My Travel Story

Travel has been a pillar of my life for as long as I can remember, thanks to my mom! She used to be a travel agent (shout out Sears Travel) and she would bring back the coolest souvenirs from her trips, and sometimes she even brought my sister and I along with her.

I remember once she got me a beach ball with a world map pattern, and I would read the beach ball over and over again as we drove to Algonquin Provincial Park. I can still name every country in the world – try me! My mom has been to over 70 countries, and one day I’d like to top her count.

As a child I did get to travel a little bit with my parents, but only to a few North American and Caribbean countries. Other than that we mostly stuck to road trips in Canada. My family is big on camping and a bunch of my cousins and I went on a week-long stay in Algonquin Provincial Park almost every year. I still have a big love of the outdoors and I’d love to visit all the operating Ontario Parks, and all the Parks Canada run national parks too!

My first “big” trip was to France when I was 19 when my mom took me on an Avalon Waterways River Cruise from Paris to Normandy and back. Seeing Claude Monet’s House and Gardens, and the D-Day Landing Beaches fully ignited my love for travel as an adult. I’ll never forget seeing Notre Dame de Paris or the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

I was going to Carleton University at the time, majoring in History with a minor in Greek and Roman Studies. The next year I had the opportunity to go to Rome and Naples for 2 weeks with my professors. A trip abroad and a course credit? Sign me up! It was so neat having our professors as our Italy guides, even though the only gave us 4 hours to explore Vatican City. History professors tend to only be interested in their specific expertise. But hey, there’s nothing like walking through the streets of Pompeii.

Then I didn’t get to go on a plane for 6 whole years. Between the pandemic and just being busy with school, travel was set to the back burner since I was trying to be a responsible adult. (That didn’t really work, I still don’t know what I’m doing with my life, so lol). That is until I met my partner Justin in 2023, and I am forever grateful that I did!

He also loves to travel and since then we have been on multiple big trips together with many more to come. In our relationship I am the designated trip planner, while Justin tags along. Our first trip was an Alaskan Cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. I love sharing our travel experiences to help people plan better, deeper, and more responsible trips. And so Alina’s Field Notes came to be!