This is the last day of our international exploration. Today, we get on a plane in Panama City and return to Denver for a wedding and to get caught up on life and to see family too.

It’s a little sad to leave Panama, but it’s also exciting to think about the next leg of our trip. Although we’ll be in the States, our lives will be far from “normal” for the next couple of months.  Once we get back we’ll have to dig through the storage unit, buy a car, and start to piece together our next set of travel plans. First stop Denver. Second stop Iowa. Third stop New York City.

You see, Jason and I have always planned on spending time in New York City. Originally, we were going to head there straight from Denver after Jason’s condo sold, but those plans morphed into something much bigger. Instead of one destination it’s now turned into 12.

New York was pushed off for a few reasons. First, we figured we didn’t have a mortgage so we might as well take advantage of our freelancer status and enjoy a little “telecommuting” in Asia. Once that was over, the timing worked out to meet my parents in Costa Rica. We liked it and so it just made sense to stay. Then, Panama sounded interesting so we thought we’d give that a try too. But now all that’s over.

Since this is my last post from abroad, I thought I’d recap some of the highlights from the last 10 months. It’s sort of amazing to think about all we’ve done.

  1. We’ve been to Aruba, Tahoe, Des Moines, China, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Hong Kong/Macau, San Francisco, Costa Rica, and Panama.
  2. We both turned 30.
  3. We have attended several weddings, including our own. Here’s Jason at our friends Kim and Kevin’s rehearsal dinner. Isn’t he handsome?  That’s the bride there in the background. Sorry Kim — action shot.
    jason-with-serious-kim
  4. I spilled a glass of water on one laptop and we have failing hard drives in two others.
  5. I only had two injuries to speak of. The first in Aruba when I got into some nasty coral and the second was in Costa Rica where I took on a big rock with my shins.
  6. Took thousands of pictures and hundreds of them with silly faces.

    7. funny-faces

  7. Dozens of near-death traffic accidents.
  8. Two free upgrades to first class…now that’s living.
  9. One possible food poisoning event.
  10. Have worn the same clothes over and over and over again. Including this purple t-shirt, which you probably recognize from almost all the pictures.

    11. a-real-old-view

  11. Only one accidental mooning.
  12. Worked very hard.
  13. Fell in love with a brand of coffee in almost every country (sorry China).
  14. Walked through several of the stinkiest streets in the world (once again, sorry China, but your fish markets stink!).
  15. Eaten some of the best and some of the worst food of our lives.
    16. YouTube Preview Image
  16. We’ve met some amazing people.
  17. I bought and wore out four pairs of flip flops.
  18. No serious sun burns.
  19. Eaten 82 meals (including breakfast) that involved some kind of rice and bean combination.
  20. Not a single case of theft, but we were overcharged countless times.
  21. We grew to really miss our friends and to be super happy when the joined us on our travels.

    22. our-nature-walk

  22. Lost two ATM cards, had one ATM card expire, and made four consecutive trips to the ATM before said expiration to make sure we didn’t run out of cash during our last 3 weeks of travel:).
  23. Rode an elephant and an ox cart and never need to do it again.
  24. Saw 4 different kinds of monkeys, and scorpions, tarantulas, and countless types of lizards.
  25. Speaking of lizards, Jason killed two of them.
  26. We never saw a toucan:(
  27. Jason and I had a lot of fun together. Who said couples can’t live together, work together, travel together, and still like to hang out?

kissing