“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” ― Hunter S. Thompson
“How’s the blog coming along?” Zac asks me as we are sitting at the dining room table the other morning.
“I haven’t written a ton of posts since vacation,” I admit, “but mostly because I wanted to make sure to focus on my coaching classes and the marathon. Now that those are done, though, I don’t really know what to write next.” I think to myself, you know, since we don’t know when we can take vacation yet and don’t have our next trip planned.
“Why not share some of our previous trips like you did with Iceland?” he asks. Whether it’s writer’s block, something that’s got me in an angry red-headed spree, or really anything else - he just always seems to know exactly what to say.
I’ve alluded to bits and pieces of some of our past trips, but haven’t delved into any of them, really. Even with the Iceland post, there is so much more I could share than I did. I figured a good way to start would be to recap on what trips we have taken thus far.
It all started way back when I was just a wee little girl, when my grandma and grandpa loaded our family up for a road trip to Colorado. Maybe that’s even part of why I love Colorado so much. Okay, okay. Although we really did do that, I don’t remember nearly enough of that vacation to share any of it.
Actual documentation of my first trip to Colorado ever.
Honestly, besides that trip when I was just a toddler, and another trip later in my childhood to Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun in Kansas City, I don’t remember traveling much as a kid. I don’t think Zac did either. We’ve talked about it a bit, and both wonder if that might be why we enjoy traveling so much now. We may have had completely different perspectives on travel if our memory banks were filled with sibling rivalries, long hauls in the car, and lame continental breakfasts at hotels.
Am I excited? Hungry? No one will ever know. Also, peep Danny hiding behind a pillow.
Honestly, based on the few pictures I have from my first vacations as a kid, I would say that I probably didn’t care much for travel back then. Maybe I’ve been looking at it all wrong - perhaps back then I truly hated travel. Maybe the reason I like it so much now is because we didn’t do much of it when I was a kid, then I just forgot how much I hated road trips.
Nah, there’s no way I ever hated road trips. The only thing I hate about road trips now is that I seem to have a bladder about the size of a peanut. Maybe that was my issue back then too.
Whatever the case, no matter what it was that drew us to travel, we decided shortly after we moved in together that we were going to do just that - travel. Even then, we had a strong pull to visit the national parks. Naturally, our first vacation we ever took together was a road trip to Wyoming to visit a few of them (the trip that I forgot to pack pants for because “it’s Yellowstone and should be plenty warm” - we ended up buying jackets, jeans, sweatpants, and probably too many other things because I just had no idea what I was doing yet).
For the first “official recap” blog post, I’m just going to relive all of our trips we have taken so far. Then, bit by bit, I’ll delve into each trip a bit more closely. Although some of them may be more difficult for me to remember the details on (like our first trip to Wyoming, which we went to in 2013, almost a decade ago now), I'll do my best to provide full details for each trip.
Road Trip to Wyoming
Road Trip to Tennessee & Kentucky
Our first trip to Colorado
Hawaii, Oahu & Kauai
A bunch of more trips to Colorado
Arizona & Las Vegas
California
Greece
Even more trips to Colorado
Switzerland
Iceland
Road Trip to Tennessee
Road Trip to Arizona & Utah
Alaska
Vacation 2022
For the record, I showed this to Zac prior to posting to make sure I didn't forget any trips. He said, "No, you didn't, but we didn't go to Wyoming in 2008." Well, apparently I had it in my head that we went when I was still in high school, before I had even met him. Again, he always knows exactly what to say - even if it is that I am being a complete and total fool and have no idea what year it is.