January and February 2023 Travel and Blogging Recap

Some posts on this site contain affiliate links, meaning if you book or buy something through one of these links, I may earn a small commission. Read the full disclosure policy here. Happy 2023, everyone! It's already halfway through March somehow, and the year is already feeling more “normal” than any year since 2019 has. (Granted, things will never truly be the way they were pre-Rona.) My year got off to a roaring start with a trip out to the Pacific Northwest – in fact, I celebrated New Year's in the Hoh Rainforest in Washington State! And as I'm hitting publish on this, I just finished up a 2-week trip in Morocco. 2023 is shaping up to be a pretty epic year travel-wise, and I hope it will also be a great year content and business-wise, too. Let's get to this update! Cape Flattery in Washington January and February: The months in travel Countries visited: 3 – USA, Spain, and Morocco States visited: 4 – Washington state, Oregon, Arizona, New York Flight taken (incl. connections): 10 Days spent on the road: 20 Travel highlights Hiking in the Hoh Rainforest – I started the New Year off with a visit to a new-to-me national park, spending the morning of January 1, 2023 hiking and gawping at moss-draped trees in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. This park (and specifically this section of it) is absolutely enchanting! I already wrote about it here: Visiting the Hoh Rainforest in Winter: Everything You Need to Know. The Hoh Rainforest is so magical! Chilling on the Oregon coast – After the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, my friend and I drove down to the northern Oregon coast, where we rented a beach-front apartment in the town of Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is sleepy in the winter months, and we split our time between exploring beaches and state parks and just relaxing in our cozy digs. Adventurous weekend in Scottsdale – In mid-January, Elliot and I flew to Scottsdale, Arizona for an action-packed couples trip. We went hiking, horseback riding (for me), mountain biking (for Elliot), and even on a UTV adventure. We also ate lots of great food and stayed at some fun properties. I always love spending time in Scottsdale, and think it's a great destination for a couples trip! We had such a fun time in Scottsdale! Exploring Madrid – After being at home for most of February, I left towards the end of the month and flew across the Pond for the first time this year. I spent 3 days exploring the highlights of Madrid – which, honestly, mostly involved food! Along with a food tour and lunch at the oldest restaurant in the world, I also toured the Prado Museum and the royal palace, and spent some time wandering Madrid's parks and famous squares. Returning to Morocco – And on February 27, I flew to Casablanca to meet up with my friend Ashley and join a 2-week tour with Intrepid Travel. This wasn't quite the Morocco trip we were supposed to take together back in 2020 (I was supposed to be hosting that one with my readers!), but it was nevertheless great to finally get back there. (And, spoiler alert: we had the BEST TIME.) Always happy to blend in in Morocco Travel lowlights Other than some rainy, chilly weather in Arizona that I couldn't have changed anyway, I don't really have any complaints about the first two months of the year! Here's hoping the rest of 2023 is just as good. Non-travel highlights Becoming an auntie again! – In between trips in January, my sister had her second baby! A little boy named Maxwell. I started a tradition of taking newborn photos with Max's brother Will in 2020, so I was happy to be home to take photos of Max, too. Will is gonna be an excellent big brother! January and February on the blog(s) Traffic always starts to rise after the holidays, and it was no exception this year. (Though it's always a bummer than February is such a short month!) A Dangerous Business traffic: 163,049 unique visitors and 221,887 pageviews in January, and 145,078 unique visitors and 197,159 pageviews in February Most popular post: An Epic 10-Day Iceland Ring Road Itinerary for the Best Iceland Road Trip – I finally got around to writing this behemoth of a post, using my big Iceland road trip from last summer as inspiration (plus 3 previous trips to Iceland). I think it's the perfect Ring Road itinerary! Other posts published: Olympic National Park On my Cleveland niche site, on the other hand, traffic starts to dip after the holidays. It didn't dip quite as far this year as in previous years, though, so that's good news! Cleveland Traveler traffic: 50,763 unique visitors and 66,114 pageviews in January; and 42,982 unique visitors and 55,683 pageviews in February If you want to see what I've been up to on Cleveland Traveler lately, visit the site here. January and February on social media One of my goals for 2023 is to stop stressing so much over sticking to a posting schedule on social media. I spent too much time in 2022 obsessing over posting to