Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: retrospective

  • 2018 in Review

    2018 in Review

    Exactly how late is too late to wish someone a Happy New Year? I feel like the first two weeks of January are fair game, but today might be at or past the point in time where we all just need to move on with it. In any case, I do hope your 2019 is going well and that your resolutions are holding strong, or that you have gleefully dismissed them altogether in favor of something more fun.

    I’m looking back on 2018 with a fondness of mainly travel memories and items crossed off of the ol’ bucket list. Chris and I added three new countries to our tally and revisited a couple of favorites. We found ourselves in Honduras, St. John, Scotland, Thailand, Cambodia, and Colorado (plus day trips around the DC/MD/VA area and into West Virginia as well). We cheered as our beloved Washington Capitals skated their way through the playoffs and went on to win the Stanley Cup! Our love for live music was fulfilled by attending several concerts including The Killers, Matt & Kim, The Smashing Pumpkins, 311, and CHVRCHES. We celebrated with friends as they exchanged wedding vows on a beautiful day in August, we celebrated our own 11-year wedding anniversary picnic-style in one of our favorite parks, and we celebrated the holiday season with family (and breweries).

    I’ve now sat here for five minutes trying to remember any major lowlights of 2018, but oddly enough I’m not coming up with any! I asked Chris, and he can’t recall anything either. Cheers to that, and I hope you and yours have a lowlight-free 2019!

     

  • 2017 in Review

    2017 in Review

    And just like that, we’re over half-way into the first month of 2018. I don’t know about you, but my days are flying by faster and faster as of late! 2017 was a big year for Chris and me in the travel goals department. We crossed off two more continents! Oddly enough we had yet to visit Asia, and we also set foot in South America for the first time. We tallied three new countries – UAE, the Maldives, and Peru. Instead of another overseas adventure, we spent the fall stateside by heading to New York to see Hamilton and to eat everything we could find. And earlier in the year, I flew out to Colorado to surprise my dad for a milestone birthday celebration.

    When we weren’t traveling, we filled our free time with concerts (twelve of them!) including 311, Foo Fighters, and my all-time favorite, Depeche Mode. I also jumped into the world of unmanned aerial systems this year and delighted in the technical challenge and wonder that comes from taking pictures with a drone. Speaking of hobbies, I finally picked up my guitar again and started to make some progress after feeling intimidated by it over the past couple of years. I won’t be playing any gigs anytime soon (or ever), but I have added several chords to my repertoire and I’m enjoying the learning process.

    In this-is-real-life fashion, I can’t report the good without also reporting the bad. My beloved car of eleven years finally started to give out on me in the spring. I survived a terrifying incident driving on the highway, driving at 65 mph when my steering wheel locked up and my brakes started shuddering. I couldn’t change lanes, and the brakes weren’t responding normally. Thankfully I was able to take my foot off the gas and pull over without getting into an accident. It turned out to be a faulty alternator (so all of my electrical functions like power steering and ABS brakes were going haywire).

    I ended up getting a new car just to be on the safe side and I absolutely LOVE it, but oddly enough, I keep cracking the windshield! I took a big rock to the window three times, including once just days after I had to have the whole windshield was replaced. It was not my year for vehicles.

    2017 also ended on a bit of a down note with Marty getting sick and having to go in for an emergency vet visit, but as of this post he’s fully recovered! So on the whole, still not too bad. I recognize that I am privileged to be able to replace my car, and we lucked out with catching Marty’s illness early enough to treat it. Happy 2018 to you all, and I hope your year ahead is filled with health and joy!

  • 2016 in Review

    2016 in Review

    Well, Happy New Year everybody! I’m late in saying so, but I hope your holiday season was lovely and full of all the joys and comforts your heart desired. I spent a very quick weekend with my family in Colorado, and then promptly whisked myself back home to work on a busy project. The holidays went by in a blur and I can hardly believe we’re well into January, but that’s how it goes, right?

    Oh, 2016. I know you weren’t a favorite for so many people and therefore I feel a little guilty saying that Chris and I had a blast. We packed just about as many trips in as possible, and managed to visit a total of eight countries outside of our own. We also took a handful of domestic trips, so suffice it to say our 2016 theme was indeed travel. Our wanderings took us to Belgium, The Netherlands, Mexico, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Czech Republic, and England. We checked off multiple boxes on our bucket list including seeing the tulips in Holland, attending Oktoberfest, and swimming with whale sharks! Another one of the highlights (for me) was getting to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on stage in London.

    2016-year-in-review

    Travel was such a huge highlight of the year, I can hardly remember anything else that happened. 2017 is already shaping up to be a good one, though perhaps not quite as busy. I’m looking forward to visiting a couple of new continents, working on some fitness goals, and celebrating a big milestone birthday (eek!) along with Chris! I’m also just starting to plan for a big trip in 2018, and I always love that process.

    Anything exciting on your calendar in 2017? Either way, I wish you peace, good health, love, and happiness in the upcoming year!

  • 2015 in Review

    Happy New Year to you and yours! I hope you had a warm and cozy holiday season and wrapped up 2015 on a high note. I ended up with a really bad respiratory infection (gross!) and had to postpone our trip to Colorado, so it wasn’t my favorite way to end the year. That’s also the reason I haven’t posted a single thing here in weeks. Thankfully I’m on the mend now after a round of antibiotics, although I still have bit of a stubborn cough. Bring on the new year with fewer germs, please!

    2015 was pretty good to Chris and me in general and we had our share of fun highlights. We both started off the year really strong in our resolve to study hard and get a few professional certifications (work stuff, not pictured below), and we then spent the rest of the year doing my favorite thing: gallivanting around the world together! Our travels took us to West Virginia, Belize, Ireland, Scotland, and Toronto. We also shared a wonderful trip to Vieques with my sister and brother-in-law, something we don’t get to do nearly often enough. Perhaps my biggest moment in travel though was conquering a huge fear and checking off a bucket-list item: scuba diving! Combine that with our swimming with sharks adventure and I have almost gotten over my fear of the ocean.

    The award for Most Improved goes to our master bathroom – I finally painted the vanity and it made a huge difference. And speaking of improvements, I went through a refinement round of Invisalign and finally finished treatment for good. Last but not least, Marty feels pretty accomplished this year for learning quite a few new words and phrases. One of his new favorites is, “Let’s go Caps!”

    2015_review

    Of course, along with peaks come valleys. From the keeping-it-real files, 2015 contained the following low moments: an icky parasite from Belize (I was the lucky winner of that one), falling into a fresh cow patty while on a hike in Scotland (me again), and missing Christmas in Colorado while I nearly coughed up both lungs. But really, that’s not so bad at all and we feel very fortunate.

    Here’s to hoping 2016 brings you peace, good health, love, and happiness!

  • 2014 in Review

    Happy 2015 everyone! I’m pretty sure at some point on this blog or perhaps in conversations elsewhere I’ve waxed poetic about how much I love the freshness of January 1st. I’m a total sucker for a flip of the calendar opening up a blank slate with endless possibilities. I’m definitely a dreamer so I love thinking about what’s ahead, but I also enjoy reminiscing about what I’ve just left behind.

    My 2014 held so many wonderful moments. I had resolved to travel as much as possible and I think I accomplished that with trips to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Grand Cayman, Colorado (twice), Florida, and Iceland. I crossed a bunch of things off my bucket list, including photographing the Northern Lights, going horseback riding, and while I haven’t done a dive in the ocean yet, Chris and I did take a scuba class and plan to continue our training soon. We welcomed sweet Marty into our family and were excited to learn that he is a pretty good little talker. He’s still learning, but I’m hoping to catch some of his chatter on video soon so I can share that with you! Over the summer I was really happy to reconnect with a friend with whom I had lost touch. And last but not least, I officially said goodbye to my photography business (but I did do a couple of portrait sessions for friends). Letting go of SSP allowed me to travel a bit more and enjoy lots of free weekends, so I’m completely certain that was the right decision!

    2014-12-31_0001

    Of course with the good comes the bad and while I make it a habit to look on the bright side as much as possible, I also like to keep it real. 2014 had a few lowlights like when Chris suffered from a bad case of food poisoning while we were in Grand Cayman. We also lost our beloved little bird, Charlie, early in the year. But we are incredibly grateful for the year’s highlights, and I’m excited to see what 2015 has in store for everyone! I’m especially looking forward to a few big trips that are on the books. Here’s to your own health and happiness in 2015!