Lost in Wanderlust

By now we all know I come from a family of mixed nationalities. But did you know we have grand wanderlust? It's true. We have a hard time not adventuring.

We traveled all the time when I was younger. It wasn't always exceptionally far, but there were very few weekends we didn't go somewhere.

When we lived in Nebraska we'd go to the park, travel to Des Moines for the Native American markets, visit Winter Quarters, go to Kansas City or Lincoln, and every summer trek back to Utah.


The family (minus my dad who's taking the picture) under the Arch, 2009

When we lived in St. Louis we'd go into the city be it to the Arch, the waterfront, Ted Drewes, Cardinals games (for everyone but perpetually heat-sick me), the Magic House, all of it. We made countless cross-country trips to see my grandparents. We drove to Branson, to the Bass Pro Shop in this little town that President Truman grew up in, to Kentucky, all over Illinois, definitely to Chicago.

When we moved across the country we stopped and did little things in nearly every state along the way. I vaguely remember stopping in Ohio, we definitely stopped in Indianapolis and even got to look at the Indy 500 track. We saw coal country in Pennsylvania, the coast of Delaware, New York City and all its bridges and skyscrapers, Connecticuts lush greenery and Rhode Island's teeny tiny corner stores.


Me and NYC, 2010

We didn't stay put when we hit Massachusetts, either. We found several favorite destinations in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Maine. I miss eating Italian food on Federal Hill in Providence, biking and kayaking in Waterville Valley. I miss laying out at Narragansett Beach, house admiring in Newport, and lobstering in Bar Harbor. I miss Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and people watching in the square. I miss the Cape. I even miss the Harvard Natural History museum.

Of course there were random smatterings of other trips in there, trips to England and the rest of the U.K., tours of Washington, D.C. Our annual visits to upstate New York and Niagara Falls. Trips to Quebec and Montreal. Trips to Colorado and Nevada and California and Idaho.

My parents taught me that travel is a way to experience an (oft-needed) adventure. I've tried to employ this in my own grown up life, though on a much more money-tight scale. I've been to the coast countless times, to Portland, and Seattle. Even during college there were plenty of excursions.

And now I'm feeling the itch again. A need for a fun adventure -- the only question is, where to?

xoxo.