Wanderlust: One Girl’s Love of Travel
In May, my boys and I will be heading to Europe for two months. My youngest is graduating from high school this spring and it seemed like the perfect time to go on a grand adventure before both of their lives get busy with adulthood. We have done several extended trips in the past. We spent three weeks in New England exploring all the sleepy fishing towns. We took a month to see Alaska by sea and land. For the past ten years, we have traveled to the deep woods of northern Michigan to spend our summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts - me as faculty and the boys as campers.
We are a comfortable trio of travelers. Since the boys were born I have aimed to instill the exploration bug in them, especially for long periods. I wanted them to feel at home in the world. For us, it is not just a vacation, which means relaxation. Travel is a part of the pursuit of the human spirit. As a writer, it is an extension of my insensible drive to know the world and its people. The philosophy of our homeschooling journey was adventure so much so that we named our homeschool “Adventus Academy” Latin for Adventure.
My grandmother and I, who we lived with until I was eleven - a non-diagnosed bipolar - had an extremely volatile relationship fraught with verbal abuse. I was her target because I was a feisty child who refused to cower under her relentless beratement. Despite this, she loved to travel, and we were always going somewhere at the slightest excuse. She dreamed of seeing the world and spent her days talking about visiting all the places she had only read about in travel brochures. Her passion for travel was one of two positive traits she instilled in me. It was our common ground.
This trip will be our longest and farthest adventure yet. We are taking a two-week transatlantic cruise to Italy from New Jersey. Cruising has always been one of our favorite ways to travel. Then, we will travel through Italy and into France before heading back to the States. I am looking forward to sharing our adventures with you here on the blog!