Dream Trip 2009 is up and running! For inspiration, here's another of our favorite entries from last year:

A lot of travel photographs try to capture the big picture: the sweep of the beach, the expanse of the horizon, the vastness of the landscape. Dream Trip 2008 finalist Bart Edson took the opposite tack for his winning photo from Positano: He focused not on the Mediterranean village's famed terraced hillside, sleek luxury shops, or yacht-filled marina, but on the plate in front of him, and found in one humble salad the symbol of a country.

"This photo was taken while having lunch with my wife in an outdoor café in Portofino, Italy," he writes. "On all sides, we were surrounded by the decadence of the extremely rich. Mega-yachts floated in the harbor, suntanned women bedecked in gold cruised the expensive shops facing the waterfront, and then there was us, trying to find a reasonably priced lunch."

"My wife decided on a salad," he continues, "and when the waiter brought it to our table, it was, to our tastes, a refreshingly modest presentation. As I bent over the table and looked through the viewfinder to take this photograph, I suddenly realized, but of course: the colors of the Italian flag."

Share your travel photos and memories in our 2009 Dream Trip Contest. You could be just a few clicks away from a $25,000 trip to anywhere you choose.