New Year’s Travel Resolutions: LLG on the road

(Ha! A very rare LLG outfit pic. Does this count?!)

I don't think of myself as someone with a travel addiction. It's just that my magazine career has always involved a ludicrous amount of travel, so I don't think twice about hopping on planes, or living & working abroad for any amount of time. It also has a lot to do with being single, relinquishing my lease & putting all my junk into storage. Wireless internet helps too.

Living in America, with so many extraordinary places just a short flight away, has impressed on me the need to do some more exploring. I know I spent most of last year living out of a suitcase, but I only really got to know California and New Jersey well. Granted, California is the size of about six European countries stuck together, but I do feel a need to branch out…

Washington D.C. (Okay, I was there for the Inauguration but that doesn’t count. All I saw was the White House, POTUS’ motorcade and the AMTRAK station), Boston, The Hamptons, Philadelphia & upstate New York.
Why? Because I will hate myself if I find myself ever needing to move back to the UK having never visited any of these places which are practically on my Manhattan doorstep. And because C has threatened to lock her infants under the stairs in London and fly over to Boston for a long weekend of badness with me.

There will definitely be a Vancouver/Seattle/Portland road trip at some point. Probably on my own. I am quite anti-social.

Also: more Canada. Quebec seems like a good place to start. At least I speak their language. Which is often more than I can say for American English. And I can think of one good reason to visit Toronto. (You know who you are!)

Niagara Falls. I Greyhound-ed around and across America when I was 19. I’ve seen some extraordinary places, but I missed visiting Niagara when my travelling partner Caz & I split to see our respective sets of US relatives. Time to play catch up.

Marfa, Texas. Maybe with dearest Emily, who will probably need some serene art contemplation before or after wrangling musicians & their egos at SXSW.

Then there’s work travel. Ex the Americas there is vague talk of Shanghai & of the Dominican Republic for reviews & interviews. Where the Milan & Paris Collections are concerned, I’m in two minds. Last season I turned down one of those blogger front row seats at Dolce that Scott, Bryan & Garance enjoyed, as anonymity & front rows don’t go. This season: who knows? It wld feel weird being there as a blogger not as an editor, but I’m now not so averse…

As far as wishful thinking (because I'm fiscally challenged as per normal)) goes, I’m also contemplating Australian Fashion Week in Sydney in May, since I discovered my amazing antipodean readership, plus there is Caz’s new baby to prod…

And Cartagena in Columbia. And while I’m thinking below North America, I want to lie on a beach in the Caribbean, explore Chichen Itza, gaze at penguins in Chile, experience Mexico City and go hiking in Costa Rica.

Hurumph. It’s all pipe dreams right now. I’m still stuck in England. Sigh. I need proper Mexican food STAT.

Photograph by Judy, taken on the Jesusita Trail above Santa Barbara, CA. April 2009