In 2019, I:
- Visited Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii, Florida, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Washington, and California
- Took 25 flights
- Ran/hiked about 365 miles
- Biked about 465 miles
- Went to yoga about 19 times
- Saw 12 plays/shows
- Read 19 books
JANUARY
The year started off in the Bay Area, where Ben and I had been living since summer 2017. I was really enjoying my job as a Climate Resiliency Fellow at Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, especially when I occasionally got to go out to our parks for work.
We kicked off another year of good shows with a nerdy taping of the West Wing Weekly podcast.
We visited friends in Napa, and enjoyed a lot of cute friend babies this year.
First musical of the year, Come From Away, which was excellent.
FEBRUARY
We went on a great one-week trip to Kauai, which we booked completely on impulse because of a great flight deal. I watched the sunrise every morning...
We visited beautiful Waimea Canyon...
We did a great hike to see the Na Pali Coast from above...
And a boat trip to see the Na Pali Coast from below...
We kayaked and saw many turtles...
We had a lot of nice beach time...
And enjoyed our second big trip off the US mainland together.
I had a flurry of trips in February, the second of which was visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for Melissa's birthday!
We loved the shops and rides in Diagon Alley...
And the details and Hogwarts Castle fireworks in Hogsmeade.
MARCH
Lastly, I went to New York for my family's annual opera trip. We started by seeing Dear Evan Hansen, which was excellent.
Family at the opera, always a great time.
Of course no New York trip is complete without catching up with my dear college friends Lauren and Juliya!
This is the best Christmas gift I've ever given - I took my mom to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child! The magic effects in the show were like nothing I've ever seen, and it was fun to see the familiar characters and world brought to life on the stage.
We celebrated spring time at work with a visit to the baby goats at the farm in one of our parks.
APRIL
Ben and I finally started running again after a long hiatus after our marathon in summer 2018. We did our first ever trail race, a 10k.
We saw Hamilton again! Even better the second time.
One day, we came home to an unexpected letter on our door informing us we had 60 days to move out, right in the middle of our lease. It was a total scramble to find a new place to live, and sad because we really loved our apartment in Redwood City and it was our first home together. The silver lining is that it forced us to consider if we were willing to sign another one-year lease in the Bay Area. We decided we didn't want to stay that long and got a six-month lease, knowing that meant we were leaving for good in November.
MAY
A snapshot of my favorite days at work - out wandering in a park with my department, learning about grasses or stream restoration or something else interesting my coworkers do.
Sterling and Andrea got married!
Wedding number five together, I believe.
Another favorite scene from work - whenever I had a meeting at one of the field offices, I would try to schedule it at the end of the day so I could stay after and go for a run. Almost stepped on a huge snake after I took this photo though.
JUNE
I made a very quick weekend visit to Seattle and got to celebrate Marion's birthday...
And throw a surprise birthday party for my mom's 60th!
I was very pleased I was able to help plan the party from another state, and fly in to completely surprise my mom.
I won an award at work! My Climate Action Plan project won an award of merit for "Innovation in Green Community Planning" from the American Planning Association. So wonky.
First camping of the summer, in the Desolation Wilderness.
We backpacked out through classic Sierra lakes and granite.
Very scenic lake to hang out at.
One day I got to pretend to be a biologist and help my coworkers with frog larva surveys. So cool!
JULY
My long-awaited promotion to Management Analyst became official on July 1. Finally, an actual real job title!
We went on a very fun road trip through Big Sur down to LA with Victor and Mica.
One of the best car camping sites ever in the hills high above the ocean. So glad they rented a 4WD car so we could get away from the crowds and explore all the nearby dirt roads and freedom camping.
LA street tacos, to this day the best tacos of my entire life. It was great to finally make it to LA, riding scooters to the beach and getting the vibe of the city.
We spent the 4th of July with Ben's friends in LA. We also went to a great musical improv show, and then there was a rather large earthquake in the middle of it!
We celebrated Ben's 31st birthday with date night in the city...
And more of my (mostly successful!) attempts to learn to bake.
AUGUST
I did a four-day backpacking trip with my dad in Olympic National Park.
Sol Duc Falls
Seven Lakes Basin
Hoh Lake, a beautiful place to camp
Great views of Mount Olympus
And a lot of black bears to top it all off!
A cute one from a beach outing with Ben's mom and her handsome pup.
SEPTEMBER
Our last musical of the year, Wicked.
I took a quick trip to San Diego to visit Dahlia and Steve, always a delight!
Then I visited Amy in Virginia and fittingly only took pictures of her cat.
Finally, I went to South Carolina for my family's annual beach trip. Always a fun and relaxing getaway.
We added a new cousin and a new little one on the way this year!
OCTOBER
Ben and I started preparing to leave the Bay Area - packing up our second apartment of the year, giving notice at our jobs, and planning our three-month trip as it went from a daydream to a real actual plan.
One last excursion to Point Reyes with Bay Area friends I will miss.
I said goodbye to my job, which was very weird. This is the longest I've ever been in any job, and I really loved the people and the work I was doing. It was very bittersweet, but I was proud of what I accomplished in the role and certain that we'll be happier living in Seattle.
My coworkers threw me a very sweet going away party, complete with cake, an REI gift card and carbon offsets for our travels, and a fun last few days of work spent out in the redwoods. I will miss them, and can only hope my next job is as good.
NOVEMBER
As if quitting jobs, moving out, and leaving on a three-month trip wasn't crazy enough, we also crammed a weekend in San Francisco into the end of our time in California. First, we saw Coco at the symphony with Sam and Ash.
Then we ran the Golden Gate Half Marathon, because we're crazy.
Half marathon number four for me and number two for Ben!
Ben and I celebrated our four-year anniversary. He surprised me with flowers and dessert at the restaurant and was very sweet to force us to make time to celebrate even though we were just a few days from moving out of our apartment and were about to go on a huge romantic trip together.
After a whirlwind of moving out of our apartment, moving all our stuff into Ben's dad's house, doing last minute trip preparations, and packing for three months of travel, we flew from San Francisco to Mexico City!
The hustle and bustle of Mexico City and suddenly jumping into the travel lifestyle and existing in a Spanish-speaking country were very jarring. A day trip out to the Teotihuacan pyramids helped us get over the initial hump of our culture shock and start feeling excited about all the cool places we were going to get to see, and our ability to get out and see them.
The first of many ancient ruins we visited, all of which had similar fascinating histories that included animal deities, advanced construction and astrology, and ball games and human sacrifices.
We settled into Mexico City and LOVED going out to eat every day. We found tacos al pastor everywhere - even sidewalk taco places had the "trombo" rotating meat spit, paired with fresh pineapple and delicious salsas. When not eating, we went to our first week of Spanish school. I was amazed at how quickly I improved (seriously learned more in one week of immersion class abroad than in three years of high school class). By the end of our first week, I had the bare minimum of language and confidence I needed to get through basic transactions in Spanish.
We did a fantastic market tour and cooking class with a kind chef named Alejandro. We made mole, tortillas, and salsa all completely from scratch. It was delicious and surprisingly easy - can't wait to make our own tortillas and salsa at home! We found the tour on Airbnb experiences, which turned out to be a great way to meet and support locals instead of tour companies. We also went to a "lucha libre" Mexican wrestling match with a nerdy sports journalist through Airbnb experiences.
Our second stop in Mexico was a week in Playa del Carmen and Tulum. This area is famous for cenotes, basically underground swimming holes worn in the sandstone. We had a great time finding and swimming in a variety of cenotes. Ben even went scuba diving in some.
One day we rented janky bikes and rode to the Tulum Mayan ruins, then to the beach for fish tacos with our feet in the sand. We also did some great snorkeling, tons of colorful fish and the first time I've ever gotten to see coral.
We did a very fun adventure tour that included rappelling down into an underground cenote...
And ziplining, and visiting an indigenous village remote enough that they still only speak Mayan, not Spanish. We were glad to support a tour company that tries to provide cultural experiences and supports indigenous people with jobs and building infrastructure like roads and schools.
We visited our third Mayan ruins at Coba. We liked these ones a lot because they were all dramatically hidden in dense jungle and we got to explore by bike, finding new ruins tucked away around every corner. This pyramid was so steep that climbing the stairs was vertigo-inducing even for me.
On top of the pyramid. So sweaty.
DECEMBER
We saved the most famous Mayan ruins for last: Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We were vindicated in getting up at five to arrive before the crowds. By this point, we were basically experts in Mayan ruins 101 and had heard everything on the tour before. Sadly but understandably, you're not allowed to climb this pyramid.
This last cenote was our favorite - absolutely stunning with all those tree roots and vines reaching down to the water.
Our third stop in Mexico was a week in the colorful colonial city of Merida.
We did our second week of Spanish school, which had a beautiful hang out area, a great restaurant, and cooking classes. I advanced to being able to string together simple sentences and generally ramble and get my point across (with iffy grammar and only in the present tense, but whatever).
Merida was beautiful and very fun for wandering.
Our fourth and final stop in Mexico was an adorable island called Isla Holbox. All the streets are sand and there are no cars, only golf carts and bikes. Ben only stayed for a day and then we split up for some solo adventure time - I stayed on the island, and he went to Cozumel for four days of scuba diving.
I passed my days walking and lounging on the beach, meeting people and listening to music in the hostel, going to yoga every day and watching the sun set every night... and also getting eaten alive by bugs and dying of heat. It was nice to have a chance to miss each other.
After the worst travel disaster of my life involving a lost immigration form, being separated and stuck in different immigration offices for hours, a missed international flight, and nine hours sitting on the floor in the Mexico City airport because that terminal literally has no chairs, we made it to Costa Rica. We spent a rough week on the Caribbean side doing our third and final week of Spanish school. Unfortunately the rough aspects would continue throughout our time in Costa Rica - struggles with living in heat and humidity and bugs with no AC, struggles with the lack of budget lodging and transportation options and corresponding lack of fellow long-term travelers, and struggles with how Americanized Costa Rica is.
The Caribbean side redeemed itself a bit after we finished school and had a few days to explore. We biked to a wildlife rescue center and saw many cute sloths, monkeys, and birds. We did a long hike through a beach national park and saw and heard lots of wild monkeys. The wildlife was definitely the highlight of Costa Rica.
We did a quick one night stop in La Fortuna to visit the famous hot springs.
Our second home base in Costa Rica was Monteverde, famous for cloud forests. We were very happy to escape the heat and immerse ourselves in familiar green forests. We also used Christmas as an excuse for a few much-needed rest days to cook, go for runs, and plan much of the remainder of our trip.
I turned 29! We spent my birthday at a great ziplining and bungee jumping adventure park...
And Ben surprised me with a delicious seven course dinner at a very fancy restaurant literally in the tree canopy. To top it off, there was a surprise eighth course of birthday cake.
Amazing macaws, which we saw in the wild a couple of times.
We ended the year at our third destination in Costa Rica, Drake Bay on the remote Osa Peninsula. Unfortunately our lodging challenges returned with a vengeance - our first hostel was so loud and hot that we left after one night. We found these jungle cabanas that were cute but unfortunately not totally screened in so massive bugs flocked in at night. We spent New Year's Eve cooking, drinking wine, and watching TV, and then Ben got to kill a massive flying cockroach literally the size of my entire outstretched hand. I'm glad to report from the future that our trip got much better from there!
