First of all, I'd like to welcome you if you're new to my world -- a world of discovery, learning, adventure...and curiosity.
As I write this, my wife and I are at Dallas Love Field on a layover, headed back home to Nashville from our adventure to the Northwest. (I wrote about our first ever Amtrak trip here.) We feel full, sated -- and yet wanting more. The trip was so full of discovery, of learning about a part of the country where we had never spent any time to speak of, and of reconnecting with friends that are now dearer than ever.
Now I am certainly not one to knock soaking up the sun on a beach with a good book. But I find I return home so much more enriched -- my soul so much more fed -- when I have learned something I didn't know about my destination. Something about the people who live there and the people who used to live there, both in recorded history and earlier. The latter is not always easy; but wherever you go in North America, you can pretty much assume that it was either occupied by indigenous people or it was their hunting grounds. (More on that in a future edition of the Wayfarer.)
The key to this sense of enrichment is curiosity. It is this curiosity that drives me, more of an introvert than an extravert, to ask questions wherever I am. I generally find people more than receptive to those questions and happy to talk about their home territory, wherever that may be.
This trip took us to the vibrant city of Seattle, as well as two national parks -- Mt. Rainier and Olympic -- and an assortment of small towns and villages on the Olympic Peninsula, the Kitsap Peninsula, and Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands.
You can find lots of photos and stories of our adventures on both Facebook and Instagram.
Where is your curiosity going to take you next, now that travel restrictions are lifting? And in case you're wondering about World to the Wise Cultural Tours, we are concocting a plan that we're excited to tell you about -- stay tuned!
And...stay curious.