Picking our Destinations
How did we pick our itinerary?
As a family we spent time reading atlases, talking about countries that interested us, we watched the news (I read the state Deprtment Travel Advisories ), we talked to people.
We wanted to keep the number of destinations to a minimum while provideg an ecelectic smapleing of systems of government, religious beliefs and standards of living while also visiting as many of the historical sites of humanity.
We eventually arrived at a long list which we narrowed to
- New Zealand
Some countries we removed from our long list:
China - too cold during our scheduled travel.
Japan - small and very expensive
UAE - not a very good representative sample of Arab stests - it really is a tourist destination.
Israel - Complicated by unrest, security.
England - Too cold - on a future trip we will focus on Englnd, Ireland, and other Eurpoean destinations.
Amsterdam - same as above.
Spain - This was a tough one to remove - on our next Eurpean adventure we will try to fit this in.
Portugal - same as above.
We are stopping in DC to help put things in perspective – after seeing thousands of years of history I hope that my girls will have a better perspective of how young our country and system of government is. Perhaps, it might inspire them to take more of an interest I government, and the state of the world at an earlier age when it is easier to decide to revolutionize – without the encumbrances of middle age – family, mortgage, and career. I hope it inspires them to study – anything that they are passionate about. Often times I find myself having difficulty in comprehending scale – billions , generation, hundreds of years – hard to cognate.
