Southern Scenic Route, New Zealand

To recover from our hike, we took a few days to drive leisurely down the coast of the the South Island of New Zealand. The well established Southern Scenic Route had lots of options for activities along the way ranging from hikes and wildlife preserves to historic lighthouses and fishing villages.

Milford Track, New Zealand

The Milford Track was one of the greatest adventures of our travels and the one we had been planning for months. It is a four day, three night, 33.5 mile hike along the ‘finest walk in the world’. The path is historic having been discovered in the 1880’s and leads hikers through green forests, into…

Chiang Mai, Thailand (2015)

Not wanting to miss seeing one of our great friends who was traveling through Southeast Asia, we caught up with him in Chiang Mai.  Despite fond memories from a prior trip to Chiang Mai, this time through the region was a different experience as we had the privilege of tagging along with our friend and…

Luang Prabang, Laos

We may have saved the best of Laos for last. Everyone we met while traveling seemed to have strong feelings about Luang Prabang, however they differed greatly. Several travelers told us they loved Luang Prabang, it was beautiful and relaxing, others told us it was filled with tourists and didn’t feel authentic. We found it…

Retro Trip: Chiang Mai

Retro Trip Post: This is article 2 of 3 articles reflecting on our first trip to Thailand taken in 2011. After visiting Koh Samui to celebrate the marriage of two of our friends, we were invited to join them as they traveled to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai was our favorite part of…

Ouray, CO

Our first destination in Colorado was Ouray, which was recommended to us by a friend in Denver who we would be seeing later in the week. Ouray bills itself as ‘The Switzerland of America‘. What we found in Ouray is a quaint mountain town. The buildings on main street retain a lot of historic charm…

Zion National Park, UT (2014)

Zion is a special place for Jon and I. It is where we got engaged and is also the site of our first serious hiking escapades. Our first time in Zion we hiked Angels Landing, The Narrows, and joined a guided canyoning trip, all of which you can read about in our early blog post here.…

Yellowstone National Park, WY

We drove into Yellowstone at the South Entrance. From the south we got to enjoy a nice view of a canyon to welcome us into the park. Unfortunately, like the Grand Tetons it was rainy and unseasonably cold. Because of the weather and because I was fighting a cold, we decided not to camp and…