As a young boy, I remember receiving post cards and packages from my father, who was a Naval officer. For hours on end, I would stare at the photos and souvenirs and wonder about the exotic places that my dad was visiting. I don't remember ever resolving to visit those places for myself, but it must have had an effect. Since leaving home for college in 1980, I have never lived in the same place for more than three years straight.

Fortunately, my wife also likes to travel. We both had a desire to learn first about the United States, and we established a goal to visit every state. At the moment, I have reached the 48 continental United States, leaving only Alaska and Hawaii on my to-do list. (My wife visited Hawaii before we met, so she has 49, which means that our next outing must be to Hawaii so that we can reach the goal together on a trip to Alaska.) Since that would not make a very interesting map, with almost all of the state filled in, I decided to make a map of the states in which I have lived for more than one month (thus capturing summer clerkships). Here it is:

Most of my international travel has been to Europe. I admit it. I am a Europhile. In the past year, however, I have visited India and China for the first time, so I decided to set an intermediate goal of visiting every continent. Below is a map of countries I have visited to date. That leaves Africa, South America, and Anarctica on my to-do list. I suppose that visiting every sovereign state is beyond my grasp, so I may just settle for some more modest, goal. Every country in Europe, perhaps?

Thanks to MyWorld66 for the map software.

Travel | Bookmark

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e200d8350e1bab53ef

Links to weblogs that reference World Traveler: