Beth and I just finished up our amazing trip to Australia and New Zealand! Our journey took us to Melbourne where Beth student taught at and made some wonderful friends. From there we tried driving on the left side on the amazing Great Ocean Road. On a final stint we hiked and explored Queenstown, New Zealand, the adventure capital of the world. We also somehow managed to squeeze in a night in Sydney and 5 hours in Wellington. More on our adventures in future posts but first I would like to detail out how we got there!

Growing up me and dad would do a ski trip every couple of years or so. Well our tradition took a hiatus for 6 years but we decided to head to Banff to ski and snowboard Lake Louise Ski Resort and Sunshine Village for our father son trip. In the past we went to the Salt Lake area doing a different ski resort each day and on another trip we went out east to Killington and got a taste of east coast skiing and snowboarding. Banff was by far the most scenic place I have ever snowboarded at and both the ski resorts had some great terrain!

The flights were actually booked many months ago to Calgary. Part of the reason for our decision to go to Banff for skiing was we had nearly perfect flights and were able to book the flights for 25,000 Delta miles round trip each (hey no money for the tickets!). That is cheap in miles too. The flights typically range in the $500 range so this was a great value and the best part was we met up in Minneapolis for our final connecting flight into Calgary and back home.

Where In The World Would You Travel To? Here Are My Travel Goals

I think it is important to have lists or goals whether that is for work or for personal reasons. Well traveling the world isn’t any different to me at least… Here are my travel goals. Many people may call this their travel bucket list but I really don’t want to wait until I kick the bucket… I know I am relatively young right now but there is no time like the present. You truly never know what will happen in life so it is important to accomplish what you want while you can whether that is traveling or just living life. On the other I don’t expect to travel to all these places but it is better to set the bar high.

I have always had a drive to explore whether that is just around town, throughout the US, or the world. One of my favorite stories about me growing up is that my 1st grade teacher asked each student where they would want to travel to. Of course most said Disney World!! But I said Egypt to visit the pyramids, haha. Just shows my curiosity for the world.

Now for the list itself. I have broken it down by region and the idea behind the list is that it will never be complete. The more I explore, the more places I will add. Also keep in mind I expect that some places on my travel list may actually disappoint but there will always be places that will surprise you! An example for me is when I traveled to El Salvador just for a few short days. I was blown away by the beauty, the people, and the food there. Never in the world would I have imagined even going there in the first place but I was pleasantly surprised!

Now I haven’t had the chance to explore much of the world yet but here are my travel goals!

Just completed another crazy weekend celebrating another wedding but this time in Jacksonville! Somehow I also managed to go to Amelia Island and St. Augustine all within just a weekend. Taking a step back, Beth and I had back to back weddings planned, the first in San Diego and now this one in Jacksonville. Beth was lucky enough to have the whole week off, one of the perks of being a teacher, so she just flew directly from San Diego to Jacksonville. I flew straight into Jacksonville on the Friday before the wedding.

Getting flights there was a little tricky. I couldn’t find optimal flight times for my schedule and the price was little higher than I wanted, but I eventually booked a US Airways flight through Charlotte. What was kind of cool was that the flight was the final day of US Airways. Pretty fitting as the first time I earned airline status was on US Airways just a couple of years ago. Somehow I ended up getting one of my favorite seats too, 10A on both segments on an Airbus A319. It’s an exit row with no one in front of you… Really lucky that I got it as I have no status with them right now. Anyway the flights went fine despite having only a 42 minute connection in Charlotte.

The past couple weeks were crazy going from one coast to the other for weddings, but I had a splendid time in one of my favorite cities, San Diego! I had the chance to visit one of my friends in San Diego a year and a half ago and I was excited that he invited me to his wedding.

Me and my fiancé Beth ventured out from Indianapolis to San Diego on Friday night with a connection through Denver. Thanks to a previous mishap on a Southwest flight I had enough in vouchers to pay for one ticket and then the Southwest companion pass allowed Beth to fly for free with me! Not a bad deal, free flights! For those interested, the Southwest credit card is at 50k point right now which is a lot towards the 110k companion pass qualification, a decent guide about the Southwest Companion Pass at The Points Guy if you are interested. Now on to the actual trip!