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A few weeks ago, Ian put together this great post – 5 Travel Firsts He’s Looking Forward to in 2019!  I read through it, and with quite a bit of travel booked this year myself, I was inspired to write my own!

First Trip to Europe

That’s right, I’ve never made it across the pond.  53 flights, 57,000 air miles logged, and I still haven’t been to Europe!  I’m very happy to say we’ll exploring for 9 days in April.  We have family in Germany right now, and we’ve centered the trip around visiting them in Dresden.  But it’s Europe…and everything is so close…I had to see more than that!

a map of the earth with a red line

So with some great stopovers and an open jaw, we’re going to get to see Amsterdam, Prague, and Brussels in addition to Dresden!  Check out the itinerary:  BOS-AMS-DRS, PRG-BRU-IAD-BOS.  We’ll fly Boston to Amsterdam on KLM overnight, stopover for 8 hours, and then continue onto Dresden in the afternoon.  After spending a week in Dresden, we’ll take the train down to Prague and spend 3 days there.  On the way out, we’ve got a Brussels Airlines flight from Prague to Brussels, stay overnight in Brussels, then onto Boston by way of Dulles International (United Airlines) the next day.

First Time Staying in an Airport Hotel

I know this probably doesn’t seem that interesting to most of you…but as a budding avgeek, I’m stoked!  Hotels, to me, are a necessary evil to traveling.  I feel much more at home in a tiny apartment or a sleeping bag in the back of a car, than at the Ritz-Carlton (though I may change my mind…).  You know what makes a great hotel stay?  Being able to watch the planes take off and land just outside your window!

I’ll be staying at airport hotels twice this month – once at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare, and once at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport.  Neither hotels are extravagant, but they’re perfect for layovers and I’ll get to do plenty of plane watching.  The Hyatt Regency DFW in particular should give me great access to the runways at Terminal C, dominated by American Airlines.  Hopefully I’ll get to cross a few more tail logos off my list!

It’s like bird-watching, only the birds are huge.  With metal wings…

Learning to Dive

Guess what I got for Christmas!  (Well, I guess it’s not that hard to guess…)

An intro to diving course!  My fantastic girlfriend snagged a introduction to diving package for us both, and I’m super stoked to learn!  Unfortunately, we won’t be diving in Belize, even though I’ve heard the Great Blue Hole is definitely a bucket list worthy diving experience.  Learning to dive has been on my list for a long time, as it opens up so many more ways to see the world around us.  There are TONS of great places to dive throughout the world, and I can’t wait to explore them like a fish!

a person under water with a machine

If you couldn’t tell from all the exclamation points throughout this post (!), I’m really looking forward to all of these opportunities.  We’d love to hear some of the items you’re crossing off this year, so feel free to share in the comments!


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