Seeing all of the United States

I want to see the world, but I haven't even seen all of the United States yet! I've been to 46 states, many of them several times, of course. Still left to visit: Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Hawaii. I hope to see Mount Rushmore in South Dakota and visit Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. In Hawaii, everything beckons, of course. 

A little "problem" I have with my US travel is my relatively recent hobby of touring state capitols. I decided about 8-10 years ago that it would be a great goal to visit all of the capitols. I love this hobby!  I posted pictures on this blog after my visit to the capitols in Kentucky and West Virginia. 

At first I checked off a capitol if I just stopped and took an exterior photo. But now I've decided it doesn't count if I don't actually go through it.

I think my count for state capitols I have toured is now at 20. Thus my problem. I have four states left to visit to complete my visit-all-50-states project, but 30 state capitols left to visit. I'm thinking I should put up a US map with green pins representing the state capitols I have not toured, and also yellow pins in the four states not yet visited. 


My most recent capitol tour was Maryland's: Last summer I took a day trip to Annapolis with my friend Linda and went through it. I always learn so much history--little things I never would have known. Like the fact that George Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Continental Army in the Maryland Senate chamber. On display is a copy of his letter, and it is fascinating. 

With goals of seeing the world and finishing off the US capitols, I have a travel conundrum, because in addition to visiting new places, I want to go back to all of the places where I had great experiences. What's a girl to do? How do I choose where to travel?

Hell, I can't even decide which places to go to in Washington.

So many places to see in the world!

I love travel. I mean going to new places. Definitely not traveling--the process of getting there.

For many years I have had a world map above my desk, with red push pins marking the places I have been, and blue ones for places to visit. Wonderful are the days when I get to replace a blue pin with a red one. 

I've tried to be at least a little realistic with the blue pins--prioritizing the places I want to visit. For instance, the map has only four blue pins for the entire continent of Africa. Not because I don't want to go to more, believe me. 

My Africa blue pins are stuck in Victoria Falls, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. I also want to visit Morocco and Ghana, but you can't just have an entire continent littered with blue push pins. Regarding Victoria Falls--I know I'll have to visit some countries to get there, but I can never remember which ones. Zimbabwe? Mainly I just want to see the falls, because of a travelogue I saw when I was 10.

Victoria Falls

Even though most of my foreign travel has been in Europe, there are so many places I still haven't visited: Edinburgh, Nice, Krakow. I could go on. Sigh. 

We haven't planned a vacation for this year yet. Africa? South America? Maybe just stay in the United States, where I also have lots of blue pins. Any nominations for our 2016 travel?

Christmas card from 2006: Barcelona and Halloween tradition

I am repurposing the Christmas card messages I've written since 2001. From old Christmas cards to new blog posts. One a day. Merry Christmas.

For about four Halloweens now we have donned costumes and invited neighbors to sit on the steps with us, with champagne and other adult goodies. Tom sets up his air compressor and we blow up those long skinny balloons that clever people use to make animals. The trick-or-treaters get the choice: balloon or candy. The cool kids take a balloon. (The really cool ones con us for two balloons.)

This year was the most fun ever. More neighbors and guests than usual joined us, and some of them got pretty good at that balloon animal stuff! Tom wore pirate accessories (an earring, a hat, and a cuff from which protruded a nasty- looking hook) and said “arrggh” a lot. I wore a coolie hat I bought at a garage sale last summer and Chinese lounging paja­mas I bought in San Francisco in 1983. Oh, yes, and I had dark, straight hair with bangs, courtesy of Rachel’s wig.

I have realized, at a very profound level, that life is a costume.

In other news, Rachel took the plunge and started a PhD program at SUNY-Albany. Living my dream (the PhD part, not the Albany part). I bipped up to New York City and drove with her to Albany to help her unpack.

I love that aspect of working for myself. I refer, of course, to the bipping part. In March I bipped down to Florida for a few days to see Judy. In August I bipped up to Detroit, and thence to Chicago for Gene’s retirement party. Actually, I’m not sure that counts as bipping, because it was just for Saturday and Sunday. Trips with Tom definitely do not count, because bipping is a perk that accrues only to those who work for themselves. I’m glad to clear that up for you.

I keep saying being a free-lancer gives me the freedom to work anywhere—I can just take my laptop and my cell phone and, voila! I could be in New York City or in a cabin on Glen Lake. But that hasn’t really worked, at least not so far. I can’t even get anything done at Port City Java, which is six blocks away.

I’ve done some strategic planning for Wiseman Communications, and here are my goals for next year: More costumes. More bipping.

Love to all.

Holger's first Halloween

At the Barcelona art museum

At Countdown

Here in LA, I'm ready to launch. We are here 2 days with family before catching the flight to Beijing on Saturday. The plan (now referred to as the "wise plan") was to break up the total flight time, reduce the jet lag (by only 3 hours, I know, but it all counts), and chill a little.

Hooray for the chilling part. Unusual for me, I had a lot of tension, preparing to go. Hell, it took me 30 minutes just to write out the cat-sitter instructions, and she already knows the cats, waters the garden, feeds the fish, fills the pond, tends the plants. But all of that was before the dreaded give-Moss-a-pill-every-day period. But I digress.

While we are here in LA, we are kicking back. I am writing a blog post. Tom? He is learning Mandarin. I am not making this up. Ni hao (hello). Ching (thank you). He's having a little trouble with "my wife is bugging me, and did you know she is a CIA agent sent here to foment dissent?"

I do hope we don't crash. Some of you know I am afraid of flying. Not a legitimate phobia, but an irrational panic, whenever there is turbulence, that we will crash  A wing will fall off. The plane will flip over and then nose-dive to earth. We will just rattle to death.

Take-offs and landings are also very difficult, and don't even start me on landing with turbulence. This China trip will reveal the stuff I'm made of. Or not. We have one connecting flight between LA and Beijing. Two connections on the way home. But INSIDE CHINA we will have three different flights, on those little, teeny tiny, foreign airlines that you can't trust to have anti-turbulence tactics or counter-turbulence equipment. (OK, on the bright side, not Malaysia Airlines.)

So, farewell, until I write you from the other side. No, no, not the other other side. I mean the other side of earth. Because we won't crash. We won't crash. We won't crash.