I have traveled a lot in my lifetime and I am not slowing down. When I "retired" from modeling, I thought that I would be ready to settle down. Before retiring, I had traveled to over a dozen countries, 5 continents, almost 50 states... you get the point. I thought, "Check!" I could move back to America and pop out some babies and feel fully satisfied with how many places I had been to. But it turns out that wanderlust isn't something that can be satiated with age, or places you've been in the past. It's like an itch that comes from the middle of your chest, the space between your heart and lungs, and the weight becomes so heavy at times that you have to plan entire vacations that you'll never book, read blogs to live vicariously through another, scroll through other people's Facebook stories with bated breath, practically salivating over another's adventures.

            I opened my first restaurant in 2013 and I knew that my schedule would no longer allow me to travel like it once had, which was great in many ways, but also scary. I felt in my blood that I needed to travel to feel satisfied in my life, but I would have to learn how to travel when it wasn't for modeling. I had never even been allowed to choose where I went before this moment. I would get a phone call at 6:00am from my London agency saying, "You're going to Cape Town in three days." It didn't matter if it was Valentine's Day, Grandma's birthday, my parent's anniversary, etc. Those calls were not questions. Along with not choosing where I was traveling to or how long I would be there, I was also not allowed to choose my hair color, how much I weighed, what I wore, etc. etc. etc. In so many ways, after retiring, I felt like I was putting the pieces of myself back together, and I had a lot of questions. 

     In this section of my blog, I will share all of my travel experiences before retiring, and also after. These experiences may read differently to you, because they were so different for me. Either way, I hope that you can take something positive away from each experience. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!