Update: I'm Back!

Whoa! It's been a hot minute since I've written anything or even thought about writing anything on here. But first things first: I MISS FLYING! 

It's been a crazy couple of years to say the least.

I'll try and look back and remember the big things that have happened and bring us up to date.

1. I got my transfer to Seattle effective February 1, 2018. FINALLY! Seattle has been the best base, with great flying and even better people. I'm forever thankful for my time in Minneapolis and the people I met there, but Dorthy said it best; "there's no place like home!"

2. I turned 28, 29 and most recently said goodbye to my 20's and welcomed my 30's with a bang! 

3. I finally made it over the Pacific Ocean in a whirlwind trip to Incheon and 15 hours after I landed back in Seattle I was on a plane to Vegas for a 21st birthday party. I'm exhausted all over again just thinking about it.

4. I spent a lot of time laying in hotel beds and on the beach in Hawaii.

5. I stood next to two of my best friends as they said I Do to their guys.

6. Had countless awesome layovers with fab crews and a number of boring uneventful layovers too.

7. Took New Orleans by storm for one of my best friends 30th bday!

8. Took an amazing trip to Florence Italy with the best crew, wine tasted in Tuscany, ate all the pizza and pasta, and enjoyed each others company.

9. A few trips to Vegas. Love that place!

10. Spent a week in Maui for my 29th birthday with my family!

11. A friend trip to Los Barilles, Mexico for 10 days, which was a blast!

12. Took a few camping trips and explored my state.

13. Sent my brother off to college.

14. Took a job as a Inflight Service Learning Technical Facilitator! Been dreaming of this since I graduated flight attendant training.

15. Started teaching my first initial class of flight attendants.

16 Turned 30! Spent a long weekend in Nashville with my parents and best gals.

17. Graduated my first initial class during the start of Corona Virus.

18. Taught for a month at our Salt Lake City training center.

19 Took a 3 month leave of absence to do my part and help the financial position of our company in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic.

20. Survived 2 months of quarantine with no restaurants, bars, or anything. 

Just a brief blip of what I've been up to the past few years. I'll post a little bit about a couple of the big trips I took, but if there's anything else you want to hear about, feel free to comment and I'd be happy to post about it.

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Tiff

Home away from home; Hawaii!

So if there was one thing that you needed to know about me; its that I LOVE the ocean, lakes, any kind of water, and being in it or around it. So being on an island is of course like being in heaven. Up until 11 months ago I had never been to Hawaii, and since then I've been about 10 times. I think it would be safe to call it my home away from home. I've only been to 2 of the Hawaiian islands; Maui and Kona. I have an equal love for both of them as they both offer different types of a "vacation."

We all have those times in life when we are in a funk or feeling kind of depressed or just not happy at that exact time in life. It happens to all of us and we all handle it differently. Some drink, some eat, so workout, some go away from their problems or whatever may be the cause, and a variety of different things. For me its Hawaii. I try and pick up at least one trip a month going to Hawaii and it doesn't always happen, but when it does; I'm one happy girl! There's just something about all the palm trees, the warm sun, the sandy beaches and the waves gently crashing on the shore that do the mind so much good!! I wish I could explain how much it fills my heart with joy and pure happiness to stand on the beach with the waves crashing at my feet.

When it comes to which island I prefer, well its equal! Kona is more relaxing and soothing whereas Maui is so much more active and offers a variety of different water activities at your fingertips. 

Kona is beautiful and has palm trees everywhere and staying in Wikoloa village is like you belong to this little community. There is a shopping center about a mile from the hotel that I stay at and they have the coolest grocery store! My favorite thing to do it get up and walk down to the village and of course get my Starbucks and enjoy it on the patio listening to the birds chirp and do some reading. Its amazing how refreshing it is to do this little thing! But my all time favorite thing is the fresh poke bar they have in the store. It is so fresh, so delish, and pretty healthy for you! I get a little out of hand and buy like 3 lbs of it and bring it home with me and eat it for the next 2 days😉 I'm not normally a huge beer drinker, but Maui Brewing Company makes some super refreshing island beers so naturally I stock up on those while I'm there too. The pineapple hefeweizen and the coconut porter are a MUST! I usually am only there for about 24 hours so its perfect for me to lay by the pool, relax, get some much needed vitamin D and recharges my body and soul for the month to come. The hotel I stay at has a dolphin pool, which for the record I always want to set them free, but I do always stop and watch them swim and take pictures because they are just so darn cute!!

Now Maui is a whole different cup of tea. When I'm in Maui its go go go! I love swimming in the ocean at sunset and getting that nice dose of saltwater in my hair and my eyes, and then some fresh fish tacos for dinner and maybe even a couple glasses of wine and some live music on Kaanapali beach before bed. Probably one of my top 5 favorite things to do while I'm in Maui is snorkeling with the sea turtles! One: I love turtles, 2: I love how close you can get to them without touching them and they don't think anything of it and 3: swimming in the wide open ocean with the fish and turtles. Literally doesn't get any better then that. I do it for hours. Not sure if its because I feel just like a mermaid while swimming with wild fish and turtles or because I just like being in the ocean. Whatever it is, I LOVE IT! There is so much to do right on Kaanapali beach and I feel like I've only touched the tip of the iceberg there. I am dying to do "Road to Hana" at sunrise and I really wanna do one of the sunset dinner cruises. Its probably meant to be romantic and go with your significant other, but I'd be the girl there alone! No shame here. 

I literally could talk all day about Hawaii but no one wants to read that much haha! Basically if there was anything to take out of this post its that; everyone needs a recharge here and there. Find something that fills your soul and do it once a month or once every other month, your mind and body will thank you! Yes, I do have an easy job and its not that stressful and maybe it seems like I'm always on vacation, but answering the dumbest question after dumbest question gets exhausting and I do need a break too. You would be amazed at how much better you feel and how much clearer your mind is. Hawaii is my go to and when I'm struggling I hop on the swap board and pick up trip to the Island's and don't ever regret it! 

Get out there and travel somewhere! 

Adventures in Iceland

So in the beginning of August I crossed another country off my bucket list.. ICELAND!! I've been wanting to go to Iceland for a long time now and my time finally came! To make it even better I was going with one of my instructors and good friends from initial training.

We planned this trip a few weeks in advance just so that we could make the most of our short time there. Originally, we wanted to go to the Blue Lagoon, but it was already sold out for the time we were going to be there. Literally the main reason people go to Iceland I thought. But I was wrong, again! So in place of the Blue Lagoon we decided to do the Golden Circle tour. Sounds interesting! Three of us bought our tickets and we were ready to go!

Flash forward and we have landed in Reykjavik, Iceland. Its a little chilly and pretty overcast, great. Nothing that I'm not used to growing up in Seattle. We get to our hotel and have a few hours before we have to be at the bus stop for our pickup to start our tour. I decide that since I just flew all night I needed a nap, and when I woke up... It was pouring rain! AWESOME! Our tickets were paid for and were going. So off we went!

We drove out of Reykjavik about 2 hours to the first stop of the tour, the Geysir Geothermal Area. Just like most touristic spots there was a gift shop. Of course we wandered through, got some snacks and walked out to the geysir. It was harder to see because of the lower clouds and misting rain and the steam from the hot geysir water. This particular geysir erupts every 7-8 minutes and we were lucky enough to see it twice! The next stop was about 20 minutes further down the road and it was amazing. The second stop was Gullfoss Waterfall, it was breathtaking. I have never seen such a powerful waterfall in my life. No, I haven't been to Niagara Falls! The powerful water cascading down the fall surrounded but this lush green landscape made for the most beautiful scene.

By this point we were pretty cold and wet, but it was so worth it!! This waterfall was absolutely stunning. The third and final stop on the tour was Thingvellir National Park. It was on the way back into the town of Reykjavik about 45 minutes from the waterfall. Driving through the countryside was so scenic and there is just so much empty land. Its beautiful! Driving through the national park you are able to see where the European and North American tectonic plates once met and have now separated slighted. Usually these things are the least of my concern, but being able to see it first hand and see the crevasse that it created was such a cool thing to see. The park has a visitors center that normally you can wander through and look out over the landscape, but it was closed by the time that we got there. And this girl was frozen and wet and ready for a hot shower. 

Overall this was such an amazing trip with an amazing crew! Ya, the weather wasn't great or ideal, but its all about the people that your with to make the experience great! I will forever remember this trip and the crew I was working with. It was so much fun and for 21 hours in Reykjavik with the same people, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat! Surround yourself with gracious people and no matter the circumstances you will forever remember the time spent with them. Iceland is a beautiful country and I would love to be able to go back and spend more time there and be able to see more sights and more importantly the northern lights! Its not a cheap place to travel to and a beer might be $14 but its worth it. Beautiful county filled with beautiful people. 

Get out and adventure 💖

Lets play catch up!

Whoa! Its been a long time since I've written anything about anything, six months to be exact! It was a crazy busy summer and I'm just now feeling recovered from it!

I am so thankful for all my travels but the last few months were really trying! Summertime is our busy season and boy were we busy. I was constantly amazed at how I just kept going and going and going. First hand goes to show that your body and mind are capable of WAAAAAY more then you give yourself credit for.

I got to go a ton of fun places and some not so fun places as well, but that comes with the job. Also I got to meet and work with a ton of great new people. I think I truly enjoy that the most. i love flying and seeing new sights and eating at new restaurants and doing things I've never done before, BUT there is truly something to be said about human interaction with like minded intelligent people. I absolutely adore getting to know someone and hear their life story and compare struggles and successes with one another. It might sound weird but its comforting, especially when your having a down week or day or even month, to know that there are people who are younger and older going through the same things. Now don't get me wrong here, I don't want anyone to struggle, but its a fact of life that its going to happen along the way. This journey called life isn't always easy.

In other news, it was a great summer full of adventure but, I'm truly glad its over and i can settle down a little bit and get into a routine with the gym and eating better and more cautiously. A few of the coolest places I got to go over the summer were, in no particular order, Missoula, Iceland, and Hawaii. I'll write more about them each in different posts a little later on, I just wanted to give you a quick update and let you know that I'm still here and still loving life!!

Adventure Days

Whew! What a week its been. So for 6 days a month I'm on call, at the mercy of scheduling. Well those 6 days happened to be the last 6 days.. I'm exhausted! The not so glamorous part of being a flight attendant is the 9 and 10 hour layovers and 13 hour days that follow. Lucky for me that's the trip I was assigned for the first 3 days. I couldn't get enough sleep when I got back from that trip, but then another trip was on my schedule, and another. There is a saint out there that picked up my lasy Aday so I could come home a day earlier!! Whoooo! Needless to say it was a long  days and I was more then exhausted when I finally got home last night. It was so nice to be able to sleep in my own bed and not wake up to an alarm. I have a great job and I love it, but man oh man, flying  days in a row will really take it out of you!

In other news the view from above is almost always more beautiful then from the ground and I will forever be thankful for the tiny porthole windows that we have to look out of and see the beautiful landscapes wherever we may be flying into. It happened to be pretty clear when we came into Portland and got a beautiful birds eye view of Mt. Hood.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

This past weekend I flew a 4 day domestic trip with a crew who had been flying longer then I have been alive..! I had a 20 hour Houston layover and a 29 hour layover in Sioux Falls. I was pretty excited about the Houston part but not so much the Sioux Falls..

I try and be really optimistic about places that I go. Make the most of them right? Well I figured that I'd never been to South Dakota before I was going to make the most of the 29 hours I had there.

\I sign in for my trip and we have a pretty long day ahead of us before we get to Houston. So off we go. We flew from Minneapolis to Washington D.C and back and then we flew to Houston. Well on our way back from D.C. we had a medical event with one of our passengers just as we had started our decent. I made the decision and told the pilots to have EMT's meet our flight. i knew enough to know that this passenger needed help and probably wasn't going on her connecting flight. We got on the ground and got things taken care of and now we were off to Houston!

Houston was great.... Okay maybe not. It rained almost the entire time we were there. But they had smart TV's in the room so I could watch Netflix haha. I literally laid in bed and watch Netflix and Harry Potter my entire layover. I did do something productive and went to the gym! Yay me! But it's time to get back to work and that's what we did.

We got to Sioux Falls kinda late so I went to my room and talked to my mom and ate some pizza. I had decided that I was going to go out and explore the next morning because it was supposed to be unnaturally nice out. I hadn't been to the zoo in forever and that happened to be one of the top 10 things to do in Sioux Falls. I walked to Starbucks because lets face it, this Seattle girl needs her fix, and I was going to Uber from there. It was only like 2 miles but whatever. Well Uber AND Lyft haven't quite made it to Sioux Falls yet..... Okay so I'm walking and I did! Made it to the zoo and wandered around. Turns out the winter time isn't the best time to hit up the zoo because there wasn't a ton of animals. Whatever it was something for me to do and say that I've explored Sioux Falls. When I got back to my room I seriously felt like I made the most of my layover there. Now by no means am I dying to go back.. but it was better then I thought it was going to be.

The power of positivity!

A Little Bit of Learning

People told me when I started flying that I should start a journal or a blog to document all of the crazy stories I have or the amazing layovers I've had. I didn't, of course because someone told me to do something I automatically said' "well not doing that", and here I am wishing I would have started this when I started flying. But oh well, better to start after one year rather then 30.

Over the last year I have been some amazing places. Places that I never even knew existed, places that I've heard so much about, and places that I've always dreamed of exploring. I've also been some places that I probably don't necessarily need to go back to.

I've also encountered some very interesting people to put it nicely. Whether it be co-workers, passengers, or residents in various cities. I've also encountered people who will be a part of my life forever.

BUT! Probably the biggest thing that I've learned over the last year is to cherish the close strong relationships that you have. I have some of the best friends a girl could ask for. I mean I maybe only have like 5 true friends, but when I am home, they make it a priority to fit me in their schedule if I ask. I  may go a few months without seeing them or really having a meaningful conversation with them, but when I do its like no time has passed. To be truthfully honest I didn't realize how important that trait was, and the older I've gotten the more I realize that its more about the relationships and the quality of them rather then the quantity of them.

Now most of these friendships I've had for the last decade at least, but there are one or two that have developed over the last year. Its so funny to me how you can meet someone and instantly know that that person will be a part of your life forever and how special they are to you. One of my closest friends is from Flight Attendant training. So literally ONE YEAR AGO. I know this isn't a relationship blog but I've certainly learned a lot about them over the last year whether it be friendships or dating. I'm so thankful for this too because I feel like you waste so much time on people who are not willing to do for you what you would do for them. You learn to not waste time on relationships that you feel are dead ends even if he is super hot and you want it to go somewhere. You learn to end it and not feel guilty about being honest mostly because you don't have time to waste on something that is not going to benefit you. Relationships are 50/50 and at this exact point in my life I know how IMPORTANT that is.

Life lesson: Cherish the relationships you have and don't be afraid to embark on new ones and end old ones. But most importantly know that your time is valuable and you deserve to be honest with yourself. YOU DESERVE THE BEST!

"Smile Always, Laugh Often"