The first time I had a crush on a boy, I was 5 years old. It was my best friend from pre-school…

Hey, hi, hello! I’m writing to you from Wisconsin, where I’m staying for 10 days to visit family, and celebrate my nephew’s baptism and my other nephew’s birthday.

Setting myself a measurable goal of writing one blog a month has been helpful for keeping me accountable. (Thanks, SMART goals!) The problem is I’m not sure if I’ll ever stop being a procrastinator.

My body knew the grief before my brain knew. Monday morning as I was spreading peach preserves on toast, I started tearing up. The jam reminded me of the orange marmalade my grandpa used to put on his toast and grandma’s homemade brown bread at their kitchen table in Niles, Illinois.

This post was originally sent as an email to subscribers on January 23, 2025.

Hello, friends! How is everyone doing? The state of the country… er, world?… has been bleak lately. What have you been doing to find peace?

I’ve never really liked New Year’s Eve. Maybe it’s the unrealistic expectations that Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical imparted on me when I was 13, or maybe it’s the way they’re STILL trying to make those glasses work for the year 2025 when we all know the last one should have been in 2009 (when will they give it up?!). But I just don’t like the idea of spending too much money and staying up too late and drinking too much champagne in the name of an arbitrary, made up concept of time.

Sometimes my emotions just feel so… big. I feel everything with my entire heart and body. I love too much. But the older I get, the more I wonder if there’s such a thing as loving too much. I don’t think so. Isn’t love the whole purpose of everything?

James and I were lucky enough to visit Japan last month. It was my first time in Japan—first time in Asia, actually—and James’s second. We went to Tokyo and spent most of our time there, taking a day trip to Enoshima and spending a day and a half/one night in Kyoto. It was the trip of a lifetime and I feel so lucky to have experienced it. Tokyo is such an amazing city and Japan such a beautiful country.

After time spent in White National Forest, James and I made our way to Maine. I think Maine has to be officially one of my favorite states, with the caveat that I have only ever visited in the summertime. But it was so beautiful there!

We spent a good chunk of time at White Mountain National Forest, the first time we both spent a full week in any one location. Which isn’t even fully true because we camped in the forest for part of the time and stayed at an Airbnb for the other part. But that’s just semantics.

To be honest, I wanted to stay in Montréal forever. The only thing that was keeping us from extending our stay there was a photo and video shoot for my client, Hidden Valley Ranch. I flew to San Francisco and made my way to the Oakland office at the end of June. But first, we drove over the border into Burlington, Vermont.

We’ve made a decision on where we want to live! Is it Montéal? Stay tuned to find out. We drove from Brrrrrrrampton to Ottawa and spent the day splitting time between working, driving and sightseeing.

After seeing Niagara Falls, James and I made our way to Toronto. During our year of travel, we tried several different ways of planning our route, booking stays, packing the car, etc. Being nomadic was a learning process and we adapted as we went.

I mean… I had to, right? After Detroit, James and I took the Windsor Tunnel to cross over into Canada and visited Niagara Falls.

After our first stop home, James and I ventured onto what we called The Second Leg of the Trip™. Not actually trademarked, it just feels like it should be. We went from Chicago to my aunt and uncle’s lovely cabin in Three Oaks, Michigan, then made our way east to Ann Arbor and Detroit.

The theme of this blog post is “time flies.” It feels like just yesterday we were embarking on the journey around the country. Now we’re done with our year of travel and we’re decompressing and reflecting on the past year.

Well friends, it’s been over a year of living on the road. I’m sad to say that it’s almost coming to an end… It’s been so fun looking back at photos from the past year. Time feels like an illusion. Almost an entire year ago we were in Raleigh, NC visiting our friends Nick and Natalie. It feels like yesterday.

I’ve been on the road for over a year now and have learned along the way what I’ve needed and which things I could probably do without. You’re basically living out of your car so you have to think about everything you’ll need but also try to save on space. Here’s my checklist!

Our next stop after Charleston remains one of my favorites. It was a very quick stop over on our way to our friends’ house in Raleigh.