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What Do You Sea

  • home
  • About
    • Meet Aaren
      • My Travel Bucket List
    • About What Do You Sea
    • FAQ’s
  • Blog
  • DESTINATIONS
    • Asia
      • Japan
      • Indonesia
      • The Philippines
    • Europe
      • United Kingdom
        • Scotland
      • Iceland
    • North America
      • USA
  • Travel Tips
    • Solo Female Travel
    • Travel Packing
    • Travel Photography
  • RESOURCES
  • Work With Me
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mornings over canyonlands national park one of my mornings over canyonlands national park one of my favorite things about being away from home is the fact that i get to hit the brakes on my life. life back home is constant gas (fast and the furious: tokyo drift style). i go to work at four in the morning, leave work, eat lunch, work on my blog, spend time with loved ones and try and squeeze in japanese, guitar, and a halfway decent workout amongst and between all that. but after being on the constant move, and going home to see my dad and shake hands with those slower mornings over coffee like we used to do, i realized that i have, in a way, allowed my life to slip past while i struggle to keep up with everything that i am passionate about. in a not good way. and all that to say that i am started to become a slower human and im becoming more okay with not getting absolutely everything squeezed into a span of twenty-four hours. i do believe that i get my “workaholic”/“worker bee” tendencies from my dad since we both struggle with relaxing. ive always felt like i was wasting time if I wasn’t being productive with my time and I couldn’t actually enjoy relaxing because I was too busy beating myself up over not getting anything done. and this year has led me to be flat out tired in every way. which has pushed me into this state of starting to be okay with less than productive days and more welcome with “hey it sounds like you needed that sleep and that time off from learning japanese since there are LITERALLY six different ways to say “that”. i love being a student and working on my life, but striving for a sense of balance has drastically improved my mental and emotional health over these last two weeks or so. i am very grateful for that. is there a part of your life that you’re hard on yourself for where you could give yourself more grace? more time?
messy; (of a situation) confused and difficult to messy; (of a situation) confused and difficult to deal with. welcome to the highlight reel that has been this ‘messy’ trip to wyoming. from the beginning, everything had seemed to be tailored perfectly for all of our boxes to be ticked once we got here, but before we even got started, it all went south *whomp whomp*. but i think that this was the mess that i needed. after spending six days in the wilderness, peeing on my foot too many times, becoming a part of the food chain (mentally not literally thank goodness), and climbing over mountains, I can’t help but come from a place of gratitude. problem solving in the middle of nowhere isn’t the same as everyday life because there isn’t always a bail plan that allows you to avoid all the things you don’t want to deal with. when you’re halfway up a mountain, you can’t just decide, “nah, I don’t want to do this”, and leave. or when you’ve made a wrong turn or get lost, you have to correct it then even if it means backtracking and adding miles to your day. the only way out of the woods, sometimes, is through it, like life and in the middle of it all, i learned that i have drastically undermined and underestimated myself for pretty much my whole life. it may have taken me almost 22 years to realize it but hey everyone starts somewhere. i’ve never thought of myself to be doing anything special, despite what a lot of strangers, friends, and family tell me along the way. average. that’s what it has always been for me, despite having perfectionist tendencies. and i came to this conclusion about 3/4 of the way into the last, most intense day of our six day hike. and there i was, crying halfway up Paintbrush Divide (google it I think y’all would be crying anyway lol scary shit) telling myself all the things i never believed about myself, but meaning it this time. while lugging like twenty-five pounds on my back. i am resilient. i am strong. i am capable. i can do hard things. obviously there is a little more to it than just that but it’s hard to express it in the right way. anyway- late afternoon ramblings coming to you from a girl that survived the last week off bad instant coffee, dehydrated food, and lots of grit.
I’ve been taking massive leaps down memory lane I’ve been taking massive leaps down memory lane to write my new Utah Travel Series (with y’alls recommendations for budget travel posts coming soon after!) and I still cannot believe that people have Z E R O C L U E about the beauty of the United States. It has the most (or one of the most) diverse climates and geology on the planet, which causes for a lot of really cool places like this one ^^^. What’s the best part about this? Most of the really incredible places are cheap to travel to if you’re already in the US and National Parks are amazing for traveling with friends! I know lots of y’all are leaning more towards the buddy system rather than solo, so if you’re looking for a place to experience the magic of the earth with, cook up some s’mores, and go stargazing, go to any National Park and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about! And honestly, with this pandemic our options are really limited anyways 🤣 domestic travel is POPPIN right now and it’s never too late to organize a BOMB trip! Especially when you have all the best resources 😉 head to my bio to read about 10 amazing hikes in Bryce Canyon National Park that are worth a spot on your summer road trip! 😋
what an eye-opening, thought-shifting, powerful ye what an eye-opening, thought-shifting, powerful year this one has been. it seems like there has been one massive theme about this year that i feel is the most important thing that all of could have realized and that’s learning to care for ourselves, the people around us and around the world. what was going to be THE year for a lot of us, turned into a year that wasn’t about OUR goals and dreams anymore, no matter how badly we wanted it, because there was so much healing to do for all of us and the society that we live in. There still is, but I’m sure y’all know that *gestures to everything*. right now I am trying to listen, learn, and contribute as much as I can. As ironic as this statement is, I’ve never been very excellent in the “describe what you think/feel department”, but I’m trying to read the books that make me uncomfortable and watch the documentaries that make us go, “why didn’t they teach any of us this?” So that I can speak up and not be the advocate that I want to be, but the advocate that I SHOULD be. That we ALL should be when coming from a place of privilege. Remember when someone said, “it just one straw” -7 billion people about plastic waste? We are all one, and together we can make huge shifts and changes because the reality that you’re advocating for now is the history that our children are going to learn about. What parts of your life can you do better in? What hand/voice/support can you lend to those around you? “Let’s believe that if we all stand together, we’re a force that can shake the whole world.”
I feel like I’ve spent a lot of the last couple I feel like I’ve spent a lot of the last couple of years searching for all of the beauty outside of the United States and failing to see what was a couple of state borders away the entire time (or in my own backyard as we say). Whenever I first told people that I was visiting Utah, they said to me, “what the hell is in Utah?! Why would you want to go there?” 🧐 and you know what? I was there too like a year ago! sure, summers in Europe are iconic (and something I want to do eventually), and spending months in Asia is eye-opening, but seeing some of the most fascinating geological structures right here at home has made me love it even more. I think we spend so much time believing that there aren’t feasible (and much more affordable) adventures right in our home country because so many people are flashing their foreign extravaganzas on Instagram and we feel that if we stay in the country that we’re missing out on all the other possibilities of travel. and let me be honest, you won’t find street food pad Thai in the middle of the Wild West, but what you will find is a sense of adventure accompanied with really shitty gas station snacks and deep sleeps underneath the milky way 🌟 different adventures all serve a different purpose. where will yours be?
@leadawnhart and I snuck around the outside of Zio @leadawnhart and I snuck around the outside of Zion National Park to see this epic view via the “Old Man’s Way” and BOY were we thankful because we were toast after hiking the narrows 🤣 and I think after all the elevation we were clearing, my nose finally dried up enough to bleed all over the red rocks at this viewpoint 🤘🏼right now, we’re planning our hiking/camping trip to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks to explore and conquer the iconic Teton Crest Trail 🥰 OH! and she took this beautiful photo, so expect more absolute BANGERS on this trip as well 😎 I’m always grateful to have a friend that will get extremely messy, try new things, and follow through with me on all of our wild, creative endeavors ❤️ P.S. I am going to TRY to be better about keeping y’all updated on what’s poppin’ in my life since I feel like it changes with the seasons so stay tuned for some mini updates on my future travel plans via my stories! 👀
ill make this quick since i have a whole blog post ill make this quick since i have a whole blog post about twenty-nineteen coming this week, but this year has easily become one of the best years so far (2020 is going to top the charts let’s be real). ive made so many new friends, brought a lot of goals to fruition, and learned more about myself and what i want out of my life than any other year leading up to this point. in twenty-twenty, i am going to continue to learn and grow more than i ever have. i am going to explore my creative outlets and travel to a place that ive never heard of. im going to make some big investments and grow closer to the people that i love. im going to crush my goals and look back on next year and say “i did it, dammit” 🤘🏼 if you’ve ever been looking for a sign to do what you’ve always wanted, this is it. let’s kill it in 2020 👏🏼 there are three things that i want the next chapter of my story to say: freedom, expansion, and financial abundance. what are yours?
what do I love more than this photo? @leadawnhart what do I love more than this photo? @leadawnhart for turning every angle of utah into our own personal photoshoot location 🙌🏼🤣 In other news, I have a brand new blog post linked in my bio for ‘The Best Gifts For Hikers (50+ KICKASS Gift Ideas)’. I have gifts for all budgets and adventurers in your life! Click the link in my bio to shop for those you love or get yourself a little somethin’ somethin’ this holiday season 🎁

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