Travel Bug 3

We went back to Israel with a group from church, and then went on to Greece.  We bus-traveled around Italy and later Switzerland with Rick’s sister and brother-in-law.  We cruised to Central America and went through the Panama Canal.  We’ve driven thousands of miles, taking in sites in Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota.  We’ve made it from Southern France through Paris to Normandy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and wandered the capitols of Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

This year we checked off a couple of our bucket list places:  New York City, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park and seeing a Broadway play.  We grieved over the devastating results of Hurricane Sandy. 

Have we really seen the world?  Nope.  We have had a taste of each place we’ve visited.  To see anyplace in depth takes time, and we don’t have enough.  We see as much as we can by going with tour groups and professional guides and we enjoy every minute – though we’re exhausted when we get home.   We buy one special thing from each country, even if it’s only a small box, and lots of postcards (better pictures than I can take) and snaps shots of things no postcard photographer would care about:  bark on a tree, doors, the patterns on a sidewalk, people at the Louvre taking pictures of the Mona Lisa, people getting on a train, souvenirs in a gift shop.

Our children have already warned us the only pictures they will keep are the ones with us in them.  All the other pictures will go in the dumpster.  They might be able to sell my postcard collection in a garage sale.  All well and good.  I won’t care.  Someday, and I thank Jesus for this, Rick and I will be exploring heaven. 

To be continued…