Places I Remember with Lea Lane

1st Anniversary Of Places I Remember! Lea's Sons Interview HER About Travel, Memories

March 01, 2022 Randall and Cary Lane share fun family travels and interview their mom, Lea, in a free-wheeling and personal milestone episode. Season 1 Episode 53
Places I Remember with Lea Lane
1st Anniversary Of Places I Remember! Lea's Sons Interview HER About Travel, Memories
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Celebrating the First Anniversary of Places I Remember with Lea Lane calls for something special, and so the tables are turned as Lea's sons, Randall Lane and Cary Lane, interview her.

They first all share fun and funny tales of family travels together in London, Iceland, Italy and Scandinavia, skiing,  and more. And then the guys ask Lea cool questions about travel, the podcast and personal thoughts on life.

By the end of this episode you will have shared laughs and interesting info, and you will get to know Lea better -- as a person and a mom as well as a traveler and podcast host.

Here's to another great year ahead for Places I Remember!
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Randall Lane is Chief Content Officer of Forbes Media. You can hear more about his travels in Episodes 14 and 15.
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Dr. Cary Lane is a professor and forensic artist. Cary curates exhibits at the Kupferberg Holocaust Center in Queens, NY. The current one, available virtually at the moment, is The Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide.  You can hear more about his travels in Episode 18.
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Podcast host Lea Lane blogs at forbes.com, has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to many guidebooks.

Contact Lea 
@lealane on Twitter; PlacesIRememberLeaLane on Insta; on  Facebook, it's Places I Remember with Lea Lane. Website: placesirememberlealane.com

New episodes drop every other week, on Tuesdays. Please follow, rate and review this award-winning travel podcast!

 

*Transcript edited for clarity.

Lea Lane  0:04 
Hi, I'm Lea Lane, an award-winning travel writer and author of Places I Remember: Tales, Truths, Delights from 100 Countries. On this podcast, we share conversations with travelers about fascinating destinations and memorable experiences around the world.

Lea Lane  0:23 
So it happens to be our first anniversary of Places I Remember, and I've heard from listeners with questions about me. It's been a great year. We are now in 110 countries, 2000 cities, we've won awards. I'm even on a radio streaming network, and I just love it. But to celebrate, I thought I'd turn the tables and get interviewed myself, and who better than my sons. My oldest son, Randall, is Chief Content Officer of Forbes Media. You heard about some of his exploits in episodes 15 and 14. And my younger son, Cary, is an artist, professor and museum curator. His latest exhibition is Concentration Camps. It's virtual, from the Kupferberg, Holocaust Center in Queens, New York. Anyway, they'll make very good interviewers.

Lea Lane  1:12 
Let me first ask you, though, we've been on some fun family trips, and I just wanted to talk a little bit about what makes a good family trip. Do you have any suggestions on that in terms of what you liked when we were traveling?

Randall Lane  1:25 
Well, we went to Miami a lot, because that's where family was. And every day there was a activity or an adventure, like even if we were just doing the same thing through the day or something at night, or if we were doing something today, maybe we'd hang out at night. But I always felt like every day there was something to look forward to. I try to do that now with my own kids.

Lea Lane  1:44 
Yeah, I think it's always nice to have something to look forward to. And I think compromise is one of the things to think about. Something that you might enjoy as an adult might not be something that a child would enjoy as much. So you want to plan it, maybe, and leave some surprises. Keep your sense of humor as well. What do you think, Cary?

Cary Lane  2:02 
I think having a mother who is a travel writer, is a really different and cool thing when you're growing up. When your friends are doing conventional things, or conventional travel, it was a really fun thing to be exposed to different cultures and different foods and different experiences at an early age. And I think that certainly helped shape our outlook in terms of as we got older, in terms of our embracing diversity and things like this.

Lea Lane  2:30 
I hope so. I certainly tried when I traveled to come back with some recipes that were interesting, that maybe you didn't like so much when you were little, but I think both of you are foodies now, so it probably helped.

Cary Lane  2:43 
Yeah, like when our friends were feeding Wonderbread and chicken nuggets, we were, you know, eating couscous out of a tagine,  so I think there's, there's value in that.

Lea Lane  2:55 
I hope so. Well, we went on some interesting trips. One of the earliest, which you remember maybe a tiny bit, I know Rand does, was to Iceland, when we were living in England. We went there through Iceland, IcelandAir was giving a big deal, a big promotional deal. You could go to Iceland in the '70s for free for a couple of days because nobody was going there. I had never thought of going there, was on our way to Luxembourg. So we stopped over there and it was like going to the moon. There were no tourists and very few hotels, and it was really something else. And you were very young but Rand remembered one thing. What was the thing you remembered from Iceland, Rand, that you've talked about since?

Randall Lane  3:35 
I remember looking down a giant pit into hell basically, which in retrospect was a geyser, but that just looked like infinity and, like you said, the most magical - I'm not sure scary or fantastical, but it was, you know, that's one of my,  if not my earliest, memory,

Lea Lane  3:55 
Right, you talked about the bubbling mud. That was the thing you kept talking about when I say, What do you remember? I think when you're low to the ground, you remember the ground, right? You don't look up as much. Later that year, we all went to Spain and Portugal, and we stayed in paradores and pousadas, which are gorgeous government-run lodgings. They were, now they're privately owned, but they rent castles and hotels, and I remember you guys hated it. You wanted to stay in motels. And we didn't compromise on that one. Some things you ...

Randall Lane  4:25 
We wanted a pool, I'm sure, you know, and air conditioning.

Lea Lane  4:29 
Yeah, I don't blame you on the air conditioning. But these were gorgeous places with moats and all kinds of things. But you said "not another castle!" I remember that was really funny. And another trip that I remember very vividly was a trip to Scandinavia. I've talked about this one a lot, and I've written about it. When we were in a VW pop top camper. We camped all around, and one time we were going in the Norwegian fjords and we went up to the harbor and we got on the ferry, And then we came back and we were getting off the ferry, except three of us didn't get off. Your father got off. But the three of us were, I was think I was tying your shoes and the ferry left, and your father was left on the ground, and we were going away and they wouldn't come back. So we went all the way around the fjord. And I didn't know if I'd ever see him again, because he didn't know what happened.

Randall Lane  5:26 
And that was before cell phones, right?

Lea Lane  5:28 
That was before cell phones. I had no diapers, no money, I had nothing with me. So the captain of the ferry gave you some candy. You had a good time, because you thought you were just having a little trip with candy. But I was scared. I thought I'd be a homeless lady in Oslo for the rest of my life with two children. But yay, your dad was at the harbor when we came back. So that was a memory I will not forget.

Lea Lane  5:52 
So, let's see. What about ski trips? We went on some interesting ones -- we were supposed to go on one to Austria when you were very little, and we were living in London. And we didn't go for a very strange reason. We were going to have a nanny come with us, to kind of help take care of you. And we were all set to go. But she at the last minute, said she could not go. And why was that? Because her mother couldn't find her eyeball. That's exactly what she said. I said, What do you mean? She said, Well, she was looking for my passport and her eyeball fell out. It was a prosthetic eyeball, and she can't find it, so she can't find my passport. So we canceled the trip. I do remember that as one of the oddest situations I've ever been in.

Randall Lane  6:39 
And an Olympic skiing career when not learning at a young age went downhill from there. History was changed that day.

Lea Lane  6:46 
Do you remember New Jersey? Do you remember when we tried to ski?

Cary Lane  6:50 
I remember New Jersey, and what I remember there was a Playboy Club in the Vernon Valley Lodge or something. I think you had worked out a deal with the Playboy Club and here was Randall and I, preteens in the Playboy Club having apres ski or something like that. And that was sort of interesting, and that sort of - we got a hint of like what your career was about. I don't know, I don't remember the skiing so much as the Playboy Club.

Lea Lane  7:21 
Oh, I remember the skiing. Do you remember it, Rand?

Randall Lane  7:25 
Yeah, they took us to the top and said, Go down. Actually, that ski resort was the same place where Action Park, was, Vernon Valley, Great Gorge. And they've since made a documentary about that place, about how little rules and regulation there was there, which I think was fitting because I remember them saying "Okay, you're ready." We went to the top and they're like, Okay. We didn't know what we were doing. I thought that first time skiing the way you're supposed to stop is to fall, you're just either skiing or falling.

Lea Lane  7:56 
Right, we went straight.

Cary Lane  7:57 
I think like, I was on a chairlift and I saw Rand flying down the hill, and he was doing, I thought he was doing so well for a beginner, but he was out of control. But it didn't look like he was out of control from the chairlift.

Randall Lane  8:13 
I think nothing has changed. You know?

Lea Lane  8:16 
No, I I think actually, I remember on the chairlift, we fell off the chairlift. I remember that, we just fell off of it. And then we went straight down, straight down. And I remember stopping when I hit somebody. It was awful. That was our first ski trip.

Randall Lane  8:32 
New Jersey is not Austria!

Cary Lane  8:35 
And it wasn't exactly fluffy powder. There was a lot of ice. So when you fell, you knew it.

Lea Lane  8:42 
Right? And then we got a little bit better. I remember, Rand wrote a postcard to his grandmother. Do you remember what you said on the postcard about our skiing trip? It sort of summed up our abilities. I remember.

Randall Lane  8:55 
I wrote Cary and I were doing well, and you guys were not doing as well.

Lea Lane  8:59 
Right, you said, You stink. Well, we were taller than you. It's harder when you're taller. Anyway, ski trips are fun for a family. And then you guys got really good and you went on the black diamonds. And it's a good thing to go on a family trip like that, because children can learn how good they can be. And it's a very interesting experience when that happens.

Randall Lane  9:19 
As you get older, you need to, you know, you need to push, especially teenagers, right? I have two teenagers now, of course, and you need to push them a little to keep them engaged. You can't do the same thing. I think you guys did that with us and it was good. You know, the thing I liked about skiing and ski trips a lot for kids, I mean, it's a lifelong skill that, if you don't learn when you're younger, it's very hard, as you and Dad demonstrated.

Lea Lane  9:46 
Yes, yes, especially he did because he was 6'5", so it was hard. He's farther from the ground. We'll give him that. Now, do you remember the trip I took with you to Italy? We went as a family. It was a budget trip, and we did it last minute in the summer. And do you remember? I don't know if you remember why we did it, but I had a purpose in mind. Rand, do you remember what that was?

Randall Lane  10:11 
You were trying to keep me off the football team.

Lea Lane  10:12 
Yes.

Randall Lane  10:14 
You never said that, but I figured it out years later. Yeah. Well, no, I don't have concussion- related injuries. Plus I know Italy better.

Lea Lane  10:24 
So exactly. That was what I was thinking. Do you guys remember what you were doing mostly on that trip?

Randall Lane  10:30 
Eating?

Lea Lane  10:31 
Eating, yes. And you were looking at bell towers and climbing them. Because you guys didn't want to go in the museums. So we were very flexible. We said okay, stay by the bell tower, you can climb it and feed the pigeons and we'll go in the museum. It worked out okay. I don't know today, if I would do that, but it worked very well and you were happy. We were happy. And you had a lot of gelato. You remember the type you liked, Cary? I remember we used to say it afterwards, the flavor.

Cary Lane  10:57 
Yeah, cantaloupe.

Lea Lane  10:59 
Cantaloupe, exactly.

Cary Lane  11:00 
That's when you like, we discovered that food can be good. Really, really good. Ice cream can actually taste like the flavor was meant to be and you can get a really good meal at a one star hotel. And for Randall and I, we sort of, our culinary sense was awoken, you know, with such wonderful flavors of Italy, you know,

Lea Lane  11:23 
I think so. I think travel can open you to so many things, and one of them is food. So it's a pleasure. Now, through the years we've had family reunions, big birthdays in different places. We've met in Sarasota, in New Hampshire. Cary, we recently took a trip, I talked about it in Episode 18 with you to France and Belgium, to see the World War I and II sites. And then there are trips that go beyond the immediate family, there are grandma trips. I've taken Sabrina, my granddaughter, to Paris, I've taken my granddaughter, Chloe to Los Angeles. And these are fun. This is a wonderful way to bond and a lot of people like to go on trips that are planned. A lot of places, a lot of tours, now have grandparents' trips, but I'm going to recommend to do it on your own, because you get to stay and spend more time with the grandchild. It's a wonderful experience.

Randall Lane  12:14 
It's important when you're young, if you want to have a global outlook, you got to see the world, I think. So who traveled when they were young, are the ones who wind up engaging with the world when they're older, it's not 100%. But obviously it's a way big history.

Lea Lane  12:27 
Right, it whets your appetite for sure. And I didn't start traveling  I 'til was 22 on my honeymoon, actually. So it came late for me. What would you like to ask me, since you're interviewing me?

Randall Lane  12:39 
Go for it, Cary.

Cary Lane  12:40 
Well, well, why don't you tell us about the genesis of your interest in travel, even before you traveled. Is it something you thought about?

Lea Lane  12:51 
Well, I didn't travel much at all, and that's probably one of the things that, because I read a lot, I was a curious little girl. I would read about Heidi in Switzerland and Pippi Longstocking, and all these children all over the world. And I'd see pictures of beautiful mountains, I lived in Florida, it was flat. And it seemed so exciting and exotic. So I really always dreamed of traveling, and didn't get to start 'til I was on my honeymoon, as I mentioned, when I was 22 years old. And that really did it, because we drove around for two months in Europe. And boy, oh boy, did I get the travel bug on that one. Just wonderful, amazing things. I'll never forget it. When you're young, it all seems so romantically, superbly fabulous. It's a special feeling. So I think as you're older, and you know more, and you're a little bit less, I would say, naive, perhaps you can't quite match that. So it's nice to start young. But if you don't, if you start at any point, it's a wonderful thing. The first time is wonderful. I guess I was just reading a lot about it at first.

Randall Lane  14:00 
How did you then translate that into a career? I mean, how did you turn that love as a tourist to becoming a travel writer?

Lea Lane  14:07 
Right, well, I was a writer, you know, I was doing all sorts of writing. And at some point, I realized that people were actually making a living, writing about travel. They weren't making a lot of money, but they were having the most enriching life. And so I realized since I was a stay at home mom for a long time, I was a freelance writer, and it was at home, I thought, well, I can have probably a career in, you know, nine to five so easily later in my life. But when you guys got a little bit older, and I was able to do it, I started to do travel writing, I did it locally at first and then, of course, if you do it well, people will notice it and you keep doing it and it's just wonderful. And that's how I got to see so many places. When you guys were grown up, in college and so forth. I was really going there, I was divorced at the time and traveling all the time. And I just loved it, I had a lot of energy. I think if you do it early, take advantage of it. Don't wait too long if you have the opportunity. Do the hard things first, because later on, it isn't so easy. That works. And so, it just became something, I loved, it was always something I enjoyed doing and was blessed to do. And I'm always grateful for it.

Cary Lane  15:26 
It really does seem like a dream job. And I think it's perceived as such. Are there any downsides to being a travel writer in your experience?

Lea Lane  15:35 
Well, as I mentioned, you don't get paid a lot. That's one of the things. People feel, if you get to do such a nice thing, that you don't have to be rewarded with money. So you have to accept that. Many people have another job, or they do other things on, you know, weekends or something like that. So that you have to accept, and if you do accept that, it's mainly just a lot of rushing. I'm not going to complain about it. I don't like hearing when, like, movie stars complain about always being noticed or something like that. That sounds, you know, too bad. I'm not complaining. I think it's just a lot of fast stuff. You have to have energy, you have to be quick on your feet. You have to accept, you know, changes and be open-minded. If you're not open-minded, don't do it, because a lot of times you're uncomfortable. Sometimes when you're traveling on a job, you're not going where you would want to go otherwise, you're in a little plane with bandages on it. I was once on a plane with tape. I could see the duct tape, I think it was duct tape, on the wing. But what could I do? I had to go to the place I was supposed to go to, and I thought, What am I doing here? I'm a housewife from Westchester County, New York, I shouldn't be in the middle of the jungle on a plane with bandages on it. But you get through it, and it makes you an open-minded and more resourceful person, perhaps?

Randall Lane  16:56 
So what's the most memorable story you've written?

Lea Lane  16:59 
The most memorable story, well, I've written a lot of stories over the years. I've been around a long time,

Randall Lane  17:05 
But only one can be the most memorable.

Lea Lane  17:07 
Well, the one that everybody loves, it's very short, but it is memorable, is when I was in Malawi. And I was with a press group, and we were at a government function. We were talking with them about how they could improve their tourism because they have a beautiful lake there. But it's a landlocked country, and they really didn't have any tourism. And, you know, we were discussing the fact that there were no road signs, and I asked why. And they said, well, people take them to build their homes. So it was a very poor country. This was about 20 years ago. It still is, but at the time, it had very little infrastructure for travel.

Lea Lane  17:47 
Anyway, I was trying to be a good visitor. And so they had a dance situation there, and I don't like to join in with dancing, I'm not very good. But they said, Oh, come dance, come up and dance with the person on the stage. I said, Oh, all right. So I went up, and I followed the dancer, and he would make movements with his hands and make movements with his feet. And I would follow what he did. And everybody was clapping and laughing and having a wonderful time. I thought, This is unusual, I wasn't that good. So I went back down to the audience. And I said, Why are you clapping and laughing so much? I mean, I was just trying to do, you know, a little bit. They said, Well, you two are now married. Your name is Ingunda. I thought. Okay. And then the bad part is, he never calls and he never writes.

Randall Lane  18:41 
Terrible.

Lea Lane  18:41 
Yeah. So that was, I mean, that's a very short story, but it's gotten a lot of attention.

Randall Lane  18:48 
You know, those are the unexpected. It's always unexpected, right? It's not what's in the itinerary, what happens.

Lea Lane  18:58 
Exactly, that's one of the most wonderful things about travel, you're very alert to everything. And there's so much that is unexpected. Much of it is great. And sometimes you get married.

Cary Lane  19:09 
I think that's one of your best traits as a traveler, and then travel writers, your sense of adventure, and you're always talking about the distinction between traveling and tourism. But sometimes a sense of adventure can get you into sticky situations, like you're saying, Is there a least favorite place you visited, on that note?

Lea Lane  19:29 
Well, there was a least favorite experience, when we were in the pirate zone. We were on a ship and we were traveling.

Randall Lane  19:37 
What was the pirate zone? Like the Barbary Coast or something?

Lea Lane  19:41 
Yeah, exactly, it's in the ocean between India and East Africa.

Randall Lane  19:49 
Like Captain Roberts there.

Lea Lane  19:51 
Yes, right. Captain Phillips. Well, they didn't show that on the screen in the cruise. But anyway, we knew we were going to have to go, there was a fabulous itinerary. it was a trip from Dubai to Cape Town. So the itinerary was to die for, and I didn't want to literally die for. So I didn't realize that we would be in the pirate zone for two weeks. And during that time, we had to turn all our lights off, and they turn the lights off on the ship, you know, outside. You couldn't go out, and they had pirate drills. And they talked about pirates all the time. And people were walking around, going "Aargh, aargh" and all that. We were trying to make fun of it. But it didn't feel so good, because that very ship we were on, had been assaulted, I guess, by pirates. And there was even little gun shots. You could see the holes in the ship later, we noticed that. That was probably my least favorite experience. But my favorite experiences was getting out of the pirate zone. That felt great. Yeah, it was a little exciting. I didn't realize, a lot of people didn't take the trip because it was a fantastic itinerary, but they did not want that experience. But of course, I said it was worth the risk. And I think it was, because there were no pirates.

Cary Lane  21:04 
So sometimes your most scariest trips can also be the most satisfying.

Lea Lane  21:09 
Yeah, I think so. There's always a yin and yang. So when you get through something, as you guys know, if you succeed, it's a wonderful feeling, even if it wouldn't feel so good while you're going through it. I'm not always such a risk taker. There was a volcano erupting in Iceland, and we were driving around and decided to come back to Reykjavik and not keep going toward where the volcano was, and I think that was a good idea. I mean, some people were wanting to see it and everything, but I didn't think it was a good idea. So sometimes you just trust your gut and your head. And sometimes you take the chance. It's up to you, you have to trust yourself, too.

Randall Lane  21:47 
Is there a place on your hit list that you haven't been to, that you want to get to?

Lea Lane  21:51 
Oh, I'd love to see the gorillas in Rwanda or Uganda. I'm a big fan of gorillas ever since I followed KoKo, you know, the wonderful gorilla who knew 1000 words and understood about 2000 words. And I followed her and just learned about these wonderful animals. And I've always wanted to go, but it's an upland situation, these altitudes very high, I can't do it anymore. So this is a good lesson. If you really want something, try to do it early, prioritize it, so you can get to it early when you can do it. But I go to zoos. And by the way, the Bronx Zoo is the best one for gorillas. That's pretty well known. But that would be where I'd like to go, where I would have liked to have gone.

Cary Lane  22:32 
So this is the first anniversary of your podcast. Congratulations. And why did you start the podcast? And then what does it entail?

Lea Lane  22:44 
Well, I started it because I couldn't travel, we were all locked down. And I had just recovered from a very bad case of COVID and some other medical stuff, and I was not feeling well for a while. And then I started to feel better, and I realized I couldn't go anywhere, and that was really unusual. And I though, Gee, there's another way I can think about travel and enjoy it. And that's talking about it. And I have met so many wonderful people over the years, and it was a wonderful chance to reacquaint myself with them, and to research, and to enjoy travel in another way. And I think people have done that virtually, are reading about travel, listening to podcasts. And until they can travel again, they're filling their travel tank with that. So I started it because I couldn't travel. And I love it. I love talking about it, I find vicarious pleasure in it. And talking about the memories. What does it entail? Well, it's a lot of work for me. One episode takes me about a week's time because I have to set up the guests and so forth. And I love to research. So it's a good thing, because I do a lot of research when I speak to people. And then you record, and then you edit. I edit with my producer, Greg. And then after that, the part I don't like the most is marketing it, because if no one knows about it, what's the point? So you have to market a lot. So it takes about a week's time for each episode, but you have to love it. And for me it's a passion project. Some people do it to monetize, I do it because I love doing it.

Randall Lane  24:16 
The best way to market is just word of mouth and so, obviously,everyone listening here, you've got fans. What is it about travel, that means the most to you, I guess spiritually. I think that's probably what draws people to this podcast is, like you said, the ability especially in the times we're in, to travel and to live just by listening, you know. What means the most to you?

Lea Lane  24:38 
I think, well, learning how we're all special. We're all different, but we're all the same. Visiting history, seeing history, learning from it, you know, seeing the battlefields, and if you don't go out of this country you're in, whatever country it may be, you don't get to feel the whole world. And I think when you see the beauty of the world, you see the unusual animals and their habitats, you get to be a better person because you are more open-minded and more open to the world. And I'm so grateful that I have had this experience, I think it's made me a much better person, for sure. It's enjoyable, of course, it's exciting. Your senses are very acute. But mainly you become a better person. That's what I think.

Cary Lane  25:23 
On that vein is like, staying on this sort of philosophical aspect to travel. I mean, you've been to so many countries, seen so many different people, had so many different experiences, is there a unifying quality that encompasses these diverse experiences?

Lea Lane  25:40 
Well, I think we have to be tolerant and open-minded and appreciative of everyone, we're all special, every single one of us. And the more you travel, the more you realize it, from the poorest person in a village, who, as I spoke about, in another episode, who was a poet, she brought beautiful poetry to me. And you would never know. It's just, it makes you realize that we are all special. As I said before, it opens your mind. My wish would be that everyone could get out of their own country for a little while, at least, to see that. I think we'd be a much more peaceful world if we were able all to do that. And to understand that we are all similar. We all have dreams, and we all have love. I think in, you know, difficult times, it helps to remember that we are all special. Anyway (laughs).

Cary Lane  26:39 
I think that's why your podcast is so successful, because you're expanding the notion of what travel is, and then you're contextualizing it to humanity, you know. It's not just about visiting the Wailing Wall, it's about the significance of humanity and how does the Wailing Wall fit into that? So that's what makes your podcast so special.

Lea Lane  27:01 
Well, thank you. You're a little bit on my side there. But thank you. I think you get refreshment, you get enlightenment, you get enjoyment, what's not to like? Come on.

Randall Lane  27:16 
Well, the name of the podcast, you know, it's Places I Remember. You mentioned an experience. But what's a place? What's the most special place that you remember?

Lea Lane  27:28 
Well, it's very hard, but one of them was the Galapagos Islands. Because you see creatures there, you've never seen anywhere else. They all are getting along in, you know, their own capacity. That's their world, you are a visitor, you have to be very quiet and come into their world. Similar to Antarctica, same thing where you come into a place where you are not the main thing, you are a visitor and you feel it. You feel the grandeur of the world. It isn't just about the people. It's also about the creatures of the world. And I feel, when I go to those places, I feel the most humble, the most grateful, and the most blessed, that I'm able to be here to do this. And I hope people can try to go to places where there are animals in their environments. It's just mind blowing. And I recommend that as a wonderful family trip. We'll go back to family, if you can bring young people and see that, it's a wonderful thing to see at an early age. So I think memorable would be my trips with animals.

Anyway, our one year anniversary episode was fun. I want to thank you, my sons Randall and Cary Lane for not only this interview, but for being men who are doing good in the world with open minds and hearts. So, I'm proud of both of you.

Randall Lane  28:46 
Congratulations.

Lea Lane  28:47 
Thank you. I love you. And I hope you get to travel. Yeah, I hope you get to travel at least as long as I've been traveling, in your life.

Randall Lane  28:54 
Well, you know, a hundred countries, that's the goal. If you could do it, we can do it.

Lea Lane  29:05 
Thanks for sharing travel memories with us. My book, Places I Remember is available on Amazon and at bookstores, in print, on Kindle, and I read the audio version. Please subscribe to this podcast and consider giving us a review. Until next time, join us wherever in the world we're going.


Remembering family travel in Miami, Iceland, Spain/Portugal, Scandinavia
Ski trips, from Austria to New Jersey!
A family trip to Italy -- for a purpose
Family reunions, 'grandma trips'
Interviewing Lea about her career, her feelings about travel, her faves and least faves, most memorable stories, what means the most -- up close and personal