I know, I know, it's only February...

But I have been thinking lately a lot about my intentions for my first trip this summer once I have retired… (partly because I have to start making reservations and partly because it is just so exciting to think about!)

It will be a relatively local and short trip for me, just to DC and NJ on the East Coast and then to Nova Scotia. The East coast part will be to visit one of my cousins and an old friend from High School with whom I have reconnected thanks to Facebook. They are both named Barbara so I call that part the 2 Barbaras tour. Then I will head to Nova Scotia and that is where the intentions come in.

After a lot of searching on the Internet I found there were so many places I wanted to visit that I had to prioritize and figure out just what it was I wanted to see and do there. So I came up with these three things:

1. To listen to Celtic music and go to a few Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee and is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic/Celtic folk music and dancing). I absolutely love Celtic fiddle music.
2. To enjoy nature there and wander along a few beaches to find some sea glass, especially more rounded older pieces (and if I am lucky, in some of the less common colors.) I also want to see some puffins either from a boat tour off the northern part of Cape Breton Island or a more complicated trip to an island nesting site from New Brunswick. And speaking of nature... getting to see a sun rise from the Altantic, which is why I went to Nova Scotia the first time about 40 years ago!
3. To visit a few of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in as I like to do when I travel. I am focusing on a few in Nova Scotia but maybe I will also find some in DC and NJ for the East Coast part of the trip.

So just in the planning and dreaming stages... more to come.