Travel with Emily Brooks, Mrs. ND International 2021
Traveling with my
Family
Since
this month’s blog post is my choice of topic, I wanted to share a little
insight with you about my family life. Specifically, I’d like to share one of
my family’s greatest enjoyments. Traveling together is something we love
tremendously! We’ve had the privilege of venturing to 6 out of 7 continents,
and creating memories together that will last a lifetime.
My
husband is a Geographer by trade, which has contributed to my family’s interest
in knowing more about our world. From very young ages, my husband and I have
taught our children about different cultures. We want for them to know what
life is like beyond our community. When we’re not traveling, my family enjoys watching
travel videos together and discussing why we’d like to visit new destinations.
This
love of travel has blended well with my background in writing. I’ve been a
featured writer for Creek Living Magazine since 2018 for the Travel Tales
section. Creating these articles has been not only rewarding professionally but has personally given me the opportunity to reflect on our adventures
together. My husband and I have also started a travel blog called Fly Away
Fargo. You can read insights about some of our travels at www.flyawayfargo.com.
In
2019, my entire family along with my brother-in-law took a trip that brought us
on a full lap around the world. We started in Australia, continued onto Singapore,
United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Morocco, and Portugal before returning to
the United States. We were completely immersed in foreign cultures. Some of the
experiences we had on this trip, we still discuss on a weekly basis.
I’m so
thankful that we took this trip when we did. The next year, our lives changed
greatly in many ways due to the pandemic. Our travel options became extremely
limited because of safety concerns, and foreign countries closing their borders
to visitors. To fill a bit of the void during this time of the pandemic, I ordered
a subscription to Universal Yums. This subscription provides new treats,
trivia, and in-depth information about a different country each month. It
didn’t completely fill the void that travel usually occupied in our lives, but
it kept the spark alive for learning about other cultures and customs.
Now
that travel has opened back up a bit with the introduction of COVID-19
vaccinations, my husband and I decided to surprise our children with a trip to
Hawaii. It had been a year and a half without any plane travel for us. We were so
excited to finally be back up in the air! There were three destinations on our
itinerary: The Big Island of Hawaii, O’ahu, and Seattle. My family had an
amazing time together on a much overdue vacation. Other highlights of our trip
for me were catching up with one of my childhood friends and her husband in
Hawaii, and visiting my college roommate on the West Coast.
What I
think my family appreciates the most about traveling together is the chance to
focus on each other. We are all so busy in the day-to-day lives that travel
gives us pause to spend time together. My hope is that we will continue to
create these amazing memories through travel even as our family grows and
changes in the coming years.
Sharing a mother’s
love,
Emily Brooks