My parents have always emphasized the importance of getting out there and seeing the world.  I grew up in South Carolina, but my grandparents lived in Ohio and Pennsylvania and we were often driving up to visit.  Along the way we’d stop in Virginia or other places to visit other family members, or we’d go to Philadelphia or New York City with our family in Pennsylvania.

We also spent a lot of time exploring our home state of South Carolina.  We’d drive to the beach for a weekend, or to nearby historical or ecological places of interest like Chimney Rock, Cowpens, or the Riverbanks Zoo for a day trip or a weekend camping trip.  In the summer we’d take longer trips, to the Grand Canyon, or to California and Banff, or to the Great Lakes.  I learned that there was a whole world out there and it was important to explore it and learn as much as you could about it.

As a family of five or six (the sixth came later), the best way to see the world was to drive there.  If we stayed overnight somewhere, we generally camped.  We’d load up the car with the tent, sleeping bags, suitcases, camp stove, bug spray, water bottles, and bags of books, and off we’d go.  My mother would encourage us to keep journals on the longer trips (some of which are still CLASSIC reading when we visit—I’d say my early journals were the precursors to this blog, in fact, I was perhaps the first Healthy Living Blogger as I’d generally document every meal!).

As I grew older I continued traveling though often the reasons were different.  I’d travel for music festivals, to Colorado, to Europe, to small towns in Ohio.  I’d travel to visit Chris in Miami, Cleveland, and San Diego.  I’d travel for auditions for orchestras—to Houston, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh.

And sometimes I’d get to travel for fun.  One of my favorite relaxing vacations is going on cruises (like for our honeymoon, and the summer before that, and Chris recently suggested we might want a cruise this summer).  There’s just something about being somewhere warm, eating a ton and lying around drinking pina coladas to your heart’s content.  Though going to Paris was amazing as well—tons of sightseeing and walking around, yet still eating a ton and drinking wine to our heart’s content.  (You see a theme here, right?  This is why I’m fat…)

If you read my blog regularly you probably notice I do tend to get to travel a lot.  I’ve got another trip to Phoenix coming up soon, and we just got back from Chicago.  After that I actually don’t have anything planned until the summer though.  Summer plans so far definitely include a trip to Long Island for my sister-in-law’s wedding and possibly another wedding or two. 

We’ve also tossed out the possibility of a cruise (There’s a great guide in the New York Times about cruising)—I’d love to do an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle, because that would be all-new to us– or you could visit a “sleeper city” like St Louis for fairly cheap (I love that Phoenix is also on that list!)  If you are ready to book your vacation you can go here for airfare, hotels, and rental cars.  There are also more articles about various destinations.  I love reading about the travel possibilities and dreaming about my next trip…almost as much as I enjoy taking the trip!  (I also love writing about it later and reliving the experience while looking at my pictures.  To me this is all part of the travel experience.)

Where do you want to go?