Salty Zebra

Image Credit: Canva AI   I was thinking through recently what I want to write about here on the Salty Zebra Blog. A while back I started to develop rhythms of Travel Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Potluck Saturdays, with Bible study filling in the rest. These were intended to inspire me, but eventually became a constraint instead. I felt like I had  to write about wellness on Wednesdays, but sometimes I didn't have anything on my heart to write about. So, I'm breaking out of the mold and just writing about something fun that I've been enjoying lately that, perhaps, you might too!  As I've written about before ( 1 , 2 , 3 ), I've been learning about how to use credit card sign up bonuses (SUBs) and other benefits to further my travel dreams and daily living. The key to this, as I've mentioned before and will mention every time I talk about credit cards, is PAYING OFF YOUR BALANCE EVERY MONTH! If you don't do this, you negate any benefits you get and can f...

  Did you know that you could cruise to places other than Alaska out of the Northwest? It's true! Most, but not all of these cruises are repositioning ones bringing the ship to the Northwest for the Alaska Season in the Spring and then moving them on to their next destination in the Fall. A few of them are actually roundtrip out of the Northwest to other Pacific locations. Let's break down the options available to you!  The easiest way to catch a cruise is to hop right on a ship near you. There are over 700 cruises leaving Seattle, WA and Vancouver BC in 2026, but as you guessed it, the vast majority of these are Alaskan cruises. I cannot encourage you enough to take one of these, I do almost every year, but sometimes you'd like to try something different. I get that because I do to! The good news is that about 100 of these cruises go to destinations other  than Alaska, so you have lots of places you can travel to. Have you ever wanted to go to Hawaii, but can't stomach...

   Welcome to a new study! I always love the feeling of starting a new study or a new class! The possibilities are endless. I haven't messed up or fallen short yet - so maybe this time I won't 😂. And I'm so excited about the subject we're discussing, Secure in Christ . This study covers the book of Ephesians, one of my uncle's favorite books that he taught me once many years ago could be read in just 30 minutes! Who knew you could receive such a wealth of knowledge in such a short time, but I plan to spend a great deal more than 30 minutes diving into all that God has to teach me in Ephesians this summer.   We'll be focusing on one chapter a week for six weeks, but as always, my blog posts will span the two-week break as well, so they'll be more like 0.8 chapters per week. In Ephesians 1, we'll be looking at how we are chosen and redeemed. Chapter 2 teaches us about being alive in grace. Unified under Christ is the theme of chapter 3. Then in Ephesians ...

 To:  Spy Team Leader  CC:   Mission Commander  From:   Agent C RE:   Mission Update Well, this update is going to be pretty short because we didn’t do anything I can show you today!   Your parents spent the morning packing and then the afternoon shopping for presents for you and your siblings.   When they finished shopping, they called you and then went for a walk along the water.   It was about sunset and the sky was beautiful with the cliffs and water. Then, when they got back to the house, Dad spent a few minutes taking pictures of the night sky.   The stars here are so amazing! Just a few more days and we’ll be home! -Agent C ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To:   Spy Team Leader  CC:   Mission Commander  From:   Agent C RE:   Final Mission Update I can’t believe my mission is coming to an end.   I am pleased to tell you that...

 To:  Spy Team Leader  CC:   Mission Commander  From:   Agent C RE:   Double Mission Update Wow guys!   Sorry this is late in coming, but we were up and out the door yesterday so fast that I could not send Monday’s Mission update – so I will do a double update today.   The weather here has been beautiful.   The forecast was for rain all this week, but we’ve only seen a few light, brief showers.   Hardly enough to notice, let alone get wet!   We’ve been so blessed by the weather in our time here.   Your Co-op teacher was here last year at the same time and they had torrential downpours and flash floods during her whole trip!   I felt so sad for them.   So, Monday dawned beautiful and bright.   We dawdled around the house that morning and toured the yard a little more.   I’ll share some pictures with you now of where we’re staying: We pull into a long grassy driveway, lined at night with ...