Expanding Your Horizons

This morning I was talking with someone about traveling, and the upcoming cruises I have planned, and through comments that he made it brought back to memory the first time I ventured out on my own, beyond my comfort level of traveling.

When I was married we took a few small trips, but my main memory of vacations comes from my childhood. I remember standing in awe at the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (Washington DC) and then seeing how many I could run up without stopping. I remember waiting in line at Disneyworld to meet Mickey Mouse and how exciting it was to finally get his autograph! (Wow and he wasn't even real! LOL)

But it seems that when you get divorced, a part of your world stops. For me, that part included vacations. I was too scared to go anywhere, venture out on my own. I probably didn't have enough money to take a trip anyway. After all, we had food to buy and bills to pay.

Then to make things even more risky, I quit my job and decide to persue movies. Wow, what was I thinking? My first film was one my brothers made that sparked my interest (that's a whole different blog on that one!) but then they moved to Los Angeles and was going to be screening that movie at Universal Studios Backlot. So a couple of my friends and I decided to fly out there, we had someone give us free southwest passes and off we went. And boy was it amazing! I didn't do any driving, but one of my brothers friends let us borrow his car, and we just went everywhere (got lost several times, but that was all fun!)

While on this trip I saw so many things that I wanted my kids to see, so I talked with my brother and I began planning a trip to LA for the summer with my kids. Since he & my other brother drove back and forth from TX to LA alot, I knew it was possible, picked some stopping points, and decided to press my limits.

This was summer of 2003, divorced for 4 years, kids were 11, 9 & 8. And we head out on our 11 hr drive to El Paso for our first stop of the trip. This was the fartherest I had ever driven in my entire life. I got so sleepy about 30 min from the hotel. I would keep stopping walking around the car, I drank probably 4 red bulls, and at this point I was "NEVER AGAIN!!! This is our last trip!"

Well after getting a good night's rest, I swung open the curtains of the hotel room, and suddenly found this newfound freedom that I had never known before. "I DID IT! I DROVE 11 HRS!!" Wow... it was amazing! It was exciting! And to top it all off, I did it by myself, I realized that I didnt' have to have a man to take vacations!!! We completed our trip to LA, my brother was a wonderful tour guide, and on the way home I distinctly remember telling my kids "Next year, we are going to Disneyworld." And next year, we did. Spent 2 weeks out in Orlando.

After that trip I asked where they wanted to go next, and my oldest wanted to go to Colorado, so we planned a Denver (& area) trip in 2005 and spent 3 weeks out there on vacation. Realized 3 weeks is way too long for a kid vacation, LOL.

So here I have been taking roadtrips all across the country just me and my young kids. Who would have thought? Not me 15 years ago!

I've taken many other travels with friends over the years as well, for a while I was going to LA every year, sometimes twice. Can't seem to get enough of that place! But I've gotten to meet Brad Pitt, George Lopez, Jay Leno, and so many other amazing people!

But back to my family vacations..... in 2006 we took our first cruise. A 5-day to Bahamas & Grand Turk. To check it out. And it was amazing! The kids had so much fun at the Camp Carnival, and made friends right away, and so it left me to have lots of time by myself to relax. Wow, I had never been able to relax before with the kids there, it was always "what are we going to do now?" or "I'm bored." So cruises quickly bumped up to the top of my vacation list.

Planning my 2007 vacation I opted on a 7-day itenarary with different ports. This time we went to Costa Maya, Belize, Honduras & Costa Maya. We did something different at each port. Always ate dinner in the dining room.

At this point I was wanting to venture out into international travel, but wasn't sure if I was ready yet, so I signed up for a Mission trip through Fellowship Church to go to Brazil for 10 days. Wow that was so amazing (would take a whole blog post just for that trip!) But while there, I did learn that I am not ready to take my kids to different countries for more than the cruise day trips. We could not leave our hotel (women) without a man with us because even tho we were at a nice hotel on the beach with gorgeous views, rape was very common in the area for tourists, so we were strongly cautioned against going anywhere alone.

2008 was our big Hawaii trip, I won the hotel, but had to pay for everything else. This trip easily cost me almost 2 times what a cruise costs. So back to cruising. I had won a cruise (#3) to Cozumel, took that in December. And then planned our 2009 Cruise #4 to St Thomas, St Maarten & Bahamas.

I currently have 2 cruises booked, one for this summer (Cruise #5) to Cozumel & Playa Del Carmen. And then I have finally stepped out and booked my Dream Cruise .... August 2011 we are taking the 12-day Mediterraean Cruise. 8 Fabulous ports, and overnight in Venice.

I said all this to say this..... even though you may look at your life as being not able to travel, I would like to encourage you to take that first step. Look at my story. I started with something that was familiar to me (visiting family out of state) and slowly over the years I have progressed to where my comfort level has expanded and I am able to save and plan for larger and more exciting vacations for my family.

Some of my favorite childhood memories come from vacations. It's not that difficult to plan and if you do your homework, you can make those dream vacations more affordable for your budget. I always create a budget, and i have gotten so good at it, I usually bring home money! Which is always exciting!

I encourage you to expand your horizons, and take a vacation this year beyond the usual. Your kids will thank you for it later. And the experience and overall value that it adds to the quality of your life is amazing!

Isn't it time you saw the world?

~K