Is it Safe to Travel?

June 7, 2017

In a world where terror attacks are becoming all too regular, where a tiny percentage of humans on this planet want nothing more than to hurt others, when cities are terrorized all over the world by the cowardliness of a few, many often wonder, is it to safe to travel? Is it safe to go to London or Manchester or Paris or Germany? Is is safe to head off on that amazing adventure you’ve always dreamed of to those places that might or might not have terror attacks on their soil? Is is safe to leave our homes, to travel farther beyond our borders? The answer is a resounding yes. And beyond that, I firmly and whole heartedly believe it is our duty.

You see here’s the thing, if we fall back and stay home, if we change our lives to be “safer,” to hide behind the walls of our own houses and cities that might not have been affected yet, we’re giving the terrorists exactly what they want. They want the fear. You see, in their crazy minds and their cowardly hearts, they think we think like they do. They think that they will scare us so much that we’ll coward in fear, that we’ll change our lives because of them. We need to do the opposite. We need to rise up and say no. We need to travel, see the world and visit all these places that they’ve tried desperately to sow fear. We can’t give them what they want and that is first and foremost why I will continue to travel even in the wake of all these horrific events.

As to the question is it actually “safe” to travel, we have to remember that while the risk is getting higher in some places around the world, the world is still a safe place to travel and see. The world is still full of beautiful and kind people, it’s still full of cities that are standing up to all the terror and protecting us from it. So if you’re asking yourself if it’s still safe to travel, the answer is a resounding yes.

We can’t live our lives wondering what will happen to us, we can’t live our lives wondering what will do us in. We can’t create a world of fear of what might happen, we must run face first into the future, expelling more love and kindness in the face of hate. We must rise up and do what we can to fight against the cowardliness of attacks around the globe. We must find the strength and courage that they surely don’t have, to say no, we won’t stop living our lives, we won’t bow down to your crazy ideology, and we surely won’t let you take our world away from us.

So is it safe to travel? The short answer is yes. And while you should always use caution, no matter where you go, the moral of the story to anyone contemplating a trip out there, GO! I’ll still be heading to London later this month regardless of what occurred this past week in Britain. I’ll still be heading to the South of France later this month regardless of what happened in Nice last Summer. And the reason? Because I will not let the terrorists win, I won’t let them take away something that unites us all, that teaches us about each other, that allows us to see the world we live in. I won’t let hate win.

5 Reasons I Make Time to Travel

June 6, 2017

As my life gets busier, it’s becoming increasingly hard to travel as frequently as I’d like. And while I know I still travel a lot more than the average, it’s still something that no matter how hard it gets to find the time, I make time for it because what travel brings to my life goes beyond what I would have without it. Nick and I have had perhaps the craziest and busiest few months recently than we ever have, between insane work hours and responsibilities, family dramas and just general life stuff, we’ve found ourselves completely exhausted, both physically and emotionally. And during those crazy times, it was travels on the horizon that kept me sane. Travel for me is spiritual, it’s a mental escape from daily life that I often find I need at various points throughout the year. And while travel is amazing for all sorts of reasons, these 5 reasons I make time to travel still ring true even as my life gets busier and busier. Even though it’s time and money that sometimes seems frivolous, travel is still what makes my life whole day after day and here’s why.

1. It makes me more creative.

Being in a creative field, I’m constantly being asked to come up with new ideas. When you’re in the thick of the craziness and you’re being asked to come up with one more creative idea, I draw on my travels for inspiration. Travel, beyond anything else, is a constant source of creativity for me that is often hard to pull out of daily life.

2. It’s an education.

I truly believe that as we age, we must keep learning. We must keep looking for new information and educating ourselves however we can. Travel is an education, in a way that nothing else can quite teach you. Travel will open your eyes and make you look at the world completely differently than you ever have before.

3. It’s a stress reliever.

For me personally, travel is a huge stress reliever. Once I’m on that airplane headed somewhere far away, suddenly my whole outlook changes. Whatever stress I have going on in my daily life, suddenly when I’m wandering the streets of Paris or driving through the stunning countryside of Iceland, everything else just melts away.

4. It makes us look at things we miss in everyday life.

In daily life, we often don’t have time to stop and really take in what’s around us like we should. We’re busy trying to make a living, work everything into not enough time in the day and we don’t spend the time really taking in everything. Travel allows us the time and flexibility to really take in the world around us, to really see what’s in front of us and that makes our bodies and minds slow down and be healthier emotionally.

5. It makes me a better person.

Travel, no doubt, makes me a better person. With every trip, big or small, I come home with a new perspective, a new lesson learned, a new way of looking at things around me. Seeing the world will forever change you, for the better.

City of Freedoms

June 5, 2017

I originally had another post scheduled for today, pre-scheduled knowing that I’d be busy coming home from our trip to Yellowstone. But then, in the middle of our trip, my city became national news. And if you haven’t heard, a week or so ago a white supremacist man was on the light rail commuter train in East Portland at rush hour. He began being verbally abusive and saying racist comments at two young girls on the train, one black, one Muslim. And apparently in the span of just a few minutes, three men tried to come to the aid of the girls being abused and two of them were killed, the third injured in a knife attack by the abusive man. In the span of a few moments, two lives were lost, fear was spread and hate held a knife.

When I woke up the next morning at our hotel on the road and saw the story, I was immediately stunned. For those of you haven’t been to my home city of Portland, we pride ourselves there on being very open-minded and welcoming – whoever you want to be, however you want to look, whoever you want to love – we don’t care, we embrace it. In fact, Portland is a haven for free thinking, for acceptance. So this… this was beyond our reason, so unlike Portland that it broke my heart.

I’ve lived in Portland almost 12 years now and in that time, I have come to fall so deeply in love with the spirit of the city of roses, a place I really pride myself on being from, a place that it doesn’t matter what God you pray to, what color your skin is, who you choose to love or what you want to do with your life. Portland is a city of freedoms, a city of love. So when this event that was plastered on TV’s across the country happened, I couldn’t help but feel a deep grief for my city. As many people have been saying, only in Portland would two people give up their lives to help others in need. That, while incredibly sad and horrific, is the silver lining in all of this hate. My city, my fellow citizens, stood up for those that needed it. They spent their last moments on this planet protecting two girls that needed it and that, I guess, is a poetic fight against hate. Those heroes chose love, they chose courage.

This whole event has been weighing on my mind every day since it happened over a week ago. And there have been many moments that I find myself just completely drained from all the hate in this world we call home. It hits me in quiet moments when I look around, when I see the news headlines, when I see such horrific events happening all of the world. And sometimes it really does seem like too much, sometimes it feels like there is nothing we can do. I often feel powerless, hopeless against the deluge of hate and ignorance that floods our world. But then in the still moments, I look at the incredible landscapes on this planet we call home, I look at the people around us that are willing to sacrifice themselves to stand up for someone else. I look at the good, at the kind, at the awe-inspiring. I look a little deeper beyond the surface and I realize that what the world really needs, what we all need, is more love, more kindness, more empathy.

I often wonder if some of these people that cause so much heartache in the world around them, if they had somewhere along the way had been shown more love, if someone had taught them to love instead of hate, would the world be different? If we stopped looking at how different we are and just acknowledged each other for how similar we are, could we help save ourselves? If we all stopped for just one day and were just kind to everyone we encountered – would it help? I honestly don’t know. The problems we face, the hate that is out there floating around in the world, it’s all so complicated and rooted so deeply. I guess the only thing I know for sure is that with a little more love put out into the world, what can it hurt?

So today, tomorrow, a week from now, a year from now, I beg of you, please be kind, please promote love over hate, stand up for acceptance over bigotry, and I hope like those heroes who stood up to hate in Portland and lost their lives, may we all have the courage to stand up when hate is rearing its ugly head. May we all have the courage that Portland showed, may we all be as brave as the city of freedoms that I call home.

Behind the Traveler : Take the Good with the Bad

June 2, 2017

While we’re on our road trip to Yellowstone this week, I thought it was the perfect time for a series I’ve been wanting to do for a long time! I get asked a lot of questions, by people in my personal life and by followers of Land of Marvels, about how I’ve managed to work full time and travel as much as I do. And while I do share a lot on Land of Marvels, sometimes some of the back story is left out. So all this week, I’m answering some of the topics that I get asked a lot and topics from behind the scenes in my life of how you might be able to travel frequently as well. All week, I’m sharing some of my tips and tricks to how I travel so much and some behind the scenes info as well!

One thing that I think is a big misconception about my life and all those other bloggers out there that just share part of their lives online is that everything is amazing all the time, that our houses are always beautiful and our travel always perfect and our relationships immaculate. Well guess what? They’re not any of those above.

Part of traveling a lot means there is a lot more time than not spent working long hours at my computer to make the money I need to live the life I want. It often means sacrificing things that aren’t as important as my love for travel. It means working crazy hard for my firm in Hawaii, often on super crazy short deadlines. It means hustling in my own business and making my clients happy and doing everything for a project myself, even when I’m figuring it out along the way. It means teaching my students in a few classes a term and being available to them, even when I don’t really have the time to do it. It means taking the good with the bad in my daily life to be able to live the life I really want.

And even when we travel, that doesn’t mean that every trip is perfect. In fact, I try really hard here on Land of Marvels to be honest about our negative experiences too, even when people think I’m crazy for not liking Santorini or being critical of nice hotels.

The lesson is this: life isn’t perfect, and neither is travel. But that’s the beauty of both too. Without the less than amazing experiences, we wouldn’t have the feeling of true happiness and joy when the amazing ones come along. In short, just know that my life is far from perfect and so are my travels but that doesn’t make them any less amazing. We must always learn to take the good with the bad and do the best we can in any circumstance that arises. Being able to do that, will ensure that while your life may not always be perfect but in the end, it’s still a beautiful life.

Behind the Traveler : Live How You Want

June 1, 2017

In my daily life, I get a lot of comments from people scoffing at how much we travel and how busy we are. And in truth, I never understand it. We are crazy busy and still travel a ton, yes. But we also enjoy it and work really hard to make it happen, so when people don’t understand or make comments about it, I’ve come to realize that one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned is that no matter what anyone thinks, we all should live the life we really want.

I want to travel. And if someone doesn’t understand that or it’s different than what they want, who cares?

At the end of the day, I think we all need to be more open minded to each other and to how we each want to live. I don’t personally want kids, but that doesn’t mean I scoff at friends of mine who do. It doesn’t mean that I want their life or that they want mine. Live how you want and work as hard as you can to get to the life that means the most to you. If you want kids, great. If you want to travel, great. If you want to work like crazy to advance your career, great. No matter what each of us wants, it doesn’t matter in the least what anyone else thinks as long as you’re following your heart and working hard to make it happen.

So if you’re struggling with trying to fit in and do what you think you should, don’t. Live the way you want to. Make good choices and go after your dreams and don’t look back!

Behind the Traveler : Pick a Priority

May 31, 2017

I know a lot of people wonder how we afford to travel so much or spend money on things like nice hotels and such while we travel, but in truth, other than our income from multiple jobs and working really hard in our careers, we’re also really good about picking priorities both when we travel and when we’re at home to make it a reality.

When we’re home, we actually don’t spend a ton of money on things that other people do. We don’t drink very much so hardly spend any money on alcohol which can really add up. And while we occasionally spend money on our townhouse (hello bathroom remodel we just finished), normally though, not a ton of money is going out on furniture or things like that since we’ve moved. In general, we actually live pretty frugally and below our means so we have extra money to spend on travel.

When traveling, we have specific priorities that we like to spend money on. Everyone is different on this and when we’ve traveled with other people, it becomes very clear just how different everyone is on this. For me personally, as a designer, I like a nice, well designed modern hotel when we travel. It’s just something that I’m more than willing to spend money on (though the majority of the time, I’m either working with a hotel through my blog or I’m booking on points and free hotel stays, but that’s another story). We also really like good food, so that’s another thing we’re willing to spend money on when we travel.

But here’s the thing about priorities, the way to make it work is to pick what to spend money on and then not spending money on other things. For example, we’re not tour people. We don’t spend money on tours. We use public transportation or walk when traveling. We choose what we want to see and don’t spend money on things we don’t care about. In the end, even spending a little more on a hotel or good food equals out with what we’re not spending money on.

The trick to affording travel, in your every day life and when you’re traveling, is to pick a priority. What’s important to you? What’s not? And then go from there!

Behind the Traveler : Money + Points = Magic

May 30, 2017

It’s no secret that travel costs money and sometimes a lot of it. And while we save a ton of money every year for travel (a lot of it coming from multiple sources of income and working multiple jobs), we actually don’t spend nearly as much on travel now as we did when we first started traveling a lot. That might seem weird, considering how much we travel, but in truth, most of our personal trips are booked on points and miles and very little money.

The points and miles world is complicated but if you can master it, it will save you thousands of dollars a year on travel! The first step is figuring out how it works and what personally works for you. Everybody uses points and miles differently, so figuring out what works for you is super important. Personally, I travel a ton for work which is a write off on taxes, so all those flights to Hawaii a year really build up in my Alaska Air miles account. I also spend a ton on credit cards for work since I’m purchasing large amounts of furniture for clients and getting paid back for it, so for me personally, my work is a huge supplement to our points accounts every year. I realize that might not be for everyone, but that’s not to say that you can’t find your own way to accrue a lot of points!

There are basically two ways to utilize points and miles for travel. The first is through actual airline loyalty accounts. We’re loyal to Alaska Air when we travel in the US and we try as best we can to utilize their partner airlines when we travel abroad. We also bank any miles flown outside the US on non-Alaska partners with Delta. By sticking to just 2 airlines for specific purposes you can make sure your miles accounts accrue faster. I’m also elite with Alaska Air because I fly so frequently, so that means that my mileage is basically doubled for every Alaska flight I take which adds up really quickly.

The second way to accrue miles and points is through credit cards. My 2 favorites are the Chase Sapphire card and the Alaska Airlines card (I have the personal and business card). Both are fantastic and both offer unique perks. I’ve done a few posts on that in the past so you can read those if you’re interested. But long story short, this is how I accrue miles really fast. I use these cards for all my business purchases and any travel purchases I make. Knowing the perks of each card is really important and using them regularly will help you accrue miles fast.

In short, we usually book at least half, if not more, of our trips on points and miles and then pay small amounts of cash to supplement any remaining bookings. For example, in July, we’re headed to Provence for five days (at peak travel season) and we spent very minimal money on the whole trip, the majority of it being booked on points and miles. I have a post coming on this trip shortly before we leave in a month, but in short, when you can get a hang of the points and miles game, it’s incredibly beneficial for your wallet!

Behind the Traveler : Working up to Frequent Travel

May 29, 2017

For our first topic this week behind the traveler, one of the things that many people, even in my personal life, don’t realize is that Nick and I didn’t just travel like we do now always. Working up to our schedule of frequent travel has been a process and something we’ve planned out very meticulously over the years to get where we are now. And if you want to travel more frequently like we do, it’s important to know the backstory of how we got here.

We’ve been together almost 12 years and married for almost 7 later this year. In that time together, we started out as normal college kids when we met and didn’t do hardly any traveling together until after we graduated from college. And even then, it was mostly just traveling to see each other since I was in Hawaii and Nick was in Oregon and we did long distance for a couple years. Our first opportunity to start traveling really came after we got married and headed to London and Paris for our honeymoon. It was Nick’s first time in Europe and my first time back there since I had traveled there as a kid. Needless to say, it struck a chord with both of us and we’ve been traveling ever since.

After our honeymoon, we returned to Portland and worked really hard in our jobs to keep saving money for future travel. We knew we wanted to start traveling more, but it definitely didn’t happen overnight. We lived for a long time in a little tiny one bedroom apartment so that we could save money for travel. We passed up on other things in our lives so that we could travel instead. And ultimately we started doing one overseas trip a year for a couple years. Over time, we moved up in our jobs, started making more money and instead of spending it on a bigger apartment or other things, we started traveling more.

Over the years, we ended up on our schedule that we generally stick to now, which is a couple overseas trips a year (sometimes more depending on schedule/events) and smaller USA trips every other month, (sometimes monthly depending on schedule). We’ve been able to work up to a schedule that works for us both financially and for time off of work. But what you don’t always see here on Land of Marvels are the many years that we worked extremely hard to get where we are today and I think that’s often a misconception that should be cleared up. We didn’t get here overnight, it’s taken a lot of time to work up to our schedule of travel and to be able to live a lifestyle we like.

So in the end, if you’re wanting to travel more with a full time job (of multiple jobs like us), it’s definitely possible! But it won’t come overnight and there will be sacrifices along the way. I guess what I would say though is that at the end of the day, the time and sacrifices we’ve made have come back to us ten-fold for what we’ve gained by seeing the world!

Travel Tips : Packing for a Road Trip to Yellowstone

May 25, 2017

We are headed off tomorrow for an epic road trip eventually leading us to Yellowstone National Park! Though we’re also making a number of stops before getting there, like finally seeing the Palouse in Eastern Washington and spending a couple days in Glacier National Park and Kalispell, Montana. This is a much different type of trip for us and I found it difficult to begin packing for it. There are a number of things for this trip that are required that I’m not used to packing or bringing with us and when I started searching online for a packing list for this type of trip, I found it hard to find. So, here is my own list for packing for a road trip to Yellowstone and what you might need!

Outdoor Clothes + Layers

When packing for this trip, the weather was sort of all over the place from place to place. Some were going to be hot in the upper 80’s, some were going to be rainy and in the lower 60’s, so figuring out what clothes to take was tricky. The key? Layers. Even the places that would be warm during the day are cold at night and in the early morning, so layers are the answer. Vests and light coats with hoods were essential in my packing to be sure to meet the requirements for each location.

Be sure to pack clothes that can get dirty as well as hiking boots or shoes that you’re comfortable walking in outdoors. I also made sure to pack a couple hats to keep the sun out of my face when out and about.

Camera gear

Since we’re driving, it’s easier to take a ton of camera gear with us for this trip. Nick is packing specific lenses for what type of trip this is, but he is also renting lenses that he doesn’t have from lensrentals.com. We do this frequently and it’s great to be able to rent anything that might be specific to a trip. Be sure though to handle your equipment carefully and pack it well to travel with.

Binoculars

One thing that kept popping in my research for Yellowstone specifically were to bring binoculars. Apparently to see wildlife, it’s a great thing to have!

Food storage / Cooler

A lot of the stops on this trip might not necessarily have a ton of restaurants or we might be out exploring all day and not near towns or cities, so a cooler or some sort of food storage was necessary for us to bring. We figured out in our itinerary the places where we would stop and buy food for specific things like breakfast or snacks while out and about through the day. While we didn’t have a cooler, we found a great collapsible one on Amazon for only $30 which will be easy to pack up and carry around with us.

Water Bottles

Again, since we’ll be out and about most days, it’s good to take a reusable water bottle to fill up and have with you throughout your time on the road.

Hat + Sunscreen

As I mentioned above in the clothes section, a good hat (or two) is important to block sun out of your face while out and about exploring. Sunscreen is also vital since we might be out hiking for hours on end and you want to protect your skin from the elements. This is my favorite sunscreen!

Blanket to Sit On

I spend a lot of time when traveling waiting for Nick to take photos. And since this trip will be no different and we might not always be near the car or have somewhere to sit, I bought an outdoor blanket that rolls up into a pack with a handle so that I have something to sit on while I wait.

Why Quitting Your Job to Travel Isn’t the Answer

May 24, 2017

As a travel blogger, it feels like everywhere I look people are quitting their jobs to travel the world, leaving behind their homes, their material stuff and selling everything for a grand adventure to travel and see the world. And if you want to do that, that’s totally fine. The problem is, that only really works for a very small percentage of people. The problem is, that often in the travel and blogging industries, that’s offered as a “one size fits all” option and it’s just not. I would also argue, it’s not the answer to your longing to travel the world either or a great long term solution and here’s why.

If you’re already in a professional career, you can’t always take a year or however long off.

I often see people giving everything up and moving overseas or traveling the world for a year and that’s wonderful, if you’re in a position to do it. Most of us in professional careers can’t just do that without major set backs in our careers. For me personally, I would lose a lot of clients if I did that which would hurt me down the road. It’s not always feasible if you’ve already started building your career to take a year or however long off.

Not all businesses, even small businesses that you own yourself, can move anywhere.

I own a small business myself and I work on my own time from home, but I’m not in a position to move or go anywhere at the present time. I still need to be based somewhere to be able to get my work done and need to be traveling to clients’ locations to do my work. So while yes, some small businesses can be packed up and the work done anywhere, others are more stationary and that’s ok. Owning your own business is wonderful but there are drawbacks too, something that I don’t often see shown on some of these people that preach your own business can go anywhere mantras.

Having a home and routine life are worthwhile too.

For me, I really enjoy having the balance of traveling and coming home to my townhouse and my daily routine. And while sometimes the daily grind can become wearing, it’s still really important in life to have a life set up somewhere, wherever that might be. All the things that come with a life, a house, a job, errands, those things are important too… just as important as seeing the world and often just as worthwhile to know you’ve built a home and a life somewhere fairly stationary.

Not everyone is meant for long term travel or living overseas.

As much as bloggers can say you must live overseas or you must sell everything and go travel… in truth that’s just not meant for everyone. I’m a huge proponent of living overseas and did as a child and it changed my life. I would love to live overseas again. But right now in my life isn’t the time and I can truthfully acknowledge it’s not for everyone. Nor is long term travel. I wouldn’t give up everything to travel long term, it’s just not for me. So if those are for you, great. If not, you don’t have to feel bad if that isn’t the path for you. You can still travel and see the world without having to do it long term or living overseas.

Travel is wonderful, but so are other things.

I’m a huge proponent for travel, but if you want other things out of your life, that doesn’t make you any less of a person. Travel is amazing and I could go on and on about what it’s meant to me in my life to be able to travel, but other things are great too whatever that means for you. For some people it means starting a family, for some it means focusing on your career. Whatever that means for you, do what works for you and don’t worry about trying to keep up with everyone else!

Is it Safe to Travel?