When I was a little girl, I used to read the encyclopedia – you know, back when it was a collection of books and not crowd sourced on the internet. I’d sit in front of the bookcase and pick a random letter and just start flipping through it and see what I could find.

More often than not, I found another country that I wanted to visit. I’m pretty sure it was the layers of maps that got my attention. I was fascinated by how a country could change and grow so much, yet still stay the same with it’s history and culture and traditions. I was bitten by the travel bug and I wasn’t even ten.

Even on family vacations, I was never content to sit by the pool or on the beach and just be. I wanted to see and do and learn. I even read 1000 Places to See Before You Die from cover to cover  in high school and highlighted everywhere I wanted to visit to the point that the book is more neon yellow than black and white.

Fortunately, I’m able to travel to some pretty awesome places because of hockey, but, outside of visiting friends and family, I can’t remember the last time I went on a vacation that didn’t revolve around a hockey game. With my ever growing Travel To Do List that includes places the game of hockey can’t bring me – like South Africa and Egypt and Argentina – and the desire for this to be my most productive year yet, the time has come to take some action. This year, I am officially going on vacation!!

The only question is…where do I go??

The good news is I don’t have to get stuck in analysis paralysis deciding which place I want to go, I just have to choose which place to visit first. Assuming I live long enough and have the disposable funds, frequent flyer miles and hotel points necessary, I can check every single one of them off my list including the ones that I don’t even know that I want to add yet.

The point is it doesn’t matter where I go or what I do as long as I’m going and doing and seeing and learning and tasting and feeling and enjoying!

“The world is a book and those that do not travel only read one page” – St Augustine

If there’s anything that I’ve learned through my travels thus far is that wanderlust never goes away. Discovering a new place never gets old and I plan on reading this book called Earth from cover to cover. Where will your next adventure take you?