July 29, 1981

You will have to go all the way back to this day to understand why travel is my passion. Do you remember where you were? I do and I will never forget that day because it is one of my greatest childhood memories.

For an entire week I was staying with my Great-Grandmother which meant great food and anything goes! So being the wonderful person she was she woke me up at 6 am on the morning of July 29th to witness something magical – something I didn’t really quite understand.
It only took her a few times to get me moving (I’m not a morning person by any means) and all she had to do was tell me I was missing it!

I scurried to the living room and turned on the big giant TV and waited for it to warm up (can you ever believe we had to wait for the TV to warm up?). Finally after what seemed an eternity - at least for a young girl - the picture appeared before me. There it stood. A glass carriage and inside it a woman hidden beneath yards and yards of an ivory veil. She gracefully exited the carriage and stepped onto a long red carpet. She turned and waved to a large crowed of people. Then she made her way up the red carpeted steps amid trumpet fanfare into the biggest church I had ever seen.

At that age I didn’t know princesses really existed outside a Disney movie. Or that a girl really could marry a prince. That was the first thing that intrigued me about the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. It was an honest to God fairytale.

I sat on the floor all day that day as close to the TV as I could get and just watched in awe. Where was this place? Who were these people? Can I go there? My Great-Grandmother was a real trooper that day bringing me food and drinks so I wouldn’t miss a minute. I don’t ever remember leaving the vicinity of the living room!

I dreamt of London after watching the wedding. I wanted to go there. Heck I wanted to live there. Books on London and Diana became the priority. That Christmas I received two that are true favorites: Invitation to a Royal Wedding by Katherine Spink and The Prince and Princess of Wales’ Wedding Day.

Those books went everywhere with me as I studied and planned. Someday I was going to go to England.

I finally made it 20 years later. It was everything I knew it would be. It felt like home.

I used those two books I received at Christmas as a child to help plan our trip to England. And once I got there I was filled with so much joy and passion for travel I couldn’t contain myself. That is what travel is for me – an emotional journey of seeing new places, learning new things and reliving childhood memories.