Memories of a trip are like seashells from a sunset beach, saved in a jar.
Each glance at them through the years recalls the soft sand, salt taste, and cool rushing water between toes while with the ones you love.
How to preserve these precious memories? Read on for some creative ideas.
Travel Sketches
My friend, Laury Tarver, memorializes her travel by sketching. She documents where they stay, things they see, phenomenal meals they eat, and meaningful experiences.
For a trip, she maps out a two open pages in her sketch book so that she will have room to draw her memories throughout her vacation, and will ultimately use up the entire area of the two pages by the end of the trip. Laury sketches and labels images from her mind that are most memorable, and personal, to her. The activity of sketching is spontaneous, and she just sketches what comes to mind as she recalls her memories.
She tries to sketch some each day of a trip so that she doesn’t get behind in her sketching. However, it isn’t always possible to sit down and have quiet time specifically reserved for sketching. Instead, Laury usually sketches when she can, such as while traveling a train or bus.
She enjoys the process of sketching, but also enjoys looking back at the final result. It is a work of art she has creates just for herself. Laury says that you don’t have to be very artistic (although she is); just do it for yourself.
Journaling
I’m such a believer in journaling to remember a trip. Photos will remain, but inevitably it is difficult to remember experiences that were not photographed. I have been frustrated when I cannot remember what day during a trip we visited a particular place, or exactly how a funny story happened. What a shame to waste your time and money on an experience that is later forgotten. If I journal, not only can I recall things when I read them later, but just the process of writing them down better solidifies my memories, without even having to go back and read them.
When we went on our honeymoon to Hawaii years ago, my husband Jeff teased me about journaling each day. Through the years when we would have conversations like, “what was the name of that waterfall?” I’d pull out my journal, and we would have the answer. He says that I made him believe in journaling. However, I actually only journaled half of the honeymoon. I am sad that I cannot remember as much about the second half of our trip—the part I failed to journal.
In addition to preserving and treasuring memories for yourself, a journal is a helpful reference when it comes to organizing photos in an album and adding captions. It is also handy if you help someone plan a trip to the same location later or have some other practical reason to recall the details of your trip.
Journaling each day can be as simple as bullet point highlights, or it can be a full-paragraph memoir. In 2017, my journal became an e-book, To Europe with our Teens and Tween. Some people even journal poetry or haikus. On Rick Steves’ radio show, he often closes with travel haikus sent in by his listeners.
If you dislike putting pen to paper, make video or audio recordings of your daily journal.
Scrapbook/Photo Albums
Organize your vacation photos and keep them easily accessible in an album. You can incorporate your style of creativity that highlights the location, culture or vibe of your trip.
I am dating myself, but a great past-time of mine in the early 2000s was scrapbooking. This morphed into creating albums online through Shutterfly. I still try to preserve and organize digital photos, and have continued to create albums for special trips we have taken through the years.
This has been a worthwhile investment of my time, especially for trips we took when my kids were younger. Now that two are in college and only one is left at home, it’s fun us to look back at how cute they were when we took trips like the one to Disneyworld in 2013.
I have also made albums of trips without the kids that I treasure, like our 20th anniversary trip to Jamaica. I love these albums, and reflecting on them makes the enjoyment of past vacations last for a lifetime.
Cooking What You Taste
One final way to memorialize a trip is eat the food and drink you fell in love with while traveling, long after you’ve returned.
It is fun to make a special meal that reminds you and your family or friends of a trip you took together. You could go all out on a theme, pull up your pictures, and set the table with souvenirs.
To me the most meaningful cooking experience is making a dish that you discover on a trip and learn to replicate. Have you ever eaten something delicious while traveling that you have never tasted before? When this happens, ask a local how it is made or buy a cookbook so that when you return home, you can recreate the experience by making the dish yourself.
When we were in the Czech Republic, I had this wonderful soup that was like nothing I had tasted before. It had the spiciness of paprika, the sharpness of sour kraut, and was served with a dollop of sour cream. Through internet searches and trial and error, I found a Zelnecka soup recipe that was very close. Now it is one of my favorite winter soups. On the same trip we also had fruit dumplings that we loved, but I have not been able to perfect a copycat recipe. However, it has been fun to try it a few times. I’ll keep trying!
Of course, some people take a cooking class or cook a meal with a local while they are traveling. What a great way to participate in the culture of a place and take home a new skill!
Note: the perfect souvenir or gift from a trip might be a coveted ingredient, spice or wine that is not available at home.
No matter your method, it takes a bit of preparation and effort to preserve your travel memories, but it is well worth it. Memorializing your travel will solidify lifetime memories and will help you get your “money’s worth” out of a trip.
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