Mom my Mom is most certainly one of my favorite travel partners! She is always up for adventure, rolls with the punches and always makes the best of any situation.
This year for Mother's Day, I wanted to reminisce on some of our favorite trips together!
PARIS
This trip was a fun opportunity to follow my in my Mom's footsteps and relive part of her backpacking trip that she took when she was my age.
We spend a fabulous two weeks wandering through the streets of Paris, navigating the Metro, and sipping cappuccinos and people watching in between devouring some of the city's most famous museums.
One of my favorite excursions was a trip we took to the Palace of Versalles. We rented bicycles and explored the incredible gardens. It was such a flashback to growing up and going on family bike rides!
As we all know, travel is not always picture perfect and completely instagrammable.
One of my absolute most memorable misadventure was with my Mom in Paris.
The very first morning after we arrived, jet-lagged and delirious, we headed out for breakfast. We were in a very residential part of Paris with some incredible restaurants that catered to the locals more than the tourists. We stumbled around the block until we found one that looked good. We get seated and get coffee and quickly find out French is the only language in this place, both spoken and written. This is fine, since my mom took years of French... right? I look over the menu and I think I find something that I like. I think it has something to do with Salmon. I can make that work. Mom confidently orders something to do with beignets. Our waitress looks at us curiously, but smiles and leaves us to it. I am envisioning southern beignets with powdered sugar. Sounds great! After we start to come back to life and plan our day, breakfast is served!
I am served the most beautiful breakfast I have ever seen! It is thin cross sections of granny smith apples layered with fabulous french cheese and smoked salmon. It's three layers tall and stunning! Mom's... not so much. It is a plate of fried something... We both look at it and try to figure out what the heck it is. My Mom, like the true champ she is, dives right in and takes a bite. CALAMARI! My mom accidentally ordered Calamari for breakfast. I don't know if it was the jetlag or just the ridiculous situation we found ourselves in, but we couldn't help but completely and hysterically crack up. Here we are, day 1 in Paris for our Mother & Daughter trip eating calamari for breakfast. It was the best way to start a trip ever!
MACHU PICCHU & THE GALAPAGOS
We took a Mother & Daughter trip to Peru and the Galapagos Islands with my Mom's college roommate and her daughter. It was a bucket list trip for Mom that I was totally thrilled to be invited to go on!
The Galapagos Islands were nothing short of spectacular! We spent a week exploring the unique ecosystem and unusual animals. We took boat tours and swam with sea turtles and sea lions. We frolicked with giant Galapagos turtles and spotted Darwin's finches. Spending time on so many different islands was a fascinating way to see how unique and varied this region is!
Our trip cumulated with a visit to Cusco and Machu Picchu. Even our journey from Cusco through the Sacred Valley on our way to Machu Picchu was breathtaking. Once you enter the city, you feel like time has stood still. There is such a presence of history, culture, spirituality and the power of nature that both my mom and I were speechless. We just enjoyed watching the sun rise through the Peruvian Andes and enjoyed our time together.
This Mother's Day, I am so happy to celebrate my incredible Mom, travel partner and overall support system.
My mom has encouraged me to pursue my career as an architect and supported me every step of the way. She gave me the confidence and inspiration to do my study abroad in Italy. She respected my newfound love of travel and enjoyed it with me. She was there when I decided to make a life choice to start a business and leave everything I had known behind.
She has inspired me to be my greatest self. She is right beside me to celebrate my wins and is a shoulder to cry on when things don't go my way. She taught me what is right and how to stand up for myself. She taught me to be strong and follow my heart and my dreams.
This weekend, take a moment to reach out to all of the Moms in your life. Thank them for everything that they do and let them know how much they mean to you!
Happy Mother's Day!
Caitlin Blythe
Waypoint Goods // Owner & Founder
Caitlin began Waypoint Goods to help and inspire women to get out and travel while feeling safe and fashion forward. She creates custom patterns and designs for the travel scarves based on her travels. Her past life as an architect makes the brand contemporary and modern while focusing on empowering women to travel.
