Prioritizing Travel

Life has a way of getting away from you. My wife and I have spent the last several years building a family which meant buying a house, raising our kids, going to after school events, and of course working. We found that we have fallen into the daily grind.

Next year will be our 10-year anniversary and I decided to plan a surprise trip for her. I won’t be giving any details on that to avoid spoiling the surprise. I have planned out several hints that I will be giving her leading up to the trip. The first one I created was a message in a bottle. After spending several hours dying printer paper with tea bags, writing a message on it, and melting wax over the cork I hid it away to wait for the preplanned date. Of course, I was unable to wait and gave it to her a month early. This first clue was the dates of the trip.

This all set off a chain reaction where we have been unable to stop planning trips, not just for us, but with our 3 children to get them out and experience the world. Prior to having children my wife was able to travel all over the world to countless countries. I had prioritized domestic travel and was able to see nearly every state at some point. We now are putting a focus on tropical locations and will be expanding from there.

We both realized that we were spending time and money on things that wouldn’t matter in the end. If we put that money towards traveling as a family, we would be able to create memories for all of us. One day I hope my kids will continue traveling with their kids and make memories of their own. What better way to create memories than sitting on a beach with white sand looking at the clear waves in front of you?