Ultimate Coffee Date: September 2026

Welcome to another Ultimate Coffee Date!  I’m back from Mongolia and knee-deep in a giant backlog of all-the-things-I-missed-while-I-was-gone. I got back last Tuesday morning + had 7 appointments in the afternoon + have been leaving work around 7-9pm on the daily, so I’m really, really looking forward to this long weekend where I’m finally not scheduled to work!!

Ultimate Coffee Date: September 2026

This is a screenshot of a video one of our guides took of me galloping! (I’d never galloped before until this trip + I’ve never felt so free! *-*)

We spent the first ~9 days training in horseback archery! For the first few days, we stayed with a nomadic family and got to ride the semi-wild horses through open fields + work on archery training from the ground! Then we migrated over to do 5 days of horseback archery training with a former national champion! (On one of the days, we saw him throw a water bottle up in the air + shoot an arrow clean through the middle!) It was a lot of fun, but also probably the most I’ve ever worked out on any vacation. (Worth it though!)

During the second almost-half of our trip, we went up into northern Mongolia to check out the reindeer herding tribe in West Taiga. My brother and I got to ride reindeer up the mountain + we spent a couple  nights with the families there before heading back down + camping in a few other spots. We met a really lovely couple on this tour who (coincidence of coincidences) happen to live just an hour away from us! They were awesome to get to travel with + we have plans to meet up again sometime soon now that we’re all back in California! :]

The reindeer were so adorable! I had to keep ducking/dodging whenever mine turned his head though to not get taken out by his antlers. I love how picturesque this turned out — the rainbow understood the assignment! :P

We spent the last couple days at the Nomad Festival in Ulaanbaatar where representatives from all the different provinces gather together + visitors (both locals + tourists) can see/experience traditional music/dance/food/crafts and watch horse racing, horseback archery, and wrestling tournaments.

There are so many places in the world that I’d love to see/explore that, at least over the last several years, I don’t end up revisiting places very often. Mongolia though is definitely up there on my list of places I’d love to come back to (I wanna train more!!)!

Selfie of me and my horseback archery instructor’s horse! :] (He looks a lil like a camel here, haha. I loved him — spicy at times but such a wonderful boy. <3

(Link-up with Coco @ Running with Perseverance & Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner! Also linking up with My First 5K and More, Running With Attitude, Run Laugh Eat Pie, and Runs with Pugs for Fit Five Friday.)

• • What’s a place you’ve been to that you’d love to visit again? New Zealand would make it on the list for me too!
  • Have you ever traveled with anyone you did not get along with? _{Thank goodness I had one of my best friends there with me…}
  • Come back on Monday for the My Month Is Booked linkup! I read a lotttt while I was on vacation, haha.