Most US folk have never heard of this far off beachy town on the southeastern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. But if your an avid traveler, it is an awesome trip add-on when visiting the Middle East.

Prior to my 15th GAdventures group adventure setting off from Cairo, I had planned 5 full days relaxing at a dive resort on a tranquil bay of the Red Sea.

I had actually screwed up in scheduling the wrong Covid test and had to retake it at the Orlando Airport, missing my flights and having to rearrange my entire transatlantic vaca 24 hours later. I’m in debt to Tessa & Dave for tag teaming a rescue mission to save me from sleeping on the airport floor overnight. Rerouting to Newark then Frankfurt and finally Cairo worked out swimmingly. Only speed bump was begging EgyptianAir to reissue my final leg ticket to Sharm el Sheikh and was rewarded a new voucher since the agent I had called 24 hours earlier flagged my account. Yippee!! Upon arrival at 9pm, after now traveling for 33 hours (and a deranged 4 year old kicking and screaming the entire last 40 min flight), my pre-arranged driver was prompt BUT didn’t speak a lick of English and had no idea where my resort was. WTF?! I had the address and after 2 calls it was literally 2 miles away (and I knew that).

After sleeping for 10 hours, I spent day 1 lounging on the beach, exploring the 3 resorts lined up together and wading in the crystal blue waters. May temps are similar to the FL summer bake fest without a cloud in the sky all day, so I fit right in. I enjoyed a massive stone oven pizza for 65 Egyptian pounds or $4 at the Bedouin tent. If you’ve never seen or been to one, it is very cozy and boasts padded cushions on the floor with extra pillows. I then read a book beachside, under the stars, listening to the gentle waves, which became my nightly routine. Simplicity at its best.

Day 2 was a two tank dive in the Red Sea and truly spectacular! Since travel in the Middle East is still slow post Covid lockdown, I was solo with the hunky guide and we took off by simply wading off shore and went until we were low on air. The water was crystal clear, coral abundant, fish plentiful, weather perfect in the 90s = ideal conditions! I even got to keep the mask the rest of the day and headed out for more snorkeling from the jetty.

Day 3 I can’t say I did too much (even missed the complimentary breakfast) but lounge on the beach and I wouldn’t change a thing. I even squeezed in a beachside massage and more snorkeling the reef. Rough life, huh?

My final day I arranged a local quad bike tour through the Egyptian desert. It was a blast taking the reigns of my own roadster and we flew off into the dusty unknown in a single file line. From lounging camels to rocky overlooks to yelling across Echo mountain to hear the reverb, we purposely got lost in this vast expanse of nothingness.

And finally while taking in one last sunset along my dive resort jetty, I closed out a seamless first week halfway across the world. Wheels up to Cairo for the next leg of my world tour!

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I will be eternally grateful for an enduring group of college friends who are my ride or die. No matter the time or distance between us, we show up for each other.

It is so refreshing to have a supportive group of individuals that isn’t tearing you down or judging your every last move. They know your best qualities and also those stories that you would much rather forget. You can fall back into yesteryear without skipping a beat and tell all those silly tales of when we were so naive and innocent.

From the mountains of NC, to the streets of Atlanta, to LRU football games, to 5k races, to beach getaways, to cabins in the VA countryside, to hikes up Stone Mountain, to basketball games, to meals at obscure diners, to tubing the Toccoa River in Blue Ridge GA, we always find an excuse to catch up.

These days even a quick text can make your day, as we try to survive the ups and downs of life. A group prayer or positive vibes go a long way. My tribe is beautiful in every way and I can’t wait for our next jaunt which is a big milestone….. our 25th college reunion!

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Our girls trip to Music City was the perfect long weekend escape. With a direct 2 hour flight, we left after work and arrived ready to explore the downtown nightlife with dinner/drinks.

Our Airbnb was small but central, so we did all the touristy things.

The scooters were addictive and the best way to see the city at your own pace. We whizzed in and out of monuments, waterfalls, farmers markets, food stands and had an absolute BLAST. And only had a few Oops moments that didn’t produce any permanent scars.

No trip to Nashville would be complete without a visit to the Grand Ole Opry and ours was a doozy. Our Uber ride got us as close as possible but we got caught in a torrential downpour. So we walk into the bone chilling arena, dripping wet and have to try to dry out under the hand dryers in the restrooms. Our tickets are disintegrating in our hands but we finally make it to our seats, which are dead center half way up. Tessa’s ticket slips under the seats and we get to go on a scavenger hunt that had us in stitches. After the show, we take our obligatory selfies and grab another Uber. She was a riot and ended up loading us up with mini liquor bottles before dropping us at the local scrumptious BBQ joint.

We try the famous hot chicken and biscuits, tour the Country Music Hall of Fame, go out for a night on Music Row to check out all the local talent, visit the elusive Bluebird Cafe only to miss getting tickets by 2 spots ahead of us (fortunately we got to step inside for a 5 min glimpse).

We even crashed a free, CMT pop up concert across the bridge featuring a few up and coming artists. It was a glorious day made even better with free Dairy Queen blizzards…. any excuse to ride scooters again and eat ice cream!

Our final day we arranged a tour at the local winery and drank the day away!

Full of fun and exploration, Nashville is an awesome getaway that will keep me coming back for more!

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I didn’t think I could keep dwindling down my travel packing list, but my recent 2 week northeastern roadtrip was my most simplified yet. There is a big difference when you are moving around every night vs. hanging out at a resort for an extended stay.

Below is my paired down, “go to” list of only must haves. In my opinion, vacuum bags are the best way to maximize your limited space in a bookbag.

• 2 vacuum bags – 1 large & 1 small
• Hiking boots
• Sneakers
• Bookbag
• Rugged water bottle
• kindle
• Headphones
• Camera tripod
• cinch bag
• Light gloves
• Beanie hat
• Ball cap
• Lightweight puffer coat
• 2 phone charger cords
• Spare rechargeable battery bank
• National park pass
• Phone + belt holster + car holder
• Sunglasses
• 4 pants
• 4 shorts
• 5 short sleeve shirts
• 4 long sleeve shirts
• 1 lightweight fleece
• Basic toiletries only – deodorant. Toothbrush. Toothpaste. Glasses/contacts. Razor. Mousse/hairspray.

Living out of a car, I have finally found my own system of transitioning quickly. It can be very cumbersome to load all your gear down long hotel corridors or up flights of stairs, so I use my back seat to lay out stacks of clothes. My toiletries are in a small bag for easy transport. I get some crazy looks but I literally walk into the hotel with a small pile of clothes and my bag of washing supplies. Simple and no stress.

Try it out. It has transformed my experience, as I don’t dread dragging my whole load in and out every single night.

I couldn’t have written out this story any better.

For once, I took the scenic route and chose the slow Amtrak train from my previous adventure in Minneapolis to my next hub in Boston. It was rather uneventful, so when I jumped off the tracks at it’s last stop at 9:30pm after 2 full days, I was ready to hit the road to take me to the next bucketlist spot… Acadia National Park in the northeastern part of Maine!

With only 4 days to explore 3 new northeastern states, I knew I had to make the long drive overnight and pulled into the quaint town of Bar Harbor at 2am. Why get a hotel now when the weather dictated that this would be my only day to experience an epic sunrise from the summit of Cadillac Mountain?

So at 2:30am, I pulled into a desolate parking lot as the third car ready for the ultimate Acadia experience. Winds were whipping so I attempted to stargaze for a bit, but quickly chose the comfort and warmth of my car to try to catch a few zzzzzs prior to my 5am alarm.

By 5:10am, there were over 250 cars filling the parking lot and stretching down the road. The winds were easily now gusting over 50mph, so it was brutally cold on the summit cliffside for us 500+ spectators.

BUT at precisely 5:34am, it was so very worth it to see the beautiful fireball rise up from the horizon and project it’s radiant glow. This exact spot is the first place where the sun rises upon the North American continent for 5 months out of the year. It was mesmerizing.

And by 5:55am, the parking lot was again empty and quiet. My tiredness had faded away and I was ready to start my full day of exploration by hiking the hours away in my 41st of 63 National Parks.

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I’m addicted to the next challenge and taking calculated risks. So it is with inherent risk that I venture out into the world. I get asked repeatedly “how did you do that” or “are you crazy”? My retort is always “why not? You only live once and if you do it right, once should be enough”.

The list of injuries is rather long but, fortunately, only one left me in complete shambles. The rest are just another story to share and learn from (at least I think).

How could I ever forget maneuvering my bike into a teeter totter and falling off halfway across while having the jagged edge of the metal, pedal cut into my Achilles? I was so pig headed, I made a deal with my friend that if she bought the new bike she had been obsessing about that I would go to the hospital to get stitches.

I vaguely remember visiting a roller skating rink as a teen and trying to go faster than everyone else. Then rounding a corner I was faced with a big group and nowhere to go safely. So instead of plowing into the group and possibly injuring others, I opted to slide (like a softball player) into the concrete outer ring barrier. Needless to say, I still can’t feel the inner part of my left knee.

What about tubing behind a boat on a FL west coast vacation and refusing to let go so that the rope burned my skin and my bracelet dug into my right hand?

On a quick mountain biking adventure to a new trail in north Orlando, I was scoping out the perfect spot to take a picture of my friend rounding a hairy corner. I got so excited I grabbed a razor sharp piece of a bush/plant and sliced right at the last knuckle of my left pinky. I pushed the two sides together the rest of the ride while completely soaking my shirt that I had wrapped around it and just hoped they would mend back into one piece. Then just two weeks later at a different park, I took a turn too sharp and flipped over the handle bars. I don’t remember much but I think I saw a few stars while I tried to regain any sense of self confidence to continue the journey.

Getting ready for a business trip to Cincinnati, I had wanted to take a soothing bath after a long week at work. I let the water run while scrambling to pack last minute and of course forgot. When I see water coming through the downstairs ceiling light, I bolted upstairs to shut off the water then fly down the stairs again to mop up the other mess. As I get to the second bathroom, I slip and fell head first into the door and catch my right hand sliding down the rough edge. I was in too much of a hurry to go to the hospital so I wrapped it up thick and went on my trip (and proceeded to lose my only bag & have to borrow clothes from a colleague – definitely looked like a hot mess).

Deep in the Ecuador jungle, I had a terrible problem with my hiking shoes slipping while scrambling along the boulders lining the many streams crossings on our journey. I would twist my ankles 25-30 times a day, which really messed with my head and pace. The slippery moss was insane and, needless to say, I recycled those shoes to a local who was glad to have them (it couldn’t have been me who was the issue, right??!!)

After summiting Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal after 6 days of trekking up high into the majestic Himalayas, we were all slowly making our way back down the mountain and I severely twisted my ankle on a complex root system. Being that we were still 1 full day of hiking away from any type of civilization, I wrapped it up tight, grabbed a walking stick for support and just had to “suck it up”. And of course, my pace significantly slowed down BUT we all made it down in one piece.

I may or may not have had a few drinks before jumping on my bicycle and crashing into a bollard that slashed my right ankle so deep we saw white tissue and literally had millimeters before slicing my tendon. Nothing a few friends (with incredible patience to put up with my ridiculous antics) and butterfly strips can’t fix.

On my 2 day trip to Death Valley National Park, I car camped to stay right in the heart of this rugged landscape. I added a short trek into a slot canyon and was just taking a photo, when I slipped off my pedestal and my ankle collapsed onto its side. Wow. All alone in the arid desert and I just had to sit there for about 15 minutes to collect myself. After a painful hobble back to my car, I spent the night with 2 cold sodas cradling my ankle and fortunately woke up the next day to just a severe bruise and a spectacular sunrise!

And the most recent and granddaddy of them all…… I’ll never live down my skateboard incident on my dream trip to Hawaii while trying to see my nightly sunset spectacle. Concussion was a very real possibility, as I face planted and my sunglasses dug into my forehead (and somehow they miraculously didn’t break). Stitches probably would have been the better call, but I got on my rented bike to go get medical supplies at the closest convenience store 3 miles away. Seven scars later, and all are healing nicely (even my forehead).

So I always make a promise to myself that next time I will play it safer, BUT deep down I know there will most likely be another one to fight through soon.

“Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” – unknown

Have you ever wanted to escape on a scenic train trek?

I had the opportunity on a recent northern roadtrip to combine seeing 5 northern states and 3 far northeastern states to get closer to finishing out my bucket list item of experiencing all 50 US states prior to my 50th birthday.

After conquering the vast farmlands and over 3000 miles driving North & South Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, I needed a no stress excursion to transport me from Minneapolis to Boston. Amtrak has an inexpensive option via Chicago that allowed me to stretch out and just be.

I had plenty of snacks and entertainment to keep me occupied, so I jumped onboard the 2 day trek. With new Covid safety protocol, I enjoyed the seats to myself and quickly settled in. While I would have loved to snag a sleeper couch, those were a bit out of my 10 month on the road adventure budget. But I was actually fairly comfortable and with the help of an eye mask and earplugs, dozed often.

We passed the Great Lakes and countless working farms, which truly makes you appreciate the rugged lives of American farmers. Little towns pop up along the route and we whizzed through quickly but not without the deafening blare of the train’s horn.

As you approach the big cities, more passengers are bustling about and going about their own plan to get to their final destination. Stops are rarely longer than a few minutes, so it’s a surprise that we are late by a whole 2 hours arriving into Chicago’s historic Union Station. Instead of a 5 hour layover, I have less than 3 hours to stretch my legs and enjoy the unusually warm April weather in the Windy City. Post Covid, I couldn’t find any restaurants open in the early evening so I opted for a slice of pizza from a local joint that was literally closing as I arrived and hit up the Walgreens for a 4 pack of uncrustables plus a bag of chips. Lunch & dinner TCO too for day 2!

Overall, I enjoyed the downtime to just think and, of course, begin to plot out the next adventure!

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Oh how I loved my summer days lounging on the shores of Lake Eerie. Flying into the small airport in Buffalo then hitting the casino before arriving at a waterfront cottage for a week of quiet bliss. A couple years we even make it to gawk at the ever impressive Niagara Falls, a must see.

Visiting the Hauck family getaway was always a treat that I cherished. I thoroughly enjoyed grabbing my kindle to get lost while dangling from a hammock in the brisk lakeside daily breeze and always taking too many naps. Our daily walks along the shore in search of washed up sea glass were frequently met with an awesome sunset trying to peak through the clouds. Nightly card games kept us entertained, as well as an occasional pop up guitar hero concert. And we ate home cooked meals every day, which I would so much rather indulge in than going out all the time.

There were no worries or clocks to live by at the lake house. A total disconnect from the pressures of the real world. Time inched by but, on the other hand, my long weekends always flew by way too fast.

Until we connect again, I have the calm of that last sunset to hold me over.

Exactly 365 days ago I started my blog & it has ignited a new passion – I hope I have inspired you to make changes that will lead to your own dreams, challenge your comfort zone, see the joy in simple things & cherish your tribe! 🌅✈️🥾🌎

“Live Life Happy:

Travel the world.

Understand different cultures.

Be inspired by beauty everywhere.

Make friends all over.

Be a citizen of the world.” – Unknown

#inspire #beagamechanger #dreambig #befearless #tripofalifetime

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