Viva la Vida Travel with Carmen Schaffer

I write about people a lot in my travel blogs because quite honestly, people fascinate me. People who are traveling and moving from one place to another fascinate me. People who are stagnant also fascinate me. People who I've never met fascinate me. While I am out and about in this world, I am always observing people and even more so when I am traveling. Folks who have taken a step to travel, whether it be to travel to Virginia to see the in-laws with their new baby or to venture further out of the country, they have taken a step out of their comfort zone. They are filled with passion, exhaustion, curiosity, and on some level, they  are risk takers whether they choose to believe it or not. Photo taken in the Atlanta airport en route to Mexico Traveling is not just getting from point A to point B. No, friends, it's more than that. You don't just take a cab ride without interacting with the cab driver ~ you engage with them, you tell them where you need to go. While at ...

Every 4th of July our family takes a 4 hour trek up ( along with thousands of other Minnesotans)  to Northern Minnesota to enjoy what every Minnesotan affectionately calls "the lakes." It doesn't matter where you are going in Minnesota, if you are headed to one of our 10,000 lakes, you simply call your sweet spot  in this state, "the lakes". We have been going to the same lake in small town Minnesota for roughly 14 years. We stay on a cabin cruiser in a marina and spend our days either wake boarding, wake surfing, fishing, swimming or nothing at all. Our tradition is pretty predictable and enjoyable. The kids run and gun from sunrise to well beyond sunset. Night time fishing is a hit amongst the men despite the onslaught of horse flies and mosquitos that suck your blood dry. For some reason, the guys don't seem to mind the constant swatting and cursing at those flying vampires but I do so I stay nestled in the boat. This year, however great our tradition...