Let’s talk about it. Anywhere from the obscure places to even the cliché. What are places you wish you did sooner, or regret not doing? How do you prefer to experience places?
When I was a kid, we traveled quite frequently as my mom was a flight attendant and we flew for free on stand-by. That said, our travel often consisted of weekends and was always domestic as her airline was only a domestic airline. It was typically going places like Washington (where she’s from), California (where we used to live and where my dad’s from), or other places that were typically close to Utah. Though I’d say we definitely traveled a lot like that, we didn’t do international travel when I was growing up (and my parents themselves hadn’t gone anywhere outside North America until their late 50s and everyone was out of the house). We did go to Mexico when I was in high school, and later did do a Caribbean cruise. My wife, on the other hand, didn’t really travel a ton growing up but her dad did get some international assignments when she was in high school, so she had lived in Germany and traveled all over Europe and then spent about a year in Tokyo. I didn’t leave North America until 2019 when my wife and I went to Italy. That was a weird experience as we were flying over the UK early in the morning and then over the Alps, seeing all these places that you’ve known about but seemed so far away that it was strange seeing them from that vantage point, realizing that they actually existed outside pictures and video (hard to explain). We had other plans later, but they got derailed over the past couple years, though we’ve still been doing some travel the past 18 months with more planned.
The realization I’ve had recently is that our kids are only young this once and my wife and I will have the rest of our lives to do things, but our kids may not have that opportunity, so trying to keep that in perspective and has been easier to shift thinking. We’ve got 5 kids so it’s hard, but also hard to leave your kids with someone while you’re out of the country, so I’ve pushed to just take everyone on some of our trips.
I know a lot of you have lived abroad and whatnot, what are you glad you’ve seen? What do you hope to see? What are strange or unusual things you’ve seen or hidden gems? What sucks? Pictures welcome.
When I was a kid, we traveled quite frequently as my mom was a flight attendant and we flew for free on stand-by. That said, our travel often consisted of weekends and was always domestic as her airline was only a domestic airline. It was typically going places like Washington (where she’s from), California (where we used to live and where my dad’s from), or other places that were typically close to Utah. Though I’d say we definitely traveled a lot like that, we didn’t do international travel when I was growing up (and my parents themselves hadn’t gone anywhere outside North America until their late 50s and everyone was out of the house). We did go to Mexico when I was in high school, and later did do a Caribbean cruise. My wife, on the other hand, didn’t really travel a ton growing up but her dad did get some international assignments when she was in high school, so she had lived in Germany and traveled all over Europe and then spent about a year in Tokyo. I didn’t leave North America until 2019 when my wife and I went to Italy. That was a weird experience as we were flying over the UK early in the morning and then over the Alps, seeing all these places that you’ve known about but seemed so far away that it was strange seeing them from that vantage point, realizing that they actually existed outside pictures and video (hard to explain). We had other plans later, but they got derailed over the past couple years, though we’ve still been doing some travel the past 18 months with more planned.
The realization I’ve had recently is that our kids are only young this once and my wife and I will have the rest of our lives to do things, but our kids may not have that opportunity, so trying to keep that in perspective and has been easier to shift thinking. We’ve got 5 kids so it’s hard, but also hard to leave your kids with someone while you’re out of the country, so I’ve pushed to just take everyone on some of our trips.
I know a lot of you have lived abroad and whatnot, what are you glad you’ve seen? What do you hope to see? What are strange or unusual things you’ve seen or hidden gems? What sucks? Pictures welcome.