Making Memories: And Our Favorite Ones (so far)

Making Memories: And Our Favorite Ones (so far)

Our listeners have spoken and we have heard you! We sent out a poll asking what you guys wanted to hear more of and personal traveling stories was the top vote. So we're kicking off season 2 with just that! In this episode of TravelEssary, we share our favorite personal traveling moments and tips to help you create the perfect memories on your travels. 

Link to Misty's favorite moment captured on video - https://youtu.be/67e4jHjieY0?si=wdimgAIH8zuQOzpl

Transcript

We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time on this episode of TravelEssary. We're going to be talking about our favorite traveling memories. Let's chat.  

Welcome and thank you for joining us. On this episode, as we talk about our favorite traveling memories. No, I do want to.  First and foremost say how excited I am about kicking off season two and how excited I am to jump into these next few episodes that we have.

Now me and Misty have sat down. We have made our own individual list. I have north idea what she's going to talk about. She doesn't know the stories that I'm going to talk about. As far as our favorites, we've picked our top three. We've gotten a few suggestions from our children about which ones that they enjoyed the most. 

And.  At the end of this episode, we're also going to talk about some of the tricks. That you can do to make your travels more memorable.

Let's start. Our favorite travel memories. Now, this is in no particular order for myself. I guess I do actually have a number one that I truly enjoyed above all the other ones. And that's actually going to be my last one.  But the one I want to start out with is we took a trip a two week trip , it was my dad, my mom, sister, and me. We took a two week trip to Charleston, South Carolina, and about 89 or 90. 

So it was back in the day, as my kids would say, And we had such an amazing trip. We drove the whole time. So now granted. I'm going to tell off on our ourselves, because it. It wasn't a bad thing back then. But people in the back seat. I hardly ever had seatbelts on. So, you know, sticking our feet out the windows, as it as driving 60 miles an hour, just, it was normal. 

I. And you would just drive and you would see other people doing it. The windows rolled down because AC didn't work that well. We had board games in the back.  You know, whenever we got tired of my sister would fall asleep on the seats, I would fall asleep on the floorboard and it was just a great time. We pulled a little trailer behind us that had all of our luggage, it had. Ice chest that had food. So we didn't really stop and eat at a whole bunch of restaurants. But we did that iconic state to states thing. So whenever you get to the next state and it says welcome to Louisiana, we stop and we took a picture. So we do that in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina. 

We took all these pictures. And one of the greatest memories on it is.  There is a place between the, on the Mississippi river, on the Louisiana side that we stopped at. And it allows you to walk up this windy staircase to get to the very top and overlook the massive river. That is the Mississippi.  And I did it twice because I wanted to count how many steps I went up and I believe it was somewhere around 165. 

And my parents waited patiently while. There. Nine-year-old was going up and down these steps. We did stop in Atlanta, Georgia. That's where my grandparents were at.  And we spent a couple of days there. We had a great time. We actually met my mom's sister up there with her family. 

. They took us to stone mountain, right outside of Atlanta, which is an amazing place they had. Antique cars that you could go to.  There was walking trails or hiking trails all over the place.  And you got to walk to the very tip top of the mountain side. 

That's over there. It took us all day  to make the Trek up and to walk back down and to see everything. But we stayed that night and they had one of the coolest laser shows. Actually on the mountain at that time. And it was a beautiful and a sight to behold.



Within made our way up to Charleston, South Carolina, and got to meet by uncle who was in the Navy at the time, my aunt, my three cousins. And we had just a wonderful time. They took us to a pond one time. And we got to feed the ducks and of course the ducks chased us and it was just a great and wonderful memory.  And then we just made the trip back. We weren't in a hurry. We weren't trying to rush anywhere. And so that is my first favorite traveling memory.  

So your whole vacation. That whole trip.  No whole trip is your favorite memory.  

 I don't have a lot of.  Traveling memories as a child, my family wasn't fortunate enough to do a lot of traveling. We took one trip to Carlsbad.  Kathryn's and then to the zoo there and the Carlsbad New Mexico area, I think that's the only like true vacation my family ever had when I was a child.  But the first memory I'm going to share. , that is just something that I cherish. 

I enjoy so much. It's actually. Multiple memories, but it's the same experience. And I guess.  I did have this experience as a child too, but not as much. And then whenever I started dating Jeremy and hanging out with his family in the summers, , it happened more and more and more, but that is just riding on a boat. I don't know what it is about being out on the lake. And whenever it's so quiet and no one's talking there may or may not be some music. It's the most relaxing, peaceful time of our camping vacations of our lake vacations. So, I guess. Every single time I'm on a boat. 

That's not really one memory, but it's one. Situation. I guess. And I absolutely love those moments. Those are the moments that I wish would never end just being out there on the water with our family in a boat .  When the kids were really little, it never failed. It always put them to sleep. And I think as a young mother, It made me enjoy that boat ride even more. 

So , from the time I was a child all the way up until now. I really enjoy long boat rides.

Now our children never really liked being on the boat. Justin did. Okay. Ariel actually hated being on the boat when she was little. , the wind would take her breath away and she hated it, but it almost always put her to sleep. And so once she was asleep,  the rest of us were able to enjoy those moments. 

Which has to do with my favorite memories. Of traveling is the last time  we went to my family reunion. For a full week. We boated so much. Because, I mean, that's what we did. My dad. And uncle had a pontoon and we would just load up with as many people as we could get away with. On the boats and then cruise, 



 Those leisurely long boat rides absolutely are amazing. And I enjoyed. Camping. I enjoy. Going in being with friends and families. On camping because  whenever you camp, you get away from the world, just the eating. The camping, the cooking,  the campfires that are there.  Those are some of my favorite memories. Whenever we go to the family reunion where. You know, we get up and we do an early Phish. Time at like five o'clock in the morning, and then we take an afternoon nap and then we go play.  Domino's in the evening time. 

And then it's just sitting around the campfire for like two or three hours till two or three o'clock in the morning of just talking and reminiscing and just having a good time. With friends and family. That is definitely one of my favorite memories. 



I can't take my favorite memory. , was that your second one? 

That was your second one. Okay. I thought you were still playing off of mine. I think it's funny that we're three memories into what we're wanting to talk about. And so far, Out of all the things that we've experienced and all the things we've done. We're talking about the most simple and basic traveling experiences. 

Your first one was literally just  traveling across the country with your family. And then mine was being on a boat. I mean, how. On extraordinary. It is to be on a boat, but , it's such a pleasurable experience to me. And then you went into camping, which goes along with the boat riding again, it's just those moments of being with your family and enjoying each other's time. 

And. All of those memories are kind of slow and they're not forced. And I think it's funny that  so far, we seem to be choosing. Uh, memories along those lines.  So, I guess I'll start with my second memory then. , this one's a little more stereotypical, I guess, but one of my favorite memories. Is whenever we went to Hilton head, South Carolina. Justin and I, because we're the early birds. We would get up early in the morning while everyone else was still asleep and we would go take , a stroll along the beach. And it was absolutely beautiful. 

It was so peaceful. And we would see people surfing up and down the beach early in the morning, there were people going for jogs. There wasn't a lot of people out  the sunrise coming off of the water, like the colors were so beautiful. It was such again, another peaceful, slow. Relaxed moment. I think most of mine.  Follow along those your seems to be following along like family time and mind seems to be like moments of peace. 

I think it's funny how we're both kind of following a trend. But I asked the kids.  Before we get into our absolute favorite ones. I asked the kids. What was there?  Number one top favorite traveling memory of every place I've been to their whole life. And Justin's was also when we went to the beach. In fact, I was having a hard time of choosing the moments where Justin and I were walking along the beach in the mornings or of that. 

Um, I don't remember what restaurant we went to, but after Justin had spent the entire day. Yeah, playing in the ocean and in the waves. And then , we went to a late lunch. It was like around two or two 30. We went to go eat some lunch and he couldn't even stay awake while we were in. Lunch. He was falling asleep. 

When we were waiting for our table, he was falling asleep at the table. I have so many little videos of him falling asleep because he had spent from morning until two o'clock just out in the waves and in the water. And then we went back out that evening. But I almost picked that as one of my favorite memory.  Because we all had such a good chuckle and we were all so exhausted after that day. 

And I think we ate that lunch in almost silence other than laughing at Justin, because we were all so tired. But again, it was just another slow, peaceful moment. I liked that  justin picked that moment too, because I almost picked that moment as well.  That beach vacation. , Was definitely a great time, Ariel. I'm kind of sad. 

I asked Ariel and I said, out of everything, In your whole life. What's your favorite traveling memory 

and she said her favorite traveling memory is one she's had a recently, I guess it was the beginning of the year where my parents took her to an escape room. 

She said , that's the one that she can think of right now.  We've taken this girl, that Disney world. 

How many times. And she says the first thing that she could think of was going to those escape rooms, but she is our little mystery solver. She likes a good, true crime podcast. .  She likes to solve mysteries. So her favorite traveling memory is going a few hours down the road to an escape room.  But I do like how  

we have trends. I like my peaceful moments. And you like your family moments, I'm curious to hear what . Your main, favorite traveling memory is. 

I mean, we can talk about the times that we've done  some crazy adventurous stuff, but those aren't the memories that stick in my mind  especially just for me, it's all about family. It's all about making memories with each other because then we can share those stories back and forth.

, we can definitely spend a lot of times on all the different memories that we have across our lifetimes. And these are just a few. 

These are like the tip of the iceberg . But.  My favorite one. And it's going to be an oxymoron tune in next week. But my favorite one is the first time we went to Disney world.  The first time we went to Disney world. I don't know. I guess.  I guess just because of how we got there, how your brother graduated. 

We loaded up in the car that morning. We drove as hard and as fast as we possibly could until like two o'clock in the morning. And we got to Disney world around noon-ish. On the day that our tickets started and the first thing that happens whenever we first get in. I have aerial on my shoulders and we walk in and the afternoon parade was going on. 

And one of the princesses, I think it was Cinderella. But I'm not, it could have been bell. And she's doing her little waving thing and you feel like they're all making eye contact with you. And if it felt like she made eye contact with Ariel in our little group and area, and it was just the first thing that we saw when we first entered the happiest place in the world. 

And it was so magical and so surreal that. I actually cried on that one a little bit. 

I might've shed a tear or two. Whenever all that happened.  But it was definitely one of the most magical things. And the most surreal  and greatest thing on any vacation that we've been on. 

That I mean, I could sit here and try to describe it with, you know, elegant words or whatever. It was just awesome. I mean, That's all there was still, it was just awesome. And then the rest of the trip was really good. As far as that goes. And if you want to hear more about the trip tune in next week. 

I think it's funny that you keep telling them the tune in next week, because next week we're talking about our not so great travel experiences and yes, our first trip to Disney world was a mixture of both.  , but also I love that you picked that moment as your number one moment, because I was able to capture that with pictures and I have a picture of Ariel on your shoulders with the biggest smile on her face. 

In fact, I will try to link that down in the show notes so everyone can see that, that little moment. It was our family's very first time to go to Disney world. We had zero expectations. We didn't really know. Much about it or what was going to happen. And we walked in on like the most magical moment. 

And I think that helped set the tone for our entire week that we were there.  I also think it's funny that you chose that because my number one happened at Disney world as well, but not the first time it happened. The second time we went to Disney world.  So the second time we went to Disney world, we were super fortunate and we were able to go for two whole weeks. 

And the first week that we were there. , we were there with friends and family. There was a big old crew of us. , we were spending the days together and making plans together for five or six days.

And, Whenever you have a big group and you're as somewhere like Disney world, and you're all trying to stay together and make plans together. It's a lot, it can be exhausting.  It can be exhausting to keep up with everyone. We had an amazing time. And, , we actually made YouTube videos during that time. 

This was, , 2016. I think it was when we went the second time. So . I will link those, Moments down into the show notes, but I will very specifically link the moment that I'm going to be talking about, because again, it was another one I was able to capture on film. So.  Most of our, all of our friends and family had to leave after the first week, we were the only ones staying in two weeks. 

And so that last day where our friends and family was there, we spent the morning with, my family and the afternoon with my family and then somewhere early evening time they left and we.  We were so tired. 

The kids were so tired. Both of them had been sick at the beginning of that vacation. Running fever and all sorts of stuff. 

 I totally forgot about this memory, but this is definitely, this'll probably be at like 3.1. If I had to like put them in order.  Well, it's my all time. Favorite memory, not just my favorite traveling memory, but my favorite memory of us as a family in general.  And so the kids were exhausted. They had been sick the first. Few days of our Disney world vacation. 

And that's a story all in itself.  But they had been sick. And, you know, we had this big group of people that we went with and we hit it hard and we hit it fast and it was exhausting and it was fun and it was a blast. But then we got to where it was just us. It was just me and Jeremy and then our two kids at the time, because we just had to, at the time. And. We were walking, , around the world showcase just kind of, not really. Totally sure. 

What we were going to do. We didn't have any plans for the evening. All of her fast passes were for that morning with the family. And we were just kind of there and , we were hungry and we wanted to rest and we wanted to just like chill for a minute.  So we got some funnel cake. And we went and sat at the little place where they do the concerts and stuff. 

, before the fireworks show, there was a jazz concert.  And we sat there and we ate our funnel cake and the kids just kind of danced and grooved along with the jazz. , and then it started misting on us.  We went April and it started getting cool and Misty. And so the kids put on their rain ponchos and they're still dancing to the music. 

And then the fireworks came and.  I don't know how to explain that moment, but  it's one of my absolute favorite memories and I'm so thankful that I was able to capture that on one of our YouTube videos. That's why I'm always telling people, take pictures, take videos, take pictures, take videos. 

Because  those are moments that you don't get back. You know, you don't get those moments back. And.  It sounds like such as a simple and boring time.

 We sat there and ate funnel cake, watched a jazz concert and watched fireworks and it rained on us, but yet it's one of my. Absolute fondest memories  that I have. 

And while we were there, we broke open the little glow in the dark sticks and bracelets. And so , we got those out and Aero and Justin had them on, they were passing them around and doing their thing and Ariel was enjoying the music and dancing and it was just, very enjoyable, very peaceful.  I mean it's Disney world. 

We could have been running and gunning like we did the first week. But it was just one of those times where you got to sit down as a family, just enjoy the atmosphere and just take a break because you never know. Whenever you can make a memory.  Which brings me to my first tip for you. Is because you never know when you can make a memory. Is. Try to be conscious of. Taking pictures.  And making videos just like Misty said,



Now  I am definitely one of those hardcore believers that  you should be in the moment. You should just enjoy the moment while you're there. But taking your phone out and taking a picture. But 15 seconds nowadays. I mean, bada Bing, bada, boom. You're done. And not only are you still in the moment, but you also get something that will, you know, a picture says a thousand words. 

It'll, it'll reminisce something. It'll trigger something in your mind. And those pictures will speak volumes later on in your life. 

And I think that.  My number one tip, then I can give.  I'm not going to say as the most important tip. But it is important on any vacation, but especially for making those memories, like if you stop and you look at what we have said, our favorite memories are, they're all unplanned moments. None of those moments were planned.  None of them were on the schedule or the itinerary or anything like that. 

So my number one tip is to stay flexible, have a plan. Oh, I am all about having a bland, which we're going to get into deep this season about planning the vacations and specifics. I'm all about having a plan, but. Remember to stay flexible. Because if you're very rigid in your planned. You can miss some of the most magical moments that you will ever experience be flexible.  Be willing to change. If something needs to be changed. Like our kids getting sick the first few days we were there. We had to change some schedules around and some plans and, but be flexible.

And just see where your trip takes you.

. And being flexible. Sometimes you can find yourself in such a hurry or such a tizzy to get something done. 

But you have to slow down if you don't slow down and , all you're doing is running and gun in. 

And all you're doing , is jumping from one thing to another. You don't allow. Your natural tendencies, your natural personalities to come out. Like Ariel loves music. She loved dancing , and  Doing a little jig every once in a while.  Same thing with Justin,  um, touches kind of be in their selves and just kind of loosening up. 

But if we never would have stopped at that pavilion to listen to those songs and eat a funnel cake, we could have missed out on a amazing memory that we both remember vividly. Six years down the road.

Oh, it's eight years. Okay. Eight years. So slow down. Don't be in such a hurry that you miss something glorious.

Well, since you took my number two tip.  Yeah, , slow down. I think for me personally,  The reason that all of my favorite memories. Our moments of where things are slow, you know, riding on a boat. When it's no one's talking and we're just out there on the waves or that. , early morning before the sunrise walk that I had out on the beach with Justin. Or the quiet lunch we had other than the giggles after a long, exhausting day on the beach or those moments of just sitting there. Watching that performance, watching our kids have a great time and winding down. 

I think the reason. Me as a mother,  my favorite moments are those moments where we have slowed down. Is because.  It's exhausting being a parent and traveling.  It's exhausting because not only are you planning your trip and your, you know,  Making your road trip itineraries 

you also have little people to keep up with. You have their schedules to keep up with you, have your schedules to keep up with you have transportation schedules, you have their clothes. , you have so much to keep up with ya. Gotta make sure everyone stays safe. , you do your best to make sure your kids are having the best time. 

And when we have those moments where you're able to just slow down, And still see that everyone is having a great time. I think those are the moments where I feel like I've just won. Like, those are the ones that. Make little core memories for me because I have a moment to breathe and I have a moment. To sit there and realize what's going on. And so I captured them. 

I love how we. Kind of we're saying the same things. Cause , we wanted to plan this one separately today.  Usually we come together and we're like, okay, , what are we going to talk about? . But I was like, I want to do it separate today. 

I want to see what your favorite memories are and what mine are. And. I want to compare them and I love that. 

They're very similar. Love that there's similar moments.

I love that. They're the moments where.

We were being the slowest.

They get their, like other than maybe our Disney world ones. It's very basic stuff that anybody can go do. And anybody can recreate because. Other than Disney world. It's not big expensive,  📍 extravagant, planned out moments. Like it's not this.  Pinterest picture perfect Instagram where the moments., I love that. They're the most simple, most basic times of our trips.  



So join us next week as we talk about our not so favorite traveling memories and how you can avoid them.  📍   

 Let's  go home 'na na na'. Let's go home na na na.