Travel Journal: A Guest Post

Originally published on 03/28/2018

Welcome! I have a special guest to introduce you to: Jess. She and I recently met through our blogging journey from a post she wrote about. We both love to travel, and I enjoy scrapbooking, so the following post blends the two together. Go check out her blog and leave some love for both of us by sharing. Enjoy!

Hi, I’m Jess! I write a lifestyle and travel blog over at The Wanderlust Chapters! I’m a teacher of tiny humans by day, and blogger by night. I live in the beautiful state of Arizona, and one of my favorite things to do is travel!
I have so many places to visit on my bucket list, and I’m very excited about my future travels to those places! For now, I have a bunch of great memories from states and countries I’ve already been to. I have a collection of more photos and memorabilia than I know what to do with. One thing I have started to do with some of my things is create a travel journal. It’s one place where I can keep memories from somewhere I’ve been to so I can always take a look back and travel down memory lane.

In November 2011, I went to Honolulu, Hawaii over Thanksgiving for a high school band trip. Nerdy, I know. Anyway, we got to go to a traditional luau, have Thanksgiving on the beach, see sea turtles, and visit Pearl Harbor. One of the most memorable parts of that trip was Pearl Harbor. There were so many emotions surrounding that place, especially by the USS Arizona memorial. This was one thing I wanted to make sure I had in my travel journal for my Hawaii page.

Another one of my favorite parts of being in Hawaii was seeing sea turtles on the beach, as they’re one of my favorite animals. I had a couple of photos of the turtles, but they weren’t very clear. I found a different picture that worked better for my travel journal. It made the page more colorful, and it was a great addition to my Hawaii page.

In the summer of 2012, I went on yet another band related trip to Europe with Youth Music Abroad. We went to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and France. This was another great trip that was such an amazing experience. We traveled to so many different cities within these countries. I have to say my favorite was Paris. With this being a trip that had a big impact on my life, I had to add it to my travel journal. I really wish I had more photos and things from this trip, but I was a very bad photographer as a senior in high school… Lol!

Like I said, one of my favorite parts of my Europe trip was Paris, France. I had to include this in my travel journal. I would’ve made a single page for each country, if I had better photos. Anyway, I wanted to feature the Eiffel Tower in my journal, which is why I have two photos for it. One is the group I traveled with in front of the tower, and the other is me on the top of the tower. Wow, the view was incredible! So, because the pictures I had weren’t great, I added more clipart on this page to make up for my lack of photography skills at the time. The whole trip was a lot of fun, and we did so many different things that I never imagined I’d ever do. I definitely had to include a Europe section in my travel journal.

Making this travel journal was so much fun. I enjoyed looking through photos and memorabilia I had from various places I’ve visited. It was also fun to add my own creativity and spin on things within the journal. If you’re interested in finding out more about how this travel journal is made, please head over to this post on The Wanderlust Chapters. I’ve shared more details about how I created the journal itself. Head on over to find out more!

I hope you get the chance to try this travel journal and to look back on your memories from vacations you’ve been on. Happy traveling!