Travel.

      Earl and I are going to Montreal.  This is quite exciting for us, as:

A)  We have never gone on a trip together in our 3.5 yrs together AND

B)  The trip is a 40th birthday gift from my wonderful Mom and Dad. 

I was told in December that I was receiving this gift, and it has taken us this long to figure out where we wanted to go - I think in part because it's so fun to consider options.  We ran through a number of these, including New Orleans for the Jazz Festival (too expensive); San Francisco (too far); New York (too fancy); and the Ptbo Otonabee Best Western (too sad, really).  I'm really looking forward to Montreal this spring!  I'm sure I'll blog about it when we get back.

The most magical sight to a 6 yr old.

     I've been lucky enough to do some pretty great travelling in my life.  That's not to say that I'm one of those "spent six months in Paris, lived on a beach in Thailand for a winter" kind of people, but my parents love travel, and thought it was an important experience to share with and give to their daughters. My first plane trip was to Florida.  My Nana and Papa had a winter place in Vero Beach, and every two years from the time I was about 6 until I was in my mid-teens we would travel to visit them over March Break.  These trips were almost always in combination with visits to the Orlando area, particularly Disney World.  My Mom tells the story of little me getting off the plane in Florida, being excited we were in the 'nited States so I could say 'zee' instead of 'zed'.  (The lack of perfect rhyme at the conclusion of the 'ABCs' song when sung with the Canadian pronunciation really threw me off, apparently.)  

Heidelberg, Germany
(first trip overseas, age 16)

     When I was in Grade 10, I took German as one of my electives.  I can't remember why - I think it might have been offered in the same block as phys-Ed.  I'm not very good at languages, but I'm really horrible at phys-ed.  Anyway, a year later in French class I noticed one of the girls was writing to a pen-pal (okay - I'm totally dating myself here because she didn't have a pen-pal as an ironic thing, this was in an era where people wrote real letters).  I asked her to ask her pen-pal, who lived in Germany, to hook me up with my own German friend.  She did, and I met Susannah through letters, and when I told her I wished I was better at speaking German, she invited me to come over to stay with her family for a month in exchange for letting her stay with mine for the following month.  That's more or less how I got to go to Germany. 

Sydney, Australia
(Sis and I went together, age 17)

      The year after I got the German pen-pal, my family had an Australian exchange student, Tatia, stay with us through Rotary International.  Some of her family even came over and celebrated Christmas with my family (I say 'some' because she had, like, a million brothers and sisters.  They were kind-of like the Australian Mormon Duggars), and for Christmas that year Sis and I were given the gift of flights and spending money to go and stay with Tatia's family for a month.  Australia was awesome.  The flight wasn't.  Neither was the fact that one of my strongest lingering memories of the trip is of Sis slowly and systematically convincing me that I have a huge nose.  I don't, really, but she played with my head on that trip.  I'd like to go back one day, but there are also so many other places I'd like to go.

The Baths on Virgin Gorda, BVI
(family trip, early 20s)

     I've travelled to the Caribbean twice with my family; the first was a trip to Aruba with my immediate family (Sis, Mamacita, Mom and Dad) when I was about 20.  It was my first experience with an all-inclusive resort.  I remember spending New Year,s sitting at the bar with Sis (who was underage in Canada) eating ice cream (because we could) and drinking some kind of alcohol that the bartender, whose name escapes me but I bet she remembers, kept serving us.  (In case you read yesterday's blog and are intrigued by my ability to remember when I was wearing on a given occasion, the answer is a black tank top and hideous multi-colour flowy overalls.  The print was modernist fruit slices.  God. The early 90s were worse than the 80s.)  The second Caribbean trip was to the BVIs and included the usual family cast, along with Sis' now-husband who I shall call... Mark, my former fiancee (that's another post entirely), and Mamacita's trashy friend who I'll call Amber.  We rented a beautiful 50 ft yacht and cruised the various islands.  It was an amazing trip - one of my favourite ever.  I snorkled with sea turtles and ate in beach shacks and lived on a fancy boat.  So sweet.

Never thoght I'd love the desert, but
Utah is amazing!
(several school trips, early 30s)

      I've also been lucky enough to travel around North and Central America on a variety of trips footed by schools for which I've worked.  I've taken students to BC skiing (I don't really ski myself, but really wanted to see the mountains so proposed the trip and it got approved.  In order to say I had done so however, I did make a day of the bunny hill at both Kicking Horse and Fernie.); Utah mountain biking and rappelling (both of which I actually do enjoy doing); and Costa Rica on a multi-sport adventure. The Utah trips were actually cross-US roadtrips (I count in my list of achievements having piloted a GMC Savannah (15 passenger) full of teenagers 10,000km back and forth across the US 3 times without incident.  Unless you count one flat tire in Iowa.)  On these trips some other highlights included the Grand Canyon, Four Corners, the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma, the Chicago Aquarium, skiing at Vail, and travelling to Roswell, NM.  So random, and so fun - even with teenagers as your travel companions.  Actually, sometimes that made it more fun.

Costa Rica
(another school trip, early 30s)

     The other school trip I loved was a multi-sport adventure in Costa Rica.  We camped and rafted on a river, stayed in hammocks on a hippie commune so remote one could only get there by sea kayaking or hiking in, visited volcanoes and sloth sanctuaries and nature preserves and incredible beaches.  That's somewhere I MUST return to without students.  Too many chances for them to get in trouble for me to fully enjoy myself the first time!  Combined with the fact that George Bush declared war on Iraq WHILE we were in Costa Rica - with return flights through Atlanta - which I had to learn by reading the lips of the CNN anchors behind the Spanish overdub in one of the hostels in which we stayed - I was a bit of a nervous wreck on that trip but enjoyed it all the same.

     These are all of the major travel destinations I've visited.  I know I'm lucky.  I know some are luckier than me.  I know that currently I use the internet, my parents' experiences (they're off somewhere new all the time.  Next month?  Cambodia and Vietnam.  They're an incredible couple, my folks!), travel literature and The Amazing Race to satiate any desire for global travel, and that one day I might visit the places I dream of - and I might not.  But right now I can't wait to plan a fabulous Montreal trip with Earl, and share the incredible experience of travel with him for the first time.