Unpacked: Summer's Travel Souvenirs

This summer I've been very fortunate. I've been able to see....

• The beach & waves of the Atlantic Ocean
• The small towns and coastal sights of the Eastern Shore of Maryland
• The mountains and quaint towns of New England
• The traffic of New York City and the New Jersey Turnpike via rental car
• The majesty of Canada's Montmorency Falls while hiking about
• The skyline of Old Montreal from the top of the La Grande Roue de Montréal (ferris wheel)
• The view of historic Vieux-Québec City & across-the-river Lévis by ferry, funicular, and foot 
• The quaint homes and busy life of DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood
• The Chicago skyline from the air, flying into Midway airport
• The flat farmlands of the Midwest prairie 

It's been a summer of planes, (metro)trains, and automobiles...not to mention ferries, boats, bikes, funiculars, foot traffic, Ubers, and pool floaties. I've been fortunate to have a teacher "summer off" of a variety of long and short trips, getting the opportunity to see a lot of unique sights and eat some amazing food along the way. I also got to try out my fr'anglais in Canada--which even after 4.5 years of high school and college French, it was not pretty. 

I'm finding in my reflection that my summer travel souvenirs tie in both with the richness of our trip to Spain over spring break and my recent read: Rick Steves' book Travel as a Political Act. The benefits from travel go on and on: it gets you out of your comfort zone, allows for greater understanding of the world, provides opportunities to interact with locals and embrace different cultures, changes your perspective, challenges preconceived ideas, gets you out of your routine, and gives you new insights to yourself while you see all these places out of the ordinary. I especially love that it shows you how many people and how many unique places are out there in this great big world. Feeling small on a big planet every now and then is a very good thing. 

There's still some summer ahead. Likewise, fall, winter, and spring. The beauty of travel is that it isn't season specific, and there's no time limit. Where it's out in nature or a version of (what I call) "urban hiking," you can go near or far, be extravagent or go on the cheap, and experience something new. Go find somewhere new to explore!

Images from https://www.adventureinyou.com/travel-inspiration/best-travel-quotes/ and my own camera compiled at https://www.canva.com/design/DAGuwRFlXdk/spkLrRbLBRagSQIXgO4mNw/view