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If you have been following my virtual journey on Instagram, you know the second city we visited in Australia is Adelaide. Adelaida is in South Australia, and if you are like me, you probably have never heard of it until now. I’m going to be fully transparent and admit that I had never heard of Adelaide, Australia until one of my close friends moved from the U.S. to Adelaide. I knew nothing about Adelaide except that she lived there.
Since I had a friend living there and I knew that I would be staying with her, I left the planning up to her to show me around her new town. I’m glad I decided to let her take over the planning because she showed me some excellent spots that I highly recommend to anyone visiting Adelaide. The following is my list of recommendations for activities to do while visiting Adelaide.
1. Jacob’s Creek Winery
While in Adelaide, I quickly learned that it is Australia’s wine capital. Immediately, it earned a place in my heart. I love a good glass of vino, what can I say? Knowing my undeniable love for good wine, my friend took me to a popular winery called Jacob’s Creek. Jacob’s Creek is a must-see while in Adelaide. The landscape of the Barossa Wine Valley is stunning, as you can see in the picture, and it makes me wonder why more people don’t mention Adelaide considering just how gorgeous it is. As for the wine, I bought a wine flight because if I’m going to spend the day at a beautiful winery and not try them all, what was the point? I savored each glass to the very last drop and enjoyed the views of the vineyard. If you live in the U.S. and you would like to try Jacob’s Creek before flying to Adelaide, you can buy it here, but I will say that there is something extra special about having a glass of their wine on their gorgeous vineyard. They offer tours around their vineyard, and their tasting room has lovely views of the vineyard.
Time to take a break from city life and bask in nature. It wouldn’t be a trip to Australia if there wasn’t a koala involved. Am I right? Let’s be honest, most of us learned about the animals of Australia thanks to Steve Irwin, and while everyone else can enjoy the array of poisonous snakes, spiders, and great white sharks that are plenty, I prefer the cuter, friendlier furry friends. Gorge’s Wildlife Park allows you to get up close and personal with several of the animals. While visiting, I was able to hold a koala. They smell like eucalyptus and love. Ok, just eucalyptus, but I loved being able to hold one in my own arms. I mean, how often are we able to be so up close and personal with nature?
Apart from koal-ity time, I was able to hand-feed kangaroos and wallabies as well. Kangaroos and wallabies are hopping around everywhere at the park, and some of them even have babies in their pouches. One even held my hand while I fed it. It’s another experience that I highly recommend while in Adelaide or Australia in general. You can feed the kangaroos and watch them play with each other. Make sure that you provide them with the food at the Wildlife Park and not something else.
To find out more information about Gorge’s Wildlife Park and to plan your visit, check out their website here: https://gorgewildlifepark.com.au/
3. Morialta Conservation Park
If you love wildlife and nature and prefer not to visit a wildlife park but see the natural habitat, I highly suggest visiting Morialta Conservation Park. The trails provide Adelaide’s stunning views, including a waterfall, mountainous lookout, and even koalas freely roaming and climbing trees. Being someone who likes to walk at my local park a lot, my mouth dropped when I saw koala’s just hanging out in the trees above me. It was a very unique experience and one that I probably wouldn’t have had if it weren’t for my friend taking me there.
My beautiful friend and I finally reunited.
4. Mount Lofty Summit
If you want some insane views of Adelaide, then head to Mount Lofty Summit. It is found in Cleland Conservation Park, and even though it was cloudy when I visited, the views were still impressive. I’m an outdoor enthusiast, and anything that involves mountains, greenery, and views, I’m there.
The stunning views at Mt. Lofty.
5. The Beach
It wouldn’t be a visit to Australia without visiting the beach, now would it? Adelaide has a gorgeous coastline and a boardwalk in Glenelg, filled with tons of cute shops and places to grab a bite to eat. While I visited, it was too cold for me to go in the water because I was there at the end of their winter. Hence the jacket and jeans at the beach.
I never imagined I would be wearing jeans and a jacket to the beach.
I highly recommend anyone visiting Australia to make the trip to Adelaide because it is a nice and refreshing slowing down of pace from the busier cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. I hope you have enjoyed my top 5 things to do while visiting Adelaide and if you get the chance to go, let me know if you added any of these to your itinerary.
Like most travelers, I had a long list of places that I wanted to visit in 2020—Burning Man 2020, Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico, Dublin, Ireland, and Machu Picchu, Peru, to name a few. And then BOOM. COVID-19. I’ve been trying to make a positive out of a negative, and I figured if I can’t travel around the world right now, I can at least do it virtually.
In 2017, I made a Trip Around the World where I started in Australia and ended in Iceland before returning to the U.S. I visited four continents and had a fantastic time. So why not relive some of those moments and show my followers places around the world that could be potentially added to their bucket lists. I mean, we can’t stay home forever. Right?
It has been quite the task to put this virtual “Trip Around the World” together, but it has also helped relieve some of the sadness I’ve felt from not just getting up and going. It has also brought back those lovely feelings of nostalgia and thoughts of “What the hell was I thinking?” The answer is, I wasn’t. I was living.
Not only has this project help me relive moments, but it has also allowed me to relive outfits—some that I probably never want to see again in my life and other staples of my wardrobe. For example, you may notice that I’m wearing shorts and a black tank top for many of my pictures. To this day, my sister makes fun of me for it because I packed a ton of cute outfits, but when I was in Asia, it was as humid as a swamp in the middle of summer, and I chose comfort over Instagram fashion. Looking back on the pictures reminds me that what’s cute to me today probably won’t be in 3 years; wear it anyway.
I’ve also decided to include a few videos. Some of them are of the weird things that I either ate or drank on that trip. I mean, if you are going to experience a country and it’s culture, food and drink are an essential part of it. If you don’t believe that, then just know that Anthony Bourdain (my travel hero) is shaking his head in disappointment at you from the other side.
Therefore for the next 30 days on my Instagram page, I will be sharing different places and experiences around the world and details about my experience of just the destination in general. There are a few destinations that I have included that are not from that same trip, but I wanted to include them. Apart from posting photos on Instagram, I will be posting on my blog weekly about one of the destinations that I have posted. The blog post will include my recommendations on what to do, sites to see, areas to check and out, and my experience.
The link to follow my Instagram page so you can follow along on the visual journey is below.
This past Saturday, I attended a wedding that was nothing less than magical. It occurred on June 20th, 2020, which happened to be the same day as the Summer Solstice, otherwise known as the longest day of the year, during pride month and a global pandemic. Apart from these factors, what made this wedding so special? It was between two of my dear friends, Bryant and Justin.
I was finally able to witness two of my friends’ Bryant and Justin, unite as one, in a beautiful, socially distanced wedding ceremony. I felt honored to be able to witness two me that I love and who love each other exchange heartfelt vows that could make even the hardest of hearts crack open and shed tears. Bryant and Justin are madly in love. Seeing them love each other the way they do only makes me hopeful that I may one day be able to experience something so powerful as their love. Is their relationship perfect? No relationship is, but they are, in fact, perfect for each other.
When Bryant first started dating Justin, he told my mom about him and how he wanted us to meet him to give him our thoughts. I’ll be honest, I’m incredibly protective of my friends and family, and so it’s hard for me to warm up to someone at first, but I immediately liked Justin. I saw how happy he made Bryant, and that was all that mattered to me because, in the end, it’s someone’s heart and the way that they treat you that truly matters.
During their wedding ceremony, one of the guest speakers said that when he was asked to say something at their ceremony, he couldn’t think of anything better than the Supreme Court decision to declare gay marriage legal. His speech was the Supreme Court’s decision, and he replaced the names of the petitioner to Bryant and Justin’s names. As soon as he began to read the Supreme Court’s decision, the tears started to stream down my cheeks. Without that decision precisely five years ago tomorrow (June 26th, 2020), their wedding would have never happened.
I remember when gay marriage became legal within the United States on June 26th of 2015, and I thought to myself, “Finally! My friends will be able to marry each other, just like everyone else.” I am not part of the LGBTQ community, but many of my friends and family members are, and I have always supported their rights. I remember congratulating my closest friends in the LGBTQ community and expressing my feelings of joy for them. It was refreshing to feel like society was progressing towards including everyone, not just some.
The month of June is a time of celebration for one specific community within the U.S., and that is the LGBTQ community. Pride month began years before gay marriage was legalized, but it has always celebrated that love is love. Pride means a lot to the LGBTQ community seeing how they have had to fight and are still fighting for their rights to be themselves and love each other freely.
The news of gay marriage becoming legal in the U.S. received both negative and positive feedback. Some people do not agree with and or approve of homosexuality. It can be religious beliefs, upbringing, or quite simply a lack of exposure to the gay community that keeps some people from understanding why being gay isn’t a crime, nor should it be illegal. People in the LGBTQ community are human beings, just like the rest of us.
I am very fortunate that while growing up, my parents taught me that being gay isn’t a choice; it’s something that you are born being. I believe this to be true. I have heard my gay and lesbian friends stories about the fear of coming out to their parents, some being rejected by their families, some being bullied in schools, and others publicly shamed for being “too feminine” or “too masculine.” These stories have reinforced my belief that gay isn’t a choice. No one willingly chooses to be treated poorly by society. I didn’t choose to be a heterosexual female, but here I am, straighter than an arrow. If I cannot explain why I am attracted to the opposite sex, why should someone who is attracted to the same sex have to explain themselves? They shouldn’t. If I, as a heterosexual female, can marry whomever, I please, why shouldn’t my friends be able to do the same?
This post and these words are dedicated to my dear friends, Bryant, and Justin. I am grateful to know you both and call you my friends. I cherish the fact that I was able to witness your beautiful union. You are both incredibly blessed to have found each other and to have found love within one another. Please continue to be the beautiful souls that you are and to share the love that you share with the rest of the world. Finding what you two have is rare, magical, beautiful, and everlasting. Cheers to a month of pride and a lifetime of love! ❤️
Exchange of vows
First kiss as husbands
My mother, Bryant, myself and Justin
My mother & I celebrating Pride at our local Pride parade in 2016.
If you’ve been following me for a while, then you know that my blog’s primary focus has always been travel. Whether it be descriptions of destinations, top things-to-do lists, or retelling stories of my adventures around the world, the main focus has already been travel. Therefore you may have noticed that my blog has shifted a little outside of travel. Why is this?
Considering that the entire globe is dealing with a pandemic and travel is extremely restricted in most places around the world, I find it out of place to talk about travel and all of these fantastic places to visit. It feels insensitive to me to discuss travel when there are people who are sick, dying, on locked down, taking care of the ill/dying, or dealing with the loss of a loved one due to COVID19. I understand and respect that there are still people discussing travel, and I do not condemn them in any way or doing so. It’s my personal feeling of not being able to discuss travel while there is so much suffering happening across the globe and be comfortable with it.
Does this mean I’m never going to discuss travel in the future? ABSOLUTELY NOT. I love traveling. It is my passion. Under other circumstances, I would advocate travel and discuss why I believe everyone should make it a priority at least once in their lifetime. For right now, I think this is a moment for me to take a step back and discuss things that are also near and dear to my heart.
I understand that some would love my blog just solely to focus on travel and trust me, I have upcoming travel posts and special announcements for when I feel like it becomes an appropriate topic again. I also know that others are interested in reading my thoughts and experiences in different areas of life. Whether it be about humanitarianism, life experiences, my struggles, grief, my different views about life, spirituality, dating, and the list goes on.
I want my blog to be multifaceted because I, myself, am multifaceted. I’m more than just a travel blogger. I’m a storyteller. I want to introduce more of my other qualities to the world through my personal stories. All of the posts that I create have been, are, and will always come from my authentic self. Just as the world changes, so do we and along with it, our beliefs. Who I am and what I believe today are likely to change with time, but they will only change to align and shift with my authentic self. My promise to the world is to stay true to who I am and what I believe in this present moment. I’m always willing to objectively look at myself and admit when I am wrong or when a belief no longer serves me. I believe that is an essential part of personal growth.
The reason for this post is that I felt compelled to explain to you, my audience, why I’ve been silent and also why my posts have shifted in regards to focus. Is travel still going to be the main topic? OF COURSE! Just now, I’ll include some more personal posts along the way.
I’m looking forward to what will come of this decision and hope that my audience is open to this new addition to my blog. I’m excited to see where this journey will take me and overjoyed that my wings are spreading even further.
Before you read this post, I find it necessary to first say to you, my audience, that I write this piece without the intent of offending anyone. I do not write this post to speak on the black experience in the U.S. or to take anything away from my loved ones who live it every day. I write this piece from the depths of my heart and soul and as a way to share my beliefs and express my love for all of humanity.
These past few weeks, while living in the United States, have been filled with sadness, fear, turmoil, and, unfortunately, lots of hatred. I cannot speak for the black community because I am, in fact, not black. I do not pretend for one second to say that I understand the black experience, especially not the black experience in the United States of America, because I have never lived it. What I have lived is a life filled with friends and family from all different walks of life. People who do not share the same color skin, nor the same religion, nor the same sexual preference as I, but we share one thing in common, and it is the most important of all. We share an undeniable love for one another.
This love is the same love that I was taught to show to others. It is a love for humanity and the souls that lay within the physical bodies of each person. As a way of teaching me this love, my parents made sure that I understood that we are all equals. The famous “never judge a book by its cover” was something always said in my house. My parents always said that you should determine who a person is solely based on their heart. It is something I’ve used throughout my life to decide who I allow to remain in my life and who I let go.
One day, when I was around five years old, I came home and asked my biological father why my best friend was black, and I was white. My father gave me what I believe is the best explanation anyone could give a young child, and this is what I plan to repeat to my future children. My father said, “You know how there are rainbows in the sky, and they are all different colors? Well, God made us all different colors so that there would be a rainbow on Earth like there is in the sky.” That was all my father had to say to me to understand that we may all look different, but we are created the same. To this day, this simple explanation forms part of my core beliefs.
As most people know, I am a traveler. I have traveled 6 of 7 continents, and I have had experiences outside of the typical human experience of staying in one country for the majority of their life. I recognize that this is a privilege. I am beyond blessed to have had the ability to travel and experience other cultures with my own eyes, ears, and heart. Travel has opened the doors for me to meet new people and listen to and learn from human experiences that are not my own. It has also allowed me to view my culture from other viewpoints and be a spectator standing on the outside looking in.
What I have been able to see while on the outside is a country that says it prides itself on being a melting pot, but it insists on creating a divide within the pot. This divide is amplified through politics, race, religion, sexual preference, profession, and gender. The main idea that divides us is the idea that we cannot be different and love each other at the same time. My friends and I prove that differences of opinion, race, gender, religion, and sexual preference do not make us hate one another. It’s the opposite. It makes us love each other. I love my friends for being different than me. I value the voices of my friends who have lived a human experience that is unlike mine. I listen to their stories, and I learn from them. I may not know what it is like to “walk a mile” in their shoes, but I try my best to listen, educate myself, and comprehend the emotion behind their human experience.
Through my friends, I have heard stories of what it is like to be black in the U.S., what it is like to be an immigrant in the U.S., what it is is like to be a Muslim in the U.S., what it is like to be gay in the U.S., and the list goes on. I do not pretend to understand their experience fully because I cannot fully understand an experience that is not my own. Still, I acknowledge it, I respect it and push myself to learn from it, and most importantly, I empathize with it. To me, Black Lives Matter is much more than just a hashtag; it’s a reality that many of my friends live.
The recent events that have taken place in this country have broken my heart. I have physically felt my heartbreaking. My heart breaks for my black friends who continually feel the need to defend their worth. My heart breaks for the mothers who have lost their sons and daughters to racism and injustice in this country. My heart breaks for the peaceful protesters who have been given a bad name by people who have a different personal agenda. My heart breaks for police officers who signed up to do a job that they believed would create a better society. My heart breaks for humanity.
It breaks my heart and infuriates me that I am the third generation in my family to protest for black rights because things have not changed since my grandmother marched for Civil Rights or since my mother, along with her family, protested against segregation. I am appalled and dismayed that it is 2020, and my friends are not treated as my equal. Not only are they not treated as equals by a specific group of people, but the system still treats them as less than. This is the case for all minorities in America. Yet, in this current moment, the focus is on black people in America and the fact that after hundreds of years of black people fighting to be seen as equal, the system continues to fail them. We, as a society, have failed them. I do not believe that what is happening in the United States right now is Black v.s. White, nor is it People v.s. Police, it is THE PEOPLE v.s. THE CORRUPT SYSTEM.
I believe that we live in a society ruled by a system that would like to see us divided, but the one thing that will always unite us is love. I refuse to allow what is happening in this country to fill my heart with hate. I refuse to allow the anger that I feel to become fuel for hatred. I refuse to create more of a division within society. I have always stood for and will continue to stand for human rights. I choose to lead by example and demonstrate through my actions that I stand for all of my friends, not just some. I will stand up for you and speak up for your rights when your voice fails you. I do not care about your race, religion, sexual preference, gender, profession, or political affiliation. I have a voice, and I refuse to stand by in silence while I watch my friends suffer. I believe what we see happening in the United States of America right now will have a ripple effect across the world. Racism exists not only in this country but globally, and I genuinely believe that this is the match that will light all of the others. It will spark much-needed conversations within countries, communities, and families. It will force the people who have created and enforce the system to listen. It will create change.
As a humanitarian, I wholeheartedly believe that we should be the change that we want to see in the world. The change that I want to see in the world is one in which we all agree that not only are we created as equals, but that we should be treated as equals. This change will happen if we allow ourselves to listen to the struggles of others and empathize with it. The change will come when we allow that empathy to fill our hearts with love and spread that love to one another. Love one another for our similarities and our differences. The key ingredient to make our rainbow on Earth just as beautiful as the one in the sky is love. Feel it, be it, spread it.
Up until the other day, I had been doing a good job of staying as positive as possible about this entire situation. After seeing several posts on the internet about how someone else’s health and well being isn’t as important as one’s liberty, I lost it. The posts were about public officials requiring that people use masks in public. After seeing so many people refusing to wear a mask because it was an infringement upon their rights, I was engulfed in anger.
I had to sit with myself and ask myself why would someone else’s opinion or actions bother me so much. The best answer that I came up with is that I’m the type of person who would bend over backward to help someone who needed it, and I’m also the type of person who takes care of others. I put my needs and wants second when I know someone else needs my help. It’s just part of who I am, and I wouldn’t change that part of me for anything.
One of the reasons why I believe that I am so empathetic towards the life of others is because I’ve watched numerous family members die since I was a teenager. Watching someone actively die with your own eyes puts a lot of things into perspective. One of those things is the value of human life and how precious it is. We are here right now at this moment, but that can all change in the blink of an eye. We all say this, but not everyone fully comprehends the meaning of “Here today, gone tomorrow.”
Since I’ve stood by and watched several of my family members pass away, it has forever engraved images in my mind that I will never forget. For example, one of my last memories of my grandma is of her in a hospital bed, drowning on her own fluids in her lungs because of lung cancer. The image and sound of her drowning on her own fluids are still vivid memories that I live with.
People dying of COVID-19 are experiencing the same situation. Their lungs fill up with fluid, they can no longer breath, and they die. The difference between this situation and my grandmother dying is that I was able to say goodbye to my grandmother, in person. People now have to say their goodbyes via an iPad. It breaks my heart, knowing that people cannot hug or kiss their loved ones goodbye because I know how much those final moments can mean to someone after their loved one has passed.
Having dealt with death on so many levels over so many years, I’ve become sensitive to human life. I was so upset by others’ comments and actions because I felt like humanity has lost three essential things—love, compassion, and empathy. People saying that their right to choose whether or not to wear a mask is more important than the life of another is in my mind, unfathomable.
I have family members that are at high risk of contracting COVID-19, and it causes me stress and anxiety having to think about if I’m going to have to lose another family member and this time not even be able to say goodbye. The possibility of having to deal with another death has not only caused stress and anxiety, but it has also made me relive moments of grief. Last year, I lost my stepdad due to sudden death, and not having that “final goodbye” still breaks my heart. That is why I try to be compassionate, empathetic, and loving towards others. I try to take into consideration the health and well-being of those around me because I know what it feels like to lose someone, and I do not want to cause that pain for someone else.
After going to bed, mad at the world, I woke up and decided that I’m not going to be angry at the choices and opinions of others. I refuse to allow the beliefs of others to consume me and turn me into someone angry and bitter. The human experience is different for all of us, and although I know how awful it feels to lose someone close to you, many people, fortunately, do not. Although I may not agree with someone else’s opinion doesn’t mean that I need to allow their ideas to get the best of me.
Being empathetic to others can often mean becoming a sponge to other’s negativity as well, and I recognized that I was allowing myself to soak in negativity and allowing it to change my mood. I realized that this was not going to accomplish anything, nor was it healthy for my soul. After reminding myself that I cannot change the world, I can only change myself; I woke up with a different attitude. I truly believe in karma and reaping what we sow, so instead of sowing seeds of anger and hatred because there is already too much of that in our current world, I’m going to continue to be the person who is empathetic, compassionate, and loving.
Love and light to all of those souls who need it now more than ever. Including me. 💖
