2019 Travel Year in Review

Looking back at our 2019 travel year, it was one of the best. We have taken some fantastic trips over the years, but this was a really well balanced travel year for us. It was just the right mix of long weekends and big adventures. They were also nicely spaced out so that we were able to take a trip about every 6-8 weeks. I was able to travel with both my husband and my daughter plus visit my son in Texas. I am not sure it gets much better than that.

All of our trips went pretty well overall. We had a few minor speed bumps along the way, but nothing too significant (like the 30 hour airport delay in 2018..that was a doozy). Another high point for 2019 travel was that I was really able to take advantage of Points, Miles and Loyalty programs to keep the costs down.

Our 2019 Trips:

Northern Indiana

We started the year off with a winter BeerVenture for my Husbands Birthday in February. We loved exploring the food scene as well as several of the breweries along the Northern Indiana Ale Trail. It was a fun road trip adventure and we found a few Breweries we will have to revisit when we get the chance.

Traverse City, Michigan

In April, we took a long weekend getaway for our anniversary to one of our favorite destinations, Traverse City. We stayed in at one of our favorite hotels with a bay view room. To mix things up for this trip, we explored food and cocktail destinations that we hadn’t tried before. We found some new places that I am sure we will be going back to. Quite a delightful trip.

Portland, Oregon

In May my daughter Maggie and I took our annual Girls Getaway. Although it took us a while to settle on a destination, we got it right with Portland, Oregon. We did some heavy exploring, from the rugged Pacific coast, to the waterfalls of the Mount Hood area. Of course we made plenty of time for wine tasting and foodie finds. Portland was a perfect trip for us.

Traverse City Beach Trip

Sorry to be redundant, but we took another quick last minute trip to Traverse City over Labor Day. I really needed a beach day! TC was an easy pick since we had not made plans in advance. We enjoyed a few of our favorite foodie stops, spent some time at the beach and got to do some wine tasting with a bunch of our goofy friends. Although we threw it together at the last minute, it turned out pretty great.

The Omelette Shoppe – A sense of Humor and a Delicious Breakfast

Texas

We always love our annual visit to see our son in Texas. It’s fun to spend a day immersed in all the deep rooted traditions that come with going to a Texas A&M football game (that’s him filming in the end zone). We also expanded this trip to include a night in Dallas so we could have dinner with some friends. Although this trip started off with a long flight delay and subsequent late night drive from the airport, we ended up having a great time visiting folks and watching the game.

Hotel Review Embassy Suites Dallas

Oahu, Hawaii

This trip was kind of a pop up surprise because I had a Southwest Companion Pass and wanted to squeeze in one more trip before the end of the year. I usually make the travel plans, but asked my husband to choose our destination. He picked Hawaii, it had never been on my travel bucket list but I was game for whatever. This was my first attempt at a Big Budget Travel trip and it turned out fabulous. We were able to travel there and spend 6 nights for under $1500 total! We spent 3 days in Waikiki doing some site seeing and hanging out on the beach. Then 3 days living the good life on the North Shore. So glad we were able to take this amazing, and kind of unexpected trip.

Final Thoughts

I think 2019 turned out to be a great travel year. First of all we completed all of this travel with Mark only having 2 weeks of vacation!

I managed to squeeze a lot of value out of my Southwest Companion Pass with my husband as my companion to Texas and Hawaii and my daughter as my companion to Portland. This allowed us to take more trips than we normally would have. It was exciting to pull off a few last minute adventures. Normally I would have planned for a really long time to pull off a big trip like we did to Hawaii. Having honed my travel planning skills the previous 2 years, I was able to do it in just a few months!

I am looking forward to whatever adventures await us in 2020! Getting out my calendar now to start penciling them in!

Little did I know when I was writing this at the end of 2019 that we wouldn’t get to travel anywhere in 2020. It makes me even more grateful for all the trips, big and small, that we were able to take in 2019.

Dream, Plan, Save Adventure!