Welcome to my Blog...

A little bit about myself and what led me to start this blog...

I LOVE to travel. Sadly, my traveling is limited to a trip or two a year, but if I ever won the lotto, I'd be on a permanent vacation! (who wouldn't though, right?!).  One of my favorite things about traveling though, is to PLAN the trip. I love to do research on the places I'm going to, and find out what off the wall things are available to do.  I can also find the main stream things, as well, but the more off the wall, the better!
I've been traveling for as long as I can remember. It all started out when we were younger, and we would plan our family vacations around the Detroit Tigers schedule. My mom was a teacher, so that meant any vacations we went on were when school was not in session, so I never got to be one of those kids that missed a week of school to visit family in Florida, or go on a cruise in the Caribbean etc. But I still had fun when we would go see a baseball game at a random stadium throughout the USA.  So much fun, in fact, my sister and I still try to plan a random trip (most of the time a quick weekend trip) to a new MLB stadium. We have been to 22 total (both current and old) but still have 16 more to mark off our list, which will constantly be changing as they build new stadiums!  That just means more traveling for me!!

I've also recently (within the past 4 years) discovered Cruising as another travel option. I booked a 4 day cruise out of Miami for my sister and I to try, since we wanted something different. I fell in love with it! What better way to be able to see so many new places and discover new things to do each day, for a relatively low price?  You go to bed and wake up the next day either in the middle of the ocean hearing the waves crash against the side of the ship, or pulling into a new city waiting for you to explore.  I look at it as a way to "wet my appetite" on places that I may want to some day return to and spend more time exploring.

Sooo, on to the reason I'm starting this blog...

After planning so many vacations/trips/get-aways/ whatever you want to call them, and going on a few group trips with folks from church, I realized that I was missing out on a "calling". I got back from our 12 day Alaska trip and did a bit of research on what it takes to become a travel agent.
After researching it, and thinking it over for a while, I finally took the plunge and signed up for a course through the Travel Leaders of Tomorrow. I learned so much information about selling travel, and got some great tips and tricks from our instructors. Above all, I got my interest piqued at how much potential there is out there for bringing travel to everyone. I want to be able to help everyone plan their trips, and get the best possible deals available, and also open them up to unusual options they may not have thought about.

I am going to try and do at minimum a weekly update, featuring a different state from the United States of America, each week (there's 52 weeks in the year, so how convienient that I decided to start during the 1st one! I'll be adding Washington DC as well as Puerto Rico in the mix, to help fill out the 52 weeks)  I'll pick a state to high light. I'll try and give a few "fun facts" as well as some interesting places you might want to visit while there, in hopes of piquing your interest in the options of travel available, and hoping that you will let me help plan your trip of a lifetime!

I'll also be doing some trip reports, including pictures, of some of the amazing places I've gotten to visit over my lifetime, and you'll get to re-live those experiences with me. If you see any place that you just have to visit, let me know, and I'll get your trip set up!

If you need to contact me about planning a trip, I can be reached at :
DestinationsByDebbie16@yahoo.com

please feel free to spread the word with all your friends and family as well!

Leave me comments on what you'd like to see, or where you'd like to go, and I'll start researching and showing you what's out there!