After our youngest left for university, the house got very quiet very fast. My partner and I looked at each other over dinner one night and said, almost simultaneously, “So… where do you actually want to go?” Without much deliberation, we both landed on the same answer: the Maldives — not for the overwater bungalows … Read more
Three weeks after my relationship ended, I did the only thing that made sense: I booked a solo trip somewhere I’d always wanted to go but had been waiting for the “right time” to visit together. South Africa had been on that list for years — and honestly, the timing turned out to be perfect, … Read more
When I turned 35, I made a deal with myself: no more saving the good stuff for someday. The trip I’d been pinning photos of for four years — safari sunsets, Cape Town rooftops, private game reserves with no phone signal — finally had a departure date, and it was South Africa. What I didn’t … Read more
My boss handed me a bonus check and said “invest it wisely.” I invested it in a round-trip ticket and two weeks somewhere I’d been dreaming about since a geography class in eighth grade — South Africa, a country so staggeringly diverse it almost doesn’t seem real until you’re standing inside it. I wanted vibrant … Read more
My passport sat blank in a drawer for two years after I got it — I kept saying “soon” until a friend called me out at dinner. We booked flights that night. I barely slept. That impulsive decision led me to the South African bush at dawn, standing on a private lodge deck with coffee … Read more
We eloped on a Tuesday with three friends and a bottle of champagne, telling ourselves the real trip would come later. “Later” arrived 18 months after our wedding when we finally stopped waiting for the perfect time and booked two weeks in Rome. What we found there had nothing to do with the glossy images … Read more
For our tenth anniversary, I asked my partner what they actually wanted — not a dinner, not jewelry. They said: somewhere we’ve never been, somewhere that feels like a story we haven’t told yet. We chose the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, and standing at the edge for the first time, watching the canyon’s layered reds … Read more
The school year ended and I sat in an empty classroom for twenty minutes just listening to the silence. Then I went home and looked up flights. Teaching summers off exist for a reason — and that particular search landed me at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, staring into a chasm so vast it genuinely … Read more
I spent fourteen months putting money into a travel fund that everyone else called frivolous. When it finally had enough zeros in it, I spent about forty-five minutes looking at destinations before I bought the ticket — because honestly, there was never really a question: it was always going to be the Grand Canyon’s South … Read more
After two years of looking at the same four walls, I made a list of every place I’d told myself “I’ll go when things settle down.” Then I started at the top — and the Grand Canyon was right there, staring back at me. What I didn’t expect was how much where I slept would … Read more
