Planet with Sara 2020 Year in Review Countdown

2020 will forever be one of the craziest years in our lifetime and I know one of the hardest for many.  2020 is also the year I launched Planet with Sara and my hope is that Planet with Sara has been an escape for you to dream of and plan future travel and to find ways to adventure locally.  

As I reflect back on the last 9 months of this blog, I wanted to share my 2020 highlights counting down to the new year. Thank you for being part of the Planet with Sara community and I wish you the best in 2021!

Without further ado:

10. Launching Planet with Sara

I’ve dreamed of starting a blog for probably 6 years and 2020 was the year it finally happened! Crazy to start a travel blog right when the world was shutting down to travel but it’s helped me stay connected to fellow travelers, share the local travel we’ve done this year and put together guides from my last decade of traveling the world!

9. Biking most of the bike pathways in Minneapolis

I’ve always been big into biking and this year it became a great escape for us to “travel” all of the wonderful bike paths in Minnesota to get takeout and see new scenery.  One of my favorite trips was biking for takeout from All Square and picnicking at Minnehaha Falls.

Read my Top 7 Bike paths in Minnesota article here.

8. Participating in my first podcast

When Leah from Wander by Proxy reached out to me to be a guest on her travel podcast featuring female adventurers, I was excited to reflect on a travel story from the prior year. We visited Chile during massive protests in November 2019 and learned a lot through that experience. Check it out here!

7. Being nominated as a Top 5 Travel Blogger in Minnesota

It was an incredible honor being nominated to the Twin Cities Collective Top 5 Travel Bloggers awards this December! While I do this blog because it brings me to joy to talk travel with others, it was so nice hearing it’s benefiting others too!

There’s an amazing group of Minnesota travel bloggers (I started an informal monthly connect for local travel bloggers this fall!) and I’m excited for this community to grow more next year.

6. Living the snowbird lifestyle for nearly 2 months in Florida

Florida has always been a second home and we were grateful to be able to spend 7 weeks at a family condo. This enabled us to get a break from apartment living and prolong our summer season.  We visited Crystal River, Ocala, Miami, Naples, Ft. Myers, Sanibel and the Everglades for stargazing during breaks from working remotely.

5. Exploring Savannah GA on a road trip

During our time in Florida, we road tripped to Savannah which had always been on Ryan’s travel list.   It’s very walkable and most activities are outdoors so we were able to safely enjoy a lot that this historic city has to offer!  I loved this little escape and highly recommend adding Savannah to your travel list.

4. Exploring by Paddleboard

Another escape for us in 2020 was paddleboarding! We purchased our boards in August and since then have paddled pretty much weekly! Can’t wait for more adventures the lakes thaw again.

Read my article on paddleboarding Lake Superior here!

3. Visiting the North Shore of Minnesota for the first time in summer

The furthest north I had gone in the summer was Duluth prior to 2020 and like many others we made the journey all the way up to the Canada border and back.  I was blown away by the scenery on our 5-day trip and can’t wait to visit again.

Read about my 22 Must See Stops here!

2. Visiting the majority of Minnesota’s cideries

I was introduced to the cider culture when we lived in London and was thrilled to see the cider scene explode in Minnesota recently.  We visited 10 cideries this year and plan to finish our tour in 2021.

Read about my favorite cideries here!

1. Exploring SO much more of my home state Minnesota

The silver lining for travelers this year was getting to explore locally and this was absolutely true for us. We visited St. Cloud, Cuyuna, New Ulm, Stillwater, Rochester, Red Wing, the North Shore (including Duluth and Grand Marais), Winona, Lanesboro, the Great River Road, Taylors Falls, Northfield and Faribault.  We also used our State Parks pass and visited 13 state parks!

I am thankful we live in a beautiful state and while I wish winter was shorter, 2020 has taught us to embrace joyful moments so you can expect to see more winter content from me in the coming weeks!

Check out my articles from my MN adventures this year!

Cheers to 2021 and more adventures!