Oh the Places I'll Go

 I booked my first cruise around the Baltic Sea for the summer of 2020, but, as many no doubt remember, that was the first summer of the Covid pandemic and all such trips were cancelled.  One of the most interesting ports on that aborted itinerary was to have been two days in St. Petersburg, Russia with opportunities to visit some of the Czar’s palaces and the Hermitage Museum, reputed to be one of the most beautiful art galleries in the world.  I missed the opportunity since travel to Russia has been off limits since the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent lengthy war.  However, Scott and I did find a Baltic cruise itinerary on a ship we liked --without a stop to visit St. Petersburg—for the summer of 2025.  We spent three days in Stockholm before boarding our ship, the Silver Spirit, and stayed for a couple of days in Copenhagen after disembarking. Some views of the Baltic Sea, our ship the Silver Spirit, and our veranda stateroom Although we couldn’t visit...

  I love to travel.   Perhaps the itch to be on the move is something I was born with (my mother wrote in my baby book that I wanted to go with anyone who was “going bye-bye”), or perhaps it developed through childhood experiences.   My family moved every few years when I was growing up, and Dad always took two-weeks off for an annual family vacation.   We went to national parks, camped in the mountains, or visited relatives who lived across the country (from California to Connecticut).   The most memorable of those family vacations was a road trip from Texas, across the southern states, through the Smoky Mountains, to Washington, D.C., and then on to New York City for the 1964 World’s Fair.   We returned via a more northerly route.   By the time we got back to Texas, we had traveled through at least sixteen states. An even grander adventure was the three month excursion around Europe that I undertook in the fall of 1970.   I was only twenty but...