I promise not to bore you with my life’s story.  I’m really excited to share my recent travels as well as some advice in helping you to stretch your travel budget farther than you thought possible, as I’ve learned to do.

But, as much for my own amusement as anything, I wanted to take my 39-year-old mind back to the early, early days of my traveling life, as it were.  One day I’ll dig up some old photos and scan them in.

While my family didn’t really go very far, we did get out and about.  For the first 5 or 6 years of my life, we went to Delray Beach, FL every year over Thanksgiving week.  Same hotel each time.  I say hotel, but they were more like villas as I recall – kitchenette area and everything.  One thing I remember distinctly was the free coffee, orange juice, and doughnuts provided each morning.  The smell of the coffee in particular always intrigued me, though it would be 15 years before I would develop a taste for it!  And of course the huge (to my young eyes) ocean and the warm sand!  It was sad when my dad’s work commitments got in the way and we had to stop those annual trips.

We would at least make several day-trips from our home in northern Ohio, during the summer.  Around the age of 13 or so we traveled to Atlanta for a week while my dad had a business trip there.  The following year we made it to Orlando and the Space Coast area.

That was it, though, until my Sophomore year in high school when I was fortunate enough to visit Spain and France..but that’s the subject of its own post.

I had always felt a strong wanderlust.  I wanted so much to fly, especially, to be free to see the whole world..and beyond if possible (hey maybe Virgin Galactic will help with that part of it soon!)  Though I understood why my parents weren’t able to afford many trips, the yearning never died.

I believe my love of travel and drive to explore probably come from my maternal grandfather.  He took my mother’s family all around North America and to the Caribbean.  Grandpa had a goal to visit all US states – the onset of Alzheimers disease kept him at 49, missing only Hawaii.

Well, that’s it for a slightly chilly and damp Sunday in October…