Well, hello there! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Umm, yes, it definitely has.  Three and a half years, to be exact.  That’s quite a long break from blogging!

It definitely wasn’t planned.  Instead, as for so many of us over these past few crazy years, life got in the way, plans altered, and my priorities (in writing and in life) changed dramatically.

I last blogged in (gasp) Fall 2018. The 3.5 years since have been among some of the most chaotic and, quite honestly, difficult of my life.  I won’t go into it all here, but suffice it to say that my world looks very different now than it did when I left off posting regularly on this site.

A few months after my last post, I unexpectedly lost my father.  That meant that my mom, who was suffering from terminal cancer, moved in with me.  Which meant that not only did my priorities change, but so did my travel adventures.

As much as I loved my mom and as much of a joy as it was to get to spend so much time with her before she passed away last year, I quickly realized travel was not going to be the same for me now that I was in a caregiver role.  Luckily, my mom’s health was still reasonably good when she first moved in, and we were actually able to have quite a few travel adventures together!  We visited the Bahamas twice (the last time in January 2020, the final trip we took together), as well as Puerto Rico, where she and my dad had spent their honeymoon fifty years earlier (but a completely new place to me!), and spent Thanksgiving in Cape Cod with our family.  And most importantly of all, we were able to travel back to Mom’s homeland, England, to visit her family (many of whom she hadn’t seen in twenty years) in summer of 2019.  I will always cherish that visit and the memories we made there.

Of course, you all know what happened next.  2020 arrived, and with it many grand travel plans that got smashed into pieces within weeks after some little virus called COVID-19 completely altered the landscape of all humanity.  I went literally nowhere in 2020, due to COVID and a decline in my mom’s health.  In a way, if there had to be a global pandemic (and to be clear, I really wish there hadn’t been), at least it coincided with a time when it was essential I be home anyway, as my mom really needed me.  I’m glad I was able to be there for her in her final months, and I miss her deeply every day.  She was an amazing mom, and extraordinary, trailblazing woman, and my very favorite travel companion.

Dahab, Egypt

After I lost my mom and got my COVID vaccine, I slowly began wading into travel again.  In 2021, I visited friends in California; took a trip to New Orleans for the very first time; and most excitingly, went on a diving/yoga/snorkeling trip to Egypt!  This was a dream trip I’d been looking forward to for over a year, and luckily all the pieces fell into place to allow it to happen. 

At the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt

For a magical week and a half, I visited the Pyramids of Giza, sailed the Nile in a felucca boat, and snorkeled in the Red Sea.  It was magical, and a reminder of how transforming travel can be, especially when you need a break from seemingly relentless grief and a world in which COVID often felt determined to keep us all grounded forever.

Other things happened in the last few years, too.  I got a new job (which has consumed loads of my time and mental energy over the past year) and I began writing a novel; and then, another novel.  I’m looking into getting the completed book published (if you’re interested, it’s historical fiction centered around London in World War Two, and there is both time travel and romance involved…it’s less ridiculous than it sounds, I swear).  Focusing my writing on creating a book, rather than weekly blog posts, kept me from turning to this page for quite a while.

Recently, however, a friend commented on something I’d posted on social media and asked “Do you have a blog?”  And I responded, yes, actually I do!  So I figured now might be a good time to turn back to writing about my travels here.

So, what’s next for me in 2022?  Like most of us, a lot of my plans, especially around travel, remain uncertain.  But I do have a big trip coming up: I’m going to the Maldives in March!  For my 40th country (drumroll please), I’ll be flying halfway across the world to an island in the Indian Ocean to spend a week on a yacht snorkeling, swimming, doing yoga, and enjoying spa treatments (basically, everything I  love most squeezed into one week).  I can’t wait!

I’m also hopeful to get back to Europe this summer: to England to see my family for sure, and then adding on a week or so in either Italy/Switzerland (I’ve been to Italy but there are loads of regions I still want to explore, and Switzerland is a new country to me), or Greece (I visited back in 2008 on a whirlwind cruise, so I think the time may be right to return, pick an island, and then hop around a bit to see more!)  The older I get, the more I feel drawn to relaxing vacations on beaches, so hopefully summer 2022 will allow those dreams to be realized (no more variants, please, universe; I think we’ve all had enough at this point!)

After a rough, long few years, I’m looking toward the future with hope.  And I hope 2022 will be a year in which both my travels and my writing (on this site and elsewhere) will flourish.

How have you been doing over the past two years?  Any travels planned for 2022?