While in previous years, I wanted to visit as many other countries as possible, I'm increasingly interested in exploring the beauty of the United States  too. After coming across some photos on social media of Idaho during different seasons, I knew that I wanted to visit -- and I got my opportunity when I learned that the Sun Valley Resort was on the Epic Pass for the 2021-2022  ski season! Since we have the Epic Pass, my husband and I decided to book a few days of skiing in Sun Valley in mid-March.

Lagos was the last stop on my Portugal trip with my girlfriends! After visiting Porto and then Lisbon , we took the train to Lagos on a Thursday morning, where we stayed until Friday afternoon.  We had left the U.S. on a Friday, landed in Portugal on Saturday, and left Portugal the following Friday -- so we managed to hit 3 cities in Portugal in 7 days on the ground!

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and its largest city, and it was the second stop on my Portugal trip, after Porto and before Lagos .  Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, and we spent a lot  of time just walking the city, taking it all in. If I'm being perfectly honest, I did prefer Porto and Lagos to Lisbon, although I still loved the city. As I said in my Porto travel diary , I think the reason was because Lisbon had that familiar feeling of being in a city. But it was still a stunning city, with historical sites throughout, and a day trip to Sintra just a short train ride away. As a side note, it's funny that Portugal was my first European trip because my first trip to South America was Brazil in 2016 with my friend Amy... so we kept joking that we just really loved the Portuguese language! As an FYI, "hello" in Portuguese is "olá "; "sorry" is "desculpe"; and "thanks" is "obrigado" (male speaker) or ...

Portugal -- the place that started it all for me! Portugal was the very first country in Europe I ever visited and the first international trip I planned that wasn't an all-inclusive or through a study abroad program. After visiting Portugal, I was hooked on travel -- the history, the food, and the general excitement of exploring somewhere new and learning about other cultures.