How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
Now this is the kind of prompt I’ve been waiting for! I love traveling and am fortunate enough to be able to do a lot of it.
Mission San Jose in San Antonio
We spent a weekend in San Antonio in January. It was the perfect short getaway, and was a nice reminder that fun trips don’t always have to be 1) expensive or 2) overseas. There have also been trips to Corpus Christi to visit Jose’s family and our upcoming trip to Charlotte to see my family. There was also some work travel this year — Jose spent a few days in Toronto at a conference back in August, and I spent 36 hours in southern California way back in January.
We also traveled to Florida not once, not twice, but THREE times this year — which really cracks me up to think about. Neither of us had been to Florida in forever, and all of a sudden we found ourselves there three times. The first trip was to see the STS-130 launch in February. It was Jose’s first launch and my first in a decade, and my parents and brother were able to come as well. My other brother and his now-family came up for the first launch attempt, but couldn’t stay for the next one. That they didn’t get to see the launch is my only regret about the trip. We drove from Houston so that we could be flexible in case of delays, and the drive was OH SO LONG — but it was worth it.
Atop the lighthouse in Bill Baggs State Park just outside Miami
The second trip to Florida was another long drive, but this time we only went to the panhandle which made it a little more manageable. We spent a whole week in July at Mexico Beach with Jose’s entire family. I hadn’t done a beach trip like this in…well, ever, really, and it was a lot of fun. We swam in the ocean, did some fun activities, and just relaxed.
For our final trip to Florida in August, we flew. Because driving to Miami would have taken FOR EVER. We went for my brother’s wedding which of course was awesome because the whole family was together in the same place at the same time. That just doesn’t happen very often anymore. Neither Jose nor I had ever been to Miami, so we made time to see the sights too.
The Colosseum
But of course the biggest trip this year was the week we spent in Italy in May to celebrate our first anniversary. We spent time in Rome, Florence and Venice. I had been to all three of those cities before in 2001 right after graduating from Georgia Tech, but my memories of it had faded — and Jose had never been to Europe at all! We had such an awesome time. I posted long blog entries about Rome and Florence back in the summer, but I never got to Venice. Perhaps I can write up that one over Christmas!
We don’t have any definite travel plans for 2011 yet but I have thousands of frequent flier miles just waiting to be spent and we’ve tossed out a LOT of ideas. I hope to make it to my uncles’ farm in Pennsylvania at some point this year when my parents are there as well. It’s been YEARS since I’ve been to the farm, and Jose has never even met my grandmother who lives there. It’s definitely time to fix that. We’ve also thought about going to DC for vacation sometime — even thought we’ve both been there, there is still a lot we haven’t seen, and a DC trip could very easily be combined with a trip to the farm since they’re only 2 hours apart.
I MAY get the chance to travel to Moscow this year as part of my new job, which would be totally awesome because I’ve always wanted to visit Russia! If it happens and things work out, I’ll definitely try to tack on some personal days after the work is done to be a tourist — and in that case, we’d buy a ticket for Jose to join me. It’s not a certainty, but I’m definitely crossing my fingers.
There are a number of other trips we’ve thought about as well, including Hawaii, Spain, Turkey, and the Galapagos Islands. But after having such a great time in Japan two years ago, we both really want to experience more of Asia so I think the most likely destination for our next big adventure is China. The obvious stops there are Shanghai, Beijing, and/or Hong Kong — although I know those cities are all quite far apart, so it’s unlikely we could visit all three in one trip.
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This month, I’m participating in Reverb10, which charges you to “reflect on your year and manifest what’s next.” There’s a different prompt every day.
