I remember the first hotel my parents let me pick out, it was a dumpy motel with a lumpy mattress and horrible lighting somewhere in southern Vermont near Stratton Mountain. I was probably 15 years old. This was a big honor in my family because my dad made all of the travel plans growing up. We normally spent our family holidays bouncing from snowy Vermont ski houses to Adirondack lakeside summer cabins. Living that crappy hotel selection down took some time. Okay, maybe a few years. But thankfully, I’ve only stayed at the Lumpy Mattress Inn a few more times in my life. I’ve learned a lot since then. And I praise the convenience of websites like Trip Advisor and Hotels.com.
My career in the travel industry started innocently enough in college. While my friends were chasing CPA and management degrees, I landed an internship at TWA. Yes, that iconic airline with the highly recognizable spaceship-shaped terminal at JFK. I worked 144 hours and earned 2 free tickets anywhere they flew. It was amazing. The travel bug bit hard. I went to Greece and Chicago and then spent my senior year making monthly trips to Miami to visit my then-boyfriend. The industry captivated me. My college friends could have their CPA degrees. I moved to Miami and spent 20 years working for 2 different cruise lines. Dumped that boyfriend too!
Divorce, remarriage, a dog, and now, 10-year-old twins, my carefree trips have transformed into multi-generational somewhat complicated vacations involving 2 under 11 and 2 over 70. My husband is in sales and joins us when or if he can. So often times I’m the middle aged adult who’s sandwiched between two impulsive, high energy kids entranced with Fort Night battles and early morning retirees, one of whom is half deaf and the other wants to plan dinner 15 minutes after she wakes up. That said, the kids and I completely enjoy our time with the grandparents as we journey out to explore the world.
We’ve taken tons of weekend road trips and spent countless hours exploring many local adventures. Over the years people have said that I’m either nuts or super brave for traveling alone with my kids, but I never saw it that way. I just wanted to travel and show my kids a good time. Like many busy moms with active kids, the corporate world was an impossibly rigid environment to spend 40 hours a week in. In 2017, I left and followed my dream of travel writing. Along the way, I’ve picked up a few tips worth sharing, thus Mommy and Kidz Travel was born. We’ve traveled extensively in the Northeast and throughout Central and South Florida. As of last summer, I can proudly say my kids have adventured the entire 1,919-mile length of I-95 from New Brunswick, Canada to Key West, Florida. When I’m not writing, traveling, or at my son’s baseball games, you can find me sipping a Diet Coke with lemon, plotting our next adventure and dreaming of a summer -long backpack trip through Europe.
Happy Travels.