2019 was a great year. We might even call it our best year yet. We began 2019 with making centerpieces, choosing a first dance song, and will be celebrating the beginning of 2020 as husband and wife. We had the perfect wedding and so much fun celebrating with family and friends. We explored 6 states and 2 countries together for the first time in addition to repeat visits to some of our favorite places. While we are sad 2019 has come to an end, we are excited to see what 2020 will bring. We predict some traveling in our future.
January
We upped the cup to 2019 on River Street in Savannah, Georgia. We sipped tea in an old bookstore, ate dinner at the haunted Moon River Brewing Company (thankfully only with the company of alcoholic spirits), and listened to music in the City Market. We didn’t see any ghosts on our haunted pub crawl, but Savannah’s cobblestone streets, Spanish moss draped trees, and Southern comfort food made it a top destination to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
Both of us visited San Antonio, Texas in the past and we were excited to return together. Unlike our previous trips, we spent very little time at the Riverwalk and instead biked the Missions Trail, explored The Pearl, and checked out some local breweries.
February
Yes, on February 2nd we woke up at 2:30am, drove 90 minutes to Punxsutawney, PA, and stood outside in 10 degrees Fahrenheit weather to watch a groundhog get pulled out of a hole. Would we do it again? …maybe.
March
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, we brewed our first beer, Irish I Had a Beer, a roasted chocolate Irish Stout. It was a lot of work, but we received great reviews and plan to brew another small batch in the Spring of 2020. We enjoyed the experience but have no intentions of increasing production…we’ll continue our self appointed roles of professional testers and supporting local breweries.
Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida was everything we had hoped for, spurring bigger dreams of these muggles touring the making of Harry Potter at Warner Brother Studios in London one day.
April
Slowly we are making our way to all the Major League Baseball stadiums. In April, we visited friends and watched our first Indians game together at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio.
We celebrated Mitch’s birthday in Toronto, Canada. It was a weekend filled with breweries, graffiti, and old books. Hoping for something interesting, the Monkey’s Paw Biblomat had other ideas and presented us with the Wonderbook of Trains and Railroading. If anyone would like to borrow it, we won’t be reading it anytime soon.
May
We loved walking around the cobblestone streets of Boston Massachusetts. We explored the historic sites and pubs, museums, watched a Red Sox game at the oldest MLB stadium, Fenway Park, and Stephanie found her first Free Little Library. It was love at first sight. Before heading home we spent a day exploring the enchanting town of Salem, Massachusetts.
- Exploring Seaport to Fenway-Kenmore
- The Freedom Trail
- Salem, Massachusetts: Is It More Than Just a Tourist Trap?
June
6 hours from Pittsburgh, PA are miles of cornfields and the shores of Southern Delaware. We planned the trip to check out Dogfish Head Brewing, but quickly became regulars at Crooked Hammock Brewery. While walking along the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Stephanie was pooed on by a seagull. We heard it’s good luck.
July
We celebrated our upcoming wedding with family and friends with a marriage-achi in Cancun, Mexico. We filled the week with tacos, a boat ride to Isla Mujeres, a visit to Tulum, and climbed to the top of the pyramid shaped tomb in Coba.
August
We heard more than once we were crazy for taking a weekend trip to Manhattan, New York City, New York 2 weeks before our wedding. Visiting the Color Factory and returning to McSorely’s Old Ale House made it more than worth it. While sitting under an umbrella eating dinner, Mitch was pooed on by a passing bird for the first time. He still ducks for cover when a bird flies overhead. We heard it’s good luck…again.
On August 24th we vowed to spend the rest of our lives together, laughed, and celebrated late into the evening with our friends and families in Pennsylvania. It was an absolutely perfect day.
September
We did our part in keeping up the statistics for #1 honeymoon destination and spent 2 weeks snorkeling with Humpback Whales, swimming with Stingrays, relaxing in our overwater bungalows, unexpectedly spending the day in the middle of the rainforest, and exploring the islands of Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
- A Perfect Day at the Hilton Moorea Lagoon and Spa
- A Tale of Whales and Exploring the Island of Mo’orea
- Splurging on a 4+ Star Resort in Bora Bora, French Polynesia, is it Worth it?
- Recommendations Around the Island of Bora Bora
- Discovering Tahiti, French Polynesia
October
We achieved Brewsader status in 24 hours in Beer City, Grand Rapids, Michigan and still had time to visit the local markets.
November
Only 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, PA we spent a weekend checking out the breweries in Morgantown, West Virginia, visiting our 20th state together.
No trip home is complete without visiting the Finger Lakes in New York. Straying from our usual path, Mitch visited Keuka Lake for the first time.
December
As the holiday festivities come to an end, we’re off to Charleston, South Carolina! We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Cheers to 2019!
December 2019
The Traveling Gingerbread 
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