Summer Vacation: You Wanna Go Where?

I've never been that much of a traveler.  Maybe it's because I'm afraid of the unknown.  Maybe it's because I have so many food allergies that the idea of traveling to a new place is scary.  Maybe I'm just a homebody.  

The fact that I've never had extra cash to any serious traveling might also have something to do with it.  (So please explain those Disney trips?  Well....) But recently I've have a hankering to do some exploring.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I've past the half century mark.  I'm facing the reality that I'm getting older.  (And yes, I recently signed up for AARP!  That unto itself should be a blog post.) Or it could be that my cousin recently undertook a major vacation, traveling from her home in Australia to California, Nevada and Arizona.  (She definitely takes after HER grandfather and my favorite (great) uncle who was trying new things like parasailing into his 80s.  I, on the other hand, and more like MY grandmother and her great aunt, who pretty much stayed in NJ for her entire life.  Although she did travel out west/California with her family as a young woman, which is how she first met my grandfather.  The two of them did live in Chicago for the first year of their marriage.  But other than that and some trips up and down the eastern seaboard she pretty much stayed in NJ.) 

While there are a lot of places I'd like to see and visit, there are three specific sites that am currently obsessing about and if you know me, they're not what you would expect.  These three places that are on my bucket list are:  the Bay of Fundy, the Alaskan coast (the only cruise that really holds any interest for me) and Iceland.

Me, the hot weather maven, wants to visit three cold places!   (Of course I'd want to/need to go during the summer months.)  Why?  I'm not 100% sure.

The Bay of Fundy has fascinated me for years.  To be honest, I think I first learned about it from the film, "O Canada." which can be found in the Canadian pavilion in Epcot.  (So it was a hot place that made me want to visit a cold one!)  The amazing tides fascinate me and I really want to see it for myself.  I've never visited Maine and traveling the eastern parts of Canada (New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) has also been places that intrigued me.  (I wouldn't mind seeing Prince Edward Island either.)  Of all three places this one seems to be the one most likely that I could do with my family.  We could drive it.  (Or, as the sole driver in the family, I could drive it.)

I've never gotten into the idea of cruising (despite being a fan of The Love Boat when I was younger), but it seems like a good way to get to see the Alaskan coast. And while I want to see the glaciers and fjords, I (and my family) are NOT that big of explorers.  Plus, I like comfort and a cruise seems to offer that.  It would be a way to experience the life of a cruise (although I hear tropical cruising is a completely different animal) AND see Alaska.  Kind of like killing two birds with one stone.  Plus I'm lucky enough to have friends who have done this and it looks amazing.  (If cold...I can imagine if I am able to do this, I will find it hard to pull out my "winter" wear in the summer.)

Iceland is a new travel obsession for me.  It started as the result of a teacher in my son's school putting together a trip.  It was not a school trip, but she was heading up an educational trip to Iceland in the late spring.  The information she provided had me hooked.  I never got any further because my son kept forgetting to get the information packets from her after school (hmmm) and then "life" got in the way as did finances.  So while we won't be doing this trip with her, she's got me hooked.  The glaciers and geysers, the blue lagoon, the opportunity to see the Northern Lights.  It doesn't hurt that English is widely spoken too.  For me the appeal is also that it isn't something "everyone" would do.  It's unique, at least in my eyes.

Will I ever get to these three places?  I have no idea.  I hope I will. I hope someday to be writing long blog posts about my adventures.  And if any of you reading this have been to any of these places, I'd love to hear from you.