Most people assume “Had To Be There” is a travel phrase. It isn’t, or at least it didn’t start out that way.
Long before I’d been anywhere, it was Had To Be There Productions, the name I put on the video memoirs and montages I made for milestone birthdays and big family events. The one I still think about is the “This Is Your Life” tribute my brother, my sister and I made for our dad’s 50th. Half of it was inside jokes and old photos that would have meant nothing to a stranger. To the people in that room, it meant everything. That’s the whole idea. Some things you can’t fully explain. You had to be there.
Travel came later than you might think. I was born and raised in small-town Connecticut, and for most of my life, vacation meant Disney World. My first trip that wasn’t Disney didn’t happen until I was around 30, and that was it. I was bitten, and I’ve been planning the next one ever since.
What ties it all together is a question I’ve been asking my whole life: “What was your favorite part?” I asked my family after every dance performance, and later asked the audience after every drama club show I directed. I asked about every book, movie and show I ever talked someone into. And once I started planning trips, it became the first thing out of my mouth when anyone got home: “Welcome back! What was your favorite part?”
The answer is almost never the itinerary. It’s the wrong turn, the stranger at the next table, the thing nobody could have planned. That’s what this podcast is: me asking that question, and giving people the room to really answer it.
Had To Be There is a little bigger now. The podcast is where guests tell the travel stories they can’t stop retelling. The Journal holds the stories and observations that work better written down. The shop makes keepsakes engraved with the coordinates of the places that mattered most. And when you’re ready to go make a story of your own, there’s Vacations by Kelly.
So, welcome. And when you get back from wherever you’re headed next, I’d love to know: what was your favorite part?
