I am so excited to announce our winner for the Instagram giveaway for the month of March. But I have to say, I am SO impressed with all the stories and really wanted to share some of these great adventures with everyone today. You’ll have to tune in on Instagram to find the winner by watching the stories and keeping up with the feed!

Now, here are some fun stories to bring a little joy to your day and a sparkle in your eye for that wanderlust inside you!!!

One of my most adventurous travel stories was when I was in England for a class. We were staying in London and had a weekend to explore. A couple of us decided we would go to Paris. We were there less than 26 hours and managed to hike up the Eiffel tower, see the pyramid outside of Louvre (we missed being able to go in by 3 minutes). We saw Notre Dame and it just so happened to be time for mass when we got there, so of course we had to go. We put locks on Love lock Bridge, they started taking it down 2 days later… Saw the sunset at Sacré-Coeur and made the hike back to the Eiffel tower to see it lit up (one of the most breathtaking sights I’ve seen). Had a party at the hostel we stayed at. After only 4 hours of sleep, we saw the catacombs and headed back to the train station. In that short period of time, we saw Paris and had a wonderful time. I can’t wait to have more adventures like that in the future!

Easter weekend my first year of college my friend and I decided on a cold rainy Thursday night (in Wisconsin) we were bored and the weather sucked so we jumped in the car and started driving. We joked about how we should just go to California since it’s always sunny and 75. We laughed and kept driving a few hours later we were half way through Illinois, we looked at each other and decided yup we are doing this! We drove all night into the next day, took a nap at a rest area and kept driving. We arrived in San Diego 32 hours later. Stopped at target bought shorts and spent the day at the beach, went out for sushi and explored. Left the next day, spent the night in a seedy (like 25 cent vibrating bed seedy) hotel in Vegas on the way home. The whole trip lasted 4 days and was amazing. I got to see over 10 states and had the time of my life.

A few years ago I was driving to work on a normal everyday Wednesday when my good friend Jess called me up and asked what I was doing next weekend. Thinking she wanted to get together for dinner or one of our wine nights. So quickly visualized my calendar in my head and said “I don’t think anything, what did you have in mind?” Her response…. “wanna go to Japan with me?” Ummmm it took me about 5 seconds to say sure why not? She was traveling on business so I was going to be alone most of the time but it was so fun doing something like that on a whim and exploring somewhere completely new and to be honest somewhere that I never really thought about going but oh so glad I did. I had less than a week to prepare and honestly I didn’t do much of it… I wanted to just wing it. I mean the trip itself was completely random so why try to change it.

My most adventurous travel story is my trip to Colorado. I went skiing for the first time, at night, in the start of a snow storm. It took me an hour and a half to get down the mountain one and a half times. I got a bloody nose from a face plant early on so when I was done I was a bit messy ???? the lifts got shut down from the weather so we had to cut it short. But what a night!

This past janurary i had winter break from college and my sister asked me to book a trip to Paris the night before our departure, and I inronically had the week off work because of a screw up so why not right? Planes booked, hotel booked, no plans. And I flew across the pond alone my first time too and met up with her in Paris, she is from Utah. It was honestly so fun because we didn’t have plans we just ate a lot of food and walked around like regulars. Paris is a beauty and it will also be my favorite just because trip. And I get to go back in August to Paris AND London for my honeymoon????????????

I have big dreams of traveling. One of my big travel bucket list destinations are our national parks. There are so many beautiful places here in the US to explore and I hope to share them all with my children. We have a few specific ones at the top of our list (Washington State parks & grand Tetons) but hope to visit as many as we can!!

My most adventurous travel story is when my fiancé (boyfriend at the time) made a stop at Cinque Terre in Italy on our 3 week back packing trip after we graduated college. This city made up of 5 little towns perched on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea should be on EVEYONE’s bucket list. It is even more beautiful than the post cards you see of it and has amazing food – especially fresh sea food and pesto. It took a plane, a bus and 3 trains to get to but was absolutely worth it! ????

My most wanderlusty story is when I graduated from college I took a month long solo trip down Route 66 to photograph all the only neon. I stayed in sketchy motels, and the back of my patents’ van, and stopped at greasy spoons and roadside oddities (my favorite!) along the way. The Mother Road ends in Santa Monica and from there I drove up Hwy 1 and home.

My husband and I did a road trip across the US with very little planning, and just kind of did whatever we felt like. It was the most amazing vacation of my life! We visited six national parks, backpacked through Yellowstone, and had the most ridiculously awesome experience ever.

I took a three week road trip across the USA a few years ago and it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. Camped most of the way and saw some amazing sights and met amazing people!!

My adventure story is that my husband and I started, in 2007, a plan to visit all of the baseball stadiums. We try to go to one a year, skipped a couple years when the kids were really little, but have knocked off Milwaukee (obviously), Washington DC, St Louis, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Seattle. We always make a long weekend out of it and do a bunch of other fun stuff in each city we go to! Someday we will get to them all!! It’s our little tradition and it’s been a fun one so far!! ????????⚾️????????

My most adventurous travel story is when I studied abroad in Norway ???????? without knowing anyone! It was an experience of a life time. Even though it was only for a summer study abroad session I felt like this was the time I grew up and became an adult. I made friendships that have lasted a life time and I cherish those memories still today.

I spent 3 months backpacking in South America in 2007 for my honeymoon! It was very low-budget but we had the best time exploring, hiking (never really hiked before) and staying in hostels. I was able to explore Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru. The biggest highlight was being able to trek through Patagonia, which was the most amazing experience. It was a 10 day trek that filled me with appreciation for the beauty in this world! Traveling is the greatest privilege 🙂

Seeing a super pod of orca whales with Canada in the background while kayaking with my fiancé has to be the highlight of my travels thus far! Honestly the adventure of a lifetime thus far! If you wanna see more check out my Instagram! Okay already wanting to go back just thinking about this. Maybe next time with the bests