Once upon a time, there was a 17 year old girl

Who saved all her babysitting money to finance a summer trip to Mexico in 1970 to “study Spanish.” Here she is, standing atop a great Aztec pyramid. The first of many travel adventures she would enjoy, but probably the most memorable because she was the most impressionable.

She would keep her souvenirs and pictures neatly archived in a photo album. She only wished she was that organized for all her later trips.

She lived in a local home with a nice family. Three other young American girls were her roommates that very hot summer of fun!

Back then, not all our film pictures came out well, but we kept them anyway.

She took the picture above; she’s not in it obviously.

Her hosts in Saltillo.

The young girl with her assigned student mentor. Her beautiful Mexican bag is behind her. Despite the heat, she decided to sport a short haired wig this day, just for fun.

Travel souvenirs

I’m not a hoarder. Truly. But I do tend to save the smallest items from my travels. Like notepads. Easy to pack, fun to remember.

No one will be surprised that I’ve saved mementoes from places I’ve had the good fortune to visit in Italy. This grand hotel is grand indeed. My son and I stayed there on his first visit to Italy when he was 10.

The Villa Marsali hotel in Cortona is nice. Cortona was on my bucket list and I made it there 2 years ago. It’s fine, but far from my favorite town in Italia.

I was lucky enough to spend Christmas in Paris in 2018. I stayed at this lovely albergo which is centrally located in the city. That trip was a dream! I adore Paris and I have and will continue to return as often as possible. Hopefully I’ll be there in September this year.

La Tour Hassan of Rabat was a fine hotel I stayed in on my first trip to Morocco, about 12 years ago. I fell in love with Morocco. I would return!

Return I did and one place I went in Morocco was Tangiers. Fascinating! Like all of the country. I want to return again.

If there’s anything more rewarding than travel (and it goes without saying that art and design is the impetus for my wanderlust), I haven’t found it yet! Travel on!