A Couple Making A Successful Travel Partnership (Ep. 5)

Sarah (00:00):
Hi, I'm Sarah Ky.

Shannon (00:02):
And I'm Shannon Ky.

Sarah (00:04):
And you are listening to Travel Fuels Life.

Drew (00:18):
Hello everybody, and welcome to Travel Fuels Life, the show we share stories, tips, and inspiration to help you live a travel lifestyle. I'm your host, drew Hanish, and I am in the city of Brotherly Love. That's right, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I am up here doing a couple of interviews. I actually came up to see some friends that I made at TBE this year at Corning New York, and they're going to show me around the town in a little while. But before we get to that, I wanted to have a chance to do some interviews. So next week I'll talk with Susan Dakota Farrier, and on this week's episode I have Sarah and Shannon Ky of Obligatory Traveler. And in this episode we're going to talk with them about couples travel. We're going to talk about miles and points with Shannon. We're going to talk about Sarah's Philadelphia Arts audio tour, and we'll also talk a little bit about the UN Cruise as they have gone to both Alaska and Panama on this unique cruising experience. So let's jump into our discussion this week. We are in a little breakfast nook at the Hampton Inn Convention Center. They gave us a little space to stretch out, and we're going to find out a little bit more about Obligatory Traveler. So let's get this conversation started by finding out where Sarah and Shannon fell in love with traveling.

Sarah (01:47):
I think it mainly started, we mainly fell in love with traveling. The first time we went to Panama, it was our first trip to another country, and we just loved it so much. And during that trip, I think we realized that traveling's really not that difficult. As soon as we came home from that trip, we wanted to plan the next trip because it was just so amazing.

Drew (02:11):
Very good. So when you went to Panama, how did you plan out that trip? Was that something that just happened? You were like, oh, Panama, that's the place I've always wanted to go. Let's go there. Or

Sarah (02:25):
We knew a few friends who had gone there and said how great it was, how it wasn't very touristy, how laid back it was, and everybody's very chill and relaxed, and you can kind of go and you can get culture and you can get beach and you can get mountains. So we thought that sounds like our kind of place.

Drew (02:42):
Yeah. So how long did you stay?

Sarah (02:44):
We were there two weeks.

Shannon (02:46):
Okay. Yeah, we did two weeks.

Drew (02:48):
And you said you rented a car while you were there?

Shannon (02:53):
Yeah, I rented a car, and that was an interesting experience because I go to the rental car counter and I don't really speak that great Spanish, and they didn't really speak that great English, but I guess by pointing at different things on papers and whatnot, we managed to get to the end game and we got the car and we were good to go. I guess that was the first challenge when we got into Panama.

Drew (03:22):
Did you think that was going to be, when you were going there, you were thinking, I'm going to have to deal with road signs, or were you thinking, oh, I'm going to have to deal with

Shannon (03:30):
My

(03:31):
Reservation? No, actually, part of the appeal to going to Panama is because it seemed like it was going to be an easy place to have your first experience abroad with, because at Panama, the US was there for a very long time. So you figured there a lot of people speak English. Actually, I think when we were there, they were using to the US dollars, their currency. So there was a lot of easy transition with going to Panama. No, I really wasn't expecting it to be all that difficult, but I also wanted to try to use Spanish while we were there. Right.

Sarah (04:09):
Yeah, that was the problem. I spent so much time learning Spanish. I was so excited when we went, oh, I'm going to speak Spanish to everybody. And as soon as people saw us, they just started speaking to us in English. So there was one restaurant where the waitress was really nice and spoke to us in Spanish, and we were really excited because I think she knew somehow she sent that they worked on their Spanish before they came, but everyone else spoke to us in English from the start,

Drew (04:40):
So That's so funny. Yeah. Well, you build up this image of how a trip is going to go in your mind before you go. And it's so funny that when you get home you go, wow, that was not the image I had of this at all. When I went to Quebec for the first time, I was using my high school French, and I was so nervous. I'm like, I'm going to have to speak French to all these people and I don't know it well enough. And then I realized that most everybody, as soon as I'd say Ur, they, they'd just go right into English. Knowing my French accent was not very good. Right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. So in terms of where you progressed after that, how long was it before you said, okay, let's go to another place, and where did you end up going on your next trip?

Sarah (05:28):
I think it mainly had to do with what we could afford next at this was when we were still early in our marriage, so we were just kind of kids just out of college, paying off student loans and doing all those sorts of things. So it was two years later that we went to Costa Rica.

Shannon (05:46):
Well, we did Panama in 2007, and I think it was 2010 that we did Costa Rica. Okay. So yeah, that was probably the next one. That was a substantial trip.

Drew (05:58):
And you said, Hey, it's right next door. So maybe it's just as easy to get around.

Shannon (06:03):
Well, it's funny because I think one of the key things that we wanted to do while we chose Costa Rica, partly it was close by, it's affordable. All those things ticked off boxes. But I figured, well, I'd like to see a coffee plantation. And I'm sure I know they have coffee plantations there, so we got to do some interesting things that we wanted to do.

Drew (06:29):
So as a couple, do you feel like the things that you want to do are on the same page or half the trip as you and half of the trip is?

Shannon (06:38):
It's some component of that. I mean, there's certain elements of a trip that Sarah's driven to do. There's certain elements of it that I'm driven to do, and then there's certain elements that we're both driven to do. So it kind of works all the way around. I feel

Sarah (06:52):
Bad for Shannon for some when we go to Taiwan or Hong Kong or Japan, and he's going to have to go to the Hello Kitty cafe. So that's very high on my bucket list.

Shannon (07:05):
Okay, that's fine. Not very

Sarah (07:07):
High on his,

Shannon (07:08):
But

Sarah (07:08):
That would be a good sport.

Shannon (07:10):
Yeah, I'll see it. I'll see the spectacle.

Drew (07:14):
Are you, Shannon? You can find something else to do, right?

Shannon (07:17):
No, it's fine. Go. I'm sure there's plenty to see. Yeah.

Drew (07:23):
If I had a wife, I'd be dragging around all the James Bond stuff. So you know, just kind of work it out.

Sarah (07:32):
I think no matter what we do, you learn something. Yeah. So even if it's not something you're completely into, it's still fun to learn about something different that you didn't know a lot about.

Drew (07:42):
Yeah,

Shannon (07:43):
I don't know. Of all the travels we've done, I don't know that there's anything that kind of falls under the category of, well, we shouldn't have done that. That was terrible. I don't think we had any experiences that were

Sarah (07:55):
No. Cause that even if something's not so great, we find a lot of humor in that, so Yeah,

Shannon (08:00):
That's true.

Sarah (08:01):
Usually makes for a fun story.

Drew (08:04):
Do you feel like when you're traveling it that you just kind of have to set expectations aside and just say, okay, we're going to do this? Whether it's,

Shannon (08:14):
Yeah. Well actually, one of the things that we look at when we choose a destination to go to, I guess I kind of call it the spontaneous planning. So we try to pick a place to go to that has a menu of things for us to do, but we don't necessarily have to commit one way or the other. We can go to a place and depending on what we're in the mood for that day, do that instead of something else. And it's not like we're necessarily totally committed to do one thing versus another.

Drew (08:48):
I think that's what some people miss when they hear me say that I plan out all the places I'm going to eat, all the places that I'm going to go see, and that they go, well, I mean, that just sounds very rigid, and how is that enjoyable? And I go, well, because really what I'm doing is I'm making a list so that I don't, if I wake up one morning and I want to do these three things out of five, then I'll just do those three things out of five, but I don't have to think about them while I'm on the trip, or I don't have to have a bad eating experience because now I'm just hunting for something for two hours, trying to find a place to eat, and it ends up not being that great. So that's kind of the way you guys roll with it. Do you plan your food and all that out as well, or do you just

Sarah (09:38):
A Yeah, I would say it's a little bit of both. For example, we went to New York City and I really like ice cream. So they have a place that makes these unicorn ice cream cones. They look like unicorns. And I knew I had to go there. There was a new question, we're going to get unicorn ice cream cone, but sometimes it's on the fly, thank goodness now for technology and TripAdvisor and all those sorts of sites, because sometimes we'll just be somewhere and be done. Kind of when we went to, also when we were in New York City and we were just someplace and you thought, all right, well, we don't want to go all the way across town just to get a meal. So what's in this general area that seems like it looks good and has a fairly good rating? So it's a little bit of both. Sometimes there's a place that I feel like I have to go to and sometimes it's just on the fly.

Drew (10:32):
I was going to say I've, I've been fascinated by the fact that I've talked to people who travel, who say they'll take recommendations from people at their hotel or any, somebody on the street says, oh, you need to go eat there. And I did that in Denver and they sent me to a steakhouse and said, oh, everybody goes to this steakhouse. Okay. And then I went and it was like, I don't know, they served me my steak on a metal tray and it looked like a waffle house kind of place. And I went, why? How did this place? And then I looked online and it was getting four stars, and I'm thinking, how is this place getting four stars? Yeah.

Sarah (11:15):
Now I know when we were in Alaska, when we were in Fairbanks, we had a driver that was there. We didn't run a car, so she drove us around to a few places and she recommended a Thai restaurant. The first one she said to go to, we couldn't go to because we didn't have a car, and it was far from where we were. So she said, all right, well if you can't go there, the second runner up is this one. And we went and it was really, really good. So I thought I have to start asking the drivers where we should eat at. Cause they seem to be in the know.

Drew (11:42):
Right. That's the fun part about traveling though. You definitely get to see a variety of things happen during your travels. In terms of how, where your strengths are in terms of, I like to say sometimes people are right brain more creative, sometimes people are more left brain. Where do you guys fit into that?

Sarah (12:06):
I would say that I'm definitely the creative one. I've been like that ever since I was a little kid. I was always in plays and music lessons and just everything I love anything that has to do with creativity. I love making things. So that's always really exciting. Hence the blog and the photography. So I do all the creative work. I do the blogging and writing, I do the video. And then I think we kind of share pictures. We both do a little bit of the pictures cause Shannon will take the pictures, although I usually do the sorting and the cropping and all that kind of stuff that has to go with doing pictures.

Drew (12:46):
So you're not the Taco Bell. Yeah. You haven't seen that commercial yet? No. I guess of the travel blogger, who's got it, her boyfriend is, they call it Instagram boyfriend. Yes. Yeah. That's not your lot in

Shannon (13:01):
Life. No. I mean, I can do some of the photography. I do do some of that. Mostly supplemental to whatever Sarah's doing.

Sarah (13:09):
Occasionally I will torment him when we went to the Brooklyn Bridge. And I really wanted a picture of me jumping on the Brooklyn Bridge because I've just seen everybody else with jumping pictures. So I'm jumping up and down on the Brooklyn Bridge and he's taking photos of me.

Shannon (13:23):
That's fine. Yeah, I'll do that.

Drew (13:26):
I was going to say that went to a lot better place than I thought. When you said Jump and Brooklyn Bridge, I was like, oh, okay.

Sarah (13:32):
Yeah, no, not that part yet.

Drew (13:33):
I haven't seen

Shannon (13:33):
This jumping on not all. Yes, yes. I

Drew (13:36):
Haven't seen this picture yet.

Shannon (13:39):
No. I do more of the logistics, getting the plane tickets and hunting out places to stay and how are we paying for this and managing the costs and all those sorts of things. So I take care of that stuff so that she can have more time to be on the more creative side.

Drew (14:00):
And so when you're, one of the things that I know, trying to figure out how to get more travel in and trying to maximize your money for all of this, that you do a lot of work with miles and points and all of that.

Shannon (14:16):
Yeah, I do my fair share of that. I mean, I figure if I'm going to be spending money on whatever we're spending money on, I might as well funnel it through a program and get something back for the effort. And it's worked out really well. It, it's really kept the cost of trips that probably would not have happened if we didn't have some way to supplement the cost. I mean, we got to go to South Africa because we used points to cut the cost of the airline, the airfare, which was substantial for a trip like that. And we did the same thing when we went to Alaska. We used credit card points to cut the cost on again, airfare and actually even some lodging. So yeah, it, it's really important.

Drew (15:08):
So yesterday it was funny because we went out to eat and both of us threw down our Chase Sapphire reserve card to confuse the waitress as much as we possibly could. Right. And that seems to be a staple. I mean, in terms of travel, I guess a lot of people use either the American Express Platinum is a good direction to go, or how do you juggle credit cards? I've heard theories as in just get every single credit card you can get your hands on, even if they have fees that they pay for themselves over time. Or do you focus on just a set group of cards? I

Shannon (15:49):
Find it hard to justify getting every card I can possibly get, because I only have so much spending power. And if you diffuse your spending across too many cards, you're, you're not going to be able to accumulate enough points in any one system to be able to do anything with it. So for me, it's worked out well to use Chase's Ultimate Rewards program. So that's kind of what we've gone with. And it's, like I said, it's worked out really well. I mean, we have three different cards that we use, and we use them in targeted ways because each one has different programs and different ways of maximizing the points on certain types of purchases. So we do that. And the nice thing is, is that all those cards, all those points, they're it, it's interconnected. So the reserve card gives you the biggest bang for your buck. They'll give you one and a half times the purchase power on your points, whereas some of the other ones only may give you one and a quarter or just one time. So when you have all these cards, if you can accumulate all the points and then transfer them over to the one that gives you the biggest bang for your buck, that's where you really make out

Drew (17:03):
And you're doing. The other thing I found interesting is that you can sort of stack other things on top. So I use hotels.com, and you said that you not only use hotels.com, but you go one step further.

Shannon (17:16):
So there are websites out there that, or merchants, if you will, that sell discounted gift cards. And it varies because it's a supply and demand type of situation. There's people that get gift cards and they're like, well, what am I going to do with this? I have no use for it. So you have these discount gift cards site, they're like, well, give it to us. We'll give you some money for it. Obviously it's going to be at a discounted rate. And then they resell them to others that want it. And you get discounts on the card. So like hotels.com, I'll, we actually just used this recently. I bought $500 worth of gift cards of hotels.com, and it was 10% off. So what's that? I saved 50 bucks. I mean, it's not a ton, but every little bit helps.

Drew (18:07):
Plus you're getting your free night every 10.

Shannon (18:11):
Yeah. Which we haven't used hotels.com enough yet to get our first free night, but we're really close. I think. We'll, okay. Probably have it next year.

Drew (18:18):
I'm a gold member some, I've got this email saying, you are now a gold member. I guess after you get past 30 in a year, you get gold membership. Wow. So, yeah. Wow. That's sounds fancy. Yeah. I still don't know exactly what I get out of it, except I have a little gold bar across when I go to hotels.com and log in now I feel special. But at least you feel like you're getting something out of, I mean, it is nice when you start planning a trip and you go, oh, I do have a free night. I can go ahead and use that somewhere. So

Shannon (18:54):
Yeah, it comes in handy. It definitely comes in handy.

Sarah (18:56):
Yeah. Yeah. We're members with, what is it? I H G?

Shannon (19:00):
Yeah. So the credit card, the Chase credit card that I have. When I make purchases on certain items, I'll get points for the Chase credit card. But because that card is also linked to an IHG rewards account, I'll also get points on that IHG Rewards account for the same purchase. So it's happening in two different spots.

Sarah (19:22):
I just liked that the last time we went to a hotel, they gave us chocolate because we were members.

Shannon (19:27):
Nice.

Sarah (19:28):
That was my perk,

Shannon (19:29):
The perks.

Drew (19:30):
Well, I was going to say, are you guys luxury travelers or do you try to travel as inexpensively as you can? Are you doing hostels, or where do you fit in that range?

Sarah (19:42):
I would say we're somewhere in between. We don't really do the high end luxury stuff. I feel like we're kind of old for hostels. Not that, I mean, there's people who are much older who do hostels. Right. I'm a really late sleeper, and he snores enough for one person. So I can't imagine being in a room full of snores, but Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're somewhere in between. It depends. It depends on points. We had a friend who had a timeshare who let us use it a few times. And the places we stayed at were beautiful and amazing, and probably places we wouldn't have paid for if we had been paying for them outright. So if we can stay somewhere super nice, we'll definitely do it, but we're not going to pay a ton of money to do it.

Drew (20:31):
Have you done Air Airbnbs and gone that route, or stuck? Stuck with hotels?

Sarah (20:37):
We did an Airbnb in Belize when we stayed there. So it was a woman, and she had a bunch of little apartments, and it was fantastic. She was a artist, and she was an expat from Italy, and her name was Luciana, which is the perfect name for that. And she was amazing. And she lived there with her mom, who was mama, who only spoke Italian. And she would talk to you not seeming to care whether or not you understood

Speaker 4 (21:05):
What she was saying. She would just start talking

Drew (21:07):
To you. She's so passionate, you just want to listen.

Sarah (21:10):
And then there was one point where she said she was talking about someone else and said something to Luciana, and Luciana just said, mama. And all I kept thinking was, I wish I spoke Italian. So I knew what she

Speaker 4 (21:22):
Had said.

Sarah (21:23):
Cause it sounded very scandalous. But that was an Airbnb, and that was great. We had the best time while we were there. It just so happened that she had a book, an art festival at the place that she owned. So that was a really neat experience. I love books. Yeah.

Drew (21:39):
Yeah. So you went to South Africa and I saw your pictures and you were getting pictures with penguins. How did that work out?

Sarah (21:49):
Oh, that was amazing. Well, it all started because I was watching House Hunters International one day, and there was an episode where they were buying a house in Cape Town, South Africa, and they do B-roll for the show. So they were shooting some B roll, and it was just the two ladies in the show petting a penguin. And I thought, oh my gosh. I go, my fingers couldn't Google fast enough to figure out how we could do that, because we were already planning to go. So that the two Oceans Aquarium, and they have rescue penguins that they've rescued from the ships would get the penguins and bring them aboard as pets. But then they would throw them overboard before they got into port because they would get fined otherwise. And then the penguins would get sick and washed up on the beach. So now they just have this little group of rescue penguins, and you can give them money, and the money that you give them goes towards penguin rescue, and then you can hang out in their little penguin area. And there was one very, very friendly penguin who jumped up on our laps, and he actually tried to escape with us when we left. He wanted to come home with us. So he was ama, his name was Hopper. He was amazing. So, so we got to just hang out and pet him and scratch his belly and do all that. I love animals, so anything that's animal related, I'm all about it.

Drew (23:11):
Well, if anybody hasn't seen your site yet, or seeing your avatar that you use for your promotion on Twitter and all the rest, it is a sloth. Yes. Yes. And so where did this fascination with a sloth with an ice cream cone come from? Yeah.

Sarah (23:28):
Well, sloths are my absolute favorite number one animal of all animals. I'm always sad that you really can't own them. Cause how great would it be to have a sloth? But I think it really just came from loving that they are very chill. Yeah. Always seem happy and are just content with whatever they're doing. And I guess that's kind of what I strive to be. So I strive to be a

Drew (23:53):
Slaw. And you're a fan of ice cream, so you Yes. Okay. So you, do you purposely have to plan in an ice cream stop on every trip?

Sarah (24:05):
Yes. Okay. That generally tends to be, there might be one or two that we've done where usually I try to hit at least three ice cream places per trip, if not more. Yeah. So there's been times, I think, where we've been places that just didn't have three ice cream places, but usually we try to get at least three in so that I can write about the ice cream and rate it.

Drew (24:26):
And I'm going to give you a tough question then maybe, or maybe not, because maybe one just stands out. Where is the best ice cream you've had?

Sarah (24:34):
I, I'll do two. So one would be more local in the United States, and that would be Springers in Stone Harbor, New Jersey is my favorite. And I would say abroad so far, probably the creamery in Cape Town, South Africa.

Shannon (24:49):
Yeah. That's the one that first came to my mind. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yep.

Sarah (24:52):
That's the one. Yeah. Creamery. Was

Shannon (24:54):
That one really good? Stood out?

Sarah (24:56):
It's the best peanut butter ice cream I've ever had.

Drew (24:59):
So what makes a good ice cream for you?

Sarah (25:02):
I like really creamy ice cream, so I'm not as big on the really icy. Yeah. Ice cream. Yeah. I like it when it's really creamy, and I think a good balance of flavor, because sometimes you just get the milk flavor and you don't get whatever flavor the ice cream actually is. But sometimes, occasionally you can get one that's just way over the top with the flavor. So you don't really get any ice cream taste. It's just whatever flavor that ice cream is.

Drew (25:30):
So do you consider soft serve slumming it?

Shannon (25:34):
No. No, no, no. Soft serve is soft serve. It's not ice cream. Yeah.

Drew (25:39):
Okay.

Sarah (25:39):
Okay. We'll get it. It's not, not my go-to. Right. But if it fits within the context, when we got the unicorn ice cream, that's soft serve. So that's what you're getting.

Drew (25:49):
So are you like me with coffee where it can be 120 degrees outside and I still have to have my coffee. You if it's freezing cold outside, you're in Alaska, you still having the ice cream? Yes.

Sarah (26:02):
Okay.

Shannon (26:03):
Yeah,

Sarah (26:03):
You are. Oh, for

Drew (26:04):
Sure. Yeah. You are committed. Yeah.

Sarah (26:05):
I mean, once you're, usually, if you're in an ice cream place, once you're inside, you don't know as much. Anyway. So yeah.

Drew (26:12):
You actually went on, when you went to Panama, you went on an UNC cruise?

Sarah (26:18):
Or was that the second time? We went to Panama in Costa Rica. We went with the UNC Cruise Adventures.

Drew (26:24):
Okay. And then you went to Alaska also? Yes. On an UNC cruise. Yes. Okay. So explain to people who don't understand what an UNC cruise is. What's the difference between doing that and jumping on carnival or Princess and doing a cruise that way?

Sarah (26:38):
On Cruise is a small ship cruise company, so they only have a certain limitation of guests that are on there. I think when we did Alaska, it was about 60.

Shannon (26:52):
No, that wouldn't, well, not much more. I think it had a capacity for 70.

Sarah (26:57):
So there's not a ton of people. They were very committed to adventure, cruising and nature and learning about stuff. So when we did Alaska, we went bush whacking. That was amazing. One of my most fun activities of anything I think we've done. We did a lot, lot of Really? Yeah, we did a lot of kayaking and just hanging out in nature. And because the ship is small, they can go places that big ships can't go to. Oh. So we were in these secluded bays anchored with just us. We were the only people around. It was amazing.

Drew (27:34):
So the activities are all pretty much, everybody does the same activities, or you get to make a choice of the activities you do. How does that

Sarah (27:44):
They have a choice. Usually every night they have a cocktail hour, and then they go over what the activity choices for the next day are, and then you sign up for it. And then you get to be in the little groups that do Okay. That activities. So for example, in Alaska, they had snorkeling one day, but we weren't so into the snorkeling in Alaska thing. Yeah. So I think that was the day we went bush whacking with the Bush whack group instead. Okay. Yeah. And usually there's a morning activity, and then there's an afternoon activity.

Drew (28:15):
So explain to me how Bush wacking can be pleasurable, because I'm thinking about it, and then it just seems a lot of muscle work.

Sarah (28:23):
It was being a little kid, I just loved, it was being a little kid. Again, when I was little, we had woods behind our house, and we would just spend time roaming about and running through the woods, and it just felt the same way because there was no path. So you're just climbing over logs or climbing under a thing?

Shannon (28:40):
Well, there are trails back there, but they're not made by humans. They're generally, you're following game trails. So this is where the bears are traveling when they go wherever they're going. So yeah, it's a lot of fun. So

Drew (28:56):
What parts of Alaska did you go to on the cruise

Sarah (29:01):
We in, we started out in Juno. We went to Glacier Bay, which that was my only criteria for the cruise. Yeah. I just wanted to do one that went to Glacier Bay. I really didn't care what else. We did the rest of

Drew (29:13):
The cruise.

Sarah (29:14):
So we did Glacier Bay, we were around the Goon Islands. We spent one night in Gut Bay, which was one of my favorite parts of the cruise,

Shannon (29:26):
Which is just as little Inlet Bay. It's very tiny. I mean, we're throwing a bunch of names out here that you're probably going to have to look up on the map. Right. Yeah. But I think it was off of Chicka Golf Island, which probably doesn't help anybody. But we were in that south, I think I call it the southeast region of Alaska.

Drew (29:49):
So you got to hear the how when the icebergs are Calvin, you were I out there? Yes. How? I mean, I was on, it was Princess or Carnival. I don't remember which one. But we did the seven day from Vancouver up to Anchorage. And I mean, we probably went into Glacier Bay. We were probably there for maybe two hours. And you sat on the front of the ship and you just watched, and it was at such a distance. Did you feel like you were pretty close to the action, or,

Sarah (30:26):
I'm not sure. I think there's actually a regulation from Glacier Bay. Cause our crew had a park ranger on the cruise all day from Glacier Bay who was there to answer questions. She did a couple talks during the day as we were moving from one place to the other. So I think you're regulated how close you can be. I thought the funniest thing was, as a travel blogger, you want to get that perfect shot of something or video of something. So I had my video camera and I thought, I'm going to get a video of the calving cause it'll be awesome. And we would wait and wait and wait, and nothing would happen. So I turn off the video camera, and as soon as I turned it off, it would happen. So I never really got to catch it because every single time it happened, when the video camera was off,

Drew (31:13):
You had the pleasure of having a video camera. All I had was a regular camera mean it loses something in the translation when you just see a single picture of what looks like maybe something is

Sarah (31:25):
Falling. Yeah, maybe something's happening. Yeah. Yeah. I think we were slight at a distance enough that yeah, it wasn't

Drew (31:30):
What was that feeling when you first heard the noise of it? Because it really is kind of like thunder.

Sarah (31:36):
Yeah. It's kind of like a build, almost a building falling down or something. Oh, it was amazing. Yeah, it was real. Especially because it echoes throughout where you're at too.

Drew (31:46):
Yeah. So if something stood out to you that you didn't expect from that trip, was there anything that you were just like, that you brought back with you and say, every time somebody asks you about that trip, you're like, oh man, this one particular thing?

Sarah (32:04):
I would say probably part, well, part of it was that we actually did get to see Denali when we went. So we were very fortunate. The weather was great, but probably maybe my most memorable was kayaking in Gut Bay, only because it was a surprise. It wasn't on the itinerary. And they got permission that day to go there, and they said, do you guys want to go? It's been a while since we've been here and everybody really wants to see it. So of course, everybody on the cruise said yes. And then they surprised us further by saying, okay, good. So we're going to go there. What we're going to do is we're going to drop anchor, and then after dinner, if you guys want to go kayaking and just take the kayaks around. Go ahead. Kayaks are available for everybody. So we got to hop in the kayak, and it was just so quiet and so peaceful. I don't think I've ever experienced anything that was so just quiet and still and peaceful as you almost felt bad putting the paddles in the water and making noise because you're kind of disrupting the silence that was there.

Drew (33:09):
Yeah. When I went into, I don't know if you experienced this or not. When I went to Juno, there were flocks of eagles. And I had never mean, I've only ever seen one eagle on its own. But all we saw when we got in there were just eagles everywhere. And ravens and don't, I'm not used to seeing ravens either, because they're much more of a West coast bird than they are. So it's really amazing. So when you went to Alaska, did you just do the UN cruise or did you also tack some time on for yourselves?

Sarah (33:44):
We did the UN cruise. The UN cruise ended in Sitka. So we spent an extra day in Sitka because now we have our national passport book, and we like quests. So now we have have a Quest to get the stamps for the national park, and Sitka is a national park. So we stayed there for a day. We did Fairbanks for a day. But that was mainly just a hopping off point because we took the train to Denali, did Denali, took the train from Denali to Anchorage, and then spent a few days in Anchorage. A friend who I went to high school with lives in Anchorage. So I wanted to meet up with her and spend some time.

Drew (34:24):
When I went to Denali, they said, getting back to your thing about seeing the mountain, and the reason you can't see it is because most of the time it's just covered in clouds. But I was told when we went in that most of the time, you're either going to see a wolf or you'll see Denali, one or the other will happen. But that's all you're going to get. You won't get both. So while we were riding the bus out, we saw a wolf and I went, oh no. That was cool seeing the wolf, but now I know I'm not going to get to see Denali. Well,

Shannon (34:55):
That still holds because we didn't see any wolves. Yeah, you didn't see any wolves.

Sarah (34:58):
Okay. What was funny about Denali though, was our driver that day for the bus in Denali was, his name was Mike, and he talked Batman, and I kid you not, he's, when he talked, he sounded like Batman. And he kept stopping every so often and just telling us, take more pictures. Take more pictures. You're not going to see it like this ever again. You guys don't know how lucky you are. Keep taking pictures of it. So we probably have,

Shannon (35:24):
Yeah, we have tons. Look,

Sarah (35:25):
200 pictures of Denali. Did

Drew (35:27):
You have that terrifying part of that? I don't know how far in we were in on that ride, but you're on a dirt road in a bus hanging on the edge of a cliff, and then another bus wants to come around. Yes. That same corner, you went through that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I just remember looking out the window going, I don't see the ground.

Shannon (35:47):
Yeah, pretty high up. Right. And it's a skinny road.

Drew (35:52):
Yeah.

Shannon (35:53):
That's almost going along a vertical cliff.

Drew (35:56):
Yeah. With no guardrail, just, I don't know if a guardrail would really help your bus anyway. But yeah,

Sarah (36:03):
It was a good piece of advice. The bed and breakfast we were staying at, were staying at the Denali Doom, and the person who does the bed and breakfast told us, I forget which side now. He said, if you want the best views, you sit on this side of the bus. If you're afraid of heights, you sit on the other side of the bus.

Drew (36:20):
Nice. Yeah. That's why I was on a horse one time going up through the Smoky Mountains, and nobody told me that the horses to walk as close to the edge as possible. And this whole ride going, I'm not comfortable being on a horse in the first place, but this horse seems to really being on the edge of this, on this cliff. So

Sarah (36:43):
Yeah, that sounds terrifying. Yeah. There's not a wall between you

Drew (36:45):
Even. No, it's just like And on, honestly, I'm driving some back roads in Europe when the roads get really, then I'm hugging the opposite. Opposite. The inside opposite side. Yeah. Yeah. Because I'm like, there's a certain comfort level and I'm not at it right now. Sorry. So what are you doing now in terms of what you're doing with all of this traveling that you're doing? Is you, you're doing a blog? Yes. Okay. All right. And I see you on chats, and you're doing that well.

Sarah (37:22):
Yeah. I love that part. But I mainly love that part because I just love talking to other travelers. When you don't have a lot of travel, people surrounding you in your regular everyday life, you sort of crave, you need someone to understand you and how your mind works every day and how you're always just focused on the next trip and what you're doing. I just love seeing other people's travels too. I'm always just as excited about other people and what they're doing as they am on what I'm doing.

Drew (37:54):
So you guys are not, just to sort of clarify, you're not these vagabonds that are detached from home and you are out there just making money off of your travel life. You actually have your nine to five jobs. Yes. Here in the Philadelphia area. Okay. And so how does that work out in terms of being able to take the longer trips when you want to go?

Sarah (38:19):
Well, I've been at my job forever now, so I get a pretty good amount of time off just because I've been there for a long time and I, or accumulate time as it goes on.

Shannon (38:32):
And I'm just fortunate to work for an employer that is very flexible and they have the right mindset. They're concerned with me getting the work done. They don't really care how and the timetable. So it gives me the flexibility to slide my schedule around.

Drew (38:52):
So do you work on the road at all, or do you just set off time as vacation time?

Shannon (38:58):
I set off time for vacation time, but if we want to do extended weekend trips, I can bunch hours and other days. So I can have off a Friday and a Monday and get an extended weekend, and it's not a big deal. And I also negotiated a decent amount of vacation time when I came to the place I was at too. So everything worked out to make it happen. So I guess, yeah, fortunate part

Drew (39:23):
Of it is asking, right? Yes. I think a lot of people are nervous about actually asking the boss if they could shift their lifestyle and that the company wouldn't get frustrated by that, or that they might put their job in jeopardy by requesting something like that.

Shannon (39:41):
I mean, they have certain goals that they want to meet, and they hired me to help meet those goals. So there's a balance. So as long as we're both on the same page, all good? Yep.

Drew (39:54):
Good. All right. So also, and it's funny because I feel talk sometimes there's a video camera and people can see that I've shifted over and looked at another person. But Sarah, in terms of you've, you've actually done a program for your local area of Philadelphia doing a little guided tour. So I hear,

Sarah (40:19):
Yeah. I did an audio tour with a company called Voice Map. It's a app that you can download on your phone, and then they have GPS triggered audio tours, so you can go on there and look at audio tours from all around the world. Before we went to Cape Town, I actually downloaded a bunch and listened to them before we went. So I knew all the interesting things I might want to see when we go there. But I ended up doing one for Philadelphia. So it's called Art and Controversy in Philadelphia. They're more of a storytelling app, so they want you to tell the story of something. So I go from, I start at Logan Square, and then I go around the art district area and tell different stories about art controversies that have happened in Philadelphia. And there's a lot more than you think there would be, right?

Shannon (41:09):
Yeah.

Drew (41:10):
So as we were talking last night about the Barnes Foundation,

Sarah (41:14):
Yes. That's my favorite one.

Drew (41:16):
So just a little insight, it's kind of a teaser on that. That

Sarah (41:20):
Was a man who was quite the character, but had a big love for art and had his own private collection of some of the best pieces of art in the world. And he kept them in his mansion. And if you were a plumber and you wanted to come and see his collection, you could write a letter to him and he would allow you to come. But he was very against the sort of hoity-toity art community of Philadelphia. So anybody that was like that, who wanted to come see his collection, he would deny them. They were never allowed to see these amazing pieces of art, and he wanted to keep it that way. He wrote it in his will and everything. And then he unfortunately passed away in a car crash, and slowly over time, politics took over because he had a board of directors and certain people positioned themselves on the board of directors in a way that they sort of said, oh, the building that it's in the mansion, it's in disrepair. And wouldn't it be great if we built a brand new fancy museum and put his collection and everybody could come and see it now. And it was everything that was originally in his will, explicitly against all of his wishes. So it's a museum. It's really nice. I've heard, but we haven't been there.

Drew (42:39):
So how many different places do you hit in that area?

Sarah (42:44):
Oh, I'm trying to think. I'm not sure. There's quite a few. It's about, I would say it's about a half hour to 40 minute tour as you walk along. So I also, I go into the rocky statue and all, there's a lot of controversy behind that, and there's still people who hate that. It's in front of the art museum, and some people who are still really angry that it's not at the top of the steps.

Drew (43:08):
I was going to say, cause it was, so did it start out at the top of the steps and then move to the side? Or did it start out somewhere else, then move to the top of the steps then somewhere else?

Sarah (43:16):
It started at the top of the steps, because originally it was given as a gift to the city. And some people thought, hell amazing. But the art museum thought, no, it's not art. It's a prop from a film, so it doesn't count as art.

Drew (43:30):
How is a sculpture not,

Sarah (43:32):
They didn't count it as art at all. So there was a lot of petitioning to have it moved. And they did. They moved it to the stadium area for a really long time, and people hated it and demanded that it be back at the Okay.

Drew (43:50):
Art museum, because they could have said yes. But he was a fictional Yeah. Athlete. He wasn't a real athlete. Yeah. So why is he in front of a athletic facility? Yeah,

Sarah (43:59):
Yeah, exactly. So everyone was upset. So I forget when they did one of the sequel movies, they had moved it to the art museum at that point and made a compromise. So it's not at the top of the steps anymore. It's on the ground and off to the side. But they built a nice little area for Rocky.

Drew (44:21):
Now I have to say, I actually went over there today, and I didn't get a picture taken because I was by myself. I just wanted to actually take a picture of it because I was in Philadelphia. I had an interesting experience at the Rocky statue because I walked up as a solo, and this guy came up to me and he says, I'm trying to get back to New Orleans, and I need to make some money. So I'll take a picture of you if you'll give me, well, I was in the midst of my living a James Bond lifestyle thing. So I had a money clip with my money in it, and he asked for five, he said, for five bucks, I'll take your picture. So I walk over there and I'm handing him my cell phone, which has everything I own, everything. How I'm going to get home is all.

(45:11):
And I'm handing it to this stranger who says he's just trying to get back to New Orleans, and he's going to take this picture of me. And I wander over and he snaps the picture. And then it was great. He took four or five pictures and I got to have some choice of what I was getting. So I didn't feel so bad about that. But then I reached in my pocket to pull out the money, and of course, I had a 20 sitting on top and he goes, oh, oh, I'll just take that. That's fine. And I said, he was holding my camera. I'm not giving this back to you. Yeah. I said, okay, this is really wasn't what I wanted to go through. But I said, look, we negotiated five. That's what you're getting. Yeah. Wow. But today, I was over there playing with a little filter on the, they now have the portrait mode. So I was trying to get a picture of him sharp with it. You kind of blurred off in the distance with

Sarah (46:06):
The museum, inground Museum in the backpack. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like, I've tried that too.

Drew (46:10):
Yeah. Yeah. I'm telling this story here with

Sarah (46:12):
Probably one of my best days sometimes when I don't have anything to do. I just like to sit at the top of the steps and watch people run up. Cause it's great. People sing, they hum. They'll have the music playing off of their phones while they run up. The one girl the one day cracks me up because she's just going so slow. And her boyfriend says, you have to run. You have to run. And she's yelling, I am running. But the best was an older guy who ran up and he was dressed head to toe, like Rocky, just in the complete exact outfit. And it gets to the top of the steps and he's doing punches, and the more people are surrounding him and excited and taking photos, the more he's showing off. It was. I like, he's having the day of his life.

Drew (46:56):
I have to admit, in March when I came here, I had my camera out and I was videoing as I was running up just showing the stairs. Yeah. Yeah. Here now in Rocky shoes, except I'm a little slower. Yeah.

Sarah (47:10):
Yeah.

Drew (47:11):
I'm not wearing sweatpants. Yeah, right. Little different. Yeah. So in terms of I, I went to the Eastern Penitentiary yesterday, and being able to listen to stories while you're doing a journey is really interesting. And would you do more of that kind of thing you think?

Sarah (47:34):
I would love to. It was really fun. It was a really neat learning experience. I got to learn things about Philadelphia. I never knew, and I've lived here all my life. So that was really exciting just as a learning experience. And it was a good writing experience because writing a little snippet that you then later have to go back and record was definitely challenging. So it was a new writing skill that I had. So yeah, I would love to do more audio tours. It would be really fun.

Drew (48:00):
So have you done the audio tour listening to your own commentary?

Sarah (48:04):
Yeah. Yeah. I had to because you had to walk it several times just to make sure that the GPS part triggers at the right spots and that you gave the right walking directions, because it was a really odd experience to have sections where you just say, now you cross the street, now you turn. Right,

Drew (48:25):
Right.

Sarah (48:25):
So they were the less glamorous section that you had to write and record. But yeah, so I had to take it maybe five times just on my own, just to, until everything was perfect.

Drew (48:39):
So if somebody wanted to do listen to that, how do they download it? How is it a,

Sarah (48:46):
Yeah, you just download the Voice Map app onto your phone and then look up Philadelphia. I think they contacted me because they didn't have a lot of tours of Philadelphia, and they were really looking to expand, so they actually contacted me and asked if I would want to do one. So yeah, if you go on there and just look up Philadelphia, you can find my tour. And

Drew (49:09):
Is the free app?

Sarah (49:10):
No. Okay. Yeah, there is a cost

Drew (49:13):
Per tour tour. Is it like a monthly or it's Oh, it's per tour.

Sarah (49:15):
It's per tour. Okay. So now there are some that are free. I highly recommend, even if you never go there, they have a free one of Ian McKellen doing a tour of the theater district in London. So Good. He may make fun of Patrick Stewart during the tour. Oh, which is amazing. Yeah. So yeah, one's a great one. And that one's free. It can kind of give you an idea of what voice map is like, so that if you want to go on places and do more tours,

Drew (49:44):
I'm glad that a lot more of that's going on. I went to Gettysburg and v Vicksburg, the National Parks are actually doing these audio CDs, which I don't know how in environmentally friendly it is to have solo cars going around, stopping and waiting at these positions to listen to stories. But it would be hard to walk Gettysburg. Oh, yeah. So it makes sense, but it just adds so much more to have the stories going on while you're taking a trip. So yeah.

Sarah (50:12):
That's great. Yeah, we always like that. People sometimes complain about taking a tour, like, oh, I don't want to go somewhere and take, we went to Chich, but I feel like we learned so much from the tour guide that you might not have known if you just walked it on your own and just kind of looked at buildings and thought, oh, these buildings are cool. Look how cool that is. But we got to hear all the stories about people who lived there or how they played the games that went on there and different stuff. So I like doing tours, whether audio tours or an actual person just to learn things. Right. Yeah.

Drew (50:48):
So where are you going next on your adventures around the world?

Sarah (50:53):
We are going to elbow K in The Bahamas. Okay. It's a tiny little island that's there, but the past two years we've done really epic trips. It's been amazing, but it's also been a little tiring it. Every trip has been, go to the next thing, let's see this thing, and let's hike in Kayak. And so now we just want a trip where we sit maybe on a beach and read some books and have a drink and just keep it low

Shannon (51:21):
Key. I had said that the biggest activity is going to be picking out which cocktail I'm going to have off the list. Yeah.

Drew (51:30):
I hope I can do that someday. I just don't know what that's going to be. I just, it's hard to downshift, so it'll be interesting to hear if it's easy for you to relax during that week, or if you'll be like, maybe we should be going somewhere. Yeah. Maybe we should be going somewhere.

Sarah (51:47):
It's only four days. Yeah.

Drew (51:49):
Yeah. But you're on an island, so it's not like you really can go somewhere

Sarah (51:53):
And it's a tiny

Drew (51:54):
Yeah.

Shannon (51:54):
Maybe you could walk it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Drew (51:57):
Nice. So if people want to get in touch with you, see the stuff that you're doing and what's coming up, what's the best way for somebody to tap into what Sarah and Shannon are doing?

Sarah (52:09):
My website is obligatory traveler.com, and I'm on all the social medias. I have a YouTube channel, but that was mainly to supplement what I do on the blog. Sometimes there's things you can write about, but it's easier just to show a video it. Right. So I'm on YouTube, obliga Traveler on Twitter, and then Sarah h Mady on Insta Instagram.

Drew (52:38):
Okay. Yep. So you haven't gone into that whole, let me get every single social network exactly the same.

Sarah (52:45):
No. Well, I had my Instagram before I started, if you want to say the Obligatory Traveler brand. So I had it when I still had my old travel blog, and I just ended up keeping it.

Drew (53:00):
I ended up changing mine, so I just changed the nickname on it. And

Sarah (53:04):
Yeah, that's what I did too.

Drew (53:05):
And that works. And it was a little hair raising actually, at first, because in coming up with my name, I changed it like three times. And so as I was changing it each time I was going, oh, I hope I'm not hitting some kind of limit here where I won't be able to do it. But yeah,

Sarah (53:23):
On Instagram, you can look it up either way. So either by my actual name or by Obligatory Traveler.

Drew (53:28):
Okay. And where did that name come from?

Sarah (53:32):
That's the story. Okay. So when I started, started, my original blog I started was in a writer's group, south Jersey Writers. It's an amazing writer group. And at the time, there was a time when they encourage everybody to have a blog because it helps you to keep consistent writing practice. So it started out as just a niche list blog where I'd write about anything. And as sort of a joke, I called it the Obligatory blog because everybody has their blog and it's my obligatory blog.

(54:04):
And then as they went on, I learned that people seemed to enjoy when I wrote about traveling or restaurants or just doing a fun activity in Philadelphia. Those were the blogs everybody liked to read. And then as time went on, I realized, wait, a lot of people are reading this that aren't just my friends and family. So when I made the decision to switch over to doing a more professional website and actually having a brand, and everybody already knew me for obligatory blog, so I tried to figure out a way to push it over into a brand name. So I went with Obligatory Traveler. Okay.

Drew (54:44):
Yeah. Very nice. Well, it works.

Sarah (54:46):
Yeah, it does. Yeah.

Drew (54:47):
All right. Excellent. Well, I'll post on the show notes page and it's, it'll be@travelfuelslife.com. The lights are coming out. If everybody's heard racket, it's because we're actually in a Hampton Inn in the breakfast area, and it's middle of the afternoon, but there's a little rustling going out. The bar is about to open, so we'll have to go grab some cocktails. Yeah, right. We did this all without the enhancement of alcohol, so there you go.

Sarah (55:17):
I did have a donut at Baylor's before we came just to sugar up a little.

Drew (55:21):
We went hunting cheese steaks, but didn't, didn't have too much luck on that. Oh, no. Well, everything was Redding terminal is just insane. Yeah, it was chaotic. Yeah. Oh, especially with the Army Navy thing going on this weekend. So, yeah. Pretty crazy. Well, fantastic. Well, I thank you guys for joining in and giving us a little bit of background and giving us a feel for how some couples travel. And I'm sure everybody has a different experience. We're all different personalities. But it's very interesting to see the right brain, left brain and how that can kind of be a benefit where I have to do all that stuff myself. And it can be a challenge. I can't do both. Yeah, great.

Sarah (56:05):
Yeah, it's nice having someone else do the logistics.

Drew (56:07):
Yeah, absolutely. It's also nice having someone else do the writing. Yeah. Well, and you don't have to be like me where I take pictures everywhere because I feel like I have to share them out because I don't have anybody with me to reminisce about my trips. So it's kind of like sometimes you're on the road going, ah, it'd be nice if I had somebody that was going Wow with me at the same time. I'm going, wow. So yeah, completely different way of traveling. Well, thank you very much and good luck with everything down the road and enjoy The Bahamas. I hope you get some relaxation in there. Oh,

Sarah (56:44):
Thank you. Thanks for having us on. Yeah, it was great.

Drew (56:46):
Thanks. Well, thanks everybody for listening this week, and if you enjoyed the show, make sure to go out to your app and rate and subscribe. And next week we're going to be talking with Susan Dakota Farrier and she's going to be telling us all about group travel and Gen Xers and we'll talk a little generational travel. And I'll also have an episode coming up in a couple of weeks about your New Year's resolutions and financing those travel dreams in 2019. So until next time, I'm Drew Hanish of Travel Fuels Life. Have a great week and be safe on those holiday travels.