Tag: UK

Happy New Year!

So you may be wondering what the plans are for 2025. It’s going to be a full year!

Starting out, my husband has decided to start running again with his old running group with a goal of doing a few half-marathons this year and moving up to full marathons again in 2026. I have agreed to do the half marathon when he does the full at races in fun destinations to make a mini getaway for us. I’m NOT joining the running group. I hate running. But I walk faster than most people jog so I’m walking them. I figure my triathlon training is enough to keep me in shape to do a half marathon without any extra work specific to those races. I may be wrong, but since I already have “running” as part of my triathlon training and I’m use to endurance races I’m just going to go with it. 😁

Now let’s talk travel… we are starting 2025 by taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge. May the odds be ever in our favor while traveling with 2 kids with Autism and taking them away from their routine.

Up next is Cabo San Lucas sans-kids for our anniversary. This will be a different trip there for my husband who is ready to step out of his comfort zone and try some new things. Our previous trips to Cabo together started with 2 days there on a cruise where I was super big and pregnant with our 1st son. We made it back home with 3 days to spare before I was too far along in my pregnancy to travel internationally. I may have freaked him out a bit by doing pretty much all the stuff they tell you NOT to do on the cruise ship. But I was too big and too hot to care and have been to Cabo more times than I can count prior to that trip. The 2nd trip there was for our anniversary during Covid where we only left the resort once. But we left it and survived and I didn’t freak him out too much probably due to the tequila tasting I took him to first before venturing out. Liquid courage did wonders for his nerves.

So this trip he said he is ready to travel my way and try new things. I asked him if he was sure because once I book it he is stuck. He thought about it and the next day he said he was ready. I immediately booked us in a small boutique hotel with only 8 rooms with a great location. I had to book it all in Spanish. Thankfully, I speak “travel” in many languages and Spanish is my strongest. Up next was choosing activities. Since he apparently grew up under a rock he really has not done much so we are doing it all! ATVs in the desert, riding camels, parasailing, glass bottom boat tour, glass blowing, shopping, bar hopping, a cooking class, hiking to El Arco, a street food tour… it will be a trip full of adventure by day and relaxing evenings sipping margaritas and laughing the night away.

If you follow my blog you know my husband is NOT a traveler but very much wants to be one. Getting him to this point has not been easy. He slowly learning how to pack (although I can’t seem to get him to travel light as I do so every time we go somewhere I get annoyed waiting for him to 1. Check his bag and 2. Get his bag after the flight) I will occasionally need to check a bag because I have something that I can’t put in my carry on bag like when I had several knives to bring home from Nepal. Or when I have a bit too much to drink and go shopping and purchase bottles of booze that I need to bring home. (Or a case or two plus loose bottles) It annoys me when I have to check a bag or more too.

Enough about Mexico. Let’s talk about the couples trip for special needs parents that my husband and I are leading. We started out by hosting a monthly “parents night out” for the special needs parents group we are part of locally. It has gone really well for a few years now but have been asked for more. There is a Moms retreat. But not much else. It’s difficult to get away as a couple when you have typical kids but with special needs kids it is almost impossible. So with the success of parents night out, we are attempting a getaway for parents to be themselves among others who “get it”. We chose Catalina Island off the coast of California as our destination for a long weekend getaway. It’s far enough to be “away” but close enough that if things go really bad at home we can all make it back fairly easy. So far we have 7 couples excited about going with rooms already booked.

The day after we get home from Catalina I leave to go to the UK with one of my best friends to celebrate her 50th birthday. She watches our kids for us when we go out of town so we don’t have to pay a sitter to sleep and without her help, we would never be able to go anywhere overnight together. Going to the UK has been at the top of her bucket list for as long as I have known her. So as her 50th birthday approached I asked my husband if it would be ok if I took her as a thank you for watching the kids. I usually take her out somewhere for her birthday every year even if it’s just lunch but with it being 50 I wanted to do something big. He agreed *if* I could stay within a budget and not get crazy. Honestly, I think he thought I couldn’t make it work. But as an old school budget traveler and backpacker I got this! When I told her she cried she was so happy. I told her to stay within the budget she would need to pay for her own airfare (that may be as much as $1200, but I’ll look for the best deal I can find for a direct flight…actual total $662.81 each round trip from San Francisco to London 😎) but I got the rest. We are working on what to do with our week there now. I have a plan that I think she will love but told her to give me her top “must see” list soon so I can get started booking and fit in as many of those places as I can.

With 2025 plans looking good so far I was talking to my friend in Australia about our next meet up and when and where to go. My 2025 is pretty full but 2026 is open. We each looked at a world map and decided that we want warmer over colder and somewhere cheap and not too touristy that was not over 24 hours of travel for each of us to get there. Things always get weird when we try to get together since we live on complete opposite sides of the planet I don’t think we could be farther apart from each other. After a couple days of crossing off countries from our list we finally decided on Indonesia. (Yeah, we are both very well traveled and actually met in Egypt. So, while most people could not even tell us where Indonesia is we were both into the idea.) Today I approached my husband with the idea of me going solo to Indonesia to meet up with my friend from the land down under. Cringing because I’m already going to the UK…again with another friend this year and expecting a lecture about saving money and trying to pay off the house early…but surprisingly he was great with it. He said it has been too long since we got together and are well overdue for it. And apparently he was watching a video on YouTube recently that said Indonesia is a totally underrated and affordable travel destination (as apparently are several other places I keep talking about going to. Apparently I have good taste.) So, I sent her a quick message and told her “project Indonesia 2026 is a go”.

So that wraps up 2025 plans and gives you a sneak peek at 2026 plans starting to form. I know 2026 seems far away but it will be here sooner than you think and I find that I do more and see more if I have a plan. So, with 2025 mostly booked it’s time to start my general outline for 2026.

Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope if you don’t have plans for 2025 and beyond yet that I have inspired you to make some. After all… life is what happens when you get off the couch.

Achieving my dream of one day going to Tibet

So I did a thing…

I was reviewing my bucket list after returning from my latest trip to the UK where I could check off a few more items.

Stay the night in a castle-check

See the Crown Jewels-check

Ok, what else is on here? Everest… I’m doing that in September. Let’s see… do a triathlon. Ok, let’s look at races and maybe find one nearby sometime in 2025 since I’ll already be in shape from Everest.

So I start looking and lo and behold I find one. It’s 3 hours away and on my actual 50th birthday. So I got a book about training for your first triathlon. I read it. I looked at the course. Lake swim vs ocean. That’s easy. I can easily do each of the distances solo now but one after the other will be the challenge. The temptation was too much for me. I signed up.

I’m a paper girl despite this digital age so I got myself a small notebook and drew out my training plan. I joined the gym to have access to a pool for conditioning and convenience despite living so close to the water. I got another book on triathlon training and read that one too. Today I officially started my training.

Part of me thinks I have probably lost my mind. Maybe I’m having a mid life crisis of some kind. But, if I’m going to do something crazy at least it’s health and fitness oriented. Ok maybe the crazy part is doing the Everest base camp trek a month before the triathlon and not the triathlon.

Either way, I made the most of my first 50 years and I’ll be doing everything I can to make the next 50 even better!

My training log book and inspirational stickers. Yes, I’m really doing this.

Back in the USA

I’m back! Ok, I didn’t say I was actually going anywhere but I did. My husband and I took our annual vacation together for our anniversary and did the trip we didn’t get to do on our 10th anniversary (thanks covid travel restrictions). We went to the UK!

This was my 6th trip there and my husband’s 1st time there. We have only VACATIONED together and have never TRAVELED together before. So this was a learning experience. I have traveled a lot…solo. My husband has never traveled before. So I had to try to adapt my style taking someone else’s wants, needs and desires into account. He had to learn how to travel and not just lounge and relax. It was weird. But after a few days we fell into a groove and started to really enjoy it. We figured out what works for us and by the end of the trip we were really in a groove and had it down.

On the flight home we decided to alternate years and do a chill vacation followed by an active travel experience. Both options have merit and we enjoy both. For us 2025 will be local-ish and we are looking at a spa day and lots of lounging poolside. 2026 will be a couple weeks in Japan. We have barely unpacked and are already started trying to figure out what we want to see there and make a plan.

Travel has always been important to me. It’s really nice to be able to share that love with my husband. There are so many women who miss out because their husbands will not travel with them and they will not go on their own or their husbands are not ok with them traveling alone. Now, I’m quite a bit more adventurous than my husband but he is supportive when I want to go somewhere he has zero interest in going to. When I mention an idea that he doesn’t want to do he will often tell me either “yeah, have fun with that.” Or “That sounds like a good idea for a girls trip.” As in… there is no way in hell I want to do that and I’m totally supportive of you going without me rather than forcing me to go with you.

Thanks bud. I love you too.

So, my next trip is in the fall. I’ll be going to Nepal and Tibet. This is a “have fun with that” trip. I wanted to do something epic for my 50th birthday so I’m ticking off another item off my bucket list and doing the Everest base camp trek. I started getting in shape for it 8 months ago. I’m down a total of 69 lbs so far. I have been a busy girl. I’m still not where I want to be but I’ll get there.

Our first day in the UK
Me on my anniversary trip in 2023 vs 2024

Dare to (travel) dream

One of my best friends lives in Australia. We talk almost every day. I know it sounds crazy but with modern technology it’s possible. She has a friend that lives in the UK that I have never met but have gotten to know in group chats with the three of us. The three of us travelers and we are all struggling with the lockdowns of our countries. So we have started to make plans for the three of us to get together on two different trips based of when our countries free us to roam again.

One of the trips we are planning is for the two of them to come here to California. I will be their lovely tour guide and we will enjoy a few days here in the wine country before starting our road trip north. Talking about where we can go and what we do will largely be figured out by what our UK friend wants to do since I live here and my Aussie friend has been here several times.

The other trip we are talking about is a meetup in the UK. No big plans there yet but it will be a shorter trip of 5-7 days. The two of them will be working some of the days leaving their evenings free. My Aussie friend has a branch there with a team she supervises so she will plan it as a work trip. We will coordinate schedules and I’ll probably play tourist while they are working and meet up with them for lunches and evenings.

I’m looking forward to us all being together. It will be interesting to see how people react to 3 women who are obviously really close but who all have very distinctly different accents. I know when my Aussie friend and I are together we get a lot of people who ask how we know each other. It really confuses people. We are 3 strong, independent women who travel well. We have all traveled the world alone. We all love food and wine and a good laugh with friends.

So even in a pandemic you can close the borders, but you can’t stop people from dreaming about their next trip.

Oh, when I go to the UK for our meetup; I will be bringing as much wine as I can for those evenings together. It’s my job. Well, that and Levi’s in their sizes. 😁