Once mid-March came and we realized how much COVID-19 would have an effect on not only daily life but vacations (read: a babymoon), we kept our fingers crossed that things would open up enough to take a little road trip while it would still be comfortable for me to travel. Thankfully, by the second half of June our top destination pick opened up for visitors: Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. This has been on our list of PNW things…
A few days before Christmas 2019 we decided to join two friends of ours at Suncadia Resort, a snowy winter getaway about an hour and a half from Seattle. We had only been once several years before for a “team building” weekend for a job I previously had. We wanted to go back for a more positive experience and to spend a few days relaxing with our friends.The plan was to spend a half day at the spa getting massages…
Last summer I discovered that the aquarium hosts days where beach naturalists are available in various parks throughout the season to answer questions and track what life they find. I went to one near my house (can you believe I live 15 minutes from this?!) and had the absolute best time. I wanted to volunteer to be a beach naturalist this summer but it happens to coincide with the third trimester of pregnancy for me; not a good fit. I…
I feel like LA was the last major US city to cross off my list. It’s one that I’ve wanted to visit but hadn’t taken the time to make it a priority. It was pretty close to how I expected it to be; the trendier places were mostly nice to visit and everywhere else is pretty junky, except for skid row which we drove through after arriving early for our dinner reservation and wow. I’ve never imagined anything being that…
My first visit to Disneyland in California! I grew up in central Florida and have spent many, many days at Disney World. After spending four days in San Diego we spent two at Disney, one day for each park. One of the biggest differences between this park and both Disney World and Disneyland Paris is how expensive the hotels are. I know there are much cheaper ones right across the street but sometimes you just have to have the full…
San Diego Zoo I’ve wanted to go to San Diego since I was about 16 and was absolutely delighted when Joe told me I could join him for a conference there last November. It was actually a Christmas gift; four days in San Diego and a few more in Los Angeles, and a weekend at Disneyland. It was my first time in Southern California and I have to say, I get the appeal. Of San Diego at least, LA is…
Maine Boston I love, love, love New England. This was my second time visiting (we went for a friend’s wedding) and we split our time between New Hampshire, Maine, and Boston. Highlights include an L.L. Bean outlet, Portland Head Lighthouse, visiting Andover Bookstore (at the time of visiting it was the oldest bookstore in the U.S.), and tours at King’s Chapel and Old North Church in Boston. It was also the first trip where I shot in manual mode so…
For the last stop of our road trip, we stayed the night in Jackson, WY. We grabbed breakfast at Persephone, a French bakery, before driving to Grand Teton National Park. We walked about 30 minutes of the Jenny Lake Overlook Trail, hiked the first part of Lakeshore Trail at Colter Bay, and did a lot of driving. We happened along Snake River overlook where Ansel Adams took a photo. I did my best to get the same shot though obviously…
On the fifth day of our trip we drove from Missoula, MT to West Yellowstone, MT. The campsite and town of West Yellowstone are in Montana and you cross into Wyoming on your way into the park. After setting up our tent we went into town to the visitor center to plan what to do the next few days, visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, and had dinner at Firehole Bar-B-Que Co. The restaurant was busy because it was…
At the beginning of August we took a road trip out to Montana and Wyoming, our first stop being Glacier National Park in Montana. We stayed three nights in the West Glacier KOA that is just outside the park entrance. The KOA was okay: the bathrooms and showers were fine and the layout was okay but there was a lot of noise from other campers and the food we ate at the cafe there wasn’t good (we had a rib…