| My grandmother called them "Gullibles Travels". These | | | | hearing the theme music from "Jaws". It's just a movie, |
| were trips Americans took to other countries before | | | | says my husband. There are only four or five shark |
| they saw America. She wanted Americans to see the | | | | attacks a year, says my husband. In LA he thinks I |
| treasures in their own backyards. | | | | should watch out for two-legged sharks. |
| When I lived outside New York City, the United Nations, | | | | My husband and I share the driving when we travel by |
| the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were treasures. | | | | car, but I prefer seeing America by ship. The coast of |
| Now I live in Los Angeles; and the treasures are | | | | Maine, the inland waterway from Rhode Island to |
| Rodeo Drive, Mann's Chinese Theater and the | | | | Florida, the Erie Canal, Alaska and Hawaii - when we |
| Hollywood sign - more histrionics than history. | | | | cruise, we don't get stuck in traffic; and we don't have |
| My personal history started in New England with its | | | | to find places to pull over to take pictures. John will sail, |
| white, colonial churches; red barns; and fall foliage. We | | | | but he's not sold that it's better than driving. At Motel 6 |
| don't have fall foliage in LA - we have palm trees. As I | | | | you don't have to dress for dinner. |
| child I only saw palm trees when we vacationed in | | | | There's no dressing for dinner on planes, but you can't |
| Florida. Palm trees said vacation to me then and they | | | | see much. I'm always on the wrong side when the |
| still do - when I stop and listen. With palm trees, | | | | captain points out the Mississippi River or the Grand |
| however, you don't have to stop and rake under them. | | | | Canyon. |
| That says vacation to my husband and sons. | | | | And then there's seeing the country by train. You can |
| As a child I was lulled to sleep by the sounds of the | | | | see lots of beautiful countryside by train, but in cities |
| Atlantic Ocean. As an adult I listen to the Pacific | | | | the tracks go through areas you don't want to see. My |
| Ocean when I can't sleep. I swam in the Atlantic as a | | | | sister travels by train, but she has acrophobia. What |
| child, but this adult doesn't swim in the Pacific. That's | | | | she wants to see most is the ground. |
| Steven Spielberg's fault. I can't go in the ocean without | | | | |