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It’s hard to believe that yet another year of life has come and gone, but here we are! Overall, 2024 treated me pretty well. Considering I had some bumpy moments last year, the positivity was very welcomed.
This year, we didn’t travel internationally, but I still felt we traveled (and ate) well! Speaking of eating, if you’re interested in reading all about my favorite foods this year, check out my Best Bites and Foodie Highlights of 2024. There’s too much to fit into one recap post these days, so I have been dedicating a whole separate post to my foodie adventures.
On a personal note, I had a job change, experienced the effects of turning 40 (lots of fun medical exams and what not), and just tried my best to enjoy the good stuff amidst the craziness in the world.
So let’s get into the details on how well 2024 treated me!
Best 2024 Travel Moments
This year was all about travel in the U.S. Ideally, I’d like to make it a goal to travel internationally at least once a year, but I’m grateful for whatever travel I can get (even if it means keeping my passport put away for a bit).
Travel was also relatively smooth this year – I didn’t even have enough content to write about my worst travel moments like I did for my 2023 travels! So, thank you, 2024 for mostly-positive travel experiences.
Travel Summary
- States Visited: 4 for me (California, Colorado, Hawaii & Oregon); 5 for the husband (California, Hawaii, North Carolina, Tennessee & Texas)
- Countries Visit: Just the good old U.S.A. this year
Visiting San Luis Obispo for the first time
When I ended up with some unexpected time off this April (more on that below), we decided it was the perfect time to take a trip down to San Luis Obispo (aka SLO), located in the Central Coast area of California.
While I would have loved to take this time to travel abroad, I just did not have enough lead time to plan for something that grand. But that’s okay! I honestly loved our visit to SLO.
We have been down in the Central Coast area many times now, visiting nearby Paso Robles and Cambria but never to San Luis Obispo. It turned out to be a delight for me as a foodie. We had so many great meals in this city!
SLO is also a great spot for beer drinkers, is close to Edna Valley wine country, and is the perfect base for exploring other nearby coastal towns like Morro Bay and Cayucos. We day tripped out to some of these towns, scarfed down some seafood, and enjoyed a bit of nature, including watching sleepy sea lions and the most adorable otters floating in the bay.
I daresay it might be one of my favorite destinations in California now.
Read More:
- Best Things to Do in San Luis Obispo
- A Foodie’s Guide to SLO: Where to Eat in San Luis Obispo
- Day Trip Itinerary for Morro Bay & Cayucos from SLO
Attending TravelCon in Portland
In May, I took a solo trip up to Portland, Oregon to attend TravelCon – a conference for travel creators.
This trip was a huge step out of my comfort zone! Not only did I travel solo like a big girl (something I never do unless I’m flying home to Maui), my introverted ass actually talked to people and made friends. I also got to meet a few friends face-to-face who I’ve only known online for years! It was nice to finally meet them in person and made attending the conference on my own a little less scary.
Overall, I was hoping to get a little more value out of the conference material itself than I did. There were a few great talks but the conference is under new ownership and it showed. I hope they improve in the coming years, but I don’t have any regrets simply because of all of the wonderful connections I made.
Eating My Way Around Portland
TravelCon was great and all, but one of the biggest highlights about my trip to Portland was the food! Portland is one of my all-time favorite foodie destinations because of the incredible diversity in cuisines. You bet I spent significant time eating all the food I could!
As a part of the TravelCon conference, I was able to get on a FAM tour with Lost Plate Tours, visiting some really unique food carts. I also crafted my own DIY tour in one of my favorite Portland neighborhoods, getting to hit many new spots that allowed me to finally put together a food guide to Portland.
A Surprise Ludacris Concert in Denver
In June, I took a trip to Denver for a work conference for my IT day job. Conferences can be so exhausting as you’re trying to be on your “A Game” with learning new material and networking. Thank you to my afternoon hotel room naps and exhibit hall snacks for keeping me alive!
The main highlight of the conference, however, was that our closing party turned into a surprise Ludacris concert. Everyone was so hyped! I’m not a big hip hop fan, but some of his songs define an era of life. I couldn’t help but relive that early 2000’s nostalgia as he, ahem, rolled out (yeah, I went there).
Celebrating a Friend’s 40th in Paso Robles
2024 took us back to Paso Robles – this time for the 40th birthday of one of my best friends. Paso is one of my favorite towns for a long-weekend getaway in California. It has amazing restaurants, countless wineries, craft breweries and even a tiki bar for a fun night out!
We also happened to have one of my favorite meals of the year here at a restaurant called Il Cortile, which you can read all about in my 2024 Best Bites recap post!
It was nice to get away for a weekend with my favorite people and celebrate a very special friend.
Seeing My Family on Maui
Hawaii was our biggest trip of 2024 and I, of course, included a stop on my home island of Maui. We spent time visiting my family, eating at some old favorite spots, and scoping out new restaurants and experiences (aka research for the blog).
My Kauai Hotel Points Redemption
Kauai was my favorite travel destination of the year! After a stop on Maui, we hopped over to Kauai for a few days. I hadn’t been to the island since I was a kid, so I really felt like I was experiencing it for the first time.
We only had four days here and saw a lot of the island, but what I’m most proud of is snagging a good points redemption to stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai.
If you’ve ever traveled to Hawaii, you know that hotels are ungodly expensive (and why I usually choose to stay at condos). For this trip, I was able to cover our accommodations by transferring points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt and booked an ocean-view king room (with Grand Club access!). Since our hotel on Kauai was completely free, this allowed us to spend more money on other important things (like food).
I’ve got a whole post coming soon with my review of the hotel and how you can book a stay here on points too. Credit card points have allowed us to travel so much more. I can’t recommend them enough, even if you’re only doing the basics!
Spending 24 Hours in Santa Cruz
In November, we made a last-minute decision to book an overnight trip to Santa Cruz so I could use up a Hyatt award night that was expiring. It turned out to be a really amazing 24 hours!
Our itinerary included eating delicious seafood (especially oysters), drinking good beer and scoping out unique finds – like a used bookstore serving incredible Thai food and an ice cream shop with locally-made, seasonal flavors topped with toasted marshmallow fluff.
On this trip, I also crossed off some bucket-list sightseeing spots like the Capitola Venetian houses and Shark Fin Cove in Davenport. We also made it to Arcangeli Deli in Pescadero on our way home for their famous artichoke bread!
Finally Seeing the Epic Napali Coast!
Seeing the Napali Coast was undoubtedly my favorite travel moment of 2024. I booked a boat cruise with Captain Andy’s (because I will always be too much of a chicken to get in a helicopter) and it was worth every penny!
The ocean blessed us with calm seas and the weather was beautiful. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to see the epic Napali Coast.
Blogging Whirlwind
This year was a crazy rollercoaster in the world of blogging! I had some highs and lows (some of which were experienced by many other blog owners too). I hope to leave the lows in the past in favor of more highs in 2025!
Blogging Lows
- Google’s “helpful content” updates that decimated site traffic for many blogs and websites, including my own. I had some of the worst months in years with my pageviews! Some of my articles I ranked highly for (like first page of Google high) just flat out disappeared from search results.
- AI summaries and Reddit forums appeared at the top of search results instead of well-researched and carefully crafted articles. Did this affect me directly? I’m not entirely sure (but probably). We can lump this into one of the many Google update side effects.
- Bots attacked my homepage so badly, it caused my site loading speed to tank. I eventually figured it out after many hours/days/months of frustration and implemented security measures that fixed the problem and restored my peace.
These things took a toll on me and I felt so discouraged. They had me questioning if all my work was really worth it, and whether I’d be able to continue to reach people with my stories and experiences long term. This blog is a huge source of my joy as it allows me to channel my passion for food, travel, and photography into one creative space. I can’t imagine my world without it!
Blogging Highs
- 28% Growth – Even with my lows this year, I still experienced about 28% growth in terms of readership. I’ll take that as a win! It wasn’t what I wanted to see after growing by 126% the year before, but it’s better than being down.
- I hit my highest monthly pageview mark of all time in October! Miraculously (seriously, this is a miracle considering I had some really low months), my traffic shot up towards the end of summer. I think this was largely due, in part, to some really strong seasonal fall articles.
- I joined an ad network. This has been a huge goal of mine for a few years! I know it’s annoying as a reader to have to deal with ads, but they help generate income that I can use to pay website expenses and put towards travel so I can continue creating free content.
So, while the first half of 2024 was a little rough for the blog, it ended on a high note. I feel like I’m starting to find my rhythm!
My Top Posts of 2024
As much as I want to rag on Google and their stupid updates, it really did me a solid with a few high-performing posts of 2024:
- One Week London Itinerary: I’m shocked, but this was my top performing article in all of 2024. It has been consistently at the top of Google search results! I’ll certainly take that as a big win to get a high-ranking article for such a widely-covered topic.
- Apple Hill Guide: This festive fall California destination gets more popular each year and I’m happy so many found this post thanks to it being at the top of of the search results too.
- Ireland Fall Packing Guide: I spent a lot of time on this post outlining every detail of what I packed for my fall trip to Ireland (and probably an equal amount of time the previous year planning for that trip). I’m super proud of this one and I hope it really helped others pack for their Ireland trips!
2025 Blog Goals
I’m not sure what’s in store for 2025 but I do know that I love to write and share my travels here and so I’ll continue to push forward. I have so much to share!
Here are a few goals I have in mind for the coming year:
- Readership Growth: I’m going to aim for modest growth of about 50% and if I exceed it, great! If not, I won’t have set myself up for major disappointment.
- Grow My Facebook Page (and maybe Instagram but that’s probably a lost cause): I rarely post to my social media feeds and I’d like for that to change in 2025.
- Start a Facebook Group: I know I want to start a Facebook group centered around culinary travel, but I’m not entirely sure if I want to niche down to a specific destination or create a community that covers the world. To be continued…
That’s really all I’m going to plan for when it comes to the blog in 2025. Just going to keep doing what I do, banging away at this keyboard for as long as I can.
Personal Updates
Outside of travel and the blog, there were some memorable moments worth writing a few paragraphs about!
Starting a New Job
One major life change that happened this year was taking a position at a new company. An opportunity just sort of fell in my lap that I could not pass up! I’m not big on change when it comes to jobs – I’m a dedicated long-term employee. I was at my last job for 7 years, and 13 years at the one before that.
But, sometimes the universe just says it’s time for a change and I went for it.
Funny story though – I ended up with a month off in between jobs. I won’t go into detail on why that happened, but it turned out to be for the best. I can’t remember the last time I had that much time off work – maybe decades ago.
After a day or two of not really knowing what to do with my newly-acquired (though temporary) freedom, I scheduled out time to catch up on writing for the blog, spent a few afternoons reading and day drinking, cleaned out one of our spare rooms, and took a spontaneous trip down to San Luis Obispo. It was a month well-spent.
I voted (for the first time ever!)
I don’t ever talk about politics, but I wanted to commemorate this “event” for my own memories. At 40 years old, I decided that I couldn’t whine about the state of my country if I wasn’t going to participate in the democratic process. So, I voted.
I took an obligatory selfie with my “I Voted” sticker and in true American fashion, promptly went and got cheeseburgers after dropping off our ballots.
Unglamorous Things of 2024
And what would life be without some bumps in the road? There are always going to be things in our lives that might not be entirely positive.
For me: cancer screenings in the first year of my 40’s with some not so great results; family health struggles; people close to me experiencing loss and grief; all the things that come with a U.S. election year; warring nations wearing on my mind; shocking events covered in the news; ridiculously expensive grocery bills; and so on. It’s enough to trigger a little depression, sadness, and stress from time to time.
Low points aside, I’m fortunate to have a safe home, steady job, and amazing partner in life. I eat well, have a loving family, and am in good health (well, relatively). When I write these recaps, I get to look back on all the great things that did happen throughout the year, and for those moments, I’m thankful!
What’s Coming Up in 2025
This coming year is going to be a really exciting one for travel! I have some big plans and lofty destination goals, like usual, but only have two trips currently booked so far.
Travel on the Books
- San Luis Obispo in February: I loved this town so much, I felt like a return visit was needed to try more restaurants, breweries, and experiences along the Central Coast of California! We’re splitting up our stay at two separate hotels, making use of a Marriott Award night and going a little bougie at Hotel SLO right in downtown.
- Basque Country & Madrid, Spain in late spring: This has been a dream trip of mine for many years and the time to book it finally felt right. Northern Spain is a foodie heaven, and I can’t wait to eat endless pintxos and tapas while sipping Spanish wine and cider. We’ll also be flying in business class for the first time ever, which I’m equally excited about!
Wish List Trips
Aside from what I already have booked, there are a few other trips on my wish list for 2025. These lists I make are usually pretty ambitious, so I’m just going to list a few things this year that I think we can actually swing:
- A Chicago summer trip for NASCAR, architecture and days full of scarfing down deep dish pizza, hot beef, and Chicago dogs. I’ve never been to Chicago before and I’m itching to cross this off my list!
- Fall trip ideas: I’m waffling between several options, including trying to chase the Northern lights in Iceland, Scandinavia, or Alaska. Or, will we finally take a fall foliage road trip through some states in New England? This will be entirely dependent upon cost, but the Northern Lights are at their peak in the current cycle so that’s going to be my first choice!
- Trip home to Maui: I’ve been trying to make an effort to get home once year to see my family. This will likely be a quick solo trip wherever I can fit it in.
I already have some ideas for 2026 as well, including Japan and European Christmas Markets (maybe even a river cruise?). I know it’s a bit early to start thinking about this, but advanced planning is required for these two. My husband will probably shake his head reading this, but I’m determined to find a way to make this happen!
Finishing My A to Z Challenge
Since early 2023, I’ve been working on an A to Z World Cuisines Challenge where I try a new cuisine or new dish based on the letters of the alphabet in my local area (i.e. A for Argentine cuisine, B for Burmese, etc.). I’ve made it all the way to S and I’m excited to finish up T through Z.
The most challenging letters are coming up (like, what the heck am I going to do for X and Z?!). Might have to get creative there. But it has been so rewarding to try new cuisines and dishes in between my travels. I might even start a new A to Z challenge with a different spin on it once I’m done!
And that’s it for 2024! As always, thanks for being a reader and allowing me to share my experiences with you. I hope the New Year brings everything you wish for and more.
Let’s go 2025 – I’m so ready for you!
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