October 2016

Being on the road has been different. We were used to our routine and comfort of Los Angeles. We knew what to do or where to go if we needed anything. We were comfortable with the stress, traffic, work and hustle and bustle of the city. Birthdays would come and go, on anniversaries we would go to dinner and then the next work day, the next thing to think about would already be in our minds. What would the next day at work bring or what needed to be done in the house. We were never living in the moment but the next moment and then the next.  This adventure would help us start living in the moment, to appreciate every minute that we had together and to ourselves and to slow down. You hear a lot that when people go on vacation that their last two days, or the entire vacation they are already thinking about what is waiting back at home. We did that with most of our weekend trips. It was time to go back to some places that we love and not think of anything else but what we were doing at that moment.

This of course had started already, but we wanted to have some fun (and a little excuse to go out) for my birthday. We thought, should we stay low key since we are on a pretty strict budget, or should we just say f**k it and live. (Pardon the french).

It ended up starting in Park City, UT.  We had been there exactly a year ago before our trip started and fell in love with the area. We thought maybe it would be the place for us to move. We loved main street and the hiking that the city had to offer. Everyone seemed to be outdoorsy and active and that is what we wanted to be surrounded by in a more laid back environment. So my first birthday dinner was at Handle, our favorite spot in town.

It was the perfect date night and the food, as always, was perfect. We met a couple that we chatted with about their life there and our life on the road. The weird thing was, we had become a bit quiet about what we were doing when people asked. We would say something like, “we are on vacation,” “we are from MN,” or “we are from LA.” We stopped telling people what we were doing since it created more uncomfortable questions or quizzical looks. We have been scolded, told we were making an excuse for not living a societal life, told we were being reckless and careless, chuckled at and praised. It was a roller coaster of reactions and so you never know what you are going to get, but this time it was a fun chat.

Since we were on our way to Los Angeles we decided to stop in Las Vegas at our storage unit and drop some things off. We were supposed to be there after Los Angeles on my actual birthday, but decided it was easier before.  Then the day before we got there we randomly saw that a really good friend from Minnesota was going to be there because they weren’t able to get a flight to Asia, so they decided on Vegas!

Something that we did not expect was seeing so many people on the road and meeting new friends. Friends that we hope are life long. They understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. There is no judging or confusion. Then seeing people that would otherwise be hard to see on a normal daily life is the icing on the cake!

Our first dinner was at Tao in the Venetian, tea at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and a stroll along Las Vegas Blvd. Even though the city is crazy, it’s fun to take a stroll late at night.

Lunch the next day we met up with our good friends who missed their flight to asia for some ramen at Ramen Sora.

Photo courtesy of Steven Buche and thanks Kevin for the bunny ears.

I also have a childhood friend from MN that lives here. We have known each other pretty much my entire life and so we always make sure to meet up.  We did some sushi hopping, drinks at a fun place in the Luxor and then thanks to Joe we went to see the Blue Man Group! We had been to vegas multiple times since we lived so close but we have never been to a show. I am so happy we did this one!

A moment, with no cares in the world.

Look who got chosen to take a selfie with one of the Blue Men!!!!

The show was great! I had a blast. We then met back up with Steven and Mike to have a drink and play a game of gigantic jenga.

Then it was time to say goodbye, see you soon.

It’s funny the questions we get. Do you have fun every day? Is it like a vacation every day? What do you do every day?  Do you get bored? What a lot of people don’t understand is this first and foremost is a lifestyle change. Some days it does feel like we are on vacations and others we are doing laundry, grocery shopping, fixing something that is wrong on the RV, cleaning, making sure our animals are comfortable  and planning what’s next. I sometimes hate to complain about things because I am so grateful that we are able to do this. But I do have to admit that it is sometimes hard. It’s hard not having the routine that we were so used to, being out of our comfort zone when something breaks or we have no electricity because we are boondocking and it’s been raining for 5 straight days, or not recognizing anything when we get to a place and having to feel things out. When you think of it these are definitely very simple problems, but it is still a huge learning curve. We still have to work at it.  We do question now how long we are going to do this, but when I think of settling down I get a little confused and sad.

Again, no complaints, because I don’t regret this decision and am more happy now than I have ever been. I have grown, our relationship has grown and there is more appreciation of time. I just wanted people to know what goes through our minds as we are on this journey.

Our next stop was Los Angeles. Exactly six months after we left we are back in LA. We got to see our friends. It was nice seeing familiar faces. I didn’t feel like it was long enough. We love a lot of restaurants in LA. It is one of the things we miss most, but we didn’t miss that it was difficult to get to some of the restaurants or we skipped some all together because of the traffic. We did make it to our no. one place Tsujita (ramen) and then another top place So sushi.

A little sneak peak of what we were doing in LA:

The last leg of the birthday road trip was Sacramento.  The first town we lived in California when we first moved out here in 2006. We still had friends there and restaurants that we have been waiting to get back to. We played poker with our crazy crew that we saw every Monday when we lived there.

Then the day was finally here. The anniversary of my birth. We had never really put this much effort into birthdays.  Were we really too busy?  Were we afraid of getting older? Who knows, but we decided that we were going to have fun! We had a snack at our friend’s new Poke place called Fish Face, then a coffee at Hawks Provisions and lunch at Hawks Restaurant where Kevin used to work.

We weren’t expecting to have a late lunch as we had dinner reservations at Kru. The owner Billy just opened Fish Face and moved his restaurant to another location. It was a soft opening night and we were happy that he invited us. We used to eat at Kru every Monday before poker for years. We are so happy that people are recognizing him for his talent and passion.

Our last stop was Waterboy. Our good friend Wilsen was working and we wanted to have more time to chat with him since he is also one of our poker friends and be downtown.

Every restaurant that we posted in this entry is definitely a must do if you are in town. Consistent, delicious, fun and addictive!

So that was pretty much the month of October and the mind set of our first six months on the road. If you can take anything from this entry make it be that living life to the fullest is the most important thing you can do. Life is meant to be lived without thinking about what someone else might think or what you think should come next.

“We are redefining what successful is.” – multiple people