it’s hard to believe that we’re already to the end of the year.

this was a big year for me personally…

after 23 years i decided to leave my job in March. i flailed a bit at the beginning, but slowly found a new rhythm and am ending the year in a pretty comfortable routine.

i took the time to connect with friends and family, reconnect with old friends and made a couple of new ones along the way.

i had some adventures in new locations including Georgia and Croatia, and also enjoyed time in familiar locales like Mexico, Kauai and Tahoe.

i feel very fortunate to have been able to travel as much as i did while working at my old job, a lot of my, “big trip” posts were work trips with fun thrown in.

but a new chapter and a new year are beginning, and although travel will definitely be part of my future, i’m not exactly sure how it will all pan out going forward.

one thing is for certain, when there is a trip in my future, this blog will know about it first.

happy 2023, may it be a joyful year for all!

as i mentioned in my last post, April 2020 was going to be my trip to Croatia. super excited, new place, vacation time tacked onto the end with a tour all planned, and you know how i LOVE a tour! then COVID-19 shelter in place requirements went into place March 17.

worldwide, so many lives lost, economic distress and the landscape of life, definitely altered. i am very thankful that i am healthy and able to work from home. so i remain gainfully employed, now having daily meals with my cat instead of friends, family and colleagues.

i look forward to a time when we can gather again to share. share stories, laughter, a drink, a meal, tears for lives lost, a hug.

i’m sure i will take another trip, have an adventure and write another post, but it’s hard to say when that will be. until then, stay strong, safe and healthy my friends, we have a lot more to see and do in this life!

photo courtesy of roughguides.com

chances are slim, but hey, it’s worth an ask.  a friend of mine is going to the Galapagos and Peru this summer, i’m super jealous.

i really liked Peru, especially Cusco.  i just reread my posts from the time, and looked at all my photos.  what a great trip.

i haven’t been traveling much, as you probably have noticed by my radio silence.  but that is about to change, i’m heading to Sweden in a couple of weeks.  i’m going for work, but there will be some time to see a few sights.  if you’ve been to Malmo or Copenhagen and have any suggestions of things that i “must see”, be sure to let me know.

photo courtesy of easyJet.com

Blogger out, WordPress in.  and that is what i have been doing in my spare time, creating, importing, editing and cursing the new version of international geotastic.

right? you know you looked at this blog and thought, “wait, didn’t it look completely different last time i looked at it, like 3 years ago?”  it’s true, it now looks and acts differently, but the voice is the same my friends, all me, all the time!

it has been quite the experience i must say, because remember……i have said it many times, i am not tech savvy.  AND, when i originally started this whole blog thing i tried WordPress and found it completely daunting. but hey i got this up and functioning and i think once i get the swing of things it will be great.

please note that i did import my old blog into this new blog and i did my best to make it all look pretty, but some things just won’t format correctly and i’d lose my mind if i worked on it any more.

i hope you enjoy this new format and if you have any suggestions on how to make it better please let me know.

logo courtesy of wordpress.org

i took a social media course this past week, which was eye-opening on a few levels.  even though i have my own business and this ever-so-popular (cough) blog, i don’t use social media except at work. i advertise my business through different sources and why would i publicize this blog? i don’t feel the need to jump into the wide, and time-consuming world of social media for my personal life. i’m just not into broadcasting that much about myself.  i do have an Instagram account with 12 followers. yep 12…..i’m big time.  i am glad i took the course though, which i did for my M-F job, as i do manage some social media there, because i met the nicest person CC from Colombia.

CC said, “you must come to my country, it’s so beautiful”.  really, do i need more incentive than that? no. why haven’t i thought of visiting Columbia before?  no idea, i do love South America, and it is gorgeous.  i was looking at photos online and reading a bit about it…i must go.  so that is where my “big” trip of 2017 will be, Columbia. so let the planning begin.  i’ve contacted a tour operator and i’m just waiting to see what kind of itinerary they can come up with for me.

while trying to find the name of my Peru tour operator this morning, i realized that gremlins have attacked my blog again and photos are missing from posts.  you know i can’t leave little boxes with x’s in the pages, even though it’s content from 2011.  i just can’t do it.  thankfully as far as i can tell it’s just one 3-day trip i need to fix.  if i had to do all of Argentina again, i might have cried.

you know you want to….it’s on the tip of your tongue……”don’t cry for me Argentina, the truth is i never left you………”  yep, i went there.

photo courtesy of cntraveller.com

i love vacation.  now vacation is done and it’s back to reality.  it seems like a lifetime ago that i was sitting on a beach enjoying a tropical drink listing to the waves.  sigh, it was just last week.

a couple of things became clear during this last trip. the most important, i’m done travelling by myself.  maybe because i live alone (ok, not really alone, alone with kitty) solo travel just isn’t fun.  and when i say solo travel i mean me going to one place and hanging out by myself, like my trip to Puerto Rico and Mazatlan last year.  trips where i’m on a tour like Argentina and Peru, that is different, because i’m with a set of people the whole time.  even in Argentina the week alone in Buenos Aires, not as much fun as the rest of the trip.  i like talking with people, seeing familiar faces and sharing experiences.

i’m fairly certain i can get a friend to vacation with me, it all depends on where i go and what i’m doing i suppose.  a lot of my friends have kids, so they would probably enjoy a little respite sitting poolside drinking fruity beverages with little umbrellas in them right?

so now i sit, with my itchy leg, waiting for the next trip.  not much going on over the summer……a quick trip to Tahoe for Fathers Day, fingers crossed for Bonneville in August and then Northern Lights in September.  if i manage to get somewhere else before Bonneville i will of course post, but it may be quiet for a bit.  don’t worry though, i shall return!

there is no excuse for my lack of content, except that i haven’t been anywhere.  i figure anecdotes about my cat, things happening in town, and my commute to SF are not things anyone wants to hear about.  if you do, you really need a hobby.

next week i’m off to Toronto (i’ve been told you pronounce that as Toronno, eliminate the T, to sound like a native.)  i know nothing about Toronto, and i’m looking forward to the trip.  i don’t have a ton of time to poke around, but i’m sure i will find something to see/do.

Puerto Rico is only a few weeks away now, which is very exciting.  i bought a guide book, which looks great on my coffee table, and probably contains lots of useful information i haven’t read yet. isn’t that what the plane ride is for? the only thing i have done is booked a kayak trip so i can see the bioluminescent bays.

i don’t know if i’ll be able to get any decent photos, holding a camera steady in a kayak at night to take a photo seems like a hard thing to do…..but i will make the attempt.

oh, i’ve also booked a trip to Alaska in September to see (hopefully) the Northern Lights.  that will be fun, it’s going to be a mother daughter adventure.

so, although i won’t be writing every day or even every week, there will be new posts coming your way over the next couple of months.

stay tuned.

photo courtesy of inhabitat.com

i have fallen into old patterns once again….no posts for months at a time. i often think that i should probably just retire this blog since i don’t travel as much anymore and no one reads it anyway, but i just can’t bring myself to do it.

i have investigated making a coffee table book of this fine piece of literature, but then think it will just be one more thing to go into landfill when i die.  it’s sad to think all of my photos will get thrown away as well.  oh well, like they say, “you can’t take it with you”.

there hasn’t been any travel of late, except for a trip for one day to Seattle, and one day trips don’t count.

i do have a couple of things on the horizon….Disneyland in October, Los Cabos in December, London in February and Puerto Rico in May.  nothing quite as major as a month in Argentina, but fun none-the-less.

i will make sure to put in a post or two about these excursions, and if anything else pops up, i’ll be sure to make note of it.

photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.com