A New Beginning - Joshua Tree National Park

We reached the end of our round-the-world trip a few months ago and since the end of January, we have been settling back into "normal" life in Santa Monica, California. We are, however, loathe to retire our wandering shoes altogether. And, since everyone seemed to enjoy the blog so much, we thought we'd keep it going!  So we have decided to continue writing about our adventures. Our next challenge? Since we enjoyed visiting and writing about the National Parks last summer, we've decided to try and visit all of them!

A Few of My Favorite Photos

Jo and I decided that we were each going write a post about our favorite places and experiences from the trip. Though after reading Jo's post, it was pretty clear that if I wrote one as well, it would be nearly identical. So I thought I'd post my favorite photos from the trip instead.

Throughout the trip, we carried two cameras, a Cannon Rebel T1i with two lenses (18-55mm and a 55-250mm) and a Sony CyberShot W570 point-and-shoot. Carrying the SLR was certainly a bit bulky at times, but in the end, it was worth it. During our six-months traveling, we took over 10,000 photos between us and I think we have some pretty spectacular souvenirs to show for it. I'll let you be the judge. Here a few of my favorites:

A few of my favourite things

This last six months have been a roller-coaster ride of experiences and I have thoroughly enjoyed it, some things more than others. A few people have asked what my favourite things were, and I'm afraid it's hard to narrow it down to a top five or ten. Instead I have broken it into three categories - my favourite experiences, favourite scenery and things that I would definitely go back and do, either again or differently. They're simply in alphabetical order since I couldn't decide on a ranking. Here goes:

The Blue Mountains, Australia

The Blue Mountains are, as you would expect from the name, "mountains," though one's definition of "mountain" is relative. For Australia, these hills are big and are only short drive west of Sydney. They are close enough to be a weekend destination for people in the city and the area boasts lots of attractions. It has many quaint little towns and villages, great hiking, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.