5 DEFINING TRAVEL EXPERIENCES OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS

At last, I’ve gone through and updated tags and featured images for all my travel posts from 2012 to today.  It was humbling to reflect on the places I’ve been privileged enough to visit—thanks for following me around the world over the years.

I thought I’d shamelessly promote the tag “travel” here while at the same time reflecting on five trips over the past five years.

I’ll go from oldest to newest, and add a bit of reflection along the way. It was really hard to narrow down which to share, I’ll say that now…

#5 LONDON, 2012

This is an “a day in my life” style post from November 2012 when I was a fresh graduate baby, only six months out of college. Lost, confused, a little fragile—I picked up my privileged ass and moved to London for a few months, rented a room in Turnpike Lane and freelanced at TED Conferences.

Highlights from this? Me excited over an iPod, the sweet photo of my dog Yoko as the background of my old AT&T phone (RIP Yoko), trash talking a jalapeno wrap from Pret-A-Manger while being ignorantly confused about Guy Fawkes Day, and also being mean about a wildlife photographer because I didn’t admit to myself I was probably a bit creatively depressed.

But I do miss living in London! Maybe one day I’ll return.

#4 BERKELEY, EMERYVILLE, AND SAN FRANCISCO, 2014

Day 1: Oakland and San Francisco
Day 2: Sonoma and Berkeley
Day 3: San Francisco

2014 was a time of change where my friends were moving away from Southern California—new job opportunities and going back to where they were originally from before we all met at university. Newsflash: I hate change.

This trip was a few days, and these posts contain mostly pictures of friends, but it was a time where I was scared I’d lose everybody I’d come to know and love. To me this trip felt like a celebration of friendship and helped settle my anxiety about distance automatically meaning losing people.

#3 CHICAGO, 2015

April 12, a day in my life style post: chilling with Kiki’s friends (who are now mine! *wahh*), Logan Square
April 13, a day in my life style post: visiting the Shedd Aquarium, Skydeck, and playing tourist

I’m sensing a trend here—but this trip to Chicago (that was 75% business, 25% pleasure) sticks out as memorable to me. Kiki, one of my best friends, was in a long distance relationship and it was my biggest fear that she’d decide to leave Los Angeles and go to Chicago forever (Hi Kiki if you are reading this). It was so fun to peek into her life in Illinois, meet her friends, check out the scene, etc. Clearly, I have a lot of anxieties about losing friends, but I’ll have to resolve that at another time.

If you’ve read my blog for a while (back when it was a Livejournal) you’ll know I was in Europe for about a month in 2014 visiting Spain, Portugal, Germany, England, and Austria. I skipped over that for this post, because this trip to Chicago was one of the first times in recent memory I remembered, “DUH! The United States is huge, and there is cool shit you’ve never seen right at your doorstep.”

#2 ROAD TRIP IN UTAH, 2015

Spiral Jetty, a day on our road trip where we drove out to see Robert Smithson’s earth work, Spiral Jetty. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen: the pink and blue water and salt bubbles of the Great Salt Lake.
October 26, a day in my life post where Zach and I wake up in Zion Canyon, hike (kind of), and continue our road trip back to Los Angeles.

I had to include a road trip because while one part of me was born and raised to plan the *shit* out of a trip to make the most of it, the other part of me is diametrically opposed to that and wants to keep things as open and flexible as possible.

In October of 2015, Zach and I just picked up and drove to Salt Lake City, Park City, out to the Great Salt Lake, and down to Zion in one weekend. It was a lot of driving, few plans, but we saw some pretty spectacular sights.

#1 ALASKA, 2016

Part 1: Anchorage, Coastal Trail, Northern Lights, Glaciers!
Part 2: Klondike Summit, Skagway, and Juneau!
Part 3: Juneau, Salmon, Ketchikan

My parents took me and Zach along with them on a family cruise from Anchorage, Alaska to Vancouver, Canada. I really had no expectations of what we’d see (except for wilderness, moose, and glaciers) and was pleasantly surprised at our 49th state.

It really planted the seed that I want to go back and see more of Alaska, and see the Northern Lights again. And of course—I have to include a trip with my parents, for they gave me the opportunity after high school to travel with them, and see the world.

It was really hard to narrow things down to five, but the common trends for me is a good trip doesn’t mean an international one, it just means great travel companions and an open mind.

Thank you for reading, following along, and for your comments. I hope you’ve had a great week.

Much love friends.