While beach and sun are all well and good, I was eager to make the drive north to the cloud forests of the Monteverde region. Monteverde is located on the Continental Divide, where the Caribbean and Pacific slopes meet. It was about 2.5 hours from Jacó, so with a relatively early start, we were able to have a leisurely drive.

Our visit to Costa Rica had been long-awaited. My good friend Dave and I had actually gotten cheap flights to go back in early 2022, but we decided instead to take our pups out to Atlantic Canada (and as Giz’s last big adventure, I’m so glad we did). But I’d been itching to finally go, and as I usually try to take a trip around my birthday, Costa Rica was the obvious choice.

While my travel bucket list is lengthy and ever-growing, I have to admit that the United Arab Emirates hadn’t ever been on it. I suppose it just never crossed my mind to trek out to the Middle East and explore these desert metropolises. So when work decided to send me out to the UAE for two weeks, I was excited at the opportunity to explore a place I might not ever have come to.

It has become a bit of a tradition now for the family to meet (somewhere in Western Canada) for what we’ve fondly dubbed “Septembermas"—a Fall familial gathering in lieu of braving the holiday chaos to convene in December. This year, Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta was our chosen destination.

By some witchcraft, the notoriously rainy and foggy Faroe Islands were not playing true to form. We took advantage of the gloriously sunny skies by journeying to Eysturoy, the second largest island in the archipelago. It was a beautiful, scenic coastal drive, with a multitude of pull-outs to ogle the mountain views and inlets.

As my parents are avid bird photographers, no trip to the Faroe Islands would be complete without a visit to the famed island of Mykines. The westernmost islands in the Faroese Archipelago, it is known to be a significant nesting site for seabirds, such as puffins, fulmars and gannets. While I had spotted a lone puffin on our first day in the Faroe Islands, I was particularly excited to see my first puffin colony.