A year of travel--reviewed.

I haven't written for a while, I'm a busy person. I decided that since it's officially been one year since Lindsay and I took our very first trip together I would celebrate with a post dedicated to some of my favorite photos of us and a bit of reflection. Here goes...

The very first trip that Lindsay and I ever took together was to Tennessee for my 28th birthday. I'm not gonna lie, it was a wreck mess because we couldn't get it together, but there were some good times (as always, duh). We rented a cabin for my bday and off we went.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee 02.09

Chillin' on the balcony of our cabin.

Being incredibly in love.
We ultimately had a good time on this trip. It was just a little rough. We had only been together for about three months and we hadn't figured each other out, yet. We still made the most of it!



Chicago, Illinois 04.09
This is one of the shortest(two days), fun-filled trips I have ever been on in my life. Lindsay and I went to Chicago for her first Girlyman show. It was fantastic. We saw Millennium Park, I rode a train for the first time in my life, the Girlyman show was excellent, and we did some touristy stuff, which actually was really cool. By the time we took this trip, we had our shit together (finally) and realized that traveling together made for the best times.
See us? :)~
On Navy Pier. I LOVE this picture.
Our last day in Chicago.




Portland, Oregon 8.09
Since Lindsay was gone nearly six weeks out of the summer, we decided it was time to take a real vacation. We didn't have any particular place in mind...just somewhere that neither one of us had previously been. We googled a map of the U.S. and after lots of talking we decided on Portland, Oregon. Excellent choice! We had a blast...although people rave about the food and we didn't understand why (with the major exception of VooDoo Doughnut). Portland is super clean, very GLBT friendly, easy to navigate, and gorgeous. Rent a car and go explore, it's awesome.
The world famous maple bacon bar from VooDoo Doughnut. Absolutely delicious. We waited in line for 45 minutes for these little gems. Worth every second of it.
At the Washington Zoo. They had a ton of animals and exhibits. We loved it, of course.
Wakheena Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. Gorgeous waterfalls all around us.
Let me tell ya, Mount St. Helen looks much closer than it is when you start driving towards it. GEESH! When we had driven as far up as we could go, there was a state park-ish thing. We just walked in (hello, it was open to the public, no gates, no one taking money except inside a building) and took a look at our surroundings. Lindsay was convinced we were going to get kicked out, so the experience was short lived.
Ridiculously in love. Watching the sunset in Astoria, Washington on the beach. This was my first time seeing The Pacific Ocean. It was COLD!!!!



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 11.09
Lindsay had an APHA conference to attend in Philly in November, so we decided that one of our friends and myself would tag along. Bad idea. I should have stayed home. I got the stomach flu the night we arrived and was sick as hell the entire time. It was awful. However, I still managed to go out and see a little bit of Philly.
Star fish at the New Jersey Aquarium! Yep, that's my hand. Brandi and I went here and acted like five year olds while Lindsay was busy being a big brain.
Thanks for still loving me babe, even when I'm sick and we are traveling. :)






Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa 1.10
It just kinda happened that I got to go on the trip to Africa with Lindsay. I had never been on an international trip before and still to this day, can't believe that we had such an amazing opportunity to share this adventure. I'm honestly still in shock about how inspiring this trip was, so I'm still processing. I got to see things I could never dream of. A couple of things I hold near and dear to my heart from this trip: it opened so many doors for me and my eyes at the same time, made me want to learn Spanish (we had a layover in Spain, plus pretty much everyone speaks Spanish), the trip made me want everyone to SLOOOOW DOOOOWN, and last but not least it inspired me to study Anthropology. Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the trip. You can check out Lindsay's post to get a more in depth review of our trip.
Welcome to Banjul! This was taken from a tower in downtown Banjul. I composed myself and picked up my jaw long enough to snap this little beauty. :)
BEACH!!!! Did you say beach? The Gambia is landlocked on three sides by Senegal (take a peek, here) but luckily we were staying on the coast, so I got to see (and play in!) The Atlantic Ocean from Africa! HA! As you can see, it was gorgeous.
Lindsay with her favorite thing ever, solar panels. We visited a HUGE hospital out in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE (no seriously) that uses solar power for 90% of it power.
Dream come true! I got to hold this cutie little African baby. He wasn't so sure about me, but let me hold him anyhow. This was taken in a remote village.
A different village with LOTS of kiddos. This is our driver, Yabo's village. The very tall white man is Dr. Nagengast, the man who made all of this happen.
Lindsay and I near a HUGE koi pond at The Gambian President's resort. Just keepin' it classy, as always.
Cattle, just crossing the road. No bigs. This happens CONSTANTLY in Africa. If you don't stop for them and you hit one with your vehicle, you have to find the farmer it belongs to and pay him for his loss.
I found this very interesting. It's just a bore hole to get water from, but I'd never seen anything like that, so I was amused. One of the students lowered a bucket down into the water, pulled it up to our level, and then transported it up a sand hill to the main water pot that the residents use for daily cooking, drinking, etc. NEATO-O.
The group.
We visited a slave house on an island in Senegal. It was uber creepy. This is me in solitary confinement. I was being bad, apparently.



New York City, New York 1.10
Our flight from Africa arrived in NYC later than we could catch a flight back to Indy, so we just stayed there! I had only been once when I was much younger, less traveled, and it was a really bad experience. Lindsay wanted to show me that it's not so bad. She was right! In about 6 hours, we saw Ground Zero (BOOOORRRRRING), Times Square, and Central Park. Oh..and we got lost (kind of). It was awesome.
Ground Zero. I told you it was boring.
Times Square was fantastic! Soooo many people and places.
Excited to be in Central Park. It was nice to escape the noise for a while and see what the hype is about. I figured it out....it's HUGE.
Me and Lindsay in Central Park. We were judging people. =D




I've never traveled this much in one year, ever. It just kind of happened for me/us. As you can see, I've been so many places and met so many people in the past year. I'm so fortunate to have Lindsay in my life. Without her, none of this would be possible and so many other great things wouldn't have happened (going back to school, believing in myself, this deserves a whole other blog post). Our travels will continue and I will always try to share them with you. Stay tuned!