From birdwatching in Costa Rica to island-hopping through Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, Crawford residents Steve Hilliard and Amy Edwards brought years of travel experience to the Oglethorpe County Library’s Lunch and Learn: Color Your World series on Monday.
The couple shared photos, stories and advice on planning both domestic and international adventures over the course of the hour-long session. Their presentation included practical tips for other travelers, such as how to use digital tools like TripAdvisor, Google Flights and Rome2Rio for planning.
“These days, guide books are pretty much irrelevant because they’ve got so many digital tools,” Hilliard said. “We have a bunch of books we never use. I took the track of how to use the online mobile tools to plan travel.”
Married for 38 years, Hilliard and Edwards met while studying zoology in graduate school at the University of Georgia. Both stayed with UGA throughout their careers, working first in science and later in IT.
The couple’s love for travel started early with their parents being adventurers. Later in their careers, their jobs allowed them to travel frequently for conferences and meetings.
“It really started when we were working at the university,” Hilliard said. “I would have a meeting in Colorado at a cool place. The university is flexible enough that she’d take time off and then she’d have a meeting somewhere, so I’d take time off and go with her.”
Hilliard retired in 2014 and Edwards in 2021, and since then, they’ve committed to seeing as much of the world as they can.
The couple has explored parts of Spain, Germany, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. They’ve taken sailing trips through the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands, road-tripped across Scotland, gone birding in national parks in Spain and Costa Rica and taken part in a Rick Steves tour through Germany.
Along with the digital tool tips, Hilliard emphasized the importance of flexibility on the road.
“I had a slide early on of (Amy) soaking wet, saying, ‘pack your patience and your sense of humor,’” he said. “Things just go wrong. That’s one of the things I think we’re good at. We were both system administrators in terms of computer stuff, and I think we’re both always thinking, OK, if this doesn’t work, what can we do?’”
One of Hilliard’s favorite trips was a 12-day boat trip through the Outer Hebrides, the islands along the west coast of Scotland.
“It was raining and 60 degrees, but it was just awesome, beautiful,” he said.
To plan those kinds of trips, Edwards described a method she used for their first trip to Scotland, something that has since been transitioned to the digital space.
“I put a big map on the wall and read up from the Smithsonian and a bunch of other stuff,” she said. “I sort of put dots on the map, and once I saw that there were more than one thing to do at a certain location, then that became a point I might want to go to. We still have the map.”
As ecologists, the couple prefers natural settings and historic sites over cities, and often plan activities like camping, hiking and museum visits. Dream locations include New Zealand and the Galapagos.
With another trip to Scotland starting next week — including a visit to the Gordon castles, the Aboyne Highland Games and birding in Cairngorms National Park — the couple said they hope to keep traveling for as long as they’re able.
“It made it easy to retire,” Hilliard said. “We have not traveled the world, but we’re trying to see as much as we can see while we still can.”