Trip to Boston

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my youngest son to Boston to do the Freedom Trail. To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it - the being in a school bus with 20 11-somethings, walking around rainy, cold Boston and having to eat my boxed lunch outside. But, I was very pleasantly surprised to really enjoy it. Part of it had to do with just being able to be with my son, and being able to see how he learns and intereacts with his classmates. Another part of it also had to do with the guide who really made the history of Boston come alive for both the students and the adults on the trip. What I realized, however, is that you can often "travel" right in your own town, and be able to see the familiar in a new and different way. I have often walked the streets of Boston, but to be shown it's history from a new perspective and to be able to visualize how earlier citizens experienced it, gave me a new view of it. For me, travel is all about getting out of my own little world and experiencing something that is outside my own realm. What I really enjoy about traveling is the understanding that there are different experiences that are not of my frame of reference. Although the lives that I learned about yesterday were no longer being lived, to hear how they lived and why events unfolded as they did, made me view Boston in a very different light. While I prefer to travel outside of my town, days like yesterday serve to remind me that we are all travelers in a sense, and that new experiences can be right around the corner if you are open to it.

Time to travel

With the economy the way it is these days, can anyone afford to travel? My answer is YES, but it does take some creative planning. For me, I put a little aside each paycheck in a "travel account" and then try to figure out where I can go on what I have. One way to do this is to go to one of my favorite websites Kayak. That will bring you to a page where you enter the month that you want to travel, and where you want to go and will bring up cheap airfares. Give it a try!

My first Blog - my first trip

Hi: This is my first attempt at a blog, done at the request of my teacher at Northeastern for an internet basics class. I guess I could just do a random one, but I got to thinking about things that are important to me, and more importantly, what others might want to hear about. After thinking about and discarding the usuals (kids, my life in suburbia, etc) I decided I would blog about what is near and dear to me, namely travel. I LOVE to travel, and travel outside of the northeast (where I live) in particular. So, this is going to be a blog about travel: how to do it on a budget, where to go, how to travel with kids, how to travel not with kids, things I love to do on a trip, and stuff to buy on a trip (or for a trip). Who knows, maybe someone will even find it interesting or get some useful information out of it. Hey, maybe I will! Away we go!