Crossing A Major Bucket List Destination Off My List in 2018

It's no secret that Josh and I love the Northeast, especially coastal destinations. We've made it a point to explore as much of this little corner of the world as we can. And as much as we love traveling and want to start to see the rest of the world (we've never even been to Europe), with all these amazing places to visit within four hours from us, it makes it hard to go anywhere else.

It's not the Northeast or a coastal town, but the first major vacation Josh and I took together was Mexico. We've been twice, and our first excursion was Cozumel and the second, the Maya Riviera, staying at all-inclusives both times. We had an absolute blast - there's no vacation quite like laying around at a pool or an ocean all day, and day-drinking right after breakfast because everyone else is. And as much fun as the all-inclusives were, we did venture off our resort grounds quite a bit to experience as much of the culture as we could. We even successfully ordered a meal in Spanish one time (which, for me, was tough seeing as though I never took Spanish classes, so I considered it quite an achievement). We also took the collectivo, got lost on rural streets on our way to a destination, walked through a crocodile pit and swam with the dolphins (of which we have no pictures for the most part because we refused to pay the exorbitant fee for them). We also explored the beauty of Tulum, which was an amazing experience in and of itself.

The first long weekend getaway we took together was Vermont at a quaint little B&B near Manchester, shortly after we moved in together in 2005. We've since gone back to explore Dover, where we honeymooned, Shelburne, Stowe and Burlington. We even celebrated Josh's 30th birthday in Vermont with friends and family, so it has extra special memories attached to it. We've loved every little place we've been to in Vermont and often go back when we need a getaway without distractions. I've done a blog post about the Shelburne/Burlington/Stowe area here. And I'm excited this winter to explore the Woodstock, VT area, since Josh's Christmas present to me was a pottery class at Farmhouse Pottery.

We've explored a small portion of Maine, starting with Portland and Cape Elizabeth, ventured up to Bar Harbor to hike and camp in Acadia, and then landed in Kennebunkport before coming home. Maine is absolutely incredible and I kind of envy those who live there and get to experience these destinations regularly.

Block Island was an amazing little getaway with beautiful scenery that made us feel like we were a million miles away from the rest of the world. We always say we want to go back because it was a truly perfect vacation. We biked all around the island, walked deserted streets at night and were able to completely unwind from everyday life. You can read our recap here.

And of course, there's Cape Cod and the islands: Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Everyone who knows us knows our love for the Cape runs deep. It's our happy place. It's where we feel relaxed, but also invigorated and quintessentially New England. This is the place we travel to the most for so many reasons, and I'll stop there because I could go on and on. You can find my ultimate Cape Cod travel guide here, our Martha's Vineyard recap here, my love letter to Nantucket here, and my Nantucket Christmas Stroll Recap here.

We've also adventured to Salem, MA during the month of October, and took a side trip to Rockport, MA for an afternoon, which was so beautiful. In Salem, we went to a psychic just to say that we had done it, and you know what he said? He saw a lot of land in our future. We thought he was way off base, but we ended up buying a house with 25 acres which wasn't something we were looking to do. In Rockport, we found a spot where one of my favorite romantic comedies was filmed (hint, stars Betty White with a certain Deadpool) and Josh took my picture there. The only copy we have of it now is an old, low-res Instagram photo. I was so excited to go see this spot, but the little town, also where parts of the movie were filmed, was so lovely. I want to go back and spend a weekend here.

There are a lot of places on my travel bucket list that span the entire world, with Italy, Greece and the French Polynesia being my top three. London and the UK being Josh's biggest bucket list destinations. And our 2018 travel plans probably don't seem that exciting to most people, but for me, it's kind of a dream come true.

In July, we plan to take a road trip through Maine, with a final destination of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

You see, I grew up daydreaming of Prince Edward Island. I read all the Anne of Green Gables books and loved the characters and the descriptions of the Canadian coastlines (I think my love of coastal destinations began here). My mom, sister and I always had a date to watch Avonlea every week on our couch together (My mom still talks about how cute Gus Pike was). When I had sleepovers at my grandma's house, she would rent the Anne of Green Gables movies for us to watch together. She would make popcorn from her air popper, put together her pull out couch bed for me, and she'd always go to sleep before the movie ended, and let me me stay up late watching the rest of it. All of these things were huge parts of my life in the very best way.

When we were talking about our anniversary trip for next September (it'll be 9 years married for us!), we threw around a lot of ideas (many included going back to a few of the above destinations), and our goal was to keep it drivable so that we could save on airfare and continue to stay on-budget for our bathroom reno. Maine kept coming up because we loved it so much, but Josh just came out and said, "Maybe we should just go to Prince Edward Island, too." And I almost peed my pants.

We originally planned on going in September because, well, you don't mess around with our July Cape Cod summer vacation. But, after a lot of consideration and research, we decided to flip our vacations. PEI is further north, and we worried that water temperatures would be a little too cool in mid-September. One thing we knew we really wanted to explore were the PEI beaches. On top of that, we've always wanted to explore the Cape during off season. When we went to Martha's Vineyard in September for a few days, the water and air temperatures were still warm, but it was far less crowded. So, it was an easy solution for us to just flip the two vacations.

The Itinerary
We had to do a lot of research to plan out this trip, and honestly, we're still in research mode. We plan to drive the whole way, and really wanted to make the most of every destination while still visiting as many places as possible. We plan to drive up through Maine, stopping to camp in our tent for a night in Acadia National Park, which we did during our last trip to Maine and loved it. The next morning, we may try to see the sun rise at the top of Cadillac Mountain again if the weather allows (that experience was so amazing the first time around, so doing it again would be such a treat). Then, we'll depart for PEI. We're staying on the island for four nights, and then heading to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to either camp for two nights or find a cheap AirBnB. On our journey back home, we plan to stop at the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, and then camp for a night somewhere in New Brunswick (exact area TBD, may depend on how tired we are). The next morning, head to Kennebunkport for two nights in an AirBnB or hotel, and then make our final journey home. It'll be about a total of 10 days, and we're packing a lot in, but, we're so excited about it. Long car drives and adventures like this are some of our favorite ways to spend quality time together (until I get weird and stir crazy in the car and Josh can't wait for me to pass out in the passenger seat so he has peace and quiet).

The more I researched, the more I desperately wanted to make it up to Newfoundland, especially to do some glacier sight seeing. I fell in love with the scenery I was seeing in pictures online, but didn't realize how far away it is from PEI - I mean, it's really up there, closer to Greenland (which, by the way, is also on my travel list). So, we had to table that destination for a while, and maybe someday, we'll make it up there to see both Greenland and Newfoundland. I may be crossing one destination off my list, but I totally added a new one to it.

If anyone's interested, here are my top 15 travel destinations, in order of priority, and not including this trip:

1. Italy (Tuscany, specifically)
2. Greece
3. French Polynesia
4. California/Pacific Northwest Coast/Napa (we'd do it all in one trip)
5. African Safari/Benguerra Island
6. Australia/New Zealand/Rottnest Island (to see the quokkas!)
7. Greenland/Newfoundland
8. The Grand Canyon
9. Glacier National Park
10. Hawaii
11. Croatia
12. The Maldives
13. Machu Picchu
14. Iceland
15. Galapagos Islands