Once upon a time I lived in California and befriended a beautiful moon goddess named Selene. She had never been to France, while it’s one of my favorite places. We would get together and swap travel stories and say, “one day, we will visit Paris together!”
Of course, friends say things like that all the time. I figured such a plan would likely never come to fruition, and wouldn’t have thought any the less of her because of it.
Time passed and the military took me away from sunny SoCal, and away from Selene. We kept in touch while I launched my new life in DC, and remained connected as we faced our respective struggles in 2020. Then, in summer 2021, Selene called and made the most exciting proposition.
“Let’s go to Paris! This summer, before COVID gets bad again. Seriously. I’m down, if you are.”
I was so excited and so down! But I was also so newly pregnant that I hadn’t told anyone yet – so I made my big reveal and asked if she was still interested in going with someone who couldn’t so readily imbibe in vin and fromage. Turns out she’s an excellent sport and wasn’t bothered in the slightest.
COVID counts were in a lull, and international travel less daunting, so we lost no time in booking a week in France, with a few days in Paris and a few days in dreamy Provence ❤
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were to exotic Afghanistan, and no family leave was permitted. His third deployment is to Australia, and although his situation is vastly different (safer) than prior deployments, I still didn’t anticipate that he would have a leave block.
New Orleans had been on my bucket list for a while. Despite living (and not even working) in Georgia for nearly seven months, I never made it over there. I loved Savannah and Charleston, so given NOLA’s French influence and notorious pulsating energy – combined with the southern hospitality, architecture, and cuisine I had already grown to love – I knew I had to check it out someday. 
It’s perhaps a bit misleading to entitle this post as though we toured Cambodia, because in reality, we only visited Siem Reap. I knew we couldn’t leave Asia without seeing one of the world’s greatest wonders, Angkor Wat. Despite is reputation for being overwhelmed with tourists, nearly everyone we spoke with said it was worth visiting anyway. I took them at their word and booked the flight from Ho Chi Minh City so we could spend two full days in this city of temples. 
This was the trip I never thought would actually happen. Chuck was away all of January, and we had no idea when exactly the Marines would schedule us to leave Okinawa. As soon as we got our orders, however, Chuck said with determined enthusiasm: “Let’s figure out your last week at work and book this trip!”
Wildflowers & Whimsy 