2017 was a pretty phenomenal year for us. Most importantly, we got married on June 10 in downtown Des Moines! You can take a peek at this magical day on my personal blog. It was filled with sunshine, family, the best of friends, and solid dancing.
So back to the beginning of the year….
We kicked off 2017 in Arkansas. Our goal was to hit up NOLA for the New Year’s, but we waited too long to book a place to stay, and as you can imagine, it got real pricey, real quick. So, a 10-hour drive to Arkansas it was! Here is an overview of the trip.
On New Year’s Day we ventured back to Iowa and knew our next trips would be very fun for different reasons.
We both decided to do more “tropical” bachelor/ette trips in the spring with our closest friends.
Zach headed to Costa Rica with his pals. During the stay they returned to one of the places where Zach first fell in love with travel, Quepos. The real draw to this part of the country is Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica’s first and smallest national park, a humid slice of earth teeming with sloths, monkeys, raccoons, lizards and that’s just on land.
They also did a fairly grueling hike in the middle of the day to Nauyaca Falls and went on a relaxing pontoon ride in the Pacific where the dudes enjoyed great food, mediocre snorkeling and were able to see dolphins leaping from the ocean. The timing of the dolphins leaping was so perfect it almost seemed choreographed.
I decided to take my gal pals to San Diego, the beloved city where I started my bicycle ride across America in 2012. I was eager to get back because it really opened the door for exploration and adventure in my life, a big part of Z and I’s relationship.
We stayed at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, which I highly recommend. The robes alone are worth staying for! Some other highlights included the Bernardo Winery we visited and “hop”ping around the city for beer.
My friend Beth and I stayed a couple extra days, which provided the perfect weather. Unfortunately, the majority of our stay was rainy and cold, which is very unlike San Diego… ever. So when Beth and I had the chance to get outside and soak up rays, we embraced it as long as possible.
The first weekend of May, we took separate adventures yet again. I headed to Dallas for a Beautycounter conference and Zach went to Utah to explore the amazing National Parks!
Here’s what Zach had to say…
Flying into Salt Lake City is an incredible experience as the city is nestled in between beautiful, jagged peaks. Adventure is written all over this state. From SLC it was a long, solitary drive towards Moab. The next morning was spent exploring Canyonlands National Park. Zach completed the rugged Chesler Park Loop trail, a 10 mile loop through a dry, alien landscape of hoodoo rock formations, ending in the Joint Trails. Squeezing sideways between these shoulder length boulders was an absolute treat. The next day I arose early, spent a couple hours in Arches National Park and then drove back to Salt Lake City to see his first ever NBA playoff game as the Utah Jazz fell to the eventual NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
The rest of May and early June were spent prepping for the wedding and figuring out our honeymoon details. Since we aren’t all that keen on resorts and laying out on the beach all day, we decided to hit up Seattle and Portland. It would provide us a fun, upbeat urban setting, as well as the peace and quiet of the mountains.
On June 11, we headed into Seattle for a couple nights. One of our absolute favorite parts of Seattle was doing a food tour at Pike Place Market. It is amazing to hear the stories of business owners, the challenges the year-round farmers market faced, and wind through the market, which features hundreds of vendors. The “first” Starbucks? Not really the first one, so skip the hour-long line and try a local coffee shop instead.
I took about an hour out of the day in Seattle and chopped my hair. It’s apparently the thing to do once you’re married. 😉
On day three, we were both excited to see Portland again and enjoyed our stay there a bit more. We stayed at The Ace Hotel, and would highly recommend it! We absolutely loved exploring the city, trying donuts, drinking local beer, and eating the most flavorful, delicious vegan food!
We finally took the journey just outside Olympic National Park to a place with little to no cell service and a quiet cabin where Zach made the meanest fire in the fireplace. Getting into the park brought up my real fear of cougars, especially after signage at the entrance reminded visitors that Olympic is “cougar country.” We walked a few miles into the park and then headed out to see Forks and get some pizza.
When we came home, we did “all the things” you do in Des Moines: 8035 Music Festival, the Food Festival, Nitefall on the River, POP UP YOGA DSM events, find as many patios as possible to drink beer on, join a kickball team, and take long walks and bike rides. Zach put in just under 900 miles on his bike this year!
As the summer came to an end and fall inched closer, a few gals decided to book a flight to Vegas. This was my first Vegas experience and I would 100% go back, but probably only with this crew… the “Cosmo Crew.” We stayed at the Cosmopolitan, soaked up a ton of sunshine (thank G for umbrellas with this fair skin), danced until the wee hours, and met some fun people! I managed to get very sick the day before, but somehow managed to keep up with the crew the whole weekend.
The next weekend, Zach, myself, his sister, and her husband flew into Denver to attend the Great American Beer Festival! We got to stay with Zach’s cousin and spend a lot of great time with them as well. We booked the flights to Denver rather spontaneously (on our honeymoon in fact). Zach used the Hopper app and plugged in the weekend of the GABF, so if flights got really cheap we could book them. Well, my friends, flights were $79 from Des Moines to Denver so we jumped on that opportunity very quickly!
While we visited, we also ventured out to Breckenridge for a couple days where we did some hiking at Saint Mary’s Glacier and warmed up in the Airbnb’s hot tub. It was a full weekend and one we could easily hit repeat on every year.
Zach spent part of the fall visiting our State Parks in Iowa. Have you followed his adventures on Instagram?
We are wrapping up the year in NOLA (this time, we’re actually going) for New Year’s! After we spend the holidays in Adel and Pella, we’re packing up to party and welcome 2018 together in a vibrant city. We’ve got a bicycle tour booked and decided to be spontaneous with the New Year’s Eve activity. Follow us on social media for fun pics of our adventure!
What’s ahead?
2018 will also be a year for amazing travel. We’ll be in Ecuador the first week of February (the best time to travel if you’re an Iowan). Zach has planned some pretty adventurous activities for us.
Speaking of planning… did you know he started a travel planning business in 2017? Make sure to check out his amazing services he offers through Big Map Travel!
We’ve got a few things cooking for summer and fall, but nothing firmed up quite yet.
See you in 2018, Iowanderers!