43 countries visited

24 countries untethered & solo

1 bountiful life to live

Mexico | Canada | France | Spain | Italy | Vatican City | England | UAE | St. Lucia | The Bahamas | China | Thailand | Japan | The Netherlands | Ireland | Scotland 

Czech Republic | Greece | Portugal | Morocco | Belgium | Austria | Denmark

Sweden | Argentina | Uruguay | Switzerland | Singapore | The Maldives | Serbia | Croatia | Germany  | Turkey |  Israel 

Palestine | Hungary | Columbia | Monaco | Indonesia | Australia | Finland | Norway | Vietnam

It was kismet.

the exact way I had reappraised my own life through untethered, intentional travel had fatefully led me right into the premise of my own purpose.

A woman in a beige trench coat and red pants standing on a garden lawn, looking out over rolling green hills and fields at dusk.

Life had me in motion for no other reason than to stop me in my tracks…

When a heartbreaking career intermission broke bad on me last Fall, I knew exactly how I would spend the empty days and hours ahead.  I would finally and fully indulge my passion for solo, untethered travel.  I would cross more countries off my list, taste new flavors, shop cute boutiques, sip local cocktail creations, dig my toes into the sand, hit some museums, and discover new artists until I was ready to get back to it.  

I was planning on treating this inconvenient layoff like one big, long layover. But as it turned out life had me in motion for no other reason than to stop me in my tracks. As the next few months played out, I realized I wasn’t traveling to kill time between resume bullets, I was traveling to get it right in this next act – to unblock my creative flow, to nurture my inner child and to finally authenticate the voice in the back of my head and at the bottom of my heart. 

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was traveling head-on into my purpose.

Woman wearing a red and pink patterned dress is surprised as a cupcake with lit sparklers is being presented on a plate. She holds a glass of champagne. The setting appears to be indoors, likely at a birthday celebration.

Trusting My Gut

Staring down the back half of my 40’s, a sense of entitlement to own, gift and experience life in a more discerning tasteful way had become a trademark feature of my personal navigation system.  And instead of shamefully shying away from that entitlement, I came to embrace and leverage it, even trust it.

Over the years, I started to master the subtle art of calibrating when to tame or lean into the myriad of intuitions, proclivities and cravings that feed it.  And I think it’s fair to say I have fed this inclination - my figurative and actual gut if you will - spectacularly well for the last decade making up for having only humored and teased it for the first 30 years or so of my life. It’s become a trusted travel companion nudging me down unassuming streets where hidden gems bursting with flavor and design await, encouraging me to let go and be exactly where my feet are in the here and now and imploring me to try-it-again even if I didn’t like it the first time… anchovies, pistachio gelato, lamb, uni, and bitters… 

A woman with blonde hair wearing sunglasses, a camouflage jacket, and holding a drink, is sitting by the water on a pier, eating food, with a busy outdoor scene and a bridge in the background.

the manifestation of taste…

I grew up with a very uneven, feast or famine, transitory experience with taste.  And that’s why taste is a word and pursuit that has come to define and consume me today.  

By inviting taste to play a larger role in my life, I finally gave myself permission to be my authentic self.  Almost immediately, this admission and conviction opened up new ways inside of me to be more present and purposeful with my first true love - travel. 

It was as if I was rudderless until these two compulsions collided – their impact coming to reveal the thrilling possibility that taste and travel as one colorful force was my calling. I didn’t hesitate to answer the call…

Two women and a camel in a desert with sand dunes and a setting sun in the background.

Traveling with Intent

And so then, if I can examine and advance the role travel plays in both unlocking self-discovery and self-empowerment and elevating well-being and interconnectedness, then I believe I’ve indeed found that special thing for me. As it should be, it is a most precisely fitting and most fulfilling life say-do.   And while its discovery has no doubt selfishly helped me make sense of and line up who I am, I know its intended benefit is so much more expansive and magnanimous. 

The Untethered Traveler then is my humble way of giving voice to and casting light on how the abundance of taste in this world can come to feed, sustain and most assuredly inspire us if we embrace what it is to travel with intent.