For our five year anniversary, Brian and I have wanted to do something a little bigger to celebrate and commemorate. We have talked about this over and over again, and we have been throwing around a number of options for over a year now. This is basically our top five travel wish-list.
1. Danali National Park, Alaska. Brian has been twice, but I have never been. We researched taking a ferry on the Alaska Marine Highway from Bellingham, WA, and then taking a train into Denali National Park. The ferry is not only expensive, (like, airfare expensive), but it eats away multiple days of travel getting there and back (like, 4-6). This would be difficult to justify since that would cut into the time actually at our destination.
2. Rafting the Grand Canyon. Brian has also done this twice and I have never been. Hiking the Canyon is one of our favorite activities which we've both done multiple times, but travelling via the Colorado River from Jacob's Lake to Lake Mead would be incredible. The issue here is that money is mostly due up front. It would be very difficult to come up with that kind of money in advance. Also, it's the canyon. We can get there in three hours. It's not going anywhere.
3. Europe. We have discussed various places in Europe a few times. I'd like to visit Amsterdam to see the Ann Frank house, and I think it's a city with a vibe we would both really enjoy. We've also considered London because I think Brian would really enjoy the history. After drinking some good wine, I always have a strong (inebriated) desire to travel back to Italy... but it always comes down to how expensive Europe is. First you have to get there, then you have to pay for accommodations.. .then what about public transport and tours? It just starts to add up too quickly. Hotels are just not our style, if we can help it.
4. Asia. This is where Vietnam comes in. Having lived in Asia, I know that the best part about Asia is that it's cheap. It's not that cheap to get there, but once you're there it's cheap to eat, cheap to sleep, and cheap to get around. It is a hugely popular and accessible destination for travelers of all kinds and nationalities. A backpacker haven. Then again, maybe too much of a backpacker haven. It will be very crowded and crazy, so that's something Brian and I have had to think about and weigh. It can be very touristy. Also, he hates beaches. (Weird, I know.)
5. Iceland. This is a recent development. First, the bad news: Iceland is expensive. It's expensive to fly there, it's expensive to eat there, it's expensive to stay there, and it's expensive to get around there. It's so expensive I often considered it well beyond the realm of possibility and so never even allowed myself to think about it. It was just out of the question. What has changed? Well... I have been following @thekitchenpaper via Instagram and saw that she was in Iceland. Even her out-of-this-world pictures and oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-this-exists-on-Earth commentary were not enough to move me. It wasn't until she posted a picture of her camper van that I went, wait. What? What's that?! She's camping??! You can tell I'm a camp kind of girl. The waterfalls did nothing. The camper van, though? Stopped me in my tracks. This was the beginning of the rabbit hole.
Since then I have visited mrandmrsadventure.com multiple times and have been truly inspired and definitely hooked. Move over Vietnam. I think we're going to Iceland!
