Why We Travel

Via

Note: This is a bad day to have this scheduled with news of last night's Amtrak crash fresh on all feeds. My thoughts go out to passengers and crew on train 188 and my utmost respect and appreciation for Philadelphia's first responders who handled the scene efficiently, professionally, and with compassion as well as medical staff treating injuries on-site and in area hospitals. 

I love the Jersey shore. I always have and I always will. If I could choose to go anywhere for a weekend, it would be there. Owning a home there is a future goal of ours. I grew up going there, my memories are buried in that sand, and every year I look forward to eating my traditional boardwalk treats and sitting my ass in a beach chair looking out at the same ocean I've looked out on my entire life. I love how comfortable and at home I feel there.

For a long time, our week long vacations were spent at the Jersey Shore and I loved every second. If you would've asked me 10 years ago where my vacation spot would be, I would've confidently answered the shore - one week every summer. But it hasn't turned out like that. The last time we did it was for our wedding five years ago. We've spent weekends at the shore but reserved our weeks for expanding vacation horizons. 

Some of our 2014 adventures - long, weekend, and day trips included

If I had a dollar for every time someone said, "must be nice," to a vacation shot of us, I'd be able to fully fund all trips for eternity. Yes, it is nice. And we've worked quite hard for it. It's something we set money aside for and where we prefer to spend our extra. We often say it's what we do with the money we don't spend on the kids we don't have. What we're actually buying is experiences, and I feel like it's an investment - the return we get is so much more than the dollar amount we put out.

Why do we like to travel? It feeds our desire to see places we've only read about or seen on TV. It gives us feelings and beauty and memories and stories and it pushes us outside of our comfort zones. Even planning the adventure can be fun, from deciding where to go and what to do, where to eat and what to visit. When you’re traveling overseas you do have some paperwork to deal with, visas and things from usa-esta.com and you might need travel jabs too which aren’t the most fun. But overall, travel is SO worth the time and money spent and creates memories to last a lifetime. 

MFD does well outside of his comfort zone - he has a wonderful sense of adventure and is spontaneous and very YOLO in nature. Me, as a person who lives inside of a routine and comfort zone to the extreme...I need that push. It's good to operate in places you're unfamiliar with sometimes. I think it can show you a lot about who you are as a person and how you function. 

Is travel a high priority for you?