Door No. 2
"The life you have led does not need to be the only life you have." -Anna Quindlen

Far

Sometimes life takes you away from your home.  And that's important.  "Away" is where you see more clearly who you are and who you want to be, because it is where you discover a life different from the one you've known, for better or for worse.  "Away" is where you find the courage to be your own person, it's where you find your independence, it's where you sink or swim.  "Away" makes coming home that much sweeter.  

Sometimes life takes you away from your home.  And that's important.  "Away" is where you see more clearly who you are and who you want to be, because it is where you discover a life different from the one you've known, for better or for worse.  "Away" is where you find the courage to be your own person, it's where you find your independence, it's where you sink or swim.  "Away" makes coming home that much sweeter.  

Travel Journals

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Brad and I love to travel.  We have had a few opportunities to do so in the 4 years we have been married, but our primary goal has been to build ourselves a strong foundation of financial stability so that we will be able to do much much more traveling in the future without all the stress and limitation that a pile of debt entails.  That means all of our extra time for the past 4 years has been thrown into work, and all of our extra money has been thrown at our student loan payments.  But we have finally conquered them.  And now it's time to celebrate!  Over Christmas this year we will be spending 10 days in Hawaii.  We have dreams and expectations for the trip and plan to soak in every sun-sweetened minute of it.  But after we come home, and years from now, I still want to be able to look back on the trip in a way that is more than just a vague golden memory.  

Of course, with Brad being a photographer we always have incredible photos of our trips that really help to capture the experience.  But I also started a habit on our honeymoon of keeping a travel journal.  That first go-round was written on hotel stationery, but I have since acquired a notebook dedicated for the purpose and have similarly documented our 5 day journey up the Alcan Highway when we moved to Alaska and our trip to Seattle this past summer.  My travel journals are by no means long or prosaic or consuming of many hours while on a trip, they are simply a bullet pointed list of things we did each day, with scattered comments about what we ate, how we felt, or things that were said that seemed especially remarkable.  The thing I love about going back through these journals is that just a few words can immediately spark a vivid memory from the trip that would have otherwise fallen out of my brain a long time ago - like the fact that on our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic we stayed one night at "Hotel Kevin" (that was really the name) and watched a Pawn Stars marathon on TV because it was the only channel that would come in, the room was tiny with no hot water, and we had been shown the way to the hotel from the bus station by some guy we called "creepy Rudy".  Kind of makes me wonder how we survived the night... place was sketchy!  But then I read on and am reminded of the nice couple we met on our white water rafting adventure where we traversed rapids with names like "Mike Tyson", "Monica Lewinski", "Mother-in-law", "Kamikaze", and "Cemetary".  That was also where we met a Hispanic border collie named Tim who became the namesake for our current furry bundle of love and drool.  

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Here's to celebrating achievements, seeking out new experiences, and adding new pages to your travel journals. 

Nicole Tomberstravel, memories, journalComment