Traveling Light

The wife and I really don't have a lot of hobbies as we live a pretty quiet life in the town of Rome, Georgia. But if there's one thing we really like to do, it's travel! And travel we will in the coming months as it's our goal to book around two or three trips a year if possible. Of course this isn't always possible, but we usually try to put money back throughout the year just for certain trips. Other than the basic necessities of life, eating out occasionally, and a show or concert here or there, we really don't spend a lot and save what we can just for the purpose of traveling when we have the chance. It's a beautiful and diverse world our Lord has created, and we enjoy taking it in. We've discussed having kids possibly in the not so far away future, so we know we must cure this traveling bug while we can! It's been almost a year since we took a nice long vacation together traveling around, so we are excited about the opportunities this year is bringing us!

A great thing for us about this year is that we should get to use our passport four times!! Twice to the same country. The company I work for sent us to the Bahamas back in January which required a passport. In a couple of weeks, we're flying off to Seattle to tour around Washington state. While there, we plan to go on a whale watching trip to see Orca whales up close. (or at least that's what they tell us!) We're going to explore the Cascades and Olympic National Parks which are nestled on each side of Seattle. This trip will also have us crossing the border into Canada by way of Ferry boat as well to the little town of Victoria, British Columbia, the capital of that beautiful province. I have been to this part of the states and Canada once before and found the green landscape, dense forest, and water surrounding the islands and city of Seattle to be just beautiful. Lynn has never been here and is in for a treat. We've both worked long hard hours throughout this year and are looking forward to this trip coming up soon!

In July, my lovely wife is turning thirty. I jokingly tell her that it's time to turn her back in for another 20 something year old. Then she reminds me of how quickly i'm approaching forty and that shuts me up pretty quick! For her birthday, I've worked out a short trip to Ireland. Both of us have wanted to visit this country before and will be spending most of our time in & around Dublin. It's not as long as we'd like to stay, but we'll get to see most of what we'd like to see being in the city for day, and then checking out a couple of castles and seeing the beautiful landscape and hopefully shorelines that surround Dublin a couple of other days. Lynn is fascinated with castles and loves the architecture and design of them. While there, we're also going to see a little band called U2 as well, in their hometown of Dublin. That's a treat for me as I grew up a huge fan of this band and still am. Lynn has never seen them, but likes them as well and is excited about seeing them in their native land. Should be a good show.

Finally in September, we head back to the north country of Canada, planning to tour, hike, and sight see the Canadian Rockies. We had planned this trip last September, but had to cancel at the last minute due to a very serious sickness in Lynn's family. So, we vowed to give it another shot this fall, and hope to see as much of this beautiful land as possible. Flying into Calgary, this will give us a chance to tour up and down the Canadian Rockies mountain range from Banff national park all the way up to Jasper. If time permits, we may swing down into Montana and see Glacier National Park as well. We both love seeing these parks that have been set aside and display the beauty of God's hand in this world.

This is a lot for us this year, and we certainly don't take it for granted. I can't help but think of a passage that our Pastor covered this past week in the book of Job, where Job laments after receiving bad news that "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." We feel very blessed to be able to tour and see these beautiful places, and to spend time together which at times can be much needed! I know there are many that do not have these opportunities. But we also realize that we may not always have these opportunities, and of course we never know what life can bring. The point being, we love and trust the Lord of scripture through our blessings and through any other times that may occur.

I hope to post pictures on here and at Facebook throughout the year of where we go. As I stated in my very first post, I do this more for me as a way to keep a scrapbook/diary/journal of things in which I'm thinking on, and of course what I'm going through, and just my life in general. If anyone reads, I hope they enjoy and feel free to correspond!