welcome to my life

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I've wanted to start this for almost two years now, and finally, I decided that nothing is stopping me from starting this new adventure except myself. Two things about me, I love to write and I love to travel, so I figured why not combine the two...so, welcome to my new travel blog! This is partly for me to remember trips I have gone on, but also to help other people discover new places, and share some of my tips. Unfortunately, at this point in my life, I have not been able to travel to all these fancy, exotic places, however, I have been fortunate to have travelled to, and see so many new places even if they are right around the corner from me. In my opinion, as long as I am going somewhere new, or trying something different, it's an adventure for me. In this blog, I will show some of my favorite places that I have traveled to, share some tips I have learned along the way, and share some of my favorite pictures I have taken (keep in mind I am not a professional photographer!!)

A little bit about me: I am a 22 year old recent graduate from East Carolina University. I lived in Pennsylvania for the first 18 years of my life, moved down to North Carolina full-time for 4 years, and recently moved back to Pennsylvania for a little while. Growing up, my family always made it a point to take at least one family vacation each summer. These places always varied, whether it was a 3-day long weekend beach trip to Ocean City, Maryland and staying in a rundown motel, a 10-day long trip to Maine staying in the middle of the woods in the prettiest lake house, or cruising to the Bahamas for my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. Each year was different, but I can genuinely say I have never had a bad vacation growing up. Between family vacations, trips with friends, and mission trips, I have been fortunate enough to have visited every state along the east coast, from Maine to Florida, and have made it my goal to see every state before I turn 50 (so far I'm at 25 states!)*

*These 25 states include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

I think travelling is one of the best things people can do, and I always make it a point to go on at least one trip a year, even if it's just down the shore. Like I mentioned earlier, I have been lucky enough growing up to be able to go on family vacations every year until I moved away, but now I am at the age where if I want to go somewhere, I have to make it happen, without my parents help. I am also the type of person that values experiences and trips way more that material items. While I was in college, obviously my coffee house job was never able to fund an exotic trip to Thailand or anything like that, however, I did learn how to budget my money, and learned some travel tips to be able to successfully book trips for pretty cheap. Upon graduation, I started working my first "big girl" job, which has certainly taught me a lot about budgeting my money, and I am fortunate enough to be able to put money aside from each paycheck for a travel fund.

I hope you stay tuned to my blog!!! Thanks for reading, and remember, there's always more to be explored!

-nicole elizabeth