Maps of Visitors

I enjoy looking at the ClustrMap of the visitors to my blog to get an idea of who is reading it. It intrigues me more to look at it to discover where people are from in locations that I've been to. It makes you realize that I've been to quite a few places, but there are even more places that I've never been to that I would like to go. 

I notice that someone from near Anchorage has visited. I wonder if I passed that person on the street last summer when we were there for a few days. We went to the 4th of July parade downtown and took in the fair at the park where the parade was scheduled to run through. Was this person sitting in his or her lawn chair at the edge of the street, or walking their dog through the park? (We stop everyone who has a dog to pet it and get kisses, especially since our beloved Golden Retriever, Cody, passed away last spring.) Maybe we sat next to him/her at the Glacier Brewhouse. It also looks like someone from Ketchikan or Juneau or Skagway also visited. Great towns with great character.

Someone from Hawaii has stopped in to take a look, too. Not from The Big Island, according to the map, but maybe Oahu or Kauai, my favorite island. Who knows, this visitor might be a Navy brat or Air Force kid, or a military person themself. Like my friend from college, John, whom I visited several times. He took me to the North Shore, to Hickam AFB to drink on the beach, to Diamondhead. Maybe I've walked the same path as this visitor.

Australia. Spent three months there in 1989. Loved it! I've had visitors from Sydney and Melbourne (pronounced "Mell-bun" to the uninitiated in Oz-speak). I hear that Glebe, where I stayed in a hostel and did some wild partying, is no longer a "safe" area of town. Too bad. I loved staying in Sydney, and had a great time visiting Circular Quay ("Key"), the Opera House, The Rocks (the old jailhouse area of Sydney), and the Coat Hanger (the Sydney Harbor Bridge). I didn't spend as much time in Melbourne, but did get to see the 12 Apostles (kinda ironic, now, isn't it?!!?!) on the Great Ocean Road west of Melbourne. I wanted to see an Aussie Rules Football game, which is played in the Melbourne area, but never got out to it. 

I've been to Israel, to Great Britain, to Vancouver. But I'm surprised, too, that I have not had visitors from other countries like Spain, where I honeymooned, Chile, where my wife's family is from, and more of the Caribbean Islands. There is one visitor from the Dominican Republic, but I've never been there. 

There are visitors from many places that I would love to go: Sweden; France; Italy; Germany; Thailand; Brazil; Costa Rica; Taiwan; India. Someday, when I do go, I know that I can ask these visitors for recommendations on places to visit and things to see, because we share an interest and maybe even a passion for similar things. I'm looking forward to hearing about all these places.