On this episode we’re celebrating our co-host, Brittanie’s 35th birthday! We’ve got some hard-hitting questions for the birthday girl so you can learn a little more about her.

Get to know Jamal in his birthday episode we aired earlier this year.

About Brittanie – Episode Transcript

0:35

And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hey squaddies, Travel Squad Podcast is back with Just the Tip, our Friday mini episode series where we give you quick travel stories, hacks and recommendations to set you off into the weekend.

Right.

0:51

Today is Brittany’s 35th birthday.

I know it’s not very custom or polite to say a girl’s age, but we’re just going to say it.

The big 3/5 for Brittany.

Happy birthday.

Happy birthday.

Thank you guys, but I think you meant 25. 25 yes, my mistake.

1:07

My mistake. 25 is the age that I actually meant.

And in this week’s episode, we’re going to do something that we did in the past for my birthday, which is ask the birthday person.

In this case this week, Brittany questions.

And I really love these episodes where we get asked questions, shoot from the hip, really impromptu.

1:28

Brittany doesn’t even know what’s coming.

So I’m sure some of these will be hard hitting, some of them will be light hearted and fun.

We will see.

But what better way to celebrate Brittany’s 25th birthday than to shoot a bunch of questions her way?

I’m a little nervous for this questions interview.

1:44

You should be should be very, very nervous.

I have a hard hitting one right off the bat, so just be ready for that one, Brittany.

I’m waiting.

Well, I thought Kim was going to go first.

OK, so I will go.

What is your biggest travel pet peeve when we’re all traveling as a squad?

2:06

Man, so it used to be the shower rotation.

Yeah, the infamous shower rotation.

So you know, when we traveled back in the day, when we first started this podcast, we were traveling like 4 to a room and Jamal, not really, but the girls, we had to develop a shower rotation because we had to figure out whose turn it was to shower 1st.

2:29

And you know, with three girls that you’re traveling with, everyone has to do their hair.

Everyone has to wash their hair.

You have to put on makeup.

So bathroom space, mirror space, it’s very limited.

And I just thought things should be a little bit more fair.

2:45

So we were put on a shower rotation.

And now we’re not living in the past.

What is your?

Current my current pet peeve.

When we’re all traveling together, I don’t know that I have one.

I feel like we have pretty good vibes when we’re together.

3:01

We do bicker back and forth here and there occasionally.

I just feel like we have different styles of travel as we get older.

And so sometimes our communication skills, we don’t say all of our ideas upfront.

And so then someone says, like, well, what about this?

3:18

And then someone says, but what about that?

But if we had just communicated everything upfront, like we could have just figured it out from the beginning.

So that’s probably my biggest one right now.

OK, I really thought there’s gonna be a little bit more drama so but then that Britney’s probably being a little PC doesn’t want to get into it for the squad.

3:34

It’s.

Too hunky Dory over here.

What I mean, tell me, what is yours?

I mean, I know it’s.

Your question up.

As well, right.

OK.

So Jamal, what did you think it was going to be?

Maybe I could?

Expand I don’t know, you know, every once in a while you like to to rag on me when you can.

3:50

I guess it’s just because we’re married.

It’s the fun thing to do.

I like to rag on you when I can also.

So I thought it was maybe going to be something on me.

But you know, we’ve had episodes before in the past where we talk about how to travel as a group and we’re giving advice because we are very good at traveling as a group.

So there’s probably are the few things that come up, but nothing major.

4:09

It was the shower rotation, right?

If anything that I could think of top of mind probably just be the terribleness of when you’re with a group of people really trying to figure out what it is that you want to eat.

Cuz sometimes that’s like really annoying.

But yeah, I don’t know if I was expecting something dicey, but I thought you could maybe pull something out that you’ve just kept to yourself, but that clearly.

4:30

Wasn’t.

I really don’t.

All want to fight.

I just want to know the the deets and the juicy gossip if there isn’t.

Well, you got what I got, OK.

All right, Brittany, would you rather take a couple trip or a girl this trip?

That is so hard.

4:49

I mean, I am loyal to Jamal, so I’m going to have to pick a couples trip because you.

Won this one.

Can be romantic and Jamal is pretty romantic.

He always says I don’t enjoy romance and so, but I feel like I, I do really appreciate a couples trip.

5:09

It really pulls us away from our everyday lives.

We get to really get to know each other, spend time with each other, do a lot of the things that we love.

And so I, I can’t go wrong with a couples trip.

I love a girls trip, but there’s usually a little bit more drama with girls trips just in general, girls carry a little bit more drama with them.

5:29

And I’m not like a huge trip person.

Like if it’s a girls trip, I’m like a 2:00 to 4:00 group person, not like a 16 girls deep kind of group trip person, so.

Yeah, that might be a little too much on a girls trip.

Not that I’m a girl and I’ve been on 16 deep, but I can imagine that could be a little dicey.

5:47

Yeah, it.

Is I know because you’ve done it, Kim.

I know this but funny thing about Brittanys answer, she says this little did she mentioned to you guys in less than two weeks time she’s leaving me behind and going on a girls trip.

You guys are going to Napa?

You guys did a girls trip earlier this year where I got left behind, now you.

6:06

Decided you didn’t want.

To I was going to say, but thank you.

I was about to say, in fairness, I didn’t really want to go on that, but that’s to this year, leaving me behind for those.

Girls, you need to do a boys trip.

I try all the time and then she’s like, you always complain to me that you don’t have time.

6:22

When do you have time for boys trip?

And then we’re just we.

Would talk to her fest.

But that wasn’t a boys.

Trip.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

It’s not a boys trip.

See.

See.

You want to get one?

I try to take a boys trip.

Do you want a lot with boys so.

6:38

I live right here, so you know, what are you going to do?

Here’s a question for you, Brittany.

What has been a travel destination that surprised you the most, that you really enjoyed, where you really weren’t expecting much out of it?

Not that you thought you would have a bad time, but that really took you by surprise.

6:54

Well, I want to say the first trip like that was probably China.

And I think when we were planning that trip and people are like, oh, where’s your next trip?

And we said China, people were just looking at me confused and saying, why would you want to go there?

And I’m like, I don’t know, seems cool, cheap, you know, all those things.

7:12

And when we got to China, we loved every second of that trip.

Like that trip was amazing.

It was such a good value seeing pandas in person.

Highlight of that trip being on the river, seeing Shanghai all lit up, going and experiencing Shanghai Disney with our new friends Cash and Ryan at the time and our squad.

7:35

That was such a fun day and a such fun way to end the trip.

Seeing the terracotta soldiers, wow, that was amazing and such a piece of history.

That whole trip took me by surprise.

Something that you didn’t mention about China when you were talking about Shanghai Disney was also getting Kim to ride Tron and white knuckling in it because she does not like coasters, but she ended up getting on it too, so China’s a good one.

8:00

Took you by surprise.

Yes, it really did.

Brittany, you’re very goal oriented.

You’re an achiever.

You like to cross something off on your list and I know you have a lot of travel goals, So what are some of those?

Oh, this is a really good.

Question some that you’re working on now and others that maybe you haven’t even started on yet.

8:18

OK, so we have a goal and I have a goal to make it to every state.

We are 45 out of 50.

Do you have a deadline?

I don’t have a deadline but I would like to do it within the next two ish 3:00-ish years.

OK, but the hard part about that is some of the ones that I have left, I specifically want to go and fall and Jamal is an insurance broker and he gets real crazy about travel during Girls Trip fall.

8:48

It’s my busy time, what do you want me to do?

So I have to, like, really play that gingerly.

Another one is I want to make it to every National Park.

There are 63 national parks in the US and we just hit off 52 with Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

9:05

So we have 11 left.

Most of them, though, are hard to get to. 8 of them are in Alaska.

One of them is American Samoa, and then the last two are Isle Royale and Voyager.

So hard to get to national parks.

I don’t know if I’ve told you this yet, Kim, but I do want to make it to every country.

9:24

And I’ve already calculated that if we do five countries a year for like the next 33 years, we’ll be able to hit.

Oh my God, she did the.

Math.

I did the math and so we could hit them before I retire technically, unless, you know, we really retire before 65, so.

9:42

You could do it before 33 years because there’s a lot of countries you could do on one trip.

I I think so too, but I was like, I got to average five countries a year at minimum.

Those are my current goals right now.

Very nice.

9:58

Those are some good goals.

As the travel planner, Brittany, you know, you do a lot of the planning for the most part here.

What is a trip that we’ve gone on that you would change how and what we did now that you know better?

So a past trip that we’ve done that I planned.

10:15

Yeah, and that maybe not the whole thing, like, oh, scrap that, I would have done this, but maybe an aspect of that trip that you were just like, you know, OK, now I know better.

This is something that would have made it better.

I could think of 1.

I don’t.

Know what?

10:31

What are you thinking of, Kim?

You can’t think of any Brittany?

You know, I have to think about things for a while and I have to like, ruminate on them.

So off the top of my head, I really can’t think of one that I would change.

How about Charleston?

Oh, OK, that that brings back light.

10:49

Touchy subject.

Touchy subject.

Our most, I would feel like criticized aspect on our reviews are people who did not like our breakdown of Charleston.

And I feel like I just for those people, if you are still listening, I feel like in that episode we did err on the side of caution that we would do things differently and that we were coming off of a a high in Savannah.

11:11

But yeah, we should have.

Comes to mind.

We should have started in Charleston and ended in Savannah and I think we would have had a different experience.

But sometimes the route just kind of takes you and you just, you don’t know.

You think like two major cities.

You’re going to have such a great time in both.

11:28

Kim, you were actually more excited for Charleston than you were Savannah initially.

Like you were like, there’s so much to do, so much to see, and then we were kind of let down.

So I guess that’s a good example of one.

Do the history tour.

Do things before 5:00 PM when everything closes.

11:46

Don’t go on a Monday maybe.

Yeah, there was a lot, and we were kind of rushed, like it was a road trip that we were taking.

So there was a lot to do, a lot of different stops.

We should have gotten to Charleston earlier because some of the things that we wanted to do closed at like 5-6 o’clock, so we were kind of rushed on time.

12:05

But I’m trying to think of a big trip that maybe I would have done differently.

But a lot of our big trips, some of them have been guided, so it can’t really change any of that.

And some of the other big trips you’ve planned, Jamal, like you planned Oktoberfest, so couldn’t really change that.

12:22

But I think for this Iceland trip that we just went on in July, I did want to complete the whole Ring Rd. and we didn’t complete that.

And Jamal kept saying, like, how much time are we really gonna spend in Iceland?

12:37

And in hindsight, we should have just spent the extra time to do the extra days.

So maybe that’s something that I would have changed.

Lesson learned, spend more time in Iceland.

Apparently do the Ring Rd.

And, you know, I’m planning some other future trips.

We’re going to Switzerland next July.

12:53

I said, oh, I think our trip’s going to be 13 days.

And he scoffed at me in 15 days.

What are we going to do in Switzerland?

13 days?

So we’ll see how it goes.

All right, both ends of the spectrum here.

Brittany, what is one of your favorite reviews that you’ve gotten on the podcast?

13:10

So we got one back in June that I really loved and it was called Best Travel Tips by far and they wrote.

I’ve been listening for several years and absolutely love this group.

They all bring distinct travel personalities that add to the content they’re giving the listener.

13:27

I appreciate their quick tips as well as their extended episodes about travel destinations.

Love the info they give on national parks.

Use much of it for a few trips out West.

Also have purchased their podcast course which helped me launch my own podcast back in April.

So I really love this review because it talks about so many different things that we offer.

13:49

They’ve been listening for a while, which I love.

I hate that when we get reviews, sometimes we get a negative review and they’ve literally listened to 1 episode.

People get so attached to a place if they hear their first episode and they don’t like it, they already have this negative taste in their mouth.

14:05

But if they’ve listened for a while, they can get a feel for like who we are and what we talk about and how we don’t hold back on our reviews and what we say, like we give our honest opinion.

And so I love that they’ve been listening for a while before they left this review.

Amazing that they started their own podcast because we love when people follow their passions and that they found that our information was helpful, not only podcast wise, but the information we’ve given them so that they’ve done trips out West.

14:34

So I don’t know where they’re from, but I’m super glad they’ve been able to use some of the info that we’ve provided and inspired a trip to some other destinations.

Really acknowledging everything we’re trying to do.

That’s a beautiful review.

Yes, we’ll have to one day talk about all of the negative reviews and kind of laugh them out on the podcast.

14:54

Well, there’s a lot more good ones than negative ones, no doubt about that.

But we have been talking about that as an idea for podcast episodes.

If you guys are interested in it.

Want us to read the negative reviews and then air our grievances with what these people said?

15:09

Let us know because we think that would actually be fun, but only want to do it if you guys want to hear it.

But I have one final question for you, Brittany, on my end of things.

And I’m curious to know what’s your favorite thing that you’ve eaten in all of your travels and your least favorite?

15:26

Oh, my favorite thing that I’ve ever eaten in our travels.

This is a really good question.

So maybe I’ll start with my least favorite thing that I’ve eaten.

And I’m, you know, a Filipina and we were in the Philippines and we ate blood, which is like a fermented half developed duck egg that’s like hard boiled.

15:53

And when you bite into it, it’s like a juicy and you can feel like the feathers in a little crunch of the embryo and.

The beak.

And the beak and I ate my whole egg, but I wouldn’t say I really enjoyed it.

16:09

So that’s probably one of the the worst things I’ve eaten so.

You’d like the larvae in Ecuador more.

Yes, yes, it was juicy and it tasted like a juicy water bug.

So you know, that didn’t bother me so much.

16:24

So that’s probably the worst thing that we’ve I’ve eaten on my travels.

Best thing that I’ve eaten.

That’s such a hard one because like every region has such a good like distinct specialty.

More recently I had some cherry stuffed French toast that I can’t stop thinking about, but we recently recorded the Door County episode so that’s on my mind.

16:47

Not the Jewel Rubicon mashed potatoes in Las Vegas.

Jewel Rubicon mashed potatoes are amazing and Jamal does a really good replication.

When I think about traveling, I don’t think about Vegas because we’ve gone so much.

So that’s hard to say.

What else have we eaten that’s been amazing?

17:04

Had some really amazing things in Japan.

I had some great mochi while we were out there, specifically at Tokyo Disney that I loved so.

The mochi.

I love the.

Mochi.

That’s good.

OK.

And the stuff, French toast.

17:21

I mean, I’m a dessert person, so.

Not the Michelin starred ramen in Tokyo.

Michelin starred ramen was amazing in Japan as well.

Yeah, I I did really like that, but it’s probably not the most amazing thing I’ve ever eaten.

I know that I figured this question would be a hard one.

17:38

I mean, it’s really been like, oh man, putting you on the spot, but we got a few of your thoughts.

The tiramisu that we had in Rome, also amazing.

I don’t think it compares to anything that we had in the US and the Peking duck in China.

Was delicious it’s.

17:54

Amazing too, Xena does not like duck anymore, but a.

Lot of that duck.

She’s ducked out.

Do you like the the Peking duck in China?

I want to end this episode with looking forward to what is an epic, no price tag attached vacation that you want to take.

18:13

No price tag attached.

I would probably have to say I really want to go to Chile and Patagonia and like really like South America and see a lot of those glaciers, forests, lagoons, all of that stuff.

18:29

And I’ve looked at them.

They’re pretty pricey for what I want to do, spend like 2-3 weeks down there.

And I am such a nature person.

I love nature, the outdoors, hiking, exploring glaciers, lakes, being a part of it like I’d want to do on a boat.

18:45

So I think that would be my best trip.

That’s a good one.

And you got your nature in there.

Very you.

And that wraps it up, Brittany, I hope you have the happiest birthday ever.

Thank you so much for tuning into this week’s Just the Tip.

Make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and follow us on all the socials at Travel Squad Podcast.

19:04

And have fun travelling this weekend.