Visiting The City of Brotherly Love

Next stop on the East Coast trip? Philly! My hotel was in the historic area of town so I was able to jump right into American History mode first thing in the morning. I was only in Philadelphia for the day so I had to try and fit a bunch of stuff in. Per usual, I didn't make much of a plan for this stop of the trip but relied on my tried and true method of wandering around until I found stuff I liked. After a quick Starbucks stop, I found myself at wandering around things like Betsy Ross' house and Benjamin Franklin's grave... history like whoa! I kept up with the history lesson with a visit to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall (and other crazy important historic buildings). I wasn't into doing the tour inside Independence Hall (there was a high number of obnoxious and loud people in line) so I headed over to Washington Park before stopping by Fat Salmon to get my sushi fix (yum!). 

#13 Visit New York

For my 30th birthday I decided that enough was enough and it was time for me to see the East Coast. Yup, up until the ripe old age of 30 (whaaa??!??), I had never been to the East Coast of the US until last month. Crazy town. I was trying to hit up as many places as possible in a week and the first one was New York. As soon as she heard the words 'New York' my mom was in! My aunt lives on the East Coast and was willing to be our tour guide as she does work in NY all the time. It was awesome! I loved NY- way more than I thought I would and now I totally want to go back since we just got a small taste of it. We stuck mainly to Manhattan and tried to fit in as much as humanly possible- in addition to cabs and the subway, I made my mom and aunt walk 26 miles all around the city. Basically if I ever start a walking tour group company, I can only accept marathoners. They kept up like champs, even my aunt who had recently fractured her hip- ouch!

Bridesmaid-y August

August was wedding month 2014 for me as I was a bridesmaid in two awesome weddings. First up was former roomie Lindsey's (aka Twin) wedding in beautiful wine country. I took Friday off to make it a long weekend and joined her and her mom at the SF Flower Mart- omg that place is amazing!! So many beautiful flowers. After picking out some gorgeous flowers, we headed up to Healdsburg for the rehearsal. Lindsey's mom had rented an awesome house actually ON a vineyard (off Dry Creek Road) which was incredible and so peaceful. We picked up the bridal bouquet Saturday morning at Dragonfly Floral and then made a quick stop for Lindsey's official 'Bride' Starbucks cup. We had some time to kill before needing to get ready so obviously we had a mini photoshoot in the vineyard of the rental house.

Summertime fun

So we've already covered where I went in May and in June so now it's onto July. Lucky for me that meant I had two awesome long weekends ahead of me.  First up was Ashley's bachelorette trip to Palm Springs. We got there a little early so I dragged some of the girls on a 105 degree excursion to check out some of the cool Palm Spring architecture. Then it was a weekend spent drinking (pint glass whiskey gingers like whaaaat), hanging out by the pool, dancing and just generally having an awesome time celebrating Ashley's upcoming wedding with all the girls. I've decided I'm NOT a Vegas girl however I love me some Palm Springs- you can convince me to head down there for a visit any time.

Yosemite vs Little Yosemite

It's been quiet on the blog for awhile as I've been off spending as much time outside as humanly possible this summer. Back in June I was lucky enough to head up to Yosemite for the weekend to celebrate Liz's birthday with a float down the river...so much fun!! Yosemite is one of my favorite places in California- I need to go there more often.

Red Fest 2014

What is Red Fest you might be asking yourself? Well only the greatest redneck festival in the world!!! (That I know of). Basically my fav little Texan Nicole aka Bus, texted me with 'Red Fest in May. Look it up and book your ticket here now!'. Country music, BBQ and excessive amounts of 'Murica pride??? Um yea soooo down! I packed my best USA gear and got my spray tanned butt on a plane.