After years of talking about taking an Alaskan cruise, I finally had the chance to cruise Alaska earlier this month! My husband became a fan of cruising after our cruise on the Jade  around Greece  last October, so before we even disembarked that ship, we put down deposits for future cruises. I used the opportunity to push for Alaska, and we ended up booking for mid-May because my husband was so impatient to have our next cruise on the calendar rather than waiting until later in the summer, haha! Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you make a purchase after clicking on a link, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

After visiting Europe for the first time in 2017 at the age of 29, I set a goal of visiting at least 2 new countries every year. So in 2018 I jumped at a last-minute chance to visit Ireland with my then-boyfriend -- with a name as Irish as "Sarah Quinlan," I was excited to see my ancestors' homeland!

Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities in the world. Amsterdam was already on the top of my travel list because I wanted to visit the Anne Frank House  and see  the famous tulips . Unfortunately, the tulips only bloom for approximately 8 weeks in the spring, and I missed them the first time I visited by a few weeks, but I made it back the following year in time!

For my very first trip to Mexico, we booked 5 nights at the all-inclusive resort Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya . Some of our good friends have been to this resort several times now and were heading back for another trip, so we decided to join them -- and I'm so glad we did! Since we didn't leave the resort except for our scuba-diving trip, this travel recap will serve mostly as a review of the  Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya . Overall, I highly recommend it -- and I can see now why our friends, and so many others, continue to return to the resort!