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Who Am I?

Former full-time travel and food writer
A self-proclaimed professional iPhone photographer
Obsessed with finding weird, off-the-beaten path adventures
Chicago > Denver > Beaumont

Now, like most of you, I’m a corporate girly living to maximize my weekends and vacation days.

Thank y’all so much for having me. Like Tish mentioned, I’ve been blessed to do some amazing things in my life from staying at the first underwater hotel in the Great Barrier Reef to becoming a certified viking in Iceland.

Beaumont was my weird pandemic pivot in 2020 when I saw the writing on the wall that travel wasn’t going to be a thing for a minute and it seemed like a good time to get health insurance and have a little more of a safety net. I moved here to take a job at the Beaumont Convention and Visitors Bureau because this weird little corner of Texas was doing more innovative stuff than I’d seen anywhere.

I’m still working on visiting all 50 states and 50 countries before 50, and am forever in search of those utopia places that are the perfect balance of city, country, mountains and water.

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Trivia Time:�Who Thinks They’re a Southeast Texas Expert?

If you know where these places are shout them out.

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Credit: @MyCurlyAdventures_

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Credit: Jerome Cabeen

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We Have a Lot of REALLY Unique Places Here.

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“Why would you ever move here?”��”There’s nothing to do here.”��“Boremont, really?”

And despite all that, the responses I regularly get from people when I told them I moved here from Colorado were about as you would expect. In addition to my standard responses of, I never thought I’d be able to afford to live 40 minutes from the ocean, that my beautiful 3 bedroom house here is 100K less than my one bedroom condo in Colorado, that my furbabies appreciate the huge backyard with plenty of space to spread out, the people are amazing, you can get just about anywhere in 7 minutes with no traffic despite every errand takes 15 minutes longer because inevitably you’re going to run into someone you know and of course, the food again,

�I would rattle off 5-10 things to do of, oh have you tried this, or eaten here and they’d look at me with a blank state. 9x out of 10 the response was we haven’t heard of any of those things. And thus the book was born. So now instead of 10 things, I can give you 100.

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Credit: Pam LeBlanc

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Credit: Port Arthur Yacht Club

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Credit: @MyCurlyAdventures_

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Credit: Jess Moore

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Credit: Jess Moore

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If You Have Nothing Nice to Say…

That was a lot of pretty pictures but I need to get on a soap box for a second. Who’s seen the 1-star reviews for the national parks? Pretty ridiculous right?

When I was a full time writer the paper I was a food writer for in denver the local affiliate of the Houston chron. We weren’t allowed to call ourselves reviewers or critics. We wrote about the experience, nothing overly positive or negative, so the reader could decide for themselves if they wanted to try that spot.

The internet makes it way too easy to share opinions but your post, which you think might be helpful to someone could’ve just deferred someone from eating or shopping at that small business. If you have a less than stellar experience, address it with the business directly as soon as it happens. They’ll be more likely able to assist and address your concerns than if you just went online to vent.

If you hear anything from today hear this: posting online may get you an audience but it doesn’t give you a resolution.

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The World Doesn’t Need More Critics or Reviewers

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Your Challenge: Be a Catalyst for Good��Replace “Beaumont is Boring” with ”Beaumont Bucket List” in your mind.

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How You Can Help:�Explore Your Backyard Like a Tourist

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How You Can Help:�Become a Localist�Beaumont.com/Localist

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Helpful Resources for Finding Things to Do:

VisitBeaumontTX
409 Family
SETX Foodies
Things to do in Beaumont + SETX
Beaumont Events
Best Bites
City of Beaumont - Government

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A moment of silence for:��Pour Brothers�Crown Pizza�Willy Burger�MAKE Creative Space�Clifford Distilling Co.�Lacuna Tequila�Tacos La Shula’s table-sized burrito�

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If you don’t take pride in where you live, �who will?