OH, THE PLACES YOU WILL GO — Sharon Mark Cohen

Isn’t the line I came up with for the title of this blog post the name of a Dr. Seuss book? While venturing into my husband’s retired study on the third floor of our house, a burgeoning display of the many souvenir cups we purchased along our travels caught my eye.

Since March, my husband has been working from home. He set up shop on the second floor in our younger son’s unused room. Our son is working from his apartment in New York City.

The thought of the cups and shot glasses drove me to create the title line here. After quickly writing down the words for my blog post and snapping a picture of a sizable portion of our collection of souvenir cups, I googled Dr. Seuss's books using the title I had written.

The description says, Oh, the Places You'll Go! is a book written and illustrated by children's author Dr. Seuss. The first publication of the classic was by Random House, January 22, 1990. It was his last book to be published during his lifetime. The book concerns, "The journey of life and its challenges.” Life and its challenges; that describes the year 2020 to a "t."

The Seuss book was published when our eldest child was just shy of two, three months before our second of three was born. Having grown up in the 1990s, will our three be unchastened by this mayhem? Since the start of the lockdown from the Coronavirus pandemic, it wasn’t until August, a few weeks after our second grandchild was born, that my husband and I finally started venturing out on short evening excursions.

Our forays started with an evening at Princeton University, and then Belmar, down the Jersey Shore. The following week it was to my husband’s alma mater, Rutgers-New Brunswick, where we walked by his old dormitories and reminisced. From there, I came up with the idea that short of travels out of state, we should discover every county in our native state of New Jersey.

Some of those evenings turned to venturing nearby and finding homemade ice cream parlors with an outdoor window to order and pickup. The first stand we stopped at across from the Belmar boardwalk was unappetizing when their four attendants all stood working with their masks pulled down under their mouths. Their casual civil disobedience caused us to take our business and appetite for ice cream elsewhere.

A burning desire to see the remaining five states, which I haven’t been to, which will require a repeat for me to Kansas so that my husband can join me in having seen all 50 states, was renewed last year by taking a trip to discover Oklahoma City. The pandemic rudely curtailed any future extravaganzas within the states.

The Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, and the state I’ve been most interested in since studying about whale blubber in grammar school, Alaska, will be even more exciting to see when things open up. Other countries we wish to tour are also on hold. Plus, trips to visit family in California and other states are out of the question during the raging pandemic. For now, we can dream about those travels.

We are left to ponder what to do. Where will we go in 2021? It’s a curious thing with the way of the world. For now, the change of seasons in our native New Jersey will be our vacation.

This “home-time” gave me the chance to wash all those souvenir cups and shot glasses, with many others that won’t fit on that shelf, and discuss our fun adventures. Then came the impetus to organize our thousands of photographs.

The most exciting part was rehashing the places we’ve been all over the country and the world. I sent our children copies of many, probably too many, pictures on WhatsApp so that they could enjoy a recap of their youths. They could also see highlights of some of the trips my husband and I talked about having taken before they were born, and we could continue to share the good times. I posted a minor sprinkling of the pictures below for anyone to see.

Here I am with my mother and Judd and Rina at Disneyland in Anaheim, California 1990 — Here I am with my mother,Judd and Rina at Disneyland in Anaheim, California 1990. We visited Disney so many times with the children that they voted not to go there on other family vacations.

Here I am at Tokyo Disneyland in Japan = 1986

My husband Arnee and Amtrak train conductor Julius at stop on our trip from Denver to Oakland, California, in Salt Lake City, Utah 1987 From San Francisco, we re-boarded and traveled by Amtrak to Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, before f… — My husband Arnee and Amtrak train conductor Julius at stop on our trip from Denver to Oakland, California, in Salt Lake City, Utah 1987 From San Francisco, we re-boarded and traveled by Amtrak to Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, before flying home to New Jersey.

One of many pictures on a merry-go-round — this one with Judd, Sharon and Rina

Belmar Beach New Jersey 2003 Annual outing

Philadelphia Zoo 1995 Rina, Judd, and Moss

Moss co-piloting our friend’s airplane with my brother Al and Arnee as passengers with me (photographing)

Judd relaxing on cousin Larry’s sailboat

Hot Air Balloon Ride (Sharon far left to the right of Arnee) Steamboat Springs, Colorado

Another merry-go=round ride, this time with Moss, too. Below, Judd (right) rock climbing

Rina, Moss, Judd Wisconsin near the Dells

Hershey Park Arnee with Rina, Moss, and Judd

Judd and Rina one of the few times we visited the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in California

Hiking at Kaaterskills Falls with cousins