living proof of God's grace & living free to share hope, encouragement & adventures
If you’ve ever looked at my travel photos (or anyone’s travel photos) and thought, "Wow. Traveling is easy, exciting, glamorous, living your best life…" well, that’s not wrong. It’s also not the whole truth. Travel can absolutely be easy when you’ve put the work into planning the trip. Travel can obviously be exciting when you’re …
A lot of people ask me why I travel solo. And, I’ve probably partially answered this question in past blog posts. But here’s the complete answer. All in one post. First, the obvious. I'm single. I decided not to wait till there’s a guy in my life to see the world. Would I love to …
2018 exceeded my expectations. After three solo trips to Europe in 2017, I hoped to at least match that level of travel in 2018. And God gave me MORE. He went beyond my dreams. I’m learning, more and more, He tends to do that when we surrender to Him. Now, God knows I love travel …
Continue reading When God Gives You Abundantly More: A 2018 Recap
Are we Instagramming because we travel, or do we travel so we can Instagram? I was struck by this question in the opening of a recent Robb Report article, titled: Instagram is Changing the Way We Travel (and Not Necessarily for the Better). While I won’t give you a full summary of the article (read …
Where my foodies at? Because this post is for you. I don’t eat out much at home—I’d rather spend that money on trips!—so it’s a treat to eat out when I’m traveling. In my trip research phase, I do look at restaurant options. But overall, I like to keep it more spontaneous and just find …
The anticipation of a trip. You know what I’m talking about. It starts the moment you make plans to go anywhere away from home—and lasts until you actually go. It’s basically travel-induced impatience, consuming you ALLLLLLL the days leading up to a trip. Day after day spent wishing time would just hurry the heck up. …
It’s a given. No two people have the exact same recommendations for a travel destination. Naturally, there will be some duplicates, but we all just have our preferences. Before my O’ahu trip, lots of folks reached out with quite the variety of recommendations. Some recs I tried. Some I didn’t. But all were appreciated! They …
Continue reading My Top Recommendations for Oahu: Food, Beaches, & Hikes
If you don’t already know this about me, lemme fill you in real quick. I try to avoid being a tourist when I travel. Sure, I’ll take LOTS of photos and visit a few famous landmarks (here’s looking at you, Eiffel). But I wanna go beyond that, too—away from the crowds, off the beaten path—in …
You know why I live a life of adventure. (Or maybe you don’t, so READ IT.) But, adventures themselves aren’t one-size-fits-all. What constitutes an adventure for me might seem too boring, dangerous, odd, uncomfortable [insert word of choice] to you. And vice versa. And, guys. I love that about adventuring. It is what you make …
We’re only one quarter into 2018, and I already feel like I’ve adventured enough for half the year. No complaints, though! Enough is not a word in an adventurer’s vocabulary. There’s no such thing as enough, only what’s next? But, as much as I’m always itching for the next, I also enjoy reflecting. Not just …
Continue reading To All My Fellow Bucket Listers: Are you Dreaming or Doing?
adventure and the girl 