I was sitting with one of my cleaning clients the other day, and we started talking about all the different places they’ve lived. It got me thinking about my own list of places I’d like to visit.
One year for Christmas, my sister gave me a scratch-off poster of the states. Every state you visit, you scratch off to reveal a color underneath. It’s been such a fun Christmas present because the more you look at the poster, the more you want to reveal those colors.
We started putting sticky notes on the states we wanted to visit and the places we thought we should see soon. It’s exciting! But after you have kids, traveling can become a little more difficult. Not impossible, just more time-consuming. But we still plan like we have thousands of dollars sitting in the bank.
Growing up, my mom and dad were always good about asking us kids where we’d like to go. We might not have always gone to those places, but they did take our thoughts into consideration. Mom always had an itinerary, while Dad’s one thing was making sure we saw a baseball game. Well, I’m definitely like my mother when it comes to planning, and Dad’s tradition of stadium hot dogs and screaming fans is something we want to continue.
One of the trips I’ve had in my head for a while has been a road trip down the East Coast. I’m not much for the hot states, so seeing Maine and Connecticut in the fall sounds perfect to me. I’ve always wanted to start in Maine and work our way down to Massachusetts right before Halloween. Seafood, fall leaves, and Halloween stores sound like my adult Disneyland at this point.
Another trip I’ve always thought about is taking the train down to Nashville. I’m not afraid of planes, and driving doesn’t bother me. The train is just a different experience that I’ve loved in the past. When I was eighteen, we took the train to Chicago for a family trip, and it was pretty cool. You get to take in all the nature across the different states, see little towns along the way, and wonder what the people who live there are like.
The last state I really want to cross off my bucket list is Alaska. Chase and I were obsessed with a show for a while called Life Below Zero, and watching people live simpler lives in the woods was very intriguing to us. People think about doing it—living off the land, without the internet and with little phone reception—but actually doing it is a big leap of faith. Seeing mountains covered in snow and rivers so blue they look like paintings sounds absolutely beautiful. Even if it is cold.
What I’m most excited about now, though, is taking the family on trips I went on as a kid. A road trip to the Black Hills when I was eleven is a core memory for me. Two of my cousins came with us, and we went through caves, saw Mount Rushmore, and, my favorite, visited Flintstone Land!
I’d also like to take a cruise again when the kids are a little older. For Christmas, when I was probably fourteen, we took a cruise from Florida to Nassau. There were different clubs for different age groups, and I met some of the coolest friends there. Mom let me run around with them when we weren’t doing family time, and I still have some of the guys on Facebook today. Pizza and ice cream at 1 a.m. and mini golf on the top of the ship were so much fun at that age. On the last day, the group was so tired that we just laid at the front of the ship and watched the sunset. Pretty cool, if I might say so myself.
So, not to say I’ll hit up every destination on my bucket list, but I do have some pretty cool memories when it comes to family vacations. Now, I look forward to creating new experiences and memories with my own family as a mom.
