How much do we travel, really?

So many people say things to A and I like, "we could never travel as much as you do," or "I don't know how you do it."  

A never understands these comments about how much we travel.  Unless we're on the road year-round, he'll never think it's "a lot."  I believe it's an artifact of social media.  Sometimes people only tune in to us when we're traveling.  We post a picture somewhere or check in someplace interesting and it catches the eye. That makes it seems like we really are traveling all the time.    And it affects how we see other people as well, though some of our friends legitimately travel more than we do.

So, let's get it down on paper - how much do we travel, really?  

In 2016, we spent the night away from home for one or more nights on 13 different occasions. This includes the last nights of a 2015 trip, so if we ignore that one to make the math easy, that's approximately once a month.  Here's how these break down: 

• We had one long 2 week vacation when we went to Spain in September.  This is legit what everyone would agree is travel.  And it was AWESOME!
• We started the year in San Diego at the end of a family road trip  and returned to San Diego in November.  Both of these trips were to see family and both required a 1-2 days of time off in 2016. 
• Those were the only times we flew anywhere in 2016.  Every other "trip" involved us driving somewhere.  
• The second longest trip we took was to Whistler, BC in Canada and required us to take 3 days off work.  This was also the furthest distance we drove this year at about 400 miles. 
• The closest distance we traveled was across town to stay at the McMenamins Kenedy School for my birthday staycation about 12 miles away.  
• Six of our "trips" did not require any time off work as they were strictly weekend trips and three others only required a long weekend with 1 extra day off (meaning three days total).  All of these trips were within Oregon and Washington and many were trips oriented around our McMenamins Passport adventures.  
• With our McMenamins Passport free hotel stays and sleeping in our camper, we also didn't have to rent/pay for any lodging for six of these "trips."

For people who rarely spend a night away from home, this average of going away once a month probably does seem like a lot.  To me, though, 2016 was just about perfect.  And for those who say that couldn't get away as much (and want to), I encourage you to just start.  If you're a home body on weekends, try to get out - if you get out a lot, try someplace new.  I'll be posting some travels tips to help with planning and booking travel in the future.  Bon voyage!