Between the end of January and the end of May, I spent time in each of the following cities:
- Mobile, AL
- Huntsville, AL
- Boulder, CO
- Twin Cities, MN
- Las Vegas, NV
- Chicago, IL
- Bend, OR
The trip to Bend was with our local Portland friends (who we affectionately refer to as the Eff Yeah Friends), and happened over Memorial Day Weekend. It immediately followed nearly two weeks of being ON. The trip to Vegas (BiSC) each year immediately preceeds a trip to a client’s annual meeting of the minds, so I go from co-running an event of 60 bloggers in Sin City to live-tweeting a two-day event filled with technical and entrepreneurial whizzes, and by the end of those 10+ days, I am a shell of a person.
I’m a HAPPY shell of a person, because I’m spending 10+ days doing exactly the things I love, and half of that time is spent with my best friends. But I’m a shell of a person because 10+ days of watching Twitter, organizing people, going from following one hashtag to another, and preparing recap reports for BOTH events… well, it leaves me wanting hours and days of social media silence and a break from All Other Stimuli in general.
So, after those two trips, I found myself in Bend, Oregon, with my closest Portland friend folks. I opted out of any serious decision making (just pour me a drink, please!), and I think the only things I tweeted were directly related to whatever photos I was Instagramming. If all I’m tweeting are my Instagram photos, you know I’m taking an input break.
At the conclusion of that weekend, I expressed deep and naive gratitude that I had minimal travel plans for the summer and what travel plans I DID have were limited to the Pacific Northwest.
Well, if you’ve followed any of my adventures this summer you know that while the second half of that was Super True, the first half was a huge joke. Limited travel plans! HA!
My “I’ll be in Seattle for a couple of days in June and Vancouver for a few days in July,” turned into a summer spent in these places:
- Seattle, WA
- Vancouver, BC
- BC’s Sunshine Coast (Sechelt, etc)
- Snoqualmie, WA
- Seattle, WA – again
- San Francisco, CA
- Napa, CA
- … and another trip to Bend (just for a day this time).
- Boulder, CO
[What a Week in San Francisco Looks Like]
So, yes. I enjoyed a Pacific Northwest + Boulder Tour (and really, FOOD TOUR), this summer, but the Snoqualmie, Napa, second Seattle, and Bend trips got thrown in there a bit unexpectedly.
Oh, don’t worry. I’m not upset about it at all 
As it turns out, I like spontaneity and I like travel. Who’d have guessed?
I wish I was up-to-speed on all the recaps for all of the places, but somewhere between this PNW tour, I also incorporated a business, planned a vacation (AKA paid someone else to plan my vacation), and hosted my sister and her family here in Portland (HIGHLIGHT OF MY SUMMER). OH OH OH. And my next trip is two weeks in Costa Rica. And I leave on Sunday. I LOVE MY LIFE.
I’ve got pictures from all of these things and have a mind-blowinly AMAZING meal from the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie that I want to share between here and my food blog. SEE?
But for now, I just wanted to make some sort of mental/blog note of where the hell this summer has even gone and the stories I still have yet to share.
How did you spend your summer? What have I missed?
