Documenting your summer vacation

by Marsha Knackstedt / Wednesday, 28 July 2010 / Published in Tips on Preserving Memories

I’ve been quiet the last few weeks because our family went on an inspiring family trip to Hamburg, Paris, and Rome. Many people told me, “take lots of pictures”. That is a silly thing to say to me. But in addition to taking lots of pictures I also journaled the events of our memory filled trip.

I have the guide book that I used to plan our travels which also gave great descriptions about what we were seeing. I have my notes about where we were going and what we were seeing each day.

I wrote in my journal as the trip went along and wrote about the hits and misses on the food we ordered. “Wes and Cheryl were trying to play it safe and order something with beef. It wasn’t until the dish was served that we remembered that beef tartar is finely cut raw beef steak. They both struggled to choke it down.”

I also wrote about our experiences with new forms of travel. “The doors on the Paris Metro are reminiscent of the guillotine that was once a popular form of correction. Our first try on the Metro was painful, at least for Aspen. When the doors closed she had half of one arm, and elbow of the other arm, and her suitcase one half in the train when it was ready to leave the station.”

My digital photo books always have lots of text in them to go with the lots of photos. I also kept lots of memorabilia that I will scan in: bottle labels, ticket stubs, coins, a unique ice cream spoon, sand, stones, and bark.