My Year of Travel

Last year I travelled to New York City, Utah, Idaho (twice), and Washington State, and I thought surely this year I won't travel so much, because really, that's quite unusual. But...

Next week we go to Hawaii for two weeks, to escape the winter.

This summer my sister and her husband are coming to tour Quebec with me, entirely due to reading too much Louise Penny.

And my husband is competing in Scotland in August, so I'm tagging along. We're going to spend two weeks in Scotland and...drum roll...three nights in Iceland!

Now, I'm currently sitting outside Toronto, Canada with Arctic temperatures and freezing rain outside, so you might be surprised that I'm more excited about going to Iceland than Hawaii. But it has been a long-held dream of mine. My husband spent a month in Iceland many years ago and came back full of glowing reports, and I've been wanting to go ever since. The thought of that totally (to me) alien landscape, the ocean, the history, the language -- I am enamoured. Icelandair is having a great deal where you don't have to pay for the extra flight when you stop off on your way to other places, or I never could afford it. But because they're trying to attract tourists, I'm able and happy to oblige.

I know three nights isn't enough time to get to know the place, but it's a beginning. I'm saving my pennies to go back someday and make a proper tour of it. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy what I can do. Because who knows how long I'll be able to do it? Seize the day and all that. I know we have to be frugal and plan for our futures, but we also have to act while we're still young and healthy enough to do it. I've heard it said it's more likely you'll look back and regret the things you didn't do than the things you did.