When did you first become interested in travel?

I can remember during my childhood being surrounded by family and friends who always spoke of their places of origin. Places like Poland, Checkosolavia, Italy, and Serbia. They would talk about the traditions of those cultures and how they celebrated the holidays. Food and music reflected the tastes and sounds of these far away places. These traditions always intrigued me. Sitting around a table listening to the older generation speak with each other over coffee I heard accents and words and stories that sparked my desire to know more. 

Our family did not have the means to travel far for vacations, but when we were able to spend a few days or a week away, we always seemed to end up near a body of water - Oakford Park & Pool, Lake Erie, or the New Jersey Beaches. The furthest I recall traveling as a family was to Florida, where my aunt treated our family to a Disney World vacation. There we were able to ‘visit’ many other cultures through the magic of Disney.

The desire to travel led me to be ‘bold and brave’ and travel to Wildwood, New Jersey during the summers of my sophomore and junior years of college.  I was on my own, for the first time, ‘far’ away from home, working as a maid at a hotel which my friend's dad owned and operated.  I was in heaven, even if at times lonely for the familiarity of home and of family. It was at this beach that I met the person who was to become my lifelong travel partner, my husband Terry.  It is really his desire to see and experience new places that ignited my interest in travel throughout our 37 years of marriage.  

Christine