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Travel Journal Hacks # 1  Selecting Your Travel Journal – everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask…   After you’ve taken a Journal with you on a few trips, you’ll find that you begin to develop your own preferences. You’ll find that you have a certain the size of journal and page-count that you like. You’ll find there is a particular weight of paper that works for you, and so much more.      Over the years of teaching others how to keep a Travel Journal, and after years of keeping them myself, it strikes me that...

Three Things The Canadian Arctic Taught Me About Keeping a Travel Journal   A few years ago, I was fortunate to be part of a crew of 12 adventurers who paddled the Mackenzie River. For the month of July, we paddled 1500km through some of Canada’s most spectacular scenery - and the whole way that Arctic landscape tested our metal.    Loading our gear into 26' voyageur canoes at Fort Providence at the west end of Great Slave Lake. I kept the first page of my Journal to use as a 'title page' - something to try and set the...

It’s Not Always About You…yes, it is! There sometimes seems to be a notion floating out there that, if you do things for yourself, then you have some kind of ego problem. That’s simply not true; nor is it a healthy approach to this wonderful and magical short time we have here with family and friends and exploring an exciting world. A wonderful and busy view of the Fish Market in downtown Zihuatanejo, Mexico.        If there were anything I could encourage you to do, it would be to put yourself first in more things in your life...

  After starting to paddle each morning about 6am, we would start looking for a suitable campsite along the rugged shoreline about noon each day. Usually by about 2pm we’d found a site that would take our full entourage of tents.   Remember….when you were a kid……and you found yourself in rapture over a colourful map or a detailed globe? I’m betting that, if you’re honest with yourself, you still love maps….don’t you! I know I do.     People often ask me about what sorts of things they should record in their Travel Journal - and one of the...

  Years from now, how clearly will you recall those wonderful vacation moments? A photo can begin the process, and a Travel Journal will ensure the detail is there in so many vivid ways.        One lesson I learned early in my Museum and Archives career was that almost no one is ever remembered if they don’t write something down.     Let me give you the example that has stuck with me from the moment it happened:     We had a visitor come into the Archives looking for information on her Grandparents - she knew when...