I absolutely LOVE to travel! I don’t do it near as much as I’d like to, but, who does? Right? I have a lot of great memories of family vacations growing up. My parents always did a great job of taking vacations and mini getaways.
As an adult, I don’t feel like we’ve been able to take our kids on as many vacations as we would have liked, but we have had some pretty great trips. Still, I’d love to do more! One of my goals in starting this blog is to help inspire others to travel more, to figure out a way to make it happen! I believe in positive vibes and putting things into the Universe will make them happen. So by writing out my travel dreams and sharing them with the world is putting them into the Universe. They are more likely to happen when you actually talk about them. So I will tell you about trips I’ve been on, as well as trips that are on my bucket list. You never know what doors will open up when you share your dreams and goals with others!
I’m 44. I figured up the other day that I can Only account for 40 weeks of that 44 years that was spent outside of Indiana.
I should note;
In this figure, I didn’t count my weekend get away trips to Ohio for amusement parks, which I’ve pretty much gone to at least once every summer of my life. Not to diminish them at all, it’s just one state away, so I was mainly counting up my longer getaways. 😉
Of the 40 weeks, 12 of those were still in the Midwest. And it wasn’t a ‘vacation’. Although, it was during our summer vacation from school. I had just finished fourth grade. We moved to Missouri for those 12 weeks, then moved back to Indiana. lol
Growing up, we almost always vacationed in Gatlinburg, TN, or somewhere in Florida. Living in Indiana, if you want to get to the ocean, most people vacation in Florida, or the Carolinas. You can drive to them in a day, or get a cheap flight. I’ve always loved the ocean, so any trip that got me on a beach was fine by me! I’ve been to pretty much every major tourist city in Florida, including The Keys. I’ve gotta say, I think Destin is my favorite!
4 glorious weeks of my life have been spent in the Caribbean! As a teen I visited the Bahamas a couple of times, as an extension of a Florida trip. One was a day cruise. The other was a cruise, plus 2 nights in a hotel on the island. That one was my favorite.
We took a Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon. We chose a 7 night Southern Caribbean cruise through Royal Caribbean. We made 5 stops in 7 days, with only 2 days at sea. Which sounded like a blast, up front, and it was, however, it was a bit much for us right after our wedding, because that in itself is exhausting, so another day at sea to just chill would have been nice. Of course, we weren’t forced off the boat either, so we could have stayed and chilled, but we did explore each of the ports we stopped in. We started out in San Juan, PR & visited St Lucia, Barbados, Antigua, St. Marteen, and another one…that I’m forgetting at the moment. (Isn’t that awful? Well, it has been 19 years! lol) Barbados was our favorite!! This was the one where we chose to venture out on our own. Got a taxi to a nice beach and just relaxed in the sun and sand. The sun was SO hot there, it was crazy! But we enjoyed soaking in the beautiful blue water to stay cool.
Our second cruise was a Western Caribbean, Royal Caribbean. 7 nights but only 4 stops. This was was with my parents and my sister and family. We had Makensie at the time and I was pregnant with Macy, my sister was pregnant with my niece. Lol That happened AFTER we booked our trip.
After doing a couple cruises, we decided we wanted to experience the Caribbean in a different way so we went to Cancun in 2007 and did an all inclusive trip. (Link) our kids were 2, 4 & 6 at the time. Many thought we were crazy, but it was a good trip. The kids had a blast! Max was too young for the kiddie camp and activities, but he enjoyed splashing in the baby pool.
In 2016 we were invited on a couples only trip to Punta Cana, DR for a friend’s 40th birthday. It was so much fun and what a great way to relax and rekindle the romance. Micah and I acted like teen Agers all week! We stayed at the beautiful Majestic Elegance Resort and we highly recommend this place! 5 star amenities! Great food and lots of choices! The beds and rooms are so elegant and comfortable. They were building a new one next door at the time, we hope to return sometime & try it out as well.
I’d LOVE to move to the Caribbean! That is on top of my bucket list. I love the island lifestyle. More on that later… in another post about my desire to move.
Some of my favorite trips have been out West, here in the good ole U.S.A. Micah has family there so, we have had many trips to California and Oregon visiting his family, which is always a good time! My first trip out west was to Sacramento. Micah’s sister and some extended family lived in the area. His parents in Oregon. We all met in Cali for Thanksgiving. So, not only did I meet his parents and siblings for the first time, but I met most of the Cain family as well!
(Talk about nerve wracking!! But it ended up being a great trip!)
In 2000 we went again, in July. This time we took day trips to San Francisco one day and Lake Tahoe another. (Lake Tahoe is where he proposed!) after that his sister moved to Portland so we started visiting them in Oregon instead. I’ve been blessed to have visited several places in Oregon, including the coast, which is usually of course, amazing! During one of our visits we took a day trip up to Seattle, Micah’s birthplace. I have always heard such negative things about Seattle (like it always rains!) but I absolutely fell in love with the place, although it DID rain, it was still such a lively and super creative city. Spending one day there was simply not enough! Another place I’d love to re visit!
Perhaps my very favorite trip of all, so far, has been our #EpicRoadTrip2017 We drove from Indy to Southern California. We took an entire week to get out there, then spent a second week chillin on the beach in Cali. The beautiful part…we flew home at the end! (We were able to do this thanks to my parents, who drove a rental out there, and drove our car back home.) For more details on stops we made along the way, check out our blog post called “Epic Road Trip”
These have all been VERY FUN trips, and we have a trip to
Lake Tahoe in July! We are so excited about that!
I still have SO MANY more places I’d love to visit. My bucket list is very long!
Our TRAVEL BUCKET LIST:
Hawaii
Maine
Canada
Alaska
NYC
Napa Valley, CA
Belize
Roatan & Utila, Honduras
Ireland
Australia
Europe
just to name a few…
It’s important to create a bucket list and actually work on making travel happen! Decide on a weekly budget you can afford, even if it’s just $20. Set aside $20 each week. In six months you’ll have $520 saved. Maybe you take a weekend trip with that, then save again for the next year. Maybe you can up it to $30 each week now, so in a year you’ll have $1560. You can most likely find a place you can go for a week with that. Make it a priority to set goals and work towards them. It’s fun and so very rewarding!
Please comment below with your favorite trips you’ve taken and/or your bucket list trips.
I really enjoy planning trips and take pride in finding great deals. I hope that my blogs can help inspire you to travel more, as well as help you plan your trips. Not gonna lie, I’m also hoping to enjoy some travel perks along the way! So far, I’m affiliated with some travel sites like Skyscanner and Kiwi, for flights, cars & hotels as well as Homeaway and VRBO for vacation rentals. When you click these links to book your travel, we receive a small commission at not additional cost to you. That helps us continue sharing our happy place with you and inspiring you to create your own happy.
Thanks for your continued support!