I have begun to think about my gift to myself for my 50th birthday, coming up in just a little over two years. A Trip Around The World. There's a cool website to help plan such an endeavor, and I took a first pass at it.

I'm interested in a couple of things from the readers here:

1. Have you, or anyone you know, done such a thing?


2. "You're going to that city in [that county]?" If you think this about one of my destinations, educate me on a better choice for a city in that country.


3. Where have I missed that you think I absolutely must go to on such an endeavor?

With regards to the last question, I should add that I've been fortunate in my life to do a lot of traveling already. Several places that would probably come to mind that I should visit, I've probably already visited. I want this itinerary to include only places to which I haven't already been. Here is a list of my travels to date: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~jmartin3/travel.htm

My current thinking is that this trip will be over the course of six weeks to two months, with an average of 2-4 days in each location. I will stay longer in some places, such as the South Pacific, than others, I'm sure.

I'm also thinking that I'd like to make this a "human-centric" trip as opposed to a "thing-centric" trip. That is, I would like to do something like try to connect with a person (a friend of a friend, perhaps), or a "host family," if something exists for the city/country I'm visiting, and spend two or three days with them, during which time I'd like to ask some questions, such as:

1. Tell me all about your family.


2. If you have children, what are your dreams for them?


3. What do you worry about the most?


4. Describe your spirituality to me.


5. Will you take me to your most favorite local restaurant tonight or tomorrow? My treat. And tell me how it came to be so.


6. Will you take me to your most favorite local place to relax or get re-energized, and tell me how it does that for you?


7. Would you tell me what prompted you to be my host?

I imagine these questions evolving over the next two years as I seek to end up with thought-provoking questions about things that matter. Of course, I will be journaling all of the answers.

This first itinerary is using the exact cities I told the website I wanted to visit: (Note: Though I had to choose the "Cook Islands" in the South Pacific, my specific desire there is to visit Tahiti, Bora Bora, and Moorea while in that area.)



This is a re-mixed suggested trip calculated by the website:

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I met Kevin (av8rdude) and Eric (innoman) for lunch at Bojangles on 54 at RTP. Crowded.

I met Kevin (av8rdude) and Eric (innoman) for dinner at Mo Joe's, where we ate at this exact table (though this is not us in the picture).



We just had to eat somewhere alfresco this evening. What a glorious, glorious day.

From there we walked to:

and had coffee alfresco as well. Kevin (av8rdude) took a (work) conference call, while we were there. The full moon was beautiful, which reminded me of Robert, and I remembered that tomorrow is the longest day of the year.