Our favorite picture from October.
Hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, Turkey

Did you miss us? We were a little quiet last month. Things got a bit hectic and we missed sending out our September newsletter… so, let’s get back to Cruzin’ Together!

A lot has happened in the last two months! We were heads down — or, as we call it, “in the lab” — planning and booking hotels and transportation for the remainder of our trip. We also had a bit of a scare as we missed the war breaking out in Israel by only a few days and had to cancel our trip and find a new route to get to Jordan. This additional planning is largely the reason we weren’t able to send out a newsletter last month.

On a lighter note… here’s a short and hopefully fun recap of what we’ve been up to in September and October!

FRIENDS DOING COOL THINGS 

🧑🏼‍🎄 3rd Annual Buddy's Elves Charity Fundraiser — As some of you know, Justin and his friend Ryan began hosting an annual fundraiser, Buddy’s Elves, in 2021, with one simple goal — raise money for a local charity or non-profit while building a community that gathers once a year to spend a night together doing some good. While we are bummed to miss it this year, Ryan and his wife, Jillian, are keeping the tradition alive!

This year’s beneficiary is The Cancer Wellness Center. Located in Northbrook, the Cancer Wellness Center aims to improve the physical and emotional well-being of those impacted by cancer. They provide programming, support, and resources completely free of cost to cancer patients, their caregivers, and their families. And to top it off, one of our best friends, Stephanie Aaron, is a clinician there!
If you’d like to learn more about The Cancer Wellness Center or support the cause… click here! If you do donate, please put “Buddy’s Elves” in the notes.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO, WATCHING & READING

BRITT
📺 You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
📺 Love at First Sight

JUSTIN
🎙️ The Kids of Rutherford County — New series from Serial!

BOTH
📚 Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver — Just started! If you’ve read this, let us know what you thought!
📚 Yellowface - R.F. Kuang — We both recently finished reading this one and are excited to discuss in our bookclub meeting.
📺 Beckham
📺 Heather McMahan - Son I Never Had

NOVEMBER GOALS

💰 Find a financial planner — If anyone has a financial planner that they’ve worked with and would recommend, let us know! We’re back to full blown adulting as soon as we return. 😤

WHERE WE’RE HEADED IN NOVEMBER
Feel free to send any tips, recommendations, or thoughts our way!

🇺🇾 Uruguay — We’ll spend one night in the old city of Colonia del Sacramento before taking the bus to Montevideo. Our goal is to get invited to drink mate with a local. Anyone have friends in Montevideo?!

🇦🇷 Argentina — We’re heading back to Argentina to hike in Patagonia! We’ll be starting on the Argentine side and hiking Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres before going to the Chilean side to hike Base Torre.

🇧🇷 Brazil — Christ the Redeemer, here we come! We’re excited to see another New Wonder of the World and check out some of Brazil’s beautiful beaches before heading to Iguazu Falls, the largest waterfall system in the world.

🇨🇱 Chile — From the rainforest to the mountains! We’ll spend four nights in Santiago where we’re looking forward to some wine and exploration. We’re also planning to take a day trip to Valparaiso and/or Maipo Valley to visit some vineyards.

🇧🇴 Bolivia — We’ll cross into Bolivia from Chile’s Atacama Desert and kick off a three-day tour of the Dalí Desert and Uyuni Salt Flats. Keeping our fingers crossed we’ll have a little bit of rain so that we can see the mirror effect across the flats!

SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER RECAP — PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Cape Town (CPT) 🚗 Stellenbosch 🚗 Franschhoek 🚗 Hermanus ✈️ Mykonos (JMK) ⛵️ Koufonisi ⛵️ Schoinoussa ⛵️ Dounousa ⛵️ Paros ⛵️ ✈️ Athens (ATH) ✈️ Bucharest (OTP) ✈️ Berlin (BER) 🚂 Munich (MUC) ✈️ Antalya (AYT) 🚗 Kas 🚗 Cappadocia 🚌 Ankara (ESB) ✈️ Tbilisi (TBS) 🚗 Stepantsminda 🚂 Yerevan (EVN) ✈️ Larnaca (LCA) 🚌 Paphos (PFO) ✈️ Amman (AMM) 🚗 Wadi Musa 🚗 Wadi Rum 🚗 Aqaba 🚗 Dead Sea ✈️ Madrid (MAD) ✈️ Buenos Aires (EZE)

That’s it for this month! Don’t hesitate to reach out if anything we shared resonated with you, if you have tips on places we should visit, questions about what we’re up to, or if you just want to say hello. We’d love to hear from you! 

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