You can help “define” indie travel by voting statements you agree/disagree with up or down. Please sign/share if it resonates with you.

My favs:

• See yourself in the context of a rich and complex world.
• Define your values and explore your beliefs; craft your own meaning for life.
• Pack light and keep things simple.
• Seek pleasure in simple moments and details.

I’m also a little obsessed with this color palette right now. My next project will might not incorporate Tangerine Tango — (Pantone color of the year). :)

Dear Internet, I have a confession to make. I had a mimosa! What!?! was I thinking? I wasn’t. I completely forgot, because it wasn’t at a restaurant/bar. I had a salon appointment on Saturday and when I arrived they asked if I wanted a mimosa, and they never ask that, so naturally, I said “Of course”, and then on the way home I almost got in an accident when I realized that I’d had a mimosa. Le sigh. So I messed up. I guess I’ll call this Sober January*.   *except for that one morning when I accidentally had a mimosa.

Week 2 Menu:
Breakfasts have been fairly similar to last week: fresh-squeezed juice, green drink, avocado egg chipotle breakfast sandwich, oatmeal, banana peanut butter smoothie, breakfast burritos, and fruit/nuts.

Dinners have been veggie stir-fry lettuce wraps, caramelized onion & goat cheese flatbread with Herbes de Provence, Tomatoes Provençal, and curried lentils with Paneer (a really quick and tasty recipe from the latest Sunset magazine. We ended up doubling the recipe so we could have leftovers for lunches.) I always love finding good recipes in the Sunset magazine. While it’s not the first magazine I think of when I’m recipe hunting, it’s one of the reasons Sunset is one of my favorite magazine — unexpected finds (and it’s always a nice pat on the back to be reminded of how awesome my Northwest is, even though I still think California gets too much attention).

Restaurant Pick this Week:
Bamboo Sushi. Knowing you only get to go out to eat at one restaurant a week, forces you to make excellent dining decisions. So Saturday, we headed to my favorite sushi place in Portland — Bamboo Sushi. For what it’s worth, they’re the first certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world (with fairly reasonable prices considering). After ordering their tart blackberry drink (sans alcohol), we gorged ourselves on sushi (the green machine, tataki carpaccio, and albacore carpaccio were our favs, if you ever get a chance to go).

So four days into 2012, I clicked the fateful “buy” button on a ticket to Hawaii for March! It feels good to be crossing a travel goal off my 2012 Goals list already, and I’m excited to be making my goal of working remotely for 1-3 months actually happen. What else is on my travel list this year?

2012 Travel Goals:

1. Work remotely (not in Portland) for 1-3 months
2. Sublet/Airbnb my condo for 1-2 months (see above goal)
3. Try kiteboarding in Hawaii
4. Apply to at least one new credit card for airline miles
5. Travel to South America (Chile please!) or Portugal for 2+ weeks
6. Visit a new island in the Caribbean
7. Try couchsurfing
8. Visit NYC, San Francisco, Boston or Savannah (essentially: another US city that I haven’t been to)
9. Be a traveler at home: attend 12 new Portland things
10. Go on a quarterly getaway trip with boyfriend (overnight or weekend trip in Oregon/Northwest etc)
11. Take a “spontaneous” same-day trip (using HotelTonight etc)
12. Take a digital sabbatical (no social media/email) while on a trip

What’s on your 2012 travel list?
Join BootsnAll’s 2012 Indie Travel Challenge and share your list. Need some ideas? Check out 18 Travel Resolutions to Keep This Year.

Next up on my list, I need to sublet my condo in Portland for the month. So if you know of anyone who wants to see what it’s like to be a Portlander for a month (albeit not our best month weather-wise, but I still love my city!) in a cute little condo overlooking the river and on the Streetcar line, send them my way please!

Meanwhile, I’ll be hiking the Stairway to Heaven on Oahu. :)

This week:

-Florida – I spent eight days in the Tampa Bay area for Thanksgiving, meeting boyfriend’s family and friends and enjoying the Sunshine State. There’s something incredibly reassuring about meeting your significant other’s hometown friends and finding them to be just your style, isn’t there?

-Oranges, Alligators, and Manatees – My Florida checklist was along the lines of: see an alligator in the wild, pick oranges, see a manatee in the wild, eat Cuban food, go to the beach. And I’m pleased to say I did all five, and I got to visit with some pelicans too! I was also wanting to do a standup paddle boarding thing around Fort Desoto area, but the weather wasn’t cooperating the last two days in town. Next time!

-Pinterest – Yes, I joined Pinterest awhile ago, but wasn’t using it too much, because of Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr and Instagram and this here WordPress blog. But thesoybean is a big fan so I decided to give it another go, and it’s easier/more fun than using Picasa Albums to accomplish the same thing. So add me my fellow pinners.

Gifts, gifts, gifts - Two weeks ago, I wrote a wishlist post on WhyGo Portland about Portland gift ideas, featuring 14 of my favorite made-in-Portland items. Aaand some of the companies and artists featured offered up some giveaways (hello Stumptown Coffee, Freshy Fig and more), so go check out the post and like WhyGo Portland on Facebook to enter the giveaway by Dec 9. You’re welcome.

BikeCraft 2011 – Dropped by BikeCraft this weekend. Sometimes I’m so proud of all the cool crafters and artists we have in town. :)

Coming Home – As much as I loved getting the chance to wear my sundress, shorts, bikini and flip flops in Florida, I’m still a total sucker for coming home and bundling up in skinny jeans, boots, scarves, and my coat and sitting around the fire at Doug Fir drinking a Bourbon Sour. Remind me I said this in March.

What are you up to this week?

Prompt #30: Where are you going in 2012? Why is that place great for indie travelers?

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” –Saint Augustine

I’ve become a little obsessed with Torres del Paine national park in Chile the last few years. It’s breathtakingly beautiful like New Zealand and I have yet to visit the South American continent, so South America is on my target list for the coming year.

2012: Chile & Torres del Paine National Park

Where are you going?

Today is the final day of the 30 Days of Indie Travel project. I had so much fun keeping up with the project (yes! I blogged every day in November!) and reading other bloggers awesome stories and experiences. Until next time…

Prompt #29: What does travel mean to you in one word?

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” –Helen Keller

adventure, freedom, learning, curiosity, fun, change, experience, happiness…

Adventure. The one word that best wraps up everything I love about travel is probably adventure… When you’re traveling everything is new… it’s an adventure. You have no idea what you might experience or discover in the next week, day, minute… it’s an adventure. Things are different and a change from regular routine… it’s an adventure. You have the freedom to do and be whatever you want… it’s an adventure. You learn new things rapidly and see that there are many different ways to do things and they’re not better/worse just different [squat toilets come to mind]… it’s an adventure. When you’re traveling you’re living in the moment, you feel super alive… it’s an adventure.

Life in general is an adventure.

What does travel mean to you?

Photo: super cute poster print by happydeliveries on Etsy.
Join the 30 Days of Indie Travel project and share your story.

Prompt #28:The right gear can make or break your trip. What is your favorite/must-have gear item?

“A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.” –Coco Chanel

Oh how I love packing, and packing lists, and clever gadgets. I’m over on the BootsnAll blog again today with my Must-have Travel Gear Item: Flight 001 Wet Suit bag.

I originally found this bag after returning from Panama with a bag even the customs agents didn’t want to open. Mildew happens.

What is your favorite gear item?

Join the 30 Days of Indie Travel project and share your story.

Prompt #27: Share a photo or video that just makes you want to GO. RIGHT. NOW.

“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” –Seneca

Every few months I come across a video on Vimeo that definitely makes me want to pick up and leave, and then I find myself repeatedly searching for travel deals to Paris or Tokyo deals or {Insert ANY country} deals. Here are a few that did that to me in the last year…

Travel videos that give me wanderlust:

Inspired by Iceland

I’m sure you’ve seen this one by now. I was so excited to find this one last year, after I’d already purchased my ticket to Iceland.

Move. Eat. Learn.

This is by the same guys (Rick Mereki) who did the walking across America one last year (note: not the guy who actually did walk across America). I love to see all the different food and scenery and people.

Tokyo Slo-mode

Love seeing Tokyo this way. By Alex Lee

I Believe I can Fly

This ‘flight of the Frenchies’ trailer about highlining/slacklining absolutely fascinates me. I put it on tumblr a few weeks ago, and have watched a half dozen times. By Sebastien Montaz-Rosset

Iceland = Mad Wanderlust

The cool thing about finding one inspiring video, is that it leads you to more. (I found this one from the Flight of the Frenchies’ Sebastien Montaz-Rosset, a video by Austrian Klara Harden, who did a 25-day solo hike through Iceland this summer.

A Journey Through Vietnam

This video by Leon Visser reminded me of my time in Vietnam. If you’ve been to Vietnam, watch it! It’s like a trip down memory lane — the people, the traffic, Halong Bay, riding on the back of motorbikes… it’s beautiful.

Do you have a recent favorite?

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Prompt #26: Post a photo of your favorite place and tell us what you love about it.

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” –Miriam Beard

I don’t have ONE favorite place. That’s just silly. I’m back on the BootsnAll blog again today, sharing about one of my favorite hikes, my glorious rainy Hike to Huka Falls in New Zealand.

New Zealand, in general, is one of my favorite places in the world. I did a lot of hiking in New Zealand and can’t wait to go back and see more of the North Island.

Where is one of your favorite places?

Join the 30 Days of Indie Travel project and share your story.

Prompt #25: Family shapes who we are, but sometimes the family we create plays a bigger role in our lives than the one we were born into. Tell a story about how your family has impacted your life and your travels.

“The love of a family is life’s greatest blessing” –your mom

We didn’t do much traveling growing up — other than moving — so I spent the first 14 years of my life in the Pacific NW. And while I’m kind of “the traveler” in my family now after doing my RTW trip, my sister has actually had the biggest impact on my love for travel.

In our last year at university, my sister (and her now-husband) started going on one trip a year. They started with Mexico, Mexico, and Mexico again, followed by Switzerland. After they came back from Switzerland with amazing stories and pictures of cows and mountains and cheese and chocolate, I was determined to put that passport to use. So a year later, when I had the chance to do a summer study abroad program in Marseilles for my MBA, I knew I was going to do it. Since that trip to France, my goal has been to do one big trip (country) a year.

My sister was a great example to me, of how traveling on a limited budget is still totally doable (especially since she was just out of college at the time and on an internship salary).

How has your family impacted your travels?

Join the 30 Days of Indie Travel project and share your story.