I am not a photographer. I am definitely not a writer. I am not a professional traveler. I am not an expert mom. I am not really an expert at anything except eating candy. So why shouldn’t I start a blog documenting my family adventures with my best gang? It feels like a crazy leap to put myself (and total lack of all relevant skills) out there on the interwebs but here goes nothing.
I had the immense privilege of traveling with my family through out my childhood and teen years. I studied abroad in Auckland, New Zealand, backpacking around the North Island almost every other weekend and then another month exploring the South Island after the semester ended. Craig took a few trips abroad with school when he was a teenager, then spent three months in India by himself after high school, and studied abroad in Spain during college.
We are not adventure shy and both Craig and I value the experiences gained through travel and learning about other cultures first hand. After years of feeling like international travel vacations were unattainable with our work schedules, well mostly my work schedule, we refocused on our family and decided to make travel vacations an important part of our life again. We want Benton to grow up with an open mind, an adventurous heart, and a the desire to learn more about this world. We think international travel is an important part of that development even if he isn’t old enough to remember these experiences yet.
I hope that our virtual adventure scrap book may inspire travel, particularly travel with young children. And hey, even if this doesn’t go anywhere it will be a way for my family with out social media to stalk our trips!
2 Comments
amanda
My family wasn’t big on travel when I was a kid (we took exotic summer vacations to Marshfield, MA), and through high school and college, for whatever reasons, I remained immune to the bug. Then in 2012 I was at a party with some friends who were hot on white water rafting and I just blurted out of nowhere, “If you want to raft the Colorado, count me in!” A week later they emailed and were like, “If you were serious, let’s go.” We spent ten days in Utah and Arizona – we did raft the Colorado but not the Grand Canyon – and somewhere out in the desert the bug bit – hard. I still wouldn’t call myself as well traveled as some, but how important travel has become to me cannot be understated. I regret the time I wasted, but I almost feel like it’s that much more precious to me now. Good luck with this new venture, I’ll be reading with interest.
myadventuregang
I love that somewhere inside of you just blurted out, “let’s go rafting in CO”! I have never heard that story before and I love it. I feel the same way about wasted time and placing work above everything else. When I was a few years out of college and working, both my sisters took a 2-3 week trip to Hungry, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. I couldn’t go with them because of work, but I also didn’t even ask or try to go for part of the trip. I regret it so much and half wish I just quit the job I didn’t really like anyway to share those memories with them. I am trying to make up for lost time with Craig and Benton now and don’t plan on making that mistake again!