Ten Years of Travel

Steve and I are moving Trevor into the dorms today (!) which means we've been going through a bunch of his stuff recently, as he figures out what he will be taking with him to college. Along the way, we have found some things we're both fine letting go. These include: 

• his extensive collection of barely-recognizable Rainbow Loom art (he gave away the kit itself years ago)
• the vast majority of his Perler Bead creations (we're keeping what fits on the display board) 
• random recyclable items he hoarded when he was young (because everything is a potential craft) 
• a lot of projects involving pony beads and lanyard string
• the projects from four books' worth of Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction (he's keeping the books themselves, for now anyway)

For the next few days, I'll be sharing some treasures we've uncovered. Treasures to me, anyway. After preserving them here on the blog, I'll be able to let them go. 

First up, this United States Field Guide. 

It came in the Little Passports Welcome Packet Trevor received for Christmas when he was 7. He diligently filled out the About Me page with his neatest handwriting. (Now, his handwriting is a barely legible scrawl, but he does know how to spell "because" correctly.) 

In 2013, Trevor had been to six states in addition to his home state of California. Of the remaining 43 states, he was most interested in visiting Texas "beacause it is so big and beacause it has a fort as a picture." Ten years later, shortly after he turned 17, Trevor visited his 50th state. That fort? He didn't visit it on his first visit to Texas in 2018, when we explored Austin. Nor did we see it during his second trip to Texas in 2023, when we spent time in Fort Worth and Dallas. (Despite the name, there is no longer a fort in Fort Worth.) It took a third visit to Texas last spring for Trevor to finally tour the fort in San Antonio that interested him at age 7. 

What a joy to rediscover the Field Guide that first got Trevor so excited about travel!