For the Love of Travel

Travel has been in my blood forever. My love for making one special place your vacation home started with my mom, dad and me traveling every year to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for summer vacation. We always stayed on the corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Florida A1A. The hotel was more along the lines of a motel in today’s terms because you accessed all of the hotel rooms from outdoor. It had a pool and a small diner. What made these trips special were the consistency of them, the predictablness. For example, as we travelled to Florida each year, we had a competition, one I still carry-on today, about finding the first palm tree. The winner just got bragging rights, but it was always fun. One year, Daddy wanted a picture by the first palm tree at the rest area where we had stopped. This particular year, the palm tree had fire ants roaming around it. Daddy drove the rest of the way in some discomfort to say the least.

Another recurring moment on our trip was breakfast. Daddy would always get up early to get Dunkin’ Doughnuts for breakfast. Since Dunkin' didn't exist for us outside of Florida, those mornings were the best. When the mornings weren’t full of doughnuts, I would walk down to the diner and order buttered toast with grape jelly. The lady who worked there remembered me each time. Going there felt like sitting down with an aunt to start my day. Now buttered toast is different than toast with butter. Buttered toast consists of taking a brush from a bowl of melted butter and slathering the toast with it. I have never had toast since that has matched that toast there. Again, a moment so inconsequential but so powerful. Whenever we stay somewhere that has a toaster, I still try to recreate that toast.

Speaking of food, we always dedicated a night to eat at the Mai-Kai Restaurant and Polynesian Show. To enter the restaurant, you needed to walk through a jungle full of tropical flowers and trees. Then, once inside, the restaurant felt secluded and magical. There were fire-eaters and dancers to entertain you while you ate. Actually, I don’t remember the food, but I do remember how I felt eating there every year. It was fine dining for us, full of fruity drinks with umbrellas and flowers tucked behind your ear when you entered. In my mind, my parents had taken me to the best place in the world to eat, making me feel so special.

It’s funny how even then food marked my vacations and consequently have lingered in my memories. I didn't know then how much food would be at the center of my future travels, but thanks to Mom and Dad, they laid the foundation for creating special moments on vacation.

This is Mom, my cousin Leslie, and me on the path leading to the door of the Mai-Kai.

We ventured to the beach every day with old sheets to lay on, a portable radio, and very little sunscreen. (Mom, don’t kill me for saying that.) But tanning in the 80’s was a sport. My girlfriends and I would go to Barren River Lake and, again, ‘slather’ ourselves with Parkay squeeze butter. Yep, you heard that right. SQUEEZE BUTTER. (I am sure at some point I will pay for that foolishness.) In Fort Lauderdale, I always got too much sun. The tip of my nose and my shoulders always had sun blisters on them. (Lord, I cringe typing that now, as I am sure Mom does, too.)

This was our beach. We loved it. We went every year. One year Daddy even brought back orange trees. Yes, I rode for 15+ hours home sitting between two orange trees in a tiny Datsun. Here is the picture to prove it!

I share all of this because travel has formed me and the memories of family that I hold most dear. Going on this annual trip to the beach was the foundation of travel for me. Relax, enjoy food that is horrible for your waistline, and feel like you are home. Years later, after two kids and a divorce and the death of my father, two of my girlfriends and I went to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break. All of our kids were with their dads for the first time, and we wanted an escape. I don’t know whose idea it was to go to Fort Lauderdale, but there we went. I remember driving by Sunrise Boulevard, and though the hotel is gone, the memories comforted me instantly. We didn’t do any of the things I did with my parents (Mai-Tai is gone and Dunkin’ is no longer a novelty), but the location was like a blanket wrapped around me. It felt like home.