Round 5 Day 6

Still not out of the weeds yet. Not sure why this recovery is taking longer or that it seems to be worse than the others.

When our kids were very young we decided to take family vacations every year to a different state in the US. At first the vacations revolved around what the kids were interested in at the time. For example, a trip to Pennsylvania to see an actual working Thomas the Tank Engine steam locomotive. Or a trip up to Washington state to go on a whale watching expedition when whales were all the rage with my son. Sometimes we drive, others we fly. Over the past few years as the kids have gotten older it has evolved into each family member taking a turn picking our next destination. When my daughter did a poster project for school a couple of years back we discovered they had been to 17 states by that time. There is an ongoing dispute between my wife and I about what constitutes actually visiting a state in order to cross it off the list. Doing a couple of touristy things while traveling through the state in order to get to another does not, in my opinion, qualify as being worthy of crossing the state of the list. Either way, pretty darn good considering many of the kids' friends have never even been out of Texas.

Anyway, we have thoroughly enjoyed our family vacations and I hope they have formed as many fond memories for my kids as they have for me. However, as of late my desire to travel has taken on a slightly different angle. Now I want to travel outside the United States. I have come to the realization that the world is simply too big and too exciting to limit myself to only experiencing our own great country. Perhaps it was the influence of hosting a German foreign exchange student this past year, or perhaps it is the whole noma thing that has caused me to broaden my horizons. I don't know. I just feel this urge to see the rolling hills of Scotland or the Coliseum in Italy. There is just so much to see.

We recently got our passports so that we can attend a family reunion in Canada this summer. While yes, this is international travel, I was hoping for something a little more grand. I guess it is a good first step, though. We still have many wonderful areas of this great country, but I hope we get to leave the North American continent sometime in the near future.