All Around the World

A couple years ago during a slow day at work, my friend and I were e-mailing back and forth about where we’d like to be, if we could be anywhere in the world. I kept our favorite ideas and re-reading them makes me smile. Here’s what we came up with:

New York at Christmastime: Ice skating at Rockefeller Center, buying a Christmas tree from some character on a corner, hearing the badly-dressed Santas ringing their Salvation Army bells, and getting frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.

On a haggard old boat somewhere in the Northern Atlantic hunting for whales among towering glaciers.

In the Lion's Head pub in Cambridge, England, eating fish and chips and imagining the masters at work.

Mining for gold in the wilds of Alaska as bald eagles fly overhead.

In the Garden of Gethsemane on a warm cloudless night, leaning against an olive tree.

Riding a large wooden raft down the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer-style, not worrying where the great river will take you.

In the Bronx, at a ballgame at Yankee Stadium, against Boston, on a hot summer night, eating peanuts and Cracker Jacks and ice cream.

International Spy Museum in Washington DC to work on my cryptology and other “spy skills.”

Leaning out of a cable car as it rolls through the hilly streets of San Francisco, on a crisp, windy day.

Snorkeling over the Great Barrier Reef, just off the coast of Australia.

Riding an elephant through the dense bat-infested jungles of India.

Drifting back and forth in a hammock beneath the shade of a mangrove, a warm breeze finding its way through your clothes while you sip on a cool pina colada.