Travel Thoughts

Katherine today. The photo is Jenny Lake from up on Inspiration Point.

I've been doing travel errands--picking up mosquito coils and suntan lotion, dropping off dry cleaning, and buying a national park pass. Yesterday I wore my "good" jeans and lots of bracelets and actually tried to look okay and ran the errands in our new car and felt as close to being a suburban housewife as I ever have. It was the car. I'm not saying what it is because somebody will ruin it for me with some weird story or safety ranking or ecological guilt. I love the car. I couldn't spend my whole life dressing up and running pre-trip errands, but a day or two is quite cool.

This morning I organized the last bits of laundry. We'll have my mom over for dinner Wednesday and daughterly duties will be done for a while. I'll weed through the garden one more time and visit with the kid next door who takes care of the yard while we go play. I love all this. I love getting ready to go.

While I was sorting through my wardrobe this morning my brain was multi-tasking and thinking through two loops at once. First I was thinking clothes--the Tetons are tough because you need to have all weather possibilities covered and we need hiking, kayaking, and fine dining attire. There is limited space in the car and cabin.

I was also pondering why I like certain places and trying to figure out what I want in my ideal travel spots. Since the chances are great I'll forget all this before J. comes home and I can share it, I decided to write it down here.

Two more background paragraphs and then I'll list my thoughts. My childhood travel was centered on my dad's love of fishing and mom's love of destinations and reservations (she loved getting somewhere and actually having a motel room to sleep in). It was Griswoldish. We once spent half a morning at the Grand Canyon and were home that night. We saw seven states in two weeks on that tour. I was left with a sense that there were some places I'd need to get back to and so I have with Jim and Franny and with Barb and Michael. There are places I didn't need to go back to and for the most part I have avoided them. I'm sorry we were never in a position to take Chris and Nate anywhere.

Since our retirement, Bud and Janet have led us into brave new worlds of travel. They are seeing the whole world and have shown us how to go to brand new places and do brand new things. I love Mayan ruins, Belizian birds and beaches, Chaa Creek, the buses in PV, all of PV, and even snorkeling because of them. I'm pretty sure it was Janet's idea that we do the pirate ship in PV last time. I think it's her only bad call ever. Don't do the pirate ship in PV--really.

Okay, after all that, here's what I want in a travel destination:

1. It should be a bliss station or have the potential to become one. I need daily bliss stations (the den with J. while I knit and drink wine), weekly bliss stations (hiking up Carpenter's Peak, watching a Bronco game), monthly bliss stations (sitting in a booth with a friend at the New Saigon having "lunch special number 1"), and yearly bliss stations (the Tetons, Belize, PV). Bliss stations heal and energize you and balance things out. They are usually far away from the news.

When you visit a place for the first time and it keeps calling you back, there's a good chance there is a potential new bliss station waiting for you.

2. It should help you maintain relationships. For J. and I that means there needs to be something at the destination we like to do together. We hike and kayak in the Tetons. We read, fish, snorkel, and see ruins in Belize. We drink wine and eat out in St. Helena. We eat everywhere we go. Seeing stuff is good (DC is a good place for seeing stuff). We like doing stuff better.

The destination can help maintain friendships as well. We did the Tetons with the Haubens until Michael died (I still miss him and keep him updated with Bronco news--he would have hated the Tiebow thing). We've done PV and Belize with Bud and Janet. It's good sharing places with people.

We're going to Kauai with Franny and Ken in August. Our first trip together and they'll be sharing their bliss station with us.

Sometimes you develop a relationship with the place and its staff. Sometimes if the staff is there for numbers of years, it's a sign that it's a good place because even the help wants to stick around.

We have relationships with PV (we can do both buses and taxis and know five really good restaurants plus a bar that shows Bronco games). We know San Pedro on Ambergris Caye in Belize (don't miss the fried chicken at Elvie's Kitchen or the chicken drop on Wednesday nights). We know Grand Teton National Park better than anyplace. We know when a rock or a log has vanished. We know when a young osprey has made his first nest. We know where to find bog orchids or stony clematis.

We've been lucky to have some wonderful relationships with resort staffs or other guests who return as well. I missed Iris this spring--she's a housekeeper in San Pedro. We're actually driving out of our way to stop in Red Lodge Montana to see the former manager of Jenny Lake Lodge. We'll meet a long time friend from Alabama when we actually arrive in the Tetons. We treasure these relationships.

3. We need nature in our destinations. We'd have to leave Las Vegas to do Las Vegas if we ever go near it again. We like to bathe in the woods and play in the kayak. We are more mountain people than sea people, but the water side is growing.

4. The destination needs the potential to teach you something new with each visit even if you visit a lot. Bud and Janet have made sure we've stayed in a new spot and seen new stuff with each visit to Belize. I like to go to Phoenix to relax or see Bronco games, but we used up about all there was to discover one March when it actually snowed for three days down there. It's a place to find sun; it's not a new horizon.

5. We like a place that is kind of an even-playing field socially. We don't dress or act any differently, but we could be mistaken for rich people at some of our favorite spots. This works because the places demand a different wardrobe. Everybody looks the same in hiking boots. Since I'll never be rich, it's nice to pretend to be now and then.

6. We like a destination that the journey is nifty in and of itself. We go the back route through Lander to the Tetons and Mom bemoans it each year and champions the speed of I80. When she and Dad went to Montana each year so he could fish the Madison, they purposely drove hundreds of miles around the Tetons and Yellowstone because "you always get stuck behind slow drivers trying to see the scenery."

When we went to Lamini, we were driven inland to a river and then took a speedboat up the river to the resort. That was cool. When we left, we took a single prop plane so small we had to hold our luggage in our laps. Very scary and nauseating, but also very cool.

Big planes are never cool, but necessary. I really like DIA though and strangely enough the big blue horse makes me almost as happy as the big blue bear downtown.

I'm done at last. I'm going back to some pre-trip preparations now. Thanks for listening.
Katherine