Continuing the Celebration of Traveling for 1 Year

I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos and videos from our first 6 months of traveling. As we continue the celebration of traveling for 1 year, and 1 year of my blog, I am going to now share the last 6 months of travel! Our first 6 months, for the most part, was dedicated to spending time with family, friends, and seeing some amazing National Parks. The last 6 months is where we really started to visit areas that we would actually be considering for our forever home. Oh, and we also found a way to fit in an amazing vacation to Thailand as well! Enjoy some photos from our last 6 months, including Washington, Oregon, Thailand, Charleston, Savannah, Nashville, Colorado, a New England tour, and the beginning of North Carolina!

Before heading to the west coast, I was fortunate to be able to spend some time with some amazing friends running a 5k, having dinner and drinks, and having a Barbie birthday party with my cousin’s adorable daughter, Layla.

Washington

After some much needed quality time with family and friends, we flew to the west coast again! First stop, Seattle, Washington where we got outside as much as the weather would allow, enjoyed lots of coffee and beer, and did quite a few foodie tours!

After 2 weeks in Seattle, we took a 3 hour drive to Portland, Oregon to another rainy city, with a whole different level of uniqueness! We got outside to hike a lot more in Portland, but also enjoyed it’s weirdness, made our way to the coast, and did a lot of other great things!

So many awesome places to hike like Ecola State Park, Multnomah falls, Forest Park and more!

Indian Beach on the Oregon Coast

Multnomah Falls from above

Sushi arrival on a train!

Thailand

From Portland, we drove back to Seattle to get our flight for a 2 and half week vacation in Thailand! We bounced all over the place, starting in Koh Phangan for the full moon festival, Koh Tao for the Thai New Year, Songkran, Krabi for Koh Phi Phi and Railay Beach, then headed up to the North for Chiang Mai, finishing in Bangkok. What a trip it was!

Koh Phangan

Koh Tao

From Koh Phangan, we got on the ferry to Koh Tao for a few nights to relax…so we thought! Little did we know, Thailand was celebrating their New Year, which is called Songkran. This is an all-day water festival where people spray you with hoses, squirt guns and water bottles or simply dump a bucket on you! So much fun! We also had a great snorkel excursion that went all over the island.

Krabi

After the fun on the south east side, we got on a long ferry and a bus ride to Krabi town, where we stayed for 1 night.  We hiked the Tiger Temple and visited the night market there. In the morning we headed to Koh Phi Phi for one night, where we got to see Maya Bay, the Phi Phi Clinic when I got sick, and a beach party at night! In the morning, we set sail for the mainland again, where we had 2 super relaxing days on Railay Beach.

Chiang Mai

On our last day on Railay, we took a longboat ride back to the main area where we got a taxi to the airport. Off to Chiang Mai for food, culture, temples, cooking classes, shopping and elephants! Our resort was the best place we stayed the whole trip, the Corner Spa. What a relaxing, beautiful place!

Bangkok

Since our flight was out of Bangkok, we spent 2 nights here to explore a bit more, including Temples, Khoa San Road, markets and delicious food!

Northern, Washington

We returned to Seattle, and headed north, so we could see a different part of Washington, go on an Orca Whale Watch and see the Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon. We also headed West of Seattle to Port Orchard, where we did a lot of hiking, and exploring in Olympic National Park

Orca Whale watch with Orcas Island Eclipse Charters

Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, WA

Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA

After we finished up on the West Coast, we made it all the way back to the East Coast to visit Charleston, SC. While we were there, we soaked up a lot of civil war history, saw Fort Sumter, admired the old buildings and took a day trip to Savannah!

Nashville, Tennessee

Colorado

We decided to spend at least 1 month in Colorado, and ended up making it almost 6 weeks! I am not caught up on my writing, but you will be seeing a Colorado post very soon! Colorado in June was beautiful! Dry, warm, sometimes hot, cool nights, no bugs. PERFECTION! While we were here we saw Disco Biscuits at Red Rocks, hiked in the Rockies, went to a beer festival in Fort Collins, Rockies baseball game, saw Breckenridge, Grand Junction, Moab, Utah, Colorado Springs and more!

Aurora/Denver, CO

When Tiago went home to CT for a few days,  I took a daring solo drive to the peak of Mount Evans! I got to use my National Park pass which was awesome, got super dizzy walking around the top, and even almost had a mountain goat head butt my rental car!

Boulder, CO

In Boulder we explored the Pearl Street Mall and hiked the irons in Chautauqua Park.

Breckenridge, CO

We took lots of day trips while we were in Colorado, but once we left Aurora, we did a week long whirlwind tour around the state, starting in Breckenridge. We loved exploring this ski town in the summer! It was great getting out on a bike, drinking beer, and taking a free gondola ride!

Grand Junction, CO/ Moab, UT

From Breckenridge, we set out for Grand Junction, which was our place to stay while we explored Colorado National Monument and Arches National Park in Moab, UT on the 4^th of July.

 

 

Colorado Springs, CO

From Moab, we had a debacle in Durango, where our host was no where to be found, so we went to Farmington, NM for the night. From there we headed to Colorado Springs, where we got to see Pikes Peak, Garden of the Gods, and Manitou Springs.

New England Tour

From Colorado Springs, we made our way back to Denver to fly home for the summer. While we were home, we spent time with my husband’s family in Cape Cod, where we ventured to Province Town and Race Point, and the National Seashore. We then headed up to Vermont where we explored Burlington for our anniversary, Woodstock, and Stowe. Then we headed to Conway New Hampshire for a few days to hike, then home for Lady Gaga!

Home in MA and CT

Vermont

One more stop home for family time, Lady Gaga and LOBSTAH!

Philadelphia

Before we headed south to North Carolina, we made a pit-stop in Philly to visit Tiago’s cousin and his girlfriend. We had a fun night out, and took pictures of some cool street art. The bagels the next morning hit the spot for our 7 hour drive to Durham, NC the next day.

North Carolina

This will just be the beginning of North Carolina as we will be here until mid-October! Our first stop was in Durham, NC where we were able to explore Raleigh and Chapel Hill as well! Some great sites were the Museum of Natural Sciences, American Tobacco Campus, and downtown Chapel Hill. We are currently in Charlotte and cannot wait to write all about it!

If you are still hanging in there, that is a wrap! That is the first 12 months in a nutshell post of pictures and videos! You might be thinking “what’s next?” We have no immediate plans to stop traveling, but we hope to have our “forever home” picked out within the next 3-4 weeks or so. This has been an incredible journey, but we won’t be giving up on traveling! As you could see with this post, there is a LOT more to write about, so don’t you worry! Lots more content coming your way soon!

 

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