The map meme seems the thing to do, and I do love maps, so here goes. (Yes, Thom, finally.) Click on the links for the maps. I have visited six countries besides the U.S.: Canada (Vancouver and vicinity), Germany (Berlin), Hungary (Budapest), Italy (Milan), Netherlands (Amsterdam and Leiden), and the Philippines (Manila, Lucban, Santo Domingo, and points in between). (Link to World66 via Jase.)
Speaking of world travel, one of my cousins in the Philippines is getting married this May. My family, based in the Bay Area, is planning to attend, and I’m thinking about going as well. Getting to Manila from San Francisco is no problem; I’ve done it a few times. On Philippine Airlines, you usually stop in Honolulu on the way there and come back nonstop. But I’ve never had to fly there from Washington, D.C. Hmm. I guess I could fly to San Francisco first to meet up and rest with my family, then we’d all continue from there.
Or—and here’s where it gets very Amazing Race—I could take one route suggested by an Expedia search: instead of going west, go east on Air France, connecting in Paris and Bangkok. The layover in Paris is seven hours (I could go into town, eh?), jacking up the total journey time including connections to thirty hours. Yikes. But it does also open the possibility of mixing itineraries and just continuing east on the return as well, in effect circumnavigating the globe. (Rajani’s response: “You do know it’s been done before, right?” Silly girl. People don’t stop trying to climb Everest, do they?) The airfare on that would probably be astronomical, perhaps even more than a negotiated round-the-world fare. Anyway. It’s a thought.
Back to the maps. I have visited fifteen states, including D.C. (The District of Columbia is not a state—though it should be!—but that’s a debate for another time.) As you can tell from the map, with its patches of visited states scattered and isolated here and there, most of my interstate travel has been by plane. I haven’t been on many road trips, at least not very long ones. The last few I’ve taken were within California.
Another mapping website I like is the Great Circle Mapper, which tracks flight paths. I’ve created a map that displays most of the flights I’ve taken, not showing connections. Pretty cool, eh?
Where next?