We were more quiet this past year than we have been previously, but that doesn’t mean that we weren’t busy. We are truly looking forward to the new year and going on new adventures, but it is always worth looking back at the places that we visited last year. We were able to go on two truly spectacular trips last year, the first being to Dubai and then to Nepal in March and the second was our trip to Rwanda in September. In between were able to visit some other places closer to our new home on the east coast including Ocean City, Maryland, as well as spending time in Washington DC.

Going to Kathmandu in Nepal was an absolutely amazing experience that we will certainly treasure forever. The highlight of the trip was taking a high-altitude helicopter to see the base camp at Mount Everest. We have spent many years hiking in the mountains of Colorado, but there is something truly magical about standing amongst the peaks of the Himalayan Mountains. In addition to seeing the incredible scenery, we also spent time visiting the temples and learning about the fascinating culture. The people were extremely friendly and made us feel welcome from the moment that we landed in the country.

Later in the year, we returned to Africa once again, this time to trek to spend time with gorillas and then chimpanzees in Rwanda. After our trip to Kenya and Tanzania in 2021 where we went on an extended safari, we made a pledge to ourselves that we would return one day to see the mountain gorillas in the wild. It was certainly worth the effort of hiking through thick vegetation of the rain forest to spend time with these docile creatures who seemed as truly interested in spending time with us as we did with them. No words could ever truly capture the awe and beauty of the time that we spent amongst these incredible animals.

Either of these trips would have been an incredible memory that would last a lifetime, but to do both of them in the same year was even more spectacular. The many, many hours that spent traveling to and from these remote locations was worth every minute for the experiences that we had and the people that we met. We have yet to share all of our stories from those two trips, so we are committed to being better in 2024 to post more about those trips as well as the adventures that we are planning on for this coming year. If this year is anywhere close to 2023, we certainly expect to have many more adventures to share in the coming months.