To be honest, I have not been a travel agent for very long. At the time I'm writing this, it's been less than a year. I quit my job as a legal secretary where the political and corporate struggles were great and the majority of the employees dragged themselves to work only to become frustrated by too much work, feel that they were underpaid and most sat at their desk dreaming about their time off and their next vacation.
I am a baby boomer. And, just like many of the rest of you, my parents are now having to deal with mobility issues, diseases they never heard or nor can hardly pronounce and wishing they could remember whatever it is that they forgot. Had I continued working full time as a legal secretary, I would not have been able to help my parents get to their doctor appointments, fix a meal for them or spend any quality time with them listening to them tell me the stories of their lives.
So, one day, I walked into work and handed in my resignation. Now what was I going to do?!! At the time, my parents were still well and getting around easily. (Things would quickly change) My folks are both in their 80's and we found out unexpectedly that Dad had to have a quadruple bypass surgery.
My husband Jim came into my life 10 years ago and we were married in October 2000. Jim took me to Washington DC on our honeymoon. I'd never really traveled much in my adult life except to visit frieds in Anchorage, Alaska. I LOVE Alaska. It is my passion; and we go there every chance we get. But - imagine me - seeing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States right before my eyes, when I had only learned about them in elementary school. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Arlington Cemetery, the Vietnam Wall and Korean Memorial and spent time in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I was in awe - there is so much out there that is available to us if we get the chance to see it.
From that honeymoon vacation, I realized that I loved traveling even more. Through the next few years, Jim introduced me to cruising. Again, I fell in love. I think it is by far the best way to travel and see things and the best value! How better can it get than packing your suitcase, walking on board the ship, putting your things away and then having someone else make your meals everyday, someone comes in a magically makes your bed and leaves you special chocolates on your pillow for a bedtime snack and you wake up in a different place every day! How fabulous is that!
The whole journey from the first idea of a trip and deciding where and when you want to go to actually booking it - continues on through the excitement of planning your shore excursions and other adventures, deciding if you want to go earlier or stay later to see more of your home port - is truly exciting and fun and part of the journey itself.
The real excitement for me comes when our documents arrive and I print our boarding passes. Then I know the time is getting near! Now, I have to pack! I want to take enough but not too much. Believe me - I always take too much!
Then - the day finally comes where we load our bags into the car and off we go on our new adventure. We have an anticipation of what is about to happen for us, but we never truly know until we live the moment. And, i absolutely get chills every time our airplane takes off and we board that ship and that whistle blows! We are on our way!
I started writing my Travelogues to send home to our family and friends to let them know what we were doing on our "adventures". I sit down sometime every day and begin to write. I also started putting our pictures into Shutterfly photo books. This way our pictures are preserved and we will not lose them. We can identify the pictures and will know exactly who is in the picture or what we were taking a picture of. The Shutterfly albums are so professional and we enjoy every one that we have. They are like coffee table books.
After a couple of trips and sending home our Travelogues, my Mom and Dad said they had saved our Travelogues and thought we would want to put them inside our photo book because they enjoyed them so much. Well, I got to thinking and found a way to incorporate my Travelogues inside of my Shutterfly books - and so our memories of our travels have evolved.
It would be unrealistic to think that we could be traveling 365 days a year. Jim is still working a full time job; and I am trying to get my travel agency business off the ground. Therefore, I cannot send you a true "Travelogue" of our travels every day in my blog. But, I think it will be fun to write about different destinations every day with a brief synopsis of the area and things to do there. And, when we are lucky enough to get out there and actually travel, I will post my Travelogues here for you to read along and share our adventures with us.
Let's see where that takes us...Tomorrow if you're still with me, we'll all wake up in a new place full of new sights and adventures. Where should we go? Pack your bags and we'll be on our way!
Barbara Carpenter
Carpenter Travel
(619) 592-4628
www.carpentertravel.net
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Can't believe its been 10 years.~j
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