By Ned Luce

You probably have a passport. It seems like everybody I know is traveling off to some exotic land requiring a passport to visit. Just within my family, our son was in Hamburg, Germany, on business this month with plans to head to France next month. The trip to France was canceled due to company expense concerns, but I am sure he will go there soon anyway due to the requirements of an international biotech business. He also tells me he has friends headed to Japan for an annual visit. BJ and my daughter were in Canada with BJ’s family skiing last week. Ahh, the good old days. She soon heads to Portugal for a week with some college pals. I have a grandson doing a “semester abroad” program in Scotland.

And then, I have a friend in Port Townsend who is partying in Mexico at this writing. There are other friends here in Port Ludlow on their way to a six-week cruise around South America. There are other folks from here who recently cruised the Amazon River, a trip shortly followed by a trip to Kenya. I see others who just returned from Nepal and Spain. Then there are several folks I know headed to Italy as well as Spain.

I have another friend currently spending three months in Ireland. Of course, there are lots of people taking advantage of the fine weather here in the Pacific Northwest and flying to the non-passport required islands of Hawaii.

What is causing all this travel? The current conventional wisdom is the pent-up demand for travel that was not accomplished during the pandemic is now being met with our built-in need to “get out of Dodge.” Heck, the bank will even loan you money against the increase in the value of your home to go travel. That is part of it for sure.

For whatever reason, the notion is we all seem to be much more frequent travelers than we were in the past. I offer as evidence the fact that today 43 percent of Americans now hold passports, as opposed to the 10 percent of us who held passports in 1994.

In case you think our interest in travel erodes as we age, give it up. The fact is that 46 percent of folks over 65 now hold passports. BJ and I have passports, but we seldom need them to go to lunch in Quilcene. OK, we did go to New Zealand last year and that did require our passports.

Back on the subject of lunch, I am thrilled to report there are now twice as many restaurants in the heart of Port Ludlow than there were two weeks ago. That Peetza Place has joined El Molcajete on the plaza in the middle of the always-buzzing commercial district in the village. It replaces the never-dependably-open Cocina pizza parlor.

The always-hungry poker players agreed that if the new pizza purveyors ever opened, we would get an example to share during a game. We were presented with that opportunity a couple weeks back when Peetza opened. BJ was in the village so I asked her to pick up a menu for me to use to order a takeout pie for that evening. (Takeout currently is the only option.) She did get the menu but while leaving the store noted that it lacked a phone number. I assure you that current versions of the menu now carry the required information to execute a purchase via the phone. I ordered and picked up a tasty example of the pizza which was enjoyed by my poker group as they proceeded to clean my clock at the game again.

Friends, please note that you do not need a passport to enjoy some Mexican food from El Molcajete, an Italian pizza from That Pizza Place, or a burger from Quilbilly’s.

Love a curmudgeon and have a great trip! ned@ptleader.com