I had so much fun traveling in 2022 - both for work and personal occasions. For all the lack of travel during the pandemic - happy to report that there has indeed been a bounce back. I thought about sharing my favorite moments from the trip but that kind of felt like a cliche. Instead, I’m sharing spooky little-known facts about the 10 places I visited in 2022.

In chronological order

1. Sedona: Sedona’s McDonald’s is the only McDonald’s in the world to have green arches. When your city is home to the type of breathtaking natural beauty you find in Sedona, you take preserving that beauty seriously. The West Sedona plans were designed to ensure consistency with the Pueblo-revival style of the shopping center without taking away from the surrounding area’s natural beauty.

2. Los Angeles: In Los Angeles, there is a law against licking frogs. The Law came into power after some teenagers in Los Angeles found out that a certain type of toad’s skin contains hallucinogens. 

3. Las Vegas: The designer of the Las Vegas sign, Betty Willis, gifted her design to the city as a generous gift. Meaning, she never got around to copywriting her design. The conclusion? Vegas magnets, Vegas keychain, Vegas bumper stickers, all flaunting “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” without paying any royalty to Willis. I’m going to go on a limb and say she regrets that decision.

4. San Francisco: The Zodiac Killer! One of the most famous unsolved crimes of all time took place in the San Francisco area. The notorious killing spree began on Lake Herman Road in Benicia, California, roughly 40 miles northeast of the city.

5. Stockholm: This condition gets its name from a 1973 bank robbery incident that happened in Stockholm, Sweden. During the six-day standoff with police, many of the captive bank employees became sympathetic toward the bank robbers. Bonus fact: It’s an Acme now, I visited!

6. Finland: There are more Saunas than Cars. Heard about the Finnish Sauna tradition? If you have, then you will probably not be as surprised by this fact about Finland, but yes, there are more Saunas than cars! Even Burger King in Helsinki has a Sauna.

7. Washington DC: Washington, D.C. used to be covered by an ocean. You can still find fossils to this day.

8. Barcelona: The Barcelona Beach Is 100% man-made. Barcelonetta, the beach that attracts millions of tourists every year, was man-made for the 1992 Olympic games. Before the games, the coastline was the industrial part of the city. The sand was imported from Egypt. Not even the palm trees are native to Barcelona! They imported 12 different species for the games.

9. Nice: Made in Italy?! Maybe! Nice has only been part of France since 1860 when Italy reluctantly gave her up to repay France for helping defend itself from the Austrians.  The Mayor’s office likes to say that ‘Nice chose France’, but the truth is that the famous ‘vote’ was rigged: there were no ‘non’ ballots printed!

10. Monaco: One in three people who live in Monaco are millionaires. There are 12,261 millionaires per square mile in Monaco. At $186,080 it also has the highest GDP per capita in the world, second only to Luxembourg. Why do the wealthy love it so much? The combination of tax incentives, location, and luxury amenities is undeniably alluring.

Here are some photos of the travels…