It’s been almost 3 months since I posted original content on here, making it my longest break from blogging since I started The Open Road Before Me in 2011. There was good reason for that. April and May could best be described as a gauntlet, during which I decided to break my contract at Shane …
USA
Christmas Letter 2018
The Great Pacific Northwest Road Trip
I love a good road trip. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of setting off to some distant place, knowing it will take you days to reach it, not knowing what adventures await you along the way. There are many reasons I enjoy living outside of the US, but few places can rival my homeland’s …
Hike to Cutthroat Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail
September brings with it the end of summer, and with the end of this particular summer comes the last of this interlude in the PNW. It’s been a whirlwind of activity, with hikes all over the Chuckanut and Cascade ranges, as well as a ton of get-togethers with friends and family. This ritual of visiting …
Reasons to Visit Anacortes
Traveling from Seattle north along Interstate 5 will take you to Bellingham and eventually Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia. It’s a tempting bit of highway to breeze along, skipping all the drive-through towns in Snohomish and Skagit Counties for more intriguing destinations further north. You certainly could, but it would be a mistake. You’d miss …
Hiking to North Butte in the Chuckanuts
Summer is really the best time to visit the PNW, with the weather as good as it’ll get and the trails open for exploration. The North Cascades have some of the best hiking trails in the PNW — such as Heliotrope, or Lake 22 — but there are other destinations around Northwest Washington with much …
Hiking Heliotrope Ridge
While Brandon, Sandy, and I drove up Mount Baker Highway, I was trying to figure out just how long it had been since I’d been on a proper hike in the Pacific Northwest. I was shocked to realize it’s been nearly 3 years since I’d done a hike in my home state! My last two …
Rituals on the Open Road: Going Home
It’s always the greenness of the drive which gets me; after I’ve left the airport and merged on to I5, whether it’s northbound from Seattle or southbound from Vancouver. It’s so easy to take a color for granted, but such a concentration of it after an extended absence makes me realize what I’ve missed. The …
Getting a Lump-sum Pension Refund in South Korea
South Korea has a national pension scheme where employers and employees each make a monthly contribution toward a pension fund, which is managed by the National Pension Service. Foreigners — depending on the agreement their government has worked out with South Korea — contribute as well, which makes for a nice little nest egg of …
Credit Card and Checking Account Sign-up Bonuses
One of my methods for saving money, as well as making the most out of the money I do spend, is by using credit cards and bank accounts wisely. A way to get a huge return on spending is to take advantage of sign-up bonuses for different cards and bank accounts. Another way is to …