See the world, say the vows

It was love at lost credit card, but Erin Pucilowski had to put her future husband to the test.

“On our first vacation together we went to Peru and hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. I had to see if he was cut out for vacations with me,” she said.

That four-day hike put the two to the test. Port Washington native Scott Pucilowski and his future bride from Oregon, Wis., got drenched while traversing Dead Woman’s Pass, watching rain fall beneath them at 14,000 feet above sea level.

“You’re hiking over the Andes,” Scott said. “It was slippery. You had to be looking down.”

Erin had a different strategy.

“I took the approach of just going on my bottom down the steps,” she said.

Porters were required to come along, and they knew when and where to stop for the night.

“You’re in tents,” Scott said.

They were also in love ­— with each other and traveling adventures. Both had studied in college in foreign countries before they met — Scott in Germany and Erin in Jamaica.

The two connected through mutual friends eight years ago. Scott forgot his credit card at the bar, and Erin grabbed it. She contacted him the next day and offered to mail it back. Scott wanted to meet instead.

They went out to dinner in Milwaukee. Scott figured it was a date. Erin caught on soon enough.

“At the end, she bought all my drinks and put my card down,” Scott said with a smile.

The two dated for “seven years” before getting engaged, Erin said as she gently patted her husband on the shoulder twice to the cadence of her words.

They didn’t have a traditional wedding; they’re not typical travelers and their bucket list covers more mileage than most.

Scott popped the question on a pier at a popular wedding spot in Jamaica on March 31, 2023. They were living in a house in Brown Deer, so the engagement wasn’t a surprise.

When it came time to plan their wedding, they both knew traditional nuptials were out. They joked about getting married in Petra, Jordan, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

“Then I booked it,” Erin said.

She bought two tickets. They had to break the news to their parents that nobody else was coming.

“We went 3-for-4,” Scott said. “Can’t make everybody happy.”

“In the end,” Erin said, “everyone was excited about it.”

The couple connected with a so-called elopement photographer who knew the area and the language. He set the schedule and made sure they arrived at the site of the former Nabatean village early in the morning before anyone else since it’s open to the public.

Scott didn’t see Erin’s wedding dress until he zipped it up.

“I was the best bridesmaid there ever was,” he said.

Once fully dressed and at the village, they had to walk at least 1,000 feet up.

“Stairs is generous” Scott said of the terrain, but at least it wasn’t raining.

“It was 88 and nice,” Erin said.

“It’s a dry heat,” Scott said.

They were also safe, despite unrest in Israel seven miles away across the Dead Sea.

The couple completed their ceremony by 8 a.m. on June 27, 2024, and were onto their honeymoon. The first stop was a hotel with individual dome-shaped rooms full of windows in the Wadi Rum Desert.

After a week in Jordan, it was off to seven countries over three weeks, starting with Bosnia. A road trip from there to Croatia, Montenegro and Albania lined up nicely. Then they took a redeye flight to Oman, sleeping a night on a relatively empty plane to save money on a hotel, before flying to Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates.

They snorkeled in Oman, swam with sea turtles in Tanzania, rented speed boats and visited islands in Croatia and hiked the Albanian Alps.

Upon arriving home, they held a reception for family and friends. Erin wore her dress but cut off the train since it had red sand stains and was cut up by rocks.

They had legally married at the courthouse before they left, but neither remembers when on purpose. They treat June 27 as their wedding date.

Much like their relationship, their travel adventures have a history. Scott, 34, and Erin, 32, have visited 33 countries and five continents.

Much like their marriage, they are just getting started. They hope to visit every country in the world while avoiding popular hotspots, opting for short-term rental places and accepting advice from locals on where to go.

“I like that you’re not part of a tour or tourist group. You just get to go to the local villages and do what you want,” Erin said.

That can lead to interesting experiences, but the pair said they have never felt unsafe.

Once while driving through Costa Rica, they stopped to ask directions to the nearest café.

“We ended up at an old man’s house looking for a coffee place. He just brought us in, made us coffee,” Erin said.

“A couple of foreigners walked into his front yard and he’s like, ‘Oh, come in,’” Scott said.

The two hiked an active volcano in Bali.

“They said it wasn’t supposed to go off that day,” Erin said.

Someone made them eggs for breakfast using the heat from the lava.

“We like going to the markets. We’ve spent a lot of time with a fruit in our hand that someone told us the name of,” Scott said.

“Googling how to eat it,” Erin added.

“We’re just kind of cutting into it, figuring it out. Usually I have to try it first. Is this an edible piece?” Scott said.

Erin is a vegetarian and her favorite fruit so far is mangosteens. She said it’s like a peach on the outside with a grape-like fruit on the inside that’s the edible part.

Scott is an omnivore who loved the food in Ethiopia but found ordering spicy shrimp in Indonesia brought him to tears despite having a good flavor.

“I think I’ve kind of learned my lesson. Just go on the mild side,” he said.

Language can be a challenge, although many restaurants have pictures.

“We always make it a point to learn thank you in whatever language it is. That always seems to go over pretty well,” Scott said.

Erin is the trip planner and bargain flight hunter. She teaches special education in Greendale, so summers and holidays are good travel times. Scott is a customer relations manager at Kleen Test in Port Washington and will get surprise texts from his wife saying, “I found a deal,” to which he replies, “What’s the price and how many days off of work?”

Scott does the driving — in and out of the U.S. — and once navigated a roundabout on a motorbike in a country that drives on the left side of the road.

Their next adventures are set for Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia this summer. They plan to attend the Olympics in Brisbane, Australia, in 2032.

It’s all according to Erin’s goal of visiting every country.

“I kind of have it mapped out by the years, so 10 a year for the next 15 years,” she said.