Okay so lately, there’s a thought I wrestle with every time I make plans to hit the road.

I feel like when I’m lucky enough to go out and explore, I ought to pick a destination I haven’t been to before. And I had this idea in mind when I planned my recent summer travels. But as with many such reasonable and practical notions that enter my brain –

I completely ignored it.

The thing is, I often feel this pull to touch base with places I’ve already been. Over the summer, that manifested in my returning to England for a theatre class, and to Oregon for – surprise, surprise – some theatre!

And I can’t seem to come up with any regrets about it.

For starters (and as always), London proved a wonderful home base not just for taking in plays, but for diving into history, art and nature in the off hours! Plus there were so many more lovely locales only a short hop away!

As I’ve been nattering about in recent posts, I did cover lots of new territory in and around London, both on my own and thanks to the planning prowess of fantastic fellow tourist, Kathy!

I also indulged in a few bus tours to areas farther out. And what did I do with all those novel options? Well, the first tour I chose covered two places I’d already been. Twice.

Yeah, it’s true my acquaintance with Stonehenge and with Bath goes all the way back to the 80’s. (Are kids really calling that “the late 1900’s” now? I mean it tracks, but dang it feels harsh…) Even so, I figured I had a chance to delve deeper this time. And I could take new photos that weren’t subject to my hit-and-miss ability to adjust a 1900’s camera’s manual settings for light and focus. So I happily boarded a bus and headed west-ish from London toward the Salisbury Plain!

My first encounter with Stonehenge had been brief, only amounting to what I could absorb while a kind local host slowed his car as we drove past. I connected more with the stones the second time – actually getting out of a local bus and wandering their perimeter until the next bus on the schedule pulled up. On both occasions, the Stonehenge I’d adored reading about in Mary Stewart novels as a kid was an imposing but still pretty much solitary historical presence among the fields.

This time, while I didn’t expect any change to what’s stood there in some form since the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, I knew English Heritage had done great work to provide more context! These days, visitors reserve a ticket in advance, park a short distance from the monument and take a quick shuttle ride to the site. Those arrangements were handled by my tour – but I think it would also have been pretty cool to opt for the half hour-ish walk from the parking lot (“car park” in local parlance) past Bronze Age burial mounds and across the open, ancient-looking landscape!

Beyond the iconic formation itself (and far away enough not to intrude), there’s now the Stonehenge Exhibition with archaeological finds from the area. And there’s a visitor’s center with mock-ups of Neolithic houses, and a possible solution as to how some of these humongous stones were transported from a long distance!

Theories are still being floated as to the full significance of Stonehenge beyond its alignment with the solstices. Maybe I’ve already said this, but my idea of going to Heaven one day is to return to the embrace of loved ones first and foremost – then to get answers to mysteries like this one!

That first time I breezed by these storied stones, I remember sadly feeling like I’d never pass that way again. But as the seasons of my life have turned and turned – and turned – it was grand to find myself in their majestic presence once again…

And yes – I’d been to Bath twice before as well (spoiled brat that I am). I’d sipped tea to the accompaniment of chamber music in the elegant Pump Room twice. And I’d tasted of the mineral-rich “healing waters” for which the town is famed. Um – just once for that was fine.

This time, though, I got to fuel an interest that developed after those visits! Since my curiosity about Ancient Rome has grown over the years, I was thrilled this time not just to view baths the Romans constructed during their several centuries’ rule over Britain, but to wander the adjacent museum full of info and artifacts, all of which had been assembled since I’d last stopped by!

Plus icing on this rich Bath cake was a tasting of meads and other libations crafted with the region’s local traditions in mind! When in Rome – or Roman Bath – why not drink as they did?!

Annnd as mentioned, I closed out my summer travels by heading up to Ashland, Oregon, to catch one of my favorite plays (Henry IV, Part 1) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival!

Rendezvousing with the folks for each Ashland season had been a long and cherished tradition. All through the 90’s and early 2000’s, we enjoyed fantastic theatre while marking changes to the area. Favorite restaurants and shops along North Main Street would change. A park statue of Abraham Lincoln would lose its head – then disappear altogether (only temporarily, perhaps!). And the beautiful valley view we enjoyed from the porch of our favorite hotel room would be obscured by a new hotel to which we’d eventually make a switch.

I made note on this latest (and poignantly solo) visit of more changes, including while on the kind of ramble through Lithia Park that Dad and I always took. There’s a beautiful Japanese garden now. And there’s the singular plock-ing sound as pickleballs are hit across courts (but not from kitchens) at the park’s upper end.

And the production was spectacular, of course! Decade after decade, OSF just nails it!

(I could make a huge digression here about how amazing it is that Shakespeare’s plays resonate so incredibly after all these centuries – and how as I stumble through my own life, their resonance for me continues to deepen.

But I won’t-eth.)

Truly, if I could’ve seen OSF shows with Mum and Dad over all those years while staying at the exact same place, dining at the exact same restaurants, and taking the exact same strolls, I’d absolutely have done it. It was just that special!

But I get that life doesn’t work that way. I know the sayings:

“Nothing endures but change.” (Heraclitus)

“You can’t go home again.” (Thomas Wolfe)

Fair play to them – I agree! Granted, there are still new places to which I hope to travel – but re-experiencing old haunts that, as they say, can’t help but change still feeds my soul.

And boy was my soul nourished this summer! Having seen Stonehenge through a different lens (literally and figuratively, both!), I learned even more about an ever astonishing piece of human history! In Bath, I fed my passion for a fascinating bygone age! And in Ashland, I made new memories while gently gathering up old ones that filled my heart with melancholy joy…

May all the roads you take be as nourishing – however many times you take them!

Remembering Karen Z who joined me for neighborhood strolls, and who watched this truncated tree change over the last few years – while her courage and grace never did once…

Cheers!