My Traveler Story

Growing up I regularly went on vacations with my family. We would drive several hours north or south, for mountain, beach, and theme park trips. I was lucky to visit Florida and Disney World multiple times, delighting in all the character signing and special magic that only Disney knows how to do exactly right.

As we got a bit older, Mexico became a family favorite destination and sometimes a Caribbean cruise. I loved these trips and remember them fondly.

Still, I dreamed of going further, exploring places all over the map. My curiosity felt insatiable. I couldn’t seem to learn enough about the world. I would get lost in memoir-style fiction novels about kids from different parts of the world. Pouring over a globe, I’d dream of getting to see this place and that place in person.

I looked ahead to college to get this opportunity. Studying abroad was always something I wanted to do.

Shortly before college began, I received an opportunity to apply for a special niche program at my university. It was called the Global Citizenship Program. Cue my outrageous excitement – this was it, this was PERFECT!

This program was a major turning point – where I went from dreamer to traveler. And after that, there was no going back.

The program brought me to South Africa after only our first semester at school. They wanted to put things into practice not only theory. The goal was to get us out of our comfort zones, away from what we knew, and challenge us to consider a different way early in our college career.

It did the job, and I’ve tried to live by this concept ever since. It’s not always easy, and certainly not always comfortable. But to me it’s important and it’s worth it.

From here, I continued with my global studies and tried to figure out how to travel more.

I went to Shanghai for a summer abroad program where we took a couple of classes and did an internship. We extended our trip through Yunnan, China, and then on to Taiwan where I got to meet several of my then-boyfriend’s (now husband’s) family members.

For my third year, I studied abroad in Hong Kong. We took several trips nearby in Asia to the Philippines, Thailand, Macau, and China.

These experiences further fueled my travel fever and there was no way to put out the fire.

After college, I briefly considered teaching English abroad as a way to travel more. But student loans deterred me from this path. Instead, I went straight to grad school (to rack up more loans).

Over winter break, took my first trip to Europe – to the UK and Ireland.

I was in an alternative MBA program that had all the traditional business school classes, but with a global focus, and a heavier focus on communications and marketing.

Took a trip during Spring Break to Spain and Morocco. We stayed within the Red City wall’s which was another get out of my comfort zone trip. I loved it and couldn’t get enough of the delicious tajines!

After moving to NYC, we slowed our travels to save money for our wedding. For our honeymoon, we traveled all the way to the Maldives. It took forever, but it was a worthwhile bucket list experience. Mindblowing.

Over the years my travel bug kept amplifying.

Next, to Turkey to see Istanbul and Cappadocia – before Cappadocia got Instagram-famous!

We started the following year off with a trip to Costa Rica, including a quick side trip to Nicaragua. For this one, a snowstorm delayed our return home.

My husband traveled for business regularly, so he was racking up points and miles. The year after we got married, he earned a Southwest companion pass. For a year, this allowed me to travel with him on any of his flights for free (just pay taxes).

We took advantage of this, and focused on visiting a bunch of US destinations for quick weekend trips – Salt Lake City, Park City, New Orleans, Austin, Charleston, Nashville, Chicago, Milwaukee, Niagara Falls, San Francisco, Sonoma/Napa, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Disney, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Monica. Additionally this year we made it to Seattle and joined family on an Alaskan cruise.

The following year, we took a big Europe trip, which I cheekily referred to as our Eurussia trip. We stopped in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Brussels, Budapest, Bratislava, Prague, and Amsterdam.

While pregnant with my first baby, I was a bit nervous about how we would continue to travel and what that would look like. Too many people still say you can’t travel with a baby, or you have to wait until kids are older.

I knew travel wouldn’t be the same with kids, but I refused to accept that we couldn’t do it anymore.

Trepidly we first flew to Disney World to meet family so we would have support.

We went on to travel with our baby to New York and Chicago a few times.

For his first international trip, I chose Japan, which is such an awesome baby-friendly and family-friendly destination.

However, he barely slept, so I barely slept and was exhausted. Yet I was enamored and rejuvenated. Travel fills my cup.

We continued exploring various destinations with our baby and then we were introduced to toddler travel. Which is a whole other ballgame than traveling with a mostly immobile baby. But I was set on my mission and knew we could figure it out.

The next challenge was figuring out how to travel with two littles – both a baby and toddler together. We tested ourselves with an “easy” trip to Mexico, and then we went all in.

For two months we traveled on a round-the-world trip with our then 6-8 month old baby, and our 2.5 year old toddler. We went from Seattle to Boston to New York. Then we flew to Peru, followed by Italy. From there, we met up with a friend, and later family to join a Mediterranean/Greek Isles cruise. Next, we toured more of Italy and then Egypt. After we made a quick stop in Singapore before our last stop in Fiji.

No, it wasn’t easy, but yes, it was worth it. Those experiences will last a lifetime. We saw so many incredible sights, ate delicious food, immersed ourselves in other cultures, navigated countless interactions in different languages, problem solved several challenges, lived and laughed with our kids in the moment, and bonded as a family.

Unfortunately, the pandemic slowed our travels, and then I had a third baby with medical complexities. So we were grounded for awhile. Once she was cleared by her cardiologist, we took off on our first big family trip as a family of 3 to South Korea and Taiwan. And recently made a trip to Romania, Switzerland, France, and Germany.

Travel logistics have changed over the years but my reasons for travel remain the same. If anything, after having kids, I felt an even greater responsibility to travel.

Regularly, we push ourselves to travel to new destinations. We have returned to some places, and I know we will return to more in the future. But I find incredible value in getting out of my comfort zone (to a degree, safely, of course). Experiencing different places and cultures, trying to see the whole world.

My Background and Experience

I’m mixed. I’m of mixed heritage, biracial, multiethnic, and multicultural. My family hails from most corners of the globe.

From an early age, I was captivated by people – by culture, by language, by lands. My ears would prick up at the sound of people speaking a different language from my own. I would float away into a dream wondering about their story.

Globes could hold my attention for hours. My favorite books were ones about people and places living life all around the world in similar or different ways. I like to understand people.

I don’t know if it was my beautiful and confusing mixed-race identity, or truly my unique innate self. But I have always been drawn to and captivated by culture. Culture and sub-cultures nearby, and cultures on the other side of the world.

Growing up, I was not one of those people who had clarity on what they wanted to be when they grew up. That question would make me start to sweat.

I liked learning about people and culture, scrapbooking, taking photos, languages, exploring new places and experiences, geography, graphic design, computer stuff, and trying to help others.

At college, I became a part of the Global Citizenship Program and was with the same small cohort of students throughout our 4 years. Some of our core classes were different than the standard requirements, with a global focus or some complete alternative globalization courses. We had a few other requirements for studying abroad, activity participation, and a capstone project.

College allowed me to explore more of my many interests in-depth, and I loved it. I dabbled in Anthropology, Chinese, Sociology, Religious Studies, Spanish, Globalization, Japanese Culture, Business, Graphic Design, and many other areas. I partook in the Global Union program.

Basically “global” anything, I was all over it.

However, it was still unclear to me where I would go and what I would do as a future career.

While abroad, I started to plan my own trips. Developing the travel bug in college is not the most ideal time with limited funds. But I tried to squeeze in trips wherever possible. With budget constraints, I got a lot of practice in figuring out how to travel on a budget. I’m always seeking the best flight deals and budget travel hacks.

From undergrad, I graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mandarin Chinese language and Chinese culture and with a Certificate in Global Citizenship.

What was next? Grad school! Continuing my education felt easier and safer. Smarter? Probably not, but I loved learning and still didn’t know what was next or how to get there.

Next up, I moved to Boston for graduate school. It was an alternative MBA program. We covered traditional MBA program subjects, though with a global lens, and a stronger focus on communication and marketing.

It was fast and intense, but I really enjoyed my grad program. Finally, I started to see some of my interests intersect and got a tiny bit of clarity on where I could go from here. So, yes, it was actually worth it.

I graduated from Emerson College with a Master of Arts in Global Marketing, Communication, and Advertising.

I started my career at a company that did creative marketing research and co-created projects with customers. I learned a lot about business, marketing, and brands through working with many large companies (e.g., Hilton, Anthem, National Car, Target, Wells Fargo, PetSmart, Hallmark). I gained experience in customer, client, operations, account, and project management. It was interesting, but it didn’t necessarily light me up.

Get me talking travel though and I light up like the Eiffel Tower – true then and still true today.

We moved to New York City and got married!

When I was pregnant, we moved to Texas. After the birth of my first child, I left the corporate world to focus on my new role as a mom. I am so grateful I spent so much 1:1 time with my son in his early years.

I wasn’t sure how travel would look with a baby. But I knew I couldn’t stop traveling. We tiptoed into it at first but then decided to go all the way. Japan with our 7-month-old, Cuba with our 11-month-old, Oman with our 14-month-old, why not?

Friends, family, colleagues, and random acquaintances started asking how we managed to travel with a baby. So I began writing baby travel tips down. At first, only so I wouldn’t have to type up the same information again and again. Copy and paste.

We moved again, to Seattle, and along came my second son. Mom life with a baby and toddler is no joke. I was fulfilled and exhausted in the grind of life with a baby and a toddler. I was missing my creative outlet.

Then I started thinking about whether there’s somewhere I could park my baby travel information more permanently. This way I could direct others to that space rather than have several separate individual conversations about the same topic.

In 2018, I first launched this family travel blog. In those early days, I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. Blogging seemed like the perfect concoction of my many interests, passions, and skills.

I started connecting with more travel families and travel bloggers online, on Instagram and on Facebook. I was in my element immersed in travel talk – writing about travel, sharing travel photos, graphic design, website design, social media, and more.

We moved one more time, to southern California.

I took some blogging courses and learned many things through trial and error. However, I struggled to stay consistent while also in the thick of raising two toddlers.

Still, I popped here and there. I even took on some opportunities to work with brands like Vrbo, Wayb, and BabyQuip.

The travel blog was fun and I enjoyed it, it felt so right for me.

But then came the pandemic. I posted a few things but dialed back as our travel world was on standby.

Before the world re-opened, I was pregnant again. My daughter was prenatally diagnosed with a life-threatening condition which flipped my world upside down.

With the world still closed and trying to prepare for a complex medical journey with our infant, I put a pin in the travel blog.

After several challenging conversations and trying to make sense of my feelings and grief, I started writing but not about travel.

Instead, I decided I would blog about this Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) journey with a baby. Writing helped me process, make sense of things, and work out some big decisions.

After her birth, her CHD journey was even more complicated than predicted prenatally. Her first year was rough and intense including two open-heart surgeries. It took everything we had, and extra help, to get through her first year.

I took some time to process and heal. Then my priority was to get my new blog about Heart Mom Life and Congenital Heart Defects off the ground. You can learn more about it at Our Modern Familee.

I’m proud that the site is up and running and helping new heart parents. Now, finally, I have found some time to come back around to my original passion project that kickstarted my blogging career. I have been eagerly awaiting this stage.

I’m so excited to get back to sharing family travel things. Stay tuned to this site, and sign up for the newsletter to stay in the loop.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my story. I hope you learn something new and helpful at Familee Travel!

Can I ask you a favor? If you know someone planning a trip with a baby, please share this site or one of the articles with them.

Traveling with a baby can be overwhelming at first, and even discouraging. My hope with this site has always been to help guide, inspire, and encourage other parents to get out there and travel with their young kids.

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