2016 in Review

One of my favorite blog posts to write last year was our 6-Month Check-Up. Full of stats, the post gave me a chance to relive this crazy adventure we’re living. So here we go again – a recap of year one as nomads!

We have been really fortunate in our travels; so many destinations can be ruined by weather or flight delays. Can you imagine how much it would stink to find thunderstorms when you planned to swim with whale sharks or go hot air ballooning over Cappadocia? 2016 was a blessed year for the Carpenters!

Here’s our year in stats:

• 126,178 miles flown (5.1x around Earth; over halfway to the moon)
• 88 flights (check out MyFlightRadar24 for our full 2016 stats! And Meadows actually took 91 flights… here are his 2016 stats!)
• 306+ hours spent flying
• 47 airports

• Still ZERO flight cancellations… we are so lucky!!
• 7,143 photos taken
• 48 hotels (including some less conventional ones: cave suites, villas, water bungalows, etc.)
• 21 countries:

•  4 visitors!! (Ben and Rebecca in Argentina, and my parents in Spain!)
• 2 bike tours (Buenos Aires, Barcelona)
• 7 boat tours (Hikkaduwa, Maldives, El Calafate, Iguazu Falls, Bali, Boracay, Puerto Princesa
• 4 food tours (Mendoza, Bangkok, Lisbon, Rome)
• More audioguides than a girl can count 🙂
• 29 UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• Countless airplane/airport selfies (and Meadows sometimes smiles now!)

In the midst of our travels, technology makes life much easier throughout this all. We can call our friends and family, we WhatsApp constantly, we (sometimes) post to the blog haha, we can easily book travel and we stream Netflix around the world! It’s difficult to miss home, but we don’t miss out as much as we thought we would. We watch the same shows, and we live for Snapchats and videos of our friends’ activities. It’s the next best thing to being there!

We constantly get the question: don’t you get sick of the travel? …the planes? …the hotels? And we really don’t! The excitement truly outweighs everything else. We try to stay put one weekend of each round for the sake of our sanity, and to truly take in our “home base.” Beyond that, we live for the next adventure. Plus, I’ve become an expert luggage packer.

Looking back on it, we’ve seen and done so much. And yet, it leaves us wanting more! We’re already halfway through 2017, and I cannot believe how fast the time is flying. Before we know it, we’ll be back in the US!

Cheers to Carpenter Diem …with a champagne and vodka tonic — our signature drinks!