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The questions have already started: What did you like best?  Where will you go next?  Those who quiz me aren’t asking why I prefer Yosemite to Cairo - home is where the heart is - but what the stand-out memories of Egypt and Jordan and Israel are.  The short answer is that my favorite memories all seem to revolve around food.  No wonder I gained more than a few kilos. 

In Egypt, it was Luxor.  The pace was hectic in Cairo.  Luxor is someplace I could call home.  My first fine meal of traditional Egyptian food set the mood.  Drawing a top pick from the guide pool didn’t hurt.  There were huge crowds in the Valley of the Kings.  We were all alone in the Tombs of the Nobles.  The massive Karnak Temple was beyond belief and my guide always knew the best angle for the best picture.  We spent hours in spots that other tour guides ignored.

In Jordan, it was the Bedouin camp in the desert of Wadi Rum.  I’d asked my Jordanian guide if he thought the locals would mind if I wore the traditional robes and headdress I bought earlier that day to dinner.  He said they’d be insulted if I didn’t.  Dining and dancing with fellow travelers after touring alone, having a quiet bed in the cool desert and seeing all those stars brought things into focus.

And in Israel, it was the Galilee.  Breaking bread with my fellow travelers while gazing across the Sea of Galilee during lunch at a Kibbutz was serene beyond belief.  After the whirlwind tours in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, the Galilee was a little piece of heaven.  Sprinkle in the sights from Sunday school tales and all I could do was sigh.

Where next is a tougher question to answer.  I now have stamps from six continents in my passport.  Antarctica is the only one I haven’t visited, but it has no nation and therefore no customs stamp.  Some say Egypt doesn’t count as visiting Africa because it’s not sub-Saharan and that an African Safari is a must.  Others say Brazil doesn’t represent Latin South America because they speak Portuguese and not Spanish.  And still others say Southeast Asia better represents the peoples of Asia that say Japan or China. 

I say yes.  My Bucket List is only half full.  I’ve visited all fifty US states; why not fifty countries?  I’m more than half way there and there’s still Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat, Kashmir and Kathmandu, Northern Lights and Antarctic penguins, Bali and Bhutan, Istanbul and Paris.  No, I’ve never been to Paris. I’m saving Paris.  But that’s another story.