About
Hi Everyone! Welcome and Thank you for checking out The Rx For Travel blog. My name is Rachel. I am a Doctor of Pharmacy (hence the Rx) and am currently working as a part-time Clinical Pharmacist (switched from full-time after the birth of my son). I’m also an only child, Christian, wife (to Michael), gluten free (you’ll hear more about that as you keep reading) , dairy free, momma of 2 (to a little boy, Roman and a little girl, Eden) who LOVES to travel.
Every good story starts at the beginning. I was born to a gypsy spirit mom and a home body dad and I would say I am the embodiment of both of those two very different personalities. I LOVE to travel, but I also love having a home base to come back to. Since my mom is the definite traveler, it comes as no surprise that I started traveling pretty early in life. Here I am in Amish country, Lancaster, Pennsylvania at about 18 months.
With My Mom
With My Dad
I am New York born and Florida raised. We moved from New York to Florida when I was about 8 and frequently went back and forth between the two, including every summer. My mom who loves trains typically took me back to New York by Amtrak train, so train travel is in my blood. At other times during the year, it was typically driving, so I spent a lot of time seeing the east coast of the United States. My parents were not much for long distance traveling or international travel, so in my growing up years most of my travel was focused along the east coast of the U.S.
With My Pops and Grams Nashville Network Studio Nashville, TN
Café du Monde - New Orleans, LA
During pharmacy school, travel for me started to change. I was travelling with friends more than my parents or family and I seized whatever opportunity came up that brought me to a place that I had never been before. I went to any and every pharmacy conference that required travel which in this case was much of the west coast. During the last year of pharmacy school, we are required to do “rotations,” which is basically just several month long internships at different pharmacy practice sites. While most of my class remained within easy distance of school, I found ways to travel more including going to North Pole, Alaska, Washington DC, as well as a number of different cities through the state of Florida.
North Pole, Alaska
American Pharmacists Association - Groundbreaking Ceremony - Washington, D.C.
Parthenon - Athens, Greece
After graduation came the real world, work. Working now afforded (see what I did there) me the opportunity for international travel. A little daunting at first having never left the country in my 20+ years, but now was headed to Greece.
In 2009, I met my husband Michael. He also is a traveler and did most of his travel via cruise of which I had no idea about. We went on our first date the night before I was leaving for Australia for almost a month. How’s that for timing? “Hey, this date was nice. See you in a month!” Haha. We did keep in touch while I was away and started dating as soon as I got back.
Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef - Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Sydney Harbour Bridge - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sydney Opera House - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Petting a Wallaby - Featherdale Wildlife Park - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
As my college friends went back to their home states or found jobs in various places, I again took an opportunity to travel and visit them.
The Bean - Chicago, IL.
Cannon Beach, OR
In 2011, while visiting family in North Carolina, Michael proposed. We were exploring the beautiful Nantahala National Forest in Franklin, North Carolina.
Nantahala National Forest - Franklin, NC
We're Engaged!
Once home, we began to plan our wedding when in the midst I became very sick. I was going back and forth to the hospital, doctor’s offices, and specialists, but they were unable to determine the cause for my illness. After a couple of months, it was determined that I had a gluten intolerance, but not true celiac disease, and so began my gluten free diet. I’ve heard many people who have a gluten intolerance and not true celiac disease will cheat now and again with foods they love. They know they will feel bad for a couple days then move past it without any long term damage, but after having felt so terrible for so long, I started a gluten free diet that day and never went back. At the time, I was vegan too. But personally, could not do both diets simultaneously. So I remained only dairy free as well as gluten free. Looking back, I feel like I've always had lactose intolerance. We just didn't know it at the time. My vegan diet helped prepare me for the new gluten free and dairy free diet ahead after having spent so much time reading nutrition labels and ingredient lists.
Although now travel seemed quite daunting. “What can I eat? Where can I eat? What if there is a language barrier and they don’t speak English, how will I explain my food allergy?” These were all questions that I struggled with. [Check out my blog post for A World to Travel answering all these questions and more.] As we were deciding on our honeymoon, we decided to take the safest route, Disney. We chose Aulani Disney Resort in O’ahu, Hawaii. Disney is AMAZING when it comes to food allergies! They take ALL food allergies very seriously in all of their restaurants, and always have something available that caters to those who have them.
Aulani Disney Resort - O'ahu, HI
Minnie Mouse!
Royal Caribbean Cruise to Mexico
After our honeymoon and my first gluten free adventure was behind me, Michael finally convinced me to go on my first cruise. I absolutely loved it. Cruise lines also do a great job catering to food allergies as I soon found out. Now, I had a whole new means of travel available to me.
In 2014, we decided to make an out of state move to Virginia. We didn’t do too much long distance traveling and instead focused our attention on checking out all the interesting things available in our newest surroundings. The Lord had different plans for us and our time in Virginia was relatively brief (only a year and a half). Hindsight is 20/20 as they say and looking back on our time there, it was definitely a season of learning and actually so much more full of purpose than I realized at the time. It set us on a new and different path that we might not have otherwise been able to achieve had we not stepped out in faith to move there to begin with. Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Apple Picking at Carter Mountain Orchard - Charlottesville, VA
Historic Jamestowne, VA
Mont-Royal - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
And so, our move back to Florida began, but this time taking us to a new city. We purchased our first home and in 2016, our son, Roman was born. Travel took a different turn again. Traveling with a baby (gasp). As an only child myself, and little experience with children in general, the thought of travelling with a newborn/infant seemed daunting. We unfortunately let that get the best of us and didn’t set out on any real kind of travel with him till he was about 9 months old. In hindsight, I wish we would’ve traveled with him earlier than that. For being beginner parents, we didn’t do too bad, because when we did finally make our first travel experience with him, it was technically out of the country (to Montréal, Canada). We had a memorable trip and really saw and did so much in the short time we were there. It was also a definite learning experience for us as parents on what to do and what not to do while traveling with a child. Tips we can now pass on to you!
Central Park, New York
In 2019 came Eden our second child, a little girl, and now our family is complete. Travelling is changing again, but not to be so different or difficult that it has to completely stop. We will just go through another learning curve.
I wanted to start this blog, because I love to travel. Moreover, I have also been there during life’s changes (like being gluten free dairy free and a parent) that can sometimes make travel feel daunting and at times even unattainable. I’m not a full time traveler by any means and any travels that I have done have either been while going to school full time or working full time. I only recently went part time, but travel doesn’t always mean international or long distances either. Travel to me is sometimes just an afternoon exploring the city you live in, and after living in multiple cities throughout the state of Florida, I highly recommend doing this wherever you may live. As the saying goes, “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” My hope is that by using this blog with my own past and future travel experiences, I can help make your travel experiences more joyful, more fun, and more memorable.
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I truly and sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to read through my story.
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