2019 travel highlights

At the end of every year, I like to reflect. Where did we go? What did we do? What did we see? This was a fun year of traveling. We experienced some things we’ve never done before.

Snapshot of 2019 travels

Four NEW countries visited: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Montenegro.
Completed the Lake Superior Circle Tour
Two NEW states visited: Wisconsin and Minnesota
States visited: Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Georgia, and Ohio

Travel “firsts”

Visiting Wisconsin and actually eating cheese from a dairy farm
Seeing Lake Superior, which officially means I’ve seen all five of the Great Lakes
Hearing the Muslim call to prayer out loud in Mostar
Going on a glass bottom boat tour in Florida
Eating the World’s Best Donut in Minnesota
Swimming in the Adriatic sea, which included swimming up to a rock and sitting on it at sunset
Visiting European “Caribbean-style” islands
Having a real Negroni in Italy

Blog highlights

Partnering with Ocala-Marion, Cherry Ridge Retreat and the Ohio State Fair
Recording two podcast episodes with The Phonic Scribe
Readership has continued to grow, even though I’ve posted less this year. My older content is still being read. I’ve also continued to sell copies of my book How to be Your Own Travel Agent, which really excites me!

Personal highlights

This year was our 10th wedding anniversary. We went to Rome, Florence and Venice for our honeymoon. We went back to Venice, 10 years later, to relive this memory. It was amazing the things I remembered about it, and what was different.

I started reselling thrifted items this year on Instagram, and have been trying to buy as much secondhand as possible. In 2018, I made the commitment to only buy secondhand and survived a whole year. This year, I try to find secondhand first before buying new. This process has definitely changed how I shop and what I think I need. During our travels, I put together as many secondhand outfits as I could. It was a fun and rewarding challenge!

We got to enjoy the summer at our place in Michigan, as well as some weekends in the fall. We’re continuing to work on it, but also enjoying it at the same time!

Where to next?

In 2020, we are going to Asia for the very first time. I can’t believe we haven’t been yet, but there’s a first time for everything. We went back and forth on where would be our first Asian destination. Bali… Thailand.. Vietnam. All places we want to go. But to our surprise (and many others’ surprise) we chose Taiwan. It’s a beautiful country with very friendly people. It’s a foodie destination (look up the night market in Taipei). It is also not quite as touristy as some other places. We can’t just go where everyone else is going, right? We’re more hipster than the hipsters. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with you.

Thank you.

I’m ending this year very grateful. I’m so grateful for the people who support me, read my posts and follow along. I’m not sure what it is these past few months, but I seriously just feel so thankful. I’m not just saying that. I genuinely am grateful that people are so supportive and kind to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to the Mr. Rogers podcast and weeping on a daily basis. I’m not sure. But I just want to say if you read this blog, if you like my pictures, if you comment, if you bought my book and read it, if you reach out to me and ask me travel questions, I’m genuinely thankful for you! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So how about you? Where did you go in 2019? Was it full of adventure?