I love traveling. I’m sure that’s pretty darn obvious by now! 🙂 I like pretty much all aspects of the traveling experience. I also love to laugh. Who doesn’t? Combine travel and laughter and you have a recipe for some great times!

One of the great things about traveling is being able to look back and reminisce about your journeys. And photos help a lot with that. I always take a ton of photos when I travel and I just love going through them years later and remembering “when.”

Some photos bring a smile to my face quicker than others. And those photos would be the ones that my travel buddy, Teresa, and I started taking on our first trip to Europe: statues. Except, not just statues, but us posing with said statues and imitating them. I honestly can’t say when or why we started doing this but once we did, it became somewhat addictive.

This has now become something we do wherever we travel. And we’ve even managed to coerce some of our friends and family into joining us in these fun photo ops. So, I thought I would share some of these moments with you.

Now, I have to admit that quite often I play the role of instigator director of these photo shoots…

“Teresa, act like that swan!”

“Okay, Stewart, you’re the half-naked soldier, Melissa, you can be his mistress, and Teresa…you’re the lion.”

But my friends always go along with it, so until they catch on, I’ll keep directing!

In Rome, I thought Teresa should take on the challenge of mimicking a headless statue. This shot of her was, I think, about the 122nd one we took. And, unfortunately, the effect was not quite as epic as I thought it was going to be.

A greater challenge would have been this:

Next time…

And sometimes we would go along with a stranger’s suggestion:

“Pretend you’re each holding an Olympic torch!” said the Englishman we asked to take our picture in Athens. And, we obviously went along with his suggestion.

One of my favorite memories in France:

Teresa trying to reason with the male female I-don’t-know mannequin in a home improvement store

One place we visited in England was a virtual goldmine of photo ops! And that place was Warwick Castle which has rooms containing medieval scenes filled with very life-like wax figures. It didn’t take long for us to immerse ourselves in these scenes with our new friends of wax.

It’s always great when you can convince other people to join in on the fun of statue mimicking:

My brother being a good sport in Germany

My friends’ kids in Chicago

Melissa and Stewart being good sports again in Munich

And what does one do when a statue does not exist where a statue should exist? You rectify the oversight, of course:

Salzburg offered us quite a few photo opportunities:

As did Paris:

And Vancouver, Canada:

Below are some more favorites:

The moral of the story? Have fun! Don’t take life (or at least travel) too seriously! Find your “thing” that makes you smile or laugh whenever you think of it (or look at it, as above). 🙂

Photo locations from top to bottom:

• Hohenschwangau Castle, Germany
• Munich, Germany
• Palatine Hill, Rome, Italy
• Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy
• Panathenaic Stadium, Athens, Greece
• Leroy Merlin Store, Toulouse, France
• Warwick Castle, England
• Magdeburg, Germany
• Chicago, Illinois
• Munich, Germany
• Chatsworth House, Bakewell, England
• Clockwise from top left: Mirabell Gardens, Panorama Bus Tour, Mirabell Gardens, park/playground in Salzburg, Austria
• Top row: The Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Musée d’Orsay; Bottom: Musée Rodin, Paris, France
• Grouse Mountain, Vancouver, Canada
• Tallahassee, Florida
• Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Olympic Museum, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Barcelona, Spain
• King Kamehameha Statue, Kapaau, Hawaii
• Black Hawk Statue, Lowden State Park, Oregon, Illinois
• Victoria, Canada
• Westlake Park, Seattle, Washington

You might also enjoy:

• My Roman Holiday (Part I)
• It’s Always Christmastime in Germany!
• Seattle’s Underground, Seafood, & Starbucks
• Cathedrals, Castles, & Pigeons: Final Days in London