Tell me about your most recent adventure.
Chris and I hit the open road on the beautiful South Island of New Zealand for about a week at the end of November. We lived in a VW bus for the week. Didn't shower. Saw thousands of sheep. Turned off all electronics and relied on paper maps. Had no plan and just rolled with the punches. We knew we were in for "beautiful" but New Zealand re-defined the meaning of that word for us. We rented an old 1966 VW Kombi that was cute as a button and had a true adventure in every sense of the word. We walked along a beach where people were replaced by seals. It was peaceful & serene, and so nice to go somewhere without a plan. The geek in me kept hoping I might just run into a little hobbit while driving through the shire (LOTR dork reference). Mountains, coastline, open land.... it just doesn't get much better than that if you ask me. It was my heaven.
New Zealand
Define: away
un-plugging. turning off the things that don't matter and re-connecting with those things that do.
Maui, San Francisco, Victoria
What are your modes of transportation on your trips?
This year we have been wracking up the airline points. There have been times I feel like we live in the air. There isn't much better than a good road trip. And for our last trip we really wanted to be able to sleep in the back of our van, cook out of it and have the true vagabond experience in New Zealand which is why we went the kombi route. Although it had no power steering and no power breaks, it made for lots of laughter and a hell of a story.
New Zealand
List your favorite places on earth (if you'd like, give a brief description of why they are).
New Zealand tops the charts for its sheer beauty, I have always loved Paris for the spirit and the way it makes me feel when I am there. Africa was an incredible experience for the way it puts your life into perspective.... I really want to go back. We LOVED the grittiness and the free spirit of Melbourne, Australia and it reminded us a lot of being home in Seattle. I am a HUGE ice cream lover and love anything full of carbs :) so Italy's gelato makes the trip across the world well worth it for a variety of reasons.
New Zealand & Melbourne
Tell me about one meaningful experience you had while traveling that you'll never forget.
there is something magical about Cannon Beach in Oregon. Chris and I always try to get out there every year around our anniversary. Our first year in the pacific Northwest we went out there and I just remember getting out of the car and running out onto the coast with Chris. We spent a lot of time just sitting on the beach talking about life and what we want out of it our first year of marriage... it's been neat to see many of those things come to fruition and also have many dreams to continue to strive towards together... Cannon beach is just a really special place for us.
Cannon Beach, Oregon
What is one thing that happened on one of your trips that makes you laugh, to this day?
We were traveling to NYC a couple years ago and we had parked in a parking garage downtown that was across from our hotel. We went out shopping before we had to catch our flight back home. When we went to go pick up our rental car and it was no-where to be found. It turns out the parking lot shares the lot with another rental car place and the other rental car place rented OUR rental car to someone else with all of our stuff in it!! So we were stranded and trying to make our flight to the airport. We made our flight, but it was a bizarre experience having our car rented to someone else was just super weird.
New York City
When did travel become a priority in your personal life? Business?
Travel has always been an important part of both of our lives. Chris was a touring musician for a record label for years and got to see much of the world that way. I've always felt a pull to see the world. When I was fifteen I was a dancer for a company in Chicago and got to taste the greatness of making money traveling and doing something that I loved. We went on a dance tour around Europe for four weeks to Germany, Hungary, Bosnia, Kosovo and it was that trip that really stirred my desire for building a life around doing something that allowed me to see the world while doing something I was passionate about.
Greece
What are a few things you did to ensure that you'd be traveling each year?
Travel is one of those things that you have to be intentional about. When we went to Thailand in 2009 we blocked off the entire month of November for that trip. If we wouldn't have been intentional about making it happen another month would have been filled with work. It is such an essential part of who I am as a person and bettering myself. Traveling always puts things into perspective. It's humbling, empowering and keeps me in awe of things.
Thailand
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