Happy New Year 2018 & 3rd blog birthday!

Happy New Year from the gorgeous Florida Keys! This is our 3rd New Year’s Day down here – man how time flies!  I started this blog on New Year’s Day 2015. It was frigid and we were dreaming of moving to the tropics. Back in 2015 we’d been talking about making some big changes for a while. I knew that year I was done with being cold and living the daily corporate grind. We thought 2015 would be in our last year in the country but here we are welcoming 2018 from the US.

Our current life was never in the “plan.” The Keys weren’t even on our radar. Back in 2015, we both worked in the office and working from home wasn’t an option in those roles. Our plan was to go from being in the office to leaving the country.

Now that we’re here I can tell you every disconnected event that lead us to this point. It all started with a trip to Roatan over Thanksgiving of 2014 for a week of diving – except a huge storm rolled in and we sat in our cabana without power for 3 days instead. It was an adventure but not the one we wanted. Feeling skunked, we went to Utila in May to redeem that trip and rack up some dives. Utila is cheap so it made for the perfect unplanned trip. On the way home from Utila we flew over the Keys and thought “wow that water looks pretty, we should check it out.”

Probably more than one but you can change your life if you want to!

So we did, over Labor Day of that year. By winter we both had remote jobs so we came down to give the Keys a try. It was the best winter of our lives and the first one where neither of us had S.A.D.  We went home, sold it all and have been here ever since. This was supposed to be a one year stop on our way out of the country but we’re still here and we’ll stay for as long as we’re enjoying it. We’ve stopped planning and are just seeing where life takes us!

I’ve never felt so free and unencumbered in my life. In the 3 years since we started this blog we’ve taken back all of our time except for work. I commute from my hammock to my desk now versus the rat race it used to be. Do I miss some things about our old life? Of course, but not enough to go back to it.

So on this New Year’s Day, I’m thankful we took the leap and got on the road less traveled. It wasn’t easy – not in the slightest. But worth it? Absolutely!

Thanks for joining us on our journey! I’m excited to see what 2018 has in store for us and where we’ll be writing the 2019 post from! If I had to guess I’d say it’ll either be from here or from Bonaire but if the last 3 years have taught me anything it’s to go with the flow and see where it takes us.

Here’s a look back at 2017 – it was a terrific year! Filled with diving, dogs, sunsets, and good friends. Our life looks a lot different than it did 3 years ago!

Here’s to 2018! Let’s make it one for the books! 

Stay warm friends!