2019 - A Year In Review

January 1, 2020 Belinda Shi

Happy new year everyone! 2019 was certainly an extraordinary year.

We made a bigger leap with our family travel and spent 9 weeks in South America (check out our trip summary and 28 blog posts), a longer trip than our 6 weeks in Europe.

During those 9 weeks, we have visited:

mostly in Galapagos with a short stay in the capital Quito

one week in Atacama desert and another in Santiago, we have to revisit the Chile side of Patagonia one day

one week in Cusco and Machu Picchu, another in Arequipa and Colca Canyon, with a very short stay in Lima

my solo day trip to Colonia del Sacramento just to photograph sunset

After coming back to the US, we did another cross country road trip over a month crossing 11 states.

Earlier in the year, we did 3 smaller road trips in the east coast, visiting Washington DC, and along Blue Ridge mountains across Virginia, Carolinas and Tennessee.

We ended our year in Hawaii, and will plan to spend a total of 6 weeks until the end of Jan 2020.

We have in total visited 7 national parks and 18 states in the US, and 5 countries (4 as family, 1 for me only) in South America in 2019.

We have grown stronger as a family and become better travelers. Just like our kids, we learn to adapt and grow every day.

Here are some of our highlights:

We did two separate Blue Ridge Mountain road trips and visited Shenandoah national park the second time in the first half of the year.
Great Smoky Mountains: 3-Hour Mountain Hike In Thunderstorm. What Survived?
Petrified Forest National Park: 2 Year Old Vs 200 Million Year Old
Saguaro National Park: What To Photograph In Saguaro National Park
Grand Canyon National Park: 24 hours stop at Grand Canyon
Bryce Canyon National Park: Snow scenes in Bryce Canyon
Zion National Park: 2-day Winter Road Trip To Zion National Park

Last but not least, after a long break on social media and my website, I restarted blogging. Here’s why.

Can't wait for another wonderful year in 2020. Wish all of you more discovery, growth and success in the new year!