The Gift of Travel
Do you remember who got you what on your last birthday? Last Christmas?
Do you remember what you did on your last anniversary?
Doug and I have been celebrating life-events with trips for almost 20 years now. In fact, we are coming up on our 20th wedding anniversary and celebrating with a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa. I am still pinching myself.
We got married on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. We literally fell in love with it. So much so, we engaged a realtor and began job hunting there. It took about a month to determine that the cost of living there was going to deliver a lifestyle far inferior to the one we were currently enjoying in good ole Oklahoma, even with that spectacular scenery. So we committed to traveling to Hawaii every year. That proved to be much more cost effective.
And for a while we did just that. Usually over Valentine’s Day.
But then, I opened The Joy of Travel. And the entire world became our playground as my own opportunities and knowledge base expanded.
For almost two decades now, we have celebrated events in our lives with trips. For our anniversary this year we are taking a group on a tour of Scotland, one of my favorite places. For Christmas this year we are cruising the Danube, taking family and 40 friends along for the fun.
As I mentioned, for our anniversary next year it’s Kenya and Tanzania with Nairobi.
We are taking a group to Greece in fall, 2023. Then back to Paris, Normandy and the Loire Valley (Chateaux Country) in spring 2024.
I’m adding a Douro River cruise in 2025, and somewhere in there back to Spain, Portugal and Morocco. I LOVED that trip and am going to do it again. One of our best friends wants it for his 60th birthday, need I say more?
I also have Egypt as well as the Galapagos on my bucket list. Are they on yours?
Who wouldn’t love to open a birthday card with tickets to Paris inside? Or Athens? Or Madrid?
Who wouldn’t love to have a romantic dinner at the Eiffel Tower on their anniversary? Would you?
Flowers and perfume are lovely, but it’s experiences that we always remember. We’ve traveled so much I can’t even remember where we went for what occasion, but I know I’ve seen the world with the people I love most in the world. Have you considered doing the same?