This Is Our New Homefeatured

Six years, four months and one day ago, I started a blog to chronicle my family’s vacations.

Six years, four months, and one day. 199 posts chronicling 16 trips that touched most major Caribbean islands and countries in Central America . A couple hundred thousand hits. I was 23, I think. A year or so out of college, freelance writing for some pocket money while I figured out what I wanted to do with my life and how I’d use that journalism degree that was sitting on a shelf.

For six years, four months and one day, that blog was a home for my thoughts, my opinions, my stories, my pictures. A place to document the places we saw, the things we ate and the people we met. The things I liked and didn’t like. A place where my sister and my mother could look back and re-live a fading memory. And yes, a way to use that journalism degree that is still sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere.

Sometime over the past six years, four months and one day, it wasn’t vacationing anymore – it was traveling. Exploring the world. And somehow in writing, I discovered a wanderlust in me that I didn’t know existed. And as I started feeding that wanderlust, I decided I needed a better platform to share the stories of the places I went, the people I met and everything I liked (and didn’t like).

So that’s what this is – this is our new home. A place for me to document my travels. A connection to a world of other travelers and fellow vacationers. A grown up version of that blog I started one night six years, four months and one day ago. A place to document a new series of adventures as I tiptoe into a new phase of my life and attempt to balance all of this wanderlust with a full time job.

My first post was an intro post. I titled it “This Could Be the Start of Something New” and I wouldn’t be surprised if I pulled that one out of High School Musical. Some of it still holds. I think. My name is still Nicole. I still “like to travel. A lot.” My favorite color is still pink and my sister will always insist we go to the beach on any trip where the temps average above 70. I’m 30 now. I have a career and my home isn’t a room in my mom’s house, but a condo in a downtown Chicago high-rise. I’ve successfully conquered that fear of flying (…for the most part). I’d still rather climb ruins than go to the beach. And I’m still really excited to share the stories and pictures of the places I’ve been with all of you.

This is our new home. I can’t wait to break it in. Here’s to the next six years, four months and one day, and all of the travels I can fit into it.

((And for starters? There’s that trip to New York. A business trip to Seattle. Three weeks in Europe. A jaunt to Mexico. Oh, and that birthday weekend to Phoenix. Now where did I leave my pen?))