I grew up in Southern California, U.S., and I currently still live there.
I didn’t travel outside Southern California really at all until I went to college in 2008. In college, I went on a few school trips to the Dominican Republic, North Africa, and Seattle. After college, I became laser focused on paying off my student loans so I only went to a couple places with friends or for writing retreats — North Carolina, Colorado, Ireland, and South Dakota. In 2020, when I finally paid off my debts, I started to travel more. But since this also coincided with the pandemic, I did a lot of road trips until the world opened up.
I wanted a space to share all of the research I do before each trip. I love writing and planning and thought blogging might be a good fit for me. Lo and behold, it was!
My starter camera was an Olympus PEN E-PL8, and I used that for years. In 2022, I upgraded to the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III, which I love. Both are lightweight, mirrorless cameras, perfect for traveling. The built-in wifi on both cameras makes it super easy to transfer photos on the go. I own four lenses and primarily use two when traveling because they are so lightweight: Panasonic Lumix 25mm f/1.7 and Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5. I also own the Olympus kit lens that came with my first camera as well as a zoom lens, the Olympus 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6.
So far, I’ve been to 7/195 countries, 15/50 U.S. states, and 20/63 U.S. national parks.
My favorite would definitely be Edinburgh, Scotland, a city that surprised and amazed me, and I can’t wait to go back.
I have immediate plans to visit more of the U.S., Europe, and Japan and South Korea. After that, there is a lot more to explore and I’m very excited to do so.
Edinburgh, Scotland, or Maui, Hawaii. But I don’t have any plans to move just yet.