Lately I’ve been thinking.
Which as you can imagine, can be a very dangerous thing. But, I’m doing it just the same.
I seem to have thoughts at weird, inopportune moments. Like in the shower. Or lying in bed in the middle of the night. Or driving. Or in line at the grocery store.
Having a creative mind will do that to you. I’ve learned to keep pen and paper nearby, wherever I may be. Next to my bed, in my purse, on my desk, in the car – so that when ideas and thoughts pop into my head, I can write them down. Because, though I may have tons of thoughts – I’m not very good at remembering them when I really need to.
So, lately I have been thinking about travel. Specifically, travel memories.
I remembered that I’ve done a fair amount of traveling to some pretty cool places in my own country, even before I started this blog and before I fell in love with Italy and France. And those travels have never really seen the light of day. Those stories haven’t been told, secrets haven’t been spilled and pictures haven’t been shared.
Most of my photos from these early travels are pre-digital age, which means they were taken with an old-fashioned camera. Which resulted in an actual, tangible, photo. Printed on real paper. And I have albums chock-a-block full of these primitive 4×6 pieces of paper. It dawned on me that with the invention of things like photo scanners, some of these photos could, in fact, be shared on the blog.
I don’t know about you, but I always think it’s fun to relive some of the places I’ve been and breathe some life back into them. Often, the passing of time lets the happy memories of travel shine through. And while the stress, headaches, snafus and debacles may not completely fade, they certainly tend to soften.
Places like:
- Key West
- Martinique
- Rockport, Massachusetts
- Booth Bay Harbor, Maine
Oh, yeah – there is also that span of time where we packed up our lives, drove cross-country to Northern California where we lived for about 18 months and explored these places in the Golden State:
- San Francisco
- Mendocino
- Monterey
- Yosemite
- Santa Cruz
- Berkeley
- Lake Tahoe
- Sausalito
- Napa Valley
Just to name a few.
So, I thought that from time to time in 2011, it might be fun to share some of these places and experiences. Seems like a perfect time to dust off those ancient photo albums that have long been kept in the dark, mingling with candles and linens at the bottom of a credenza for much too long!
I hope you’ll join me as I relive some of these travel moments from my past, while at the same time, sharing a bit more of ‘lil ole me. I think I’d like to call this series, Traveling Down Memory Lane.
And who knows, perhaps one of these posts will inspire you to make a visit to one of these travel destinations. And that’s the goal, isn’t it? To travel more. To spark some interest within you that says, “ohhh hey – now that looks like a neat spot. I wanna go there!”
Now it’s your turn to talk…..
Would you be interested in reading about these pre-blog travels? Which place(s) do you want to see and hear about?
Photo Credit : Plinkk