Traveling Solo

I have been fortunate enough to travel...A LOT!  With that being said some of my most memorable trips are from childhood....when I was about 6 years old and my first time in Disney.  I was NOT a fan of Mickey Mouse and so refused a photo opp with him and the fam.  On the morning of our departure (an afternoon flight), I woke up feeling like a pretty confident 6 year old.  So I told the p-units that I wanted to take a picture with Mickey.  It was a series of chaotic events as we raced to get to the park and get the photo with enough time to make it to the airport.  Fail...we missed our flight and got another one, and spent 6 or so extra hours in the Chicago Airport with two children (6 and 4) in an attempt to arrive home on the same day.  My parents were SUPER excited ;-)

My next series of most memorable trips was definitely my time in Europe.  Living there for 3.5 months with Cameron was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! 

Ideally Cam is the best travel partner.  And yes he is my husband and yes its pretty important that we travel well together.  But it is more than that, I truly enjoy all the memories and moments when we are exploring.  We are able to strike a great balance that makes traveling fun.  As you all know Cam is a talker so we always meet interesting people and have dinner with them and learn more about wherever they're from and we've had many invitations and offers of places to stay!!  Pretty Cool!

Which leads me to the topic of traveling alone. For me its about the experience...it doesn't matter whether you're traveling with a spouse, friend, family, co-worker, classmates.  I feed off the energy of others, although I am confident in my navigation of public transit, maps, I have no problem eating alone in a restaurant.  But thriving on the energy of others is part of the excitement that traveling brings.  When you are in pair I've noticed that there is often more interaction with servers, shop owners, strangers!  But traveling alone to me lacks all of that added interest.  Not to mention you can't look 360 degrees at once!!  Gosh!! How am I suppose to spot that little cafe or that super cute shop if I can only look at one side at a time.  Not to mention sometimes its nice to have someone else around to put in there two cents. 

As a result I have realized although I am confident and comfortable enough to travel solo...I dislike :-)