Travel Collections

I think it is obvious that we love to travel!!  I actually have a ton of travel blog posts from recent vacations that I need to get caught up on.  Ah - seems like I remember starting out last year with a plan to get caught up on my vacation posts ;-)  Well, I did get caught up for a few months.

It's important to me that we have some "documented" memories from each vacation.  Especially since my kids are still at an age where they will have limited memories of our trips.  I know that pictures and such have helped me remember some of my childhood.  

Besides the millions of pictures that I take (which are turned into photo books) we also started a couple of other collections.  

We love Hard Rock Cafe - my son wants to be a rock star when he grows up ;-)  When I have the opportunity I like to get a picture of the kids in front of the location sign (like the picture below).  Just about all Hard Rock Cafes have them but they are usually on a stage.  Every now and then we don't have access to the stage....

We love that Hard Rock Cafe sells pins specific to each location.  They are also ever changing so you can buy different ones for each visit.  They have  a trading appeal but we are just focused on buying one from every Hard Rock Cafe we visit.  We just started this about a year ago.  There are so many that we need to revisit to add to our pin collection!

We looked into a variety of ways to save our pins.  I wanted them on display to see versus stored away in some book.  Hard Rock Cafe offers some fun options to do this but they are a little more pricey than I feel comfortable with right now.  So, I simply took a blank canvas and stapled some black cloth over it.  

We have so many more than this already!

Another collection we have started is from the crushed penny machines.  We have found them in most tourist areas and my kids are always excited when they find a machine.  Of course they fight over who gets to turn the crank but it's still fun in the end!

After we started collecting a few of the pennies we found a need to purchase a collectors book.

My son LOVES to show visitors the penny book and tell them all about our travels!

Tip on pennies:  New pennies are best!  Some of the "dirty" pennies turn out so dark that it is hard to see the stamping.  Most of the machines cost fifty-one cents (we did come across one that was $1.01).  The penny you add to the machine is the one you get back.  Anytime we are packing for a trip I make sure I have plenty of quarters and shiny pennies on hand.  

I am curious - what "collections" do you have to remember a vacation?