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Today in honour of Mother’s day, I’m sharing some memories of traveling with my mother. From the time I could barely walk, I was traveling with my parents. My father worked in LA and my mom and I were in Vancouver. My mom would bundle me up and take me on the plane with her. Travel was always a part of our life.
I.
I don’t know what possess her to decide that we need to go camping. My mother likes running water, flushing toilets and being inside away from bugs and the sun (like mother like daughter it seems now). Yes, school was taking me on an outdoor adventure week, but that is no reason to huff it. And yet we did. Along with a few other families we went on annual camping trips for a couple of years. Three to five day affairs around BC where we cooked over fires, hiked over mountains and splashed in lakes. Of course, never fully leaving civilization just in case we didn’t feel like cooking and needed to sneak in a dinner in a nearby city (true story – happened in Manning Park. We went to nearby Princeton for dinner one night).
II.
In the middle of nowhere in the Loire Valley of France, in the land of coffee lovers and coffee shops, my mother wanted a cup of tea. We pulled up to something familiar – a McDonalds. As the only person in my family who knew a little bit of French, I was designated orderer. Stepping up and ordering that cup of tea was both confusing and mortifying. My French was clearly not up to snuff and I probably had a weird accent. I went back and forth a bunch of times with the girl behind the counter who was equally as confused as I was, but eventually I got what my mother wanted. A steaming hot cup of tea.
III.
Looking a little worried as we set out on the boat
One of our most recent family trips was to Hawaii. Both my brother and I had free time from university and we found an incredible deal. I don’t know whose idea it was to go snorkeling while we were in Maui. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were my idea, but everyone else seemed gung-ho for it which surprised me. My mom is not most adventurous of people I know and my dad can barely swim. We set out one beautiful day on a boat which would take us around the island of Maui. Originally the plan was to go to Molokai, but it was too windy so we had to stay closer to shore. Along the way, we saw plenty of whales, dolphins and even a couple of turtles out to greet the boat. Our guides took us to two different places to snorkel and explore the marine life. It was a struggle to get comfortable in the water, but at least she tried it. A+ for effort.
IV.
Budapest – Someday maybe, but for now Photoshop!
The trip that almost happen. My parents had made plans to come and visit me in Budapest and then visit my brother in London. It was going to be one grand European tour, but then it didn’t happen and it has been put on hiatus. I still hope one day that I can take my mom to Budapest to see why that city is special to me and then to take her to Vienna and London, both of which I know she will love.
Happy mother’s day to all! What travel memories do you have with your mother?
It’s awesome that you have these travel memories! I’ve been trying to convince my grandmother to go on a trip with me – hopefully this summer it will happen!
Traveling grandmothers are so cool (you can tell her some girl on the internet said so)! I hope you get a chance to go with her this summer.
Great memories (or almost memories) Adelina…I learned to love traveling from my mom as well…so much fun!
Thanks Corinne! Moms make great travel companions.
This was such a heartwarming post to read about your travels with your mom. I’m glad you are able to travel with her and have these wonderful memories. I didn’t travel much with my mom until the last decade. Happy Mother’s Day to your mom and I hope you both get to Europe together soon.
Thanks Mary! I hope you get a chance to travel more with your mother. Now you’re the cool traveling mom with your kids 🙂
Very nice post, Adelina! You two have had some wonderful experiences together. My favorite travel experience with my mom was a two-week road trip around Spain and Portugal when I was 20. So many great memories speeding around the Iberian Peninsula in a Seat.
Oh wow! What a fantastic way to spend some quality time with mom. It must have been quite the adventure navigating all the rounds.
I hope you get to Budapest one day, it sounds like you have a cool Mom! 🙂
Thanks Emma! She is indeed one cool lady 🙂
Awww cute post 🙂
Thanks for reading Sammi!
Beautiful post Adelina. Travel memories with families are my most treasured ones. I have had a very similar experience to your camping trips BC – my mum is a real lady, loves comfort and dressing up, and once we took her camping around Patagonia. thanks for sharing this lovely Mother’s day post!
Thanks Margherita! Whoa camping in Patagonia must have been beautiful. I think my mom could tough it out for a couple days there. 🙂
Lovely memories x hope you make it to Budapest together one day. I remember Mum taking me to a Bali when I was 4 and sitting on the beach drinking from fresh coconuts xx
What a wonderful memory to have, especially at such a young age!
Some of life’s best/funniest memories come from travels with Mom
They definitely do! Thanks for reading.
Great post Adelina! Traveling with family always feels just that little bit more special I think. Like you, I have been lucky enough to travel a fair bit with my family (and continue to do so whenever I get the chance), and so many of my best memories come from those times! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Travis! Traveling with family is always memorable.
What lovely memories! My mum has been one of the main reasons why I love travelling too. I’ve just had my parents here for the last week and I’ve loved showing them around 🙂
Awesome! Getting to show your parents your new home must have been a lot of fun and I bet they feel better knowing what their daughter is up to so far away 🙂
What a great idea to dedicate this post to travels with your mom on mother’s day Adelina. As it seems you had some pretty interesting trips with your mom already, while always pushing the limits 🙂 So, happy mother’s day back to you and your family and I am sure Budapest will work out somehow as well, even without Photoshop! 😉
Thanks Dennis. I’m always surprised when my mom is up for some crazy adventure.
What a lovely way to commemorate Mother’s Day. It sounds like you have a lot of travel memories with her, and I hope that you’ll soon be adding Budapest, Vienna and London to places you’ve visited together. My mom absolutely hates traveling which makes me even more amazed that I’ve visited Europe and done a roadtrip from Texas to California and then up to Portland with her.
Thanks Michele! For someone that doesn’t like to travel, you’ve certainly done a number of trips with her! Good for both of you 🙂
It’s so nice to be able to travel with mothers! I hope you get to take her to Europe one day, and have some nice un-Photoshopped pictures! My favorite memories with my mom are a week-long trip to Yellowstone, and a trip to Shanghai and its surrounding cities. My mom has never been anywhere else, so I really hope I can bring her to Europe one day too :).
Traveling with parents is always fun. I hope you get a chance to bring your mother with you to Europe one day too!
Even though I haven’t traveled much with my mother internationally, I am happy I could share my love of travel with her and my dad last year. We also went on many camping trips as children, and my mom definitely made those happen with her planning and preparation. What a great way to honor your mom through sharing memories on here!
Thanks Angela! You never know how much work goes into planning a camping trip until you have to do it yourself. Thank goodness for moms who are always prepared 🙂
What fun memories traveling with your family! A great Mother’s Day post and a joy to read. BTW, we have found that the French actually drink quite a bit of tea (especially at home) despite all the cafes with a focus on coffee.
Thanks Jessica! Good to know. I’ll be sure to let my mom know – she’s been talking of going to France for a month.
I take my kids as many places as I can. I hope that they too appreciate the travel we do and what it brings them. Nice post!
Thanks Lisa! Even if they don’t appreciate it now, I’m sure they will when they’re older. I know I do 🙂
Love this post! My parents are the reason I have a travel bug. From camping trips up and down the east coast, to sending me to Uganda for two weeks, I’ve been able to travel quite a bit thanks to them. My mom is a big history buff and eager to go new places to see things in person!
I’m the same way! When they complain that I go away too far and for too long and just tell them it’s their fault 😛 It’s always good to have family support for these things though.
beautiful, thoughtful post. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading Andrew!
You have some wonderful memories of travel with your Mom and your family that you’ll always cherish – that’s awesome! I hope you get to take your mom to Budapest, Vienna and London someday!
Thanks Lauren! I hope so too!
Ahhh traveling memories with mom. Wrote one of these myself and I’m sure I got my wanderlust from my late mother. xoxox
I wholeheartedly blame my parents for my wanderlust. Whenever they complain I leave home too often I just remind them of their own travels 😀
What a sweet post! I have never seen anywhere with my mum… so maybe you can do me some photoshop posts 🙂 One day I hope to read your daughters post to you.
Hehe, photoshop to the rescue! 🙂 Oh gosh, that will have to wait a long while.
It is wonderful that you have memories of traveling with your mother. I have never been on a trip solely with my Mum but have been on many as a family. She was especially brave with the snorkeling. I don’t think my Mum would be so easy to convince. 🙂
You never know – she might surprise you like mine did 🙂
What a lovely post about some of the most precious things in life – seeing the world and seeing them with the closest of people! So nice to hear you have so many nice memories together and hope you’ll have many more. I’m going away with my Mum soon for a weekend in France and this post has made me even more excited about a little Mother-daughter travel time! 🙂
Thanks Shikha! I hope you and your mother have a great time in France and eat lots of chocolate croissants 🙂
Great travel memories with your mom – I hope the Europe trip gets to happen!
Thanks Ashley! Me too 🙂
Such a sweet post! Hope you enjoyed celebrating mothers day with your mom. It’s also thanks to my mom that I’ve loved traveling since I was little but sadly we’re not a ‘picture taking family’ so I don’t have very many photos of my travels with my family.
Thanks Bryna! My parents love taking photos of the kids, but never of themselves. I had to really search for photos with both me and my mom in them. Not so many!
Great idea to honor the family travels with a blog post. We’ve never traveled much as a family, except for the short trips within the country. However, even those ones were memorable. The moment my family gets in the car, everybody suddenly feels hungry. And then the feast starts.
Haha, that sounds like my kind of family! Food all around 🙂
Great memories you have, and you mom seems so cool! I’ve never had the chance to travel with my family (apart from going on daytrips to the beach) and I regret that a bit, I’m sure my mom would have been a great travel buddy.
Day trips to the beach sounds like a great way to spend time with your mom 🙂
Wonderful post
If if have enough money i will bring her and dad to Hawaii like you did