This post was most recently updated on June 16th, 2024.
What We Look for in Travel Experiences
FoxyRoxyK:
My travel goals for every trip: I love history and culture. Walking through a cathedral or castle that has been used for hundreds, even thousands of years, is an emotional experience for me. Ruins are utterly fascinating. Religious rituals and practices are also quite compelling. And yes, I am that person that loves museums and memorials.
Amazing natural scenery is a major attraction to me. I will travel to a location that has absolutely nothing to do except see some awesome scenery. The wonder and power of nature, creation, is very moving to me. I feel extremely blessed that even now, that I am over 50 years old, I can still stand in a place and be swept over by the beauty.
Keyauni:
Travel requirements for me: I need to have some kind of beautiful natural scenery. I’m not big on cities, though I do love them. I just prefer the aesthetics of the vast ocean or a sprawling mountain range.
Another requirement is finding local restaurants, you know that hole in the wall, off the beaten path, most phenomenal food having kind of place, which you can find just about anywhere if you can manage to talk to enough locals.
Last requirement is adventure, I want to do something that gets my blood pumping: a hike along a mountainous ridge of the ocean, jet skiing, sky diving, snorkeling, parasailing etc.
More About Us – When the Travel Bug Bit…
FoxyRoxyK:
When I was very young, one of my uncles was in the US Airforce. My first memories of being aware of this are during the time he was serving in Japan, and his family lived in the housing on base. I knew it was far away, but I wasn’t really cognizant of how far. Then one day after recess, in the first grade, I was looking at the pull down map of the US. It was then that I found that Japan was not on this map, and understood that it must be very, very far.
Two years later, their family returned home, and stayed with my grandparents for a few weeks. When my cousins and I were not playing, my uncle would teach us and quiz us. We learned all the state capitols, followed by European countries and capitols. Then we began counting in many different languages. It was then that I fully grasped that all of these countries and languages were different places around the globe, that I knew nothing about.
When their family departed for base again, I began studying in our encyclopedias, and then at the library. I wanted to learn about all of these places. I was learning, but the photos were all black and white. Then I saw an Ireland tourism commercial on television, and it was so beautiful I thought I might cry. At that moment I knew that I had to go there and it was the only way my life could ever be complete. That feeling grew stronger with each passing year.
When I finally got there, it really was THAT beautiful. So many other places have joined that list of places I absolutely must see, as the years passed. It is a calling that I could not overcome if I wanted.
Keyauni:
As a child growing up I adored photos of scenery, nature, other cultures, and far away places. I came across these photos in many ways, history books, magazines, and media. National geographic was among one of my favorites. Everything was so beautiful, and enchanting. Mountains? What were those? As a child growing up in the midwest meant I was surrounded by cornfields as far as the eye could see, without so much as a hill in sight. Therefore, to me seeing all of the photos was like seeing a whole other world, one that didn’t exist in my realm.
At the age of about 8 My mother took us to Seattle Washington to visit my aunt on the military base. This was my first real travel experience. By real I mean getting on a plane and going to the opposite side of the country; we had driven to surrounding states before, mainly Kentucky (family). When we got to Seattle I didn’t notice anything different really, mainly because it was late when we got there. I was just like, oh we are here to visit my aunt, never thinking anything about how the scenery was going to look different than home.
The next day, my aunt decided we would go for a hike, we got out the house and in the car. On the way I noticed how HUGE the trees were and I was immediately in awe. Our hike got scrapped because it started to pour down rain, rain in Seattle, no way!!!( insert sarcasm here). The adults decided we needed to go to a store of some sort. At this point in the day the sun was beginning to set. We pulled into a parking lot and got out, I looked up and was stuck.
As an 8 year old it was like a whole world was just opened up to me. All the photos I had been enchanted by, I realized were places I could actually go see with my own eyes. I knew then that I would do just that. This was the moment in my life the travel bug bit, and it bit hard. Seeing a new skyline, experiencing a different culture, or soaking in the natural aesthetics of somewhere foreign to me, fills me with the same joy and wonder it did when I was 8 years old. It’s the best feeling in the world.
