The L.A. Zoo and campgrounds are closed, playgrounds open.
Over the following weeks, as we traipsed through 100 museums, palaces, libraries and cathedrals, each stop pried open my mind a bit further. Travel had me. By the time we got back to California, I felt like a different person still pimpled and awkward, but now with a dash more savvy and emboldened curiosity, all invisible to the naked eye. And I understood that I would find no more entertaining way to be educated, no more educational way to be entertained.
Years after that initial voyage, when I saw a chance to earn a living by writing about travel, I didn’t hesitate.