About Us
Hello there! We are Jenny and John. Travel addicts and photographers who want to see everywhere…or at least as much as we can in our lifetime.
About Jenny
- My first international trip was to Australia and New Zealand when I was 13. At 14, I visited a dozen European countries with my grandmother.
- I have been to 6 out of 7 continents (missing Antarctica) and more than 30 countries.
- My favorite country so far is South Africa because I love wildlife photography more than any other type of photography and Africa can’t be beaten in that aspect.
- I have 2 degrees from college – accounting and photography. I was a CPA in my former life and am now using my photography skills for this blog.
- I am very much a type-A personality and like to be organized and have travel planned out.
About John
- My family camped as I was growing up, giving me a love of traveling the USA and spending time exploring “my own backyard.”
- I have been to 5 out of 7 continents (missing Antarctica and Australia).
- My favorite country so far has been Scotland. Not only was it beautiful but we traveled in a camper van which was an incredible experience.
- My degree is in IT, and I am certified as a Network Engineer. I have worked on anything from home computers to intercoms at your favorite drive-thru to medical alert systems…if it is in the realm of IT, I can pretty much do it.
- I am a type-B personality and like to fly by the seat of my pants when we travel.
Our lives up until mid-2020
We were married in 2001, and up until 2020, we were your average American couple. We worked full-time jobs and traveled as much as we could with our 2 or 3 weeks of vacation each year.
Even though our vacation days were limited, it didn’t stop us from making the most of it. We have visited multiple countries and more than half of the states in the USA. During those travels, we were in Thailand for the King’s birthday celebration, visited England during the Queen’s diamond jubilee, kissed the Blarney stone in Ireland, and stood at the feet of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil.
Wildlife travel and experiences were (and still are) a HUGE love of ours. So we took trips focused on that as well. We have been on safaris in South Africa, seen monkeys in the Amazon jungles of Brazil, spotted moose in Canada, swam with sharks in the Bahamas, and fed iguanas in Mexico.
2020 and moving forward
2020 created some big changes for so many of us. A pandemic hit the world locking us all down and showing us how precious life can be. And for us personally, we both hit the big 4-0 which led us to re-evaluate our life choices.
After long discussions, we decided it was time to quit our jobs and sell our home in the Midwest. We didn’t want to keep getting by on just 3 weeks’ vacation, we wanted to get out and see more now. It didn’t make sense to wait for retirement or keep thinking we had time later…because what if we didn’t?
In late 2020, the world began to open back up a bit. We packed up all our possessions into storage and moved into Jenny’s parent’s RV for the winter. We took off to Arizona to be close to John’s family, and we stayed for four months. When spring came, we headed back to the Midwest to figure out our next plans.
As of now, those plans consist of traveling mainly within the USA. We are heading out in 2023 for a couple of years to do full-time travel. And we can’t wait. If things work out, we would also like to sneak in a trip or two abroad during that time as well.
Currently, we don’t know what the future will bring. But what we do know is that we are done with full-time 9-5 jobs for now. We will work when needed to have money for the next adventure. Proceed with that adventure, rinse and repeat.
Traveling In Focus blog
So why a blog you might ask? Well, for YEARS we have been thinking about starting a blog to share our love of travel and photography. Yet something always seemed to be more pressing, and we didn’t have the time to devote to one, especially with full-time jobs.
Now that we are free of those jobs with the intention of traveling full-time for a couple of years, the blog is our main focus. We want to provide tips on amazing photography locations, share itineraries if you only have a weekend like we used to, and inspire you to put some of these places on your bucket list hopefully.
For now, we are focusing our travels on Canada and the United States because we have a new RV and want to make the most of it!
And maybe, just maybe, you will decide to follow in our footsteps and lead a life of exploration too.
What We Write About
One of our biggest loves is spending time in nature, particularly national & state parks. We thrive on being outside and spending time photographing landscapes and wildlife.
So, of course, that funnels down into what we write about. We love creating posts about these parks and the surrounding areas in the hopes that you will, in turn, want to visit them too.
Some parts of our posts may be written with AI assistance. That said, we always lovingly review, fact-check, and edit before sharing.
Our Other Passion
If you don’t know, John is a huge craft beer fan. We have a second website solely dedicated to beer and breweries around the world. If that interests you, we would love you to visit Beer Decoded.
Other Places to Find Us
Visit us at our socials! We would love to have you join us and get more up-to-date content about our current locations as we travel North America over the next couple of years.