The One.

I‘ve met my match.  I didn’t fully realize my obsession with travel until he came along.  This crazy face in all my photos.  The one with the perfect dimple.  The one that I can’t get enough of.  The one that wanders with me down narrow side streets and fights to be on time.  The one who can sit in a coffee shop anywhere in the world with me and just be.  The one who balances my energy and my incessant online travel searching. The one who will walk with me so we don’t have to pay for a taxi.  The one who puts up with my “food art.”  The one who does not roll his eyes when I spin around and jump up and down when the sun comes out and a gelato stop is ahead.  The one who can dance better than he thinks he can.  The one with the most fitting sense of humor.  The one who is almost cheaper than me.  The one who adventures with me.

Apparently he and I have always had an interest in the unknown, in challenges, even before we met.  Brandon’s family loves to cruise and most of his other traveling before college involved one of his favorite hobbies: snowboarding.  I think Brandon began to really love travel when he was visiting colleges throughout the country while on staff with the FSU volleyball team.  Then when we met and started talking about how our life would look together, it became apparent that we would make our best effort to see the world together; little by little.

We’ve both always been independent spirits, willing to try something new.  However, we still believe in having a deep-rooted community to come home to.  I came to Orlando for school to experience life closer to the beach (amongst other reasons).  We have talked so much about moving around, even internationally.  It hasn’t happened yet but thankfully it’s because of a great contentment with our community and careers that center here, not due to a fear of discomfort.  Still, one day we know we’ll leave, and not because we will suddenly hate Orlando.  We LOVE Orlando.  But we are eager for new experiences and for now we get our fix through excessive travel.  For this season in our lives, we are glad to call this place home, even if we are out of town pretty regularly.  That may change.  I can’t believe that (considering how obsessed I was/am with planning) I am now at peace that we have no idea where we will be 2 years from now.  It is well with my soul.

Regardless.

Regardless of how many hours I spend in tedious travel research, we still learn new things after a trip that I wish I knew ahead of time that could have saved us time and money.  I have a deep-rooted hatred of WASTE – all things waste.  Whether it be energy, time, money, or items that could have been recycled… I loathe waste of all sorts.  Biggest pet peeve! I like to think that through this blog I could save my friends some trouble and waste.  So, I started this journal of sorts to help myself and others to travel in a “thrifty” way.

By thrifty I do not just mean cheap.  I mean efficient.  I think you can be thrifty with all of your resources: your time, energy, and your money.  Everyone will have a different priority given to their resources.  For example, if we have 3 days in a city, we will be more inclined to save some money and take a slower means of transportation to get places.  If we have only one day in a new city, we may pay top dollar to get a flight in early and take a taxi directly to our hotel so we can get started and save time.  It takes balance.  We are generally most concerned with saving time and money, and have no problem spending our energy.  Others may want to have a leisurely time and sleep in or take the most comfortable transportation.  We don’t rest much when we travel 😉

I feel very strange that I have a blog.  It’s not really my kind of thing, right?!  I’m not overly creative or interesting.  I also seem to miscommunicate via text pretty easily because I can get ahead of myself and I am a verbal processor.  There are many reasons why I should NOT have a blog. It just seems very self-centered, as if I think I have all the answers.  Because of this, I’ve had un-published posts for a while and thought I’d keep them private as long as possible.

However, I am passionate.  And I am the type of planning-obsessed person that has to write things down or I WILL FORGET.  The blog is a way for me to document the places we’ve been more accurately, especially names of restaurants/monuments/etc. and the quicker I get these things written down after trips, the more likely it will be that I can have a reliable resource for my next trip.

I also have a helping personality (whatever type that is on the personality test I forget – but I was the helping one!).  So, I don’t want to keep all these tips to myself forever.  I want to share knowledge with you all.  The hope is that this blog helps someone else have an amazing vacation, they save some money, and/or they just enjoy seeing photos of some places they may or may not ever want to visit.  The selfish advantage for this blog is that I can have another version of a scrapbook, a way to share our adventures with family members, and a way to keep track of my favorite things to do in places we hope to visit again.

In order for you to have the best trip possible, I want to provide you with the knowledge we’ve gained as a result of mistakes or misconceptions.  This is for me as well so that next time we go, we already have a game plan!  So that’s it.  That’s why I’m writing.  I hope you enjoy reading and gain something from it!

 

And essentially… this is me:

Heart for travel and connection. Foodie.  Avid scrapbooker. Odd movie, coffee, and ice cream lover. Thrifty.  Passionate Social Worker. Adventurer. Planner. Silly.  Active. And, most importantly, THANKFUL.