The crack in the blackout shades hanging in the window of our bedroom reveal the warmth of the sun. The sun so very rarely shows itself October to May in Seattle, so I let it wake me and roll over. The indentation from my husband is still warm. Feeling his warmth, I roll onto his side of the bed for a minute and grasp the faint memory of this mornings’ goodbye.

My stirring wakes her up… halfway… enough for her to yawn, stretch and crawl up to the top of the bed toward my neck. She appreciatively snorts as I lift up the warm covers so she can crawl in. I wipe the sleep from her eyes and she rubs her face against my cheeks like an eskimo kiss. I breath her in and my heart surges with her scent. In this moment: sun in face, sleep lingering, warm covers, puppy breath, day new… I am the happiest.

What is your happiest moment of your day?

I grew up a trained traveler. The kind that is hardened to museum lines, can sleep on plastic hostel mattresses and dreams of the next adventure while on current adventure. My mother is responsible for it. At the age of 10, she started taking my brother and I on our own little mini trips around the country…. separately of course. We would pick a city, stay in an AYH, and from sun-up to sun-down, pack our days full of anything and everything related to the local history. [sidenote: maybe this was why school was uninteresting to me?].
Travel is just something we always did, it was a part of our lives. When the mister and I decided to get hitched, it was so exciting to dream about what adventure would be our first as a married couple. Neither of us are “lay on the beach” kind of people, so we opted for an adventure travel vacation instead.
It’s been a bit quiet here on my blog, because we just got back from 2 weeks in Europe… I never know the rules about this kind of thing. Should I put it on Facebook, Twitter, Blog? Share my excitement about pizza, castles, driving on the wrong side of the road? Oooooooor will someone break into my house and steal all my stuff while we’re gone? I opted for the safety side.
Some might be surprised (as I surprised myself), that I decided to travel pro-camera-less. I think part of me might regret that later, but it was the best choice to just enjoy and be in the moment with my hubs. That being said, here are a couple snapshots for your enjoyment. ;-) Most of the pictures of us are during meals, so I pretty much put up the only ones we have while we aren’t eating. We spent a week in Ireland, a week in Italy, and a day in Amsterdam. We met up with some expat friends Lesley and Adam in Amsterdam for a day of sightseeing and more eating. Lesley offered to take a few images of us to remember our honeymoon with a real camera, and of course we jumped at the opportunity. You can see some of our session with her on her blog…

PS> This pizza in Naples was the best of my life…. I mean…. ever. In my life.

I would like to thank my inlaws for giving my husband the longest arms on the planet.

Where will our next adventure take us? We’ve talked about Spain, Morocco, Eastern Europe, Iceland… I would love to see India, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya, and South Africa, although I’m alone on that because my husband is afraid of anything less than modern… and guerrilla warfare.
Do you have wanderlust? Where are you dreaming about? What is the most amazing place you’ve ever been?