Next Vacation

For the first time ever, I can honestly say I don't have a clue when my next vacation will be or where to. First of all, there are many odds and ends I need to figure out in "the real world" before I make any plans, and I want to sort that first so it is resolved before taking any more trips. Implicit in that is not knowing what time of year my next trip will be. So with that in mind, my rambling thoughts are something like this:

As I said before, I don't have any immediate desire to return to Egypt; I'm ecstatic I did this, it was essentially a perfect vacation and I may well return some years later (in particular heading for Mount Sinai), but for now I feel I have seen and experienced what I need to here. As mentioned before, though I felt safe the entire time, it is a third world country, so it is not the normal tourist destination. You do have to use common sense, such as not grabbing the bare electrical service lines feeding the building!



As for the rest of Africa, the only parts I would potentially be interested in seeing would be South Africa or the Serengeti, but they don't rise to the immediate "must do" level.

I would love to see Israel, Jerusalem in particular, though I think it would feel quite a bit like this trip, so I believe I will defer that one for a little while, until I feel more like taking on another rustic vacation.

Having been to South America I have no real desire to return, unless as a jump-off to Antarctica to complete my seventh and final continent, but when I do that one I want to have some extra time buffered in so that if the scheduled landing on the Antarctic shelf is missed, I might have an opportunity to try a second landing. I'd hate to travel that far, and spend that much money, only to be blocked from that final continent by a bad weather day!

I have a friend who has offered a week-long trip to Costa Rica, and as much as I would like it the timing is not going to work out in that I would need to go this March, way too soon from the work angle.

Russia is a country I should see, especially given my former Air Force/NSA life, though for some reason I am simply not champing at the bit to do it: I think the rudeness of the culture would be annoying to me.

I've also had many friends suggest either Thailand or Cambodia, but I just don't have the burning in the belly to go there.

I probably should try a real cruise ship some time to see how it compares to the Nile version; unless I do something really cheap such as Carnival, everything I have heard tells me the real ocean cruise will be much more elegant than the one I just completed. Bryan and Nancy suggested I might look into Cunard as they do a bit more of the formal type, and as long as I am going for the fantasy I might as well go all the way.

Montenegro is possible, though I need to decide if I truly am interested or if the "Casino Royale" Bond movie just hooked me on the idea.

Mexico, though close, is a place I visited many times in my childhood (growing up in Southern California), so it does not seem to hold a great deal of excitement for me.

At this rate, I may actually be considering a continental US trip for the first time in ages. Discounting very short weekend trips to Reno or Vegas, my last US vacation was Zion and Bryce back in the very early 90s. There are only a few US cities I would be interested in, with New Orleans and New York being the only two which come to mind at this moment.