You may be wondering, what is Storied Travel & Adventures and how on earth did I come up with it? But first…

I am not a writer. That will become obvious if you make it much farther than these first two sentences. I didn’t even ask my bestie to edit this because I wanted to be authentically me (sorry, Ellen!). What I am is someone who loves travel, great storytelling, and talking about both. So hopefully, you’ll bear with me, and stick around long enough to see the writing improve.

Before we begin, I have to acknowledge everyone who has helped make Storied Travel & Adventures possible. Most importantly, my family. Tom, Alex, and Charlotte, thank you for your love and support of not only this, but all my crazy ideas. To Ellen, Aimee, Emily, Carol, Courtney, Elizabeth, Jeanne, Suzanne, Jen, Andrew, and Bobby… Thank you for being my cheerleaders. I love you all immensely. And a *huge* thank you to Jenna Miller of Absolute JEM, my phenomenal brand and website designer. When we first began this journey together, I could not have possibly imagined a website that so perfectly reflected me. I will always treasure your enthusiastic YES! to every – yet another – idea I had, and appreciate your patience, more than I can say, with my dawdling on website copy and taking over when I just couldn’t (see first blog sentence).

So, now, like any good creation story, let’s start at the beginning…

All of my earliest memories center around travel and reading. And I’ve always loved a highly themed event. That’s just another version of *on point* storytelling.

In 1980, right after my 7th birthday, my parents and I went on a three week European vacation to celebrate my dad’s retirement from the Air Force. This was a big deal. I still don’t know how they pulled it off. Financially or logistically. Both aspects are difficult enough in 2025, let alone 45 years ago. The things little Jenny loved on that trip are the same things I love about travel today. The story of a place. The culture, food, fashion, art, architecture…

Growing up in Central NY, there was no shortage of local storied locations to visit. My absolute favorite was the Trinkaus Manor Christmas light display. An 1820s mansion turned restaurant and motorlodge, Trinkaus Manor would put on an annual holiday light display that would attract thousands of visitors. I can still remember the smell and crunch of the snow as you walked through the parking lot. Lights and framing were added to the roof of the main historical building to make it look like a Winter Wonderland chapel. If you were lucky, the grand doors would open while you were walking by, where the sound of dishes and glasses clinking together joined the hum of diners talking and laughing. Circling around the side of the building, floor to ceiling windows gave you a glimpse of what had to be (in this child’s mind) the classiest mid-century modern dining room. And opposite those windows, the most magical Christmas light display. Just small vignettes of Santa, his elves, various fairytale characters. But, oh, would it ignite my imagination!

In those early elementary school years, my dad would take me to Rome’s (NY) Jervis Library every Saturday. I’d sit on the floor of the children’s section for hours looking through books. And still take home a large stack. I read and re-read about the adventures of Babar and his Queen Celeste countless times. As my reading, and our weekend father-daughter dates, evolved, the tradition became lunch at McDonald’s followed by a stop into the neighboring Walden’s Books to pick up the next in series Nancy Drew. I’d spend the rest of the day on the couch devouring the girl detective’s latest mystery in exotic locations like Athens, Salzburg, Mexico City. Even the Arizona setting of The Kachina Doll Mystery was fascinating to a young girl growing up in Central NY in the early 1980s.

When I was a sophomore in high school my mom and I flew to Southern California to visit my grandparents, and spent a day at Disneyland. As I stood at the end of Main Street USA, reading the opening day dedication plaque, I realized with absolute certainty that my life’s calling was to be a part of what made people love their travel adventures. That led me to earning a BS in Hotel & Resort Management from Rochester Institute of Technology, and then a variety of hotel, resort, corporate travel, and corporate relocation jobs, none of which fulfilled my sense of purpose.

In 2012 I serendipitously found a position with Glass Slipper Concierge, as a travel advisor specializing in Disney destinations. I truly loved working with GSC, spending ten years helping hundreds of families plan stress free vacations to the happiest, most magical places on earth – as well as many additional domestic and international locations. But by mid-2022, post-Covid travel planning had me burned out. I needed a break.

Fast forward to late 2023 – early 2024, when I was on the cusp of being an Empty Nester and the barrage of “what’s next for Jen” questions were giving me a bit of an identity crisis. I had never really stopped planning travel. Between my own family’s adventures and helping friends with theirs, researching travel destinations was still my favorite thing to do. I had also been able to get back into reading regularly. One non-fiction book I read, that has become an all time favorite and life affirming guidebook, is Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara. As the concepts of travel planning, reading, and Unreasonable Hospitality kept swirling in my brain, Storied Travel & Adventures began to take shape. 

It’s been 36 years since I had that epiphany at Disneyland, and I feel like I’m finally doing what I’ve always meant to do. Travel planning with unreasonable hospitality so that people can experience their own storied travel and adventures.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey!

Happy traveling, Jen