Summer vacations are usually fun filled and even adventurous. Going to a place you've never visited before is both exciting and informative. If you are traveling this season, why not take a journal and a Sharpie pen? If you like flourish, it comes in several colors. And if you like to sketch as you go, we have charcoal pencils and wood case colored art pencils. Keeping a record of your travels saves time later when your photos need to be categorized. 

If you're headed for the great outdoors to do some camping or extreme sports, be sure you take a pack of Sharpie Extreme to mark your equipment. The ink withstands weather, temperatures, and rugged use. 

If you're going on a road trip, nothing keeps the kids busy like a 24 pack of either Sharpie fine, Sharpie ultra fine, or Scholar colored pencils and markers. Being able to draw while traveling keeps the kids quiet and their attention fixed on something besides when you will arrive. I like to get big pads of newsprint so I can feel free to express myself. I also bring a notebook of some kind in case I'm inspired by the scenery, the buildings, the people, or the animals I may encounter. Sometimes just a shadow stretching in a peculiar direction is enough to start a good mystery. 

I can remember vacations when we headed to old favorites, like the Cape Cod shoreline. We'd stay in pine tree protected cottages where the walk to the beach was short and shaded. Then we'd enjoy the soft ripple of waves breaking on the shore and collect shells to bring home for decorations. The swimming, castle building, sun tanning, and reading in a brightly colored beach chair were all fun, relaxing ways to spend a couple of weeks. But we also explored the dark sand of the Maine shores, and we had to climb down rocky paths to a small beach inlet where sun didn't reach all day. We ate blueberry muffins in Damariscotta, watched the waves near the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point, and ate lots of lobster on tables lining the wharf. I wish I had recorded more of those journeys with words rather than with simple pictures. The details were wonderful memories too--gulls calling, the smell of the sea, the pine mixed with the cinnamon of great desserts. 

Sometimes we go on a vacation to have fun, but we forget to stop, relax, and take note of the things that make our vacations have texture--things like the smell of mud from a lake, or sun tan lotion mixed with the scent of grilled hot dogs. How about giggles and the feel of seaweed in your hands. Or the nudge of small fish against your legs as you wade in a small stream. 

All the memories should come home as a record both of fun you had, and great memories for days to come. They give us peace, hope, and a vision for more days of adventures into the simple things of life.