Traveler

Traveler.

The travel bug started early - Dad always had a great summer vacation planned.  West - National Parks (Yellowstone, Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon, etc.), Oregon, Disneyland, Alaska - and East - Boston, Maine, New York, Prince Edward Island, and more...  

I got my first taste for somewhat-solo travel when I went to Europe when I graduated from high school.  It was a perfect combination of being supervised, safe, protected, and independent and on my own.  Kind of.  (I was only 18, after all!  Who lets an 18-year-old out of their sight in a foreign country for very long??)  

From then on, I was ruined.  I was totally addicted to going somewhere - anywhere - for new places, new faces, new eats, and new souvenir shops.  I love, too much, taking pics on all these adventures.  I love the planning almost as much as the going.  I even love the driving to get there!  (Though I do miss the days of relaxing in the back seat with a good book or working on a hobby or napping...).  I love the anticipation of getting ready.  I rarely sleep much the night before leaving - a trait I've inherited from my Dad.  I'm not a great packer - I've had to invest in a suitcase scale to ensure that my packing job is underweight at the airport - I got a new, lightweight suitcase set from my Mom (who is tired of hearing my packing woes, I'm sure) to help me out with this also.  It's so great to go to new places, famous places, out-of-the-way places, and old favorite, tradition places.

Since becoming a somewhat independent person, I've gone to Las Vegas (once; Joee, several more times with Holly), China (with Joee), the Hill Cumorah Pageant (three times; twice driving cross country, once with an old-fashioned map and once with a GPS, and once with Mom attached to a history seminar in Philly), NYC (with Holly, attached to a HCP experience), Washington DC (twice; once attached to a HCP with Holly, the other time all by myself! for a Library of Congress seminar - and I get to go again this summer!), Philadelphia (once; for a history seminar, Mom would come out later), Boston (once, with a district history cohort).  

Beijing with Joee

Niagara Falls

Washington DC

Vegas with Holly

More is planned for the not-so-far distant future - a Civil War tour (with a district history cohort),  a Williamsburg/Jamestown seminar (with another district history cohort), another romp in DC for another LoC institute, and hopes for another one or two seminars.  Getting to go to so many places is my favorite perk of never having left home - how else would I get to go here and there and everywhere if I were paying down a mortgage?

Is it weird to have travel goals?  Because I do.  I want to visit all 50 states (32 down, 18 to go!).  I want to visit all 7 continents (3 down, 4 to go!).  Any time I study about a place, it makes me want to see those places in person - like when I learned about Machu Piccu when I taught the 3rd grade.  I get this from my mom - I did my 5th grade state report on Maine - guess where we went for vacation a few years later?   

Rick Steves is one of my favorite tv personalities.  I love his travel philosophy - you can't see everything when you're in a new place, so travel like you're going to go back there someday.  Because chances are, if you ended up going there once, you're going to go again.