And with that, 2018 is over.

This was quite a momentous year, although it didn’t compare with the craziness of 2017. Select highlights: M and I officially got married in August, and then had our wedding celebration in October, and the second half of the year was focused on applying to business school. In December I found out I got into three out of the four schools I applied to, so now I’m deciding where I want to attend in August 2019! So now, I really have a chunk of time for myself until I start bschool to do whatever I want. It’s strange to not have anything to “work towards”, so I am filling up all my time with travel planning 🙂 I really want to spend this time doing as much as possible before school starts, as I’ll have craziness of school to deal with in the next two years, then work will become much harder right after bschool. And at some point we will have to figure out how to start a family, and I am a long-term planner so I want to make the right career choices to allow the lifestyle we (okay, mostly I) want. All great and exciting things coming up!

But for now, travel! I will focus on making these trips as affordable as possible while still checking off bucket list items, because you really are young once (although fiscal responsibility is still very important to keep in mind). So far I have planned:

January: South Africa, Mauritius

February: Southern California

March: Sanibel Island, Florida

April: Belize (? in discussions with some girlfriends)

May: Morocco & London

June: New Delhi, Taiwan

July: China

August: Greece for our 1-year marriage anniversary!

If you’ll be in these locations, let me know – and if you have recs for any of these places!

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We finished 2018 year with an annual trip with our friends SZ and MD, who were M’s old roommates in college (and by default my roommates too). We generally go somewhere nearby since they’re all in school, and while we originally said we’d go somewhere warm this year, we ended up deciding on a ski trip to upstate New York. Next year, we’ll plan farther ahead and go somewhere warm 😉

 

 

 

Stops in Vermont & NH on the way to NY

Lake Placid is equidistant from Boston and NYC, so it was a perfect location for us. M and I drove from Boston through New Hampshire and Vermont, stopping along some towns on the way – although most things were closed for New Year’s Eve and for winter.

We were able to rent an affordable AirBnB cabin 15 minutes away from Whiteface Mountain, which is another 15 minutes to downtown Lake Placid area. The first day we spent skiing (learning to ski, for me and M). I did NOT enjoy myself, but was glad I could say I tried it at least. So the next day while the boys went skiing, I went exploring the region, going on a winter hike, visiting a wolf sanctuary, and then checking into a spa where the boys joined me for a glamorous outdoor pool/hot tub apres ski after their ski session. Whiteface Lodge is truly the most gorgeous hotel in the area, although it’s quite expensive to stay there!

 

 

 

For New Year’s Eve we wanted a bit of city life to ring in the new year, and ended up in Albany, NY. We were pleasantly surprised at the nightlife there and had an awesome time!! It helped that everything in Albany is super cheap, and we were able to go into a club for only a $5 cover charge, and got a huge AirBnb that probably could’ve slept 12 people for only $120 a night.

The Adirondack Mountains are probably my favorite area in the northeast. It’s always so great going to New York – it might just be a mental thing, but I realized how totally ready I am to get out of Massachusetts! New York just has so much, especially outside of NYC.