Just a girl taking every chance to travel!
It’s crazy to think that when I was growing up I HATED traveling! I hated the feeling and commotion of my parents trying to get all four of us kids to pack and get all of us and our luggage into our mini-van. I hated leaving my pets for 10 days at a time. I hated the feeling flights would give my sensitive stomach – totally still hate this part but worth it. I hated having to share a room or even worse, a bed with my sister for a week. I hated how we never seemed to do the trips I wanted to take. And most of all, I hated having my entire week planned out for me down to the hour.
It wasn’t until I was older and started to venture out on my own that I started to truly appreciate all the places I’ve been and places I could go. I learned to be grateful for my dads meticulous planning.
Now I LOVE traveling. It’s all I can think about. I’m constantly saving new destinations on Instagram and planning future vacations. My first job was even for a public relations and marketing specific company for the Shenandoah Valley. That’s when I fell in love with finding out what makes each region unique.
I grew up hiking up mountains in the Hudson Valley then driving down the road only 45 minutes to New York City to see a Broadway show. I loved how I could feel alone on top of the fire towers looking down on the tiny, urban towns below, then finish the day in a mass of people from all over the world.
I left the Hudson Valley for the Shenandoah Valley when I went to college. The mountains and hiking were different here but the breweries and wineries intertwined with the deep history of Virginia were a whole other world to me.
I needed a new adventure after school and left for the Tampa Bay. Now my dads are filled with jet skis, sand bars, alligator chasing, and not a mountain in site. I like to say I traded in the mountains for the ocean, which is actually the Gulf of Mexico.
I love traveling all around the world but remember before, when I mentioned how I hated leaving my pets? Yeah, still have those pets and still struggle leaving them for too long.
While I love traveling to other countries to explore their cultures and lands I feel as if we sometimes forget how truly diverse the communities and geography in the United States is.
By traveling throughout the different regions in my own country, I have a better opportunity of bringing along my fur babies for more trips instead of leaving them constantly. I will still definitely travel outside of the country but I want to highlight what makes each region in the US unique to and of itself. Why a weekend trip a few states away can be just as eye opening as a trip across the Atlantic.
