Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had a wanderlust I can’t explain. Maybe it started because we moved around a lot when I was a kid. I know not everyone in my family loved that, but to me, it was fun. A new house to explore, new friends to make, new restaurants to try, a new school to navigate. Not that it was always easy. As a matter of fact, fifth grade was downright hard. It was my fifth school in as many years. I had actually been home schooled for 4th grade so my mom and I could travel with my dad (now that was awesome!), so trying to fit into a school where all the kids had been together since kindergarten was challenging. I found my place, though, with the pigeon-toed girl with the coke-bottle glasses, the girl from the trailer park and the girl with the sideburns. I’ve lost track of the first two, but the girl with the sideburns no longer has said sideburns — she’s quite a beautiful up-and-coming opera singer.
But I digress…
Top of the Empire State Building on my first trip to NYC at 17
As a preteen it was all I could do to keep from bursting with the anticipation of my first trip to NYC, which wouldn’t come until I was 17 years old. That was a long, tortuous wait. But at 18, my parents loaded up our car and drove me 900 miles from Atlanta to NYC so I could begin my college education. Finally! I was a New Yorker!!
Here I am in Portugal, at the top of some medieval castle
I met a guy who was from Portugal, and every summer my dad would pay for me to fly over to spend 2-3 months with his family and explore the beautiful country. I do lament that I had my head so far up my a$$ over this guy that I never really enjoyed it as I should have. Frankly, I complained a lot that he wasn’t attentive enough to me. Ugh. Young love. But still, it was an opportunity that few get, and even though I wasn’t as grateful as I should have been then, I’m grateful now for the experience. And I know that I’m a better person because of it.
When I met Eric, we were both pretty broke college students. And we would be broke for a looooong time. Ha! But we still found ways to travel, to move, to adventure. Even trips-gone-wrong turned into great memories. Like the time we were supposed to fly to Florida for a long weekend, but the snow cancelled our flight, so we rented a car and headed for a B&B in Vermont instead. For hours we hung our heads out the windows of the car, trying to see the road through the onslaught of snow! It was scary, and needless to say, we didn’t make it to Vermont. Instead, we ended up near Holy Oak, Mass, at a Motel 6, where the hotel staff shared their chili with us and we went swimming in our clothes in the indoor pool.
One of the thousands of pictures we took in London
One of my favorite trips of all time was to London five years ago. We watched the London episode of The Bachelorette the other night, and I was almost in tears remembering the amazing time we had there. I can’t wait to go back and discover more of what that incredible city has to offer.
My all-time favorite non-touristy trip was to Sandals this past February in Great Exuma, Bahamas. Wow. So incredibly beautiful. So much so actually, that in September, we’re moving closer to it! That’s right — we’re off on another adventure all because of a week spent in the Bahamas. And once we’re settled there and saving lots of money as a result of moving OUT of NYC, we’ll be off and running again, putting pins in our map of places we want to visit around the world.
We’ll be moving near to here soon…paradise awaits!
Speaking of pins…Pinterest makes it easy for me to keep track of all the awesome places I want to visit or have visited already. Here’s the link to my Favorite Places & Spaces board, if you want to see where I want to go.
But what about you? Do you love to travel? Do you embrace change, spontaneity and adventure? Or do you prefer to stay rooted in the familiar? What are some of your favorite places to visit or your most memorable trips?
Jerrica's Regency England... 