These past two weeks have been momentous for me. Thanks to my mom, I’ve now visited all 50 states.

Yes, that’s right – I visited Alaska!

It was not on my list of places to visit this year, which includes Connecticut, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, but it was next and last on my list of 50 states to visit.

Now, while you may think that the trip to Alaska itself was my greatest achievement thus far in 2026, I’m delighted to report that the trip was only a contributing factor.

We had such a fun time, with 5 days on land and 7 days at sea. We saw so much wildlife – whales, harbor seals, stellar seals, mama and baby caribou, mama and baby grizzlies, mama and baby black bears, one coastal brown bear, ptarmigans all over Denali, eagles all over the coast, snowshoe hare, and moose – and we even got a glimpse of the elusive peak of Denali, which is a mountain so massive that it creates its own weather system and only 30% of visitors ever see it.

Then there was the cruise itself. As someone who works hard against overconsumption both on an individual and societal level, it was hard to witness such excess. However, being on a cruise with my mom, husband, and niece was also a delightful way to spend time with family where we didn’t have to worry about how we were going to get somewhere, what we were going to eat, what we were going to do, and who was going to clean up after us. So there will be some cognitive dissonance to unpack in the coming days, which means I will likely justify the trip to myself as a way to spend time with my family that I only see a handful of times a year in a stress-free way.

While we loved getting off the cruise ship for our excursions, such as whale watching in Icy Strait Point

Photo courtesy of Macy Sherrill, one of the naturalists guiding our whale watching tour. The whale in the photo is named Heavy Dave.

or taking the White Pass into the Yukon on a historic train,

I took this picture from the outdoor viewing area from the last train car.

we also loved the activities on board the cruise ship, such as watching musical variety shows and playing games, including The Price Is Right.

It is in this latter category of entertainment where I accomplished my greatest achievement of 2026 (so far). Friends, you are now reading the words of the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas Twilight Trivia Champion, a feat I won single-handedly.

This is now my second Twilight trivia championship, the first being from the Odd 13 Brewery Trivia Night in Lafayette, CO. However, the Odd 13 championship was a group effort with a few other women from the Romancing the Tropes book club I belong to at the Westminster Library, and this championship was truly just me and my brain.

I won with 16/20 points, and for a few minutes during the questions round, I felt convinced I would not win because some of them were hard, such as what is Bella’s mother’s full name, how many chromosomes does a vampire have, and what song plays during the iconic baseball scene in the Twilight movie. While I could tell you the mother’s first name (Renee; turns out her last name is Dwyer), and that they discussed the chromosome count in Breaking Dawn, I couldn’t even hear the song from the baseball scene in my head enough to formulate a guess.

The other question I got wrong was which Jane Austen book Bella reads in Twilight, and I said Mansfield Park. While it is mentioned in the book, Bella decides not to read that one because the main character, Edmund, is too close to her love interest, Edward.

I will never get these questions wrong again!

Another question I’ll never get wrong again is what address did Chandler tell Janice he was moving to on Friends?

Wait. What? Wasn’t I writing about Twilight?

Yes, I was. But surprise! I’m also the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas Friends Trivia Champion, with a one-question assist from my mom.

The answer to the above address question is 15 Yemen Road, Yemen. My answer had been 1 Yemen Road, Yemen. Dang it! I was so close on that one.

Thankfully, my mom knew the answer to the one question I truly guessed for the answer: What was the brand of lipstick Joey advertised in Japan?

I wrote down konnichiwa, however, my mom knew the answer was ichiban. That correct answer got me to a tie-breaker round with another cruise goer who also scored 19/20.

It all came down to one final question – how many episodes was Gunther in? I guessed 200 and the other competitor guessed 215. The correct answer given was 145, but as I’m fact-checking that number on Google, Wikipedia says 148 and the BBC says 185 and IMDB says 164.

So even though I am thrilled to have spent quality time in all 50 states, and time with my family in Alaska, I am ecstatic to be a twice-crowned trivia champion on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas. The fact that it’s Twilight and Friends really does make me feel proud because of how much I loved the books and show.

Will this feat end up being my greatest achievement in all of 2026? Only time will tell! On Tuesday, I’m giving the keynote address at the Recycle Colorado Summit, and my agent is diligently at work on another of my manuscripts that will hopefully go on submission soon.

Let’s see what else the summer has in store for us ….

I had to use magic eraser to remove other people from this photo, which resulted in a bit of editing slop where interior is now misspelled!