Should We Stay or Should We Go - Our Travel Journal

I'm very late with my 2025 travel update, but here it is. 2025 was a year of disjointed travel - by that I mean there was a little of this and a little of that - no real structure to where we went.  It was more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kinda year.  Still, with that we had some great trips and saw some incredible places. To start off the year, I joined a couple of friends on a Caribbean cruise for a week of fun, relaxation, and lots of girl time.  From there I flew to Punta Cana to join John to ride out the winter in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, as we have done for the last four years. We have developed a real community there and enjoy our time with friends and family.  In June we flew to Vancouver Island for two weeks.  While we had been to British Columbia a few times prior we had never made it to Vancouver Island.  It was a trip filled with hiking, wildlife, and incredible scenery. Our summer months were spent close to home, splitting our time...

image created with ChatGPT Well, here we are - January 11th, and it’s been almost a full month since I last posted. I had fully intended to document our latest travels. On top of that, I’d signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge for January and was actually starting to plan for it. So what caused my plans to derail yet again? In one word: life. (Doesn’t it always?) A couple of weeks before Christmas, my youngest brother - who has Down Syndrome, is non-verbal, and now uses a wheelchair - ended up in the hospital. The group home where he lives wasn’t able to provide staff support while he was admitted, so I spent all his waking hours at the hospital, making sure he had whatever care he needed. Another brother was able to step in during the last several days and do the afternoon and evening shifts, which gave me a much-needed break and some time to finish getting ready for Christmas. Thankfully, Rick was discharged four days before Christmas - and I’m quite sure no one was happier than...