Welcome to Paul & Libby’s World of Travel!
We’re in our early thirties and live in Tampa, Florida, USA. We’ve been happily married since 1997. And, while I hate to sound too sappy (though I am a sentimental sort), we’re truly each other’s best friend and partner in life.
For those of you who did the math: yes, we were fairly young (twenty-one) when we got married. As such, we both sacrificed something of a more traditional (and less carefree) early adulthood. For this trade-off, we’ve been able to build a life together, brick by brick.
In this span of time, we’ve finished college and earned advanced degrees (both of us hold doctorates). We’ve established our careers and earn a good living. We’ve worked hard. We’ve been fortunate. As a result, we have most of the trappings of a prototypically successful, upwardly-mobile, middle-class American couple’s lifestyle… including, most importantly, the ability to travel.
For us, travel is like a drug. Each trip (pun intended) makes us yearn for the next.
If you’re interested, here’s a list of places we’ve been.
Likewise, here’s a list of our next scheduled / planned trips.
Soon, I’ll publish a bit more about our “style of travel.”
Paul & Libby’s World Travel Trifecta (WTT)
The “trifecta” is a list of three travel-related goals for our lifetime:
- Travel to all 50 states in the USA.
- Travel to all 7 continents.
- Travel to at least 100 countries.
We have a set of rules (what’s a “country,” what constitutes a “visit,” etc.).
Rule #1 is most important: a destination doesn’t count unless we’ve traveled there together. This means that business trips, childhood vacations, or independent adventures with parents or friends don’t count toward the goal… even if we’ve both been to the destination seperately (such as Switzerland).
Paul as “Travel Blogger”
In 2008, I created my first travel blog (Europe by Sea 2008) for our annual pilgrimage to London and subsequent 14-day cruise of the Western Mediterranean. I followed that up with another blog dedicated to our next “major” vacation (Eastern Mediterranean 2009), which happened to be another cruise.
In both cases, I wrote on a daily basis to inform friends and family about our journey. During their brief lifespan, I developed a fairly loyal following, especially among fellow cruisers. In fact, both blogs continue to have a decent and deep readership (Google Analytics tells me that on average I have a few visitors per day, who surf these blogs for about 15-20 minutes per visit).
Most importantly, I learned that I love writing about travel.
To borrow a rather trite expression, I’m now going to “take it to the next level” with this permanent blog dedicated (primarily) to planning, chronicling, and reflecting upon our “World Travel Trifecta.” In addition, I also intend to write about my business travel experiences (extensive), offer some idiosyncratic travel tips (hopefully helpful), discuss our philosophy of travel (an intellectually interesting activity), and perhaps ruminate on matters of life in general (it is our blog after all).
I invite comments, feedback, and suggestions from all.