"After you travel around the world, Uncle Tetan, the only place left will be the BLAST OFF to outer space!"

My seven year old nephew Johnathan has the flu. And he is really worried about H1N1. I called him before we left New York for Tokyo to tell him about our trip; but, his focus was a miserable fever. "I went t the doctor's office and there were lots of sick people coughing, and I did not want to get H1N1," he told me. "I am so scared. I just want to blast off into outer space."

Seven year old Johnathan thinks a lot about going to outerspace, just like his dad Noah, my brother. Johnathan reminded me of a conversation I had with Noah when he was still in college, "I'll bet," he said tome, "that I can visit space in my lifetime."

Noah and Johnathan think about science a lot. Johnathan's Mother Sharyl is a stroke scientist and researcher. Dinner table conversation can flip between the icky, the scary, the far out, and the sublime.

I got my nephew back down to earth by offering him the most tantalizing elements of our flight to Asia. First, that we were flying around the world and that our first stops were going to be Japan and China. "Oh my god," Johnathan exclaimed, "You are going to Japan and China and you are traveling around the world," long pause while he gathered himself, "After you travel around the world, Uncle Tetan, the only place left will be the BLAST OFF to outer space!" Promptly he had returned us to the pressing subject at hand. So, I offered Johnathan another tantalizing tidbit of travel temptation, "And guess what else Johnathan," I asked, "when you fly to Japan you get to fly over the Arctic."

"Oh my GOD!!" Johnathan gasped, You are going to fly over the North Pole!"

'Thank goodness for National Geographic Young Explorer,' I thought. And thanks to Christmas stories of Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty and the gang - I had his full attention.

One of the best attributes of travel is we separate from the day-to-day, the hamster wheel, the mundane. We gain perspective on what is important to us; and, when we find a special place, we remark to ourselves who would love it,why,and we bring our loved ones and their memory with us. My other niece and nephew, Abigail and Isaiah, both under two, will not miss that their uncle has absconded with their brand new Aunt Brittany for lands and peoples across the planet. Johnathan, however, can place us on his globe.

When I was a child all my grandparents, aunts and uncles, had lived and traveled abroad. My parents met in Germany. My mother's father courted my grandmother on a long trans-atlantic passage (she could not escape). When my father's parents returned from Africa and points beyond, they always brought some cool gifts representing the cultures they'd visited. Travel is infectious. Meeting new friends, exploring new places, and bringing our loved one's memories along with us all make the world smaller, more reachable, easier to unscramble, and more sympathetic. Brittany and I hope our time away can plant seeds for future generations to want to see the world in new and innovative ways. While we are so excited for our trip - Johnathan's plan to escape H1N1 by blasting off to outer space reminded us how the farthest places to reach are often reachable.

Footnote for Johnathan - Planes are SO COOL these days. On our plane across the top of the world, traveling more than 6000 miles from New York City to Tokyo, Japan there is a camera underneath the nose of the cockpit beneath the front of the plane. It is called a 'bird's-eye view' camera. It never fogs, even when the temperature outside was 80 degrees BELOW ZERO!! This camera is really cool. It takes a video of everything you are flying over. Because it wass winter, a lot of thee time it was just cloud tops. But, guess what?!! When we flew over the Arctic Ocean it was clear for hours and we could see the whole frozen ocean and the massive ice flows of winter with all the big cracks in them 40,000 feet below our plane. Of course, when you are flying that high you can't make out any polar bears, arctic fox, caribou, or musk ox, but it was fun for us. We really wish you had been there with us!! Lots of love to our nephews and niece from people who have flown across the top of the WORLD!!