Meet Erica Hoff | Travel Blogger

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erica Hoff and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erica, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
Traveling makes me happy. For me, the experience does not begin when the airplane lands, or when you park the car at your destination; travel starts when I first discover the place and the butterflies kick in, making me want to see it for myself. I then start to do research and get more and more excited to see the place. Once serious and the trip seems feasible, I set the time aside in my calendar, making it official. Having trips to look forward to creates a happiness in me that I cannot explain. Traveling and trips give me motivation when life gets mundane or even difficult. Creating itineraries for the trip is a whole lot of fun in itself! Even though some people would rather just wing it, and let the trip come as it goes, I feel that you can lose out on some opportunities because of not preparing ahead of time or not reserving things. Call me boring, but I love to plan out what things I hope to see and where I want to explore so that I can map them out and do them in an order that makes sense. As a person who loves checklists, creating itineraries gives me a sense of completion and satisfaction. Being able to put my itineraries all together in a space of my own makes me happy. For those who do not like to plan trips, don’t worry. I’ve done all the work for you! All you have to do is go!

Once everything is planned, I get to shop for the trip, which is something a lot of people like to do for fun already. Packing is also fun to me and makes me happy because it gets me excited for the trip and fills me with hope for what is to come. Sure, sometimes preparing for a trip can be stressful with bills, medications, life, etc. – but once the trip actually begins, I get to put my responsibilities on hold and enjoy what the world has to offer. My favorite places always include nature. God made the outdoors just so beautiful and I cannot wait to see it all. When I travel, I feel free and my heart is full. That is what makes me happy; traveling, especially if it is with my husband and son.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As someone who has been in the Human Resources world for 10+ years, I know that it can be extremely difficult to get away from work. There is ALWAYS something going on; open enrollment, sally got in an argument with sue and now the whole office knows, performance reviews are around the corner, the list can go on and on. Moral of the story is there is always something that can stop you from living your life outside of work. But that is why I think it is so important to set the dates aside for a trip, so that you can get away from everything at work for a short period of time and simply enjoy life and your loved ones. That way, when you do return to work, you are refreshed and ready to take on whatever the world demands from you. I created these itineraries with this in mind, so that people can simply follow the itinerary and enjoy the adventures, without having to do the research themselves. The work is already done for them, all they have to do now is go!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was visiting the area, we would start off the day with a coastal hike and then grab brunch at the beach. The beach is our happy place, so this would be a no-brainer for us. Brunch would either be at a restaurant called The Beachcomber, which is on the beach sand, or at Las Brisas, which has a beautiful garden and view of the ocean. After spending some time in the sun, we would head over to the Irvine Spectrum to go shopping. There are a lot of things to do there, such as the Hello Kitty Café, The Lip Lab (where you get to make your own custom lipstick from scratch), watch a movie, play games at Dave and Buster’s, or go to a comedy show. We would then have dinner at The Kickin’ crab, where it’s socially acceptable to eat with your hands! To end the night, we would head over for drinks either at a speakeasy called the Rabbit, which is located inside the Anaheim Packing House, or at Tempo Cantina, which has the most delicious margarita flights.

If she were to spend the weekend, the next day we would spend the day at Disneyland or Knotts Berry Farm! There is just so much to do in Orange County. To top it off, if we drive 1 hour in one direction, we have San Diego and 1 hour in the other direction, we have Los Angeles – two very famous places in California. 30 minutes one way and we have the beach, 2 hours the other, and we have snowy mountains. It’s just the best of both worlds! I love where I live and never want to move (again- I lived in Wyoming for a couple of years, but that’s a story for another day)!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
First and foremost, I would like to give thanks to God for allowing me to have the experiences I have had up to this day. Without God, none of this would be possible. I would also like to give a big thank you to those who have supported me with my blog. To my sister, thank you for always being my number one supporter in everything I do, no matter how tough life gets. To my best friend, thank you for sticking with me through all these years. Last but not least, I want to thank my husband and son (not that my son has a choice-haha) for always willing to go on adventures with me. I love our time together as a family.

PS. Thank you to whoever anonymously nominated me for this.

Website: https://out-of-office2.webnode.page/

Instagram: outofoffice_withloveerica

Other: Pinterest: OutofOffice_WithLoveErica Tiktock: outofoffice_witherica

Image Credits
Family Photo – credits to Photographer: iveseenmedia Instagram: iveseenmedia Website: iveseenmedia.com