Hello my loves!
So at the end of this contract I have three weeks before I head back to the Go Round. Which means I'm taking a much needed vacation and with my (second) favorite boy! I have been wanting to go to New Orleans ever since watching The Originals (a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries #NerdAlert) and with some extra time off I decided it was finally time to go!
Well New Orleans is hella far away from New Haven and because I miss my family literally every second of every day we are making a massive trip out of it down the East Coast.
And of course it wouldn't be me if I wasn't going to use this opportunity to set up a planner! I've been hanging on to my Wanderlust Happy Notes for a while now and I'm so excited to finally start using it.
This planner is just getting started so I will definitely be adding and changing things along the way. This is just my first go at it so take it easy on me.
The first page is just an outline of where I'm going and how long it takes to get to each place. We are planning on taking both cars from New Haven to VA because I have a lot of stuff that needs to be moved out of my current apartment (which let me tell you I'm ready to leave this apartment WAY behind).
*Side note- Would you all like a blog post about my interesting experience living in this apartment? Tips on dealing with landlords, finding your own place, etc.? It won't be shared until I officially move out of this apartment, but I can promise you it will include lots of stories of all the craziness that living in this apartment has entailed. I'll put a survey on Instagram soon.*
We will spend about five days in Virginia before heading to South Carolina for a few nights before New Orleans. After a week in New Orleans we will trek back to SC and spend about five days there before heading back to VA. We will then go our separate ways as I head up to Auburn, NY and Jer heads home.
It's a whole lot of driving so send me your travel playlists and podcasts (and I'll make a new spot in my journal for it).
Next up, I have an overview page for each place we are going. It has the dates we will be there, the place we are staying at, and some places we want to visit while we are there (VA is the only one filled out right now). On the back of the SC and New Orleans pages we have a spot for a packing list.
I will be packing my entire apartment up to head to VA, but I might add a "packing list" to this page for things I want to be easily accessible for this trip.
Following that, I have started a "brainstorming page" of places to go in New Orleans. The front of the page has restaurants, bars, and brunch places and the back of the page has things to see/do. We've already been told Cafe Du Monde is a MUST as well as a ghost/graveyard tour. We're still researching and finding our must do list, but keep sending suggestions our way!
Next up, is my least favorite category, BUDGET. When we decided to take this trip it was kind of spur of the moment/let's just book this Air BNB. I work literally all the time and I haven't "travel traveled" anywhere in quite a while. I've been itching to go somewhere new and while yes, money is a HUGE factor, I'm a firm believer in making it work and making it happen. Luckily for us, we don't have to pay for a hotel in either VA or SC so that is saving us some money.
However, we will be paying for food, GAS, and experiences so it's something we are looking at carefully and saving for moving forward.
And finally, the last section of the planner is a divider labeled travelogue. This section is filled with notebook paper and will be used to document and journal throughout the trip (re: scrapbook). At the moment it is empty, but I can't wait to fill it with memories and stories about our trip.
This is my travel journal so far. I currently don't have an itinerary because we are still doing research. I also don't want to OVERPLAN, which is something I have the tendency to do. I want our schedule to be flexible incase of weather or if we find something spur of the moment.
So to all you travel journal people out there:
What am I missing?
Feel free to leave me a comment or DM on Instagram (@seachels1294) or Facebook with things you include in your travel journal.
Or if you've been to NOLA hit me up with suggestions!
Or if you just have a really awesome travel playlist, let me know!
I love to hear from all of you!
And of course I will keep you all updated with this here travel journal and all of our adventures down the East Coast! Also I have a really excited theatre post planned for Thursday so stay tuned!
Much love always,
Chels