57

 

Today is my 57th birthday. It's been one of the most challenging years of my life and I mean that in a number of ways. Family-wise, my 57th year on this planet was stressful and emotional unlike any other year, particularly the last five months. I've cried more than I have in years and it's all about my parents. I'm not going to expand on that at all in this blog but suffice it to say while everyone I care the most about is thankfully still alive and sticking together, it has not been easy. I have often written thankful words on this day of the year in the last dozen years and today is no different. I am healthy and alive and able to do the things that make me feel alive. I am extremely fortunate.

That includes being able to travel and explore our planet.

Calendar year 2024 was a bit of a tough travel year. Easier than other stuff that was to come after the new year in '25 but still ultimately not as satisfying as some past years. It featured two week-plus-long trips (that's too few, by the way) and a lot of work travel. The time after my birthday was extra tough: just one vacation to the country where I was born (England) and a ton of not traveling and not exploring. Except for work. And then not so much the exploring even though I tried.

So in 2025, I've taken steps to buck that one year travel trend. I am, after all, in control a bit of some of this stuff. We've already completed a week each in Belize (with a day trip to Guatemala) and Tokyo. Central America and Japan are two of my favorite parts of the world so I'm thrilled to have been able to visit each in the first half of this year. Give me time in the jungle or Japanese culture and food every day for a week or more and I'll be a happy man. Just as long as I can retreat to a comfy hotel at the end of the jungle days, that is.

On those two trips, I knocked one of my all time must visit spots off my list (Guatemala's Tikal), found some of my favorite birds (toucans) and immersed myself in one of the world's most anticipated events of each year in the blooming of the sakura or cherry blossoms in the Japanese spring. Last year it was lunar new year in southeast Asia; this year it was sakura-watching. These are not easy spots to get to and I know not everyone can do these things on demand like we have done in the last 18 months. Again, I am extremely lucky.

Decorated stone statues near the Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, the biggest city I visited this year.

Traditionally on this date's post, I check in on the goals that I set for myself as a part of this blog. But last year, I abandoned that routine, with a determination to go where I felt like it without conforming to some sort of master plan. This year, I remain true to that idea. I am still refusing to establish goals. My personal travel list is just so long and I don't see a need to prioritize my travel in five year chunks any more. I am confident that there are amazing, mind-blowing sights to see out there and I am sure I can find some to take in every year.

So what does the next year hold, travel-wise? Well, honestly it's a little murky, but the balance of 2025 looks like nothing inside the United States (weekend trips don't count) which would make 2025 only the second year that I've been writing this blog that I didn't travel somewhere in my home country that made it into the pages of this blog (2019 was the other year with trips to New Zealand, Peru and Ireland / Northern Ireland that year). Not going to lie here, we are deliberately focused outside of our borders. 

We do have two trips booked and (mostly) planned already to the Canadian Rockies and South Africa which should keep us very well occupied for the remainder of 2025 but 2026 is a blank canvas. There are no flights or hotels booked at all beyond this year we are in right now. That's extremely unusual for us and it's both exciting and daunting at the same time. Don't get me wrong, we have some ideas. Just no commitments yet. Don't worry, we'll fill up 2026 very soon, I'm sure of it. If nothing else, we need to get to Europe. I feel confident we will.

For the first five birthday posts on this blog (this is number 13), I was at home somewhere in Arlington, Virginia and the cover picture of this post featured me having a drink somewhere near to where I lived. In the seven subsequent posts, I was mostly on the road, showing up in pics taken in the New York City, Utah, Scotland and the Napa Valley (twice). Today, I am once again at home. But Canada beckons. I am super excited to fly to Calgary in the next month and start exploring the six national parks we have on our list out there. This world is a wonderful place. I can't wait to see what the next year brings for me. I know it's going to be awesome exploring some new places.

The harbor (or harbour) at Mousehole (pronounced mow-zul). Possibly the smallest town I visited this year.

56

 

Today is my 56th birthday. Another year of exploring our planet and year 11 of blogging about it is complete. So much for stopping at five years. I'm glad I didn't. This blog makes me keep pushing myself further and further to do more and more. And yes, I'm still up for writing down a lot of what I've experienced so I can keep re-living what I've done and seen and heard and smelled and eaten over and over again if I want to.

This year has been a different year of travel for me. Now, I realize I've already written about how it's been different in a couple of posts but indulge me again, if you even remember those posts (I know...you don't). So sure, we've expanded our horizons a lot this year. No new news there. Standard amazing stuff. Five new countries. Two new states (that's significant and we'll get to that soon). Tons of new birds. A second trip ever to Asia (for me, at least). Expensive wine in the Napa Valley and cheap (but still really, really good) wine in Croatia and Greece. Boston. All sorts of new music and food and other things. Awesome stuff! Read all about it in the posts from the last year. Please.

But I've also spent time traveling for work. Like way more than I've ever done. Like eight trips to New York and two to Chicago (albeit one was not MY work trip). I don't think that's affected my travel planning yet because everywhere I've been since my last birthday was planned before I got this new assignment. But the back end of this year might be a bit muted because of it. I did say MIGHT. It's definitely packed full of time in New York.

I love Chicago and I really love New York a lot. So I've tried to sneak in some stuff that I would normally do if I were going to those cities for fun. My first Chicago dog. Public transportation as an experience. Incredible (non-Chicago dog) food. Memorials. World class architecture. World class opera. Birdwatching. Movies. These trips haven't been as much fun as the rest of my trips (you know...because of the work) but I've tried to do more than just go work, eat and sleep. They have been fun and they have been tiring. The fun part is more important. And yes, I have sneaked a couple of posts in here and there. And I might not be done.

Charlie Parker Memorial, Kansas City MO. One of a few jazz pilgrimages I've made this year (for my dad).

So let's check up on goals, because that's what I do in these birthday posts after all. When I started this thing at 45, I made myself a series of goals to keep me focused and set some themes for my first five years of travel. I aced them all. Finished not just on time, but early. 

So at 50, I did it again. And I wasn't so successful. I got some of what I wanted to accomplish but I missed two things: (1) a trip to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and (2) completing my quest to visit every state in the United States. On this last one, as of a year ago, I was missing two states: Kansas and Oklahoma.

I blamed COVID for me missing my goals. I know...it's a bit flimsy but legit traveling outside of the United States was somewhat challenging for a bit there. So last year, considering I failed at my 50th birthday promise, I set no new goals until I finished what I pledged to get done a year ago.

The good news is I'm done. I set foot in Angkor Wat very early one February morning and followed that up in May with a flight to Kansas City, Missouri, picking up a car at the airport and then proceeding to drive to both Kansas and Oklahoma. Angkor Wat done! All 50 states done! Time for some new goals. And no, I haven't blogged and posted about the 50 states, but I will.

Only on the goals thing...no. I'm not making any more goals. I'm just going to go where I want to from now on. No checklists, no milestones, no goalposts, no nothing. Just going with the flow. Why? Well because I realized this year it's been seven years since I've really spent time in Japan (my layover this year doesn't count officially) and it's been even longer since I spent time in Paris. I love Paris. I love it so much I would live there in a heartbeat if I really thought I could. The lack of goals isn't going to stop me from pushing. I feel confident enough that I'm going to want to add new places to my list without a goals list. If I get complacent, I'll start making goals again.

So what does the next year look like? I have some ideas. I feel pretty good about some time in England and a return trip to Japan. I also would love to explore Central America a bit more and hopefully (God, please) some serious toucan and Mayan encounters. Other than that? I don't know...is there time for anything else? I'm hoping for some travel with friends. We did too little of that these past 12 months although we managed a couple of long weekends. I always think our travels are enriched by the presence of people we really love spending time with. I need to start exerting some serious peer pressure soon for Japan next year.

With or without friends, we are going to continue to keep going. Can't wait to see what happens before 57. Onward. And happy birthday to me. I'm in New York. How can it get any better, really?

Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers at night.

55

Today is my 55th birthday. That's ten years (and 11 birthdays) that I've started a blog post words similar to that. That's a long time to be blogging about traveling around the world. I know I've said something like I'm glad to be alive and healthy and still able to do what I love every year I've been writing this thing and it's no less true this year than in past years. I still love it. I love the thrill of landing somewhere new and exploring. I love the thrill of going back somewhere that I love again and again (I'm looking at you, New York and Los Angeles) and either doing the same things I've done before or finding some new gems. Or both. Preferably both.

This year I feel like the shackles have come off. The loosening (or just complete elimination) of restrictions on travel due to COVID have freed us to travel all over the place again and we've taken advantage. Scotland. England. Costa Rica. Vienna. Brno. Bratislava. Uganda. Rwanda. Zanzibar. Everywhere I've blogged about in the last 12 months has been outside of the United States. It's the first year I've been writing a birthday post that I can stay that.

That's not to say those are the only places we traveled in the past year. We did manage to squeeze in a long weekend in Los Angeles for three straight nights of Duran Duran concerts and we did, of course, make it to New York City for a weekend in early December. Los Angeles and New York. I'm telling you...

This past year we have traveled by ourselves (meaning just the two of us together) and we have traveled with friends (or friend, as it turns out) and we have traveled with a group of complete strangers. As stressful as traveling with a random group of folks is sometimes, we also found some inspiration on that trip in a couple approximately 25 years our senior who were still able to trek to find gorillas in the Ugandan mountains. That's what I want to be doing when I'm in my late 70s. No sitting around at home in a chair for me when I'm almost 80.

The D Tram in Vienna. We took this (and similar trams) everywhere in that city.

I have found so much that I love over the past year. Scottish whisky. The entire Isle of Mull. Puffins. Gannets. The Hollywood Bowl. Lychees. Tortuguero National Park. Toucans. Scarlet macaws. Kingfishers. Plantains and Gallo pinto for breakfast. Viennese Christmas markets. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17. The public transportation system in Vienna. Chicken schnitzel. Wild chimpanzees and gorillas mere feet from where we are standing. White sand beaches. More kingfishers. My first tuk-tuk ride. So much more. Finding new things away from home never gets old.

One of the things I do on this date every year is assess how I've done against my goals. At this point, I should be completely done with the travel goals I set for myself when I turned 50. I'm not. On this date last year I noted that I still had two goals unfulfilled: (1) visiting every state in the United States and (2) finally making it to Angkor Wat. I've done neither. I've made no progress on my goals in the last year. I'm going to have to take a mulligan. 

I said last year that I might have to do this. COVID. What can I say?

And since I'm not complete with the last five years' worth of goals, I'm not making any new ones. Not yet. I have to finish what I committed to before I make another list. So for this year, at least, I'm traveling without a new five years worth of goals. I hope I can deal.

So what's on tap for the next year? Well, we may at some point in the next 12 months set foot in a certain Hindu temple in Cambodia. It's booked. And if there's no global pandemic or anything else to get in the way then we can check that one off the list. Other than that? Finishing up our 2020 cancelled trips and finding more Game of Thrones sights somewhere along the Adriatic Sea in Croatia before heading to Athens for the first time. That doesn't seem like it's enough for a whole year. There may be one or two other little trips in there somewhere.

Year 11 starts today. Cheers and here's to another successful year of exploring. I'm excited to see what we can find in the next 12 months.

"Her name is Rio." Duran Duran at the Hollywood Bowl.

54

Today is my 54th birthday. As I do every year on this day (and hopefully will continue to do for a while longer) I give thanks to have made it through another year. There's no question that this pandemic that seemingly won't ever go away has once again affected my travel over the last year, although the two shots of vaccine I received before birthday number 53 and the two boosters after those first two has made getting out of town this year way less stressful. As far as we know, we've been untouched personally by COVID. We know we are more fortunate than others in that regard. I also appreciate the United States recently scrapping the testing requirement to come home from abroad recently.

Year 54 was a relatively busy travel year. I can count 10 trips that we've completed in the past 12 months. That's an incredible number. We hit Maine, Philadelphia, a mini-Midwest swing from Milwaukee to Chicago, Richmond, Portugal, the Hudson Valley, New Mexico, New York City, Southern California and a Memorial Day weekend visit to South Dakota and Nebraska. But most of those trips were four nights or fewer in duration and the three that exceed that number were for five, eight and eight nights. We went a lot of places, but we didn't stay long when we went. 

That got us a lot of coverage, but I lacked a wanderlust type trip this past year. The last amazing trip for me remains our October 2020 trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We have to change that soon. We have to get ourselves immersed in a completely incredible environment sometime this year. Maybe even more than once.

You might have noticed Portugal on my trip list over the last year. Yes, we made it out of the country, the first time I've done so since January of 2020 when we went to the Bahamas. It was great to dip a toe again into international travel and go back to Portugal for the first time in over 40 years (!!!). We actually had a second overseas trip in December planned to Vienna, Austria before the Omicron variant shut that city and its Christmas markets down for the season. Maybe this year...

We came across ex-muffler man Big Josh on our way out to Joshua Tree National Park.

So what did I love this year? So, so much. There were genuinely amazing days that I will hopefully remember for the rest of my life. Puffin watching in Maine. Exploring an icon of modern architecture near Chicago before hitting a blues club. Hanging out on a farm learning about how cork is harvested. Exploring Porto for too few hours. Spending a whole week just before Christmas in my spiritual homeland of New Mexico. Finally visiting Joshua Tree National Park. Rapid City, South Dakota. I get the last one is like a complete non sequitur but that place is seriously amazing.

It also seemed like we had a number of iconic food moments this past year. Maine lobster rolls. Pastéis and grilled sardines in Lisbon. Biscochitos in Albuquerque. Port in Porto (yes, Port counts as food here!). Sausages in Milwaukee. In-N-Out Burger. And a special shout out to the tuna crudo at Eventide Oyster Co. in Portland, ME; the shakshuka at Los Poblanos Inn in New Mexico; and everything we ordered at Rooster and the Pig in Palm Springs. Food is really important when we travel. We've been really, really lucky this year. If you are ever in Palm Springs, I would definitely encourage you to visit Rooster and the Pig. Just incredible food. 

Of course, I can't close my annual birthday post without a goals check for this five year period. As of a year ago, I had just two goals left before I turned 55: complete my quest to visit all 50 states and make it to Angkor Wat. I made progress this year, but admittedly not a whole lot. No trip to Cambodia yet but I did move my states visited total from 47 to 48 by spending a few hours in Nebraska. Just Kansas and Oklahoma to go there. The good news is they are next to each other. The bad news is I have no trip planned to either state. Or Cambodia for that matter. I'm down to my last year. 

So what does year 55 hold? Well I guess it better hold a trip to the American Midwest and to a certain ancient Hindu temple in southeast Asia or I'll have to admit some failure on my goals. Maybe I'll be forced to take the COVID mulligan. I'd rather not. Hopefully we can make it on our Austria trip that was cancelled last December and the cover picture of this post (where I'm usually holding a beer) might give some insight to another of our trips. Other than that? Just rolling with the travel restrictions as they are lifted and applied. We are no longer planning a year ahead of time at this point. Too much past disappointment. 

There's no doubt that there's a lot of uncertainty out there when it comes to where we can go. Hopefully this year comes closer to what we've experienced before 2020. Onward! I can't wait to see what this year brings. 

Found this polvo (octopus) on the side of a building in Porto.

53

Today is my 53rd birthday. I haven't been out of the United States in 17 months and I haven't left North America for 21 months. But I am mask-free, vaccinated and have been healthy throughout a global pandemic that's lasted over a year. All things considered, I count all of that as very, very good news. I'm also so lucky that I haven't suffered any lasting personal loss due to this pandemic. I know there are so very many people out there, including some co-workers, who are not anywhere near as lucky as I have been. I count myself as very, very fortunate on this day.

About a year and a half ago, I would have guessed on this date that I'd be reminiscing about a trip to see some of California's most amazing National Parks and describing how life-changing an encounter with wild gorillas was during the past year. That ain't happening. We scuttled those two trips a long time ago as well as a couple of others we had planned even before I reached birthday number 52. 

Despite the risks and the fact that I worked 14 months at home after never having worked a full day at home before in my life, we did decide to travel during these past 12 months. Our decision to do this was not made lightly and we took what I consider to be precautions over and above what we needed to take to get where we decided to go. We also scrapped some planned trips when COVID cases started to spike. There's no way we were taking those kinds of risks. And, yes, we were travel shamed when we got back. I'll be glad when that cultural trend is in the rear view mirror.

I can't tell you how many possibilities we investigated before settling on the four trips (plus a weekend in Richmond and one in Pennsylvania) we packed into the last year in the United States. We looked at all sorts of scenarios in California; Boston to Rhode Island to Maine (before Maine decided to exclude tourists); Kansas City to Tulsa with maybe an extension down through Arkansas; countless variations of trips combining stops in Memphis, Alabama, Mississippi and maybe some other places; Los Angeles to Joshua Tree and back; the Hudson Valley; a northern Arizona jaunt; flying to Denver and driving to Mount Rushmore with a return trip through Nebraska; Chicago to Milwaukee to Iowa; and many more. I'm pretty much set for domestic trip ideas for the foreseeable future. And if four trips (plus weekends) seems a lot to be taking in a pandemic, maybe it was. But it was way less actual time on the road than we would have normally spent. And we did it way differently than we have traveled before.

So where did we end up? In splendid isolation out in National Parks in the Utah desert and Colorado mountains; in more National Parks in Wyoming and Montana; on three driving trips (we NEVER drive to vacations) to Vermont and Pennsylvania and Richmond; and a post-vaccine-waiting-period road trip through the American South. All USA trips. They were just the safest options. We could have gone further. We just didn't think that was worth the risk.

Standing on the Utah-Colorado border near Dinosaur, Colorado.

So an annual ritual on my birthday is taking stock of my goals for the current five year period. Not surprisingly, I have not made much progress, although there was some. Last year at this time I had two goals left: visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia and visit the remaining states in this country that I hadn't yet set foot in. I did not make it to Cambodia this past year (shocker, I know!) but I did manage one new state (Arkansas). One new state may not seem like a lot but when it takes your states remaining total from four to three, it's pretty significant. Watch out Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. Can't wait to see which is the last one. I have two more years.

The birthday post is also an opportunity to reflect on the best of the best in the past year and look forward to some exciting possibilities in the coming 12 months. Staying domestic didn't diminish the excitement in any way this past year. Highlights for me since last June 22 were our hike to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park; every single minute of our time in Rocky Mountain National Park, Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park; learning about maple syrup in Vermont; hanging out in Jackson, Wyoming; and cheesesteaks at Pat's in Philly and fried chicken at Gus' in Memphis. Not too shabby I'd say.

So what's the next year hold? Honestly, I'm not completely sure. I'm pretty confident we'll proceed with a trip to Maine this summer that's already booked and we have a notion about Vienna, Austria much later this year. Other than that? It's a bit of a fuzzy canvas, although it appears I will finally make it to Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and I can't wait for my next cheesesteak at Pat's. If there's one way this pandemic has affected our travel, it's that we've delayed committing. At this point in past years, I'm sure we would already have trips for the next year already booked. This year, it's a bit more wait and see. I'm sure we'll be fine. And I already have like 12 or 14 domestic trips outlined ready to go at a moment's notice.

In many ways, we should count our blessings that if there was a country to be confined to and explore on a limited basis for 12 plus months, we had the United States. Yes, the federal government handled this pandemic disastrously, but the variety and quantity of amazing places to visit in our country is truly astonishing. We were able to get such varied experiences in a year limited to our nation's borders. Can't think of too many other places on this planet where we could have done that.

So that's it. Onward! Let's start seeing what's out there in year 54. I'm optimistic I'll be using my passport to travel somewhere soon. Just where it is I have no firm idea. Happy birthday to me!

Coplay Cement Company kilns in Pennsylvania. Didn't blog about these but still one of the cooler sites we visited last year.

52

Today is my 52nd birthday. If this isn't the most bizarre year I've spent on this planet, I'm not sure I want to know what's coming in the future. Although let's face it, this next year may be even stranger. I'm buckled in pretty tight for the next seven months or so at least.

The plan for year seven of this blog was pretty modest. Sometimes it happens that way. Our travel whims generally have about the same amount of travel in each calendar year but the distribution isn't necessarily spread out evenly between birthdays for me. That means some years between name days have more travel than other years. Year seven happened to be a light year by design. But not as light as it turned out to be.

We planned to complete four trips over the past year. I know. I know. That sounds like a lot. But only one of those four was planned to be a week in length. The other three were long weekends, either four days or five days away from home. A week plus in Ireland? Done. Lots of rain, but done. Long weekend in The Bahamas? Also done. Pirates and Goombay Smashes and beach time and rum cakes! Awesome! But the other two trips, to Costa Rica's Tortuguero National Park in March and northwest New Mexico in May, never happened. Cancelled! Victims of this global pandemic that is still very much out of control.

So understandably, this is not the birthday post I thought I'd be writing. If everything went according to plan (and we've already established that is very definitely not the case at all this year), not only would I have had time in Costa Rica and New Mexico under my belt, but I'd also be hoisting a beer in the cover photo of this post somewhere in central California after hiking among enormous trees in Kings Canyon National Park this very day. But that trip (planned for this entire week) didn't happen either.

But I am on the road. I'm out in Utah (of all places) on a plan B scenario that's worked out about as well as I could have hoped. It's incredible country out here and I'm excited to explore this place for the next few days before heading home. Given all that's happened over the past four months, I'm pretty excited about getting away for a week to some place this amazing.

Does all that mean year seven was a waste? Absolutely not!! Sure we lost a couple of long weekends in Costa Rica and New Mexico (we'll get there or back there one day) but we snorkeled and explored strange rock formations and played with swords and dug up some skeletons from the past that my native country tried to bury. Along the way we walked a lot and learned and found good food and great drinks, sometimes with music. We also got to travel with friends (or friend) which I love to do. I appreciate the fact that our friend Bryan came with us to Ireland. He definitely made that trip better for me. I love the perspective that other people bring to traveling. Hope we can do it again soon.

All that's not too shabby I'm thinking.

At Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland. Cold, wet, windy but amazing just the same.

I've traditionally used my birthday post to write about how I'm doing on the goals I've committed to achieving and what my plans for the next year are. Let's not let a global pandemic affect that reckoning, shall we?

Year six of this blog saw me knocking off three of my five goals for my second five year period of exploring the world. Three of five! In one year!! Pretty darned good if I do say so myself. Continent number six? Check! Cologne? Check! Machu Picchu? Check!

How did I follow that success up this past year? Well...by accomplishing absolutely nothing on my list. Seriously. And it was deliberate. Really. Why rush things? I have three more years after this one and the only two outstanding promises I've made to myself is to visit the balance of the 50 states that I haven't set foot in (just four left, if you must know) and to make it to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Although honestly...this virus out there makes me want to rush a bit more. It's amazing how quickly something that you love so much can be taken from you. I mean that on many different levels.

So what's next? What does year eight hold? Honestly...I have no clue whatsoever. Yes, we have two trips planned already but there are absolutely no guarantees we are going on those or anywhere for the rest of this year and maybe beyond that. I think for the foreseeable future we are going to just remain flexible in our travel plans and open to any possibilities that present themselves. Particularly with the number of destinations that appear to be off limits to Americans considering we lead the entire planet in deaths from this pandemic. So proud!

I've read a lot about the future of travel in the last four months or so. Most of what I have read has suggested more planning is the way to go. Reservations for flights, restaurants and attractions are going to be more important than ever. We can't plan more. We regularly commit to travel plans a year or sometimes more ahead of time. I think for us the answer may actually be to commit later than we usually do and keep all our options open. Sounds counterintuitive but for us over-planners that might be the way to go. I will commit to providing a progress report a year from now.

No matter how it happens, it won't matter at all if we don't take care of ourselves. Throughout this duration of this pandemic, we are fortunate to have not known anyone to be seriously ill with this virus that's out there and I hope we can continue to be so lucky. I know there are so many who are not in the situation we are in. We'll keep pushing the envelope in a very very safe way to travel and explore where we can. Stay safe everyone. Happy birthday to me!

Our first view of New Providence island in The Bahamas. Pretty much paradise. 

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.

50

Today is my 50th birthday. For the first time in a birthday post (there are five more before this), I'm not holding a beer and smiling at the camera. Instead, I'm holding a glass of wine and smiling at the camera because I'm in the Napa Valley in California celebrating my first half-century on the planet before heading north to Portland, Oregon to do some more celebrating. Only this time with beer.

This date was supposed to be the last day of this blog. It won't be. I'm having too much fun and growing and learning too much. I'll get to all of that in a minute or two.

This past year I traveled in many respects less than I have in either of the four prior years. In years one through four, I made at least two trips out of the country and set foot in Europe each of those years. This past year, I traveled abroad just once and I skipped Europe entirely. Some of that was due to timing. I traveled a ton between my 48th and 49th birthdays (including making it to four continents) and so had to save up some time off this past year. Some of it was due to going all in on a two week trip to Africa; I hadn't taken two full weeks off from work in almost seven years.

That doesn't mean that this year wasn't incredible because it certainly was. For a start, we saw a ton of different wildlife; three of my four trips this year were centered around birds and mammals large and small. Only a long weekend in Detroit saved us from a full year of animal-focused trips. We also checked a number of things off my non-existent bucket list, including some things that we didn't even know were on there. Seeing the Big Five in Africa, jumping with the Masai, seeing Denali (even though we didn't really see all of it) and visiting Detroit all fit into this category. That last one's not a typo; Detroit is still on my list. One weekend in the Motor City just isn't enough to do everything I want to see in that city.

On top of all that stuff and so much more that's made it into this blog and plenty of stuff that hasn't, I managed to lay eyes on my favorite building in the world on a seven hour or so layover in Amsterdam on our way back from Africa. It's the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and it's shown in the photograph below. I love this building!

So now what? Well, as I mentioned in paragraph two of this post, I am not stopping. I've already modified the subtitle of this blog from "a 1,827 day project dedicated to broadening my horizons" to "a 1,827 day project dedicated to broadening my horizons that just kept going". I'm also today committing (God willing) to extend this journey for a further five years. No I'm not changing the title of the blog to Ten Years. Get over it.

When I started this blog, I set out a series of goals for personal travel and I completed all of those by age 49 at the latest. It's time for a new set of priorities to measure my success; not that these will cover all the places I'll go, because I don't have a clear vision of the next five years right now. Big picture-wise on my 45th birthday, I'd visited just two continents. Now I'm at five. There are two left, one inhabited (Australia or Oceania, if you prefer) and one is not really (Antarctica). The first commitment I'm making today is to add Oceania (I'm going with political continents, not geographical) to my continents visited list.

The second commitment I'm re-making is to visit the one city in Europe I've thought about visiting more than any other. Five years ago, that place was Barcelona, Spain. Today, it's Cologne, Germany. Enough talking about wanting to drink kölsch and see the cathedral. Go do it!

Closer to home, I'm also committing to complete my quest to visit all 50 states. Right now, I'm at 46 with Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma remaining. I intend to get two of those by driving the length of Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. That's a trip I've wanted to take for a while but I just keep putting it off. That has to get completed before I turn 55. I have no idea how I get the other two. I'm still searching for what the heck I would even do in Arkansas (although I have some preliminary ideas). I'll figure it out.

Finally, there have to be some wonderlust-type spots on the next five years list. There are. I have to make it to either Easter Island off the coast of Chile (like, waaaaaay off the cost) or Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes. And I absolutely have to, no question about it, no excuses accepted, make my way to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I've wanted to visit that place since I was a sophomore in college which at this point is more than 30 years ago. And that's just way too long to want to go to one place without going.

But enough of the future. Today is day 1,827 of this blog. I made it. And for the next two days I'm kicking back in the Napa Valley and doing absolutely nothing except drinking wine and eating food and enjoying the last day of my five year commitment, and the first day of my next, with the person I love most of all in life. Happy birthday to me!

Oldupai (not a typo) Gorge, Tanzania. Somewhere out there the Leakeys discovered early man.

49

Today is my 49th birthday. It's also day 1,462 of this blog. If I keep to my plan that I unveiled on June 22, 2013, I have 365 days after this one to explore the world. I'm nowhere close to what I want to do and see in my life. I can't imagine stopping this after five years. I have a year to reconcile how that notion works with the title of this blog.

Year four of my quest to see the world in many ways has been the best so far. I took more major trips this year (five) than any of the previous three years. Two brand new places and three spots that I've been before. I broke new ground by traveling to two new continents in South America and Asia; returned to my culinary homeland in Mexico to explore Chichén Itzá; and revisited one of my favorite states in the U.S. (New Mexico) and my absolute favorite city in the world (Paris). I've said before and I'll say it again: give me English beer and French cheese every day and I'll be supremely happy for the rest of my life. I got half of that for a week this year.

Along the way in the last 12 months, I've slept on a boat, swam with sharks, eaten guinea pigs and snails, attended symphonies, learned about the planets, seen some of the greatest landscapes I've ever seen, eaten with chopsticks as my only option, sung my heart out and of course eaten as much French cheese as I could in one week in Paris without solely eating cheese. Some of this I have written about. Some I haven't. I've set foot on Mount Fuji. I've been covered in butterflies. I've drunk coffee that I still dream about. I've explored ancient cliff dwellings. I've found treasure at the top of an enormous flight of stairs in Montmartre. Above all, I've lived and learned.

Monarch butterflies in Mindo, Ecuador.

So how am I doing with my list? This time last year I claimed all my original goals complete save one: to set foot on two new continents. I made it to continent number three (Africa) less than 12 months after I started this blog. It was another two years and three months before I got continent number four (South America) which fulfilled my promise to myself. What was a long time coming for number four turned in to continent number five just nine months later. I'm pretty happy about that. But I'm very happy I did what I set out to do. Maybe it's time to start thinking about a new list?

If there's something that this five year quest has proved to me, it's that we really gain a lot of perspective about our planet and the people who inhabit it (including ourselves) by seeing different parts of the globe. Travel is usually confusing and strange when you go somewhere new for the first time and there are frequently situations that challenge us. But once you work through that initial shock and once you break through and start figuring things out and engaging other people, you start to appreciate the differences and the samenesses that exist everywhere and those experiences add to your being when you get through them. Whether it's as simple as communicating with gestures when you don't speak the same language as the person you are communicating with or as seemingly life threatening as a plane you are on aborting a landing twice in a row, what we have been through and done and seen changes us. And usually for the better. This year has been full of life-changing experiences.

Over the past few years, I've been fortunate to take one or two trips here and there with friends. I was very lucky to spend a week and half in Japan this year with two friends whom I have known for a decade and a half or more. I find traveling with different people helps us pay attention to things we sometimes don't notice by ourselves. This is especially true in a place like Japan, where so many things seem foreign to a western hemisphere guy like myself. I appreciate Larry and Rachel making the trip at the same time we did. We definitely got into some things that would have been way less fun as a twosome than a foursome.

So now it's on to year five. I see a big trip in the late winter or early spring overseas somewhere but I think unlike last year, I'll be spending a good amount of time at home this year. And by "at home" I mean about as far from where I live as I can get and still be in the United States or in other words not really at home at all. But that's to come in a few weeks. For now, happy birthday to me (again). This time next year my age will start with a 5. Craziness!

Traveling is thirsty work; fortunately, they have beer machines in Japan. Near Daigoji Shrine, Kyoto.

48

Today is my 48th birthday. It is also the end of year three and the beginning of year four of this blog. Three down, two to go. I certainly haven't run out of motivation or curiosity or places to go or energy. I am more excited about traveling than I was when I started this thing; I can't wait for my next trip; and my mental (and let's face it sometimes it's in spreadsheet form too)  list of future places to explore keeps getting new additions. I have no idea how I'm going to do everything I want to do. One trip at a time, I guess.

Year 48 on this planet of ours was a heck of a year for me on the travel front. I wrote about more trips this year (six) than I did in year one (five) and year two (four). I made it to the southern hemisphere for the first time. I went farther west by far than I had ever been before. I also think I made it higher than I ever have while standing on solid ground. Twice. In one week. And I added four new countries and three new states to my places visited list (that's 44 states total in case you are in any way curious). Not too shabby.

But above all that, I lived. I spent one of my favorite days ever in a canyon in southwest Utah. I bonded with old friends in Alabama. I saw the moon up close through a telescope in the pitch black at 9,200 feet in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I surfed, for crying out loud. And I saw elephants in the wild on my first ever safari, a trip that has been the most perspective altering to date. I won't likely ever be able to go back to a zoo and about every two weeks or so check out package trips to Tanzania and Kenya. Africa  is calling me. Like all the time.

At the top of Haleakala on Maui. You can definitely feel the thin air.

So let's do the annual box checking exercise. When I started this blog, I pledged a good amount of generalities and four specifics. The specifics are, in no particular order: (1) to make it to two new continents; (2) to visit Barcelona; (3) to see Alaska or Hawaii; and (4) to go somewhere that would really have freaked me out in the past. I did half of (1) and all of (4) by visiting Morocco in northern Africa in my first year. I also spent three nights in Barcelona on that same trip so I checked (2) off the list in the first twelve months also. In year two I had nothing. At least in terms of checking goals off my list.

This past year I finally made it to Hawaii, a place I never really wanted to visit but now a place I love in so many ways. I did not, however, make it to a second continent. That one item is now the sole remaining pledge left unfulfilled. I was never in any hurry to get all these things done quickly. This is a five year quest, not a series of one year quests. I don't have to bite off the whole apple every year.

So now it's on to year 49. A year ago, I thought I'd be taking a fairly significant trip within the United States in a couple of months. Heck, I even boasted about it in my 47th birthday post, claiming boldly that I have tons of control over this stuff. Well, I'm not going. But I am going other places instead. God willing, I'll make it to continent number four very soon. And then just keep going. I mentioned a list earlier in this post. Honestly, there are so many amazing and interesting places I haven't touched in this world that my wants outweigh my time off from work by at least three to one. The only thing I can do is keep taking it one trip at a time. Bring on year four!

Approaching the first wild elephants I ever got close to on the Chobe River.

47

Today is my 47th birthday. Just like last year, and really every year I've been on this planet, I'm excited and grateful to still be here. Today is also the end of year two and the beginning of year three of my five year quest to see more of our world. As I did a year ago, I'm declaring the last year of my travels to be a success, although maybe not quite in the same way as year one. This one didn't break as many barriers but it was just as special if not more so in many ways.

Two years ago, I set a public challenge for myself. Generally that was to see more of this rock we call home than just North America and western Europe. More specifically, I set targets to make it to two new continents, visit either Alaska or Hawaii, knock Barcelona off my list and set foot in a place that probably would have totally freaked me out in the past. I got one new continent (Africa), Barcelona and a somewhere that might have freaked me out (Marrakech) in just my first year; this past year, I got nothing.

Well, OK, not nothing. Just nothing to get me more numbers. Last year on this day I speculated that my travels in my 47th year would fill in some gaps in my past and I concentrated on doing that rather than checking items off a list. I visited no new states and only one new country (Italy). If you want to get technical about things, I could claim the Vatican City as a second, although I ended up not blogging about it.

But I rediscovered the country of my birth and where my parents came from in a trip to England and did something I missed in school nearly a quarter of a century ago by finally doing the grand tour in Italy. I also made good on a promise I made myself five years ago by visiting the Everglades and finally made it to the head of the Statue of Liberty, one of my favorite monuments in the world. That all sounds pretty good and it was. I loved all of it.

The Greyhound Inn: a great place to learn some new vocabulary and have a couple of beers.

A lot of what I've done and seen has been written in this blog so I can remember it years from now but it's not all I've done on my travels. There was so much more that made living worthwhile, from the squid ink pasta in some tiny restaurant in Venice to seeing a Shakespeare play I could actually understand and find hilarious (The Comedy of Errors) as a groundling in London's recreated Globe Theatre. I've listened to Gregorian chant in the crypt of Florence's San Miniato al Monte; I've also listened to my cousin's husband's father teach my girlfriend Yorkshire slang while I sat nearby sipping on a pint of Sam Smith's Bitter. I've walked by wild alligators feet from my feet; stood to listen to the Pope for a couple of hours in St. Peter's Square; and walked across the zebra crossing with tons of other Beatles inspired lunatics near Abbey Road studios, none of whom were really doing it right. Not bad for 12 months.

So now it's on to year three. In the past two years, I've been to Europe five times; I don't think I'll be going back again this year to fill the pages of this blog. If I'm making predictions (and let's face it I have a lot of control over the outcome here), I'd say my 48th year and maybe a month after that will be spent exploring more of the United States. I'd love to pick up four or five more states in the next 13 months. Considering I've already got 41 in the books, that's going to be quite an accomplishment if I manage to do it.

I also plan to travel abroad on my quest once in the coming year. That trip will take me further east (by a bit) and further south (by a lot) than I have ever been before. But more on that in August. For now, happy 47th birthday to me. I'll be back on the road again soon enough.

St. Peter's Square, April 8, 2015. The Pope is out there somewhere.

46

Today is my 46th birthday. I'm still excited and still grateful to have made it this far. In addition to celebrating another year of life despite the sometimes questionable decisions I make (this bad habit is admittedly getting better each year I live), my 46th birthday means it's the start of year two of my five year quest to see more of this planet we live on. I feel even more fortunate now than I did a year ago.

Today I am declaring year one of my project a success, with an acknowledgement that there is a long way to go. In the past year, I have broadened my horizons by traveling to five new countries (Germany, Austria, Iceland, Spain and Morocco, in that order) and have added Africa to my continent collection. I've also revisited two of my favorite destinations in the United States in Las Vegas and Kentucky. Of all my specific goals I committed to in my first post in this blog, I have been to one of the promised two new continents, haven't seen Alaska or Hawaii but have made it to Barcelona. Not bad for twelve months. There are 48 more to go, God willing.

I don't think I'm traveling just to be there; I think I'm making the most of my experiences. I've had pretzels and beer in Bavaria; climbed the Alps (admittedly with help from a number of buses); been treated like a V.I.P. at the Maker's Mark distillery; walked on a glacier; sat in geothermally heated hot baths while snow fell on my head; learned about the Yule Lads in Iceland and Francisco Goya in Spain; seen a flamenco performance and drank where Hemingway drank in Madrid; eaten street food and watched snake charmers in Marrakech; and visited the works of one of the world's Art Nouveau masters in Barcelona. I've also seen a glimmer of the darker side of humanity through my visit to Dachau's disgusting concentration camp and a bullfight where four animals were tormented and ultimately killed. Leaving the safety of home is not always happy, but I've really been OK all the way.

Iceland's Blue Lagoon: sitting in 100 degree water with snow falling around you.

I haven't made any of my trips in the last year alone, which makes me very lucky to have such great friends who will suffer through my sometimes overly planned journeys with schedules and terms like "float." I've been thrown off now and then but I've never let the journey detract from drinking in the entire experience. I may have had to sit around for a few hours in Louisville waiting for some friends to wake up from a mint julep inspired mini bender the previous night but I know I wouldn't have stayed in a wigwam hotel or fake ran from fake dinosaurs or wondered what on earth a cup of chunky was without spending a long weekend with those same people.

I also think my idea of writing down what I have seen on each of these trips is serving me well. My memory is honestly just not as good as I would like to think it is. I can't remember all of the beer varieties I drank at Andechs Abbey or all of the details of my quest to see the Northern Lights. This blog allows me to revisit my experiences of the past year whenever I want to. I assume it will continue to jog my memory as my life goes on.

So now it's on to year two. This year seems to be shaping up as a year where I fill in some gaps in my past and venture into new parts of the United States, rather than breaking down new barriers abroad. I'm not sure I'm making more than one trip to Europe (although I'm pretty darned sure I'm going there at least once) and I may not hit a new continent this year. And all of that is OK. I still think my 47th year on this planet will be exciting and eye opening and that's really all I'm looking for. Onward!

Cerveceria Alemana in Madrid, an old haunt of Ernest Hemingway's.