What if we had no mirrors? What if they didn’t exist? No bathroom scale. No one to tell us if we look good in that dress. No way to determine if we need to wear makeup today.

What if you couldn’t see how BEAUTIFUL you are?

Close your eyes, stop comparing yourself to others on the Internet, and picture yourself in that world for a moment. How would we make our decisions and form our self esteem if we couldn’t see ourselves?
Simple: We would make our decisions based on how we FEEL.

This was the message (paraphrased, of course) that Shaun T shared with Indianapolis on February 25th. We never expected that we would one day be working out in-person with our favorite celebrity trainer, receiving high-fives and fist bumps during the squats and push-ups. Yet here we are. It is now a recurring annual event for us, something new and nostalgic at the same time. It feels like coming home, back to our roots, and it is something we will always cherish.

Shaun had a powerful reminder for everyone in Indianapolis last week: in our quest to be perfect, we end up as imperfect and unhappy as we can possibly be. We lose connection with our true selves.

Here are a few of our favorite shots:

Zion – n. – “a place of peace and refuge”

Zion itself is a marriage of light + stone, desert + water, ancient + contemporary, splendor + silence. It inspires awe & requires contemplation. The serenity of the park affects all who take the time to experience wonder amidst the natural beauty of this jewel.

Our original plan was a destination wedding on the beach (we did get engaged in Florida, after all) but we unexpectedly fell in love with Zion National Park, just like we unexpectedly fell in love with each other. No photos will ever do justice to the beauty and magic of this place. There are no words.

Just like you feel small when you stand beside the ocean, you feel connected to something bigger than yourself when you walk through the canyon trails of southern Utah. We still were able to kick off our shoes and walk barefoot in sand and water and sunshine. But we also were surrounded by mountain peaks, canyons, desert, fall foliage, and endangered animals. Our wedding took place beside a waterfall in the Temple of Sinawava, a sacred canyon location named in honor of the Paiute tribe. They believed that the human soul shared characteristics with all things divine and that human beings are tied to nature. Before starting our wedding, we paid our respects by honoring this Native American custom.

Like any other wedding, there are plenty of things that didn’t go according to plan:

I had a fever and bronchitis the day before our flight departed from Kentucky. It was so bad that a doctor actually told me I might have to miss my own wedding (yeah, not an option).

Luckily, my fever broke at the last minute! Here we are the morning of our wedding, watching the sunrise in southern Utah, walking distance from the Sand Hollow Resort:

I was able to make the flight to our own wedding, but I forgot so many things at home – including:

• all of my makeup (I was doing my own makeup and my bridesmaid was doing my hair)
• my bouquet
• our wedding vows (I mean, really, come on….)
• and all the bouquets for my bridesmaids.

Long story short, just a matter of minutes before the wedding, I realized I’d left EVERYTHING at home in Kentucky. I was also fighting not to lose my voice while guzzling electrolytes and coughing like crazy. Not my most shining moment.

Luckily, we’d brought ribbon wands as gifts for our guests, and those worked perfectly as a fun and whimsical substitute for bouquets.

And by some magical coincidence, there was a wedding at the Temple of Sinawava right before ours, and the bride left behind an entire box of bubbles. We couldn’t let the bubbles go to waste on our wedding day – and they ended up creating some of our favorite photos!

Here are the bubbles and ribbon wands in action:

Luckily, we both remembered to pack our matching red Chucks:

One of the most memorable parts was when our dear friend and wedding officiant, Joshua, included a traditional Native American blessing during the wedding ceremony. We gathered in a circle near the waterfall at the Temple of Sinawava, on what is considered by many to be “holy ground,” and paid honor to the ancient Native American tribes who inhabited the lands of Southern Utah. Joshua skillfully led us through an ancient Blessing to the Four Directions – which draws from the belief that all human souls share elements with all things divine. Each cardinal direction – North, South, East and West – represents a specific virtue of divinity. In this ancient Native American tribal tradition, a blessing is offered to each of the four directions at the start of a wedding or other ceremony. Experiencing this beneath the majestic cliffs of Zion was a truly humbling and beautiful experience, and I am so grateful. We both are… Thank you for being part of our story, and letting us continue to share our love with you.

He got down on one knee and popped the question during a romantic stroll through Lake Eola Park while we were on vacation in Orlando for the 4th of July. That evening, we celebrated with a long-time friend by watching the fireworks over the ocean in Siesta Key. Sneaky guy… he had been planning this for months, the ring had been in our bedroom the entire time, and I had NO IDEA…

It was a beautiful weekend, and the start of the rest of our lives together.

And we did follow her, across the muddy grass, and some of us even swallowed our fears of heights as we ascended narrow staircases to the tops of ancient temples.

That was just the start of our journey.

It was October, which is monsoon season in Thailand. We saw plenty of hot, humid days with the sun beating down on us in between heavy rain storms. As a woman, I had to wear clothing that covered my shoulders (and sometimes, also covering my elbows and ankles) despite the heat. Needless to say, generous amounts of sweat were covering what felt like every square inch of my body. My face is red and my hair is messy in all my photos, and tiny beads of sweat are glistening in the Thai sun in a few of the pictures from this trip.

Women were required to rent skirts before entering the temple

As another batch of storm clouds gathered overhead, we ducked into the dark interior of the top of a cone-shaped structure in the Ayutthaya ruins. And this was the point in the journey when I truly began to channel my inner Indiana Jones. No, wait.. I live in Louisville. Perhaps it was Kentuckiana Jones instead? Anyway, I digress…

Our amazing tour guide, Tajma, invited us to descend the narrow steps leading down to the depths of the ancient tomb where we were hiding from the rain. Not knowing what might be in store, but feeling ready for an adventure, we agreed to give it a try. Rafael is always up for adventure, so he went forward into the darkness with a “Hell yes!” attitude. Me? I’m a little more cautious. With a shrug, I approached the steps, thinking to myself: “When in Thailand…”

I remember seeing the tiny stairs just going down, down, down into the earth with no end in sight. The ancient stairs were so dark and narrow, I had to use my hands to grip them as I baby-stepped my way down, almost on my belly, clinging to the stairs for support. As I carefully climbed down for what felt like an eternity, I reached the claustrophobic chamber at the bottom.

There was a tiny tomb, probably meant for an ancient king, but it was dark and cramped, with a musky smell. There were etchings on the walls, and dirt was everywhere. Even the palms of my hands were covered — and the tiny stairs had sweaty palm prints from where we had guided ourselves down. Only a couple people could fit into the chamber at a time, so after snapping a few pictures, we carefully turned around and started crawling our way back up the stairs — one hand and foot at a time.

Exploring the excavated ruins of Ayutthaya

I’m very grateful to have taken this tour with Tajma, as I never would have had the chance to experience Ayutthaya (or many other aspects of our Thailand journey) without the experienced guidance of a local. A little background information about Ayutthaya:

Beheaded statues and ruins line the destructed ancient kingdom of Ayutthaya

Founded in 1350, Ayutthaya is located in the valley of the Chao Phraya River. It is known as Ayutthaya Kingdom or Siam, and was the second Siamese capital. It was once a splendid city with wondrous towers and monasteries, but it was destroyed by the Burmese army in the 1700s. Ruins are still being excavated and many of the statues we saw were beheaded by the Burmese army which conquered the city and led to the fall of the kingdom. Today, Ayutthaya is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

At this point in our journey, we’d already toured the bustling streets of Bangkok, played Indiana Jones in the ancient ruins of Ayutthaya, stayed in a real life jungle hut, held giant snakes, met monks, had our breath taken away by Buddhist temples, and even taken a boat ride through a famous floating market. All of those moments felt eternal as they happened. They all left us feeling speechless and inspired with awe, and yet this one somehow stole the show.

We captured our entire elephant ride on video here

and

here

“Very good, right?” the elephant trainer asked us with a smile. And it was. Everything about Thailand was indeed so very, very good.

The trainer made us hats out of flowers & leaves he plucked from the treetops as we rode by on the elephant’s back. Then he gave us the opportunity to test our comfort zones by riding on the elephant’s neck (no seatbelts or saddles here, folks… just you clinging bareback to the neck of a full-grown elephant).

Rafael and Brittany riding an elephant (look, ma, no seatbelt!)

Baby elephant says, “Hello!”

I’m so glad I took a chance on that elephant, on Thailand, and on our travel company, Friendly Planet. I will never, ever forget these moments. Rafael and I still travel the world together and we’ve stayed in touch with the friends we met during our Friendly Planet tour.

Every time we hear the song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” you know what we think of? Christmas. But we also think of elephants. And a jungle. And a river…

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect (Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig in non-comedy roles? A weird, indie flick?) but stay with me, folks. This is one of the most beautiful travel movies I’ve ever seen. It starts off slowly (perhaps even painfully slow, dull, and boring…). This is probably intentional, because it’s a mirror into Walter’s life BEFORE he gets the strength to step outside of his comfort zone. And when he does… well, the entire pace of the movie changes in a really genius way.

The cinematography is so stunningly beautiful, you could literally watch it without sound the entire time and still feel the essence of what is so wonderful about this gorgeous planet we call home. The special effects are well done. The music choices were carefully chosen. I felt captivated by the breath-taking beauty of Iceland, Greenland, the Himalayas, and even New York City — without even leaving the comfy spot on my bed. I kept thinking throughout the movie: “I wonder who directed this? This is incredibly well-done.” Turns out, Ben Stiller directed it (in addition to starring in it). Yeah, I probably should have known that prior to watching the film, but I didn’t. Anyway… Well done, Ben Stiller, well done indeed.

When I was in design school, we learned about the gestalt theory of psychology, in which the human mind considers a series of objects in their entirity (or in parallel) in addition to their individual parts. It is the tendency of the brain to organize information in order to make sense of it. Essentially, it is the saying that “the whole is more than just the sum of its parts.” This movie is gestalt. All of it, every piece, working together harmoniously to form a perfectly crafted whole that really hits ya in the feels.

For me, travel is like that, too. My mind considers all the things around me, in all the farthest reaches of the world, and categorizes them not just as their spectacular individual selves, but also as important pieces of a greater whole. We, as humans, are part of a bigger humanity, and just one small species trying to survive on this beautiful planet, which is (as Carl Sagan pointed out) just a “pale blue dot” floating in a glorious and unfathomably large universe. All of these are separate, yet seamlessly intertwined pieces of the same whole… in ways that our human brains will always try to label as “meaningful” but may never fully understand.

To anyone who thinks that travel is just another form of escapism, PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and watch this movie. Even Rafael, who typically hates these types of movies, was slowly drawn in. He would, at times, break out in full belly laughter at some of the more humorous scenes, and was on the edge of his seat waiting for big plot twists. At the end, he turned to me with a smile and said: “I really liked that movie.”

Walter’s adventures reminded us of our travel stories, or of the stories friends had told us of their own journeys to the furthest corners of the world. Travel is a phenomenal, spiritual journey that allows us to unplug from the fast-paced world we live in. It takes us away from the internet, away from mobile phones, away from technology itself for days, weeks, even months at a time… and transplants us in the middle of a moment, in the middle of the story that we all share: the story of LIFE itself. The adventures we have when we travel connect us to the rest of the world, the rest of humanity, and the rest of this majestic and glorious planet that is a home to us all.

Several times throughout the movie, I found myself moved to tears by this stunning world and all it has to offer — the same way I find myself moved to tears in person when I am out exploring it. I found myself reliving my own past adventures and daydreaming (Walter Mitty-style) of my next adventure. And, also like Walter Mitty, I came to realize that I don’t find myself daydreaming as much when I’m out having a journey — because, as Rafael so correctly noted, we are too busy LIVING, too stimulated by the new experiences all around us, to ever be bored or longing for something more. For me, it’s almost like a religious experience.

The thrill of running to catch a plane, the fear of taking off into the unknown, the captivating experience of landing in a majestic foreign landscape, the elation of experiencing something most people only dream of, going on an adventure that changes you as a person, discovering that you’ve just created a memory you’ll be talking about for the rest of your life… Yes. This.

I’m grateful for this movie, because I have a feeling that the folks in Hollywood who dreamed it up really “get it.” They get why I travel, why we ALL travel. They understand the nomadic journeys that global citizens feel driven to take throughout their lifetimes. Perhaps they even feel a strong connection to that historic Tolkien quote: “Not all who wander are lost.” To use a word that comes up frequently in the movie, the creators of this film understand the “quintessence” of travel — or, the “essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form.”

After the movie ended, I sat in silence for a minute before saying to Rafael, “Man! That movie makes me want to travel…” Without skipping a beat, he replied, “It doesn’t take a movie for that to happen, does it?”

Well played, Rah. Touché.

Why do YOU travel? Tell us about it in the comments below…

Sorry, New York, I love you but Chicago deep dish pizza was always my fave. And long ago, Chicago gave me my first taste of Greek food. Back in 2013, I even spent a few days in Chicago attending and photographing the International Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Expo. I was very impressed with the trends in vegan and vegetarian foods (which you can read about here) and I was part of a team that won a video award onstage during the Opening Keynote! You can view my photo recap of that event here.

More importantly, Chicago holds a special significance to us. It was one of the first cities we traveled to together, as it was a layover stop for our first trip to England. It was also where we decided to celebrate our one month anniversary the year we started dating. It was the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day — so naturally, we traveled up to see the famous green river (and caught the tail end of the marathon race).

And then, because.. you know… I’m Irish and all… we stopped at a pub downtown to grab a green beer.

It was a bit too cloudy for a trip up to the Willis Tower SkyDeck that particular weekend, but it’s such a short drive from Kentucky that I’m sure there will be more trips. Here are some photos of our favorite Chicago memories so far: