WANDERLUST 

wanderlust: (n) a strong desire to travel

I never knew the true meaning of this word until recently. I have such a strong desire to travel everywhere!! It all started when I went to New Jersey last September with my mom for my brother’s high school football game; I have that constant urge to drop everything and get on a plane to go somewhere!

A little back story- My brother just graduated from a high school where the football team was nationally ranked and won a national title in 2013 and came close the following 2 years, so naturally that kind of prestige came with teams all over wanting to play you. We went to Hawaii in 2014 and followed that up with a quick weekend to Las Vegas to play Bishop Gorman high school.

So anyway back to 2015, my brother had a game early in the season against a team from New Jersey so my mom and I flew out there and stayed at the same hotel as the team. The trip was great- I got to spend quality time with my mom, see both of her sisters and my cousins, and most importantly taking the train into the city (New York City) and I absolutely fell in love!

The minute we got home I knew I HAD to go back to New York, so I started planning a trip for Robert and I for after the new year. I thought that I would make a whole big trip out of it and hit more than one state. So I got online and searched for weeks for the best deals on flights and hotels. I finally decided on stopping in Chicago before going to New York. I booked and planned everything to the “T” and then proceeded to watch the weather for weeks leading up to the trip. I knew that going back east in February would be risky weather but being from California, I just had to see winter (despite getting to both cities and having record breaking cold (-5 degrees in NYC) there was hardly any snow to be seen and I was bummed). We literally got to see everything that we had planned and wanted to see in Chicago plus we got to see Robert’s best friends mom who lives there now (we didn’t get to go to Wrigley Field, but that’s what another trip is for). When we got to New York, we got to see almost everything that we wanted to but I definitely think another day or so would have been perfect. Needless to say it was the best Valentine’s Day weekend I could have had. I mean who else gets to be on top of the Empire State Building in 10 degree weather after dinner on Valentine’s Day? This lucky girl, that’s who!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our Valentine’s trip!

 

Anyway, there I went on a big ol’ tangent…back to my original thought WANDERLUST! I have this immense desire to travel everywhere! I am constantly planning trips that I know I won’t be taking anytime soon. I’ve planned trips to Hawaii, Nashville, Texas, Philadelphia, St. Louis, back to Chicago and of course back to New York for various times of the year.  Luckily, one of Robert’s friends is in Missouri for 2 years with a grad assistant program, so there is definitely a trip in store for us, it’s just a matter of when we will go.  I think that this desire to travel should be taken advantage of while you still can; it’s something that will only be around for a while.  Once you get a full time job or you have kids that availability becomes less frequent.  I have a bucket list of places all over the world that I would love to go to. I don’t mind starting small and staying within the good ol’ USA right now.

XOXO