Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Top Ten Tuesday again - Travel

I haven't done a Top Ten list since November... so today I thought I would try it again. Today's topic is travel.

I have been lucky to be able to travel a bit in you younger years. Since having kids I haven't been doing to much away from home. It is amazing how just having one or two extra plane tickets suddenly makes big trips less likely. But here are 10 of the big trips (get on an airplane type) and places I have been lucky to have been taken on.

1. Oaho, Hawaii - I think this was my first plane trip. At least that I can remember. My Uncle and his family were living in Hawaii and we went to visit them. I remember visiting pearl harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center. And I remember playing on the beach and watching people surf those big waves.

2. Cancun, Mexico. I was about 10 years old and I went with my mom for a 4 day trip to Cancun. We saw some Mayan Ruins at Tulum. I got to swim with big sea turtles. And I remember I got really sick and spent the plane ride home sipping ice water. Montezuma got his revenge


3. London, England - I was so excited to have to actually get a passport. (I guess you didn't need one to go to Mexico). This was my first trip to Europe and at 13 years old it was very exciting! This was a trip my Dad had "won" through work. So we stayed at a very Posh hotel and got taken on a lot of the usual tourists places and tours. We saw the tower of London, Stonehenge, the Victoria and Albert museum. We also rode the train out to Bath and wandered through the town. I remember this was my first real experience of Jet Lag. There was a point the first day there where we were literally asleep standing up.

4. Williamsburg, Virgina - I can't seem to find any pictures of this trip. It would have been nice to show some to Sophie while we are reading about Williamburg.


5. San Jose, Costa Rica - I spent 2 months in Costa Rica as an exchange student. It was an eye opening experience! I learned a little spanish too.

6. Paris, France - Almost my whole family went on this trip. We had two weeks. One in Paris and one traveling around France to see Normandy and some of the chateaux


7. New York, New York - I don't know if you can count a mission as travel. And not to make light of this experience but along with being a missionary, I certainly saw a lot of New York and even a bit of Connecticut. I did many of the usual tourist things but also got to see and be a part of the every day life of the people there. I still got to go to a few Broadways shows, see the statue of Liberty and take a tour of West Point along with countless other things. This was one of the greatest times of my life! The scenery and attractions were just a bonus.


8. Venice, Florance, the alps, Italy - We spent 2 weeks in Italy. Part of the time up in the Italian part of the Alps and a few days in Venice. Then we traveled through Tuscany staying in a different town each night. We saw so many beautiful places! We were all done looking at Duomos by the end of the trip though.

Here I am standing on the top of a mountain in the Alps.

This is a picture of my sister standing in St. Marks square in Venice.

9. Orlando, Florida - What could be better then 4 days at Disney World. We could have passed on MGM studios but loved Epcot. Sophie doesn't remember this trip but she was 1 1/2 at the time and kept us busy with her running around. She loves to look at the pictures of this trip and pretend she remembers meeting Winnie the Pooh and Mary Poppins.

10. Cruise to Mexico - Cruises are one of the best ways to travel! Even with three small children. We didn't love Mexico it was just a place to get off the boat for a bit. We just had a great time swimming, playing and eating! It was so much fun and the kids keep talking about our next cruise.


Looking back on all these great trips... We have gone to a lot of really wonderful places. But the best part of these trips have always been the hanging out with the people/family on them. Thanks Mom and Dad for making all these trips possible for me. They all have left me with very fond memories.

Where to next? Alaska?

8 comments:

Jennifer @ Fruit of My Hands said...

Wow, you have been on some really great trips! I'd like to visit all the places you listed someday...

Montserrat said...

Lucky you! You have definitely seen a lot of the world. There are three places I really want to visit - all family history sites: Wales/England, Spain and Mexico.

An Ordinary Mom said...

You have been some amazing places, wow! One of these days I would like to add at least half of your spots to my itinerary.

Ice Cream said...

I have to say wow too. I have only been to Canada and a handful of states in the US. Thanks for sharing the lovely photos.

Anonymous said...

Great photos!! I've been thinking about doing something like this now that I can scan old photos. I haven't travelled too far away though except for 1 summer in Europe when I was 14. I always wished I could be a world traveller though.
Great post!

Michal said...

i want to do your europe trip. i have only been in airports in many of those places, on layovers. i did once have a long enough layover in london that we left the airport and ran around town for a few hours before racing back to the airport. i really want to go to italy, greece, and turkey. and nyc. and hawaii (i have brothers in the last two places and have never been to either of them.)

Angela said...

You have been to some great places and some of my favorites! I can't wait to see where you plan on going next. I loved learning that you are a history buff and that your mom was so inspiring from your comment on my blog. I wish I would have double majored in humanities. Learning that little tidbit about your mom's inspiration- leads me to believe this whole homeschool thing will work out!

Sonja said...

Fantastic Top Ten! Those are all places I would love to travel to. We are hoping to go to Williamsburg in a couple of years. Then Europe in, maybe 10 years. :)

I love the picture of you as a missionary! What a neat place to serve. :)