Why We Keep a Travel Journal
We started keeping travel journals simply because we wanted to remember our trips. Years later, they've become something much more valuable. The big moments are easy to remember, but the journals bring back the little things—the mistakes we made, what Ollie loved at different ages, what things cost, and the random moments that made each trip ours. Those little details are a big part of why The Family Departure exists today.
Why We Keep a Travel Journal
Some of our best travel memories are things we probably would have completely forgotten if we hadn't written them down.
For years, we've kept a travel journal on many of our trips. At the time, writing in it can feel almost unnecessary. We just experienced the day—of course we're going to remember it.
Except we don't.
Looking back through our old journals while building The Family Departure has made me realize just how much disappears from your memory. We remember the big things: the countries, the cruise ships, the beaches, the excursions. But the little details are usually what bring a trip back to life.
We remember that we went to Bermuda. The journal reminds us that Ollie didn't really care about snorkeling anymore—he wanted to hunt for crabs in the rocks.
We remember visiting Puerto Vallarta. The journal reminds us how much we loved the secluded beach, how many fish we saw snorkeling, and why that became our favorite stop of the cruise.
And sometimes the journal reminds us of things that weren't particularly fun at the time but are hilarious—or useful—years later.
The Bad Stuff Is Worth Writing Down Too
A travel journal shouldn't be a highlight reel.
Some of the most useful things we've written down are the things that went wrong.
The glass-bottom boat in Costa Maya that made both of us sick.
The cruise where the hallway carpet always seemed wet and smelled terrible.
The excursion that sounded great when we booked it but wasn't worth the money.
The time we didn't pack enough warm clothes because we assumed a cruise to Mexico would always be warm.
The transportation mistakes. The overpriced meals. The places we wouldn't visit again.
Those experiences eventually became some of our family's travel rules.
Don't fly in the day of a cruise.
Bring snacks on excursions.
Pack something warm even for a Caribbean cruise.
Be selective at the buffet.
And apparently, never put us on another glass-bottom boat.
Without the journals, we'd remember that we learned these things. We probably wouldn't remember exactly why.
It's Also a Record of Ollie Growing Up
This might eventually be the most important part.
Our trips aren't just a record of where we've traveled. They're a record of Ollie growing up.
On one cruise, he was an 11-month-old who wanted to spend the entire day at the splash pad.
Years later, he was checking himself in and out of the kids club.
Then we started noticing something else changing.
For years, snorkeling was a huge part of our Caribbean trips. We'd look for destinations based partly on what was underwater. But in Bermuda, Ollie wasn't particularly interested in snorkeling. He wanted to explore caves, look at minerals, climb around rocks and hunt for crabs.
That's a tiny detail.
But twenty years from now, it might be one of the details we value most.
We Don't Write a Novel Every Night
Keeping a travel journal doesn't need to become homework.
Some days we write quite a bit. Other days it's just a few observations.
Where did we go?
What did we eat?
What did Ollie enjoy?
What surprised us?
What did something cost?
What went wrong?
Would we do it again?
Even a few sentences can trigger an entire memory years later.
I also like writing down prices. At the time, noting that beach chairs cost $25 or breakfast cost $40 doesn't seem important. Years later, it's fascinating—and it makes our old travel notes much more useful when we're comparing trips.
Write Down What You Actually Thought
This is probably the biggest thing I've learned from rereading our journals.
Don't write what you think you're supposed to say about a destination.
If an excursion was terrible, write that it was terrible.
If everyone says a beach is amazing and your kid spent the entire afternoon looking for crabs instead, write about the crabs.
If you loved something everyone else seems to complain about, write that too.
Those immediate reactions are difficult to recreate later.
Once enough time passes, memories soften. Bad experiences become funny stories. Average experiences sometimes become better in our minds than they actually were.
The journal captures what we thought while we were actually there.
The Journal Became the Beginning of This Blog
When we started putting The Family Departure together, these old notebooks suddenly became incredibly valuable.
We're not trying to pretend we remember every detail of a cruise from years ago. We don't.
Instead, we can open a notebook and find the version of us who was actually there.
What did we think of the food?
What did Ollie love?
What did we spend?
What mistake did we make?
What would we do differently?
That's exactly what we want this site to become—a larger version of those journals.
Not just a collection of beautiful pictures and perfect vacations, but a record of our family seeing the world, making mistakes, changing how we travel, and hopefully helping another family avoid a few of the mistakes we've made along the way.
Years from now, I don't think we'll care very much whether every trip was perfect.
We'll just be glad we remembered to write it down.