Wanderlust

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

I've noticed a trend recently of all of my friends either going on or  coming back from, or in the middle of planning fabulous vacations. While I'm super happy for them and always love to hear of their plans, I'm also a little envious because I haven't really traveled too much in my life. 


In my family growing up, we didn't do the whole vacation thing. Summers were spent at mostly at home with a few beach and amusement park trips scattered throughout. One year, my mom sent my brother and I to spend the summer in Hawaii with my aunt. That was fun but a lot like summer at home...just in Hawaii.

Luckily last year I got to travel a bit to Las Vegas, Georgia, and Alabama. In fact despite my horrific return journey home from the south, it gave me a bit of a travel bug and I'd been thinking about all the places I'd love to travel ever since then. Here are just a few.

1. New York City

I can't remember what first prompted me to dream of NYC, but it was probably the Eloise books or Home Alone 2. What child wouldn't dream of living Eloise's life or getting a chance to roam around the city without adult supervision? Now that I'm all grown up, I'd love to get the whole experience of NYC and go to a Broadway show, eat a cupcake at Magnolia, pose for a picture with the lion in front of the library, and get lost in the Strand bookstore. I would also like to have a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, but I hear the lines can be up to 3 hours long! The city so nice they named it twice! What's not to lust after? Broadway, Central Park, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, I want to see it all!

2. London, England
 I have been dreaming of London for what feels like my entire life. I want to go and do all the super touristy stuff like the London Eye, Big Ben, Changing of the Guard, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and maybe take a few side  trips to Stratford-upon-Avon, or Jane Austen's house. Did you know there's a Harry Potter tour in London? Oh my heck, I need to go like yesterday! Oh and fair warning, the odds of me returning home with a British accent are inevitable.

Chatsworth House in Derbyshire or Pemberley in the Kiera Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice

3. Paris, France

Little known fact about me: I took 3 years of French in high school. I can understand French if it's spoken very (very) slowly or if I have subtitles to help. I love so much about French culture, the food, the fashion, the architecture, how women seem to know how to tie a scarf from the womb. I have always had a bit of an obsession with the Eiffel Tower, but I think reading Anna and the French Kiss increased my desire to see Paris. There's just something so fabulous about a place that celebrates the consumption of bread. And cheese. And pastry. And cheese again.

The Maldives
I have never been on a tropical vacation. I would love to go somewhere fairly untouched by the Tourist Industrial Complex where I can relax and do nothing but eat incredible food and lie on a beach and read all day. Looking at pictures of The Maldives leads me to believe it's exactly the place where this sort of thing can be accomplished.

So where would you take a dream vacation?



All pictures found on Google Images