Planning the Adventure of a Lifetime

This past year was, without question, the most tumultuous year of our lives, together or individually, since before we met a couple decades ago. And it didn’t just end quietly. It ended with a bang. More like being shot out of a cannon or launched from a catapult straight into the unknown.

(follow along on our adventures --> HERE

where we'll be sharing tons of photos, videos and tales from the journey, from planning to landing)

The moment we knew our lives had changed

Winning What’s in the Box? was the most incredible and unexpected experience we could have imagined. When Netflix promised “life-changing” prizes, they absolutely meant it. Our lives have already changed, pushing us headfirst into an entirely new chapter—and somehow, we’ve barely even begun. So far, the only prize we’ve actually used is our trip to Washington, D.C. last week.

Sideline passes at the Netflix Christmas Game Day in D.C.

And here’s one of the wildest parts: had we been given the chance to choose about half of the prizes on the show, we would have chosen exactly what we received. No swaps. No edits. Travel. Fashion & personal style. Beautiful luggage to carry us everywhere. Concerts and festivals. The full season of Carolina Panthers football, and cash to help fund it all. It feels almost curated for who we are and how we want to live right now. It is most certainly Robe Life.

As if that weren’t enough, we also bought a home this fall. A mid-century modern fixer-upper. We wrapped up demolition in late November and spent the following weeks planning every detail, selecting fixtures, cabinets, tile, and granite. Everything is purchased, staged, and ready to go back in, starting this week. As we work our way through our prize travel, we’ll be finishing this home too, hopefully by mid-spring, but really whenever it happens. Once it’s complete, we’ll move in, sell our current home in NoDa, and close another chapter. So much movement. So much change. So much to be excited about.

The cruise we won is on a ship that carries less than 300 passengers

Back to the prizes — the wondrous boxes we opened. As we’ve started planning, we’ve realized that if we do this right, we essentially have a full year of travel and events ahead of us. And we are going to do this right. A couple of prizes require date coordination, and once those anchors are set, everything else can fall into place.

The first major date to lock in is our cruise. Right now, it looks like early May in the Mediterranean: Barcelona, Ibiza, Mallorca, Tangier, and the Strait of Gibraltar. Spain, Morocco, and Portugal. We even head up river to Seville. Eleven days in the midst of history, beauty & culinary delights.

The cruise prize also includes a $25,000 luggage credit, and we have a separate $25,000 shopping spree in Paris. Naturally, Paris comes before the cruise, because proper luggage and cruise loungewear are clearly essential. And stylish. We’ll likely add a few days on either end of that trip. We’ll already be in Europe, we have plenty of air and hotel miles, and we want to experience every bit of this as fully as possible. Maybe we fly into London first, spend a few days there, then make our way to Paris. Who knows, but we’re on it.

Another thrilling piece of the puzzle is filling in the map from our “Crowd Control” prize box. We have tickets to both Coachella and Bonnaroo, one in the spring, the other in August. As of now, we’re planning on Bonnaroo in Tennessee, not too far from home, then heading west, the left coast. A full cross-country journey, stopping wherever curiosity pulls us.

Beale Street (and maybe Graceland) as we cross the Mississippi? Definitely. Red Rocks in Colorado as we cross the Rockies? The Grand Canyon? Death Valley? Absolutely yes.

We’ll chase concerts—big and small—along the way.

Once we hit California, we’ll head north up the Pacific Coast Highway. Eventually, we’ll turn back east, winding through Yellowstone and other national parks. We’ll mix camping with hotels, resorts, and Airbnbs. We’ll dive into cities too: San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York, museums and shows. I really want to see something at Madison Square Garden, and Broadway is non-negotiable. Never been, and that ends this year.

The Arctic Treehouse Hotel, Lapland, Finland

We want to see everything. And the best part? We get to bring Lottie Dottie along for the ride.

Mountains. Oceans. Deserts. Cities. Prairies. And to cap it all off—Finland, about a year from now, to the Arctic Treehouse Hotel see the Northern Lights.

Pinch, pinch, pinch. I still find myself wide awake some nights, trying to fully grasp that this is my life—at least for now.

Let’s. GOOOOOOOOOO.