travel essentials!

we've been so super lucky that our job has taken us to some great places over the past three years, whether that be across the country or just beyond our own backyard. the joy it fills us with to be able to experience life where others call home. as well as getting to join in the excitement of two people getting married, we also usually get to talking about places we've been and we often get to hear plans for trips and honeymoons and the amazing places people are planning to see. one thing i'd always encourage people to do is to plan for a honeymoon after their wedding.. there's nothing like having that space together to slow down and settle back into your groove as a couple again. it doesn't have to be expensive -- a roadtrip to a nearby city for a few days, an apartment listed on air bnb for cheap, a cabin in the wilderness borrowed for a few days from a friend -- we've even had a couple who went on a canoe trip together after their wedding (um, amazing!).we've very fortunate that our work is taking us overseas in a few days, and we'll be taking some time for ourselves while we are there too! so now it is us who are dreaming of the places we'll be seeing and looking forward to being able to reconnect, we can't wait. here are a few things that we'll be sure not to leave home without:pictured above:reading materials. i don't read a lot of magazines at home, so when we travel i always make sure to get the most recent copy of my favourite to be able to read as we go -- on the plane, over breakfast while we're there.. i'll be trying to get my hands on oh comely before we go for sure. the articles inside are like stories and i just love the feeling of the whole magazine. i think i might also pack our copy of my family and other animals -- i've read it before but it's one of my faves, and it takes place in the same part of the world where we're headed, so i think that'll be fun!ipad. and for everything else, there's the ipad. :) i read my first e-book on the ipad the other week, so i think we'll be loading it up with a few more books for those long plane rides. we are also big fans of podcasts, so we'll have a few of those on there too. our favourites are this american life (voice crush on ira glass!) and radiolab (link goes to our fave episode so far).notebooks. i've got two -- a journal, that i'm going to try to write in every day. the last big trip we went on, i barely wrote about what happened each day and my thoughts, and i actually super regret that. the other big notebook is for ideas. i don't know what it is, but something about being in a new place or staring out the window as scenery passes by and my mind totally wanders.not pictured above:a sense of wonder and an open state of mind. an equal mix of loose plans but also the willingness to be spontaneous. also, healthy snacks. this might not seem like it fits, but trust me, when hunger strikes there's nothing better than having something healthy and familiar and filling in your back pocket. all of our fights while traveling together have traced back to food, really i am not kidding! we actually refer to it as being 'hangry' -- angry because you're hungry. so this is one thing we've learned from experience ;)