Sunday Summary #28 - Florida, USA: Travel Recap

Sunday Summary #28 - St. Augustine, Florida, USA

Sunday Summary #28

One Year of Full-Time Travel

Namaste ,

Welcome to An Urban Journey’s 28th Sunday Summary. This edition of the Sunday Summary was written in St. Augustine Beach, Florida, USA!

    Last Week.

    Over the last few weeks we wrapped up our one year of full-time travel and have seen more family than we have in the couple years. Here are some highlights from the past few weeks:

    • Visiting Family. From family dinners, to surprise birthday parties, and all of the in between. We have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our family that we have not seen in the past year.

    • Meeting our new nephew in person. We were overwhelmed with joy when we got to meet and play with our new nephew, Miles. He is an adorable little baby who has grown a tremendous amount since seeing him on video calls months ago. We’re so happy to have a new member in our family. We also welcomed another member into our family, our niece Emma! We've only met virtually for now, but we're looking forward to meeting her soon.

    • Enjoying runs on the beach with our dog, Ollie. When we got back to the states, she had gained a few pounds and running has been a nice release for our entire family.

    In our last Sunday Summary, we promised to give you a recap of our trip and list the things we are grateful for, or just came to appreciate, from our travels during this past year. So without further ado...

    Gratitudes.

    • Kind people are everywhere.

    • We grew as a couple. This trip challenged and celebrated our relationship in really beautiful ways. 

    • We grew as individuals, constantly our thoughts and ideas were challenged. We asked questions, some questions were answered and others remain unknown.

    • We changed. By taking a trip like this, theres no way to come back as the same person we were when we left. Change is a good thing.

    • Trust goes a long way. We learned to trust strangers from getting us safely to our hotel or giving us directions or purchasing street food. "Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to loose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends." -Cesare Pavese

    • We watched more sunsets this year than our whole lives combined. Watching the sunrises and sunsets brought us gratitude and appreciation for our lives and this trip. Mostly, it forced us to stay present.

    • We read a lot of books in the past year. We combined for almost 30 books!

    • We challenged ourselves in unexpected ways (like climbing to the summit of Cradle Mountain!)

    • We learned the basics of how to sail in Melbourne, Australia.

    • We trekked to Machu Picchu and learned about the extensive Incan civilizations across South America.

    • The Galapagos Islands are incredible. We left inspired by their strict conservation and preservation of the land and animals.

    • Changes in community come from individuals and small actions that lead to big changes (like Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia)

    • Sometimes the most unexpected detours lead to the most memorable experiences (like hopping on a 30 minute ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay and then a short flight from Melbourne to Tasmania, Australia)

    • Train travel is underrated and we wish there were more trains in the United States.

    • Free walking tours are not really free, but 100% worth it! We took 13 walking tours over the past year and learned well more than we expected our encouraged donation bought us.

    • We met incredible people from all around the world from people on our tours to our tour guides and people traveling that we still keep in contact with! (San Fransisco, Boulder, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, Chile, Australia, Peru, UK, and so many more)

    • Food is an amazing way to share culture.

    • Attending an Indian Wedding and learning about their unique ceremonial traditions.

    “Traveling. It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”-Ibn Battuta

    Thank you for listening to and watching our stories from this one incredible and unforgettable year!

    Vlogs.

    Here are all the vlogs we’ve released since our last Sunday Summary:

    If you haven’t already, we would love for you to subscribe to our channel or share our videos with your friends and family to spread the love.

    This Week.

    We've gotten many questions about what's next? We've been doing a LOT of behind the scenes work and are not done yet! ;) As we've been working, we don't want to release our plans until they're ready, so in next week's Sunday Summary, we will be sharing some exciting news. You won’t want to miss it!

    Peace and love,Jenn + Elliot