Traveling Keeps the Soul Alive

I truly believe that the best way to keep the soul alive is by traveling (among other, things such as extensive reading and or long walks in the sun). The traveling that I speak of doesn’t constitute long luxurious trips (although those are totally okay as well), but even a small trip to a different part of the city or town of where you live. There is a sense of magic that one feels when they explore something new and different. I love when I come across a new store or restaurant that I had not known before when I take drives down my city. My sister and I have tendency to pick a street from our city to drive straight down on until we come across a place we had not been to before. We also love to travel to different states in our country. Last year we had the ability to visit Florida and go to the beach for the first time. We had an amazing adventure and were able to witness the joy that comes from exploring new lands and meeting new people.

We have always traveled but the trip to Florida was the first trip were we planned out each day what we were going to do. Of course we went to Disney World and to Universal Orlando (where by the way we had a freaking amazing time in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), but we took the time to explore the city as well. The other times we had traveled were always with family and we had to stick to what our parents had in the agenda for us. After the Florida trip we become in love with the idea of wondering into a different place even more. So this year we decided that the nation’s capital would be a great place to visit.

I have always wanted to go to Washington D.C. to see the Cherry Blossom Festival and this year it came true! Although the trees had mostly all bloomed we still had a lot of fun visiting the nation’s most revered monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, The MLK memorial, and so many more. I was also able to visit a lot of the Smithsonian museums which for me that was by far one of the best parts of the trip. Getting to see all the things that I had once read or seen on television in person was beyond amazing. Those who know me know how much of a museum enthusiast I am so one can only imagine how I felt wondering the halls of all those museums.

Being able to see paintings, monuments, documents, and so many more artifacts completely blew my mind and I felt dizzy with excitement. The best part about getting to go to all those places was that the museums are all pretty much free to enter. All of the Smithsonian Institute museums are free of charge, the United States archives can be viewed for free as well, and one can enter the botanical gardens without having to pay too. There is truly so much to see and four days was not enough to be able to even get a small glimpse of the magic D.C. holds. In those four days we walked so much that I could barely feel my legs anymore but it was all worth it and I wouldn’t change a thing! Not even the part of having to fly for the first time either.

Yes, this was the first time I ever had to get on a plan in order to travel and of course I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. I couldn’t sleep the night before our trip because I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I debated over and over in my head how I would handle myself if I became too nervous to get on the plan or while I was on the plan. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to reach over the seats to put my bag inside the compartment (short person problem). I was scared that we would have a really long lay over and miss one of our flights. So yea there were a lot of things occupying my mind before our trip.

Needless to say that all was in vain because the flight was actually really fun for me once I got over the initial shock of how it feels to take off and land. I couldn’t stop looking out the window and enjoying how small our world looks from up so high in the sky. I know that not everyone is able to have the opportunity to travel but like I said even a small trip can open up the soul to a whole new type of magic.