Inspired by my last post, I thought it’d be fun to take a walk down memory lane and find a photo from every single U.S. state I’ve visited. After hitting my 50-country milestone earlier this year, it felt like the perfect time to look a little closer to home and reflect on my travels around the U.S.
Over the years, I’ve spent significant time (meaning a year or more) living in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and now California, along with a memorable summer spent up in Massachusetts. Going through this exercise definitely made me realize there are a few states I really need to revisit. My time in these spots was essentially a quick pit stop, and I hardly have any photos to show for it!
New Hampshire
Indiana
Mississippi
Connecticut
Here’s a recap of all the states I’ve visited, including the year of my very first visit.
Hawaii – 1980s (when I’m born!)
Grand Canyon of the Pacific on Kauai
California – 1996
Vineyards in Oakville, Napa Valley
Oregon – 1999
Checking out the beaches along the Oregon Coast
Washington – 1999
Hiking at Mt Rainier National Park
Nevada – 1999
Hiking around Red Rocks State Park near Las Vegas
Maryland – 2002
Staycation at the MGM National Harbor
Washington DC – 2002
Segway tour around the National Mall
Pennsylvania – 2006
Finishing up the Philadelphia Half Marathon
New York – 2006
Outside Buffalo to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robbie House
New Jersey – 2006
Beach weekend along the Jersey Shore at Brigatine Beach
Delaware – 2007
Vodka tasting in Rehoboth Beach
Virginia – 2009
Vineyard visits in Loudoun County
Florida – 2010
Hanging out in Miami Beach before the afternoon storm!
Louisiana – 2013
Strolling around the French Quarter in New Orleans
Mississippi – 2013
My first time trying oyster rockefeller, in Gulfport Mississippi
Massachusetts – 2014
Eating delicious cannoli in Boston!
Alabama – 2014
Exploring the Rocket Center in Huntsville
Tennessee – 2014
Plantation tour outside of Nashville
Illinois – 2014
Chicago Skyline
Indiana – 2014
Having a dinner at a diner in Indianapolis
Vermont – 2015
Strolling Church Street in Burlington Vermont
North Carolina – 2015
Visiting Duke University
Texas – 2016
Exploring Big Bend National Park
Arizona – 2016
Visit to Grand Canyon National Park in the winter
Rhode Island – 2016
Touring the incredible mansions in Newport
New Hampshire – 2017
stopped at a diner in Salem enroute to Maine
South Carolina – 2017
Strolling the streets of Charleston
Connecticut – 2017
Walking around Yale University
Maine – 2018
Exploring the Maine coast
Kentucky – 2018
Visiting the Makers Mark Distillery
West Virginia – 2018
At the West Virginia State Capitol
Georgia – 2019
Exploring Tybee Island, Georgia
Ohio – 2019
Visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House, outside of Springfield
Missouri – 2019
Visited the Gateway Arch in St Louis
Arkansas – 2019
Wandering around the incredible museum at Crystal Bridges in Bentonville
Oklahoma – 2019
Walking along the Arkansas River at The Gathering Place in Tulsa
New Mexico – 2019
Visiting Meow Wolf in Santa Fe
Utah – 2019
Biking around Moab
Colorado – 2020
Visiting Mesa Verde National Park in Southwest Colorado
Nebraska – 2020
Visited a monument along the Oregon Trail in Nebraska
South Dakota – 2020
Explored Badlands National Park in South Dakota
North Dakota – 2020
Running along the Red River in Fargo
Minnesota – 2020
Walking along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
Wisconsin – 2020
Visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Wisconsin
Michigan – 2020
Visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Smith House located in Bloomfield Township near Detroit
Iowa – 2020
Running along the Iowa River in Ames, home of the University of Iowa
Kansas – 2020
Visited the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka
Wyoming – 2020
Visited Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming
Montana – 2020
Visited Glacier National Park near Kalispell, Montana
Idaho – 2020
Visited the massive Shoshone Falls in Southwest Idaho
Alaska – 2023
Exploring the beauty of Denali National Park in Alaska
Earlier this summer, I hit a major travel milestone: crossing off my 50th country! Other than a brief pause from work between October 2011-April 2012, when I decided to quit my first corporate job and study abroad in Taiwan, I’ve held a full-time job since graduating in June 2010. I’m amazed at how much of the world I’ve been able to see over the years just by maximizing my time off.
Without a doubt there were five things that helped me travel this much:
doing points and miles over the past 15+ years
keeping rent and food costs low to afford travel and payoff student loans
working for employers that offered 20+ days of paid vacation
taking vacations around at least one federal holiday
country stacking and visiting multiple countries on one trip
While a few of these visits, like Canada and Japan, were done before college, the vast majority of these adventures happened in the years since. For frequent favorites like France and Mexico, choosing just a single picture was incredibly difficult. For others, I only had an extended layover and a few hours to capture the moment. Without further ado, here is a visual timeline of the past 15+ years: one photo and the year of my visits for every country, in chronological order.
01 – Canada – 1999, 2006, 2015, 2016
Admiring the Toronto skyline
02 – Japan – 2004, 2015, 2023
Cherry blossom chasing around Tokyo
03 – United Kingdom – 2008, 2026
Eating some fish and chips in London
04 – China – 2009, 2015
Seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xian
05 – Taiwan – 2011
Biking around Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan
06 – Malaysia – 2012
Outside Masjid Jamek, my first visit to a mosque, in Kuala Lumpur
07 – Singapore – 2012
Seeing the merlion in Singapore
08 – Turkey – 2013
Outside the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul
09 – Greece – 2013, 2024
Visiting Athens for the first time
10 – Switzerland – 2014, 2023
Walking around the beautiful streets of Lucerne, Switzerland
11 – India – 2014
Visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra, India
12 – Australia – 2015
Admiring the beauty of Hobart, Tasmania
13 – United Arab Emirates – 2015
Afternoon tea at the Burj Khalifa
14 – South Korea – 2016, 2023
Hiking around Seoul
15 – Nepal – 2016
Reaching Everest Base Camp in Nepal
16 – Qatar – 2016
Visiting the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha
17 – Chile – 2017, 2024
Gazing at the beauty of Torres del Paine
18 – South Africa – 2017
Admiring the beautiful South African coast in Cape Town
19 – Netherlands – 2017
Wandering around the streets of Amsterdam
20 – Iceland – 2017
Standing inside of a glacier in Iceland
21 – France – 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Wine tasting in Burgundy
22 – Monaco – 2018
Views of Monaco
23 – Belgium – 2018
Waiting for the subway in Brussels
24 – Austria – 2018
Walking around the Schonbrunn in Vienna, Austria
25 – Cambodia – 2018
Visiting Ankor Wat in Cambodia!
26 – Thailand – 2016, 2018
Admiring the skyline in Bangkok!
27 – Colombia – 2019
Trying mangosteen and other fruits at a market in Bogota
28 – Costa Rica – 2021
Sunset over the Pacific Coast in Costa Rica
29 – Mexico – 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Visiting Chichen Itza in the Yucatan
30 – Luxembourg – 2021
Wandering around the hilly streets of Luxembourg
31 – Spain – 2021
Admiring the Islamic Architecture at the Alhambra in Granada
32 – Portugal – 2021
Watching the sunset over Lisbon
33 – Germany – 2021
Checking out the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart
34 – Italy – 2022
Running around the streets of Florence, Italy
35 – Hungary – 2022
View of the Danube from Buda, Hungary
36 – Slovakia – 2022
View of the Danube in Bratislava, Slovakia
37 – Israel – 2023
Admiring the Sea of Galilee
38 – Palestine – 2023
Visiting the Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was born, in Bethlehem.
39 – New Zealand – 2023
Bike riding the Alps2Ocean trail in the South Island
40 – Fiji – 2024
Gazing at the countryside of Viti Levu in Fiji
41 – Peru – 2024
Visiting Macchu Picchu!
42 – Panama – 2024
Checking out the views of the skyline in Panama City
43 – Guatemala – 2024
Wandering around the cobblestone streets of Antigua, Guatemala
44 – Argentina – 2024
Wine tasting in Mendoza
45 – Egypt – 2024
Wandering around the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza, Egpyt
Hard to believe that yet another year has come and gone!
Without a doubt, by far the biggest highlight this past year has seeing my little one grow up! He is now just over 14 months old, and it’s been such a life changing experience seeing him develop one day at a time.
Travel:
22980 miles flown, 1 New Country Visited, Visited Mexico 3x this year!
January – Day trip to Portland
Visiting the Japanese Garden in Portland
February – Day Trip to Pasadena
Visiting the Gamble House in Pasadena
June – Long weekend in Puerto Vallarta & Long weekend in Ireland
First trip after little one was born! Visiting Hyatt’s Dreams Resort in Puerto Vallarta! Dining in Belfast! Hiking along the Irish Sea around Dublin City
August – Long weekend to Mexico City, and 2-night work trip to NYC
Meeting up with friends while traveling for work in NYC!Visiting Casa Luis Barragan (famous Mexican Architect) in CDMX!
October – Long weekend visit to Cabo San Lucas
Weekend escape to Cabo San Lucas
November – Thanksgiving week in Los Angeles
Hanging in the common space at Google Spruce Goose office in Playa Vista
December – Southern California (Palm Springs, San Diego)
Checking out the murals at the Thompson Palm SpringsWalking along Mission Beach Promenade in San Diego
Parenting:
Surviving the first full year as a parent !!
Mason in daycare
Mason’s first road trip
Catering from Jolibee for our little one’s first birthday!
Health:
Lowered my A1c from 6.1 to 5.8
Ran three half marathons, two of which were sub 2 hours.
First half marathon of the year in February, and it completely rained out! First half marathon where I finally ran a sub-2 hour time! The SF Half Marathon!Final half marathon of the year in October in San Jose!
Career
View of Downtown New York from the Google NYC’s St John Terminal Office
Working on web projects instead of email-related projects
Building agentic solutions for marketers
Getting shoutouts at work
Spiritual:
Continued going to Grace Cathedral
Attended events through Temple Emanu-El
Sunday mornings are for services at Grace Cathedral (parenting schedule permitting!)
Language Learning:
Completed 20+ hours of French classes via Babbel Live, though stopped after I returned from parental leave in April 2025
My 2025 youtube recap! Many of the travel vlogs and exploring cities are French-speaking YouTuber channels!
Reading
Read / listened to five books this year:
Reading all about zoning in Ellickson’s America’s Frozen Neighborhoods
High, Erika Fartland (January)
America’s Frozen Neighborhoods, Robert Ellickson (February)
Wounded Tigris, Leon McCarron (March)
White Rural Rage, Paul Waldman (October)
Abundance, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (December)
2026 Goals
Life has certainly changed especially now that I’m a parent. I’ve continued to reduce my travel aspirations and instead focus more on what I can do closer to home. Here’s what I’m hoping to do in the new year!
Visit all the SF Public Libraries (28 total) with little one
Visit a new country
Bring down my A1C from to 5.6
Bring down my cholesterol from 133 back to 108
Continue my running / strength training routines
Continue going to Grace Cathedral and Temple Emanu-El
Run another half marathon, maybe complete a triathlon
Towards the end of last year, through the miracle of modern science and our wonderful surrogate, my husband and I welcomed our first child into this world. Becoming a parent has always been something that I’ve wanted to experience, and the last six months have been certainly the most life-changing chapter of my life.
I had exactly 167 days of leave, which was the longest period I’ve ever had without being in an office/work environment since finishing college in 2010. I’ll preface everything by saying that I had no idea what to expect besides sleep deprivation, and doing anything as a new parent would not have been possible without the following:
working for a company that offered 18 weeks of paid leave
taking an additional 4 weeks off work without pay
starting daycare when our son was 15 weeks old
having my mom and mom-in-law available to help with child care
being intentional about how I wanted to spend my time
What I would recommend for those thinking about what to do while on paternity leave:
Be realistic about what you can feasibly do. As a first time parent, I had no idea what to expect, other than sleep deprivation.
Create structure in your day. Without having a job to go to, I found myself feeling untethered, which felt problematic. For me, French classes and my workout schedule helped ground me.
Take it easy. This time is for bonding and for figuring out all things parenting. Anything else is truly extra.
For privacy sake, I’ll spare the photos of my little one.
Without further ado, my leave by the numbers…
Hikes: 15
Wine Tastings: 7
Architecture Tours: 5
Trains/Planes/Ferries Taken: 9
Books Read: 7
Classes Taken: 2(ish)
Museums Visited: 21
Races Ran: 1
Hiking Adventures (15 hikes)
Bayview Trail (Treasure Island)American River Trail (Sacramento)Wildcat Canyon Park (El Cerrito)Mt Wanda Trail (Martinez)UC Davis Arboretum Trail (Davis)Robert Dollar Drive Trail (San Rafael)Tennessee Valley Trail (Mill Valley)Lake Chabot Loop (Castro Valley)Pedro Point Loop (Pacifica)Coyote Hills Bayview Loop (Fremont)Stevens Creek Trail (Mountain View) Cabrillo Point Bayview Trail (San Diego)West Cliff Drive & Natural Bridges Trail (Santa Cruz)Nimitz Way (Berkeley) Muir Woods to Mt Tam (Mill Valley)
Wine Tasting (7 tastings)
Novelty Hill (Woodinville)Hall Wineries (St Helena)Quivira Vineyards (Healdsburg)Opus One Winery (Oakville)Chateau Montelena (Calistoga)Donum Estate (Carneros)Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars (Napa)
Architecture Tours (5 buildings)
San Francisco City HallFrank Lloyd Wright’s Marin County Civic Center (San Rafael)Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House (Pasadena)
Trains, Planes & Ferries (9 journeys)
SF Ferry rides to 1/ Vallejo, 2/ Sausalito, 3/ Richmond, 4/ Angel IslandAmtrak California to SacramentoDay trip to PasadenaDay trip to PortlandDay trip to San DiegoWeeklong visit to Puerto Vallarta with my in-laws!
Books Read (7):
Reading about U.S. zoning laws on my commute to San Jose
Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman (October)
The Deepest South of All, Richard Grant (November)
The Amur River, Colin Thubron (November)
Sovietistan, Erika Fartland (December)
High, Erika Fartland (January)
America’s Frozen Neighborhoods, Robert Ellickson (February)
Wounded Tigris, Leon McCarron (March)
Classes Taken (2)
I’m considering a potential career change into urban planning, and enrolled in a 15 week on-site course as an open university student at San Jose State. I’m halfway through the semester and have learned a ton!
Real Estate Finance class during Spring 2025 semester at San Jose State
In addition to urban planning studies, I continued to work on my French. My goal with French is to be able to communicate at a basic level, especially at wineries and restaurants, while in France or other Francophone countries. I took about 60+ hours of classes between Nov ’24 – Feb ’25.
My most recent babbel classes.
Museums Visited (21)
Around the Bay Area and beyond I visited 21 different museums, I’ll spare the photos for all of them, but the top highlights were the three NPS sites located nearby:
Angel Island Immigration Museum
Rosie the Riveter National Historic Site
Fort Point National Historic Site
view of the Golden Gate atop Fort Point
Races Ran (1)
I completed the San Francisco Half-Marathon back in February. This was the first time I’ve ever ran a race in the rain. I absolutely never do another race in the rain ever agin. Despite the heavy rains, I set a new PR: 2 hours, 1min and 30 seconds!
At the finish line!!
Reflection
I still can’t believe I spent nearly the last six months being out of office. It truly was a memorable experience and am forever grateful for this time. That being said, I am eagerly looking forward to getting back to work and seeing what this next stage of my life will look like, as a working parent!
