I created A Girl Named Gin for the same reason I finally booked a month in Spain: because it was something I had always wanted to do, and I finally got tired of treating the things I wanted as someday things.

I have loved writing for as long as I can remember. As an adult, I somehow ended up with a Bachelor’s degree in English, which is really just an official way of saying I read a lot of books, wrote a lot of essays on the works, and learned how to overthink a sentence.

For me, writing is how I make sense of things and record the details. It’s how I remember a place, a conversation, or a moment that could be forgotten and give it somewhere to live. Up until now, that place has usually been my personal bullet journals. I think travel is similar.

I don’t just love going somewhere new and checking off top attractions. I love understanding where I am. I love learning the history of a place, often falling into deep dives about old hotels, abandoned towns, and the kinds of places that have managed to stand the test of time. I have spent more time than I care to admit reading about the Plaza Hotel, Bodie, California, Churchhill Downs, and whatever historic landmark has caught my attention that week.

I believe places stay alive when we continue showing up for them. When we walk their streets, visit their museums, ask questions, read the plaque, and pay attention, we help keep their stories culturally relevant. It reminds us that history isn’t just something you find in a textbook or behind a glass case. Sometimes, it’s in the booth you’re sitting in, the bartender’s story, or the building you almost walked past.

I love sitting in a historic bar with a dirty martini — gin, of course — and imagining the people who sat there before me, our contemporaries of the past, in their own versions of the same moment. The gossip, the heartbreaks, the celebrations, the regulars, and the visitors, all intertwined through a barstool.

That’s what I want this blog to be: a place for experiences, tips, observations, and the little details I don’t want to forget. A collection of where I went, what I noticed, what I’d recommend, and what stayed with me after I left.

Maybe, someday, when I’m old and grey, I’ll come back to these posts and feel it all again, if only for a split second — the alley I wandered down, the restaurant where I ate alone and felt completely content, the martini that was exactly as cold as it should be.

That, more than anything, is why I created A Girl Named Gin.