51

Today is my 51st birthday. I've now made it on this blog one year past my original five year commitment that I made on birthday number 45. I don't think I'm stopping any time soon. For today, I'm at home and enjoying a little quiet non-traveling time after two major trips (New Zealand and Peru) earlier this year. Peru blog posts are coming fast and furious on either side of this annual birthday post. Got to get them all done before the next trip!!

Year number six of this blog was as eventful as any other. I was fortunate to be able to travel for pretty much six weeks in the last twelve months: taking a week and a half to drive from San Francisco to Portland; devoting a similar amount of time to England with a side trip to Germany; flying to the other side of the world to New Zealand for 14 days and then spending a week in Peru exploring the culture and landscape of that country. That last one was probably my favorite, although it's a close call with our time in the Napa Valley.

So what did all that do for me? Tons. I fell in love with wine and found out I still love beer (shocker!) while out on the west coast of the United States. I finally cracked the code on a Napa trip which I'm thrilled about; can't wait to go back. I also found out I don't love kölsch as much as I thought I did but had an excellent time in Cologne anyway, even if their beer isn't as good as the beer in Portland, OR and their food isn't as good as the nosh in Munich on the other side of the country. I visited Hastings to see where the foundation of my country was laid and chased kiwis at night on an airfield about as far from Hastings as you can get. I pushed myself harder than I have recently hiking the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu. I went to my second real football game at Selhurst Park and found out what it means to be South London and proud cheering for Crystal Palace F.C. on a Saturday afternoon.

All told, we spent time on four continents in the past 12 months and my Patagonia backpack that I bought before our 2017 trip to Japan has now made it to six in just two years. When I started writing this blog in 2013 I never would have thought that was possible. I'm glad we've done all that even if New Zealand was a long long trip home. I think it's broken my will to stay in coach on all flights. We'll see what happens when I get back down to that part of the world. And I do have to go down to that part of the planet at least once more.

Glad All Over at Selhurst Park. Until Palace lost to Southampton 0-2 that is.

As I usually do in this post, I need to check up on my goals. Having checked every box in my first five years, I added some new goals last year and there has been some significant progress already. I have to have goals.

My first goal was to head to Oceania and add a sixth continent to my list. Done! Although as I expressed in my first post upon returning from New Zealand, I'm now conflicted about the number of continents on our planet. The more you learn, the harder it gets sometimes. For now, I'm sticking to tradition and now just have one more continent to go: Antarctica. And believe me I think about it a lot. I check Antartica cruises at least once every couple of months. There's definitely an allure about being a completist. There's no way I'm ever going to do that with countries but continents stand a chance.

City-wise, I pledged to visit Cologne and I did. The cathedral was amazing. Definitely one of the best churches I have ever visited (if not THE best) and it seems like I've visited a lot. Maybe too many already. So the beer disappointed. It was still worth going.

In the wanderlust category, I committed to Machu Picchu or Easter Island in addition to Angkor Wat. Machu Picchu is done; doesn't mean Easter Island is off the table, particularly now we know about the Polynesian triangle of Hawaii (which we have visited), New Zealand (done!) and Easter Island. Seems odd to have two of the three, right? And Angkor Wat? I told you there was a reason we had to travel to the southeastern part of the planet again. Not scheduled. Not likely this year either. But eventually...

The final goal I set was to make it to all 50 of our United States. I have no progress to report. I'm still stuck on 46. Don't see that changing much in the immediate future. It's going to be an effort to get to Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas or Kansas in a meaningful way.

So what's the immediate future hold? Honestly, we have just one trip planned other than a quick weekend in New York City. I have an inkling of where we might go but ultimately that decision has yet to be made. Any suggestions?

The Plaza de Armas at night, Cusco, Peru. I love Cusco. What an amazing city.