Welcome to Hammock in the Woods!

From the catenary folds of fabric suspended between two towering pines I listened. The wind ebbed and flowed, rustling the leaves far above me. In between the murmurings I relished another sound. Silence. More precisely, the silent exhilaration of being in a new place, breathing in new scents, anticipating new adventures. It’s impossible to describe, but as I swung gently to and fro in the woven hammock I knew that I wanted to share it with others. For as long as I can remember I have loved learning about and traveling to other places. My sisters and I operated a make-believe travel agency for years in our parents’ basement where we maintained a file cabinet full of brochures and catalogs we had amassed by calling Convention and Visitor Bureaus in every state (this was before the age of the internet!) and asking them to send us all their visitor information. We then shared this information and planned detailed itineraries for our imaginary customers. Eventually this morphed into planning trips for myself and various family members and friends. I love sharing what we’ve learned on our travels and watching others experience the joy of visiting new places, so perhaps it’s inevitable that on a quiet afternoon in a hammock in the forest outside Gimli, Manitoba, Canada the idea for this blog was borne. Hence the name – Hammock in the Woods.

Thankfully, God brought me a wonderful husband who is eager to explore the world with me. We’ve learned more about ourselves and each other on our enterprising excursions than we would have if we had stayed safely tucked in our hometown. In fact, we’ve even discovered that we experience a bit of a personality reversal when we hit uncharted territory! I guess we can add that to the joy of exploring and learning more about the diversity embedded in other places, people, and cultures. Julian is a master at capturing unique experiences in images (he’s the one behind the camera in all the blog photos!), and I enjoy pondering how to describe them with words. Hammock in the Woods is our joint endeavor to record and preserve these memorable moments in time. Thanks for joining us on the journey!