Home For Christmas

$14,000 spent

200 days traveled

50 friends made

30 cities explored

20 hostels slept in

16 flights flown

10 countries visited

5 workaways worked

1 perfect homecoming surprise

After months of planning this surprise I can officially announce that WE…ARE…HOME! The best Christmas present of all was seeing our family’s reactions to our surprise homecoming. I am sorry to have lied to you all, it has been tough to hold this big secret in for so long, but I am excited to finally share the big news!

In April of 2016 we bought our return plane tickets back to Portland. And since then we have lied to you all. We’ve always known when we were coming home. We always knew we wouldn’t be missing Christmas. But in true Jake Baker fashion (because I truly can’t take the credit for this magnificent plan), we couldn’t just come home without making it a big celebration. So we kept it a secret for nine months.

So let me give you the final update. We left Costa Rica on December 7^th and headed to New Orleans. Jake’s brother, Daniel, lives there and we spent two weeks exploring and falling in love with this amazing city. It took all of my strength not to talk about this amazing trip until now! I will surely be returning someday in the near future. On December 19^th we traveled to Tucson, Arizona where we spent a few days visiting Jake’s grandparents. The trip was filled with beautiful views of the mountains surrounding Tucson and lot of home videos of Jake’s childhood which were so fun to watch. We officially landed in Portland on December 23^rd where we met Daniel who was also part of this surprise package for Christmas. On Christmas Eve the surprises began, which you can watch on the video above. It was the perfect end to an unforgettable chapter of our lives.

Now that this trip has come to an end, I’d like to take the time to thank all of you. Your support of this trip, but especially of this blog, has been incredible. I have loved having an outlet to share our adventures with you all. In addition, your feedback has meant the world to me. Every view that this blog receives makes my day that much brighter and I have enjoyed every second of sharing my thoughts with all of you. I am sad to see this adventure come to an end for many reasons, but especially because that means this blog will be ending as well. However, I will keep it live so that everyone (including myself) can forever look back on all of the amazing times that Jake and I shared during this journey. I also hope that some of my posts will help those who are trying to plan their own adventure. In the upcoming days I will post photos of the adventures that you all have missed during my time under incognito in New Orleans and Tucson. However, this is the last writing piece that I will post. I hope this isn’t the end of my blogging career, but for now it’s time to spend time with loved ones and get accustomed to this cold weather once again. I love you all and thank you for everything!

-Lizz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flights

1. Dallas
2. DC
3. Iceland
4. Amsterdam
5. Croatia
6. Venice
7. Barcelona
8. Cologne
9. Cancun
10. Florida
11. CR
12. Housten
13. NOLA
14. LA
15. Tucson
16. PDX

Countries

1. USA
2. Netherlands
3. Luxembourg
4. Belgium
5. France
6. Croatia
7. Italy
8. Spain
9. Mexico
10. Costa Rica

Cities

1. DC
2. Amsterdam
3. Luxembourg City
4. Beckerich
5. Arlon
6. Paris
7. Split
8. Venice
9. Florence
10. Roma
11. Como
12. Milan
13. Rimini
14. Celra
15. Girona
16. Barcelona
17. Isla Mujeres
18. Alajuela
19. San Ramon
20. San Jose
21. M Antonio
22. Monteverde
23. Puerto Viejo
24. Cahuita
25. Liberia
26. Tamarindo
27. Samara
28. Arenal
29. NOLA
30. Tucson