edges of heaven from that porch.
Are there more? Probably. But these are the special ones. The magical ones that deserve including when we look ahead and begin to construct our Five- and Ten-Year Plans. I recently read that we all need Five and Ten Year Plans. Actually, the author suggested adding a Twenty-Year Plan, even at our age. So, planning was the subject matter of this post when I began, but it quickly took off on its own. If that was a "Wink from the Universe," I'll take it. I'd love to have more travel in our lives.
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