TAKE EVERY CHANCE YOU GET IN LIFE BECAUSE SOME THINGS ONLY HAPPEN ONCE!
As many of you know, I’m all about the Trouvaille! Something lovely that happens by chance. The night I met my husband so many years ago was just that. (Sorry, now you know how it turned out!) But it is still a pretty amazing story. There was some sort of magic that happened the moment I met him and I knew I would never be the same. Even though we were from different cultures and were strangers; the things we talked about just fell together as if we had written the lines we were going to speak next. After that, We would meet every moment we could for the next three weeks. But then the ball dropped……he announced he had planned a month-long trip to backpack around Europe and he would be leaving all too soon! All I could think was “No, not now! How could this be?” I knew it was all too good to be true. I imagined he would leave for this adventure only to forget about me. I’ve always been a collector of cool cards and quotes so I made a travel journal for him so he record his travel memories. He seemed to really like it and I was in hopes as he wrote in it, he might think of me. This was back in the OLD days when cell phones weren’t an extension of our bodies and most people only called their MOM from overseas because of the expense.
But a crazy thing happened, I started getting post cards from every stop he made! He thought of me enough to write to me! I was so exited!! Each day I would run to the mailbox in hopes that it would bring another card from him. They kept coming. I collected each card and read and re-read about each adventure, dreaming of the chance that I would one day see these places myself. He would sight see during the day and take the train every night only to arrive in another city by morning. This should have been my first sign of what kind of traveler I was dealing with! When this guy is traveling there is no time for sleep. “You can sleep when you’re dead.” He always says. He covered 29 cities in 35 days! Limited only because, he spent his first four days in Paris to go watch the French Open tennis tournament. I couldn’t wait for him to return home, so I could hear all about each of these beautiful locations that the cards had come from. When he arrived home, he did just that and we picked up right where we had left off. Everything was still magic. He was my introduction to the love of travel. The sights, the sounds, the food (smells), the people, from that moment on I wanted to see it and live it and do it. And all with him. We have covered a lot. Many places in Europe, Asia and South America. He has been to 47 of the 50 United States. He is my Greatest Adventure for sure!
So, 6 years later, (yes, you read correctly, SIX YEARS LATER) when we were finally married, he told me to pull out my book of postcards and select my favorite two from the book. These would be our Honeymoon destinations! I knew right away where I wanted to go! PARIS AND BRUGGE, BELGIUM. The two most beautiful pictures in my book. And Yes, even more beautiful in person! This is where our Journey began…..
Tip: Now when we travel we let our children select a post card from our highlighted stops. At the end of the day, they record their favorite memories. This is a great way to keep their memories of the day. When they are older I hope to make a book for them with their collections. Do you still send Post Cards? What are some of your favorite ways to remember your trips? Let us know! Please Comment and Share! Until next time…..
Joys on a Journey