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Where has the time gone?! Don’t we all find ourselves saying that at the end of each year? Things have been a little quiet on the blog lately. Between having family and friends visit us the entire month of November, and traveling to Maui for a part of December, the blog just kind of took a back seat! And, finding motivation to do anything after the holidays is always a bit rough, isn’t it? Now that 2016 is coming to a close, I thought it would be great to do a 2016 recap on how we spent our year.
2016 was a lighter year on the travel front (at least for us), mostly due to the fact that we relocated to our new home base just outside of Portland, Oregon – something that required a lot of time and money that we couldn’t spend on travel. A bummer, I know, but sometimes being an adult means you have to cut back a little (not entirely) on a few things for a bit. We still managed to squeeze in a few activities wherever we could!
January
In January, we pretty much stuck close to home and celebrated SF Beer Week with our friends. You know we like our beer! I’ll never forget the memorable Guava IPA release from Track 7 – I’m dying to get my hands on that again. We also finally made it to our first ever Very Vegan Sunday at SoMa StrEat Food Park in San Francisco. I love trying out new vegan foods to be kinder to the animals, and I had the best damn vegan tacos from Taqueria La Veganza. You won’t miss the meat!
February
February brought us that early California spring and sunshine. We hosted a small Superbowl party, and snuck away to Portland for an extended weekend of exploring neighborhoods to decide where we wanted to put our roots down. Exploring Portland of course includes copious amounts of beer drinking, and feasting on the fine Portland food offerings. I even wrote a whole post on all the delicious foods we ate that trip!
March
March brought us even more spring sunshine (and allergies!). Even though they make me sneeze like crazy, I enjoy seeing those first spring buds and letting the dogs out in the yard to roll around in the grass. We spent some time with a friend in San Francisco, and celebrated our nephew’s second birthday party.
April
April was a complete whirlwind of a month. We took not one, but TWO trips up to Portland! We purchased our new home at the beginning of the month, and returned at the end of the month to select the finishings. Adulting at its finest!
We also had the pleasure of experiencing our first ever sushi burrito, and I can say that we have become addicted to them ever since. We had a chance to spend some time with Micah’s niece and her BF at a nice dinner at the Walnut Creek Yacht Club back in California with an all-you-can eat mussels extravaganza! Totally worth it, if you’re ever in the Bay Area on a Monday evening.
May
May was a wind down month for us. We took it easy, played games at home, and made it to our only baseball game of the season to support the A’s – and to get our Josh Reddick bobbleheads! It’s always a fun time when you can wait in line in the sunshine with your friends drinking a cooler full of beer.
June
June was a fun month. We took a day trip to Napa to indulge in some wine tasting. I say indulge because Napa can get a little pricey, but the scenery is so breathtaking. You’ll feel like you are in the Italian countryside! We also celebrated birthdays with some friends at home. Those moments are the priceless ones and the ones that I cherish most each year.
July
July was probably my favorite month of 2016. It was our last month in California which meant packing and saying our goodbyes to friends and family. Since it was our last month, we kind of crammed a lot in before we left that we hadn’t gotten around to prior!
We took a long weekend getaway down to Solvang and Santa Barbara. If you have never been to Solvang, I highly recommend it. When you need to satisfy that longing for a trip to Europe but can’t quite make the journey, this little town in California will make you feel all nostalgic and stuff. I loved it, even though it was a bit touristy. Oh, and we had some pretty amazing meals at Succulent Cafe, Aly’s, and Copenhagen Sausage Garden!
Spending a day in the sunshine, eating crab cake burgers, and exploring the historic side of Santa Barbara by touring the Courthouse and the Mission was a fantastic introduction to Santa Barbara and all it had to offer. I only regret not being able to stay longer and indulge in all the local cuisine!
Another item we crossed off the bucket list was visiting the Japanese Garden at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Out of all the years I lived there, it was a first. I have to say I prefer the Portland Japanese Garden a little more – it was bigger and less crowded.
Changing gears from being obsessed with beer, we took a tour with North Bay Brew Tours and visited a whiskey distillery! It definitely got me out of my comfort zone since hard liquor that’s not mixed with something is generally hard for me to get down.
And finally, we said goodbye to our California friends and family with a little going away party. It was a bittersweet day for us.
August
In August, the day finally came for us to say goodbye to California and make our way up to Portland. I’d love to say we had a smooth ride, but I had the two dogs in one car with me and let’s just say they don’t do well with car rides. I needed a stiff drink after we finally got in to Portland and the only place open around us was Applebee’s – where we were treated with the “world’s best margarita” aka the “world’s weakest margarita.” Ah good times. Thanks Applebee’s.
We spent the month settling into our home, picking out furniture, and getting to know all the eateries around us.
September
Just before we could start to feel homesick, we had a visit from my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and our adorable little nephew. We took them out to the farmers market, showed them around town a bit, and explored the outdoors a little bit so the guys could go fishing! I even squeezed in a photoshoot with the little guy. That cute face makes me miss portrait photography!
October
October was probably my second favorite month of 2016. We attended the Here & There Travel Fest in Portland, and when our original Halloween weekend plans fell through, we decided to get a little more adventurous and took a road trip up to Vancouver, Canada!
We’ve been wanting to visit Canada together for quite awhile and fortunately, living in the PNW means we are much closer to our northern neighbors! I LOVED Vancouver. It is such a beautiful city and a fabulous culinary destination. I’ve got a few more posts coming to the blog soon on our time there, so stay tuned!
One of my favorite things about Vancouver was all the fall color scenery, especially at Queen Elizabeth Park and VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
November
In November, we may have gotten a little ambitious with the house guests (we had someone over every week of the month!). But that’s just fine. We miss everyone back in California so much, so it was nice to have so many familiar faces around. We played tour guide a lot, taking everyone around to delicious brunch restaurants and breweries. And, we both also celebrated our birthdays! Another year older, another year wiser?
December
And finally, we come to December. After living in Hawaii and California my whole life, the weather was a bit of a change for me. We experienced our first snowfall!
More importantly, we traveled to Maui with our best of friends and spent time with a lot of my family. It was a great getaway and a rejuvenation that we very much needed. It really made me remember the importance of spending time with our loved ones, and I’m going to make it a point to do that more this coming year!
2016 was the year I really started to take advantage of Instagram’s full potential. We grew to 500 followers! To some, that number might be laughably small, but I’m thankful for each and every follower who appreciates our photos. I really enjoy sharing our moments with the world, hoping to inspire others to set out on their own adventures!
Our most popular Instagram photo for 2016? A photo of me from our 2015 trip to Europe, taken in Riomaggiore, Italy in the Cinque Terre – one of my favorite places in the world!
YouTube
I started making YouTube video blogs (“vlogs”) last year as a way to give everyone a different perspective on our travels. It is the most difficult thing for me to be in front of a camera but I wanted to challenge myself anyway. We’ve hit almost 1,500 views this year! Another incredibly SMALL milestone, but I’m proud of it anyway and I’ll keep pushing myself to film our travels 🙂
Our most popular video for 2016? “Weekend Getaway in Solvang”
Books Read While Traveling
I am super ashamed to admit that I have only completed two books this year….TWO. And they are the first two Harry Potter books, which I have never read, even though I love me some HP. This is one of my goals to improve upon for 2017. Maybe I need to join a book club? Who’s with me?
Most Popular Blog Post
The most popular post on the blog for 2016 was our Lufthansa Premium Economy Review. Though I actually posted this review at the end of 2015, it keeps people coming to the blog every day!
Most Popular Pin
Our most popular pin was a pic of the mai tais at Monkey Pod Kitchen on Maui! 350 pins to date. There will be plenty more Maui pins to come after this recent trip.
What’s Next?
Other than a trip planned to California in February, we don’t have any solid plans. But, there are a few items on our immediate bucket list that we are considering: Cruise to Alaska; trip to Vienna, Prague and Budapest; Costa Rica; and Australia/New Zealand. Which one should we choose? Do you have any recommendations of where we should go next?
We want to thank everyone for helping to make 2016 a great year for us. We are always on the lookout for new adventures and can’t wait to see what’s next! Happy New Year everyone!
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