A to Z Travel Archive

I’m usually not one for trends, but a few of my favorite travel Instagrammers have been participating in an A to Z travel challenge these past few weeks, and since I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my favorite trips. Come along with me on a […]

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European Christmas Markets Overview

Inadvertently, Sean and I have made it a pattern to visit Christmas markets in Europe for our first major vacation at a new post. In 2015 when we left Dushanbe for the first time, we went to Germany and Brussels to get a good helping of Christmas spirit. Last year, we did the same with […]

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Fitness Travel Essentials

I’ve got a lot of traveling coming up between now and October. All good travel, just a lot of it in a relatively short period. One thing I’ve found that really helps my mental clarity and feeling of “normalcy” when traveling or PCSing is making time for myself in the form of fitness. I always […]

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Travel Anxiety

It starts pretty immediately. As soon as we book flights the unease settles into the pit of my stomach. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since we’ve vacationed, how fun the destination is going to be, or how badly we need to get away for a little while. I always develop some kind of […]

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Book Review: Lonely Planet Travel Guides

Everyone knows Lonely Planet. Even if you aren’t a big travel buff, I’m sure you’ve seen these blue bound books at some point in your life. They are something of a gold standard when it comes to travel guides, and for good reason. Lonely Planet began in 1973 when Tony and Maureen Wheeler put together their […]

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Oh, Hello

Basically a brain dump on everything that’s happened since we left Dushanbe

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Almaty vs. Shymbulak: A Tale of Two Cities

Now that I finished my (probably overly long) New Zealand series, I can get caught up on some Central Asia things I’ve neglected. The first of which, is our return to Shymbulak Ski Resort, and our first real experience with Almaty proper. I previously spoke about Almaty about a year ago when we had our […]

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Wines of New Zealand

Wine is my absolute favorite of all the alcoholic beverages. I have many fond memories from our first few years of marriage sitting outside on our balcony, drinking wine, snacking on cheese and crackers, and marveling at how adult we were. I am not at all an expert – as you will see if you […]

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New Zealand: Auckland

New Zealand is the birthplace of adventure tourism. Specifically, Queenstown is home to the world’s first commercial bungee jump, Rotorua invented Zorbing, and Auckland is home to SkyCity. As our days in this adrenaline-fueled country came to an end, we had one last day of crazy adventure seeking left before relaxing in wine country to polish […]

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New Zealand: Rotorua

There really is no place on earth quite like Rotorua. Where else are you going to wake up to the sweet smell of sulfur in your geothermal-heated hotel room to go bathe in hot springs and walk past boiling mud? No where that I can think of. I believe the guidebook even referred to Rotorua […]

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