Valle De Guadalupe: Mexico's Wine Country

The day before our trip, I was in a really good mood. I’d worked through most of my feelings of fear, about going to Mexico. And after months of rain, the weather was predicting none. I was starting to get excited. I was cleaning house, when suddenly I decided, hmmm. Let me check my passport. So, I go and check my passport and what do you know. The darn thing is expired. So here we are the day before our tour. It’s too late to cancel for a refund and my passport expired last year.  I was put in touch with the tour company by the booking agency and the person I spoke with said not having a valid passport should not be an issue. People go back and forth all the time with other documentation. Did I really want to take that chance of not getting into Mexico or most importantly not being able to get out? We know someone who knows someone who works for the border patrol and they agreed that it should not be an issue. So…we decided the trip was on. I’d travel to Mexico with my expired passport and hope for the best.

Much Needed Healthy Reset & Dry January

Between August and December last year we were on a trip every month. One was just a weekend getaway to Los Angeles, but it was New Orleans, Hawaii, Buffalo, and Miami for every other trip. It was a lot! I think I did a good job keeping up with exercising and meal prep up until Hawaii in October but I lost steam after that. There was just so much going on between travel and the holidays. No regrets. I enjoyed it all, but that can only go on for so long. It was definitely time to reset and get back on the exercise and nutrition wagon. My body (and my liver) needed a break.

Welcome to South Beach Miami (in December)

Miami was our last trip of the year. In December. Right before the holidays. Five trips in five months is a lot. I was a little travel weary by this point but excited to see what South Beach has to offer. We had a 6:00 am flight. I hate early flights. It was brutal. The crazy thing is that even after a 6am flight and a full day of travel we didn't make it to our hotel until about 7:00 pm Florida time. I was not trying to sit in one of the many hotel restaurants located along Collins Ave and pay over $50 for a meal when I was exhausted, not about to change out of my travel clothes, or put in my contacts, and just needed some food. I found us a cheap take out place to eat and we called it a night.

One Second Every Day (For An Entire Year)

 

I've always been the one taking pictures and writing in journals. Then blogging came along. Then social media. For whatever reasons, I've been drawn to documenting my life since I was 10. One second every single day? Who has time for that? And what's the point? 

From So Cal to Buffalo Again (in November)

 

 We went to Buffalo in September 2014. September 2015, and September 2021. Do you see a pattern here? Cause I do. I said I’d never go to a Buffalo Bills game past September and yet there we were on our way to a Buffalo Bills game past September. I didn't even have an appropriate jacket. I bought one at Costco the day before we left! November in Buffalo sounded…scary but this man loves the Bills so much that he went to a total of FIVE last year (including one in January!!) and this was the only time we could make it work this year, so off to Buffalo we went.   

Finally Made it to the Big Island

 

We’ve been to Hawaii five times before. I don’t remember the exact flight details, but I guarantee it did not take as long as it took us to get there this time around. Our original flight to LA got cancelled so, Delta sent us on a super early flight from San Diego to Seattle which was basically a waste of about 6 hours because we had a two- hour flight to Seattle that didn’t take any time off our air- time to Hawaii, then a four-hour layover in Seattle. After all of that we still had a five- hour flight to Kona. All together it took us about 11 hours to get to Kona, but it was all worth it when I stepped off the plane and felt the warm balmy air of The Big Island.