After being on my best behavior in the Philippines with the California Academy of Sciences, I had successfully convinced Meg Burke and Terry Gosliner I was worthy of the cool kids list and should be invited back for their next adventure. And what an adventure it was! Cal Academy was taking a small group of …
Yap, FSM
Yap, quirky little Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia. What a unique little island filled with super chill people, which might possibly be linked to all the Betel Nut use. My best dive buddy Sue, and I booked a trip to Palau with our friends, Meg and Terry from the California Academy of Sciences, …
Honduras
Scuba time! I received my Advanced Open Water certification from our local shop, Scuba Unlimited, in 2009 but had never traveled with them. I finally booked a trip to Utila, a tiny island off the coast of Honduras, in March of 2025. Kudos to Jenn and Chip, our trip leaders, who kept everything rolling smoothly …
Panama
I had been tracking the Panama ex-pat groups on social media and have heard great things. I already had a trawler class booked in Vero Beach when my company decided to send me to a work conference in Orlando 2 weeks before. That meant I had 2 trips to Florida with a week in-between, so …
Philippines
In April of 2024, I asked my new friend, Sue, if she was interested in going on a dive trip. As luck would have it, she had recently been approached by her friends, Maggi and Bruce, about an opportunity for a dive trip. The trip was to the Philippines and was a joint venture between …
Costa Rica
One of life’s rough patches hit me hard in Fall of 2011. What’s the best remedy? A spontaneous girl’s trip to Costa Rica with Amy, one of my favorite people on the planet and my tried and true travel partner. Our trip included: Surf lessons with a sexy young local who was afraid of everything …
Greece and Turkey
Greece is the word is the word is the word… Cadi and I decided that we wanted to explore the Mediterranean a bit and booked a cruise on a Celebrity cruise ship. We are not typically cruise people and although it felt a little like we were with the chubby people in the movie Wall-E, …
Exuma, Bahamas
June 2018 In 2017, my traveller Cadi told me she wanted to swim with pigs so I told her I was quite certain pigs did not swim. I grew up on a farm after all and our pigs just laid around eating Twinkies. Today, of course, the secret is out but I needed some convincing. …
Buenos Aires and Ushuaia
My journey to Antarctica took me through the gorgeous country of Argentina. I had been as far south in the Americas as Costa Rica but had not logged any time in South America so I was super excited to visit Argentina and mark another continent off my list. My friend, Agustina, is from Buenos Aires …
Antarctica
First, a disclaimer: I did not take all of these amazing pictures. Many were shared from my new friends and from the Quark Expeditions photographer. They are an accurate representation of my experience in Antarctica though. I’m very grateful that photographers who are much better than me were willing to share their pics and capture …