I found this short essay/ poem from Travel and Leisure magazine a few years before I had my first child. I tore the page and kept it with me until it was all crumpled and ripped. Not wanting to lose a copy, I typed those beautiful words and placed it in my travel scrapbook.

Whoever wrote this inspired me to raise my kids to be well traveled, to be cultured, to have an open mind, and to live life to the fullest.

And for them to realize that, in spite of all the technological advances, the world is still big. That there’s still so much to see, people to meet, and lessons to learn. But I sure hope that whatever they do, wherever they go, home is always going to be their favorite place.

I hope you will love this too just like I did.

For Joshua and Jude:
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My Favorite Place
Now I have children, and we travel in varied ways and often,
This is what I want them to remember.

I want them to remember the crescent moon in Turkey and the man in a dapper white suit walking a black pig in the evening in Miami Beach.
I want them to remember the hummingbirds in Belize and the mud ball fight they had with a boy named Zen.
I want them to remember that dog next to that bucket on that table next to that field with those blind rabbits.
I would like them to remember the lobster in Cape Cod and the Dairy Queen Blizzard ice cream in Hatsboro, Pennsylvania.

I would like them to remember that every time you leave the house to buy some milk is an excursion. I would like them to be as good humored as the Good Humor man. To make up their own stories. To realize that they are not the center of the universe. I want them to love traveling. To travel light. To take a journal, a sketchbook, and a camera. To not be too afraid of getting lost. To believe that there is magic in everything. And I would like them to feel that it is great to travel and great to come home.