How I Discovered The World

I've always been a traveler, in spirit, if not in practice. My parents took us to many of the States on our childhood vacations, and by now I've been to all but seven of the United States, but amazingly, never set foot on a plane until I was 21. My mom took me on a day trip to New Orleans for my first flight and that day changed me forever. After that, I flew several times, even went out of the country to Mexico and the Cayman Islands, which were big adventures for me at the time.

But it wasn't until a full 13 years after that first trip that I took my dream trip - the one I'd waited for and planned for my entire life - and that trip changed my life one more time. It was 2006 and I went to Paris for the first time.

Everything changed after that. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe it was that suddenly, the world seemed a little smaller and more accessible. Maybe it was that being in Paris, I realized that it was less the idealistic, fantasy city I'd imagined, and more, "Hey, these people are people just like us - they just have a different accent and live in a different place." Or maybe it was just that I'd crossed that boundary, the ocean that had seemed almost insurmountable before, but now seemed like something much smaller...much more like a pond.

All I know is that after that, I started to plan my adventures with a vengeance. My domestic travel increased. I visited more cities and discovered that I had a few definite favorites that I wanted to return to again and again. San Francisco tops the list, but there are a few others that remain, not far behind: New Orleans, Las Vegas, Boston, L.A. And it wasn't long before I was traveling overseas again - to England, Scotland, and Spain - and even to South America, to visit my husband and his family in Uruguay. I'm just getting started, but I already have plans for much more overseas travel - the world is far too interesting not to see as much of it as I can.