I came to Napa Valley early on in my wine passion journey. I planned the trip with my cousins, and we came here in the fall of 2014, right after a big earthquake hit the region and devastated so many buildings and wineries. You could see the damage pretty much everywhere, but folks in this gorgeous region of California are resilient, and have a positive attitude. The earthquake didn’t end up impacting our trip much, apart from the fact that…
I love traveling to Europe during the shoulder seasons – April to May or September to October. There are usually better prices, fewer crowds, and you generally get a better feel for a city as to what it would be like there as a local. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if Venice really has a shoulder or low season! While I’m sure it was less busy in April than it is in the summer months, it was still chock full of…
Well, before you’re totally inundated with Bali content in about two weeks, when I go back for the first time in 14 years, I thought I’d do a little reminiscing before I left for this newest adventure. I studied for a semester in law school in 2002 at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and I had the opportunity to visit Bali during my stint in Oz, traveling solo, before traveling solo was “cool”. All of my photos are on…
Let me tell you, I never thought I would be a Disney Bride, I never really even considered it my whole entire Disney-loving life; but when the circumstances for Brian’s and my wedding changed drastically (involving lots of drama including the event planner stealing a bunch of money from our original reception restaurant venue and then taking off into the sunset), I was back at square one after a few months of planning and deposits. We had already booked a…
Every single person I told that we were going to Nicaragua said, “Whoa! Why on EARTH would you go there?” Well, there are a thousand reasons to visit this beautiful country, and when we visited, it was a relatively safe place to go, since politically it was pretty chill at the moment. That did all change shortly after we were there, which is a massive shame, but you can still totally visit this country, see absolutely amazing sights and feel…
We are leaving for our second trip to Costa Rica THIS WEEK, so I thought it would be a good time to start all of the Costa Rica content with a short little nostalgia post about Brian’s and my first trip to this gorgeous country in 2014. Brian and I had just started dating about 3 or 4 months before this trip, and if you really want to get to know someone well, go on an adventure with them! I…
I love going to Las Vegas, and you will see a lot of reviews of Vegas hotels, restaurants and activities on this site in the future. I love the weather there, I love the frenetic vibe, and I love the fact that you can just get away for a few days and forget about real life, pretty much instantaneously, once you start hearing the dinging of the slot machines. I come here to see my family who live in California,…
2022 was a year full of trips to exciting cities, mainly in Europe this year, after a two-year hiatus due to COVID, so I decided to do a countdown of my favorite cities of the year. 5. Madrid, Spain Coming in at Number 5 is Madrid, Spain. We spent a short three nights here in June of this year, with our two youngest kids. Madrid is amazing because it can be whatever you want it to be. It can be…
My mom always had a dream to go to Vienna at Christmastime for the markets. My dad is not super into traveling, so I really wanted to make this trip happen for her. In 2019, we made it happen! This article is going to take a look back out our week-long outing in Vienna, which was super fun, even if it was super cold! Vienna at Christmastime conjures up all sorts of visions of cozy markets, drinking mulled wine, snow…
How can I have a travel blog and not talk about my incredible Honeymoon in 2016? Well, it has been a while, but my memories from the Seychelles are probably some of my most vivid still. I had dreamed of going to the Seychelles for my Honeymoon ever since I was in High School. Sometime in the mid-1990’s the Chicago Tribune’s Travel section had a massive article about the Seychelles with a big banner photograph of the Anse Source D’Argent…