Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, Travel

Happy Holidays! 2019 Recap

Ok, can someone explain how in the world we are at the end of 2019? Truly, I feel just yesterday was July, and it doesn’t seem that long again that I was celebrating last Christmas with my good friend Lauren in Thailand. And now, bam, here we are at the end of a decade.

Sunset in the Whitsundays of Australia

What’s more, Brice and I have now been on the road for almost 2 years!

One of my favorite aspects of this blog – granted I don’t blog all that often these days – but when I do, what I really love is a recap post. It provides me the chance to think back on all the amazing things we’ve done, and crazy adventures we’re having on this journey.

It was supposed to be an island full of penguins in Chilean Patagonia. It was mostly seagulls, but we did find a few cute penguins hopping about.

To be very honest (and hopefully without any pretentiousness) some days on the road just blur together in my mind. But obviously I know this is a special opportunity we have, and I don’t want to forget all the experiences.

So here we go with the top hits of 2019 (without boring you by repeating all the things mentioned in this mid-year recap)!

Cheers from a glacier!

By The Numbers

28: countries we’ve visited since January 2018

42: countries I’ve been to in total

10: years of marriage we celebrated this year

2,300: miles driven in Australia in May

1,648: miles driven in New Zealand in April

4,300: miles driven in the US in September and October

3 and 1: age of my nieces whose birthdays we got to celebrate while in DC in June

Beautiful Mt Fitz Roy in Argentinian Patagonia

Where We Went

In 2019, we “slowed down” on the travel compared to 2018. But still we went to 9 countries abroad and 11 states within the US.

Asia: Thailand, Myanmar, Hong Kong

Oceania: New Zealand, Australia, Fiji

US: Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California

South America: Chile, Argentina

Even when the temps dropped 40 degrees, we still loved our time in Yellowstone

Top Experiences

Celebrating our 10th (!!!) anniversary in Fiji. Sure, it was a month early, but hey if you’re in Fiji, that’s the perfect place to celebrate. Since it was a big anniversary (how did that happen already?), we went all out with getting dolled up and doing a professional photoshoot, then having a nice dinner at our private bungalow overlooking the beach.

Celebrating my brother’s graduation from his medical residency. Congrats again Marshall!

Spending time in Portland. After all these adventures we’ve had, it was so nice being back home for a while, catching up with friends for a longer period of time, seeing my parents frequently, joining a Crossfit, and enjoying the ease of simple things like, knowing how to get around, grocery shopping at my favorite stores and speaking the language.

Hiking to the outstanding Minam River Lodge. Seriously, this place is magical. The beautiful lodge in Eastern Oregon is only accessible via an 8-mile hike or helicopter ride. We opted for the hike of course. Once there, it’s just amazingly good food, wine and a nice ambiance without internet made for reading books and playing games.

Get yourself to Minam Lodge ASAP

Roadtrippin’ the US and visiting friends and family along the way. Read more about all those adventures here.

Checking 15 National Parks off our bucket list. We are lucky to have a country with so many beautiful parks. Favorite was hands down Yellowstone, but with Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon coming in next.

Moab with my travel adventurer buddy, Summer
Grand Canyon really is as impressive as they say

Completing the W Trail in Torres del Paine, Chile. I’ve been wanting to do this for almost 3 years and am so happy I finally got to check this 5-day hike off my bucket list. It was incredible. More on that to come.

Such beautiful hiking on the W Trail, even Brice was smiling!
Not just a good spot for a photo, we also got to feel the roar of avalanches from Frances Glacier on the W Trail!

Trekking on the massive Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina. Not only did we get a short trek on the ice, we also got a whiskey on the rocks, made with glacial ice of course. The best part of the day though was seeing and hearing the calving of the ice – so cool.

Such a huge piece of ice.

Driving to the end of the world. While in Punta Arenas, Chile, we drove to the end of the very last road in continental South America and then hiked to the very last lighthouse on the continent. Certainly not the best hike I’ve ever done, but a fun thing to say we’ve done!

Enjoying a month in Buenos Aires. After all the adventures in Patagonia, it was time for a break. We fell in love with the European vibe of BsAs, and are enjoying the holidays in Argentina with great food and wine, warm weather and a very cheap cost of living.

Queenstown, New Zealand – one of my fave stops of 2019

Happy holidays, friends! And here’s to an amazing 2020!

3 thoughts on “Happy Holidays! 2019 Recap

  1. We are so impressed by all those crazy hikes you did!
    We are envious and happy to see you guys make the most of being able to decide you like a place enough to spend more time there. And it is nice to see how Portland is still so important and loved; we feel like that about Vancouver too. Portland summer days are the best! Happy, safe and healthy travels in 2020!

    1. I think Brice is also impressed by all those crazy hikes, seeing that he doesn’t really like hiking – ha! It’s sometimes not as easy to find somewhere we really want to stay or to work out the logistics on staying somewhere longer-term, but it’s great when it works. It’s both refreshing for the next adventure and fun to explore a place more in depth. Happy new year to you as well!

      1. Brice is an inspiration then as a non-hiker! But he has a good cheerleader encouraging him I suspect. Sadly, our aversion to cold and rain makes us sunny day hikers. We’d both like to go to Patagonia (not sure if those spots in southern Chile are Patagonia) but wonder if it is worth it if we won’t be doing crazy hikes? Thoughts?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *