Blog / Travel Journal

James and I were lucky enough to visit Japan last month. It was my first time in Japan—first time in Asia, actually—and James’s second. We went to Tokyo and spent most of our time there, taking a day trip to Enoshima and spending a day and a half/one night in Kyoto. It was the trip of a lifetime and I feel so lucky to have experienced it. Tokyo is such an amazing city and Japan such a beautiful country.

After time spent in White National Forest, James and I made our way to Maine. I think Maine has to be officially one of my favorite states, with the caveat that I have only ever visited in the summertime. But it was so beautiful there!

We spent a good chunk of time at White Mountain National Forest, the first time we both spent a full week in any one location. Which isn’t even fully true because we camped in the forest for part of the time and stayed at an Airbnb for the other part. But that’s just semantics.

To be honest, I wanted to stay in Montréal forever. The only thing that was keeping us from extending our stay there was a photo and video shoot for my client, Hidden Valley Ranch. I flew to San Francisco and made my way to the Oakland office at the end of June. But first, we drove over the border into Burlington, Vermont.

We’ve made a decision on where we want to live! Is it Montéal? Stay tuned to find out. We drove from Brrrrrrrampton to Ottawa and spent the day splitting time between working, driving and sightseeing.

After seeing Niagara Falls, James and I made our way to Toronto. During our year of travel, we tried several different ways of planning our route, booking stays, packing the car, etc. Being nomadic was a learning process and we adapted as we went.

I mean… I had to, right? After Detroit, James and I took the Windsor Tunnel to cross over into Canada and visited Niagara Falls.

After our first stop home, James and I ventured onto what we called The Second Leg of the Trip™. Not actually trademarked, it just feels like it should be. We went from Chicago to my aunt and uncle’s lovely cabin in Three Oaks, Michigan, then made our way east to Ann Arbor and Detroit.

The theme of this blog post is “time flies.” It feels like just yesterday we were embarking on the journey around the country. Now we’re done with our year of travel and we’re decompressing and reflecting on the past year.

Well friends, it’s been over a year of living on the road. I’m sad to say that it’s almost coming to an end… It’s been so fun looking back at photos from the past year. Time feels like an illusion. Almost an entire year ago we were in Raleigh, NC visiting our friends Nick and Natalie. It feels like yesterday.

I’ve been on the road for over a year now and have learned along the way what I’ve needed and which things I could probably do without. You’re basically living out of your car so you have to think about everything you’ll need but also try to save on space. Here’s my checklist!

Our next stop after Charleston remains one of my favorites. It was a very quick stop over on our way to our friends’ house in Raleigh.

After a lovely weekend with our friend Criss in Columbia, we made our way to Charleston. I had been to Charleston before but it was James’s first time there.

Following our short stint in Asheville, James and I made our way to Columbia, South Carolina to visit our friend Criss. We always seem to have the most fun when we have a friend to show us around.

The first thing I noticed about Asheville was how close it was to the mountains. You can see mountains from downtown, which is pretty fricken sweet. I can only imagine the day hikes at the Smoky Mountains. The second thing I noticed about Asheville was that it wasn’t very walkable.

Time to take you all the way back to May of 2022 to talk about our long weekend at Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Kind of like time traveling!

Hi friends and family! Happy 2023! Thank you for continuously being patient with me. I know that when I started this whole blog and email list you were probably expecting more frequent and interesting updates about where James and I are in our travels. We’re currently in Sedona, AZ, after spending 2 weeks at home for the holidays. It was relaxing and wonderful to spend time with family and friends.

This marks the part of the trip when we started to realize we need more time in each city. Atlanta is so big and there’s so much to see but we only stayed there for a few days from May 3-6.

After leaving Martha and Tom’s house in Florida (I cried), James and I headed to Hilton Head (see what I did there?). Since it’s right near Savannah, we decided to check it out (in hindsight, we backtracked a bit). Though, to be honest, it was never on our list of potential places to live (and still isn’t), just a fun place to vacay.

The second stop on our journey was Ponte Vedra, Florida, just outside of Jacksonville. Only a couple hours from Savannah, James’s Aunt Martha and Uncle Tom hosted us for a week.