I 'heart' Vacation

The bread in Germany is a favorite. Imagine a thick slice, toasted, dense with quality ingredients - where each bite delivers the taste of homemade. Pair the experience with real butter, marmelade from the farmer's market and an espresso and your taste buds have new life.

Capuccino's in Würzburg from an Italian owned cafe, to my surprise, a heart made in the milk

Seven hours spent at the thermal baths

Eleven books from the library and time to read each and every one

The art of German window displays

The silence inside Cathedrals

Morning walks by the river in Bamberg, just me and the returning birds

Snow, Sun, Rain and Gray skies all in one day

Dinner parties

Seeing hearts in the most unusual places

Green landscapes during winter

Sitting on park benches feeling the warm sun

Easter egg colored houses and lacey curtains

My nephew and his snap kiss, also him saying to me when we got off the phone "Goodbye My Heart" (He's Five!)

Alphabeticized List of Good Things, A - H, Travel Edition

Airports (I love the mystery. The coming and going. The take off's and landings. The gamble of who will sit next to you. People watching and making up stories about their lives)

Barack Obama (Seeing his face on TV, Magazines, Newspapers in each city/country I am in...strangely comforting and I get that "exhale" feeling. Dreaming he and I ate fresh baked bread together. His authentic vibe. Like that his number is 44)

Coffee (Strong coffee with cream and sugar from Jubilee in NYC. Many mornings drinking coffee with close friends and family -- shared ritual, one of my favorites)

Delta Dan (my brother, the pilot and the way he made me laugh when I was bumped up to first class for the international stretch of my flight, "Amy, play it cool. Repeat after me, "Look - I told you to sell those 10,000 shares!!")

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rostenthal ( "Amy - For awhile I wished my name was spelled Aimee; it seemed so much more original, innovative, so chock-full of vowels. I like that my name can spell May and Yam. When I was growing up, my parents would sing the old song "Once in Love with Amy." I always liked when they did that. In my dating years, the song was "Amie" by Pure Prairie Leauge. Boy: (singing) "Amie / What you wanna do?" I always liked that little serenade as well. The Japanese word amai means the feeling of being cherished and an expectation to be loved. The amygdala is the emotional center of the brain. People close to me call me Aim, and that feels affectionate and validating...")

First Class (Real pillows, down comforter, warm nuts, wine in a real glass, a seat that reclines, ice cream sundae, personal TV with the option to create a music playlist, champagne and a warm wash cloth)

Good Smells (Coconut Lait hand cream from Sephora. The skin of babies. Fresh washed hair. Dampness of Germany. Misty's FABULOUS dinner in Anchorage. Babbo Ristorante in NYC - a sensory feast. The city smell)

Hangover (well earned from: Stella Artois (drank in the correct glass), dancing, laughing - the uncontrollable giggling, one crown royal on ice sipped in a leather chair facing a brick wall, running into Josh Ritter at one am, the goodness of a group of women I love being in the same room, 4 am cab ride with the most polite/direct route cab driver)

Peripheral Magic

The napkin at Fletchers, Anchorage , Alaska

It is snowing. . .slow snowing, makes you feel like you you are swimming in a sea of stars if you look up long enough. I am in Anchorage tonight and it is the first day of a new month. I pushed out of Fairbanks on the last day of January, it was sixteen below. Today I hear the temperature is dipping to thirty - forty below in the Interior. I smile as I sit here in a city jacket without gloves, waiting for a plane to take me to Seattle - New York - then Germany. A six week trip to break up the winter.

My travels began by meeting up with dear friends to drink too much, dine well and listen to Josh Ritter play a show. He played old and new and a few for the first time. He played in the dark for a song and I could let the tears roll down my cheek in private -- the relief of leaving and the opening of my clenched fists. Sometimes we need to live a little in the dark to find the light.

It was just right and the perfect serenade sung to the start of a trip...

Running into Josh Ritter after the show, Anchorage, Alaska