Well, I might as well post our last Hawaii trip roundup as we are delayed getting back to Alaska from all our holiday family time and I need a distraction from that stress … Anyway, our last stop in Hawaii was the Big Island with a triple purpose of bagging another state high point, exploring…
Maui was our first stop on our November Hawaii tour … and sadly, we only planned 2.5 days there. People come to Maui for the balmy ocean air, stupidly perfect sunsets and dancing palm trees. And we did that. But our main Maui purpose included none of that. Marking our 56th National Park, we were…
I gave fair warning that I’d be posting all about our first-ever trip to Hawaii in several posts!!! So here goes the first one. And a second warning: it’s long and I am sharing a gazillion pictures. As I said, Justin’s mom instigated the trip, saying she wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday in Hawaii…
Currently living/working: We spent the first half of November in Alaska, and the second half in Hawaii! We purposely stacked our work projects so that our time in Hawaii would be 90% blissfully free of any work. And when we hit the eject button from Alaska on 11/16, we stuffed away our puffies and long…
My trail/travel memoir, Between Each Step: A Married Couple’s Thru Hike on New Zealand’s Te Araroa, took a full lap around the sun! It’s a small pebble of a detail, but I’ve sold 293 books directly from my website and 718 from Amazon/Ingram. You guys, that’s almost 1000 books in my first year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cue incredulous…
You read that correctly: we now own a yurt! Even though we no longer live on the road, we will always be a bit feral. All this to say, our version of “settling down” fits a life less ordinary, which is why we now own a cabin AND a yurt in Healy, Alaska! We purchased…
Currently living/working: Alaska! Work-wise, our multiple income streams have slowed, but we squirreled away paychecks knowing this. We have tons of Backpacker work due in November, and are also working on the seasonal list of top 50 forthcoming products for Outside Business Journal through December. We are also still cleaning airbnbs occasionally. But overall, we’ve…
Justin & I have been married for 15 years. 15 years??? Holy cannoli. It feels like a milestone, so I thought I’d do a little unpacking of the arc of our relationship. I warned you I’m very reflective in my 40s! As most couples, we started our years wrapped in a blanket of bliss, living…
Geographically speaking, Alaska beats any part of the Lower 48. With only so many roads connecting Alaska, the attempt to see it all seems futile. We obviously hope to get to a few far-reaching corners during our lifetime, but we’ve probably only covered 6.4 percent of the state so far! This is why we were…
Guess who wrote this blog post??? JUSTIN! For my 45th birthday, I thought I would write about one the biggest influences in my life … MUSIC! I estimate that I’ve seen around 400 live concerts, with a few bands multiple times. Music is a way for me to escape, to celebrate with friends, to bring people…
Currently living/working: As predicted, we’ve had a bit more time now that our summer gigs (e.g. Justin guiding, Patrice cleaning) mostly wrapped up mid month. I say a “bit” more time because it doesn’t feel like enough yet! I’m still putting the finishing touches on the Leave No Trace curriculum project and UCO history book…
I have a lot of blog posts backlogged, and I’m hoping to post regularly and catch up in the next few weeks!! Let’s start with the fact that we checked off another national park: Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska. Quick note: Some might remember we have a goal of visiting all the national parks,…
Currently living/working: It’s been full-on gangbusters still this month, but summer tourists are dwindling down, which means we both SHOULD have more time in September without our seasonal jobs. Plus, I’m putting the finishing touches on the Leave No Trace curriculum project and UCO history book project, wrapping up my biggest freelance projects soon. Maybe…
43 Augusts ago, I came into this world. My parents said I came out screaming and feisty, which is not unlike me at 43. I am spunky and my indoor voice is around 100 decibels. But I digress. I’ve done a lot of reflecting in the past few years. Way more than I ever have.…
Currently living/working: We’re still maintaining a dizzying schedule of guiding (Justin), cleaning toilets/outhouses (mainly me) and tons of freelance content creation project (mainly me). This is all part of the Alaska norm—work a harried summer schedule, get ALL the outdoor projects done before the snow hits, and spend as much time outside playing as possible,…
Big news folks … We closed the “van life” chapter of our life, as we sold our 2010 Roadtrek!!!! It was a bittersweet decision, but since we actually spent most of the last 2 years in one domicile in Alaska, it felt like we were moving further away from the “part-time van life nomad” and…
My last grandparent, Nana as we all called her, passed away Saturday, just 5 days short of her 95th birthday. She spent her last years in decline, but she was still pretty sharp until the end. And I have to say she set quite the example for all of her family during the other 90-something…
Currently living/working: We are still spinning A LOT of plates at once. Still cleaning 5 Airbnbs, Justin is still guiding for Traverse Alaska, and then we still have all that freelance work—the Leave No Trace curriculum project, my UCO history book project, my book marketing, our Backpacker and Outside Business Journal work, my Alaska Magazine…
How many of you thought “dipnetting” had something to do with chewing tobacco? As with so many Alaskan things, you probably wouldn’t know the term unless you live or visit here frequently. Dipnetting is a type of fishing. Available to Alaska residents only, you use a large diameter net to dip into a river and…
If we could have predicted anyone who would come to visit us in Alaska, it would be Justin’s sister and her wife! So it’s no surprise that Jamie & Rachel officially kicked off our summer as our first visitors. These two are natural adventure travelers and really didn’t need us to “guide” them, as…