Here is the continuation of the post 2025: Year in Travel Review, Part 1 about our extensive travel year 2025.
(I was struggling to write this post with all the terrible stuff going in my country and in the world. Writing about my 2025 travels seems so shallow and trivial; but perhaps this post will be a brief distraction for you if you are feeling like I am…)
July 2025
Early in July we headed to Washington State in the Pacific NW to visit John’s cousin M and his wife R in Bremerton, WA. During the trip to Washington we also visited Poulsbo, Olympia, Mount Rainier National Park, Shelton (quilt shop), Port Townsend, and Port Angelas Washington. We also did a 24 hour trip to Victoria, British Columbia (Canada) via ferry.
I post about several stops during this trip – Port Townsend, the quilt shop in Shelton, and Victoria, BC: Tooling Around Townsend, A Delightful Bead and Button Shop in Victoria, BC, Smelling the Roses in Victoria, BC, and 24 Hours in Victoria, BC.
Here are a couple photos from parts of the trip I did not blog about – the delightful Victorian-style Bed & Breakfast we stayed at in Olympia; an afternoon at Mount Rainier, and Poulsbo (Norway themed historic town founded by Norwegian settlers) for July 4th with John’s cousin:
Not wanting to spend too much time at home this past summer (ha!) in mid July we headed on another epic roadtrip to to Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Keystone, South Dakota to see the Mount Rushmore National Monument; Rapid City, South Dakota; the Black Hills of South Dakota to see the Crazy Horse Memorial in progress; Badlands National Park in South Dakota; Wind Caves National Park in South Dakota; and Alliance, Nebraska (where we stopped at Carhenge).
Here are the posts covering most of that trip: Carhenge, A Wander About Downtown Rapid City, SD, Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks , Mt. Rushmore National Park, Believe the Hype, Crazy Horse Memorial, Deadwood, South Dakota, and Eating Our Way Through Frontier Days.
August 2025
Continuing the summer travel insanity, in August we went on two more major trips: 1) a roadtrip to South Forks Colorado to visit with some of John’s family; and 2) a trip to Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Both of these trips in my opinion are blog post worthy (and there was a very cool quilt shop visit during that first trip) so I will plan to post about them sometime in 2026. For now here are some random photos from the trips.
South Forks, Colorado: We stayed at an amazing cabin on the river with very unusual toilet paper holders!
In San Luis, Colorado (the oldest town in Colorado): from our afternoon hiking the famous Stations of the Cross (Sangre de Christo) on a very beautiful day.
September 2025
We were pretty traveled out by September and managed to keep September to one major trip for John but two for me!
I went to with my sister to San Antonio, Texas to join her on her business trip. Then I went with John to Portland, Oregon for him to visit his son Z while I took at Watercolor Painting class (see post So I took a Watercolor Painting class…).
I didn’t post about the San Antonio, Texas trip but my sister and I had a wonderful time and I slept in the best hotel bed EVER at the luxurious resort (do not remember the name) her company put her up at. We had fun after her work conference exploring San Antonio’s Riverwalk and eating tasty Tex-Mex on the river.
October 2025
We did one major trip in October and then had two separate out of town visitors during the month. In early October we headed to Baltimore, Maryland and visited my brother and his family in Delaware as well as my long time blogging friend Claudia (some of you follow her blog). Then we met up with my sister and her son and we traveled to Ocean City, Maryland to attend the Country Calling Music Festival. After that we traveled to New York City for a couple days with them.
I wrote a couple posts about these adventures: Time in Times Square and West Village Wander, the Tiniest Yarn Shop and More. However I just realized I don’t think I posted about my first country music festival/first country music concert, Country Calling, so here are a couple photos:
I bought a cowboy hat while in San Antonio, Texas in September. In case you are wondering how we ended up going to Country Calling, my 21 year old nephew is a huge country music fan and wanted to go to his first country music festival so we went as a family group. It was an interesting “cultural experience” I’ve never had before!
November 2025
We had decided to take November and December off from major trips but then our plan fell apart due to fun trip opportunity temptation…
I went with my sister to New York City on her business trip; and then John and I went to Las Vegas, Nevada for his poker tournament. I posted about the Las Vegas trip related to over the top Christmas decorations in the post Christmas at the Bellagio Conservatory.
I plan to post sometime in 2026 about the New York City trip in November as I had a couple amazing experiences. Here is a photo of my sister and I enjoying our trip for now:
December 2025
And finally December…
You’d think we’d take the month off from traveling with the holidays but no we did not. We went to Hollywood, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida – see post A Little Jaunt to Florida; and we went for a couple days before the New Year to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I didn’t post about the Colorado Springs trips but here are some photos from the lovely lobby/lounge area of the historic Colorado hotel we stayed at – the Mining Exchange Hotel :
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