Israel is one of the most historic places on Earth with evidence of human habitation going back thousands of years. It is a place in which two major world religions developed and that a third regards as holy. It is also one of the most contested regions in the world with two groups claiming nominal sovereignty over the entirety of the area and numerous wars fought over it.

After nearly seven years away, I finally found my way back to Europe and my favorite city: London. I was not in London for all too long, however, being that I was planning on visiting a number of different places during my Spring Break, but I still had to spend a couple of days in the British capital.

During the Fall of 2015, I took two separate trips up to the Pacific Northwest—both for, you guessed it, football games. Early in the Fall, I went up to Seattle for the third straight time to watch the University of California take on the University of Washington, but unlike the previous two visits, California finally came out on top. Later, I went to a game in Eugene, and Cal ended up losing that one.

Even though the US Virgin Islands are between 40 and 50 miles away from Puerto Rico and are both part of the same country, they might as well be a world apart. Puerto Rico’s first language is Spanish and most people are of European ancestry while the US Virgin Islands speak English and are Afro-Caribbean. Even though they are culturally distinct, they do share the same beautiful tropical setting.

For our family vacation in 2015, we decided to head on down to the Caribbean and explore the two US territories there: Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Despite being so close, the two are culturally, linguistically, and politically distinct. Anyway, our first stop was Puerto Rico, the largest US territory (by far), and candidate for 51st state.

During the non-conference basketball schedule for the University of California, they had a road game scheduled at UC Santa Barbara. Because of this, I decided to go to the game to see an easy win (let’s not talk about the actual score), and then enjoy the drive down the coast from where I was living at the time in Pacifica.

During her middle school years and into high school, my sister played ice hockey and participated in a few travel teams that would go to a number of different places around the country. She had gone to Alaska, Michigan, Florida, and other places, but when a trip to Massachusetts was planned, I decided to take time off of work and go on the trip as well.

In 2013, the hockey and baseball schedules lined up in a way that had the Ducks playing in Vancouver against the Canucks while the Angels were playing down in Seattle. So, as any good sports fan would do, I booked a trip! This also was the first (and as of this writing), the only time I have ever been to Canada.