WELCOME TO MY TRAVEL BLOG

Hi, my name is Denice ... and I am a travel-holic ...

I remember the first time I was exposed to thrill of travel.

I was 12 years old when my family went on our first vacation. It was a week long trip over the Fourth of July. We drove our camper three hours to the Traverse City area in the northwest quadrant of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. It was a whole new experience for me. Planted on the gently rolling hillsides were thousands of cherry trees ripe with red mouth-watering cherries.  There were miles and miles of sandy beaches begging to be walked and explored. There were high sandy dunes challenging us to see how fast we could climb them.

I documented our first family vacation with my first instamatic camera. It was a PHD type of camera ... you know the kind ... "push here, dummy!"  I just dropped the film cartridge into the back of the camera and took the picture. Indoor pictures required me to snap a flash cube (remember them?) on top of it. When the 24 or 36 exposures were taken, I took the film cartridge to the store and anxiously waited for the film to be developed. You've probably heard the photo store's motto, "someday my prints will come!" That's how I felt.  By the late 1970's, I got my first 35mm camera ... not a PHD type but I still had to wait for the pictures to be developed.  In 2001, I bought my first digital camera.  It brought me back to the PHD kind of photography of my youth except I could see my pictures immediately ... no more waiting for my prints to come. 

Then, one day in 1987, my Prince did come.  I met and married Brad – a fellow travel addict who shares my love of photography, nature, and history.  When we met, I had a long bucket list of travel destinations to see and photograph.  Over the years, I noticed my bucket list wasn’t getting any shorter.   After we visit one destination, I would discover new places to add to it!  While we do travel regularly around the U.S. and Caribbean, the Traverse City area remains one of my favorite destinations.   

The former Traverse City State Hospital (built in 1885)

 is now home to unique boutiques, restaurant, and commercial businesses.