My husband and I did a fair amount of traveling in our pre-baby days. We were lucky to be able to take an extended honeymoon and travel around the country, including hopping a plane and going to Kauai. We have since been to 49 of the 50 states (Alaska still awaits), though we have not been to all of the Hawaiian islands (missing Lanai and Molokai). On each trip my husband would try to cram a sandy water bottle or plastic bag into our luggage and I would complain and roll my eyes. When we got home, he would eventually transfer the sand into glass bottles, normally after they sat and started to smell skunky and I complained some more. We found an old spice bottle set that worked perfectly. We have since maxed out that set and have moved onto current glass spice bottles, which aren't so pretty, but do the trick.
I've been doing some Fall cleaning and rearranging and moved these dusty bottles from our office into the bathroom where they look really pretty on the window ledge. I guess this is a public apology to my husband for all of the eye rolling in the past. I really enjoy looking at these bottles every day now and they are daily reminders of all of the cool places that we have been together. The multi-colored rocks are from the Texas desert - remember the flash flood signs that were higher than our car that we laughed at because there wasn't a drop of water in sight? The famous black sand of Hawaii that you got at the Waimea River mouth? The black and white peppery looking sand from Kalalau Cave - we won't go into the details on that one!
Now that we have a daughter, I also look at these bottles of sand as learning opportunities for when she is older. I look forward to admiring all of the different shapes, sizes, and textures of sand with her and then telling her a story about where the sand came from. Hopefully we can continue collecting sand from all of the places that we will travel with our daughter and she will learn to treasure these small glass bottles filled with memories of our trip more than she would a plastic souvenir.
Do you have a unique way of saving memories from your travels?