Travels with My Mortgage

My blog is called Travels With My Mortgage because my one consistent travel companion in the last 11 years has always been my house payment. I didn’t start traveling extensively until I was in my early-30s, after my husband I had bought a house and we had a monthly payment. Behind all my travel stories around the world is a wonderful home, a finanical obligation, and decisions about how we can budget our lives so that I could follow my passion.

Hawaii
Shelley Callahan Shelley Callahan

Hawaii

My husband Jim and I honeymooned in Hawaii. It was magical for so many reasons. Not only because we arrived two days after our wedding, high from the excitement of having our closest friends all in the same room and feeling so loved and so celebrated, but because Hawaii feels like magic. The vibrant colors of the plants, fruits, and vegetables, the wildlife, the sounds of the ocean – the fact that, even though it is a very popular tourist destination, we found ourselves alone on beaches or volcanic trails more often than we could have imagined. There were many magical moments that I still think about 15 years after that trip. But one moment – one special moment, magical moment – I think about almost daily.

Read More
Iceland
Shelley Callahan Shelley Callahan

Iceland

The only photo I took in Iceland.

Whenever I have the chance, I try to double up on the locations that my trips will take me. A daylong layover can offer a lot in a second country – an overnight stay can feel like a whole other vacation if you plan it right. When my husband and I went to Barcelona for our 7th wedding anniversary, I booked our flights through WOW Air (RIP), which had a mandatory stop in Reykjavíkon both ends of the trip to Spain, the latter being a full 24 hours in Iceland.

Read More