one place you would go back to again and again:
Argentina (see below).  More realistically, we repeatedly visit family in Italy and close family friends in Turkey.  There could be worse fates.  We love the cuisine in both countries, there are endless sights to see, and our family and friends are warm and welcoming (and lucky for us, they’re all wonderful cooks).  Our Turkish friends don’t speak English, so Google Translate has been our buddy.  Even so, we know our friends will say, “My daughter,” while hugging my husband, and they’ll call me their son.

place you’d most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Argentina.  There’s no reason not to go.  It is an interesting and lovely country, it’s cheap for North Americans right now, the food is totally satisfying, Buenos Aires is a design-y city, and it is much easier than some other South American countries.  One of our favorite days was spent at a gaucho festival in San Antonio de Areco, grilled beef sandwiches in one hand and surprisingly tasty juice-box style wine in the other, cheering on the cowboys while chatting with a family of young dancers.

Argentina San Antonio gauchos

place you’ve never been but dying to go:
Scandinavia.  We always say we’ll go there when we find our benefactors.

Pemba Zanzibar

place you’d never go back:
Zanzibar.  Not because we didn’t have a good time, but because it took six flights and 48 hours to reach our destination.  We spent most of our honeymoon on the island of Pemba, which made us feel absurdly fortunate, then a few days in Stone Town on Zanzibar Island.

Zanzibar

most memorable trip in 2 sentences or less:
During my four-month study abroad program in Germany when I was 19, I met my best friends, found out that different ways of doing things can be ok, drank more than my fair share, and took trips to Holland, the Czech Republic, Italy, and other German towns.  That opportunity cemented “travel” as one of my values and set me up for a lifetime of saving my pennies for the next voyage.

Yay, Bulgaria

how do you prepare for a trip?
I research the heck out of the place by dreamily reading guidebooks, travel blogs, and food blogs.  Then, I make rather exhaustive lists of sites, restaurants, and activities, sometimes coordinated with a map.  When we reach our destination, we bring the list with us but don’t worry one bit about sticking to it.  The list ensures we don’t miss anything by accident, but can choose what to skip in an informed way.  Also, when we reach that point of road-weary feet and hungry crankiness, I usually know where there’s a good cafe nearby.

Turkish breakfast

how do you record your travels when you’re traveling?
I maintain a travel journal, mainly jotting down what we did, who we visited, and what we ate.

Prosciutto di Parma tour

what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
Food, animals, funny signs, and odd (to me) bits of popular culture.  Of course, if we are visiting people, I always want photographs of them, too.

Nutmeg spice tour Zanzibar

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
Maybe 40 a day?  I pare them down each evening so it isn’t such a daunting task when we return home.

Windswept Paris dog

Olympic National Forest

what’s in your “designer travel kit” ?
My husband and I love to send silly watercolored postcards of our trips to family and friends back home, so we bring a tiny watercolor set.  We have a Canon Rebel T3i, which is a fantastic camera for those of us who aren’t “real” photographers.

Panama City view from Parque Natural Metropolitano

what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I usually make a Picasa web album right away and try to put together a physical album within 6 months.  My food photos go on my blog.  For our Panama trip, I spent about 6 weeks painting our travel photos.

Istanbul fish stall

Ice cream outside Hierapolis

Ephesus

favorite souvenir/thing to bring back?
Food–We grocery shop whenever we travel, and tend to bring home a suitcase full of jars, cans, and packets of edible mementos.  Even if we spend a few dollars more than we would at home, this suits us better than a tchotchke that sits on a shelf.  During our last trip to Italy, we scored a giant hunk of Parmigiano Reggiano and a special wedge-shaped tupperware container for it.  The TSA has taken just a few of our prizes, but let our 5 pounds of spaghetti and 10” diameter cheese ball through after inspection.

Loot from Turkey, Bulgaria, France, Italy