Travel Journals

We have an extensive 2 week family Europen Vacation (makes me think of National Lampoon) coming up in about... 2 weeks. Wow, I didn't realize that it was so close until my husband was talking to us about it last night at dinner (I have knots in my stomach just from the excitement of it all). And with that in mind, I need to make up another travel journal for this trip. I can hardly wait to experience the events and write them down as they happen or at the end of the day. As you might have guessed it, I am VERY excited about this trip!

I make sure to bring a new little notebook on every vacation we take! Sometimes I cover the front with scrapbook paper and little stamp designs or stickers. I like to keep it small, so I can tuck it into my purse, backpack or camera bag. But they key thing in all of this is...that I write down each day where we had been, the sights we have seen, things that have gone on and so forth. Basically things that I just do not want to miss putting down as journaling with our photo's. Sometimes it'll be the quirky little things that my kids and/or husband have said...trust me when I say that these little gems can be quite funny when put into a layout! I have always made a travel journal even before I became a scrapbooker.

You can have check lists for things to pack for the trip (this makes interesting journaling later on)...things you brought but never used or worse yet the things that you wished that you had packed...the ideas are endless! Have a list of places you want to see, excursions or side trips that you want to take. On the front pages of this travel journal, place your contact information...in case the travel journal gets lost or misplaced the nice person who finds it would be able to mail it to you. Have a list of emergency contacts as well, places you will be staying at with names, address and phones numbers. Maybe you need a place to keep passports, make a pocket page and tuck them in there for safe keeping. You can tuck tourist maps, and other memorabilia into the pages of your travel journal. I can already tell that by the end of this vacation I'll be needing one of those trapper keeper binder for our travel journal and all of it's memorabilia, LOL!

Even for little day trips I have a small notebook that I keep with me at all times, you never know when your kids might say something funny or when you want to jot something down about the pictures you have taken.

Note to self...get an extra memory card and battery pack for the camera! I plan on taking a TON of photo's on this trip!