a pipe dream

Everyone has a favorite fantasy. And this is mine: one day embark on a year-long trip with the hubby and the kids in an exotic/historic place (top choices are Patagonia region in south Argentina, Salzkammergut in Austria, and the Karakoram in Pakistan), taking millions of photographs, explore the culture, study the people and write all about it à la National Geographic article.

I was so impressed with the two families I read about in my old National Geographic magazine- photographer husbands and writer wives and their kids leaving their home and setting out to a strange foreign place. One family joined a salt caravan in the Hindu Kush mountain range in Pakistan/Afghanistan with their 5 year-old son, and the other went to a really remote Gimi village in Papua New Guinea with their 5 year-old daughter and lived there for a year. They studied the culture and had the greatest adventure of their lives!

I was so enticed by it I have this long-time fervent dream to undertake a trip in the same manner. Travel into a notable but not a tourist-exploited place, traverse though a remarkable route not taken by a regular tourist, meet the people, eat the food, explore and experience the culture, and write a detailed, entertaining account of the whole adventure.

Fantastic. This is my everlasting fantasy. However, I'm not sure if we're cut out for such a rugged, bold and spirited adventure. For one thing, I'd lug a million things and I need a proper bathroom. While my hubby can be game with just his camera and an anti-insect spray, he would probably despise me for ALL the things I NEED to bring along. And probably we wouldn't last- we'd miss our bed by the second night :)

As fantastic but vain hope as this can be, I'm holding on to it. It is much too marvelous to be ever abandoned. I guess I am still hoping one day we could venture out something as impressive as my fantasy. But I believe we could start with something manageable at this time. Like going on a lighthouse hunt in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

For weeks we've been thinking about it and finally decided to go. And after being threatened by an impending storm heading towards the Carolinas yesterday, we've breathed easy today knowing the storm veered towards another direction. We wouldn't want to go to on our trip drenched in a storm.

We plan to drop by the first lighthouse in Corolla and hopefully we could go down to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton. Exploring the Outer Banks would be a wonderful adventure for us. It's historic, close to nature and a great opportunity to explore new things. So many photographs to take, so many fascinating stories to write.

We're so excited about it. Maybe after this trip, we can step up to something more energetic and elaborate. And who knows? Maybe one day, we could really go on my fantasy trip. It would be one spectacular tale to share..........