My goodness. There are so many places on my travel "to do" list. I've never been to Asia, and there are a lot of places, from Singapore to Beijing to Bangkok to Tokyo I would love to visit. I want to see the pyramids. I want to go to Capetown, South Africa to see my friend Aly's home town. I really want to cruise the Greek Isles and visit Athens and the ruins at Ephesus. I want to see Machu Picchu in Peru. I want to see the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. I'd love to cruise up the Amazon. The list is endless. I love going to new places and learning about different cultures.

Domestically, I have been to thirty states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and resided in three: New York, Colorado and Florida. The number one US city still on my list of places to see is New Orleans. Some day I will get there, hopefully for the annual Jazz and Blues Festival.

We used to drive from Long Island to New Hampshire every summer to spend two weeks at a little cottage on a lake. My grandfather was a "gentleman farmer" in Lebanon, NH and I spent many Thanksgivings and Christmases on the farm.

When I was eight years old, my grandmother took me cross country, from Grand Central station in New York to Denver on a train, the Denver Zephyr. It was a lot of fun, we had our own stateroom and there was an elegant dining car with white linen tablecloths for meals. I sat in the observation car watching the country speed by for hours on end. We had a twelve hour layover in Chicago and I remember going to the Museum of Science and Industry. The trip took four days. This was the longest trip I took as a , and I suppose you could say it was my first experience with wanderlust.

I had the opportunity to go to Europe, all expenses paid, in my early twenties. I decided to get married instead. Big mistake! I didn't actually get to Europe until I was in my forties.

I was married to an airline stewardess. Since flying for us was virtually free, we traveled quite a bit. We lived in Buffalo, NY at the time and used to do crazy things like fly to Chicago or New York City for dinner and back the same night.

I live on the beach, so the idea of a beach vacation doesn't exactly thrill me. The same goes for cruising. I have been on dozens of cruises, almost always working, so they have lost a lot of their appeal. I would have to say my favorite kind of trip is one which happens spontaneously, whether it is a quick weekend drive to Key West or a last-minute flight to St. Thomas for a long weekend.

I'm not sure I have a favorite, but the most interesting was probably attending Carnaval (that's how they spell it) in Rio de Janeiro. I was expecting a New Orleans style Mardi Gras and it was nothing like that. The samba is like the national sport in Brazil. Every village and town has its own samba school. The schools compete throughout the year for the right to compete in Rio at Carnaval. It is their Super Bowl. The competition begins around midnight and lasts until eight in the morning for four days. It takes place on a street which is more like a stadium. It is a mile long, with grandstands, including luxury boxes on either side. Each of the final schools has numerous unbelievable floats and literally thousands of marchers in the most fantastic costumes (you've never seen so many feathers in one place in your life). It takes about an hour for one school to complete its march. The only way I could tell one school was finished and the next taking its place was when the music changed.

Other of my favorite places include Barcelona, Cartagena, Paris and Brugge, Belgium.

I've racked my brain to think of a least favorite place and cannot come up with one. I've always somehow been able to find some redemptive feature to every place I've been.