Soooo it's good to be back! It's been over 2 years since I wrote in this blog and time to remedy that. A lot has happened, of course, over the past 2 years - I've gotten engaged and am getting married in less than 6 months to a wonderful woman; I've continued to travel extensively and since my trip to Colombia, I've also gone to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico. I also traveled to central Mexico and explored Seattle, New York, and Chicago, and been to Naples, FL a few times.
But...the traveling never stops, and a few more trips are in the works!
Coming this March, my brother and I will be flying to Austin, TX for 5 days of exploring what claims to be the coolest city in America. We'll be staying at the Firehouse Hostel right off of 6th Street downtown, and the hostel organizes pub crawls and even has its own popular bar on location. We plan on renting bikes and exploring the extensive park system, renting a car and going to Pace Bend Park for some cliff jumping, and eating a lot of tacos.
In July, Holly and I will be (most likely) going to Grand Cayman following our wedding. A family friend of hers has offered to let us stay in their beachfront home for a week as a wedding gift, so we'll be taking them up on it. Holly loves scuba diving, and learned on Grand Cayman. I failed in my attempt in Costa Rica to get certified - and though I'm pretty leery of getting intense pain in my ears again from pressurization, I've promised her I'd try again. I did get down to 40-50 feet for about a half hour on the dive before I panicked, so I do know I can do it - scuba is amazing and I've love to be able to make it happen. So, assuming that works out, we'll be doing several dives around the islands. In addition, Grand Cayman looks like it has some of the most beautiful beaches and waters on earth, so I'm looking forward to lounging on the beach and sipping beers and cocktails. Other than diving, and maybe renting bikes, I think this will be a pretty relaxed vacation.
Our "official" honeymoon is booked for the end of November. We'll be going to the Dominican Republic, and staying on the north coast near Cabarete. Holly's mom is an RCI member and as a wedding gift is letting us have a week at any RCI resort. We'll be staying at Coconut Palms - one of the few non- all-inclusives on the island. This was what we wanted, since we plan on getting out and doing a lot of exploring. Cabarete is famous for surfing and kite surfing, and though kite surfing looks like it would take a lot of time, I think we'll rent boards and I'll try surfing for the 2nd time in my life, and Holly for the first. We're using a honeymoon registry, and have also asked guests to pay for massages, mountain biking, zip lining, and dinner on the beach, as well as one night at an eco-lodge in the mountains south of Cabarete and two nights at a hostel in the jungle near Las Terrenenas. We'll be renting a car and exploring a lot of the island, and I am looking forward to an incredible trip!
The last trip we have semi-concrete plans for is Southeast Asia next January or February. Thailand is the most visited country on earth...but that's for a reason. Researching the country, it's incredible how many beautiful and interesting places there are across the nation. Though I don't want to spend all of our time there (2 or so weeks), we eaaasily could. I'm hoping we combine some time there with Cambodia. An ideal itinerary would include Angkor Wat and Sihanoukville/Koh Rong in Cambodia and Krabi in Thailand. We'd also probably fly into Bangkok and out of Phnom Penh, so we'd have some time to check out each of those cities, too. There is a lot that I know we'd love to see in both Laos and Vietnam as well, but the concentration of sites in Thailand and Cambodia is hard to pass up. If Vang Vieng was still the tubing mecca it was before the Lao government shut the riverside bars down, I'd vote for a few days there, but since it's not quite the spectacle it once was, I think that we're looking at more of an island/coastline vacation with Angkor/Siem Reap thrown in out of absolute necessity! Other possibilities for the trip, depending on what strikes our interest, include Krabi, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Lipe, Ko Chang, Kampot, or one of the national parks in southern Thailand. So many options...
Other trips I'd like to take in the not-too-distant future:
- Morocco, Spain, and Portugal
- Australia/New Zealand
- Tanzania
- Poland, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia
- Greece, Turkey
- Israel, Jordan
- Peru, Bolivia
- Vancouver and skiing Whistler
- Hawaii
- Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia
- Sweden and Norway
- Oaxaca
- Cuba
- Japan
- Vietnam and Laos
Ok, so that's a lot, and it's going to to take a long time to get to them all, but you've got to start somewhere...
Anyway, I'm glad to be back on here again, and am looking forward to more updates to come!
