Hey there Hive friends! Como estas? Hope you are all doing fine. 😅 How’s the holy week break? May you had enough time to spend with your family and practice personal repentance. By doing so, along with repentance made me realize how blessed I am for all the opportunities I had this past 2years.

Long before traveling becomes a “trendy thing”, I grew up thinking going somewhere else is a luxury that we can’t afford. Every time my mom goes to a city for business purposes, she can never afford to bring all of her kids since there are 6 of us. Thus, “ikaw napod sunod” is the rule. She took one of us at a time so as to not arouse jealousy among us at the same time not going over beyond her budget. Yes, my mom was and still is a certified frugal.

Thinking back on those experiences, I always feel grateful of what I have now. Hence, the purpose of this blog. I wanted to revisit the jubilant memories of the places and experiences I’ve never in my wildest dream thought that I could have a glimpse of right before my eyes.

The first snow experience ❄️☃️

Living in a tropical country of the Philippines, where there is no winter season, of course we dream of getting that snow experience. I remembered making fun of how lucky these people are who get to make halo-halo with ice around them. 😅 Anyways, I was blessed to get to know Filipino community of J1 teachers who tagged me along with their travel. Hence, this became my very first experience of snow in Flagstaff, Arizona. Then , I realized how inconvenient it is to experience snow without freezing 🥶. Equipped with thrifted boots, gloves, snow jackets and sweaters, I confirmed I am not for this kind of season. But that experience is for the books.

Ive been to a snowy place called Flagstaff, Arizona. ,y very first winter of 2021.

The Horseshoe Bend

This famous landscape is all over my instagram when I searched up Arizona before coming to the USA and teach. Tadaaa, of course, I’ve been there! Yep, this was my very first visit and it was all worth the lengthy travel . Reminiscing the memories, we could not contain our happiness and appreciate to one of God’s wonderful creation and indeed nature at its best.

Ive been to the jawdropping horseshoe bend of Arizona together with my 2 friends Hazel and Hazeline. It was last summer of 2022.

The first interstate summer roadtrip 🚙🛞

*Portland, Oregon *
During the summer of 2022, I together with my Hazel and Roland, conquered a 21-hr interstate roadtrip. We targeted experiencing 2 states. First on the itinerary, Portland, Oregon. It was a very wonderful experience, a dejavu kind of thing. We can’t stop talking how that particular place will and always be associated with the Twilight sequel. Yes, it is what it portrayed in the movie. The tranquility of the place brought by thousands of pine trees and indeed the best escape from the scorching heat of Phoenix, Arizona. We got to experience the Cannon beach. Which definitely disappointed me, as never did I expected it to be extremely cold and of course I never saw someone swim on it. Yet, the very relaxing sound of the waves made it all up . Then we stroll and enjoyed the serenity of the Japanese Garden as well the the wonderful Multnomah Falls.

Ive been to the very beautiful state of Oregon. I am still looking forward to go back with my hubby .

Seattle, Washington State
After Oregon, we drove up north and visited the very wonderful city of Seattle, Washington. There, we did so many memorable activities. One of which is walking around the neighborhood of famous Pike Place Market. Apart from its very progressive public market center which offers tons of fresh products such as meat, seafood and vegetables, we intentionally lined up to get a cup of coffee from the OG or the very first Starbucks coffee shop. We also went to The Gum Wall. Yes,it is a wall covered with used chewing gum. Tourists who visited the place may left a gum to mark their memory of the place. However, I never did it as I felt engrossed by the thought of touching those gums. Lastly, we experienced the rotating floor of the Space needle tower. It isn’t for those who have fear of heights, but all the way from the top we got to view the beautiful city scrape as well as the very nice sunset.

I’ve been to the very lively and amazing city of Seattle.

Hope you enjoyed this one folks! Till next time..Adios!☺️