Happy Mother’s Day!
I want to take this opportunity to thank my mom, Virginia, for filling my life with love and learning. Among countless valuable lessons I’ve learned from her, I’m exceptionally grateful to her for teaching me about the value of travel from such an early age.
My parents weren’t wealthy, but they prioritized to create family moments with cross-country road trips, visits to national parks and monuments, trips to New York City to soak up the performing arts culture, a vacation to Hawaii to make paradise accessible to a wide-eyed teen, and journeys to their homeland to help me better understand our heritage.
Along with my dad, she taught me that good and thoughtful travel can connect us with cultures and re-connect us to who we are. Those journeys helped shape my world perspective and still continue to influence who I am today.
I don’t think she could have envisioned how much of an impact those travel experiences would have on me over the course of my life, but I am thankful that she chose to plant those seeds and for always encouraging my travel dreams to grow.
I love you, Mom!
The Travelphile 
It would be fun to trade Philippine stories someday. I lived there for a few years as a boy.