I figured it would be a good idea to look back on some of the highlights from this year and perhaps also give you guys some recommendations for things to do this upcoming year.

Experts Only Vail

We went to John Summit’s Experts Only Vail Ski Weekender in mid-February, and it was a blast. While we were there we skied Keystone Mountain, which was a nice refresher since I hadn’t skied in years, and it felt good to be back on the slopes again. The real slopes that is, not just the small hills we have in Minnesota.

There was also a blizzard that weekend, but that only added to the experience. Seeing a great concert with snow pouring down and pyrotechnics going off… it was a great time to say the least.

STL Mardi Gras

St. Louis has the second biggest Mardi Gras celebration after New Orleans, so it’s always fun to go downtown with a group of friends and see what sorts of mischief people are up to. This year we saw FISHER perform in one of the big tents with an open bar, so that was quite fun. It’s always funny when these big-name DJs perform in St. Louis, you’d never know they were even there because they don’t post about it anywhere! To be fair, STL isn’t the most glamorous city to play in, but they could at least hide it a little.

Regardless, it was still a great concert and Mardi Gras was a fun time as always.

Myrtle Beach

We took a much-needed vacation to Myrtle Beach at the end of April, and it was a really nice quiet weekend getaway. We found many cool bars, soaked up the sun, and enjoyed the few days we had off of work. I will say, though, there really isn’t much to do in downtown Myrtle Beach. According to most people, it also isn’t the safest. So, we mostly remained at the resort and stayed in the North Myrtle Beach area.

Our favorite spots were JEM Social and Backyard Sports Bar & Grill.

Colorado

The trip to Colorado in June was a much-needed break from the relentless humidity that Missouri was bestowing upon us. While Colorado’s temperatures were also in the 100s, it was actually bearable with how low the humidity was, especially in the mountains.

We visited downtown Breckenridge, Vail Village, Keystone, Boulder and a bunch of other places in the mountains, and it was cool seeing everything that we saw covered in snow in February in the summertime.

Experts Only Festival NYC

Since we loved Experts Only Vail so much, we decided to take a trip to NYC for the first Experts Only Festival in September. It was a blast; we got to see a bunch of our favorite artists as well as explore Manhattan for a weekend, which was much-needed after the previous horrible first impression I had of the city a few years back. This time around it was much less touristy and much more fun, and you can find my highlights from the city here.

Night Lights

In October my girlfriend surprised me with a trip to the Night Lights event at the Cedar Lakes Cellars in Wright City, Missouri, and it was an incredible experience. I’ll spare you the details since I already wrote about them here, but it was pretty surreal to say the least. It’s the perfect event for a date night, anniversary celebration, birthday or anything in between, and I could not recommend it more.

Ryse Nightclub

Well, as you can see this year was the year where I started the journey down the EDM rabbit hole. We saw Layton Giordani at Ryse in the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, MO and it was a fantastic show. It’s a nice and intimate venue, so if you’re in the STL area and your favorite artist is performing at Ryse, I highly recommend you seize the opportunity to see them.

The tickets were $30 each and the drinks are very reasonably priced, so overall it’s a very affordable experience. They have some pretty good artists coming in 2026, so I suggest you check their catalog and see if you can make it to any shows.

---

These were just a few of the fun things I did this year, and I hope they encourage you to try something new in 2026! I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to travel abroad this year, but I’m hoping to do so at some point next year.

Thank you for reading! Like and follow if you enjoyed the post, and drop a comment if you have any recommendations for things I should do or places I should go in the new year.

Happy holidays and safe travels!