These are the places we visited in Greece, Turkey, and Albania

In our planning and daydreaming Erin had mentioned that one of the things she wants to do in her lifetime is to write a travel guide. We came across this awesome greek guy’s website where he basically has spent his life visiting all the greek islands and writing about them. It was pretty amusing and informative, and pretty much exactly what we were looking for.

A thought tickled me, and I realized with a shock what a brilliant idea it was. It was more of a decision than an idea, it was so perfect: to make travel guide websites. It’s the perfect life! To actually be able to do full-time what we are already obsessed with. Traveling, exploring and experiencing new places, utilizing photography and web design.

With a new zest for life, we are taking baby steps toward this dream of a career life. As an initial experiment, we have started a blog/travel guide for our home town and area. Our goal is to visit as many places as we can and compile travel info and things to do for youthful people travling on a college student’s budget. Our niche is outdoor adventure travel for the frugal nomadic type.

We are already familiar with our favorite activities and hang out locations, but how much fun will it be to explore and discover those places we aren’t familiar with! You can read and follow our adventures at nwolympicpeninsula.com

• View my TripAdvisor profile
• Create your own travel map or travel blog

Having worked with TripAdvisor enough at work, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to actually sign up with a personal account. I suppose there is no motivation to, since you can view all the reviews and information you like without an account, unless you are a frequent traveler and like to leave reviews. But a smart move on TripAdvisor’s part was to team up with Facebook’s Instant Personalization campaign – now I really want my own TripAdvisor account to create my own Personalized Travel Map and view all my Facebook friend’s Travel Maps. A good and effective marketing move.

Organizing swing dances. Surfing. Road trips. Snowboarding. Road trips alone…

For Christmas I’d received some cash to buy something for my apartment. wasn’t sure what to get, contemplated a bookshelf set or a papasan chair, and did some online shopping. Surfing Craigslist for furniture, I happened across a Yamaha Keyboard for $50. I had just been thinking about how much I miss playing music in band, and miss having a piano to dink around on.
Around this time, I’d been invited to go snowboarding with friends, so rented some gear, and had a blast. darn it! I really didn’t need another sport to sink a ton of cash into. Renting gear is expensive, and buying new gear is enough to make you choke. I started hunting craigslist for some used boots, (my friend offered to let me borrow her board) and found used boots didn’t run very cheap, but found several breathtaking deals on snowboard+boots+bindings packages. Fully drawn into the hunt at this point, I regularly checked craigslist to find a package with the right sized board, right sized boots, in the right price range. It only took a few days.

All that intro to say, I bought a Keyboard in Olympia, and a Snowboard in Seattle. Road Trip!!

Except I ended up going alone. I’d expected it to be a long, lonely, boring drive, but was sweetly surprised. I left my place at 8am, and listened to Josh Groban and Michael Buble all the way to Olympia. I arrived at our meeting place (Starbucks!) with no problem and plenty of time, and enjoyed a London Fog tea latte and a little boy smiling and laughing at me over his daddy’s shoulder. I got a little restless fifteen minutes after our meeting time and I hadn’t met her yet, and didn’t have her number to call. But she arrived, and was very sweet. It’s so strange to meet someone knowing you will probably never see them again in your life. Getting back on the Interstate to Seattle was no biggie. Once I got into Seattle was when the fun began. In short, it took me about 45 minutes to get from the exit to our meeting place, when it should have only taken me 10. I did have Tara’s number, and she was very sweet helping me trying to figure out where I was and which direction I need turn around and head towards. I got to know Fairview, Mercer, and Pike streets real well. I finally arrived, and loved the snowboard twice as much as I thought I would have. It is a deep, bright blue on the top (it looked black from the picture) and the bindings are top quality, the boots fit perfect, and the overall quality and shape of the board is outstanding.
I started really enjoying myself after deciding to park down by the ferries and walk to Pike Place Market. I ended up in a parking garage without wanting to (oh well) and was feeling quite daring for walking downtown Seattle alone. I felt so independent, so grownup. (and I mean that in the non-cheesiest way possible.) I actually quite amused myself. I was feeling so daring, that I started taking pictures of random people. It was quite fun! I also made a point to visit the Lush store, as I’ve been dying to get my hands on some Ocean Salt face scrub. mmmm, gotta love Lush! and have quite a lot of fun taking pictures of tourists. Something about taking pictures is so personal. Even taking pictures of a crowd of strangers, it’s like being able to express my mind, to share my view. It was such a lovely day, all to myself. I feel like I just got back from a soothing vacation. how odd.

I decided to take the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge, and on my way to the ferry, was hoping I’d just miss the ferry so I’d have time to walk down to get some clam chowder from Ivan’s and take pictures of the guy playing the drums on a bunch of plastic buckets. he sounded amazing. unfortunately, I made the ferry on time. Adventures for another time I guess. On the ferry I spent most of the time out side (of corse) still snapping shots of random people. A Dad and his little girl were feeding chips to the seagulls and made an adorable subject. I also saw and snapped a few photos of a jet skier racing the ferry with a shark fin on his wetsuit. A few guys standing near by thought it was awesome and hilarious. I thought the same to myself, and was oddly very contented.

The rest of the trip home provided little to share, I made it back home around 5:30 and almost peeled with joy when I plugged my keyboard in and started tinking around on it and playing with the settings, and got rather frustrated when I couldn’t get a decent snapshot of my snowboard.

I suppose it might not have been such a satisfying trip if I hadn’t been buying myself Christmas presents, but who knows? maybe being alone on a solo trip to Seattle to take pictures of the general public is therapeutic. who would’ve known how much I love traveling alone? I am certainly developing my love and interest for travel in general. I shall definitely be doing this again in the near future.

A force of nature. The surf mecca of Canada. The hot spot of the Pacific Rim.

Surfing is one of those things I never thought I’d ever do, or ever have any interest in doing, yet here I am with my own board, wetsuit, boots, gloves, prepped to be pounded as I’m learning to understand the rhythm of the water. and I’m diggin’ it. But if you asked me why I’ve developed a sudden infatuation with the scenic little surfing village of Tofino BC, I wouldn’t know how to tell you.

I’ve always had a thing for traveling in general. In my childhood years my Dad was a Coastie and we moved every four years or so. I lived in North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama before settling up here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. The only move I was old enough to remember well was our trip from Alabama to Washington State- we took a two week road trip. Some of my sweetest memories are those of being carried from the hotel to the van in the wee hours of the morning, collecting hotel soaps, and seeing many things and places that I’d never seem before.

When I was sixteen I went on a missions trip to Spain. Our team taught English classes at an elementary school for two weeks. While we were traveling there, we missed our first flight and consequently, every flight after that. With over a dozen team members, it was a trick to rebook all our flights. They managed to keep us together for the most part, but after 32 hours of traveling, we ended up in Spain and our luggage ended up in Chicago. It might sound like a horrible start to a missions trip, but the effects were we had all grown so close as a team and as friends from the necessity to stay together and to depend on each other. I loved every part of that trip- the journeying just as much as getting to experience the culture, invest in the kids lives and their families, and sewing seeds for the Lord’s harvest.

I love the journey. I love to travel. Now that I’m working full-time, there isn’t much opportunity in the near future for me to make any big expeditions to Spain or to Ireland, or Australia or Iceland, though I have an indefinite dream to travel the world, exploring countries and cultures and photograph them.

Why do I so ardently want to make a trip to Tofino Canada? It’s more than just a surfing trip to a hot surf destination. It’s a journey. To reestablish the pace of my stride. To renew the significance of my aspirations. To breath in a breath of fresh air. To take a trip! A three-day-weekend, a little gas and a ferry ticket is all I need.