Bio
Who is Rae?
Let me start by telling you who I am not. I am not a model nor am I a professional photographer. Many of my pictures would not be considered Instagram worthy because that wasn’t my intention when taking them. In fact, this blog is the one with the social media accounts, not me. I never intended for my adventures to be put online or make me some sort of influencer.
So why did I start this site?
Friends and family have been telling me for years to start a travel blog. I dismissed the idea because I figured no one would want to read about someone else’s adventures. But then I found myself being the “someone else” reading the blogs of others to find the best backpacking route through Yellowstone or getting inspiration to take my toddler camping. So I thought I would give this thing a try. Maybe you found your way to my site because you were wondering if it’s nuts to visit a place called ICEland in the winter (do it!) or because you are trying to pick out an awesome dive site in Costa Rica (hope you see a manta ray!). If that’s the case, then perhaps I was wrong all this time.
Maybe reading about someone else’s adventures is actually what motivates us to get out there ourselves.
Now, who is Rae?
I am my father’s daughter. After working six days a week in a physically demanding construction job, Jim was the one who used his one day off to plan some epic outdoor adventure. I learned to mountaineer, rock climb, ski (alpine and cross country), and mountain bike with him. As many of our outings turned into what can only be called a MISadventure, I also learned how to NOT raft and spalunk from him. There’s a running tally of how many times I’ve almost died with this guy, and yet we’ve always made it out safe and sound due to his quick thinking and crazy physical strength.
How many grandpas do you know that can lead climb a 5.11?
He’s passed along enough of his knowledge and skill that I can confidently start a fire or dig a snow cave shelter to weather any situation. I’ve also inherited his drive to always fill my free time with some sort of adventure bordering on the Type 2 or 3 kind of fun.
When I finally was the one planning the trips, it was my mom, Vickie, who happily tagged along on any harebrained idea I had. I can pinpoint the day that I officially caught the travel bug on a trip with her in Hawaii. An acquaintance of hers had mentioned she had a condo on the Big Island that my mom was welcome to stay at if she ever made it out there. Reader be warned, I jump at opportunities like that and had bought our plane tickets that evening. This was the first trip I had ever planned myself, from airline schedules to rental car companies to researching trails and snorkel sights to booking manta ray encounters. It was infectious. Suddenly, I couldn’t live without having at least one big trip on the horizon. My mom was always game.
She’d slide into the passenger seat (maybe just ten minutes behind schedule) ready to take a surfing lesson or hike 13 miles across the Badlands.
I learned to factor in breaks for meals and the “calls of nature” when traveling with her, something I never really thought much about when I was on my own. When she couldn’t come along, my mom was always the one reminding me to “check in” as I camped and hiked and road tripped alone.
She’s always the first one I call to rave about a trip or complain about something that didn’t go as planned.
She’s the one who worries about everything that could potentially go wrong and makes me text her the details of my rental car and trailhead names in case of an emergency. At my wedding, she graciously passed the torch to my new go-to travel buddy and guinea pig, my husband John.
With John, I had found my other half. He never cared that my only hair style is “pony tail” and that I keep my nails cut short for climbing.
He complemented all the parts of me that I had already discovered, and then helped to expand my sights by offering new experiences.
To celebrate my first birthday after we met, he took me sky diving. We learned to scuba dive together for our first international trip just four months after we started dating. He made sure we dined like locals wherever we went. I’m the kind of person who hikes miles up a mountain to get to a lake, scarf down a snack, and turns around to leave. John reminds me to sit and look at the lake, feel the breeze, notice the birds flying by. I’m the kind of person who writes “relax at the beach” when I only scheduled a one hour stop there in our itinerary. He has since created a scale of words that can be used to describe how long we get to spend at a beach. An hour is a “stop by” the beach. You have to spend six plus hours there to “relax” at the beach. He had no fear when I signed us up to bungee jump in New Zealand, but did put his foot down when I planned for us to drive 6 hours after an 18 hour flight there. From missing luggage to alarms set for PM instead of AM, he helps me laugh through the chaos.
And when I wanted to look for a second job to help with some bills, he encouraged me to put my time into finally writing this blog instead.
How do I have time to do the things that end up as content for this blog?
I was a 4th grade teacher for nine years, with lots of school breaks for long weekends, week-long road trips, or whole months away from home in the summer. I even spent one Saturday a month taking my students and their families hiking to share my love of the outdoors with them.
I left that career to be the primary care giver for my son, Grey, who was born in 2022. A mini-adventurer in the making, he’s had some pretty scenic nursing and diaper changing spots.
We've come a long way from that first hike on my first Mother's Day when he screamed and cried for the last 2.5 miles and I thought my adventurous life was over.
Instead, he has become my reason to get out of the house and have SOMETHING to explore most days. (See my page on our Micro-Ventures.) Not even 2 yet, he has spent 20 + nights on our fishing boat, hitched along on a 40 mile backpacking trip, and has 4 stamps in his National Park passport.
To help supplement my missing income, we Airbnb our house in Denver. When it’s rented, we visit Serenity Slopes, our property near Salida with a camper parked on it. We also travel to visit family around the country or take those big trips that we would have wanted to do anyway, like boating in the Puget Sound or diving in Mexico. Poor Grey might not actually know what “home” is.
So there you have it. I’m a daughter and a wife and a mother and a teacher and an adventurer. My mother-in-law has dubbed me E Yaung (“Walking Girl” in Lao) since that’s all I ever seem to be doing when she calls to chat. But you can call me Rae, and I hope to see you out there somewhere Around the World.