There are places I remember . . .

I dearly love that song!  I dedicated it to Stan twenty years ago on Valentine’s Day.  I want it sung at my memorial.

Earlier this week Stan and I were enjoying un vaso de vino de Riojade la casa at a table in dappled sunlight under orange trees on a small plaza in Seville.  We began to reminisce about special things that we have done, we have found, or things that happened to us in our years together.

Stan said, “We should create one of those Facebook posts that list places or things and asks how many you have done.  It might go like . . .

Have you ever . . . 

• Been to the top of the Empire State Building
• Looked out over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower
• Been a part of a million-women march in the streets
• Visited Iguazu Falls
• Slept in a tent on the Serengeti
• Paraglided from a mountaintop
• Visited the Mekong Delta
• Picked poke salet in the spring
• Seen the Northern Lights
• Stepped foot inside the Arctic Circle
• Been to the Galapagos Islands
• Walked on a glacier
• Witnessed a corona
• Witnessed a Blood Moon rising
• Picked roadside wild blackberries
• Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Been to the Grand Canyon
• Seen a theatrical performance in London
• Seen a Broadway show in New York
• Seen a show at the Muny
• Taken a hot air balloon ride
• Watched a hyena stalk a baby impala
• Tended a small vegetable garden
• Seen a wildebeest give birth
• Gone dog-sledding
• Enjoyed a performance at Chastain
• Seen a baby elephant in the wild
• Had a wild wallaby bouncing right in front of you on the street
• Heard an Australian Opossum scamper across your roof at night
• Seen a sea lion sunning on an iceberg
• Watched a glacier calve
• Snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef
• Been to Yellowstone National Park
• Eaten roasted wild boar
• Had Haggis and eggs for breakfast
• Had a traditional English breakfast
• Enjoyed high tea
• Caught a fish off the Panama City Beach Pier
• Bathed in the Blue Lagoon
• Ridden an elephant
• Touched a tiger
• Fed monkeys in Ubud
• Sat on the Spanish Steps
• Felt the spray of Trevi Fountain
• Touched the walls of the Coliseum
• Walked the streets of Pompeii
• Eaten roasted guinea pig
• Road a Vespa through nighttime Saigon, (Ho Chi Minh)
• Climbed Machu Pichu
• Swam with wild penguins
• Watched sea turtles feed on underwater seagrass
• Swam with manatees
• Seen Sacred de Familia
• Visited Notre Dame
• Heard Big Ben’s chimes
• Rode the Jamaican bobsled
• Made paella from scratch
• Visited Sacre Coeur
• Ran the Peachtree Road Race
• Boated on Maid of the Mist
• Gone leaf-peeping in New England
• Found the temple of Angkor Wat
• Found the root-covered Ta Prohm in Cambodia:  Tomb Raider Temple
• Crawled through the tunnels in  Vietnam

As we made this list, we knew it was not complete. But it was fun and yet a bit staggering to dig up and re-appreciate and be thankful for all the wonderful things we have seen and done in this world.  Traveling the world is certainly not everyone’s passion, but it is ours. Some people get great joy from home coziness and gathering things. While we appreciate that, we prefer to harvest memories.