Friday Five: 5 Travel Experiences

Friyayyyyy! thank the good Lord.

this week’s Friday Five link-up, hosted by Mar, Cynthia & Courtney, revolves around one of my favorite things ever: TRAVEL. each one of those blogger chicks interpreted it differently, so i’m going to put my own spin on it and talk about different types of trips i’ve taken and what i’ve loved (or, um, what hasn’t worked so well for me) about each.

ONE: the family vaca. never will i ever grow too old to drop everything at the mere thought of a trip with my amazing, awesomely fun family. i’m so fortunate that my parents started this tradition when we were super young, and we’ve travelled often together (although not overseas yet — hint hint, mom and dad, let’s get on the Italy bandwagon please??). i have so many incredible memories of family trips — snorkeling & learning the luau in Hawaii, drinking Sangria on the River Walk in San Antonio, driving cross country for a full month to go on a white water rafting excursion on the Salmon River in Idaho, winding up the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park and watching snow fall in August, dozens of baseball games in various stadiums and my dad insisting i try to speak to people in French in Montreal — the list is endless. i’m so blessed that we actually like each other so much. 🙂

and thankfully, we have two family trips back-to-back in just a few weeks: Vegas, the weekend of the Pacquiao fight (woot!), followed directly by my cousin’s wedding in Amelia Island the following week. so stoked for alllllll the fam time in those fun places.

TWO: the party-with-your-girlfriends trip. i mean, this really should be at least a yearly event. i didn’t do a lot of these when i was younger — not much of a Spring-breaker, even in college — but between Boca/Miami and Montauk the past few years, i’m making up for it. they’re a whirlwind of alllll the fun, laughter, silliness, girliness, memory-making, shenanigan-loving, wine-riddled, bikini-clad, exhausted-mess of a time, and i wouldn’t trade a second of these trips for the world. especially because my friends are the best. 🙂

THREE: the travel-with-a-boy trip. i think these can go either way. for me, they’ve been much more on the “fail” side than the “this is fun” side, with some exceptions (usually in the form of, like, one day or a few hours) sprinkled into the mess mix. i’d say these have been my least enjoyable trips, which could be due to a number of factors (like, um, maybe the boys with whom i’ve travelled?!). needless to say, i will certainly think twice before traipsing off with a boy, and make sure i 1)really know him, 2)actually like him, and 3)am sure he’d be fun to travel with. doesn’t seem like too much to ask, but you’d be surprised at my track record. 🙂

FOUR: the just-you-and-your-bff trip. if i could go on one of these trips every month for the rest of my life, i’d be monumentally happier. one hour spent with my bff turns my whole week around; a few days spent entirely with her reminds me of how life is supposed to be (and does wonders for my abs — alllll the laughing!).

we’ve had some hilarious travel experiences (most of which entail delirious road trips and a serious collective anxiety attack over leaving me living in smallest of small town, Colorado), but my most cherished of our trips was our time in San Fran and wine country the year we both turned 30. it was the perfect trip.

i am so, SO thankful for our friendship and wish i could travel with this girl all the time!

FIVE: the travel-with-completely-randoms trip. okay, so i’ve really only done this once (with a second time with almost-strangers whom i only marginally knew), but that one trip ended up being pretty darn amazing (minus one girl who was a huge life fail). i went to Paris (my dream city) in 2010 with three girls i’d never met — and ended up having the time of my life with two of them, one of whom i’ve since gone to visit in Dallas. (so far, Texas has been all good things for me!)

i had no clue what to expect when going to a foreign country with girls i’d never met — literally, i was trying to figure out who they were in an airport — and minus the one killjoy girl, i couldn’t have asked for anything better from this trip. i got to see an incredible city with two awesome girls and ended up with a wonderful, lovely friend who i still talk to regularly. we salsa danced and drank champagne and met cute boys and shopped and ate and just had an all-around fantastic week in Paris, that i will cherish forever.

and funnily enough, i met one of my close friends here in NYC on that trip as well! we sat next to each other on the red-eye from Philly to Paris, and although we didn’t hang out on the trip, we stayed in touch, and she moved to NYC a year later…and the rest is history. we love telling that “how did you guys meet” story and maintain that it’s basically the best.

i loved this week’s theme, and it’s totally making me reminisce over my travel experiences and wish i could just travel my life away!! because you know wanderlust is the name of this little heart’s game.

hope you have a great Friday and fabulous weekend, loves.

Any good travel stories for me?
Fave trip you’ve taken?
Ever travel with randoms?
Going anywhere fun soon?

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