2019 Travel Recap

I got to travel a lot this year. I am really lucky. In an effort to be better at keeping track of our trips, I thought I'd start doing a yearly recap of everywhere we went. To remember all of this, I used a combination of my Google Maps Timeline, my Google Calendar, and my Google Photos (yes, I use a lot of Google products) to put together this list. I have location tagging enabled on my photos and I also have the timeline turned on for Maps - please don't @ me concerning privacy. I'm in the generation where that was all lost a long, long time ago, and I like having the external memory of my phone keeping track of where I've been. It comes in really handy.

The places listed here are all at least an hour drive from our house. I went back and forth on whether to include trips that didn't involve overnights (like going to Lexington) but I kept them in.

January

• Dec 16 2018 - January 12: We went to Hawaii for Christmas, and did long layover/stopovers in San Diego and Los Angeles and Seattle on the way to and from the islands to visit with friends in those places. We went to Maui with my dad and Eric's mom for about a week and a half, then they went back to their homes and we went to the Big Island. It was awesome. We saw so many beautiful places and interesting wildlife and I would go back every year if it weren't so darn far away from the Midwest (it's a full day or more of travel in each direction).
• Jan 22 - 26: I went to Ann Arbor, MI, to spend time with one of my best friends, Courtney, before the arrival of her baby. We got to hang out just us for the first time in years!
• Jan 26 - 27: On the way back from Ann Arbor, I went to Fort Wayne, IN, where I got to spend the night with another of my best friends, Ali, at Pokagon State Park. We went on the toboggan and stayed in a little cabin and sat by a firepit in the snow. Winter magic. On the way back from that, I also got to stop back in Fort Wayne to see my friends D, Dan, and Becca.

February

• Feb 5: We went to Lexington, KY, for a UK basketball game and to see Eric's dad.
• Feb 6 - 8: School started back up, so I went to DePauw for the night, followed by a night in Bloomington. This was my last semester working at DePauw (it's a little bit crazy to work 2.5-3 hours away from where you live), but I relished the time I got to spend on campus in the evenings, as well as continuing to have Thursday evenings in Bloomington to see my running friends and best friends from the IU program. I also got to stop and see my parents for lunch on my way home from these trips. I miss this a lot.
• Feb 13 - 14: The shortest DePauw trip I made, since it was Valentine's Day and I wanted to get back home to celebrate with Eric.
• Feb 15 - 18: We drove to Sandusky to celebrate Christmas and Eric's birthday with Eric's mom. It was snowy and the roads were bad coming back - we try not to drive north in the winter because neither of our cars have 4WD and we don't like driving in ice and snow in any case.

March

• Mar 8: We went to Columbus, OH, to celebrate Eric's sister's birthday.
• Mar 13 - 15: I did my every-other-week DePauw and Bloomington trip for class. I only went once in February as a result of the polar vortex that impacted one week, and the other week I was quite sick. It was nice to be back on campus.
• Mar 16 - 24: Spring Break! We took a trip with our close friends Telesilla and Serge. We went to St Pete Beach, FL, DeLand, FL, and Asheville, NC. Although the weather was not great in St Pete, we had wonderful weather in DeLand and Asheville. We took Telesilla to a mini-Greece in Tarpon Springs and took a boat cruise. We saw manatees and an alligator from our houseboat on a river in DeLand and went swimming at Blue Springs State Park. We had a very cool 2 bedroom hotel with hot tub and view of the mountains in Asheville and could walk to Hi-Wire Brewing. It was a great trip. (Also, it was a surprise destination for Telesilla - we told her we were going to Canada for break.)
• Mar 29 - 31: We turned around and went right back to the Smokey Mountains to camp and hike with our friends D and Dan. We stayed at the campground near Cherokee. It started off nice, but the weather quickly turned and we got rain that then turned to snow! Eric and I came back a couple days earlier than planned due to the weather. The mountains are never boring.

April

• Apr 3 - 5: My next DePauw and Bloomington trip.
• Apr 7: Our twice-yearly trip to Keeneland. We try to go to the horse races once in the spring and the fall meets. We got lucky with the weather on this visit and it was beautiful.
• Apr 10 - 12: Back to back DePauw trips since it was nearing the end of the semester.
• Apr 20 - 22: We drove up to Sandusky again for Easter celebrations with Eric's family. On the way back, we stopped at Mohican State Park for a lovely Earth Day hike.
• Apr 24 - 26: Almost my last DePauw trip.

May

• May 8 - 10: My very last DePauw trip during the normal semester. Eric came with me, as we were having a going-away party in my department. It was an emotional day. It was also the celebration for my seniors who finished their senior projects, so it was quite the mix of highs and lows! I tried to take in every second.
• May 16 - 19: I went back to Bloomington with our friend Alisa and her baby, who were visiting from Boston, to spend time with them and Telesilla. I also got to go to Indianapolis to spend the night with our friends Brian and Chelsea, before heading back to DePauw for graduation. Another emotional day.
• May 20 - 24: Eric and I flew back to St Pete Beach, FL, to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary (which is on May 22). We had the complete opposite of the weather from our spring break trip - it was perfectly sunny and hot the whole week (almost too hot to enjoy). We had a really lovely relaxing week laying on the beach and going back to our favorite breweries in town.
• May 31 - June 1: I met Ali in Madison, IN, to explore the town and camp/hike at Clifty Fall State Park. We packed a lot into one evening and morning and had a great time on our hikes and wanderings around town for ice cream and drinks. We had a crazy cool Tatooine sunset thanks to the smoke from the fires out west, and an equally nice sunrise the next morning. (Ali then came back to Cincinnati for the night and we took her to Bircus, which was an extremely good decision.)

June

• June 5: I went to Nashville, IN, for the afternoon to have lunch with my mom, dad, and several aunts and uncles.
• June 15: We drove to Bloomington to celebrate the marriage of our friends Jeremy and Kim from my running group. We had a group wedding run through campus and it was so fun to celebrate with everyone. We got an Airbnb with Brian and Chelsea for the night, but not just any Airbnb - it was one of the Lil' Bub-branded ones, and was pretty cool.
• June 16: We drove up to Indianapolis to spend another night with Brian and Chelsea ahead of our flight to Greece (it was much cheaper to fly out of IND than CVG!).
• June 17 - July 1: We went to Greece with Telesilla and Serge! It was Eric's first time across the pond (and first time out of the country except for Canada). I feel like it was definitely an adventure - sometimes good, sometimes bad. It was certainly interesting. We went to Serifos island, Sifnos island, and spend one night in Athens.

July

• July 10 - 23: We had two friends' weddings on back-to-back weekends out west, so we decided to make a trip of it. We drove to Denver, CO, stopping to see Brian and Chelsea in Indianapolis, IN, and Kyle and Lindsay and their kids in Manhattan, KS, along the way. Then we flew to San Francisco from Denver for Tricia and Hammish's wedding in Half Moon Bay (we got to spend time with Telesilla, Serge, and Stella, and also saw another friend Christine in SF). Then it was back to Denver for Bryan and Beth's wedding, where we got to spend the week with our friend Gloria in Boulder (and also saw my friends Katie and Amrita), before driving back, taking a small detour to swing up to Chicago to see my brother and our friend John. 
• July 28: I went to my parents' house in Columbus, IN, to welcome my brother home.
• July 29: I went to Lebanon, OH, for Amanda and Stephen's wedding reception.
• July 31: I went back to Columbus to celebrate my grandpa's birthday and to be on a Columbus East High School girls' soccer panel.

August

• Aug 3 - 11: We celebrated Eric's sister's graduation from her PhD program with a trip to Traverse City, MI. First up was Columbus, OH, for her graduation, then up to Sandusky for a night, then to Traverse City for the week. We had pretty great weather and enjoyed lots of cherries and walks on the mile-long beach in front of our condo. We also visited Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Cherry Republic main location in Glen Arbor.
• Aug 12 - 13: We had our department retreat at Hueston Woods.
• Aug 23: I spent the day with my brother hiking and canoeing at Versailles State Park in Indiana, ending with a trip to the winery in Batesville.
• Aug 28 - 29: I went to Indianapolis for my fantasy football live draft with some of my high school friends. We've been playing since 2006 and it's a lot of fun.

September

• I didn't go more than 10 miles away from our house in September, but we did have lots of friends and family come to visit us this month, and we enjoyed the Labor Day fireworks with friends in Mt Adams.

October

• Oct 4 - 6: I flew to LA to join my best friend Ali on some of her travels. We stayed in her little camper (the Scamp) out in San Dimas and drove into LA to hang out with so many friends that weekend, lay on the beach, wander around, and soak up the sunshine and Southern California. It was awesome.
• Oct 9 - 12: I went right back out west to join Ali again during our Fall Reading Days (no classes). We stayed in and hiked Lost Dutchman State Park near Phoenix, then drove the scenic route up to the Sedona area. To us, it felt like a completely magical weekend - everything kept working out and we had a great time. It was awesome. 
• Oct 13: We went down to Lexington for the horse races at Keeneland.
• Oct 20: I explored Yellow Springs, OH, a bit (this almost doesn't count for an hour+ away) and went hiking at Clifton Gorge.
• Oct 26 - 27: We went to Bloomington for Brian and Chelsea's Halloween party and surprised lots of friends.

November

• Nov 8: We went to Lexington for a UK basketball game.
• Nov 9 - 10: We went to Granville, OH, for our friends Mike and Lauran's wedding, and also stopped in Columbus to visit with Eric's mom and sister.
• Nov 15 - 17: I went to DC for my annual Monon Reunion Weekend with two of my roommates, Mary and Melissa. We even got the bell back - it was a great weekend!
• Nov 18: We went to Lexington for a UK basketball game.

 

December

• Dec 7 - 8: We started our holiday road trip. The first stop was at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, where we met up with one of my best friends, Amanda, and her husband Jarrod for some cave tours. It was really cool. We also went over to Glasgow, KY, and accidentally found a Christmas parade going on (in the cold).
• Dec 8 - 15: We drove from KY down to New Orleans. I participated in a NASA Social event where I got to see the finished core stage of the SLS rocket, toured where they make the engines for rockets, went onboard Pegasus (the barge that transports the rockets to the test facility), toured the B Test Stand at Stennis Space Center where they test the rockets, and generally nerded out. Then we spend several days hanging out in New Orleans. Mike and Lauran joined us over the weekend which was fun. We ate a lot of food.
• Dec 15 - 25: The original plan was to go park ourselves on a beach for a week or two and relax. Instead, the weather said it was going to be in the 60s and cloudy/rainy for most of Florida for the foreseeable future, which is not particularly nice for beach days, so we did a tour of the south/southeast instead. We got 5 more state capitols (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina), saw my cousin and her family in Tallahassee, saw the Boeing Starliner rocket launch (!!!) and met up with friends in Titusville, saw Savannah at Christmastime, visited my aunt and uncle in Myrtle Beach, and spent a couple of days in Asheville before coming back home and seeing some parents on the way back. Oh, we tried 120 beers on this trip (18 days). So really it was mostly a brewery, state capitol, and space tour.

We also had tons of friends and family visit us many times here in Cincinnati. It was a great year of travel and seeing people. Everyone please come visit again soon.

Countries: 2 (USA, Greece)
States: 20 + DC (Hawaii, Washington, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas, Colorado, California, Illinois, Arizona, Maryland, DC, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina)
State Capitols: 7 (Indiana, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina)
Breweries: 81, if I counted correctly. Untappd thinks we checked in 681 beers between Jan 1, 2019 and Dec 31, 2019.
National Parks: 2 (Great Smoky Mountain, Mammoth Cave)