i love the places i’ve never been to

im on my way.

im on my way.

i have been flying since i was two years old. airports, airplanes. travel is not new to me. i blame a lot of it on my father since he was flying airplanes for the air force while i was born.

many times i read or hear people proclaim that they “love to travel”. this hobby exlpoded with popularity shortly after julia roberts portrayed a desperate woman who writes that traveling healed her life, her divorce, her body. so quite often i read on blogs or facebook ‘about me’ sections about one’s undying love to experience new places and stay in beds that are not their own.

i have been quite precarious over the years about the legitimacy of their claims when i have inquired about where someone has been, what they have seen, the dirty hotel beds they have happily laid there heads down on, etc.

one of my favorite traits about my sister-in-law, erin, is that she not only say that she loves to travel but does it. she has [so far] beat me out on the country counter – she has been to 19 countries and lived in costa rica. this mutual appreciation of travel was one of the first driving forces between our new found friendship/sister-in-law-hood. and i highly admire her vest for life. i wasn’t even married to her brother yet when she was encouraging me and excited for me to move to asia. at first, i thought she wanted me out of the picture, but i now know that she was just encouraging me to do something incredible 😉 so, thank you erin for being so rad.

i don’t know why that i am writing about all this except that i am wasting 30 minutes in lax airport before heading back to northern california. when i sit in any airport, a piece of me becomes alive. that sounds so lame. and so overused. but i do. and my husband knows this about me. whenever he picks me up from the airport, he can tell that i am coming down from a high that only airports can give me.

there are so many places i yearn to see.

and there are so many places that you yearn to see as well.

so for those people who say they love to travel but don’t…what is stopping you? is it the american dream and all of the expenses that come along with it? well travel guides, such as lonely planet and seeing the world on a shoestring, have now made that excuse void because it is possible. yes, possible to travel cheap. is it because you have kids? don’t allow children to be an excuse. yes, yes, yes i know. i don’t have kids and so i don’t know anything [which is what i have been told recently] but i know a lot of people who do have kids and travel. actually, my awesome world-traveling cousin has a blog specifically designed to encourage parents to travel with their kids. she has two kids under the age of 3 and has traveled all over with them. it is possible and she is seriously one of the coolest women i known. [check out travel with kids blog – traveling with kids] is it because you got married and your spouse doesn’t have the same desires to travel? well, i can’t really help you there. if you knew they didn’t want to travel and you married them, then you kind of exchanged that passion for a spouse [which is totally okay] but you just can’t use it as an excuse, no?

so what is it? i learn more by traveling than i do by reading, watching the discovery channel, and talking to people who have traveled. so either plan your trip or delete your ‘about me’ section hobby.

i write this all in love and in the midst of my airport high.

time to board.