Can’t stop won’t stop exploring

Exploring breweries in San Francisco in a Volkswagen van named Lillie.

I love exploring. Excessive amounts of time, money, or planning are not required to make things happen. I highly recommend solo trips for the ability to just get up and go without any expectations. Here are a few of my favorite adventures:

Vacations with friends

• Hiking, paddle boarding, and sunrise yoga on the beach everywhere possible: Maui, Lake Tahoe, Northern Michigan.
• Italy: hiking through the five towns in Cinque Terre, wine tasting and pasta making in Tuscany, renting a little boat and driving around the island of Capri.
• Surfing in Santa Barbara and just being in Santa Barbara in general—it’s incredible.
• Road trips in a Mustang convertible: the Pacific Coast Highway in California, Miami to Naples through the Everglades in Florida, from Honolulu to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
• Running a half marathon (my first running race; I’m not really a distance runner but I enjoyed trying it!) through the monuments in D.C.

Solo trips

• Renting a car and exploring the Czech Republic and visiting my husband’s ancestors’ house in a small village outside of Prague.
• A weekend exploring a city in Germany where my grandparents lived.
• A road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway to spend a few quiet days in beautiful Mendocino County.
• A long weekend in Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. I stayed at the most hospitable, beautiful Airbnb, explored downtown Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, took a gondola to the top of a mountain, and soaked in hot springs as the sky turned everything shades of pink at sunset.

Trips with my husband

• Driving the entire coast of California (minus the stretch from San Diego to Tijuana) in my Fiat 500 and rented Mustang convertibles, discovering adorable small beach and mountain towns, enjoying delicious wine and beer, and being in awe of massive, majestic redwood trees.
• Weekends in Yosemite, Tahoe, and Stanislaus National Forest. Being up in the mountains surrounded by trees is so, so peaceful.
• Our Northern Michigan honeymoon. We went to all of the places, drank all of the wine and beer and ate all of the food. Leelanau County, Traverse City, Old Mission, Walloon Lake, Charlevoix, Petoskey, Harbor Springs, M-119 Tunnel of Trees, Legs Inn, Wilderness State Park… we packed a lot of Up North exploration into a couple of weeks and I loved every minute.
• Driving west across I-80 and then I-40 with Michigan in our rearview mirrors and the excitement of a new life in California ahead. One of my favorite moments from these trips was watching the sunset in Lake Tahoe when we arrived in California during the road trip for my move out there. Some of our favorite places between Michigan and California include Denver, Albuquerque, and Salt Lake City.

What are your favorite travel memories? I’d love to hear about them!