Travel Journal
I thought today I'd give you a peak into my travel journal, which currently covers my Austin & San Fran trips. (Alaska 2014 and Italy 2015 have their own journals entirely, which I can share in future posts). Also, I have yet to add the quick bachelorette weekend to this booklet as I took these pics before I went on that trip.I've decided that the words mean more to me than photos and ephemera, so when my friend Chels gifted me this journal, I knew it would be a perfect one to cover my year of adventure. I've learned that if I don't do the travel journaling while I am traveling it's not getting done (See: complete lack of photo books or journals for our cross-country drive, our honeymoon and most smaller trips we've taken).If the words are the priority - the story, the memories, the feelings - then writing down anything is better than nothing. It pays off to do a little bit each day then to try and recap it all when I get home.The notebook goes with me on a trip and I jot down everything I want to like:
- What I'm listening to
- What I'm reading
- Where I ate
- Where I stayed and how that felt
- Snippets of conversations
- What I'm thinking about
- I've also had friends jot down a memory or two of our trip
Thinking about things like "how traveling opens me up, makes me more curious" and "what if SF is feeling 'friendlier' because I am friendlier?"I bring a roll or two of washi tape, a few pens and call it done. If I need to cut something, I'm usually folding and tearing, and the washi tape looks good with torn edges.My hope is that my musings will be captured in one place I can go back and visit later on. I plan on printing out a few photos from each trip to add to the pages. It's a work-in-progress (we have a bunch more trips coming up) and it makes me super happy.Have you ever kept a travel journal? What kind of trips did you include in it? What did you keep to remind you of your travels? How does it feel to read your words after you're back home?For more inspiration... as always, Kelly Purkey has some fabulous ways to document travel. Also enjoy Vanessa, Caylee and Elise.