I've been back home in Seattle for four days and am still trying to recover from my jet lag. I enjoyed a fantastic two-week vacation in Japan visiting family and also exploring new places. Isn't that the best though? When you get to see family and also see new cities you have never been to?… Continue reading Japan: bullet trains, family time, good food and lots of walking
I won't bore you with all the itty-bitty details, but this past year was pretty great travel-wise! January-February: Three-week honeymoon in New Zealand. We book-ended the trip with stops in Hawaii before and after, which nicely split up the travel time from Seattle, and allowed us to visit family. New Zealand is AH-MA-ZING. We drove… Continue reading 2019 Travel Year in Review
I couldn't figure out why my husband's phone was telling us we were 15 minutes away from the visitor center. When we had entered the national park, we thought we'd be at our destination in a mere five to 10 minutes. "Are you sure you inputted the location correctly?" I asked him as he continued… Continue reading An impromptu Denali afternoon
Does anyone do spontaneous trips anymore? Getting in the car and driving anywhere can be fun, but I'm talking more like buying a plane ticket day-of and flying somewhere with no plans or itinerary. I feel like back in the day it was more common. People would just show up at the airport and energetically… Continue reading A spontaneous trip to … somewhere …
There are two things I obsessively check the weather for: an upcoming marathon and upcoming travels. They are kind of one in the same. I usually start checking two weeks prior to my departure, which I know is too early since weather patterns can obviously change that far out. But, I must know what conditions… Continue reading Packing woes
I'm a runner who is trying to remember what it's like to be an uninjured runner again. For me, that meant signing up for a race, setting a race goal, training for the race — and then running the race. I chose the Seawheeze Half-Marathon in Vancouver, Canada. I was more worried about getting to… Continue reading The trip where everything just worked out
I kept refreshing Google maps on my phone. We would be cutting it very close. We were driving from Sea-Tac Airport to the Vancouver Convention Center, a 160-mile drive, in Friday afternoon rush hour. I know, not the best idea. But, Bryce's flight from a work trip had him landing at Sea-Tac just before 3… Continue reading In the nick of time
And you thought I was done with New Zealand content? Nope. Not quite! We were on our way out of yet another small town in New Zealand during our road trip. As we exited the town, we had to go through a large roundabout. Just before exiting the roundabout, we approached a small car… Continue reading Driving in New Zealand
Birthdays are kind of weird as an adult. People always ask what I'm going to do for my birthday during the weeks leading up to it. If my birthday is on a weekday, well, surprise, surprise, I'll be working! This year, however, my birthday fell on a Saturday. This meant a birthday race. "You're different,"… Continue reading So, what are you doing for your birthday?
Saying that our New Zealand honeymoon was fantastic is an understatement. We drove around both islands. We met a lot of nice people. We saw a lot of wildlife. We went on some great hikes. We explored varying landscapes. We ate some great food. We did a lot. When we returned home and friends and… Continue reading The two honeymoon mishaps
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