Hi! I’m Megan McDonald, a Canadian currently living and working in the United States!
Travel has always been an interest to me. My mom was a flight attendant back in the day, and she had some really cool stories of travels she did, like when she did a homestay with a family in Japan, and went on an overnight ferry trip in Norway. I always wanted to get out there and explore my way too!
When I graduated high school, my mom, sister and I did a three week trip to Europe to visit some family friends who were living in Zurich, Switzerland. It was such a great opportunity to have a home base in Zurich and explore a little of Switzerland!
We also visited an international exchange student from Frankfurt I had made friends with at my high school (my mom and sister later hosted her sister when she came to Canada!).
Our last stop was to London to see one my mom’s oldest friends. She took us around London, to Windsor Castle, Bath, Stonehenge and Brighton! I was always a history buff, so getting to see a lot of historic sites in person was amazing!
Just like that, my first big international trip was over, and I was definitely hooked! Everywhere we went seemed to have an endless supply of amazing places to explore!
After that summer, I moved to Pullman, Washington to start school at Washington State University on the Varsity Women’s Rowing Team. Go Cougs!
I spent 4 years studying civil engineering and rowing on the varsity women’s team (with an extra semester for “super senior” year to finish up school). We traveled around the US a fair amount for races and while we weren’t there for site seeing it was still a lot of fun to get a taste of different parts of the country.
We trained on the Snake River, a beautiful and somewhat remote location. We did winter training camp near Phoenix, Arizona and would row in the morning and hike the red rock mountains in the afternoon. We had multiple races in Sacramento and San Diego, California. Nationals were hosted in Indianapolis one year, and we spent the week before training in Louisville, Kentucky. One year we even ventured to Clemson, South Carolina for a weekend regatta. While I wouldn’t have much to say about those locations as a tourist, they helped give me a good taste for the wide variety of places in the US.
After graduating university, I embarked on a 3 month backpacking trip around Europe with a various group of friends! To read more on that trip, check out my post here!
Since then, I started working full-time as a structural engineer in Seattle, Washington. I take my vacation time and weekend warrior adventures very seriously!
I love exploring cities and learning about their history, and my favourite way to get a feel for a new place is to just walk around! I also really enjoy being active, so anytime I can include hiking, swimming, rock climbing or caving in a trip the better!
I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I enjoyed my first egg coffee in Vietnam!