Mar. 9, 1998

I can't always travel to foreign ports. Time and funding sometimes require me to look closer to home to satisfy my wanderlust. This is an exciting country and I've seen far too little of it, so this year I'm touring my own backyard.

I took advantage of the President's Day Weekend and flew to Michigan to visit a close friend in Ann Arbor. I was able to catch a couple of movies with him and his girlfriend, get a good feel for the University of Michigan campus, and talk until I was blue in the face. I spent the first 20 years of my life in the Midwest, so I had a strong sense of deja vu while in this lovely part of the country.

It's been more than 20 years since I've set foot in Alaska, so Bill and I are going to take an exciting trip through the Inner Passage during Spring Break. We'll be traveling with a small group of people led by educators from the Museum of History and Industry and the University of Alaska. We'll spend 6 days and nights traveling by ferry from Juneau to Haines to Ketchican and finally down to Bellingham, Washington. Our inland excursions will mix local history with the stunning views.

I have a few other shorter trips planned for the future. I intend to take my hot little car to Montana so I can drive with no speed restrictions for at least one day. I imagine I'll do little Northwest trips whenever Bill and William take long bike rides during the summer. And I'm already saving my pennies for the future, since I intend to go to Europe with Bill during the summer of 1999. After all, I have friends to see over there, and I'll have so much to talk about by then. Of course, I'll want to show them my tattoo, too.