Travel – Year in Review

Much of my 2022 was spent driving up and down the highway. Between driving to visit colleges in Philly with my daughter and getting my son all over creation for his baseball much of my year was spent in a car. However, I did manage to take a few short trips. My favorites were my trips to Kingston in the Spring and Traverse City, Michigan in the Fall.

Jamaica

My favorite trip by far was the one I took home to Jamaica in April. Covid has interrupted travel for the past few years so I have not seen my family nearly as much as I would like. In a rare spontaneous moment I booked a last-minute trip and headed home when other members of my extended family were also visiting. It was amazing! For so many when they think about Jamaica, they picture beaches. Though I love beaches, Jamaica for me is more about family and the thing I miss the most are the mountains always visible in the background.

We spent amazing days hanging with family, visiting friends, and partying – it is Kingston after all! But no trip to Jamaica is complete for me without certain foods – Tastee patty, jerk pork, coconut jelly, and fish and festival at Hellshire!

Michigan

The opportunity came up for me to travel to Traverse City, Michigan to present a poster at a conference. I do not like solo travel but I put my big girl pants and booked my trip. I am sooooooo glad I did. I had heard people say that the Great Lakes looked like the ocean just without salt. I honestly thought they were exaggerating. To say I was blown away would be putting it mildly. The scope, color, waves – ALL of it. Contrast it with the fall color and it was gorgeous.

I took a tour to sleeping bear dunes which was the last tour of the season. It was rainy and cold and at one point we even got caught in a storm of grapple and snow will hiking back down one of the many trails. Yet, it was one of my favorite days of the year. If you ever find yourself in this area definitely take this tour. I learned so much about the area’s history and how areas like this were formed. Even spied some salmon swimming upstream!

I’m hoping to get more time to travel in 2023. I can’t wait to see what new places I get to experience.