Wanderlust (Part 1)

Wanderlust- a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world

2012 was a year of travel for me. If I could, I would spend my last penny on travel because I think that it is that important! Early in 2013 I received a promotional offer for a big discount on a photo book from Shutterfly. I love the idea of documenting trips and important moments in photo books! It is so much better than having to cut up my precious photographs to put in a scrapbook!

I am going to share with you some of the photos and quotes from my 2012 Year of Travel Shutterfly photo book.

If you are interested in making your own photo book, here is a link for up 50% off of a photo book or they have some other promotions running on other items. You should go check out Shutterfly! Unfortunately, this promotion only goes through tomorrow, 2/27/13 at 11:59 PM.

Shutterfly up to 50% off!

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."

January 2012- Ocracoke, North Carolina

 

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."

 

Ocracoke Island is an island off of the Outerbanks in North Carolina. I love that the beaches are protected so there is no development on them. There arent rows of hotel beach chairs or stacks of beach houses and hotel buildings lining the beach. It is just beach for miles. The village of Ocracoke is very close and you can ride a bike or drive the short distance to the beach. Having clear and open beaches is totally worth the short commute to the beach from your beach house or hotel!

This picture was taken in Hatteras, North Carolina. The shelling is awesome in the Outerbanks.

 

 

"Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."

February 2012- New Orleans, LA

 

We stayed in New Orleans for a few nights over Mardi Gras weekend in 2012. It was a blast. The feeling that you get on Mardi Gras day in the city is sort of that "feeling alive" feeling. The sights and sounds and attitude and culture make you feel like you are a part of something. Even if it is just for a few days.



 

 

June 2012- Fort Morgan, Alabama

We were at the beach for my 25th birthday this year.

 

"Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere."

 

 

June 2012- Ben and Lori (and Penny) come to visit me in Louisiana from North Carolina

 

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not."



 

Swimming at our camp in Mississippi on the Bogue Chitto River

 

Global Wildlife Center

St Francisville, LA

 

UCM Museum- Abita Springs, LA

 

"The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

 

As I am going back through the quotes and photos I selected for my book, I realized that there are way too many to include in one post. I will save July-December for another post (or two).

From July to December in 2012 I traveled to:

Flat Rock, Hendersonville, and Asheville, NC visiting family with my sister Bailey

Raleigh and the Outerbanks with Ben and Lori- Emerald Isle, Beaufort, Bath, NC

Palm Springs, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles, California

Dallas, Texas

Destin, Florida

and back to Ocracoke for New Year's!

 

"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