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Passions and Places

A travel + outdoors blog

Destinations
- Africa
  - Zambia
- Asia
  - Cambodia
  - India
  - Indonesia
  - Laos
  - Malaysia
  - Singapore
  - Thailand
  - Vietnam
- Europe
  - Iceland
  - Portugal
- North America
  - Canada
  - Alabama
  - Arizona
  - Connecticut
  - Louisiana
  - Maine
  - Massachusetts
  - Mississippi
  - Montana
  - New Hampshire
  - Rhode Island
  - Vermont
  - Wyoming
Activities
- Camping
- Cycling
- Hiking
- Kayaking
- Motorcycling
- Scuba Diving
- Skiing
- Yoga
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Responsible Travel

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Hi! We're Jen and Ryan, an American couple on a journey to travel the world while working from the road. We're passionate about outdoors adventure, ethical travel, and healthy living. Passions and Places is a space for us to share our stories and tips with you, but most importantly, we hope to inspire you to seek your own adventure.

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Where are we now?

passionsandplaces

A couple with a passion for travel. Often outdoors or off the beaten path. Hoping to inspire you to seek your own adventure. 🇺🇸 Currently in the U.S.

Some days, it’s hard not to feel anxious about a

Some days, it’s hard not to feel anxious about all the bad and truly scary things that are happening. It’s hard not to feel frustrated and depressed about all the canceled plans and continuing uncertainty. It’s hard not to feel lonely and unfulfilled when so much is inaccessible and we all have to stay away from each other.

But being active and spending time outside are two of the things that almost never fail to make us feel at least a little better. And Gibson Reservoir, right outside the Bob, was the perfect place for it. 🌄 Mortimer Gulch Trail is a nice hike around the edge of the reservoir, and (bonus!) there was nobody else around. Our next plan is to rent some stand-up paddleboards and get back up there and out on the water. 💦

And after a week of looking back on where we’ve

And after a week of looking back on where we’ve been during each of the past five Julys - Acadia National Park, Michigan, Chiang Mai, Boston, and Phuket - here’s where we are today: our hometown of Great Falls, MT.

We arrived here in mid-March for what was supposed to be a two-week visit, and decided to hunker down here “just until things get better” - except four months later, they haven’t really. So, we’re still here, taking things day by day, with no immediate plans to leave. But even though it is FAR from what we had planned, our time here has had many silver linings.

❤️ We’ve been able to spend lots of time with family and friends, most of whom we rarely see.
🧘🏼‍♀️ Jen has finally gotten to connect more with the yoga and fitness community here. She’s been offering occasional free yoga classes in the park (the next one is tomorrow afternoon if you want to join!), and soon she’ll be teaching regular classes at @peakgreatfalls as well. Find all the details at @jenambroseyoga.
⛰️ We’ve been able to explore the area around Great Falls and several other parts of Montana.
🏕️ We go camping frequently and spend a lot of time outdoors, which feels like it’s been a lifesaver.
🐶 We get to help take care of Ryans’ parents’ golden retriever (and sometimes Jens’ parents’ shitzu too!), which has been a pretty good consolation after having all our housesits cancelled.
📸 We were inspired to start a new Montana-focused IG account, to accompany our new Montana blog - launching next week! Check it out at @montanadiscovered.

❓Where are you right now? What good have you been able to find in the past few months?

This time last year, we were in a very different p

This time last year, we were in a very different place, in every sense of the term. We spent the entirety of July 2019 in Phuket, Thailand, where we were housesitting for one wonderful pup and five (!) cats. We couldn’t believe the gorgeous house we got to stay in there, with tons of space to work, cook, and practice yoga, and it even had a pool! 💦 Our furry friends kept us company while we worked at our laptops, and we never got tired of dog walks to the beach at sunset. 🏝️ Right up until Jen had to have her appendix removed at the end of July (although that fortunately went very smoothly), it was truly a hashtag blessed month. 💖

In July 2017, we were visiting Boston for the firs

In July 2017, we were visiting Boston for the first time since two years earlier, when we’d quit our jobs there, given up our apartment, and gotten rid of most of our stuff. And being back in the city was like a breath of fresh (but familiar) air.

Coming straight from Southeast Asia, Boston felt so quiet, so calm, and so straightforward. But it was also this incredible contrast to the life we used to live there. We were back in the same place, but suddenly we had way more time and flexibility to experience the city and enjoy all the things we loved about it.

We may not live there anymore, but Boston still feels like home, and we hope it’ll always be a place we keep going back to. 💕

It’s day 3 of our reflections on previous Julys

It’s day 3 of our reflections on previous Julys - and in July 2017, we were in… Chiang Mai, Thailand! This city is super popular with tourists, expats, and Thais from other parts of the country, and for good reason. One of those reasons is the city’s mesmerizing temples and other religious and historical structures (and as Chiang Mai was the former capital of Lanna Kingdom and is still widely considered the cultural heart of Thailand, it has a lot of them).

Some of the other things we love about Chiang Mai? The food, the markets, the yoga, the scenery… Safe to say, Chiang Mai is one of the places we’ve really been missing lately.

❓What places have you been missing?

You might see this photo and assume it’s from Ho

You might see this photo and assume it’s from Holland - and technically, it is! The tiny Midwest town of Holland, MI, which sits right on Lake Michigan. We visited for a friend’s wedding in July 2016, making it the second July memory we’re looking back on this week.

After looking at the options for flying from Boston to Michigan and renting a car there (and frankly because we were looking for an adventure 😄), we decided to make it a road trip. It meant taking a couple extra days off work, but we loved getting to pass through upstate New York, cross into Canada, and explore Ann Arbor on the way.

❓Have you ever totally unnecessarily turned a simple trip into a big adventure, just because?

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