Nicaragua

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My first big trip of the year was to Nicaragua! Turns out I am not the only person interested in spontaneous travel! One of my friends from work travels often and posted her plans to visit Nicaragua and i took that as an invitation. Several of us end up going on the trip. We rented an SVU and stayed in an Airbnb in Managua. Oscar our Airbnb host, was great! Oscar gave us tips on local cuisine and the last day he gave us a little history lesson on the cultural mask Nicaraguans wear during parades. Beyond that we went paddle boarding in the Marina Cocibolca in Granada, volcano surf boarding at the Volcano Cerro Negro, visited the Our Lady of Grace Cathedral in Leon, and to the beach in San Juan del Sur. Volcano surf boarding was the highlight of my trip. 

Lake Tahoe

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For many years it was a tradition in my family to spend Christmas in Lake Tahoe, and a few years ago that stopped. I have been very determined to reinstate and strengthen our family traditions and ties over the last year. So with that being said, this year guess where we spent Christmas?

Sedona, Arizona

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There are so many places I want to see in this world, but up until last year I've made excuses on why I couldn't go. My main excuse was having no one to travel with, but one weekend I realized if I keep waiting on "someone" I'll be waiting forever. So... I took a small trip to Arizona and it was beautiful to laugh/talk/sing out loud to myself and interact with complete strangers. The first day I hiked Devil's Bridge and attempted to hike Bell Rock. Bell Rock is a complicated trail that requires a guide or someone with hiking knowledge, I didn't have that. Luckily, my Airbnb host invited me to dinner and her friend invited me stating he takes people up all the time, his name is Peter. Peter, a 73 y.o cancer survivor who helped me journey up Bell Rock this morning says he needs to bring 1,111 people up so that he can access a portal in the winter of 2018.. I was number 819 🎯. If you find yourself in Sedona, i highly suggested contacting Peter via Facebook and joining his Bell Rock Club.

"Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement."

Seven Magic Mountains and The Grand Canyon

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Went to Las Vegas to visit family and somehow convinced them to squeeze in a few site seeing trips. The first day we went to Seven Magic Mountains. Artist Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains is a large-scale site-specific public art installation located near Jean Dry Lake and Interstate 15, approximately ten miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada. Comprised of seven towers of colorful, stacked boulders standing more than thirty feet high. The exhibit opened in May of 2016 and will be active for 2 years. It was a very quick site visit and fairly simplistic however, I still found it worth the small journey.

The second day my family and I got on the road for 3.5 hours and went to see the Grand Canyon. My mom promised me thousands of times when I was younger we would make the visit and we never did, so this trip was mostly making her feel bad about that (lol). The view at the Grand Canyon was so peaceful and serene. Being surrounded by atmospheres like the Grand Canyon remind me how majestic God is.