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The time has come to say goodbye to 2018! This last year treated us pretty well, but we always embrace a new year and what’s to come. After all, new adventures and experiences are waiting and ready for us!
Summing up a whole year in one post is always a little challenging, but I love to reflect on the the highs (and even some of the lows) of our past years. Here’s a look back on some of the highlights we experienced in 2018.
2018 Highlights
- Places visited: England, Maui, O’ahu, and California
- We explored more of our “backyard” in California, including Lodi, Murphys and the Monterey/Big Sur Coast
- We collectively lost 65 pounds between the both of us thanks to cutting out carbs (including our beloved beer *sad face*)
- We joined a summer bowling league with our niece and friend and I bowled my highest game ever!
- I got to visit my family in Hawaii, some of whom I have not seen in over 15 years!
And here’s a little bit of what we got up to, month by month.
January
January was relatively uneventful, as it usually tends to be when we are coming off the previous month full of holidays that include overeating and overspending! We did manage to make it out to a new 100% plant-based (vegan) “fast food” restaurant in Concord – Next Level Burger. It is SO freaking delicious. Burgers with melted “cheese,” tots with horseradish cream sauce, and even salted caramel milk shakes! Even if you aren’t into eating vegan food on the regular, I don’t see how you could not enjoy all this deliciousness.
January low: I had to start dealing with a very stressful medical issue with one of my dog’s eyes (Kiba, my little min pin), which actually spanned over the course of a few months. Thankfully, CBD oil ended up being the trick I needed to get it under control, but not without lack of stress over the whole ordeal!
February
February was an awesome travel month for us. We took our first trip together down to the Monterey area and enjoyed the scenery of the beautiful California Coast. We got to check off some bucket list items like taking a drive across the Bixby Creek Bridge (which is simply a stunning visual piece of architecture) and also a visit to McWay Falls down in Big Sur.
These are the kinds of trips that make you truly appreciate the good parts about living in California. She really is a beauty! I also wrote a travel guide on visiting the area to help others plan to see this must-visit part of California.
February was also the month of SF Beer Week in the Bay Area where tons of beer establishments participate in special events. We chose the Sour Sunday beer festival in Berkeley, where we plowed through some 50+ samples of sour beer (don’t worry, many of those were just sips from samples our friends had – it’s always good to attend a beer fest with multiple people so you can sample all the goods!).
March
In March, I got to attend a travel agent training put on by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau and the most exciting thing happened – I won the grand prize of six complimentary nights at various hotels on Maui and O’ahu! Travel to Hawaii wasn’t necessarily our next planned destination, but I could not pass up the free hotel nights! We ended up using the hotel nights in December…more on that below.
We ended March with the Spring Brews Festival in Concord and it was such a fun day! The California spring weather was out in full force and being able to wear shorts and a t-shirt comfortably in the beginning of spring is another reason why I love California. Thank you Cali weather!
April
In April, my mom came to visit us here in California. We had a great visit, and finally made it up to the little town of Murphys for some awesome wine tasting with my friends. I even wrote up a new travel guide for it, which was one of my most popular posts in 2018! Micah also traveled to Las Vegas for a guys weekend away.
May
May was probably one of the busiest months we had all year, and it is quite possibly one of my favorite months we had! We joined a summer bowling league with our niece, Amie, and one of my besties, Nicole, to keep us busy and semi-active on hot summer nights.
We also did a little “Cinco de Drinko” beer tour up in Santa Rosa on Cinco de Mayo with my roomies and their brother. We hit up SIX breweries in the Santa Rosa area in one day! It was sort of our last beer hurrah before really starting to work on the low carb life.
Lastly, we crossed the pond (aka The Atlantic Ocean) and traveled to London, England. It was an AMAZING week spent exploring the city, including a couple of day trips to Stonehenge and Bath and the Harry Potter Studio Tour just outside of London. I am actually still writing about that trip now (I’m really terrible at keeping up with my blog posts lately – trying to work on that in 2019).
On the sad news front, my mom’s dog (aka her best friend) passed away from cancer at the end of the month and my heart absolutely broke for her. Rest in peace, dearest Makana.
June
Once we were back home from London, we got serious about our new low carb lifestyle. Over the next 5 months, we really hit it full force and turned it into a successful venture! Seriously though, June was completely focused on getting into the habit of cleaner eating. It’s hard work!
July
We’re halfway there! In July, I got to back up to Murphys for another wine tasting adventure with my best girls and had so much fun! This year was definitely the year of wine for me since I cut out beer almost completely from my diet. My love for wine has definitely been rekindled!
August
August is always a special month as we celebrate our wedding anniversary on August 4th. This year, I wanted to do something fun, so we booked an overnighter to a little wine country town near us called Lodi. It turned out to be our new favorite weekend destination! Lodi has 85+ wineries less than an hour away from us, and some amazing food options.
We signed up to be members at Riaza so we would have a good excuse to keep coming back! I also wrote up an extensive Lodi guide to give tips to other wine enthusiasts wanting to head to Lodi.
At the end of the month, our bowling league ended. We were mildly successful for the season, but didn’t get to place (maybe next year!). I did bowl my highest game ever (216), so I have to pat myself on the back for that. We also both signed up for a Fantasty Football League with our friends. I’m not a huge football fan so I thought it would help me to pay a little more attention when Micah watches the games. It worked!
September
September was a pretty active month for us. Football season kicked off, so there was lots of game watching this month (and for the next several months of course). We also had the best diet cheat weekend – pizza and homemade crispy tacos! Sometimes, you just have to reward yourselves for hard work, you know?
We also went back out to Lodi! We had our wine club pickup party, so of course I also used that an excuse to try out a new restaurant as well. We found the best sushi place out there that had the most amazing mussels and hamachi truffle dish – Komachi Sushi.
We also took a day trip out to Sausalito, since I had never been before. We started off with brunch and then walked the main part of town. It was a wee bit touristy and not sure that I would go again, but I can at least check that one off the list!
After our day trip to Sausalito, we had one of the best meals of the year at a place closer to home in Concord called Lima. Hello amazing Peruvian food! Micah still talks about the pulpo as being his favorite octopus dish of all time.
October
October was also a good foodie month. We took our third trip of the year out to Lodi in October, this time bringing some of our friends along, to celebrate the wines of Riaza at their annual anniversary party. For lunch, we tried out a new place called West Oak Nosh, serving up their versions of German classics. I still dream about eating bowlfulls of their spaetzle n cheese!
We also discovered a little seafood place out in Concord called EMC, that had some tasty garlic noodles and seafood items like hamachi carpaccio, oysters, soft shell crab, and lots of sushi! Perfect stop before heading into a movie.
We also made it out for a date night right in our hometown, eating for the first time at the farm-to-table restaurant Attraversiamo and its sister wine bar, Vine & Grain. What makes a date night memorable? Food, wine and the good conversation in the company of my husband. Relationship care is important!
I spent the previous few months planning a big trip to Italy for two of my close friends to take in October and the time finally came! They loved their trip so much, and made me feel a bit validated as a travel consultant (anyone want to take a trip to Italy soon?)
We ended up not doing anything special for Halloween this year (not celebrating holidays this year actually became a trend for us), and ended up watching Hocus Pocus and drinking wine. Holidays in your 30’s = cozy nights in!
November
November is birthday month for both of us! We also hit some milestones in our weight loss. A bittersweet month – losing weight (25 pounds for me), and turning another year older (hello 35!). I had a delicious birthday brunch and got some maps from people who know me best (anything travel related is always the best gift to receive).
Micah and I spent Thanksgiving just the two of us this year, eating king crab and drinking champagne. Sometimes simple is best! We also discovered our local tap room started Bingo on Thursday nights…so yeah, we definitely did that!
Lastly, I treated myself to a new Microsoft Surface to use for traveling and every day stuff (like writing this blog) so I don’t have to lug around my heavy laptop anymore. Best purchase ever!
December
To close out 2018, we had such an awesome December! We were back in Lodi for our wine pickup and got to take Micah’s niece wine tasting for the first time. We had a blast and brought back 5 cases of wine from place that was closing its doors for business. Pretty much stocked up on wine for half the year!
Then, we were off to Hawaii for 10 days, stopping first on Maui and then on to O’ahu. We spent a lot of time touring hotels on Maui (for this blog and my travel agent business), ate a ton of food, and visited with my family.
O’ahu was a refreshing experience for me since I hadn’t been there in over 15 years. I got to visit with some friends, and see my family there as well. We also ate some seriously good food on O’ahu – and even had one of the best meals of our trip at Kalapawai Cafe in Kailua.
I have lots to share from our travels to Hawaii, so stay tuned for 2019 posts! I’ll finally be doing some more comprehensive posts for Maui, including a foodie guide, hotel reviews, and a combined list of my favorite activities.
Christmas this year was pretty low key, although we did have TWO Friendsmas dinners back-to-back (our beloved crispy tacos and Micah made his best prime rib of all time). We ended 2018 with a group of our best friends, consuming way too much champagne and staying up way too late! Let me tell you, recovery days get so much harder as you get older, but we’ll still keep the party going as long as we possibly can.
2018 Favorites
- Favorite Travel Destination: Hands down – London!
- Favorite Food: Octopus (Pulpo or Tako or whatever you want to call it). We had five really amazing octopus dishes this year, so I am dubbing this the year of the Octopus.
- Favorite Dining Experience: A toss up between Peruvian food at Lima in Concord, CA, and farm-to-table action at Kalapawai Cafe & Deli in Kailua, Hawaii.
- Favorite Movie: Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindewald! I also really loved the Star Wars movie Solo. I think the stand-alone movies in the franchise are SO much better as of late.
- Favorite Book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I also read The Book Thief at the beginning of the year, but haven’t done much reading other than that).
Blog Updates
Blog Traffic: Readers and viewers of this blog increased tremendously from last year (by the thousands), so thank you for all the new faces who have stopped by! You guys make all the time and effort spent putting into these posts worth it.
Most Popular 2018 Posts: Murphys Travel Guide and Sunset at the Palms Hotel Review (from our stay in Jamaica)
Most Popular Overall Posts: These two continue to soar on the blog and are responsible for a large portion of blog traffic – Vancouver Weekend Itinerary and How to Spend a Weekend in Solvang. Thank you again, Pinterest! People also really love my boozy posts on Maui – Where to Find Craft Beer on Maui and Cruising for a Boozing.
YouTube: Let’s face it – I am by no means a “YouTuber” – I make some videos here and there because I think it enhances some of our travels, but it really is a lot of work that I haven’t had a chance to focus on. I am still terrible at being in front of the camera, and not really sure where I want to take my videos in 2019. But, I did hit over 100 followers this year!
Instagram: Well, my account waxes and wanes around 700 followers right now. I decided not to care so much about what I post and when I am posting because it’s just too damn hard to figure out the Insta game! I just want to focus on sharing my experiences and photos with anyone willing, so to you roughly 700 people out there, thank you for your support!
What’s in Store for 2019?
I’m not really sure where the wind will take us in 2019, but I do know airplanes will be involved! I am working on planning our spring trip currently, though the destination is a little undecided. We originally wanted to go New Zealand, but time constraints are going to prevent that so I’m looking at either Spain or Germany/Austria for a week in May. Help me decide!
We are also wanting to plan a trip to Scandinavia to see the Northern Lights next winter. That will be a major trip to plan, but it’s something at the top of the bucket list and we are excited to see that plan come to fruition! I have to get those countries scratched off on my new maps, after all.
Other than that, we’ll be heading up to Oregon in the summer for a friend’s wedding, spending more time drinking wine in Lodi, and resuming our little weight loss journey (we took a month off in December due to travel and well, you know, all the fatty holiday foods!).
Again, a big thank you from the both of us who are readers of our blog. We love sharing this corner of the internet with each and every one of you! Cheers to another year down, and another awesome year to come.
Love this review!!! Do you do this each year?? This is such a great idea that I may have to copy!!
Yes! Well, I’ve done one for the past three years as a nice little recap. I’m toying with the idea of doing a monthly recap this year also to motivate me to write more. Adventurous Kate does a monthly recap that I enjoy reading, and it’s easier to remember more things that way. We’ll see when the end of January comes around, lol.