Hi! 👋
We’re Austin & Kait
And if you're here, there's a good chance you've spent at least a few minutes scrolling through someone else's travel photos thinking, someday. Someday when work slows down. Someday when we save up more. Someday after retirement.
We used to say that too. Then we stopped waiting.
We met in June 2020, which, as you might remember, was not exactly a great year for going anywhere. Kait had always been a traveler at heart. Austin was about to find out just how much. The second the world started opening back up, we hit the road. Small Michigan weekends at first. Then bigger. Then in September 2021, on a road trip through all five of Utah's Mighty Five national parks, Austin got down on one knee at Zion, the very first park of the trip. Confident move. Correct move. Kait said yes.
That trip changed something. Not just because we got engaged, but because we realized this was who we are together, people who plan things down to the hour, who eat PB&J on the trail and splurge on the view at the end, who come home already thinking about where we're going next.
Since then we haven't really stopped. Somewhere between 9 and 10 trips a year, between Michigan weekends and international adventures. Banff and Glacier. Iceland. New Zealand. Up north in Michigan to Traverse City and Boyne. The Upper Peninsula. National parks, small towns, South Island road trips, and everything in between.
We both still work full-time, Austin as an engineer, Kait in digital marketing. We have a mortgage, a cavapoo named Rory who has very strong opinions about suitcases, and a life in Grand Rapids that we genuinely love coming home to. We are not living in a van. We are not retired. We are two people with limited PTO and an ever-growing list of places we refuse to keep putting off.
What you'll find here.
DeNolf Wanders is where we share everything we've figured out about making a full, adventure-filled life work alongside real life. That means detailed itineraries planned to the hour, because when you've been saving your PTO for months, not a single one gets wasted. It means honest takes on where we splurge and where we don't, because we believe the best trips aren't about spending the most, they're about spending intentionally. It means the gear we actually use, the small towns we'd go back to in a heartbeat, and the Michigan content that we think deserves way more attention than it gets. And it means the in-between stuff too, the Sunday planning sessions, the Grand Rapids brunch spots, Rory's face when the suitcases come out, the cozy winters up north, and the life we've built that makes every departure feel earned and every homecoming feel sweet.
We're not here to tell you to quit your job or wait for the perfect moment. We're here to show you that the life you want doesn't have to start later. Someday starts now.
Quick Facts
Cavapoo, 4 years old, chief of home security and suitcase surveillance
Grand Rapids, Michigan
🏡 Home base
🐾 Rory
✈️ Travel style
Fly in, rent a car, road trip everything, smaller towns over big cities whenever possible
📍 Favorite places
Zion, Iceland, Banff, and the Upper Peninsula in fall
Intentional balance, PB&J on the trail, yacht in Milford Sound. Both on the same trip.
💸 Spending philosophy
14/63 visited, and counting
🏞️ National Parks
🎯 Currently planning
Follow along on Instagram and TikTok @denolfwanders, and check the blog for the full itineraries, gear guides, and honest trip breakdowns.
New Zealand, North & South Island
