Reflecting on our travel stories from 2021 and giving a sneak peek at a few plans we have for travel in 2022. Despite the craziness with travel we managed to visit two  2 countries, 15 states, and 8 national parks.

• Countries: Mexico, Ecuador
• States: Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Utah, Nevada, Illinois, Missouri, Hawaii, Florida, Arizona  
• National parks: Virgin Islands, Mammoth Cave, Great Sand Dunes, Kings Canyon NP, Zion, St Louis Arch, Halekala, Great Smoky Mountains NP 

We had a great time on these trips, despite having to reschedule, adjust expectations, and even forgo a few until a better time. 2022 is going to be another great year of travel and we cannot wait to bring your travel stories this time next year.

If you’re interested in taking some of these trips, check out our PDF trip itineraries that make it SO easy to take these trips for yourself.

2021 Travel Stories – Episode Transcript

2 (58s):
Welcome to episode 117 of the Travel Squad podcast. Today we’re recapping our travels from 2021 and what we have planned for next year 2021 was another hard year for travel, but we definitely managed to get around a good amount, despite the roadblocks that we had

3 (1m 15s):
Another travel code year, for sure. There’s no denying that, but we are determined here at the Travel Squad Podcast to make travel happen regardless of the situation. And we certainly did that with COVID restrictions still happening, and a lot of countries around the world, the majority of our adventures were centered around domestic travel and you guessed it national parks, but we were able to sneak in a couple of international destinations, which really excited me.

1 (1m 42s):
Yeah. Being able to take that squad trip at the end in the third fourth quarter of 2021 was amazing. And I just can’t believe it’s gone by so fast. And we’re at the end of 2021 the year has gone by so slow but fast at the same time. Like sometimes I just look at the calendar. I’m like, it’s already December.

2 (2m 1s):
I know. I love how you said that we pulled through for the wind and the third quarter.

1 (2m 8s):
So yes, it was a very interesting year for travel due to the pandemic. But as always, we made the most of it and I’m so excited for 2022.

3 (2m 17s):
I’m really hopeful that 2022 is going to be a better year. I know towards the end of the year here, we’re having new variants, new shot downs, even one of the trips that we’re going to be discussing that we’re going to be going on. And 2022 here in January is in Morocco. Supposedly they’ve shut down for two weeks. Not letting people in. We’ll see if they reopen and allow us for our January trip. So it may be another year of rearranging and backup plans, but fingers crossed 20, 22 is better for everybody.

2 (2m 47s):
So in thinking about what we did do, let’s think about the positive here. Let’s manifest more of this.

3 (2m 53s):
I’m manifested a good 2022 year, but yes, let’s manifest and embrace what was completed this year in 20. I

2 (2m 60s):
Think it’s a huge success. Just the fact that we hit two countries in 2021. Hell yeah. We went to Mexico.

1 (3m 7s):
Yes. Which is right in our backyard, which is really nice to get away to. And we went to via Guadalupe for the first time, Jamal and I,

2 (3m 15s):
And then many, many more times after that. And then the second country that we visited was Ecuador.

1 (3m 22s):
Yes. I have been looking forward to Ecuador for over a year. That was my original pick in terms of our squad pick. I actually picked it while sitting on the toilet one morning.

2 (3m 33s):
I think we picked it in 2019.

1 (3m 34s):
I know

3 (3m 35s):
For 2020 in September. And then we rescheduled it to September of 2021. We made it happen. That’s that third, fourth quarter pull through that Brittany was talking about right. There is Ecuador. And let me tell you something though, before we get into everything else, it was just such an exhilarating feeling. And I know we had this conversation amongst ourselves to get a new stamp in our passport to actually fly to another country versus we’re here in San Diego, just walking across the border or driving across to Mexico. So the flying into another country, it just felt new to me again, it was like so rejuvenated and exciting

2 (4m 11s):
A hundred percent.

1 (4m 12s):
And although we didn’t do a lot of international travel, we were able to hit 15 states in this last year,

2 (4m 18s):
15 states. And I would even say 16, if you include California, the one that we’re in.

1 (4m 22s):
Yeah. Cause we did go to new places in California as well. So we hit Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Utah, Nevada, Illinois, Missouri, Hawaii, Florida, and Arizona.

2 (4m 42s):
That’s, that’s a good amount of this country.

1 (4m 45s):
That’s more than one a month. New state every month

2 (4m 49s):
We made our rounds.

3 (4m 50s):
Not only that, she forgot to mention a us territory, the Virgin islands in the Caribbean. So maybe you say in 16 with California, maybe 17, if we’re counting territory is now also at the same time

2 (5m 1s):
I look at us go. And then as far as national parks, you know, we love to get out there into nature. We visited seven national parks and those include the Virgin islands, national park, mammoth cave, national park, great sand dunes, national park, Kings canyon, national park, Zion national park St. Louis arch, which is debatable. If it should be a national pirate, read a Holly acapella national park and correction, it’s actually eight because I, myself went to great smoky mountains, national park.

1 (5m 29s):
Oh yeah. We didn’t put that on there.

3 (5m 31s):
And not only that, we’ve all been designed before and what a good year travel was for us in that sense too. And anybody who’s willing to make it happen. We’ve talked how many years now about doing the narrows? And we finally completed the narrows trip to Zion

2 (5m 46s):
And it was epic.

1 (5m 47s):
Yes. And so We also accomplished releasing three new itineraries. We released our San Diego itinerary. And again, if you leave us a five star written review, not just click on those stars, but actually write us a review, screenshot it once you submit it and email it or DMS it, we will send you the San Diego itinerary guide for free, but we’ve also released the koi itinerary and the Utah’s of my five itinerary. And so we now have a total of eight itineraries

2 (6m 22s):
And that last one’s perfect since COVID is not going away in 2022. And if you want to make that year, your year of national park travel, Utah’s mighty five. It’s the five national parks. You can make a whole week trip out of it and knock them all out.

3 (6m 35s):
You know, one thing that COVID has really done for us is expanded our domestic travel. And obviously we’ve always wanted to hit all the national parks go to all the states. So we were going to do that, but it’s kind of forced us to actually do that a lot quicker than we would have normally. So as exciting as it was for the international and I’m ready for 2022 for international fingers crossed on that, you know, I can’t stress this enough, how underrated the national parks are for trips to take during COVID you’re in the outdoors. You’re traveling domestically. If you are still slightly concerned about traveling and being amongst people, these are the great things to do it. And go on over to our website, look at the itineraries, get inspired because the national parks are the gyms of America, quite literally.

2 (7m 20s):
And we’ve been taking you along the ride with us and our podcasts has been growing and it’s so rewarding and it makes us so happy to hear from you all to get those reviews, to get the DM or the email to say, I found your podcast, I’m planning a trip to San Diego or cyan or Yellowstone. And I discovered your content and I’m taking that hike. You did like, I am obsessed with that. And I know that we love it. We send each other, a group text message, we get all hyped on it. And so as we travel, it’s just really fun to share it with you all.

3 (7m 51s):
Yeah. We all geek out over it. Quite literally. Kevin don’t wait. We do. And it’s funny before we started recording this, we were just talking about a mention. We got in a story from one of our followers about listening to our episode, finding a hack, doing it, and actually saving money on their Southwest airline tickets. And that’s so rewarding. So again, if you’re listening, doing any of these things, definitely give us the mention tag us. We’d love to see it. As you can see here,

1 (8m 17s):
Like Kim said, we’ve done a lot of growth this year. We’ve actually hit 55,000 downloads to date, which is amazing

2 (8m 25s):
55,000 woo.

1 (8m 26s):
And we look today, we are listened to a 98 different countries. That’s crazy.

2 (8m 33s):
I haven’t even been to 98 countries.

3 (8m 35s):
Well, hopefully in 2022, we can double that number. Actually. I don’t even know if there’s more than 200 independent nations.

2 (8m 42s):
That question you should

3 (8m 43s):
Know. I should know that. And I don’t know the answer to

1 (8m 45s):
That.

3 (8m 46s):
No, that’s how many bones there are actually, Brittany, you can’t trick me,

1 (8m 51s):
But our listenership went up by like 263% in this last year and we’ve gotten 170% increase in listeners. So we’ve done really well in the podcast world.

2 (9m 2s):
Over the course of this year, we were kind of looking at our Spotify wrapped, which goes just through November, but over 2,200 minutes of content, bringing you advice, stories, jokes, hacks, all of that. And I’ve loved every minute of it.

1 (9m 18s):
It’s been so much fun to share the podcast with you all. And then with my squad mates, squaddies I really love listening to the episodes myself, because it’s like a time capsule for me in a way, like you remember things on the strip and you’re like, oh my God, I can’t believe I forgot that happened. And it’s just such a fun way to remember things. So we’ve had a lot of fun recording and putting out all of this content for you guys to enjoy. And if you’re new to the podcast, I would recommend starting from the beginning. Cause you kind of just see the whole podcast develop and see how things have changed over time. And it’s always fun to go back to old episodes and relisten.

3 (9m 57s):
And not only that, I feel like some of our earlier ones, there’s a lot of hidden gems in there that are actually like really, really good episodes too. So you’re going to find that one standout one that you really, really like and definitely started if you’re new to the podcast, but let’s go ahead and get into the travel recap of 2021. And you know, we do this at the end of every year. This is our third year having the podcast now. And this is our third year with the travel recap. And we don’t do this to brag or say all we did all this, we do this as a way to talk to you guys to inspire you. Like if you really want to make travel happen, you will find a way and do it. And with these last couple of years, being really tough with COVID, we’re all still able to find a way if we want to make it happen.

3 (10m 39s):
So with that, let’s just kind of recap the year starting with January.

1 (10m 43s):
So in January we started off strong, we went to the us Virgin islands and we hit two different islands, St. Thomas and St. John St. Thomas is famous for the white sand beaches and the crystal clear waters. We did a lot of snorkeling on the island and we went with our honorary squad members, Cashin Ryan. And then we hopped over to Saint John specifically for the Virgin islands national park. And we actually got to snorkel with sea turtles.

2 (11m 10s):
That’s amazing. I was not on this trip and I actually want to give you guys a little inside details. Everyone always asks like, do you guys ever fight on trips? Well, I did not go on this trip because Brittany and I got into a little argument, a COVID related argument and I, I was banned or I ex I excluded myself because I would not quarantine for two weeks before this trip. And this was like really, really in the height of things still. And yeah, so we didn’t agree on COVID precautions and we didn’t go on this trip together.

3 (11m 40s):
I think beyond even the fact that it was COVID precautions more than our safety is that at this time the Virgin islands was still testing people to make sure that you had negative COVID tests upon arrival. And then it could have been one of those things, all we’re all splitting the trip, Airbnb that was relatively expensive, but for what it was in the Virgin islands, moderately priced at the same time rental car and everything. And it’s like, oh, I can’t go off. Someone’s positive. And then we’re stuck with the bill. I don’t know. But yes, COVID precautions even amongst the squad caused issues and concerns

2 (12m 13s):
COVID can block you from the trip or it can cause issues and prevent you from going on trips.

1 (12m 18s):
Kim, I know you didn’t go on this trip, but I definitely recommend you go to the us Virgin islands. Cause I think you would love it. It’s definitely your vibe. The Caribbean survive. Yachts are your vibe. Beaches are your vibe. So, you know, I think you have a trip and your upcoming future to the us Virgin islands.

2 (12m 35s):
I did take a trip in January though. I spent my new year’s Eve invited Guadalupe. Mexico went down there, got this gorgeous Airbnb on the top of a hill, overlooking the ocean, did a wine tour through Airbnb experiences where they picked us up. They took us to different wineries on new year’s Eve, got all little wine tipsy, had some good food. Then the next day on new year’s day went to Lebow fedora and in Sonata and had just a great time, little mini international trip there

3 (13m 4s):
Just a quick hop across the border here for us in San Diego. And you know, we’ve had podcast episodes on via Guadalupe. We’ve mentioned it had a full episode, episode 77, mentioned it again in episode 1 0 1, talking about places south of the border here from San Diego to do trips in Mexico. But for those who are new listeners and don’t know via Guadalupe is Mexico’s wine region. It is the equivalent of Napa. So when you were out there, you were just boozing it up in the vineyards and just relaxing for new years. And you inspired us because you said you did an Airbnb experience and I’ll tell you what, when we get onto a later month here, you’re going to hear us telling you the exact same thing, because you inspired us to do that Airbnb experience. We went in January also.

3 (13m 45s):
Oh my gosh. I thought maybe we went in February, see the year just flew by and also blurred with COVID and everything. Yeah. So we did that that same month, but yeah,

1 (13m 53s):
Em did it like the first week of the month, she did it on new year’s. We did the last weekend of the month.

3 (13m 58s):
That’s what I was thinking. It was February

2 (14m 1s):
Good trip though. Very good

1 (14m 2s):
Trip. Yeah, that was my first time doing an Airbnb experience. And I really enjoyed it. It was door to door service. They picked us up in, in Sonata, took us to fight at Guadalupe. We went to three different wineries. It included entrance into all three plus the tastings. And they even offer to drive us to dinner afterwards as well and dropped us back off in Ensonata again at this hotel we stayed at that had views of the ocean and the windows were floor to ceiling and it was amazing.

2 (14m 31s):
Nice. That’s amazing. I love Mexico because you can get really nice places for half the price and just really enjoy your vacation. And it’s not too far from home moving into February. So February, I remember being very frustrated that things were still really shut down. If you could go out, there were lines everywhere. I was just dying to get out of San Diego. So I took a little road trip over to Scottsdale Arizona where things were a little bit more open and it was nice. I stayed in this Cigarro Scottsdale, which is a hotel that I love. It’s very colorful. It’s very modern and fun. And that was probably the highlight of Scottsdale in my opinion.

3 (15m 8s):
But see, you love like little hotel experiences. That’s one of your things about vacationing or even want to call that a staycation is the hotel experience.

2 (15m 17s):
Yeah. Yes, I actually do. I will spend a little bit more money on a hotel that offers a craft beer hour or has nice rooftop pool or something like that just to kind of get away. And that’s pretty much what Scottsdale was for you all listening at home. If you’re interested in visiting Scottsdale, I would highly recommend it in the summer because they throw some pretty cool pool parties and you would want it to be warm when you’re there

3 (15m 39s):
While you had Scottsdale Kim, Brittany and I went to Nashville, Tennessee. And I would like to say that we went to Nashville to actually partake in what is Nashville, but you know, us, it was really to use it as a hub cheapest flight to drive an hour, hour and a half north to go into Kentucky to hit another national park, which was mammoth cave, national park. But nonetheless, we did make the best of Nashville. We enjoyed it. We did honky talk. We had hot chicken. We had barbecue. I think we pretty much did everything that there is to do in Nashville with those three things. Honky-tonk to hot chicken and barbecue. And obviously the national park,

2 (16m 16s):
I would go back to Nashville for the hot chicken.

3 (16m 19s):
It was good. And you went later this year and you went to the same place that we went to also

2 (16m 25s):
So

3 (16m 25s):
Good where you inspired us for Vita Guadalupe. We inspired you for the hot chicken

2 (16m 30s):
Chicken was worth it.

1 (16m 31s):
Yes. Although I do love a hot chicken that wasn’t the reason we took the trip to Nashville and we did go to mammoth cave national park in Kentucky, like Jamal said, which is actually a UNESCO world heritage site. And we actually do plan to have later in this year, an episode all about some muscle visit UNESCO world heritage sites. But mammoth cave is actually the longest cave in the entire world with over 400 miles traced. And it’s so massive. That’s how it got its name. And the cave was carved by these underground rivers. So I highly recommend going and checking it out because you can do a lot of guided tours at this national park.

3 (17m 9s):
What I really liked the most about mammoth cave was twofold. I’ve been in a lot of caves. Then I mentioned this in the episode, we had an episode on an episode 92, go back and listen, if you haven’t. However, the two unique things that were really cool. One, I didn’t even know this until we did the guided ranger tour. It has such a unique place in American history and our tour guide. And the ranger was even telling us that quite honestly, America might not even be a country. If it wasn’t for this cave, if that intrigues you to figure out how can a cave have created and saved America, go on, listen to the episode, we talked about it, but very unique place in history. And on top of that, been in a lot of caves. All of them pretty much have stalagmites stalactites, none in this one, I went in there not knowing that there wasn’t gonna be any stalagmites or stalactites.

3 (17m 54s):
So it’s really unique in that sense as well. It’s almost like it’s a carved out tunnel and they tell you all about why that is actually the case, but very unique all around this Cape.

1 (18m 3s):
So rolling into March, we had a fail, a travel fail,

2 (18m 8s):
Which wasn’t because of COVID

1 (18m 10s):
It wasn’t. We were actually supposed to go to Breckenridge, Colorado, and there was going to be a huge snow storm. Like the biggest ones it’s like 18, 12, or something like that. Something crazy

3 (18m 22s):
18 90 18, 12 is a little pushing it back.

1 (18m 25s):
But this always happens to us. We, when we’re supposed to get a big surge during the biggest storm of ever or the year or whatever, and now we hit the snow storm and we were going to try to brave it. However arc lights did get canceled. And I heard that we would have been stranded there for two days.

3 (18m 43s):
I’m so glad our flights got canceled because the night before we actually were having a three-way chat, talking with Kim saying, Hey, like it’s supposed to be really bad and we’re going to be driving through the mountains already saying there’s going to be major, major snow advisory. And that it’s going to be rough out there. And Brittany and I were really leaning hard on Kim and our and phatic explanation of the situation that we probably shouldn’t go. And then Kim, not wanting to budge on it and really wanting to go to Breckenridge was like, no, I think we’ll be fine. We’ll be okay. And you know, we kind of reluctantly said yes, even though we had the majority two to one, but you know, being awesome travel mates, we just went with the flow and we’re like, all right, you know, let’s test it out and do it.

3 (19m 28s):
And then, oh my God. And the morning Southwest told us our flights were canceled and I was so stoked. And then we saw the news reports like 24 hours later, Denver airport completely shut no flights for the next 48 hours. I’m just like, yeah, we would have been stuck out there. Yeah.

1 (19m 42s):
There wasn’t power in the cities for like two days. So

2 (19m 46s):
Whatever

1 (19m 48s):
So funny is Kim was like, we’re just going to bundle up. We’re going to be prepared for down in the car. She’s like, we’re just going to be prepared for this. And then I’m like, are you good with driving? And this now, and she’s not driving, I’m not driving. Maybe the first thing like Jamal the drive. And there

2 (20m 3s):
Was one other person who was willing to drive,

3 (20m 6s):
But we didn’t end up doing it. So that was the fail and March. But here we are in March. We love Vivek Guadalupe in January. We’re at Vita Guadalupe part do over here or should I say part dose part dose. And this time was really, really nice. You know, I’m hoping soon that we actually all go as a squad. Cause ironically, we haven’t gone as a squad yet. We’ve all done our independent trips, but this one was just me and Brittany. We stayed in this cool, tiny home that they had out there. That’s a row of Airbnb’s that’s built on this private land, close to the vineyards. We discovered Lac Estella, which is ranked by vice news as the best breakfast place in the world.

3 (20m 48s):
So after a heavy night of drinking, it was nice to wake up in the morning and go get breakfast. The best breakfast in the world, mind you and the food scene out there is unbelievable. We ate at a restaurant called deck man’s, which has a tasting menu and more wine tasting just loved it, loved it, loved it. And if you’re a wine, oh, bypass, Napa, go to Vita Guadalupe. You’re going to enjoy it. I can tell you that much.

1 (21m 11s):
I love a good trip to via to Guadalupe and I am hooked. And so when we were actually on our trip in Ecuador, we were talking about via de Guadalupe so much cause we were drinking so much wine on this trip that we convinced some people from our tour that we made friends with to come to via Guadalupe, CJ and Billy. So hopefully they come out here, listen to our podcast and then we can meet them down.

2 (21m 33s):
CJ and Billy hit us up. Let’s plan a trip. Let’s go.

1 (21m 37s):
But in April we went to Dallas for Easter. We do go to Texas quite often because my family does live in Texas and in the Dallas surrounding areas. So he kept it mellow for the Easter holiday. But then later in April, we went to great sand dunes, national park and Colorado.

2 (21m 55s):
And if you guys want a glimpse into this trip, go onto our Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, check out our reels of Brittany sledding down a sand dune mountain and totally crashing

3 (22m 6s):
Shit at the end. It was great.

1 (22m 8s):
Yeah. I ate so much shit. There was sand in every crevice. I don’t even know how sand got into all of these crevices because I was fully closed with like tight leggings and a long sleeve shirt

2 (22m 21s):
All up in the percent-ish

1 (22m 23s):
Sand everywhere.

3 (22m 24s):
It really was Ken because when we got back to the hotel room, believe me, when we got to the car, actually first, when we were done doing the sand boarding and everything like that, we clearly gave ourselves a good shake to get out all the sand. And we really thought we had it all. And then we get to the hotel room and then Brittany does a shake and then realized, oh, I have some more stuck in the crevices. Like literally she had to put the trashcan below her so that she could shake it into the trashcan. So would it be on the floor everywhere? Yeah. But great sand dunes. National park is really fun, really unique. It’s so interesting that in the middle of Colorado, there’s these random, tall sand dunes, literally the size of mountains. And then they’re just centered in this area where you’re looking at the actual, real surrounding mountains around you covered with snow, everything like that.

3 (23m 10s):
But you’re really going to go there and either just look at the sand dunes or make the best of the sand dunes and go sledding or boarding on it. Cause I don’t think anyone wants to just hike it to hike it because if you’ve ever hiked in sand, which we did to have to get to the top, to do the boarding down, it is fucking tough. So you might as well make it rewarding and actually do the fun part.

1 (23m 27s):
Yeah. Well we didn’t have to hike that much, but I wanted to. So I kind of forced our hand in that. And let me tell you hiking and sand is fucking miserable.

2 (23m 36s):
Great workout.

1 (23m 37s):
It’s so tough. I mean, it’s, it’s a great workout, but it hurts your feet. Cause you’re like, okay, do I wear covered shoes because I’m to get sand in my shoes, but should I go barefoot or not? And that really hurts your feet. Kind of making your decision. We decided to go barefoot. Probably not a good idea. Maybe

2 (23m 53s):
Neoprene socks.

1 (23m 55s):
Maybe I know in the summer the sand gets up to like 150 degrees. So you have to plan going in like the spring or the fall. When the weather’s a little bit cooler, we went in April is probably the perfect time to go. But we did have a lot of fun. Sandboarding is actually harder than it looks. But sand sledding is where it’s at.

3 (24m 13s):
San sledding is where it’s at. But Kim get this, you know, Brittany never wants to say no. When she’s determined to do something on a trip, let alone a specific hike. She wants to do it to the top. She wants to make it happen. And she wanted to hike the two highest sand dunes that were out there. But the highest sand dune was way, way far back. And she actually had the realization early on, which was great that, oh, we clearly can’t do that. But the second highest is actually really close to us. So let’s go hike the second highest. And then that was her plan. And then literally a quarter way up, she realized and actually said, fuck this. We’re not going to the top of the second highest. So we did make some good high thumb, the sand dunes, but she’s like, no, no, no, this is way too tough to hike.

2 (24m 54s):
Actually. One of my favorite feelings when Brittany decides not to do one of her crazy ideas and we get out of it, I’m just like, yes.

3 (25m 3s):
You know

1 (25m 4s):
What, Kim, it’s hilarious that you think that

2 (25m 7s):
It’s happened a few times. Not often. So when it does happen, it’s just like, yeah,

1 (25m 12s):
I’m going to die one day on like one of these hikes. And I’m like, no, we’re going to

2 (25m 16s):
Yeah. Maybe be careful out there.

1 (25m 20s):
Hey travelers, let’s take a quick detour to talk all about our traveler itineraries that we’ve created just for you. We now have six different trip itineraries one week in Kauai

2 (25m 31s):
And American Southwest weekend or road trip a

3 (25m 33s):
Week in Yellowstone and grand Teton, national parks,

1 (25m 36s):
A road trip adventure featuring all three of Washington. State’s national parks,

3 (25m 42s):
Big island, Hawaii, and an Arizona road trip that features all three of Arizona’s national parks.

2 (25m 48s):
We are obsessed with these. These itineraries are 20 to 30 page PDF guides with every detail of the trip laid out. We’re talking where to fly into the exact route to take where to stay park entrance prices, where to eat and driving distance between attractions plus what things to see and do even the hikes we recommend and their mileage and the time to allow for each one and so much more. We have,

1 (26m 9s):
I have story highlights on our Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, where you can see the full guides. We’ve done all of the research and have taken these exact trips, taking out all of the guesswork from the planning. So all that you have to do is show up and have fun

3 (26m 22s):
And purchase your comprehensive Travel Squad Podcast, itinerary on our website at Travel Squad, Podcast dot com, best of all, they’re on sale right now for $30. So travel on over and get yours today.

2 (26m 34s):
Moving into may things start looking up a little bit. I got to go on pretty big trip. I went to Mexico city with a big group of friends. I think there was like eight or 10 of us. So it was a very brim bumptious group. This is where we actually got to get on a plane, fly to another country. I’ve been to Mexico city a few times before, but with this big group of friends, it was really fun. I got to go to , which is a place that I’ve wanted to go to. Since I first heard of Mexico city. Now it’s not in Mexico city. It’s about a four hour drive outside. So we went with a Vite or tour, which I would highly recommend. They took really good care of us. And this is a place where they have natural hot Springs, natural cave that you can swim in natural, beautiful, bright blue river.

2 (27m 18s):
That’s warm, that runs through the place. And then they have all these extremely warm hot spring pools built into a side of a cliff like 60 pools. It’s amazing. It’s one of the most beautiful places, highly, highly, highly recommend you go there, but it’s definitely an all day thing. So the next day we were there, we went to Xochi Milko, which is a really fun party place you get on these colorful big boats. You have mariachi bands did pay for it this time.

3 (27m 42s):
Yeah. Well we talked about Sochi Malco way back when and episode one, our very first episode talking about Mexico city. And that was our first Mexico city trip. And I remember when we actually planned that and we’re doing it. You wanted to go to a grotesque Tatango then. And we were like, well, we’re going for such a short weekend trip. It’s four hours away, one way. And I remember the conversation you were just like, well, if we’re not going to go to the hot Springs, I don’t even really want to go. And you ended up going and we had a good time. No doubt. So I’m glad you finally made it there. But point being yes, on that first initial trip, we went to Sochi Malco, also fun as fuck. Just cruising the canals, the colorful boats, mariachi band, whether or not you pay for them to come onto your boat.

3 (28m 26s):
And Cindy, you personally, you do hear them food vendors, beer all up on the river and Creek. It’s great. Yeah.

2 (28m 31s):
Yeah. So people are bringing drinks onto your boat. You get them before. So as you can imagine, we were very tipsy when we got done at Xochi Milko, we went to a Lucia Libris show in Mexico city. And that was fun. We’re just screaming like, fuck you, fuck you and your mother to

5 (28m 46s):
That’s what you do there.

2 (28m 49s):
It was so funny. It was hilarious, really good time. And then we just had the next day to explore. And it was a really, really good trip for being one of the first like international trips since COVID it was amazing.

3 (29m 2s):
Yeah. Because even though we did via the Guadalupe, I feel like just crossing the border and driving has that different field than flying. Even though you flew from Tijuana to Mexico city, it’s the flight in it’s further inland. So it really makes it feel more international than the sometimes Americanized stuff that you will find close to the border here. Yes,

2 (29m 21s):
It was a good one.

1 (29m 22s):
Yeah. I definitely want to go back to Mexico city and go to . That would be a lot of fun and low senior pictures. Kim have definitely inspired me. We didn’t go on that trip, but Jamal and I did go to the east coast. We used our timeshare and we actually used Williamsburg as a hub and we spent a week there exploring Williamsburg, going to Washington, DC, going to Delaware, shouldn’t do a national park, hiking. Old rag came. You would have hated that hike.

2 (29m 52s):
What didn’t you do up

1 (29m 54s):
And going to America’s newest national park, new river Gorge national park, and doing whitewater rafting for our first time.

3 (30m 2s):
That was really fun. Love new river Gorge, love Shenandoah national park too. Mind you, but did you mention Maryland? Also we did go to Maryland hit off ocean city, which is a fun Eastern seaboard town. And I really enjoyed it. You know, I mentioned it before or several times talking about how as much travel as we do in the U S it really is centered around national parks. And here we are with two of them in here, but realistically my east coast adventures have really only included New York and Florida. So it was really nice to actually get other east coast states and, and see them and their uniqueness. And I really, really enjoyed that a lot.

1 (30m 40s):
So if you want to hear more about the east coast, we mention it in both episode 94 and episode 100, but also in may, we took a quick weekend or up to San Francisco. I really wanted to go to bodega bay, eat some crab sandwiches, spend some time in San Francisco, crossing over into Sausalito and getting views of the golden gate. From that side, we went to a black sand beach in that area, which I didn’t know existed until that trip. We geeked out and saw the full house house and went to some lookouts. It was really nice trip. We can get away in San Francisco.

3 (31m 15s):
You know, we grew up in Woodland, California, which is 10 minutes north of Sacramento. And would then does maybe about an hour to an hour and a half away from San Francisco, depending on the traffic. And as many times growing up as we’ve been to San Francisco and even adults before we moved here to San Diego, what I really like about San Francisco is there’s always something new to do everything that Brittany just listed was something new that we did that we have actually never done before the many times, probably over 50 times that we’ve all been to San Francisco. So it’s such a great city. You’ll always hear the naysayers on the news, and I’m not saying that it doesn’t have its flaws and issues and concerns, but nonetheless, you will always have a good time in San Francisco.

3 (31m 57s):
So much to do all around culture, scenery, beautiful weather, food experiences. It’s great.

2 (32m 4s):
June was a big month for us. We went to Zion national park, which we’ve been to many times before. It was the three of us plus honorary squad members. Charlotte

1 (32m 14s):
Love

2 (32m 14s):
Charlotte love Charlotte. She’s a trooper. And we went to Zion specifically to knock off the narrows from our bucket list.

1 (32m 22s):
We have been talking about hiking, the narrows for years. Like, I don’t know, five years at least. And every year we have skipped it. And then in February, actually, while I was in the airport, the Nashville airport, I messaged him. And I was like, let’s do Zion on this year. What month are you free? When’s a good time. And we narrowed down a month and a weekend. And we’re like, this is when it’s going to happen. And we made it happen.

2 (32m 46s):
Brittany does her best travel planning while in the airport. I

1 (32m 50s):
Do.

3 (32m 51s):
Well, you have nothing to do, but sit and wait. Secondly, you’re inspired from your most recent travels to start planning. The next thing new. I can’t tell you how many. I mean, Boise happened that way. We figured out we were going to do our Boise trip. As a matter of fact, while we were sitting on the plane before they made us switch our phones into airplane mode, you know, so sometimes these things come on on a whim, you know, you just gotta be inspired and Brittany’s is always inspired at the airports to schedule the next one.

2 (33m 16s):
The narrows is pretty much, you could describe it as a slot canyon hike where there’s towering 200 plus feet,

1 (33m 23s):

2000. I

2 (33m 24s):
Always do that where there’s towering 2000 plus feet rock walls on either side of you, beautiful red rocks and you’re hiking through a river that could be up to your shins. It could be up to your chest. Depends on when you go and what part of the place that you’re in, but it’s an epic, very unique, amazing hike.

1 (33m 45s):
It’s a bucket list. Hike, definitely

3 (33m 48s):
For sure. A bucket list. And even in June when we did it, most of it, yes. Was at our shins to knee. However, there was one point where it got up to mid chest and even another point where we for sure still had to swim across. So even in June, you know, past winter and all that snow melt, the river still can be high in certain points where you have to swim, but epic hike all around and then such a beautiful national park that is Zion.

1 (34m 12s):
We also did a part of a hike called Angel’s landing. We didn’t make it all the way to the end, cause that does require you to traverse some chain,

2 (34m 19s):
Which by the way, they just made that a permanent hike.

1 (34m 22s):
We knew that was going to happen. We saw that coming. Oh yeah. How many people were on the chain?

3 (34m 27s):
As a matter of fact, of all the times that we’ve been to Zion national park, we’ve only had a very recent episode on it. Episode 97, actually talking about that trip that we did in June doing the narrows and angels landing. And if I’m not mistaken, even in that episode and other ones weren’t talking about national parks, we’ve mentioned, we saw the writing on the wall that they have to make that permitted almost like half dome and other type of major hikes and national parks. And here they are just announcing it. That that’s the case. And I’m actually really stoked. I know you don’t like Heights Kim, but I do feel and correct me if I’m wrong. That your biggest concern obviously was the Heights. But the fact that there’s the two way traffic and it’s really narrow, there was less people. Do you think you might be adventurous and really entertained doing it and feeling a little bit safer with less people on it?

2 (35m 13s):
I’d have to feel it out because I think even though half dome is permitted, it’s still crowded both ways. So it may still be the case in Angel’s landing, just less crowded. And in that case I would have to pass.

1 (35m 26s):
Kim does not like Heights. She does not like adrenaline. She, Nope. It’s not an adventure. I’d

2 (35m 31s):
Rather just be safe on my hikes.

3 (35m 34s):
My biggest I’m proud of Kim moment was when we were at Shanghai Disney and she finally wrote Tron and was actually really embracing it.

2 (35m 42s):
Yeah.

3 (35m 43s):
And that was a big moment. So I mean, Kim riding a rollercoaster at Disneyland has big adrenaline moments for Kevin. So yeah.

2 (35m 50s):
I’d rather do the rollercoaster then Angel’s landing.

3 (35m 53s):
Well, yeah, you know, it you’d love it,

1 (35m 55s):
But rolling into July, we did quite a bit of travel in July. Actually we did a couples trip to Mexicali a

2 (36m 2s):
Day trip in 120 degree weather.

1 (36m 5s):
So squad tip, don’t go to Mexicali. And this summer nothing even opened until like later in the evening anyways. So we got there super early. And the only thing we could do at first was eat Chinese food,

2 (36m 15s):
Try to go to Costco.

3 (36m 18s):
Well, it was not really 120. It was about a hundred, 608. So big exaggeration of about like 10, 15 degrees, but equally just as hot and felt like death out there. But the reason for the Mexicali trip into Mexico, which is just south of the border, however, not here in Tijuana, just south of San Diego east into the desert area. So that’s why it was hot, but Mexicali is famous for two things. They actually have a craft brew scene out there, which San Diego also does is very famous for. But Mexicali really has a nice craft brew scene. Also, secondly, Mexicali, I think has the largest population of Chinese people in Mexico. So they’re famous for their Chinese food in Mexico.

3 (36m 60s):
So we’re like, let’s go to Mexicali and have some beer and Chinese food. And you know, we looked at everything online of what we were going to do. And this is sometimes even where certain things could mislead you online. We saw that places opened at a certain time, but they were different seasonal hours because it’s so hot out there during the summer. Things don’t open until late because a lot of this stuff is outdoors and no one wants to sit outdoors at noon or one o’clock when it’s 106 hundred eight degrees outside.

2 (37m 26s):
That’s right. I would go back. I’m looking at the weather right now in December. It’s 70 degrees. That sounds great.

1 (37m 32s):
We had a whole plan brewery, Chinese food brewery, Chinese food. And we couldn’t do that. It was like Chinese food brewery, brewery brewery, brewery brewery, which is, we

2 (37m 40s):
Never got more Chinese.

3 (37m 41s):
You never got more Chinese who, but every brewery we went to, we ended up getting more food. Even though we ended up

2 (37m 46s):
Rules, you had to get food with your drinks. Yeah. So go in the winter.

1 (37m 51s):
Yeah. Still a good trip go into the winter and stead

2 (37m 54s):
In July, I took a birthday trip with an ex-boyfriend to Rosarito and that was really fun. We rented a two bedroom condo that was oceanfront, you know, Florida ceiling windows, beautiful. Like nobody there in the property got to bring my dog. She loved it. And we just relaxed. Really. We got food, we made food at home. We drank, we went out a little bit. When did this really cool place in Rosarito called K 38? It’s a indoor outdoor kind of bar place that overlooks the ocean there’s live music. You can see the surfers. I would highly recommend that for Rosarito. And, and honestly, Rosarito is just like a perfect weekend getaway place from San Diego.

3 (38m 35s):
Keeping with July, I guess July was a really busy month for us. We did a lot of different things here. We took a birthday trip for me to Chicago, leave it to Brittany, to plan Jamal’s birthday trip as always. And you know, she sold it in the sense of, oh, we’re going to Chicago. We love Chicago. I’ve been there before. And yes, we really do love Chicago, but you know, Brittany wanted to go use the, as a hub and hit off a new national park, which was gateway. Yes.

1 (39m 2s):
I wanted you to watch a Cubs game.

3 (39m 3s):
No, I said, I will only go if you allow me to go to a Cubs game so I could see one at Wrigley field and you said, okay. And then caveat was going to gateway arch national park. Which if you remember earlier in the episode, we said, debatable, should it be a national bark? It should be a national monument. They’d made it one. So nonetheless, we had to go awesome place to go visit and go to the top. No doubt about that. However, is it a national park? Should it be one debatable for sure. Sorry to rag on you guys. St. Louis. It’s nothing personal in that sense. I would still recommend going for sure on that, but we enjoyed Chicago stayed downtown along the river, went to the Cubs game, ate famous deep dish pizza.

3 (39m 43s):
Loved it, loved it, loved it. And of course, national park.

1 (39m 47s):
Yeah. You can do gateway arch national park in one day. I really don’t think it should be considered national park at all. It’s definitely more national monument. They’re

2 (39m 55s):
Just making shit up at this

1 (39m 57s):
Point. I know, but we did ride the tram to the top. We did take the cruise on the Mississippi and we did do the museums inside the arch because part of it’s built underground. So they have a whole museum underground, which is very interesting, but we did all that we could do. I gateway arch national park and we only spent part of a day there, but we do have an upcoming episode on gateway arch national park. So please go ahead and hit the subscribe button so that when it releases, you can hear all about it because it is worth the trip

3 (40m 26s):
And closing out July. Like I said, we did a lot in July, another national park, repeat for us here in California, going back to Kings canyon, national park, which is just north of Sequoia national park in the Southern Sierra Nevada mountains. And here we have the famous Sequoia trees and we did a trail specifically that Brittany wanted to do. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about that, Brittany?

1 (40m 50s):
Yeah, so we wanted to do the missed falls trail, which is a nine mile trail. But when we went to the Kings canyon last time, one of the hikes we did, we got lost in 16 miles. We couldn’t find our way out. We thought we were going to be stranded on Easter day. I don’t know

2 (41m 3s):
How that happened.

3 (41m 4s):
And that was your fault. That was your fault. So

1 (41m 7s):
This time we really wanted to see Kings canyon because I felt last time that we went, we focused a lot more on the Sequoia trees. And this time we actually got to see the granite walls of the canyon and at a waterfall that was absolutely gorgeous and then dipping your feet in it and just relaxing and eating lunch was cherry on top. So we had a really nice time there highly recommend that trail. It was, it was a really good trip

2 (41m 32s):
Skirting on, down into August. I took a lot of low key trips in 2021. And one of those was a trip to LA. Jamal is an LA hater, but I like LA.

3 (41m 43s):
I’m not an LA hater. You know, it’s one of those things where every time I say, you know, I’m in the mood to go to LA and then we’ll go to LA. And then I think to myself, why did I want to come to LA

1 (41m 55s):
Tell me the last time you said, I want to

2 (41m 57s):
Go to, I know I was just going to,

3 (41m 58s):
But it’s been a while. Cause I’ve learned because I’ve learned, but you know what the irony of it is, I’m actually in the fucking mood now to really go to LA because it always makes me want to go back. But it’s one of those things where even as a California and having been there many times, I know it’s not what people think of when they think of LA. So that just kind of sticks with me, but I feel more so it’s not hating on LA. It’s like I’m in San Diego, I’m in Southern California. I could have beaches. If I want to go someplace a little bit more mellow, I’ll go to Santa Barbara. You know, there’s other places along the coast and ocean and stuff like that too. So that’s really, what is, I’m not a hater on LA. As a matter of fact, 2022, I’m calling it. We’re going to go to LA just so we can rebuttal what you laid is just that

2 (42m 39s):
Perfect. Because I actually have a task at hand for something I need to do. And it involves hiking. The Hollywood sign.

3 (42m 46s):
Oh fuck. We did that before. That was terrible.

1 (42m 49s):
What do you have to do? Is that why you asked me to hype

3 (42m 53s):
For,

2 (42m 53s):
I have a client called nomadic grills. Really cool. Portable grill that we want to get their photo in front of the Hollywood sign. That’s

1 (42m 60s):
Why you asked me on this

2 (43m 1s):
Joint grilling included grilling included.

3 (43m 4s):
Oh my God. All right, well we’ve already done this one. We just can’t do it during the summer because we did during the summer. There’s no shade on that. And it was hot as fuck

2 (43m 11s):
In February. Okay, perfect. So I went to LA on a nice little day trip, stayed at the free hand LA, which is a really cute hotel, amazing rooftop pool, pink umbrellas, everywhere. Really good drinks, really good snacks. There’s a bar and restaurant up there. If you’re just going to go staycation in LA, I would recommend the freehand LA it’s in downtown downtown’s will sketchy, but the rooftop pool is amazing. I was actually meeting a friend from nor Cal who was coming down there. We’re both gonna meet there. So it was really nice to see her. I went to some weird emo rock show that I wouldn’t recommend, but I would recommend the hotel.

3 (43m 48s):
So you’re justifying my point. Now I know downtown, downtown’s kind of sketchy. Wouldn’t recommend going to the rock show, but that is LA right?

2 (43m 57s):
Okay. So the rock show was just a wild card, but downtown LA is not the place to stay if you’re coming to LA.

3 (44m 4s):
But that, and even people who live in LA know that downtown LA is not a place you want to go. You want to go to places along the coast. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. I, as a matter of fact, think that I read an article one time that downtown LA is the only major downtown city in the United States. That actually doesn’t have wealthy people that live downtown because they know that they don’t want to live downtown. As a matter of fact.

2 (44m 27s):
Yeah. I did see the Cecil hotel in person.

3 (44m 29s):
I remember you saying that right after I watched the documentary on Netflix.

2 (44m 34s):
So that was cool. And then shortly after that, I went to Leon, Mexico, which is in the state of and I was actually going there for a high school friend’s wedding. And it was a great wedding. I love Mexican weddings. We actually have an episode on Mexican weddings because they are nothing like American weddings. There’s so much more fun. So that was really cool. But while I was there, we were able to spend a few hours in one of Watteau, which is about an hour from there. And this place is artsy. It’s creative, it’s colorful, it’s music and theater. It’s beautiful there. So I would recommend one to Watteau and then Leone’s really known as one of the leather capitals of the world.

1 (45m 15s):
I did not know that.

2 (45m 16s):
Yeah. And they have a huge leather Plaza shopping area where you can get belts and wallets and shoes and literally anything that’s made of leather. You can get it there.

1 (45m 26s):
Well, you definitely went to one a lot though. And it has inspired me to go. I’ve been thinking about one a lot though, for years. So I’m super jealous of that, but I’m really glad you got to go to that wedding. I was actually cleaning my garage this last weekend. And the person of the wedding that you went to, I actually found his picture, which you may had along with like some pictures of my cousin where you wrote the word sexy on. So it brought back some good memories.

3 (45m 51s):
Oh, high school days,

2 (45m 53s):
Days that might’ve been even junior high,

1 (45m 57s):
But in August is Jamal and my anniversary month. And so we went to Austin, Texas, and we did a few things there. We went to visit the blue hole swimming hole, which is super cool. I’ve been seeing it on Instagram. It’s a naturally shaded area with a whole bunch of trees that covers like this Creek and you can go swimming or tubing down the river. They also have these swings. So you can swing in and drop in, which is super fun. So we had a lot of fun there. We stayed in downtown Austin and we visited the state Capitol and we saw all of the murals and downtown and we saw lady bird lake, and we got some Texas barbecue. So we are going to have an upcoming episode on Austin as well. Cause Kim has been before and we went in August.

2 (46m 39s):
I went in August too, but 2020, how funny? Interesting. I would like to go back to Austin and go, maybe in the spring.

1 (46m 47s):
It’s too hot in the summer.

2 (46m 48s):
Yeah. It’s very hot. And you know, we’re from Woodland where it also gets very hot, but I just wasn’t used to,

3 (46m 54s):
But it’s humid in Texas versus in Woodland. It’s not

1 (46m 57s):
Like a

3 (46m 57s):
Dry heat. Secondly, what makes it worse is that certain places of the United States are known for summer rainstorms and thunderstorm. So one of the days we were there, it was hot as shit. And then the afternoon rolled in and it was still hot as hell. And then torrential downpour, man.

2 (47m 13s):
Yeah.

3 (47m 14s):
So we had that, but I do want to go back to Austin. We didn’t really get to go to their party district that they have, which was actually right by our hotel. What’s it called again? Kim

1 (47m 23s):
Rainy street,

2 (47m 24s):
Rainy streets. One of them, I think sixth street is another, it’s very ratchet, but rainy street is also really cool. It’s like, it reminds me of Davis.

3 (47m 31s):
Yeah. And I would love to go and actually experience nightlife in rainy. But when we were there in August, that was actually still at the height of when they were saying Texas was really being decimated with COVID. So we were enjoined about, I was like, Ooh, I don’t want to go out partying. Right.

2 (47m 46s):
It’s funny. Cause I went in August, 2020 and they didn’t care at all about COVID

3 (47m 50s):
Oh, they still don’t care. But see the numbers were high August when we

1 (47m 53s):
Went, Jamal cares, But rolling into September, September, it was a really fun month because this is a trip we were planning and waiting for all of COVID. Cause this trip got canceled.

2 (48m 4s):
I know. And I was like on the edge of my seat, is it going to happen? Is it not going to happen? I don’t want to get my hopes up. I’ve been disappointed so much, but it did happen.

3 (48m 13s):
Fucking happened.

1 (48m 13s):
And we got so lucky guys, we were the first trip to Ecuador that year on that tour.

2 (48m 19s):
Yeah. And they really treated as special because of that. But before we went to Ecuador, we flew from Miami. So we actually just added a bonus weekender in Miami, which is one of my favorite cities in the country. Jamal man, I don’t know how he feels about it.

3 (48m 33s):
That’s just Florida. It’s just Florida for me. No, I, yeah, it’s hot. And I hate the heat and humid, you know this, but no, I, I definitely did enjoy our time and experience in Miami. We explored south beach. That was fun for me. It’s one of those things, anything that you see on movies or TVs that’s quintessential of like a city and if you’ve never been there and then you see it in person, it’s just so unique

2 (48m 57s):
Versace house.

3 (48m 58s):
Yeah. So it was really fun to see south beach. One of my favorite things that we did was go on the millionaire row boat tour, which is the boat tour that shows you all the millionaires homes that are out on the islands that they have out there right off the coast. And you can almost equate it to, you know, the Hollywood tours that they do have celebrity homes in LA. I could give a shit about the celebrity house, but it was just fun to be out on the boat in Miami, on the water, which I mean, Miami is famous for the water and seeing the skyline to me, that was the highlight more so than the people’s homes, but our tour guide, you know, they’d like to make it funny and it made it for a fun trip with all his jokes and everything that he said and dead.

2 (49m 38s):
I really liked the skyline from the Ferris wheel that we went on.

1 (49m 42s):
That was a fun little Ferris wheel ride at

3 (49m 44s):
Night. Loved the city Ferris wheels camp. I do.

2 (49m 46s):
I do. And the Cuban sandwich was really good too.

1 (49m 49s):
And your tiny little coffee.

2 (49m 51s):
Ooh, the coladas. Yeah. Miami all around. It’s just really good episode. One 12. You can go back to that one. We detail Miami in depth. If you have any questions about Miami, just DME specifically, be happy to take a trip with you. Miami is awesome.

3 (50m 6s):
Miami was fun, but let’s not kid ourselves. The highlight of September was Ecuador. So let’s talk about Ecuador.

1 (50m 14s):
So this was an eight day guided tour with gate one. There was like 39 of us on the guided to

2 (50m 20s):
Work, shut out gate one.

1 (50m 22s):
We made a lot of friends on the tour. We had a lot of good times, a lot of good stories. We met a couple of where pretty much everyone didn’t like them as well.

2 (50m 31s):
They were what you think of when you think of bad Americans?

1 (50m 36s):
Yes, definitely.

2 (50m 37s):
Every day it was something new.

3 (50m 39s):
They’re the people that you would travel with that would make you want to say you’re a Canadian, just so you won’t be associated with them over there.

1 (50m 46s):
But w what was funny is like, everyone should talk to them, but like, everyone was nice to them. It wasn’t like they were completely outcast. Like they were still included in the group. Definitely. So we made the best of the situation, but we had a great time in Ecuador. Again, it was eight days. We spent some time in Keitha, which is the capital city. Then we hit the Andes highly. There was these thermal poles in there must

2 (51m 10s):
Oh my God. That was amazing. Hot spring pools, literally five feet from the front door of your hotel room.

1 (51m 18s):
And then this amazing backdrop of the lush Andy’s in the background,

2 (51m 22s):
My God.

1 (51m 22s):
And they had a spa there. And so we were able to do like a steam room cave and a soaking and a massage

2 (51m 29s):
Keen loss soup.

1 (51m 31s):
It was so good. And then from there, we headed to the Amazon and we did some jungle hiking and some rafting in the river. And that was amazing

2 (51m 40s):
My first time in the Amazon. And it was really cool.

3 (51m 44s):
It definitely didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed it a lot. We weren’t deep into it. We were at the very edge of it. And I would like to go deeper and other countries. Yeah. That’s my life long goal to go deeper again. But at the same time, what we saw of the Ecuadorian Amazon, I really, really did enjoy were kind of at what they call like the Amazon Highlands. So we’re at an elevation of about like a thousand feet above sea level. It’s still humid. It’s still jungley. You still have the jungle life and everything that is out there. But you know, the further deep you get in, when you get into Brazil, that’s when it gets to sea level and a little bit more dense, but more bugs. I was actually really stoked with how few bugs and mosquitoes we actually had at that level.

3 (52m 27s):
So I actually think it may be better because you can avoid all that crap of the bugs in that area. Without we were at,

2 (52m 33s):
I came so prepared with bug spray. I took a shower, douse myself. I woke up, I douse myself. I doused the screen door, the towel under the gap in the door, like everything. And I, and I took it with me and I reapplied and I came out unscathed.

1 (52m 51s):
I think I had a few, but not many.

3 (52m 54s):
And the few that we did have, they weren’t like super bad, like itchy mosquito ones either. So for where we were, I was actually pleasantly stoked with the situation. Good on you, Kim, like you said, you took it seriously. And it paid off. It’s like me, when I get in the sun, like, I really need to put on sunscreen. Otherwise I’m going to get burned. And when I do and put it on and take care, I avoid it. And it looks like you did that, but with the bug situation. Yeah.

1 (53m 18s):
So if you haven’t listened to the Ecuador episode, it’s episode 1 0 9, go back, listen to it. We had a really great time. This was our like true, true international trip since COVID and it was a squad trip and it was so much fun.

2 (53m 32s):
It really, really got me itching to go on another one. I’m dying to get out of this country. That’s

1 (53m 37s):
Why we have Greece planned for next year. Oh yeah.

3 (53m 39s):
It’s debatable. Debatable. We’ll talk about that later. I’m sure.

1 (53m 43s):
Going into October, October is my birthday month. Woo.

2 (53m 47s):
Happy birthday.

1 (53m 48s):
Thank you. And so we saw some fucking hard Southwest tickets where we got some Southwest tickets, round trip for both Jamal and I, we paid less than $120 for both of us. And we went to Holly Aquila national park. We drove the road to HANA and we hiked some awesome waterfall trails. We went to some beaches that had big ass waves, and we had a good time. And Maui, won’t say, it’s my favorite Hawaiian island. But we did make the most

2 (54m 17s):
Also in October, I went back to one a Watteau. I was obsessed with this place when I went there in August, but we only got to spend maybe four hours there. I didn’t realize how far it was from Leone. So my ex and I went back to what I want though, for a trip to spend an entire weekend there. We flew out after work on a Friday, got in late, early Saturday morning, I would say, and we really hit the ground running one a lot though. Bars do not close. Maybe they close at some point in the morning, but I went home before that. And I went home at 5:00 AM. That first night

1 (54m 49s):
They close at six

2 (54m 50s):
And they were still open. Oh my God.

3 (54m 52s):
You know, if you want pre 30 Kim, you just need to get her in a different country. But here in the U S she won’t do that. You still got it, but you just need the right mood and setting. And that setting is either Mexico or other countries to get going. Yeah.

2 (55m 5s):
Yeah. Why do that here? There’s no point. So I did not know this about , but there are so many caves there. Mining is a really big thing. There there’s a lot of gemstones there. There’s a lot of cave bars there. So you think you’re walking into a bar, you go downstairs and then bam,

1 (55m 21s):
Bam. It just

2 (55m 22s):
Opens up into this huge cave bar. And it’s so cool and there’s dancing. And so that was really fun. There’s mummies. There there’s a whole history with the mummies when I was there. And the reason we chose to go on this weekend was the servant Tino festival. This is a month long festival of music, dancing, theater, art, all throughout the town. And it’s a very small town. You can walk anywhere. And so we’d be sitting in a courtyard, in a balcony at a little table having drinks, and there’s a performance happening right in front of us or an orchestra playing music. And it was amazing. So if you are planning to go, I would highly recommend the fall time and plan it for ServiceNow.

3 (55m 60s):
You know, just the couple of times that you’ve been on. I know you said the first time didn’t get to spend too much time there because you were really there for the wedding. But Brittany said earlier that she’s been looking into, want to walk though. Literally for years, you’ve gone twice in one year and every time I see your photos, I’m just so inspired. And I’m hoping maybe in 2022, cause I know you love it, that you’ll rock it with us. And we’ll actually finally make one on what they’ll happen for me and Brittany,

2 (56m 23s):
We did it in a weekend trip. We didn’t take Friday off. We didn’t take Monday off. So you can definitely do that.

1 (56m 28s):
Yeah. That is on my list for 2022, definitely. But also in October, I decided to celebrate my birthday month, all month long. And I dragged them all back to Sedona because I wanted to do some hiking in the fall. And Sedona is such a beautiful place any time a year. But during the fall, it’s really, really nice. We had a really nice time. We hiked some different hikes, went to another vortex. I love going to like the vortex areas and just like relaxing, putting my hands and feet on the earth and just like rejuvenating. So it was a really good trip to Sedona and I would love to go back still. I know we’ve been twice, but there’s just so much to do there so much hiking to see.

3 (57m 8s):
And we do have a full episode on Sedona it’s episode 73, keep in mind that episode we recorded after our one visit that we had there we’ve since been back. So if you’ve heard of something that we don’t address in that episode, DMS, maybe it’s something that we did on the second time. That way we could give you some information, if you have additional questions.

1 (57m 28s):
So rolling into Kim’s birthday month. Woo. The month of November. Happy birthday, Kim,

3 (57m 34s):
Why did no one tell me happy birthday when we talked about July,

1 (57m 38s):
Sorry.

3 (57m 39s):
You know, whatever,

2 (57m 41s):
Let’s go back.

3 (57m 42s):
It’s all good.

1 (57m 43s):
So with November Jamal and I did a little weekend trip to mammoth lakes up in Northern California on the backside of Yosemite. It’s very interesting being on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada is we’ve never seen them from that angle or side before during that drive. And we had a really good time. Mammoth lakes has over a hundred lakes in the area and we did do a hike to a lake called crystal lake, which is an Alpine lake. And the top of the lake was actually frozen over. And you could actually see the bubbles at the surface, which was really cool. And we had the lake all to ourself, which was amazing. And then we also went and experienced some hot Springs in the area, Ooh, with the Sierra Nevada mountains as the backdrop.

1 (58m 27s):
So super beautiful place to go. Mammoth lake.

2 (58m 30s):
I just have one question for the less educated out there. What exactly would you define? The characteristics are of an Alpine lake?

3 (58m 41s):
An Alpine lake would probably be something that’s 7,000 feet or above in a mountainous region. That’s forested. Okay. That’s what I would define as an Alpine lake. Maybe geographers have a different definition of it, but that’s what I think.

2 (58m 56s):
Okay. So it’s not like blue or green or Rocky. It’s just the altitude in the forest,

3 (59m 0s):
The altitude in the forest. Got

2 (59m 2s):
It. Beautiful.

3 (59m 3s):
And Alpine comes from Alps, which is the mountain chain in Europe. So that’s what they really define it as, I mean, obviously an Alpine lake could be something not in the Alps in Europe, right. Lake Tahoe was even deemed an Alpine lake because of its level. Yeah.

1 (59m 18s):
I will give you the Wikipedia definition.

2 (59m 20s):
Give it to me.

1 (59m 21s):
Alpine lakes are classified as lakes at high altitudes in elevations above sea level or above the tree line. These lakes are usually clear than lakes at lower elevations due to the colder water. So, and there’s usually less algae and Moss growth in the water as well.

2 (59m 37s):
Oh, okay. Okay. I’m glad we clarified that.

3 (59m 40s):
Yeah, but what I really liked about mammoth lake, so that’s a nice region, like Brittany said on the east side of Yosemite, backside of the Sierra Nevada mountains, but driving that stretch from Southern California to get up there, or even if you’re starting in Northern California and driving the backside of the Sierra south, it’s so fricking unique, the backside of the Sierra is a really, really Rocky. You can’t see any trees whatsoever. And then the road is actually in a desert. So you’re looking at the mountains and you know, there’s snow up there. Absolutely no trees on that side. And then just desert. And we also pass through Mount Whitney, which is actually the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. Denali is the tallest in the U S but that’s in Alaska.

3 (1h 0m 22s):
So you get to see the backside of Mount Whitney, really cool, unique position to see mountains with the desert, just right there, completely odd that I’ve never seen ever before in my life, living in California.

2 (1h 0m 32s):
And then in November to celebrate my birthday, I decided to take a trip to Tennessee. I wanted to go to Nashville in 2020 for my birthday, but COVID had other plans for me. So this year decided to pick that back up and spend one day in Nashville and one day in the great smoky mountains national park. Now, if I had more time and I can go back, I would do more time because you would need

1 (1h 0m 55s):
It in which place

2 (1h 0m 56s):
Both actually, but definitely in great smokey mountains. It just one day is just not enough there. It’s so pretty. I really wanted to go this time of year for the fall colors in San Diego, we don’t really get fall colors and in Tennessee, oh my God, it was gorgeous.

3 (1h 1m 12s):
You’ve never seen the Palm trees change colors out.

2 (1h 1m 15s):
No, I seen them fall on my car, but They don’t change. So to see fall is just amazing. And last year I had gone to new England during the fall season and I was just blown away. So I really, really wanted to see it. And it did not disappoint. So the first night in Nashville did the whole honky tonks drink, hot chicken sandwich. I went to printer’s alley, which was a really fun place. I think all of that is fun, but Kim, over 30, not into it as much.

3 (1h 1m 47s):
Exactly.

2 (1h 1m 48s):
Exactly. So I just don’t like hangovers. I don’t mind drinking, but the hangovers really sucked. So the next morning we were looking for biscuits and gravy. We found this place called Moe Nels by the manner. And I wish I wasn’t so hung over because it was so cool. It was like 12 person tables. They sit everyone together, whether you’re with that party or not. So there’s no COVID restrictions there. That’s for sure. And you eat family style. So they bring out biscuits, they bring out gravy, a plate of bacon plate of pancakes and you pass it around and you have as much as you eat.

1 (1h 2m 20s):
That’s so common in the south, actually. I’ve heard of other restaurants like that.

2 (1h 2m 23s):
Yeah. I’ve, I’ve never experienced anything like that. And it was so cool.

1 (1h 2m 27s):
One of the places I’m looking at for our trip to the south, there is a restaurant like that.

2 (1h 2m 31s):
Oh, I am excited. Then I hope I’ll be there for that piece of it. So anyway, Nashville was amazing, but got in the car, drove the few hours over to Gatlinburg where I loved the great smoky mountains, the orange, the red, the yellow. It was amazing by the time we got there, it was getting darker. So, you know, when I hike with you guys, we go at like the crack of Dawn, but this was more towards the end of the day. So there’s nobody on the trails. It’s peaceful, it’s dusk, the colors are changing. It was amazing. And then Gatlinburg is this adorable little town definitely reminds me of a lot of hot Springs, Arkansas with the wine tasting and the random little museums and just the quaint one street that it is.

2 (1h 3m 12s):
And there’s a lot of like really cool places. You can go up and have drinks by the fire. And when you’re looking down, you can see the city and it’s completely surrounded by trees and mountains. And you can just see one little city carved out and that’s a really cool view. So if you guys go, definitely would recommend spending three days there.

1 (1h 3m 31s):
So rolling into this month, the month of December, we have not too much plan on manage balls. And we just got home from celebrating Christmas and really going up to Woodland was all we really did for this month.

2 (1h 3m 44s):
I did a trip to lake Tahoe, which I was so excited about was a little bit last minute, a couple of weeks before is when I booked it. Our friend Charlotte are on our squad members. She took a job up in Tahoe a few months ago. So going to visit her with a few other friends and you know, the whole Tahoe experience that casinos, the lakefront drinks, the mimosas, the dinner, the snow, the hiking, all of that. Amazing, amazing, amazing. And then we’re recording this a little bit early. So for new year’s plans are still up in the air, but San Francisco is a strong potential. We’re

1 (1h 4m 18s):
Going to big surf for new years.

2 (1h 4m 20s):
Ooh, that’ll be

3 (1h 4m 21s):
So I guess that’s 21, 22, right? Because we’re going to be spending new year somewhere,

2 (1h 4m 27s):
Basically leading us into what we already have planned for 2022.

1 (1h 4m 31s):
Yeah. So we were never able to read you our big search trip and go back there. So I actually read that going to big Sur in the winter is one of the best times to go because in the summer time or when it’s warmer, the ocean gets a very hazy view. And so you don’t get as good a view as while you’re there. So we’re expecting very clear skies doing some hiking in the big Sur area. I’m really excited to go back to that area and experience that this trip.

3 (1h 4m 56s):
Yeah, that’s starting off new years, 2022 with a bang going to big Sur. We are scheduled to go to Morocco. I mentioned this earlier. They put in restrictions with the new variant. We’ll see if they reopen as it stands. Now we have no indication that it’s not, and we are set to go unless things change. And I’m really stoked to get like a real, real international trip in. I know we had it with Ecuador and not that Latin America isn’t a real place, but now I’m crossing an ocean on top of it too. So it’s just even that more excitement to get to Morocco and I’m ready to experience it. That’s a

2 (1h 5m 33s):
Whole different world of there

3 (1h 5m 34s):
Absolutely.

2 (1h 5m 35s):
This isn’t Morocco, but I would love to get back to Boise next year.

3 (1h 5m 39s):
Yeah. You know what? Let’s go in February. Let’s go back to bogus basin and go snow tubing. I have no qualms with that. I loved Boise, Boise, Boise,

2 (1h 5m 48s):
Boy,

1 (1h 5m 50s):
I’m actually in February coin on a Utah road trip with an old coworker of mine. We’re going to fly into Vegas. We’re going go to Bryce canyon, Kodachrome state park. And we’re actually doing a guided hike. I’ve never done it before. It’s into this slot canyon called peekaboo slot canyon.

2 (1h 6m 8s):
Well, I guess you could say that lower antelope canyon was a guided hike.

1 (1h 6m 12s):
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, absolutely. And so we’re doing a guided hike for that. And then you could add on another place in the region for just a little bit more. So we did pick another hike in the area as well. So that’ll be really cool. I’ve never traveled with her before, so we’re going to see how this goes, but we’re planning two trips next year together. So it’ll be interesting.

2 (1h 6m 33s):
Awesome. I have two national parks I really want to visit next year. And that’s Mesa Verde in Colorado, which has been on our list almost as long as the narrows has been.

1 (1h 6m 44s):
I know, and I was really hoping that we could go this past year and I’m so hoping that we go in 2022 and the reason, one of the big reasons why I’ve held out. And I think Kim has held out too, is right now, you can’t actually go into the pueblos and the ruins right now. And so you can only see it from the cliff

2 (1h 7m 1s):
Because of

1 (1h 7m 1s):
COVID because of COVID. So I am waiting until they open up the tours. Again,

3 (1h 7m 6s):
I don’t understand because other national parks that require tours in closed in areas are actually open for operation. Hello? We were in mammoth cave. You’re talking pueblos on the side of the cliff. There’s open air breezes. What are they waiting for? So, yeah, I’m ready to, yeah.

2 (1h 7m 21s):
We have a Sue pie falls is open air. It’s an Indian reservation and they’ve also been closed since COVID

3 (1h 7m 27s):
Well, Indian reservations that I understand, but if it’s not like on an Indian reservation, just regular national park, I feel like if other ones are doing it, why are they delaying that one? Right.

2 (1h 7m 37s):
I know. And then the other one is Carlsbad, caverns, New Mexico. You guys have been there, but I really want to go there.

1 (1h 7m 43s):
It’s absolutely a great place to go visit.

3 (1h 7m 46s):
I would go back again. If you go during the weekend that we can go and you’re not trying to exclude us for any other reason, Kim count us in on that because I’d love to,

2 (1h 7m 54s):
I mean, I’ll definitely let you know, but I was even thinking like this could be my year. I do my first solo trip.

3 (1h 8m 1s):
Oh, I love it. So I’m already hearing the exclusive trip,

1 (1h 8m 5s):
But you know, while you’re there, you may want to look to see how far it is from white sands national park. You might be able to get a two for a weekend or,

2 (1h 8m 12s):
Well, I’m not going to go sledding down the sand dunes without you.

3 (1h 8m 15s):
Well, I don’t think you can do sand dune, sledding out white sand dunes.

1 (1h 8m 20s):
Oh, This is the white fans.

3 (1h 8m 22s):
Yeah. White sands in New Mexico. And when we went to Carlsbad caverns, it wasn’t a national park yet. Had it been one, you know, we probably would’ve made it happen at that point. It was only a national monument at that time. Which St. Louis art should have stayed. Sorry. St. Louis. Again, just throwing that out there. But in March, I’m really excited. We have it scheduled again via Guadalupe. We love it. This time. We are staying in the bubble hotel out on the vineyard, a blow up hotel that has a bathroom, hot tub, jacuzzi included. It’s not open air, but again, it’s a bubble so I can see the sky, Brittany and I are going to be drinking wine, falling asleep, to looking at the stars above us. It’s going to be great. Super.

2 (1h 9m 2s):
I already hear the exclusion in that one

1 (1h 9m 5s):
Romantic trip.

2 (1h 9m 6s):
Yeah. So my work is actually trying to plan a trip to Vita. Go to the pay might be in January or February perhaps, but one of our coworkers organized his tours so he can organize the transportation for us just a day trip where it’s like 30 of us. Get on a bus, go down there, have a day, come back.

1 (1h 9m 24s):
Is it bring your friends to work today?

2 (1h 9m 25s):
Yeah, actually it’s open. Okay.

3 (1h 9m 29s):
All right.

2 (1h 9m 31s):
And then in March, I might also go to Chicago. You know, Zane has been talking about wanting to move there in may. So I told her she wants to go scope it out and look at places that I’d be down to go with her in March will be cold in Chicago. So that will be an interesting,

3 (1h 9m 45s):
That’ll be dipping your toes into the water to start getting you acclimated to cold trips. So that way in January, we could go to other places where normally you wouldn’t want to go Kim. So I’m actually excited for March. Well, you’re going to have to do Iceland because Northern lights, you have no other opportunity, but to go during the winter for that.

2 (1h 10m 4s):
No, I know I’m ready for it. I’m I’m doing Chicago. So here we go.

1 (1h 10m 8s):
So in April, Jamal and I are going back to surprise, surprise Dallas for Easter. I think we’ve gone into this. Like I know the last four years for Easter. So we’re going back again. And that’s what we had planned in April for now. Okay.

2 (1h 10m 21s):
I don’t have any plans yet in April, but in may. I’m so excited going to Cabo for a bachelorette party with 14 girls for four days.

3 (1h 10m 32s):
Yeah. That was going to be wild. Good news is it’s in another country. So Kim can party.

2 (1h 10m 36s):
And guess what? On one of the days we have rented a yacht with full drinks, full food. It’s going to be straight up. What’s that show?

3 (1h 10m 45s):
Oh, the show I watched show

2 (1h 10m 47s):
Below deck. It’s going to be below deck on this thing

1 (1h 10m 52s):
Sounds right up your alley. But in may, we do have a squad trip planned to the south. We’ve been talking about it as our, one of our backup trips for the whole year 20, 20 COVID

2 (1h 11m 1s):
It’s literally like two days after we get back from

3 (1h 11m 3s):
Cabo and we dubbed it south of the mouth. So,

2 (1h 11m 6s):
And the mouth, all of that Southern food is going to be in my mouth and own in. And that’s what we’ll say.

1 (1h 11m 13s):
So we’re going to go to Savannah Charleston. We’re going to hit off to national parks. We’re going to go to Congress, national park and smoky mountains, national park. And then we’re rounding it off in Asheville, North Carolina.

2 (1h 11m 25s):
And I’m actually really excited because I’m keeping my eyes open to other places in the country that I may want to live. And I want to see what Charleston and Savannah are. Like. I met this drunk guy at the bar a couple of weeks ago, who

3 (1h 11m 38s):
Started a great story.

2 (1h 11m 40s):
He was telling me about his trip to Charleston, gave me a bunch of different names of places, restaurants, and bars that we have to go to. Apparently rooftop bars are a big deal in Charleston.

3 (1h 11m 50s):
I’ve seen Kim, right? Say no more.

2 (1h 11m 52s):
Yes. So I’m, I’m getting research done for us.

1 (1h 11m 56s):
Love it, love it. We’re also next year. We’re going to Vegas, which isn’t far from us, but we’re actually going because my brother is getting married.

2 (1h 12m 4s):
I really wish I can get on that invite list.

1 (1h 12m 7s):
I can ask him for you. The day has come where my brother is getting married. He actually gets married the day that this episode airs December 28th. So congrats to him in his newlywed,

2 (1h 12m 19s):
Tyler,

3 (1h 12m 20s):
But the wedding for everybody and majority of family is in July in Las Vegas. So civil ceremonies happening and then debauchery and Vegas, apparently in July,

2 (1h 12m 30s):
In July in Vegas. I

3 (1h 12m 32s):
Know kind of what we said, Kim, but you know what? We’re embracing it because we’re troopers,

1 (1h 12m 36s):
Not my wedding

2 (1h 12m 38s):
Wedding. Then a pool party

3 (1h 12m 41s):
Came at 30 can’t handle pool parties. No more Vegas. Vegas is still in the United States can.

1 (1h 12m 47s):
And we’re talking about doing another international squad trip. Kim and I have thrown up Greece in September

2 (1h 12m 52s):
Since number one

1 (1h 12m 54s):
And Jamal over here and

2 (1h 12m 57s):
Goodbye.

3 (1h 12m 58s):
I don’t want to put the kibosh on it. All I’m saying is because you ladies decided south trip in may, without me sitting by the pool in Ecuador. Well, apparently it was decided, you know, we got back to our hotel room in the Amazon and the Brittany tells me, oh, in may, next year, we’re going to the south. Me and Kim decided, so technically I was excluded. And now you guys, I was, and now you guys are planning Greece September, which I’m not opposed to, but it’s not number one on my next international list. Although I know we have been talking to Greece for a while, so I’m just saying, let’s not make it number one. It could be on the top three, but let’s at least throw out two other ideas and then kind of, you know, spitball it from there.

2 (1h 13m 39s):
I have a suggestion the day that this airs, I will post a

1 (1h 13m 43s):
Poll.

2 (1h 13m 44s):
Great. And our squaddies can give us their tips on where we should go. And then maybe we can narrow it down to three and decide from there,

3 (1h 13m 51s):
I’m going to come up with two other solid places. Since you ladies don’t want to contribute to the other two, since you’re hard on Greece. And then I’ll tell you what, yes, I love that idea. Let the squaddies pick. And squaddies, if you’re listening and have any sympathy for me being the only guy in here, help me out a little bit and kibosh Greece.

1 (1h 14m 10s):
So not sure which month I’m going next year. But I do plan on going to Oregon to see some waterfalls with my old coworker. We want to do like a long weekend trip. So we’re not sure when, but I have a feeling it might be in spring sometime so that the waterfalls are full effect.

2 (1h 14m 27s):
And I just want to say, Jamal, I think you should go with Greece this year because next year you’ve already decided on Germany for Oktoberfest.

3 (1h 14m 35s):
I did, but that’s like friends and homey’s trip with the spouses and stuff like that. No, no, no. Brittany is coming well, no, you’re not. You could come solo or ideally by then your going to have the husband that you’ve been talking about and then there’s going to be coming. So it’s a friend’s couples trip, but believe me, you’re not excluded if you don’t have your husband by that point in time camp. Okay. Okay, great.

1 (1h 15m 1s):
Yes. And so for my birthday, next year, I already had my birthday trip plan. I was actually inspired by one of your trips, Kim in the past, and we’re going to Boston and Salem and New Hampshire. Cause my birthday is in October to see some fall colors.

2 (1h 15m 14s):
Oh, you’re going to love that

1 (1h 15m 15s):
And enjoy spooky season.

3 (1h 15m 17s):
And those are the plans and hopes for 2022. We’re ideally going to make the majority of them happen and you know, send us messages, let us know what you guys are planning in 2022. And if anything that we’ve said has inspired you to do that in 2022,

1 (1h 15m 32s):
We do have plans to release a few new itineraries in 2022. We’re thinking releasing the south trip, the road trip that we are taking in may

3 (1h 15m 40s):
South of the mouth.

1 (1h 15m 42s):
We also are thinking about releasing a seven day guide and itinerary to the us Virgin islands and to Florida’s at three national parks.

2 (1h 15m 51s):
We will also be having a course come out on how to start your own podcast. This is something we’ve been documenting for a long time. You know, when we started this back in 2019, we didn’t know anything about audio recording or how to create a community or I mean any of it. So we’ve documented every single step along the way to make it really easy and inspire you not only to travel, but to start your own podcast. So you can see that podcast course coming out soon, too.

3 (1h 16m 18s):
Any final thoughts ladies, as we’re closing out the last episode of 2021 getting ready for the new year here?

2 (1h 16m 26s):
I just want to say that, although in the beginning of the episode, I was feeling a little pessimistic about how much travel that I did or we did this year compared to years prior where it was so busy with travel after going through it, I really do feel like we did a lot and I am thankful for what we got to do.

1 (1h 16m 43s):
I’m very thankful for what we got to do. And I’m super excited for 2022 and what we have in store. I have a feeling we’re going to add in some spontaneous weekend trips. You know what we didn’t say is do a weekender to Breckenridge

2 (1h 16m 56s):
Again, we need to redeem ourselves.

1 (1h 16m 57s):
Yes. So hopefully we can squeeze some trips like that. And so thank you guys so much for listening. We’ve enjoyed having you listen to us all year long. If you’re new to us, we also still appreciate that. If you have any questions, please DMS. We love getting messages from our listeners. It makes us feel human too. And we love just geeking out over all of the messages you guys send. So continue to do that and share that with us.

2 (1h 17m 25s):
And thank you so much for tuning into our episode this week. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at Travel Squad Podcast and tag us in your adventures.

3 (1h 17m 33s):
If you found the information, this episode to be useful, or if you thought we were just playing funny, please be sure to share with a friend that would enjoy it too. And as always, please subscribe, rate and review our podcast and tune in every Travel Tuesday for new episodes,

1 (1h 17m 47s):
Stay tuned for next week’s episode, we have some more amazing adventures and tips in store for you.

3 (1h 17m 52s):
Bye