Destination: Fairbanks, Alaska USA
Trip Length: ~4 days
Vacation Days Used: 8 hours
Total Cost: $1067.80

• $569.20 - Round trip flight from LAX to FAI
• $39.60 - 4 days of parking at LAX
• $100 - Car rental in Fairbanks, with the under 25 fee :(
• $60 - 2 nights at 9th Ave Hostel
• $30 - Tried to save on food by packing food: Instant noodles, nuts, and energy bars.
• $269 - Arctic Circle/Aurora Tour

Travel Day 0 (Thursday, March 30th, 2017)

The day I’ve been waiting for was finally here, I was going to Alaska to chase the northern lights. I took Friday off work and left work a bit earlier on Thursday afternoon to drive out to LAX for my flight at 7:45pm. I had chosen a flight at night for two reasons: 1 so I didn’t have to take an additional vacation day just for travel and 2. So in case the northern lights were out that I might catch them from the flight. I also booked a seat on the right side of the plane which would be facing north west, increasing my chances of seeing the aurora from the flight.

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Destination: Kelso Dunes, Mojave Desert, California USA
Trip Length: ~11 hours
Vacation Days Used: 0 hours
Trip Cost: $0

It was a year ago, March 26th, 2017. I had booked my flight for Fairbanks, Alaska to try and see the northern lights, but that was next weekend and I was feeling extremely motivated about travel and couldn’t wait to start. So I decided to do a weekend day trip to Kelso Dunes, which are these large sand dunes in the middle of the Mojave Desert here in California, known for producing a phenomenon called singing sand. It was a 4 hour drive from me so I picked up 2 liters of water, a couple pre-packaged salads and a bag of hot wings for food, and set off on the drive.

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Destination: Joshua Tree, California USA
Trip Length: ~9 hours
Vacation Days Used: 0 hours
Trip Cost: $0

The first trip I ever went on by myself was on March 12th, 2017. I had downloaded the couchsurfing app a couple days beforehand (having heard about it from some college friends). I wanted to be like them, use the app to live as a world citizen, going from couch to couch all around the world. It sounded like ultimate freedom. Yet a part of me didn’t know if I could give up the rest of my life doing that, so I decided to dip my toes into that world by meeting up with some fellow travelers in the area and going on a day trip.

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