2019 Travel Recap

I traveled A LOT in Twenty-Nineteen. Life was CRAZY.

January

Hiked San Jacinto Peak in California

February

Las Vegas for Switchfoot concert

Denver to see the Ito’s and Chris Cox, saw Red Rocks Amphitheater and now I really want attend a night of worship there under the stars.

March

Menifee, Cali., a small trip to off road in Amos and had some good BBQ.

A fun beach day with friends in recruiter school I hadn’t seen in a long time.

April

Vegas for a week for the National Association of Broadcasters conference. Visited all the top sites during my off time and definitely never need to go back.

May

Lots of days and evenings at California beaches and the San Diego county fair.

June

Road trip home through SoCal, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas.
Turns out, Utah is probably my favorite state. I was constantly in awe. &Well, Moab in my jeep is a no brainer win.

July

San Diego Big Bay Boom with the best fireworks show.

My last Cali sunset which was the most beautiful sunset I have and probably will ever see. No kidding. It’s my Facebook cover photo, check it out, its so magical.

Moved to Stuttgart, Germany. Yeesh – it’s still crazy to me after six months that I live in EUROPE.

August

Wondering around Germany. Made it to Berlin for my first long weekend and first of several solo trips. Walked all the miles, saw all the things. Ok city.

September

Norway for a week, where I visited the same city I was in in April 2015 on a work trip. Super cool feeling to see things again and it all come flashing back. Also, truly beautiful hike over the Romsdalseggen Ridge (made a whole page of photos just of the hike).

Warsaw, Poland for a week for a work conference. Filled my off time with lots of Holocaust memorial/tribute visits. Including the zoo to see the house featured in ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife.’ Phenomenal.

October

Personal trip to England which included the Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Salisbury and Canterbury Cathedrals, and Windsor Castle (the queen was there). Awesome trip.

Norway again for a day to visit Marines in Setermoen. Accumulated three days toward my Arctic Ribbon. It was cold but only 25 days to go.

A few days in Spain which didn’t go anywhere near planned. Started in Seville, visited Marines in Moron, back to Seville for the evening where our rental car was broken into and our bags stolen, including my military ID and passport. Plans quickly changed and we took a train to Madrid the next day. The following day I had to get an emergency passport at the Embassy to leave the country. This wasn’t a trip I cared to share any photos from.

November

A quick trip to Luxembourg to see Lauren Daigle in concert. What a wonderful night of worship with songs from my favorite album.

Two nights in Sigonella, Italy to link up with a team of Marines for the next trip.

December

Two weeks in Kenitra, Morocco where I covered training Marines were doing with the Moroccan military. Even though there was a lot of hard work on this trip we visited Rabat, Casablanca and rode camels on the beach. My heart was filled with a small moment of peace seeing a sunset on the coast again.

Snowboarding in Ischgl, Austria on Christmas day. It snowed all day, it was so awesome.

Zurich, Switzerland for New Years Eve. Fireworks show was really great. I stood on a bridge watching fireworks next to a couple from Boston. The world is so small.

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I took lots of photos, I shared a lot of moments with friends and with myself, and met some cool people along the way. During this year I also got divorced, I graduated career school, I threw my parents a surprise anniversary party, I got a matching tattoo with my sister, I experienced the best of California, I reenlisted for the third time, I experienced my first German fest, I ran my first 10k, I experienced European Christmas markets, I got Amos back, I tried new things, I found a great group of girls in a bible study, I visited my 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13th countries in four months; plus I went through the worst heartbreak of my entire life, I cried a lot, I wrestled with God and I questioned why I was still alive.

It’s been a trying year, mentally the worst one yet probably. But I’m grateful for all the good I can list here now and be able to look back on when I’m older and thank God for the experiences that made me more aware of worldly cultures and open to change.
& I hope some day my nieces will care to listen to and look at all that I’ve done.

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2020 has some big goals:
Will be paying out of pocket to fix my teeth because its the one thing I can control on physical looks to build my self confidence.
Work hard toward my associates degree at UMGC.
Complete 3 career advancing courses, i.e. brown belt, DINFOS, Syracuse, etc.
Make better health choices like less sweets and more protein.
Visit my Europe top 5: Auschwitz, Anne Frank Home, London, Greece, Paris
Put $10,000 into investments. Can easily do this now out of my savings but will continue to save and put more away.
Complete a Spartan Race Trifecta, bonus if I can do the races in three different countries!
Serve God’s Kingdom, through student ministry at church or something else.
Call home every week to both my parents and the girls.
Fall in love with myself again and enjoy my own company doing solo trips.
Get my ‘So, Live’ tattoo.
Building gym strength again.
Travel A LOT to more than just my top 5 like Israel, The Dolomites, Rome and a RISE event hopefully in London.
&Who know what else God will throw in there! Here we go!