A Jumping-Off Point

Yesterday:
This morning when I first opened my eyes, I could see sun streaming in through all the windows in our bedroom (six in all). It was so quiet and now with the window open I can hear the small songbirds twittering. It’s Saturday so I can also hear the faint sound of traffic zooming by as people travel out the road to get a weekly fix of camping, cabining, boating, hiking and just lounging. On days like this, I’m glad I moved to a place where being outside is still a mainstream pastime.

Today is moving day. Well, one of several, but we’re going to try to do our best to get most of our things out and reconfigured. It’s going to be a challenge to say the least…

Not because we have so much stuff but because the new place really is small. It does have some storage space but it’s hard to tell exactly how far that will go until we’ve tried it…

I have to say, I’m looking forward to a change, but I don’t really know where this change will lead. We have ideas of where we want to move but it seems to change weekly. I’m pretty sure we’ll make the leap based on the affordability of living combined with job prospects. But oh, I am so ready to do some traveling.

These are some of the places I’m wanting planning to see in the next 12 months:

The Never Been Before (Likely Will Do) List:

1. Australia

2. Fiji

3. Spain

4. France

5. Italy

6. Greece

The Been Before, Can’t Wait to Go Back, List:

1. Colorado

2. Texas

3. New Mexico

4. Ecuador

5. Japan

6. Costa Rica

7. And countless other places in the U.S.

The Never Been Before (But I May Need- at least- 24 Months) List:

1. Brazil

2. Chile
3. Thailand

4. Turkey

5. Croatia

6. Czech Republic

No, I’m not rich, but I do have partial flight benefits through my dad’s retirement from an airline. Not since a trip to Japan during college to visit a friend, have I used these internationally. With age and being out of school I lost my benefits due to company policy. But because of the airline’s merger, I recently got them back. The only problem is that they don’t fly out of Juneau… Oh that’s right, no one does except for Alaska Airlines…. hmmm, interesting.

Since airfare is one the most expensive things about traveling, a reduced fare will go a long way. I’ll have to fly standby, but I’m used to that. And once I’m traveling I tend to not spend copious amounts of cash by avoiding expensive restaurants and bars in general. Because drinking cocktails in London is quite a different financial hit, than say, at a hostel’s rooftop bar in Quito. And the vagabond in me prefers it that way.

Well, enough wanderlust chatter. What are your top places to see?