2012

This year was mostly spent saving money for an engagement ring and a wedding but there was one major and slightly unexpected trip: the United Kingdom in December. 

Major, because it was Halie's first international trip. She quickly caught the same travel bug that I was dealing with. 

Unexpected, because we had been planning on having a wedding in the UK but didn't realize until the last minute that we would need to "prove residency" there by staying in one address for 10 days. So a very cheap Easy Hotel in London was our residency to be proven. 

This trip taught me the benefit of staying longer in a place. It's hard to justify 10 days in a location, everybody wants to keep going. But when we were "forced" to do so, it really showed us how much you can understand about a place by slowing down, roaming around aimlessly, and not worrying about time or checklists. 

On this trip, we also explored Richmond (outside London), Bristol (near our wedding venue), and Thornbury (where our wedding venue was located).