Translated (more added)

My Awesome & Beautiful & Multilingual Lady! ,

I'm just now getting home, so I had to Google a translation first thing. I'd heard the term "Manque" before, but couldn't place it. When I first saw your post I thought you were in Montreal! :) Then I thought, wait a minute, how could she have gotten there so fast. Also, school is about to start, and on top of everything else, something about the photo rang a bell; I was pretty sure I'd seen it before. So, I just now Googled "Manque" and the appropriate translation in your case is "to miss". And I know you visited Montreal last Summer on your trip to Canada. You know, my Dad loved Montreal. There he is again, Travellin' Dad. But yeah, he went to Montreal in 1969 as part of a trip for his company Deluxe Film Laboratories, and he talked about that city for years. He liked it even better than many European cities, including Paris. He once said, "if you are going to visit any city, go to Montreal", and I think your photo describes why in just a single frame: the quaint Old World charm.

So when are we going?  I'm ready whenever you are!  :):)

Right now I am gonna unwind for a few. It was super hot and muggy today, so I will wait a while for my walk, then go when the twilight turns purple/black, and I will walk through the Enchanted Grove just as the trees are waking up and the ducks are going to sleep. Then at the usual time I will come back and write some more.

I hope your day was awesome! You know mine was because of you.

I Love You..........

(back in a bit)

11pm : I was looking at Youtube videos of some Southern California back roads, ones that I've heard about all my life, like Angeles Crest Highway and Rim Of The World Drive. Angeles Crest actually begins in Pasadena (where the Rose Bowl is), so it's about 45 minutes away, and it heads up into the San Gabriel mountains and into the Angeles National Forest. Those look like major league drives, however, the kind where you are driving on cliffsides and the like. Once, my late friend Dave took Dad and I to Malibu beach by a road called Decker Canyon. The drive started out nice and scenic, but then when you get into the middle of those mountains you are driving very close to thousand foot drop offs, and on this occasion we hit a patch of dense fog, where you couldn't see much past the front of the car. I never forgot that ride, lol, and it made me think twice about ever taking the mountainous routes around here. But I will find some more moderately driveable ones and continue my excursions. I am thinking I would like to go up into Brown's Canyon, which is really close, only about six miles away. There used to be a nuclear missile site up there in the 1960s, and the relics are supposedly still there at the top of the mountain. There is, however, a big sign at the start of the canyon road that says "residents only", so I will have to decide if I want to chance it.

But I am having fun! If there is one thing we have around here, it's roads. Mostly, I will stick to non-mountainous driving (meaning I will stay out of the San Gabriels, at least until I have a four-wheel drive).

Thinking again about Montreal, another city my Dad loved was Barcelona. Boy did he talk about that. Barcelona and Montreal were his favorites. I think Dad got to see North Africa (Morrocco, Tunisia) during WW2, then up into Naples, then into Nancy, France. Then into occupied Germany after the war ended. Then as a civilian, in his career, he went to London, Barcelona, Montreal, New York.

I think, if I were picking my first travelling destinations, what I would do is break them down into categories. For pure tourism, I would certainly pick a European city. Rome? London? Paris? That would be a tough choice, and a lot of the choosing might come down to how I felt at the time of destination. London might have the edge, because of the Rock history, but then there are tours that take you to all those places.

If I were going for adventure, well......it would be one of the ancient sites we have recently been talking about. Probably Angkor Wat, because it has such significance and is more accessible than the South American sites. Still...........it would be hard to resist the call of Puma Punku.

Having never been a traveller, and never really having had the travel bug until recently, I used to think the ultimate adventure trip would be to Antarctica. Even if there is nothing to see or do there, besides look at the endless white ice, I always thought it would be a neat, one-time thing - to say you went to Antarctica.

Since I have never travelled, I also always thought I would love to drive across this country, and if I was going to do so, my main destination would be the midwest, because that is where my heritage lies. Northern Indiana, Cincinatti, Southern Michigan, Chicago. That's where my peeps come from. So that would be my cross-country drive of choice, stopping first in Wisconsin to pick you up.

And if I were going to drive local, or semi-local, in California, well, I see that a three day Palm Springs vacation can be had for just a few hundred bucks. San Francisco and San Diego aren't much more. And there are all kinds of towns and places in between.

It's really about the impulse, I think, and what is calling you.

And even more, it's who you are with.

Sharing the experience is what really makes the memories last.

I'll join you in Montreal.  :):)

Sweet Dreams, my Love. I'll see you in the morning.