Notes From the Window Seat

“I want to travel someday.”

But what needs to happen between now and someday?

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I share why my husband and I decided early to make travel a priority—and the choices that helped us do it. We started by saving for a year to take a one-week trip. We lived in a smaller house than we could afford and drove our cars longer because travel mattered more to us.

Today, we’re making another kind of choice: deciding which trips to take while longer journeys and more physically demanding experiences still feel manageable.

We’ll explore how to:

• Decide whether travel is truly a priority for you.
• Create a bucket list that reflects what you want to experience.
• Consider which trips deserve attention sooner and which might wait.
• Turn one possibility into a savings goal and a concrete next step.

Health, finances, caregiving, and work can create genuine limitations. This conversation is an invitation to examine what’s possible within your circumstances and give the experiences you care about a place in your plans.

“You don’t have to book the trip today. But you may need to stop calling it a dream and begin treating it like a possibility.”

Ready to explore one of your possibilities? Schedule an initial travel conversation with me: TRAVEL | Visual Escape

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Want to take a trip, but don’t know where to start? Before comparing hotels or opening another destination guide, answer three questions: What do you want from the experience? What can you comfortably spend on the whole trip? How much time do you have?

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I walk you through a practical way to turn “I want to go somewhere” into a starting point for planning. I also share how my first major trip to England began with a dare—and why England felt like an approachable place to take that first step.

You’ll learn how to:

• Identify your main priority, whether that’s rest, wildlife, local culture, photography, or time together.
• Set a total spending limit that includes transportation, lodging, meals, and activities.
• Consider both when you want to travel and how many days you can be away.
• Narrow your research to two destinations—or a part of the world that interests you.

Try this after listening:

“I want this trip to give me more ____. My total spending limit is ____. I can be away for ____ days, and I’d like to go within ____ months.”

Then choose two places to investigate. If there’s somewhere you’ve always wanted to go, include it.

Ready for help? Bring those answers to a travel planning conversation with me. We can explore an individually planned trip, a small-group experience, or one of my hosted trips.

Window Seat Note: You don’t need every detail settled to take the first useful step.

Start a Travel Conversation with me: TRAVEL | Visual Escape

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You toured the castle and took the photograph. But did you wander the grounds, explore the village, or settle into a pub long enough to meet someone?

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I share memories of visiting Blair Castle in Scotland—and the details that made the surrounding visit memorable: daffodils, Highland cows, a lovely hotel, and a fabulous lunch that became a couple of hours of conversation in the Bothy Bar.

It's an invitation to leave a little room around the attractions you came to see. I offer practical ways to notice everyday life, make photographs that tell a fuller story, and stay curious about the people you meet.

In this episode:

• Why a landmark can be a starting point for exploring a place.
• How leaving time around a scheduled attraction creates room for discovery.
• A simple fifteen- to twenty-minute pause to try on your next trip.
• What to photograph beyond the familiar view.
• How curiosity can help us see beyond someone's title or first impression.

Try this on your next trip: Visit an attraction you're excited about, then leave some time to explore nearby. Ask yourself: What would I photograph if the landmark weren't here?

Window Seat Note: The landmark may tell you where you went. The small details tell you what it was like to be there.

Follow me on Instagram for photographs and stories about the details of a place.

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 What to Do When the Forecast Wasn’t Part of the Plan.

You planned the trip. You booked the activities. You pictured the views.

And then it rained.

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I talk about what happens when the weather refuses to cooperate—and why disappointing conditions don't have to ruin an expensive or long-awaited trip.

After spending the better part of a week in Ireland in the rain, the philosophy became simple: We're here. We can't dodge the weather. We might as well embrace it.

We'll talk about building flexibility into your itinerary, asking locals what works in the weather you've been given, packing for changing conditions, and knowing the difference between inconvenience and unsafe weather.

And for photographers, we'll look at how rain, mist, reflections, dramatic skies and empty streets can sometimes tell a more interesting story than perfect blue skies—plus a simple weather kit for protecting your camera or phone.

Because you may not receive the day you pictured, but there is still a day waiting to be experienced.

Want to get on the wait list to hear when my new book: Photography What it Feels Like launches? Sign up HERE: TRAVEL | Visual Escape

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What if you could have help with the logistics and still have time to wander on your own?

You want to see more of the world, but maybe you don't want to plan every transfer or navigate every unfamiliar city alone. And you don't want to follow a crowd from one landmark to the next. Is there a way to travel somewhere between those two experiences?

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I explain why I choose small-group travel: someone helps with transportation and logistics, local knowledge is available when I need it, and I can still have time to explore on my own. I also share the questions I would ask before booking, because “small group” doesn't tell you everything about how a trip will feel.

You'll hear about:

• Group size and how you'll get around.
• Where the free time really falls in the itinerary.
• Optional activities and physical expectations.
• Who helps when plans change or an emergency occurs.
• Experiences beyond famous landmarks.
• Why the pace matters as much as the destinations.

A question to take with you: What do I want help with, and what do I want to discover on my own?

Window Seat Note: Support and independence are not opposites. The right journey can give you both.

Want to hear about future small-group and hosted trips? Join my newsletter: Newsletter Sign Up | Visual Escape

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 What If You Get on the Wrong Train?  What happens when you realize you’re headed in the wrong direction in an unfamiliar place? 

Getting on the wrong train can feel like a disaster—especially when you’re somewhere unfamiliar, don’t speak the language and have somewhere you’re supposed to be.

But are you facing an emergency or simply a temporary problem that needs to be solved?

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, Marty shares what happened when she boarded a train going in the wrong direction—and the simple realization that changed the experience: trains stop. She could just get off, cross the track and head in the right direction.

You’ll learn how to:

• Pause before embarrassment becomes panic
• Use maps and translation tools more effectively
• How to ask a for help
• Build flexibility into your travel days
• Recognize the difference between an inconvenience and a genuine emergency

Marty also explores what getting on the wrong train can teach us about leadership. A mistake doesn’t have to define the rest of the journey—but refusing to acknowledge it can take us much farther from where we intended to go.

Going the wrong way for one stop does not mean the entire journey is lost.

Follow Window Seat 2A on Instagram for more practical tips to experience the world with greater curiosity and less fear.

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How one small “Why not?” can change a trip—and perhaps more than the trip.

When you hear the word adventure travel, do you picture something physically demanding, dangerous or completely outside your comfort zone?

It doesn't have to be.

You do not have to be fearless, physically daring or willing to sleep on the side of a mountain to have an adventure. Sometimes adventure begins when you find an unexpected idea, look at the people traveling with you and say, “Why not?”

Adventure is personal. It can mean choosing a less familiar destination, trying one new activity, joining a supported small-group trip or leaving enough room in the schedule to follow an idea you did not plan. Growth does not always require a dramatic leap. Sometimes it begins with one different choice.

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, Marty contrasts kayaking in Antarctica with a very different kind of adventure: a spontaneous afternoon racing her husband and a friend down a New Zealand hill in small luge carts. What started with a quick phone search and the words “Why not?” became one of the memories they still laugh about a year and a half later.

You will learn how to define adventure for yourself, choose an experience slightly beyond your usual routine, distinguish uncertainty from actual danger and use support to make more of the world feel possible. You will also hear why leaving a little unscheduled space may lead to the stories you remember most.

Adventure does not have to be extreme. It only has to take you somewhere beyond the familiar.

Adventure begins wherever the familiar ends—even if that is only one street beyond the usual route.

Join the newsletter for thoughtful travel ideas, photography guidance and simple ways to experience the world with more curiosity and attention: Notes From the Window Seat | Newsletter

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When I first met Lucy, she was hiding in the corner of a room, shaking. I sat on the floor, talked quietly and waited. Twenty minutes later, she looked at me. Eventually, she took a treat. Then, after nearly an hour, she came over and sat beside me.

Five months later, Lucy is still learning to trust. Loud noises, thunder, unfamiliar people and other dogs frighten her. But there are also glimpses of the dog she is becoming: secret zoomies, stolen socks, and moments when she feels safe enough to rest a few feet away instead of hiding beneath my desk.

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I share what Lucy keeps teaching me about trust, patience and the quiet ways transformation happens. Trust cannot be demanded. Progress does not always look impressive. Safety can reveal the personality beneath the fear. And love does not require someone to become fearless before they are worthy of it.

Sometimes courage looks like taking a treat from an open hand. Sometimes joy looks like a stolen sock. Sometimes three feet is not merely three feet—it is an entire journey.

In this episode

• Why good intentions are not enough to create trust
• How patience can be an active form of love
• Why progress is easy to miss when we expect dramatic transformation
• What frightened behavior may conceal about a person or animal
• How safety allows personality, curiosity and joy to emerge
• Why love should not demand immediate proof that it is working
• What it means to become a safe place when the thunder comes

Where might there be quiet progress in your life—or in someone you love—that deserves to be noticed?

Want more lessons from a dog?

📖 What Training My Dog Taught Me About Leadership

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Why does everything we do have to be productive?

We track our steps. Set reading goals. Fill our travel itineraries. Turn hobbies into side hustles. Even relaxation can become something we're supposed to optimize.

But what if enjoyment is enough?

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I start with a simple walk with my dog Lucy—one that sometimes doesn't even make it out of the front yard—and I explore our tendency to measure experiences by what they accomplish.

From giving yourself permission to spend an afternoon lost in a novel to stumbling into an unplanned local festival in the Azores, this episode is about leaving room for things that don't have an outcome, a purpose, or a place on the agenda.

Because a life filled with productive days isn't necessarily the same thing as a life filled with good days.

In this episode:

• Why Lucy and Marty have very different definitions of a successful walk
• When hobbies become another form of work
• Giving yourself permission to enjoy something without guilt
• Why a good travel itinerary needs some empty space
• The difference between wasting your life and wasting a little time
• A different question to ask at the end of the day

Not everything worthwhile has to get you somewhere.

Sometimes doing something simply because you enjoy it...is enough.

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What are you looking for as you move through your day?

On a beach I've walked for years, I rarely pick up shells anymore. But I'm always looking for sea glass—those tiny pieces of white, green, and occasionally blue glass that have been softened by years in the surf.

Finding one feels a little like discovering treasure. But I've realized the real gift may not be finding the sea glass at all.

It's the looking.

In this episode of Notes from the Window Seat, I'm taking you along on one of my walks before sunrise to explore anticipation, attention, familiarity, and the small things that can still delight us.

Because sometimes the treasure isn't what you find.

It's having something worth looking for.

Learn more about the window seat here: TRAVEL | Visual Escape

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