Staying afloat as summer arrives - honest discussion about reality
In the midst of fun and travel lies reality... and it's really something to behold some days, both good and bad...
I haven’t gotten the chance to send an update out in a few weeks because I’ve been traveling for work and life has just been busy. We’re in the state of pre-summer rush with school stuff and both Chris and I having to be gone for different things, so it’s just been a lot. So today I just wanted to share what’s happening in life and suggest some easy ideas for low-stress summer travel.
Thank you for following along. Ten years of sharing stories and travel tips and such feels like a lifetime and yet it’s always fresh and new it seems. I appreciate the support of simply reading what I write and watching the videos I make. I like to think it all is either helpful or brings joy to somebody else, so thanks for allowing me into your world in some capacity.
Here’s what I’m sharing in today’s Substack:
the reality of holding it all together
new podcast episode: Fun in MidCoast Maine
Amazon Rainforest group trip update
summer travel plans
life updates
short story of my insane flight back from LA
Real Talk: Struggling to Stay Afloat
If you ever run into me and think that I’m super fun and have it all together, just know that’s not the case. Yes, I’m fun, but I’m just HOLDING it together; I don’t HAVE IT all together. I just returned from a work trip where I got to see lots of my “co-workers” in the travel space and so many people had nice things to say about how I “make it look easy” or am “so on-top of things.” Thanks, y’all, but nah, that’s not the reality.
I’m sharing this because it really feels like people forget that what we all share on social media is not necessarily the 100% unfiltered reality. I’m not going to blast to the world that I ate something that made me sick for two weeks or that I’m not managing my stress well and that I’ve been in a downward spiral. My silence on social media is a KPI for how I’m doing in real life (OMG, how corporate-speak of me).
What could I possibly be struggling with? You’re thinking “You travel for work and go home to the beach. You’re life’s a literal beach.” True, but again, that’s only one side of things. Managing a business, a household, two kids and finding time to do the things that bring me joy is a lot and I’ve been failing at it some weeks. I’ve been having a tough time publishing stories and working through a huge pile of work related to-dos… and that “failure” feeling carries over into daily life and the “easy” part of planning dinner and spending time with kids. When I get in this state, trying not to be a downer becomes a full time job.
“When the going gets tough…” the tough sit in the dark and eat handfuls of gummy bears. Anyways, woe is me, right? I’ve been working on getting my mind in order and pacing my work so we can enjoy summer together. Hopefully I’ll feel good about the order of things by the time school gets out this week. Fingers crossed.
New Podcast Episode: Fun in MidCoast Maine
We’ve had lots of new podcast episodes lately, but our latest is perfect to listen to before summer hits. MidCoast Maine for Summer Fun - we’re talking about that part of coastal Maine that falls between Portland and Bar Harbor. This is the land of the lobsters, lighthouses and long winding roads. Give a listen (and subscribe through iTunes or Spotify) and hear where we love to go in MidCoast and get some tips for planning YOUR visit!
Listen to MIDCOAST MAINE EPISODE HERE!
Also new on the podcast, we’re talking about the Best of the Southwest, post-pandemic travel, 3 new episodes about traveling in Peru and more!
SUBSCRIBE VIA ITUNES — LISTEN ON PANDORA
GET IT ON GOOGLE PODCASTS — NOW ON IHEARTRADIO
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY — VISIT CASTOS
Come to the Amazon Rainforest!
Amidst the craziness of the end of the school year, there’s a lot to look forward to and I’m pretty stoked. We’ve got two trips down to the Amazon Rainforest coming up and there are some spots left. If you’re interested, it’s an awesome deal for an incredible experience. Please let me know ASAP if you would like to reserve spots for either the November 2024 or March 2025 trips. The cost is just over $1800 per person (not including flight to Lima, Peru) and then once there nearly every other element is included!
Itinerary:
Meet our small group in Lima to see the city for two days
Fly together to Iquitos, Peru for transport to the jungle
Stay at the Treehouse Lodge on the Amazon River
See pink river dolphins, wild macaws, monkeys, sloths and more!
7 days / 6 nights - be as involved with the group as you like or just come with us and enjoy the Amazon rainforest at your leisure!
If you have any questions, please let me know. I’m happy to chat about the trips and provide answers, stories and tips! Complete our interest survey here!
June: Adventure Awaits!!!
I’ve been looking forward to June for nine months. We’re just two weeks from some amazing adventures that we’ve been working on and it’s really what’s sustaining me. First off, the kids and I are heading back to Glacier Country, Montana! Chris only gets so much time away from work so me and the dudes will be rafting the Flathead River with our favorite company, Glacier Guides Montana Raft, as well as doing some biking and guided hiking with them. Heck, we’re also staying at the Glacier Guides Lodge in West Glacier. It’ll be fun doing nearly a whole Montana trip with them.
From there, we’ll be heading over the the Glacier Park Lodge for exploring the east side of Glacier National Park before heading up to Alberta to do Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada. It’s going to be a beautiful, fun trip and hopefully be filled with wildlife!
After Glacier, we’ll be home for a little bit before all of us head to ALASKA! That’s right! Our UnCruise Adventures sailing from Juneau to Glacier Bay National Park is finally here! We’ve been looking forward to this family trip for so long. Our UnCruise Hawaii sailing was really amazing, and I just know that our Kids in Nature Wild, Wooly and Wow! trip is going to be awesome.
Life Developments / Updates in Our World
There’s been a lot going on in our everyday lives that have been both keeping us busy and causing time to completely fly past us. I know that life goes in spurts, but it’s felt lately that it’s just been firing off like the finale of a 4th of July fireworks show.
First up, and we’re pretty excited/nervous about this: Oliver (our oldest) is going to be skipping a grade next year, so he’s been doing all kinds of learning both for his current grade level and to make sure he’s well up-to-speed for next year. While this is mostly on him for getting through different subjects and mastering his own learning, it’s also on us to have more serious discussions about life and school and learning. This includes some difficult conversations about listening and understanding expectations vs just breezing through school because you can. He’s in a great place though and his teachers this year have been INCREDIBLE at both guiding him and advocating for his growth.
Next up is something exciting for the adults in our household. When we moved to Florida 4+ years ago the plan was for Chris to leave his job and work on the blog full time with me, but that didn’t happen due to COVID and my job petering into nothingness for two years. With that, he’s actually been promoted several times and now is the VP of something rather doing something with technology products in his company. It’s exciting and he loves it, so that’s a huge thing in our world. It’s pretty amazing to look at what he’s done in the last twenty years and to see where he is now, especially considering that he went from the Navy into the workforce and doesn’t have a university degree… but he’s ballin’ at the top of the his company. :)
Through all of this, Elliott and I have just been trucking along. He’s been rocking his reading and math and is ready to hit 4th grade out of the park next year. And I’ve been digging in the dirt. Good times.
My Ridiculous Trip Back from LA
If you follow me on Instagram then you know that last week I had the most ridiculous trip returning home from Los Angeles. I was in LA for work and had a fun, productive trip, and then my journey home went awry. I made it from LAX to PHX, delayed to start the whole thing, and had to run with my luggage two terminals over. I just barely made my flight… which we then sat on for more than an hour before we got to leave the gate.
Once in the air and on our way from PHX to JAX, after an hour the plane suddenly started to descend. Quickly. The captain came on the speaker to let us know that the plane had depressurized and we had to return to Phoenix, so an hour goes by and we’re flying slow and low (just a few thousand feet) when the captain comes back on to tell us that we have too much fuel and have to circle until we are light enough to land safely. An hour and a half later, we landed. I got my hotel and taxi vouchers, my $12 meal voucher and headed to the Holiday Inn. There was no option to get on another flight to JAX and nobody at the airport could get me home any earlier than 4:00 pm the next day.
I got to my hotel and then received a notification that I could change my flight and was able to get onto one to Charlotte, then onto JAX. And then my connection to Jacksonville got cancelled. After being auto-rebooked and shuffled three more times, a lady at the counter was able to get me onto a red-eye into Miami and then a morning connection back to JAX. This is the one that stuck and I actually got home. It took 26 hours to get from Los Angeles back to St Augustine. I could’ve gone to Australia, or maybe Japan or South Africa…
Moral of the story: fly direct whenever possible and if you can see a solution that isn’t being offered, find somebody that can make things happen for you.
That’s it for now. This week will be busy (again, I know I need to stop complaining about it) and then next week is Montana! I hope the end of the school year / start of summer goes well for all of you, and if you find yourself coming to St Augustine, let us know and we’ll try to say hi!
Wow! You’re doing the best you can my dear and that is awesome. Oliver skipping grade? Oh wow! Keep on going my dear.