So most of you know, I did a ton of travel last year.  Such amazing experiences.  I haven’t really documented much of it.  So I thought I’d share some of my experiences here.

Melbourne Australia

Melbourne was … amazing.  Never have I found a city that reminded me so much of Seattle.  The people were truly genuine.  So welcoming.  The amount of random conversations I got into with random Aussies about all manner of things.  Culture, the world, religion, life, food, love.

Something I enjoy doing when I travel is getting up early, hunting down a good cup of coffee and then finding a spot to sit and people watch.  You can learn so much about a place when you watch the way their locals wake up.  One morning, as I was fighting jet lag, I watched two vans pull up outside the hotel.  It was dark.  They were pulling trailers behind them.

  The trailers were hot air balloon baskets.  I watched as they passed out coffee to the sleepy tourists, making jokes and spreading their jovial moods around.  Wandered a bit more around the city.  Then came back to my room.  I opened the curtains, and look what I saw…

There floating above the waking city, with the sun coming up were those hot air balloons.  So beautiful. So calm and peaceful.  What a breathtaking way to wake up.

The architecture in Melbourne was just amazing to me.  An odd mix of modern meets vintage.  And street art everywhere.  The creativity of some of the artists was astounding.  I couldn’t get enough pictures, I couldn’t seem to capture enough of it.  I wanted to somehow package it all up in my mind and heart and bring elements home with me.

And the farmer’s market… OMG.  I think I could have spent DAYS and DAYS there exploring and tasting and talking to people.  Why do we as an American culture not establish and encourage more of this type of thing is beyond me.  Look at the Hawker cultures in asia.  Some of the best food you can eat in Asia is going to come from hawker stands right off the street.

Hawaii, USA

Can I just say that going through some of my pictures from Hawaii this morning, I’d like nothing more than to blink my eyes and magically appear back on the islands.  I don’t always like hot and humid weather, but for this place, I didn’t mind.  It was just so beautiful.  The fresh fruit, the sea breeze, the salt and sand.  Everyone is more laid back on the islands.  If they feel like closing up shop to go surfing, they do it.  How businesses make consistent money is beyond me, but I can certainly get behind the Work to Live mentality rather than the Live to Work one that we seem to embrace here on the mainland.

Here’s a few of my favorites.  We did a little island hopping.  So you’ll see lush greenery with waterfalls, along with the barren volcano and more. 🙂 Enjoy!

 

This year, I hope to do more travel.  I want to see Asia.  I want to see Fiji.  I want to see Mexico, as I haven’t been.

I want to see the world.  See Scotland and Ireland and have a Guinness in a pub.  Watch the sands blow over the pyramids in Egypt and smell the spices that linger in the air in Morocco.  I suppose you could say that I’ve caught the bug.  I think I caught it as a child, when my grandparents took me to spend a month in England visiting family.  I knew then that I wanted to see the world.  That although I love Seattle, and get recharged from being home, that I would never be content to just stay in my own little world and culture and not experience more.  If you could go anywhere this year…where would you go?