It started with a little white lie: Nathan claimed to be 6’ tall to appear in my dating app search results (he’s 5’8”, I’m 5’10”). From the start I was smitten with his big personality, sense of mischief, and unbridled zest for life. He loved my smile, humor, omelet-making skills, and preference for wearing flats. We bonded over a mutual love of travel, live music, and tasty food. As a young widow, I was nervous about dating again, but in Nathan I found the perfect home for my heart.

Our first international trip together, road-tripping through Croatia, Montenegro & Bosnia. Our GPS didn’t work. We didn’t have a map or speak the languages. It could’ve been a stressful disaster but we improvised, drew maps on napkins w/help from the locals, enjoyed more gorgeous scenery than expected & reached Sarajevo when it was too dark to see the street signs. We laughed & problem-solved the whole way, knowing that if everything had gone smoothly it wouldn’t be nearly as good a story!

We’ll save some to fix up our 1905 farmhouse (there’s always something to repair!) but the rest will fund our next big bucket-list trip. Whether it’s Japan, South Africa, Argentina, Costa Rica, or Alaska & the Canadian Rockies, we can’t wait to take in the natural beauty, meet people (& animals!), and stuff ourselves silly with local cuisine. We love to travel: It always shows us how much we have in common with people around the world and makes us grateful for our friends and family back home.