2020 Year In Review: Finding Sunshine in a Year of Darkness

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Wow, 2020…thanks for everything?

This year definitely did not go as planned – I daresay it didn’t go as planned for any of us. Watching a pandemic snowball its way across the world (coupled with a volatile U.S. election, crazy riots and protests, and an apocalyptic fire season) was certainly not the year I had hoped for. 2020 was pretty dark for many of us. There’s no escaping that.

However, even though 2020 was a rough year, I still have a lot to be thankful for: my loved ones are alive and healthy; we have a lovely place to call home; our jobs are steady and successful; and we still managed to get a few short trips in even though our big travel plans for the year were cancelled.

While I can’t say this was my favorite year, we still managed to find some sunshine in the darkness of 2020.

Here’s how our year went.

Travel in 2020

Countries Visited: 1 – The U.S.
States Visited: 2 – Arizona and California (where we live)
Trips Taken: 3
Trips Cancelled: 2

Cancelled

Ireland: In April, we got the dreaded (but expected) email that our May trip to Ireland was cancelled. The days we would have spent exploring the city of Dublin drinking Irish whiskey or touring Game of Thrones filming locations and the Cliffs of Moher were spent at home.

In honor of our cancelled trip, we tried our hand at making Guinness Stew in the Instant Pot (which turned out amazing), along with colcannon mashed potatoes and Irish cream cheesecake brownies. Here’s to turning the negative into a positive!

Maui: In early December, we were supposed to be flying to Maui to see my family. Even though Hawaii was open to visitors, with all the constantly-changing rules for both Hawaii and California, we decided it was best not to travel. I took it a little hard as I haven’t seen my family in two years, but I hope to be able to make it home again soon.

Olive Oil Tasting in Fairfield

Even though our big trips were cancelled this year, we were able to get in a bit more local exploration!

Back in February before the pandemic was in full swing, I attended a travel agent meetup at Il Fiorello Olive Oil Company in Fairfield. We learned a lot about olive oil, enjoyed pairings, and shared a delicious charcuterie board while chatting about Italy.

This would be my final event as a travel agent as I decided to hang my hat up after everything that happened in the travel industry this year.

Spring Training in Arizona

In early March, we were lucky enough to fit in our second annual trip to Arizona for baseball spring training. This year, a couple of our friends came with us and we had so much fun!

We spent our days hopping around to the different baseball parks, eating hot dogs and consuming overpriced beer. At night, we explored Scottsdale’s happy hour spots and even fit in a day trip up to Sedona!

I can’t say how thankful I am for being able to fit this trip in before the pandemic shut everything down.

>>Read More: Arizona Spring Training Travel Guide

Looking out over the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona

The Beach

When the whole world pretty much went into lock down, we hardly left the house for five months. Our first “adventure” out was a summer day trip to the beach in the Half Moon Bay Area where we had good BBQ in a beer garden, and enjoyed some peace and quiet on a deserted beach in Pescadero. It might not sound like much, but I felt alive again!

A Solvang Bachelorette

In September, I spent my first night away from home in six months – how crazy is that?! I went on a weekend trip down to Solvang, California with three of my closest friends for a little bachelorette getaway.

Even though our friends had to postpone their dream wedding this year, they still decided to get married in a tiny intimate ceremony. We wanted to be sure give the bride a special weekend to hold onto and send her off to married life in true fashion!

>>Read More: A Bachelorette Weekend in Solvang

Shelter Cove on The Lost Coast

In mid September, Micah and I finally took a little getaway together to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary (albeit a month late). We visited the secluded town of Shelter Cove along California’s Lost Coast, about five hours north from where we live in the Bay Area.

We packed up a cooler of seafood-themed meals to cook in our vacation rental, and picked out a couple of local foodie and beer spots to enjoy over the long weekend. It was a much-needed escape for the two of us, and the area was so beautiful.

Apple Hill

Our last little adventure of the year was a day trip up to Apple Hill, about two hours northeast from us (and a little under an hour from Sacramento). Apple Hill really is the perfect fall destination if you live in California!

We spent a whole day going from farm to farm drinking hard cider and eating baked apple goods. Since we went late in the season for the farms (mid November), it wasn’t very busy. It was nice and relaxing and we didn’t have to be around a lot of other people.

Exploring Local

This year really forced us to focus on support for our local small businesses since we couldn’t travel as much. We live in suburbia, but there are a few gems that we definitely wanted to support like a local brewery, some wineries, and a handful of unique restaurants. They need us now more than ever to keep their businesses afloat and we are happy to do whatever we can!

Sipping wine and beer at Campos Vineyards in Byron, CA

Blog Highlights

Ah, the blog. I really thought this was going to be the year my little travel blog would get a boost. In January, I had the best month of all time with blog visitors and pageviews! It was a great high and I was prepared to write about so much more.

Naturally, when people stopped traveling in March due to COVID, blog traffic pretty much tanked. I feel so much for those travel writers out there who rely on their blog income full time! Things have been slowly creeping back up over the past few months, but with the way COVID is playing the world like a yo-yo, who knows when travel (and researching travel) will get back to normal.

YouTube

I made zero videos this year! Obviously, since we didn’t travel much, I didn’t create any video content for the YouTube channel. Though we did take a couple of short trips, I just wanted to focus on being present.

Subscribers are up to 158! Bless all of you 158 people who endure my amateur vlogs.

Social Media

I really don’t put too much energy into my travel Instagram account anymore, simply because I think the platform is so overly saturated at this point. I hardly reach a handful of people with my posts these days! I do enjoy creating Stories content, however, which helps me make some awesome summaries of my trips. Reels…IG Live…I just can’t even, lol. Maybe in 2021 I’ll explore more…

My most liked photo of 2020? Me and a cinnamon roll from Cinnaholic.

Growing Appetites at Home

I focused a lot more on my Appetites at Home blog this year since, well, you know, we were at home a lot. I still found it hard to find motivation to write, but it at least gave me a creative outlet while being stuck at home. If you’re interested, I write reviews on Trader Joe’s products, recap my favorite Blue Apron meals, and post occasional recipes that I create that are good for lazy chefs (like me!).

Personal Highlights

On a personal note, 2020 wasn’t all bad. There were definitely some awesome moments I’d like to remember this year:

I was asked to be a bridesmaid for one of my best friends (my first time ever being a bridesmaid!)
We became BBQ connoisseurs (well, my husband BBQ’d and I became an amateur BBQ eater)
I watched my tiny tomato and jalapeno plants flourish on my patio in a little container garden (it feels good to grow things!)

Thankful for My Job

As much as I dream of one day making travel writing my full-time profession, I was especially thankful for my job this year. I work in the IT industry – always essential but even more so this year when everyone relied on tech to do their jobs remotely and connect with others digitally. Micah works in an essential industry as well, so while he faced a lot of struggles this year jumping through COVID hoops, he had quite a successful year.

2020 was also the year of “WFH” (work(ing) from home) as offices closed and people were pretty much forced to pivot into new way of doing their jobs. Luckily not much changed for me in that regard. I’ve been lucky to work from home for over four years now, which has been one of the best things for my mental health!

It’s not for everyone and it proved especially challenging for certain professions (like teachers) this year, but I’m glad more people got a taste of what it’s like. No dealing with traffic or commuting; you get to work in comfy clothes all day; there’s more time to sleep in (or to get a good workout in before the day starts); and you get more time with family and pets.

I spent extra time in my backyard soaking up the sun with my pups, and bought even more comfy “work clothes” in solidarity with all the other WFH peeps.

Paying Off Student Loans

I didn’t really accomplish much this year in terms of life goals. Did I stick to an exercise routine? No. Did I lose any weight? Definitely not. Did I read a book a month like I always say I’m going to do? Nope. However, one thing I did do was pay off my student loans! We like to live as debt free as possible (other than our house loans), so it was a good feeling to knock off that big ticket item after so many years.

Now we can take that extra money and put it in the travel fund, right?

Saying Goodbye to Bobby

This is by no means a highlight, but it affected me deeply and it wouldn’t be a proper 2020 recap without remembering our boy. One of the hardest things we had to work through this year was losing Bobby, our cat. He was a Siamese who lived 17 long years, and he was the most special cat I ever met.

He was such a sunseeker – always chasing the patches of sunlight that would shine through the window to get a nice warm spot to nap in. I still get teary eyed when I open a can of tuna and he doesn’t come running into the kitchen for a treat. We miss you Bobby boy!

Shows That Inspired Travel

On a lighter note, I was able to find travel inspiration (and a virtual escape) through a few shows this year. Since we couldn’t travel much, or internationally at all, these definitely gave me the necessary feels:

Outlander

This was a much-needed escape from reality that came at the perfect time. I started the series the day after Bobby passed away in May and felt instantly transported to the Scottish Highlands. I haven’t read the books, but the show occupied a lot of my “quarantine” time with many a glass of wine.

Somebody Feed Phil

Somebody Feed Phil is a show that just brings on good old fashioned smiles. Phil Rosenthal (creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) travels to eat, but also for a connection to people and their culture. He’s incredibly goofy but I also find him very genuine. I could just feel the joy he felt when he tasted delicious bites while connecting with locals! That is the embodiment of what I miss about travel.

I even subscribed to PBS Living for a month to watch I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, which was the original version of his show pre-Netflix.

Emily in Paris

Okay so…I’m not saying this is the most quality series you’ll ever watch, but it does give you those Paris feels. It’s also just one of those lighthearted shows to escape with if things in the world got you feeling down.

Book Recap

Every year I like to do a little book recap, but this year, it’s a pretty sad section. I’m embarrassed to say I only read three books this year! It was just so hard for me to focus on certain things. I probably spent too much time playing video games (hello Animal Crossing!).

Here’s what I read:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I really hope to improve this year (I mean, it should be easy to beat three books right?). I even joined Goodreads to keep track of my progress! I’d like to get started on The Witcher books and I have a few travel-related books lined up. I would also like to dive more into learning about food history and culture, and wine!

If you have any book recommendations, drop them below!

What’s in Store for 2021?

I honestly have no idea!

I’m hoping to take a quick trip to Maui this spring to see my family. I hope we can also explore some National Parks that we have within driving distance (there are some pretty great ones in California!). There’s also a taco trail I would like to conquer in a neighboring town.

I’ve also started back up with practicing my language skills with Duolingo. I have studied Japanese since high school, but have also added Spanish, French and Italian.

In terms of the blog, I’ll definitely be focusing on California content for the next year and maybe some other West Coast travel destinations. I would also really like to highlight some of local area foodie scenes. Restaurants have struggled a great deal this year, and I’d love to be able to help bring business to them to keep them going.

Here’s to a better year ahead…

If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking around and reading my travel articles. I wish you all a safe, healthy and happy 2021, and hope that you all can find some positivity in the new year.

2020 Year In Review: Finding Sunshine in a Year of Darkness