When FAR AWAY Isn't Really FAR!

Hey Travel Friends!

I recently attended a baby shower that was about an hour drive from my home.  Let me tell you that as I've gotten older, driving has become my LEAST favorite activity.  I would have rather taken an UBER, but that wasn't practical, so I gassed up the convertible, picked up a friend and hit the road.

The drive took us through some ritzy neighborhoods, and while I was enjoying the conversation and looking at massive homes thinking "Who Lives There?", an amazing structure caught our attention. My friend exclaimed:  It's The Bahai Temple!  We were both in awe and immediately agreed that after the baby shower, checking out the Temple was a MUST.

Now, I wasn't very familiar with the Bahá’í Faith; so I have to admit that during the shower I did some reading.  I learned that the temple is one of eight dedicated temples of the Faith and that it is the OLDEST surviving Bahá'í House of Worship in the world (Wikipedia is your friend).  During my reading, I learned that literature of the Faith directs a House of Worship be built in each city and town, and emphasizes that "its doors must be open to all regardless of religion, or any other distinction". 

It goes on to say "that the spirit of the House of Worship must be a gathering place where people of all religions may worship God  without denominational restrictions", and that "holy scriptures of the Bahá'í Faith and other religions can be read or chanted inside in any language; while readings and prayers may be set to music by choirs, no musical instruments may be played inside.Furthermore, no sermons may be delivered, and no ritualistic ceremonies practiced.^"

WOW…I was excited.

We entered the visitors’ center for a moment and then walked out onto the grounds.  Holding a conversation got difficult as we were both in amazement.  The Temple, composed of a concrete mixture of cement and two types of quartz, is a domed structure with nine pillars.  The intricate detailing and architectural elements of other structures from around the world took me to another place.  I completely forgot that I was 45 minutes from home!  

Walking inside I immediately felt calm.  I felt peaceful.  I felt the Spirit of God.  It was all around me.  I wrapped myself in His light as I read one of the beliefs of the Bahá’í Faith:  there is one God whose existence is beyond our understanding.  He is the Creator of everything, and although we may call him by different names – God or Yahweh, Allah, Brahma, or the Great Spirit – we are speaking about the same loving Presence that has supported and guided humanity throughout history.

I sat for a moment in complete surrender to God.  Full of gratefulness.  Thankful for the silence.  Thankful for the moment to just be.

And as we walked out of the building, full of words that were unable to describe the experience; we both knew that this was not a one-time visit.  We both knew that we would be back.  Back to this place that felt far away - but isn't really far at all!

Angie
Founder, 2 Girls & a Bikini



 

DIGIT....

How I pay for my travels seem to be a common topic of discussion among my friends, so I thought I would let you guys in on one of my favorite travel tricks:  DIGIT!

This is language directly from their website:  Digit is a journey aimed at refreshing the interactions between humans and their money.  Bad financial habits create unnecessary hardship that derail us from living our life to the fullest. We believe we can help people avoid some of these hardships by combining recent discoveries in behavioral psychology with technology.

How does it work?  Basically you give Digit permission to make withdrawals from your account and put it into your savings account.  It’s not a set amount of cash, it will be random amounts of cash that they “set aside” for you.  Here are some things you should know:

·    Digit will “analyze your income and spending, and find money it can safely set aside for you”.  I gotta tell you, sometimes the amounts are small but other times the amounts can be larger.  But you will always have control.  You can text them and tell them to Pause Saving, or Speed Up/Slow Down your savings.  It’s completely up to you.  Once they took over $20 out of my account a few days in a row and I was like WHOA…a quick text and that was taken care of.  Here is what my Savings Journal looked like recently:

So some of these amounts are larger than typical, but I have mine set to “save more” because I knew I was planning for something.

·    They will never overdraft your account, they “never transfers more than you can afford”.  They actually have a no-overdraft guarantee.

·        You can access your savings anytime!  A quick text message telling them how much you would like to transfer back to savings and voila, your money is back in your checking account the next business day.

So how do I use digit?  Usually I use it when planning for my longer trips.  I will allow the savings to build up and I don’t touch it – at all – for any reason; not even for a shorter trip (I use my travel account for smaller trips).   Now I’m not talking about saving for the flight.  This is the cash I use for things like excursions, train tickets/flights to other cities/countries during the trip, food or even AirBnb/hotel costs.  For instance, below was my digit balance yesterday:

 

I will transfer $700 back into my checking account next week and start booking excursions for my upcoming trip to Barcelona and Rome.  I will also use this cash for food.  This is a MUCH BETTER option (for me) than using credit cards.

And there you have it.  One EASY way to save some cash for your travels!  Now #GetGoing!

Angie, Founder
2 Girls & A Bikini