I’ve made reference a few times in this blog to our life altering events at the end of 2015. Some of the wonderful that has come out of that experience has been has been new, more fulfilling jobs for both my husband and I and a new house. Some of the changes that they bring is less disposable income and less savings. For us, that we are taking a hiatus on big travel for a while.   

So what is a girl who loves travel so much that she started a travel blog and continues to write for it to do? Well I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit.

One is to realize that less travel doesn’t mean no travel. I’m actually going back to New Jersey twice this year (both for weddings, starting to look a lot like 2015). So while we are not doing any big trips this year, we are still getting on at least 2 cross country flights.

Looks like we have more weddings to attend in 2016

The other is to redefine and understand what it is that I love about travel. I love to explore new places. I love to have new experiences. I love to learn about different cultures, ideas and ways of life. While that can generally be easier to do in new locations, you don’t have to even leave the state or even your town to do these things.

I moved to new area. Even though it’s only 20 minutes north of where I used to live, it feels like a whole different world. We had lived in a fairly urban are, now I am in a fairly suburban location. There are all new places to explore. New parks, new museums, new attractions.

New parks, new places, new local experiances to explore

Plus there are a number of places in the San Francisco Bay Area that we haven’t explored yet. 10 years here and I’ve yet to be to Angel Island. I haven’t take the kids to Alcatraz. And we haven’t scratched the surface of all the national and state parks and hiking trails there are in this area. There is plenty to do in our area that doesn’t require a plane ticket or even a large effort.

So this blog is going to pivot a little. There will be more in-depth stories about our family, how we deal with things, how we are emotionally coping with our year of change. But there will be a lot more about the gems that make up the Bay Area. More learning about how we all use this time to explore where we are and who we are. Hope you choose to join us on this journey.

A whole new world to explore