2025 Travel Journal

I haven’t been very good at posting updates recently, but I’d still like to document and share my favorite moments of the year. In 2025, many noteworthy moments happened while traveling. This was a big travel year! It required a passport for the first time, plenty of downloaded TV shows, and a Google Sheet I definitely spent too much time on. So instead of posting individual updates this year, here's all my travel updates at once 📚

🌲 February: Seattle

Early this year, my roommate Noah booked tickets to several U.S. boat shows to pursue his next venture of yacht photography (which is so impressive and never not fun to say). The first show was in Seattle, which is one of my favorite places to visit (read: I will never say no if you invite me on a Seattle trip). With plenty of snow on the ground in Utah, we packed up and made the thirteen-hour drive. It's very doable in a day, especially with a good friend and some entertaining podcasts.

While Noah found clients and landed video shoots at the boat show, I explored a few familiar spots and found some new favorites. The National Nordic Museum was fantastic. Something about Nordic history and culture has really captured my imagination over the last five years. I also visited Kubota Garden, a beautiful Japanese-style garden. Kerry Park has a great view of the city, and the Ballard Locks are fascinating.

The weather was much nicer than Utah for that time of year, but it was still a bit rainy and cold. I've now made more winter trips to Seattle than summer trips, which I'm looking forward to re-balancing ASAP.

Main: Ducks enjoying a rainy swim at Kubota Garden.

Top right: View of the city from Kerry Park.

Middle right & bottom left (same meal!): Japanese-American fusion lunch at Katsu Burger. (I highly recommend)

Bottom middle & right: A ship (looking like it sailed straight out of How to Train Your Dragon) and a runestone at the National Nordic Museum.

⚾ May: Anaheim

At the beginning of this year I had no idea who the Savannah Bananas were. They can be described as “the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball.” But to really understand it, banana ball needs to be experienced. (this article will teach you everything you need to know)

After some friends scored a big batch of tickets to a game in Anaheim, we set out to have the experience! A late Thursday flight allowed our group of aspiring digital nomads (and PTO savers) to work remotely on Friday before the game. Someone also turned on the French Open, which was very fun to watch together (Only slightly related: I also watched several golf majors for the first time this year. It’s been fun to expand my sports vocabulary beyond football and basketball.)

Once the workday was over, we drove through SoCal traffic (a little nostalgic, actually) to Angel Stadium in Anaheim. The game was a blast! The stadium was packed, and everyone from the players to the fans were committed to the bit. I bought a hot dog 🌭 it was quintessential baseball garnished with memes and knock-knock jokes.

Saturday was a full beach day, which was wonderful. Going to the beach still feels like a rare treat. A late-night beach bonfire was also great.

Also, shoutout to the gas station attendant who asked “Are you guys from Utah?” When we asked how he knew, he smiled and said “I could just tell.” 😂 we out here reinforcing all the stereotypes, y’all.

Top left: The crew at the Savannah Bananas game.

Middle right: Sunset at the stadium.

Bottom right: Split, a.k.a. the “King of Potassium”.

Top right & bottom left: A day at the beach 🏖️ started a little cloudy but cleared a bit later, leading to a great sunset.

🏔️ June: Montana

In an ongoing series of “hometown visits”, a group got together to visit my friend Matt’s hometown of Billings, Montana. This was my first real visit to the Big Sky state (excluding any Yellowstone trips). We stayed in Matt’s family cabin and went fishing, shooting, the whole nine yards 🎣

Other highlights included a nighttime thunderstorm, playing a djembe in a downtown store, using a landline phone (a rare experience!), and driving through Yellowstone (and a snowstorm) on the way home.

Top left: The road-trip crew on the ridge overlooking the city of Billings.

Top right: A friendly face as we arrived at the cabin (I think owls look friendly 🤷‍♂️).

Bottom left: A view of the sunset. The landscape is beautiful!

Middle & bottom right: Fishin’ and shootin’. Not pictured: me surprising everyone (including myself) with shotgun + clay pigeon accuracy. But for the record, I think Kate’s accuracy with the revolver was much more impressive 👏

🥥 August: Caribbean Cruise

I'm really lucky to have friends who organize adventures! A big shoutout to Devon and Jamie for putting together 30+ people to go on a cruise together. We went on a 7-day Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, TX.

Lots of firsts for me on this trip! First time to Texas, with a lunch at the famous Torchy’s Tacos (didn't make it to Buc-ees though, next time 🦫). First time on a cruise, and first time leaving the USA. We boarded Harmony of the Seas on a Saturday, with stops in Costa Maya Mexico, Roatán Honduras, and Cozumel Mexico (and two at-sea days).

The cruise ship was amazing! It really felt like a floating city. My favorite surprise was all the live music, especially a Frank Sinatra tribute. The food was very good too 🤤

In Costa Maya we rode rafts down a river and swam in a beautiful tropical lagoon. Roatán featured a nature preserve hike and beach visit. And Cozumel was an expedition following an underground river through a series of caves.

The overall experience was fantastic! I'd definitely book a cruise again 🚢 Caribbean is always fun, but I'm really curious to do an Alaskan cruise sometime.

Top left: Underground river expedition 🔦

Top right: View of Playa Carmen as we headed back to Cozumel to board the ship.

Middle right: View of the Roatán port from the ship.

Bottom right: New friend at the nature preserve in Roatán.

Bottom left: The lagoon in Costa Maya 🌴

⛩️ September: Japan

My roommate Barry and his friend Miranda have been watching flight deals to Japan for years. There was a really good deal early this year, and I jumped into the travel group. I'm very grateful to the group for all the planning and preparation that went into the trip! We had an amazing time, and I couldn't wish for better travel friends 🛫

We took an early Thursday morning flight out of SLC with a layover in Honolulu. It was a really great way to break up the flights – 7 hours to Hawaii, then 8 hours from there to Tokyo. The city of Tokyo was very impressive! We explored Meiji Shrine, found ramen for lunch, and visited Shibuya Crossing.

The next day (Sunday), after morning church at the Tokyo LDS temple, we took a day trip out to Kawaguchiko near Mt. Fuji. It was a bit cloudy, so the mountain wasn't visible, but the city and lake nearby were breathtaking. We rented bikes and rode around the lake. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me!

Top left: First ramen in Tokyo!

Top right: Shibuya crossing.

Middle right: A fun little bakery right by our hotel. We ended up going here for breakfast every day in Tokyo 😋

Bottom right: A random peek at the countryside on the way to Mt. Fuji.

Bottom left: Biking around Lake Kawaguchiko (you can see the tiniest bit of Mt. Fuji hiding behind some clouds on the left).

On Monday, we took the Shinkansen train to Kyoto. We explored a couple beautiful temples near our hotel (Tofuku-ji and Komyo-in) and visited Fushimi-momoyama-jo Castle after dinner. Early Tuesday we hiked Fushimi Inari, visited the Kiyomozu-dera Temple, and explored the Gion district later in the evening.

Wednesday morning we stopped by the bamboo forest and monkey park, before leaving Kyoto and traveling to Osaka. We bought tickets to the Osaka Aquarium and explored the Dotonbori shopping area at night.

Main: Crossing a river in Kyoto on our way to the bamboo forest (pictured bottom right).

Top right: One of the many buildings in the Tofuku-ji temple complex.

Middle right: Hiking Fushimi Inari.

Bottom middle: Fushimi-momoyama-jo Castle (really pretty at night).

Bottom left: Okonomiyaki for dinner in Kyoto.

Thursday was a day trip out to Nara, visiting Todai-ji Temple and the park deer. Then after dinner back in Osaka, we toured the Umeda Sky Building. We could see the whole city, even in the rain!

Friday was our return back to Tokyo. We did a lot of shopping at Uniqlo (I'm a big fan now) and visited Don Quijote before heading back to the airport. We had a longer layover in Hawaii on the way home, so we were able to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial and National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. We made a quick stop at Waikiki Beach (I'm also a big fan of Hawaii beaches) before heading back to the airport for our final flight to SLC.

Top left: One of the many friendly residents of Nara Park.

Bottom left: Todai-ji Temple, one of the world's largest historic wooden buildings.

Top right: Taiyaki in Osaka, a fish-shaped pastry filled with custard (no fish or fish-related flavors).

Middle right: The view of Osaka from the Umeda Sky Building.

Bottom right: A quick stop at Waikiki Beach on our way home.

I’m so grateful to have such amazing friends 🙌 (I definitely couldn’t have had these experiences otherwise!) It’s been a great year, including and outside of traveling. I’m enjoying work (joined a great new team), reading a lot, and generally trying my best to balance spending time between all the great things in life. Here’s to 2026 🎉