Mid-March will be my first time traveling with two passports – my own, and that of my young son, Nico. I am taking my boy on his first flight, and it’s also his first time out of the US. To start his travel life out on an extraordinary note, we are headed to the Arctic, to one of my favorite places in the world: the tiny fishing village of Henningsvær in Norway’s Lofoten Islands.

I’ve been here many times over the past four years, but this time will be special, and not just because my little warm-blooded Cuban-American, Nico,and his four Florida cousins (my beloved nieces) are along for the ride. The late winter months are when the skrei cod comes into the Vestfjord in Lofoten. A migratory cod from the Barents Sea, it’s big money in these parts. And it’s extremely delicious. My friends in Lofoten buy it fresh from the docks and cook up every bit of the fish, from the fatty liver and pillow soft tongues to the rogn, roe. For all the times I’ve visited Henningsvær, I’ve never been here at this most important time of the year, when the harbor clogs with fishing boats and the scent of the cod hanging to dry on wooden racks across the archipelago fills the chilly air. Here’s to seeing favorite places in new seasons – of the year, and of life.