Amsterdam in August

I swear I’ll get back to the present moment soon, but I did my first post-Covid international travel in August. It was a gorgeous week in Amsterdam to celebrate my best friend from elementary, middle, and high school’s wedding. It’s a beautiful thing to have friends that you’ve known and have known you for that long. Celebrate it wherever you can!

I’ll admit that I almost didn’t make the trip, because of all the uncertainty in the world. But I’m so glad I changed my mind due to a high sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and some irresistable booking.com specials.

Amsterdam is a quaint city full of canals, flowers, and cute houseboats. It was actually my third time visiting (as I’ve mentioned, I’m spoiled by life). I went on a soccer trip in high school where we hit all the tourist spots. And a party trip in college for the red light district and coffee shops, during which we wandered around aimlessly until every day ended up in a hangry search for snacks. This time I simply wanted to ride bikes in parks and sit to slip my coffee nice and slow.

Arrival day was jet-lagged, and I can’t say I gave the Van Gogh Museum the full attention it deserved. But I recuperated from walking outside in the Vondelpark. I’m happy to say my body clock adjusted quickly after a good night’s sleep, and I was feeling fully refreshed for the wedding weekend.

I visited the daily street markets to try plenty of Dutch delicacies. My favorites were stroopwafels (like a firm waffle/cookie sandwich with caramel in the center) and poffertjes (puffy pancake balls covered in powdered sugar). I won’t rush back to the fried herring stand, but most everything else was delicious.

I secured my bike rental from the hotel and took it on a grand adventure across the city to the Amsterdam Forest. I’d heard about a little family goat farm where you can touch and feed the animals. I also heard about their yummy apple pie, and that’s my kind of a day.

There was an art and sculpture festival happening on the way back, so I passed through one of the “hip” parts of the city.

EVERYONE rides bikes here. Did you know? And I mean everyone…

The “rehearsal night” was a dinner cruise down a canal with some tasty Indonesian food.

And the wedding was perfectly intimate in a majestic little garden. Audrey and Nelson make a very fun and photogenic couple.

The weather report had predicted rain all week, but it hardly rained at all. The wedding day was ideal and I loved my first steps out of the country in a while.

Summer Favorites (LBI)

My favorite season has come to a close. I always say I’m going to try new things, but often wind up going to the same places. It’s a seasonal town, and some options are only open May through October. This year I was extra good about branching out. These were a few of my favorite LBI things:

Lobster rolls from The Local. These aren’t new, but I live for them. Let’s carry on.

Poke nachos and fried oyster deviled eggs from the Old Causeway. Also technically not new since this is my place of choice any time someone asks where I want to go to dinner, but I tried the neighboring restaurant with the same owners, Mud City Crab House, and it did not disappoint.

Engleside sushi, always and forever. This year I also tried Shell sushi, which was almost equally delicious.

Oh my gosh, I’m spoiled. I went to Parker’s Garage three times, three weeks in a row. If you know it, it’s kind of expensive, kind of far (from where I live), but always amazing. Somehow I attended a regular night out, a birthday party, and a family gathering here on back to back weeks. Other delightful restaurant surprises were: DaddyO’s rooftop bar, Delaware Oyster House.

Jeffreeze Ice cream is technically off the island, but it’s a new favorite and not a far drive. We loved seeing musicals at the Surflight Theatre. This year, they were outdoors:

And I guess that’s a wrap on summer! It was a fast one, but a good one.

Harrisburg, PA

We capped off the road trip with a stop to visit my sister in Harrisburg, PA. She always has new places to show us, and the weekend was nice enough to spend a lot of time outside. Central Pennsylvania always has a lot to offer as far as hiking goes.

I had been planning to visit during the weekend of Spring Fest, a craft and shopping fair at Gray Apple Market. We kept that on the agenda. We always find a ton of cute stuff and, as a crafter, I leave inspired thinking of things I could make myself. The guys agreed to stay for the live music and free sangria.

My sister’s boyfriend beat us all (as usual) in mini golf. And on Sunday, we had brunch with the very best brussels sprouts.

I was almost ready to be home and in one place, but I always love a visit to Harrisburg!

Shenandoah National Park

It’s been a couple of years now since I had a National Park Pass, but boy do I miss it!

I added another park to the list when Eric and I were driving back up from North Carolina. We decided against the I-95 route through Richmond and Washington D.C. on a Friday. The Shenandoah region was much more our speed.

We drove through a good portion of the park, and stopped for a short hike to the Black Rock Summit. It took about 40 minutes and the trail was unmarked/a little confusing, but we made it to some great views.

I think my road trip rules are as follows: Always choose the scenic route and stop for as many nature breaks as time allows. Then it was back into the car and off to PA for the weekend.

A Tiny House in Durham

I always tend to make a few stops in North Carolina. It’s always had a piece of my heart, and many of my friends and some family have moved there over the years, so I have plenty of people to visit. Each city is a little bit different. I was leaving Charlotte, with the plan of picking up my boyfriend, Eric, from the Raleigh airport. It worked out that it was cheaper for him to layover in Charlotte and fly to Raleigh than to just buy a single leg to Charlotte. Crazy airline algorithms! We decided to skip the layover and I picked him up in Charlotte instead.

It was an easy drive to our Airbnb in Durham, NC. I had booked a tiny house treehouse that seemed like a dream come true!

It exceeded all of my expectations… besides not being extremely hot on the top bunk at night, but that’s my fault for not realizing until the next morning that there were extra fans.

Forgive the photo dump, but I loved all the little touches and neat ways of decorating a small space.

It was impressive to see that we could’ve even had another person stay with us. There was a double bed on one side and a twin on the other. I was definitely a little scared of rolling off in my sleep!

The hosts were very nice, and they had the sweetest dog.

I’m not sure if I could live in a tiny house permanently, but it was fun to try out for the night. We met up with my former Austin roommate and his girlfriend and had a fun night out at the Beer Study and Motorco.

Here’s one more tiny house pic for the road:

Charlotte, NC

Ok, everyone, don’t freak out, but…

I went to karaoke!

And where did I do it? In Charlotte, North Carolina!

Post-COVID? Mid-COVID? Whatever you want to call it; it was time for some unplanned karaoke fun.

I drove from Savannah up to Charlotte to visit my friend, Nicole, in her new (and past) city of residence. We met in Austin, and she spent time living in Richmond, but since then she’s staked her claim back in her hometown. I was glad I had a local to introduce me to the Queen City. We had a blast.

We hung out in her sweet new house/apartment with her sweet doggy, and then walked through the city to grab dinner and beers at Heist Brewery. On the walk back, we stopped at another bar I don’t remember the name of, and just as we were about to catch a ride home, we stepped foot into a karaoke establishment. “Just to check it out”. Flash forward to us canceling the Uber and singing “Man, I Feel Like a Woman”, masks on, of course.

Somehow we managed to stay out past 2am on a Wednesday, at the tail end of a global pandemic, and after all these months, man did it feel good!

Long Drives

I love a road trip. Whether it’s by myself or with others, I feel like a long drive is one of the only times we get to unplug from a life of commitments, responsibilities, and screens (though I do sometimes admittedly and dangerously still check from the road!) Planes are my favorite way to unplug, but cars are a close second. And a solo road trip, for me, is when I feel the most free.

When I told people I was planning to drive from NJ to Georgia on my own, most of their reactions were, “Alone?! That sucks!” The only person who fully understood was one of my yoga regulars. She’s a one-with-nature woman who teaches watercolor art, swims in the ocean in the winter, and wakes up at 5am to watch the sunrise on the beach. She gets it. “You’re going to have an amazing time!” she told me.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

After waking up to see the wild ponies on Saturday, I hopped in the car to drive to Norfolk, Virginia. I’d eaten the remains of my Wawa sub and some Trader Joe’s snacks for breakfast, so it wasn’t a fully planned stop, just somewhere I expected would have a good coffee shop. I was pleasantly surprised. Even on a cloudy day, the cobblestone streets, the boats in the marina, and the spring flowers in bloom were a treat. I stretched my legs and strolled through the street with a latte before heading further on my way.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The next stop was my uncle’s in Greenville, North Carolina. You probably wouldn’t find this exact road trip route on any lists, because I plotted it based on where I had friends and relatives to visit, but I would actually suggest it to any travelers without strict time barriers. As most people would agree, I cannot express my relief at having avoided I-95 most of the way! It makes for a much more enjoyable, “cultural” experience and much less stress and frustration. I loved seeing the clarity of transition from the “North” to the “South” as soon as I hit Virginia.

I got to Uncle Rick’s at 3pm. Thunderstorms were threatening that night, so we headed out to early happy hour for sangria margaritas. This turned into appetizers, which of course turned into dinner. It’s hard to say no when Mexican food is offered up and you’re two margaritas in! We had a nice time catching up and almost beat the rain back home to watch some Netflix movies for the rest of the night.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Sunday would be my longest drive of the trip so far. I had breakfast with my uncle and rolled out around 9am. He made a quiche—yum! Even though it would make the drive a bit longer, I decided to stop in Charleston, SC because I’d never been and always hear wonderful things about it. Now that I have been, it only made me want to come back again!

I stopped at the key destinations: the street of rainbow colored houses (Rainbow Row)…

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

A Southern biscuit and an iced coffee for lunch. It’s a good thing I don’t live in the south because I could honestly eat a biscuit every day!

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

I walked down by the water.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

And to the pineapple fountain. Pandemic-wise, things felt very much back to normal. The photos don’t show it, but people were out and about and mostly mask-free in South Carolina. I’m fine with wearing mine indoors, and, beyond general hygiene, I mainly feel like whether I get sick or not is out of my hands so I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it. I’m happy to be back to normal-ish traveling with recommended precautions.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

That night, after about 7 hours (an extra tacked on for stopping in Charleston and driving through SC on a Sunday church day), I would arrive at my mom and stepdad’s house in Savannah.

Colorado (Day Three)

We didn’t ski on our last day in Colorado, sadly, but with the two-hour shuttle ride to the airport I would have only been able to ski from 8-10am. You might say that would be worth it, and I might agree with you, but we opted for a morning stroll across town instead.

Keystone Village is a cute little ski town with restaurants and shops for buying t-shirts and all the souvenirs you need. I found a quirky-looking “curiosities” shop about 2 miles away, so we walked there, only to find that it was closed for the season. Not a huge surprise, since most of the shops close for the off-season, and this particular village was a little out of the way from the mountain.

The walk was nice, though.

We stayed along the river and warded off the geese. After a few photo opportunities, we turned around and headed back. I had leftover pizza for the road, and we stopped by to check out my step brothers’ house and meet their dog.

It was a short trip overall (especially with my own silly mess-up of missing my flight), but I’m glad I took the chance on my first time skiing in Colorado. I have a feeling I’ll be back soon!

Colorado (Day Two)

The say it’s about the journey, not about the destination. Which is true, except when you’ve made it through hours of airport and shuttle travel, and it’s really all about the destination. But a full day on the slopes made it well-worth the transport. We started around 8:30am and stayed out until 3. The sun was shining the whole time.

It was nice that our condo was slope-side, because I was more than ready to pass out for a long nap afterwards. I was only able to wake myself up for a soak in the hot tub. We didn’t make it into town for dinner on night number two. Instead we had pizza delivered to the Airbnb and went to bed early.

It’s definitely good living in Colorado during April. I hope to make it back someday for more!

March Madness (Part Two)

I was back in LBI for a brief moment (and a sunset or two), and then it was back on another plane to California. What has it been like to travel during/post-Covid? I’ll say it has been crowded! All of my planes have been completely full. No social distancing in sight.

In some ways it’s nice to return to the feeling of normal travel. In other ways it leaves me wondering if we’ve opened the floodgates too soon. It’s like there were all of these immediate limitations that didn’t fully make sense, and now the lifting of restrictions makes even less.

I was surprised to hear that we’d be going to an in-person conference for work, but happy since I’ve definitely got the bug after a full year off from traveling. I thought about staying in LA between trips, but I also like going home and unpacking my bags for a few days.

California was much warmer this time. The desert already gets up to 80 and 90 during the day. Luckily, the conference was mornings-only and we had the afternoons off to roam free.

I definitely didn’t spend much time in the room (or get much work done on the computer). The JW Marriott had a ton of options for activities: fitness classes, walking and hiking trails, bikes to rent, swimming pools, and a gym.

We took a bike ride through a nice park, past the flamingos and all different sized turtles.

It was tough to adjust to the Pacific Time Zone, which also made it hard to stay up past 9pm. But I was always up early (like way too early, at 4:30am) to get a sunrise walk or a workout in.

I was sad to leave the desert! I wouldn’t want to be there come summer, but I’m dreaming of a painting class or a yoga retreat there someday. Now I’m fighting jet lag on the other side and struggling to fall asleep before midnight and wake up at 7! It’s funny how quickly our bodies adapt.

No more trips to California in the very near future, but I’ll be going to Colorado next week. See you again soon, travel life!

March Madness (Part One)

I just decided this needs to be a two-part post. After not traveling by air for a whole year, I went to California twice in one month!

Here’s how that happened… do you remember how I was supposed to be going to El Salvador in March to teach on a yoga retreat? That is now postponed to October 2nd. You can come.

Since I was already planning to take the week off and be away, I decided to make a trip out to LA. My friend, Pixie, decided to travel at the same time. So I stayed at her place to watch the dogs. Do you recognize these guys?

I also started a new job this month. Technically, I’ve been working with them since October, but we decided to make things full-time and more official. I’m excited!

While I was boarding the plane to fly out to LA, my boss called me about an opportunity. He would be leading a workshop in Southern California at the end of the month and wanted me to come along. Ok! I said.

I work from home, so I logged on for the early morning hours and had most of afternoon/evening free to explore. My friend came up from San Diego, and I got to see a few old friends in the LA area. Things were still pretty locked down and outdoor only— it was surprisingly chilly! But we did our best to meet up.

Pixie lives in such a beautiful area, and the boys were very well-behaved. I always feel lucky to stay there!

I threw any summer diet plans out the window for the week.

But we had some time for hikes and gorgeous views.

My friend Ashley had never been to LA, so of course we had to do the touristy things.

And we had a socially-distanced party in the park for a bulldog birthday.

The week went by too fast, with a lot of jet-lagged 4:30am wake-ups! It was so nice to see everyone again. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year. Sometimes it feels like six years and sometimes like six minutes. What a strange time, but I’m glad we’re getting back out there. Stay tuned for part two!

Disney Day

It feels weird to talk about Disneyland right now, but that’s where we went three weeks ago before it shut down until mid-April. It was my first time, and I was very impressed! My parents have always spoiled me rotten, so I’ve been to Disney World more times than I can remember. My sister and I even ran the Disney Marathon in 2012. We are old Disney pros.

I wasn’t sure what level of excitement to bring for the trip. My mom warned me that the California version of Disney was smaller with fewer adrenaline-inducing rides. But the park is less than an hour from East LA and we started out with the new Star Wars area, so that quickly raised the bar high.

The day got even better from there! We rode all my old Magic Kingdom favorites and saw new things like Mickey-shaped pretzels and the Sleeping Beauty castle. Since we were in the off-season, it felt like a chill rendition of the all-out Orlando experience.

We helped Katherine eat a giant turkey leg and hung out by the Louisiana-looking river. She and Nath have been living in LA for a few years, so this wasn’t their first rodeo. They showed me the fast pass system which rmeant we didn’t have to wait in line for more than an hour for most of the rides we wanted. We were bummed that the newest Star Wars ride was already booked for the day by the time we got there, but there was plenty else to do.

We met Pooh and Eeyore and got more drenched than expected on Splash Mountain.

Riding “It’s a Small World” was a bit surreal for me when we saw the koalas and kangaroos in the Australia display. Had I actually been in another hemisphere only a week before? It really was a small world after all.

It looks like we won’t be visiting any amusement parks for a while now, so I’m glad we went when we did. LA Disney turned out to be 10/10, would definitely do again.

Marina del Rey

Thus far, 2020 has held a lot of uncertainty. I think we’re all feeling it in the first quarter, and I know the small ripples are being felt in my own life. In January, I was feeling restless. I’d planned to join my lovely friend Echo on her yoga/snowboarding retreat to Japan in March, but something wasn’t feeling right. I didn’t think I would be able to relax and enjoy another trip after hanging out in Sydney with nothing to do for two months. The Bali workshop was already booked. Too much vacation is an easy problem to have, and I’m sure from the outside it looks like I’m never working (!!!), but I do eventually get fidgety if I’m sitting around twiddling my thumbs for too long.

It was time for the plan to change.

The day after I decided to pull out of the Japan trip (pre-Coronavirus scares!), Pixie, my El Salvador retreat leader, started messaging me. She wished we could still teach on her trip together and keep some consistency from year to year. I, of all people, realize that I’m scattered and often too non-committal, so I was nervous to tell her that my plans had changed yet again. But the wheels were already in motion.

“…What if I said I might still be able to go?”

And with that, we locked it all into place. I would land at her new apartment in Marina del Rey. She needed someone to watch her dogs for a week. I would have time for visits in LA, and we would depart for El Salvador on February 29th.

Sometimes things just click, and this felt like one of the clicks. Here’s the view from her new apartment:

I think I made the right choice.

Still fuzzy from the long flight, I walked on the beach to view the Pacific Ocean from the other side. Pixie introduced me to her new rescue baby, and we became fast friends:

Gouda (on the left) is new. Oscar (on the right) is my old pal.

I made new friends, caught up with old friends, played beach volleyball, and took some of the best walks I could have imagined. I was reminded of my old life here, and I sure did miss it.

California, there is just something about you.