Oh good! You're still with me. The last few days, in every free moment I have had, I have been imagining every trip I would ever like to take in my lifetime. I am a girl who has wanderlust like no other, and can fritter away days planning the perfect trip. Yes, I am a planner, so I definitely plan out side excursions, where to stay, and how much things would cost though I do not plan every detail. :) Thankfully, not only does my husband put up with me happily planning away, but he agrees to go almost anywhere I desire (when financially feasible), with only a few vetoes which are usually due to safety concerns. I appreciate this, because he is much more knowledgeable about those things, and our conversations tend to go like this: Me- "Oooh, I want to go to (insert exotic place), it looks sooooo beautiful there." Him-"Yeah, not a chance. They are having a civil war over there right now." Me-"Okay, guess it will get crossed of the list." Why do I want to travel? I could give you many lofty reasons about seeing cultures, etc., but mainly I say to you-why not? There are so very many things in our world to see, that staying one place seems a huge shame.
Due to the inherent Type A-ness of my personality, not only did I make a master list, but I included things to do, when to visit, costs, and geographical location all in a little table. Yeah. You can laugh now. Unless you are like me-feel free to copy and paste the table and then edit to your heart's desire! What does it look like when an everyday mom with day-to-day responsibilities is a wannabe world traveler? Well, that too takes planning. This will be the 3rd year in a row that B and I visit somewhere warm and tropical (Maui, Cozumel, and now Oahu). It takes wonderful parents that are happy to watch my boys for a week (though on some trips we would like to start taking them), planned time off for my hubby (and me as well when I was/am working), and a shared agreement in my marriage that extra money (as in tax refunds in our case) gets spent every year on making memories. When I am working again, we are going to set up a savings account just for trips, and make sure that we pull money out each paycheck. Perhaps I need a license plate cover that says "Will work to afford travel." Seriously, no joke. I would rather travel than have a bigger house, nicer car, etc. And I have seriously thought about the fact that since we have been living off of just 1 income, except for a few things we'd like to replace and do to the home we have, that makes the 2nd income up for grabs. I knew a teacher when I was in high school that traveled with her husband every summer. She had a whole wall of postcards from places she had been to. It was inspiring. I remember once asking her how they afforded that (yeah, because teens have tons of tact!), and she said, "It's a priority of ours." Simply put, but it says a lot.
I am also 32, and while still young, I have no less than 39 countries I am dying to visit, as well as a smaller list of states here in the US. This means that ideally, I want to hit 2+ countries per year if possible. I think that's totally possible, especially since some countries will be visited in a cluster together. Oh, and mentally speaking-did you know that there is scientific proof that even the act of planning a vacation makes you happier? I believe it.
Here are a few things I love that get my creative, wanderlust juices flowing:
European Destinations-Trip Planning
World's Most Beautiful Places In fact, just type in "Most Beautiful Places in the World" in Google, and you will get TONS of great compilations.
100 Countries 5000 Ideas This is a link to my new travel Bible that I love.
Here is my Pinterest board: Top International Destination Wishlist. Many of the pins have attached websites with information about the country.
And my USA Pinterest board: Top 20 USA Places to Visit
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