Boston

Oh Boston, how I love thee. Boston put its best foot forward for my visit and I didn't want to leave! First off, my Airbnb apartment was the best- great location (Beacon Hill) and friendly host (who also happened to be a two time olympic rower nbd). I arrived in from Vermont kind of late, so I got dinner at Tip Tap Room (chicken tips + good wine = yum), picked up some food from Whole Foods for breakfast and headed to bed.

Leaf Peeping in Vermont

After a great trip to DC, I headed up north to visit my friend Emily in Burlington and do a little leaf peeping. I had never heard of leaf peeping before this trip and while I still think its an odd expression, the leaves are LEGIT and I had an awesome time.

DC Visit #2

After last year's tour of DC, I was really excited to head back for Gabby’s wedding. I ended up flying out a couple days early to get some sight seeing in and visit with my friend Tracy. I got into DC a few hours before Tracy and spent the time drinking good wine and eating delicious tapas from Barcelona - would definitely recommend that spot.  The next morning, neither one of us was up bright and early as we were both still on CA time so we enjoyed being on lazy vacation mode before heading first to the White House and then to the National Portrait Gallery. My favorite was the Bill Clinton because it was just so unusual- the artist grids all of his canvases and then uses random shapes within the grid to form the image. Within the same building is the American Art Museum and they had some cool stuff especially the neon map of the US. After getting caught in a downpour, we got a couple drinks at Penn Social before meeting up with Bonnie at Founding Farmers (chicken and waffles yasssss). 

NashVegas

What's better than Vegas?? NashVegas! That is how one fellow visitor described Nashville when we were there and he was pretty dead on. Nashville has all the awesome hospitality, history and charm of the south with the crazy partying of Vegas...plus there is an awesome music scene! Luckily, I am friends with awesome girls who love to have a little adventure so we converged in Nashville for Lys' bachelorette party back in July and explored everything the city had to offer. My flight landed a little later than everyone else's so I quickly dropped my stuff off and headed out to meet the girls along Broadway. We had a live music filled night starting at Tootsies, then at the Silver Dollar Saloon and finally wrapping things up at Honky Tonk Central- it was the perfect introduction to Nashville.

Portland

Just like Seattle, I hadn't been back to Portland since becoming an American so it was time for another quick visit. We still had to drive all the way home (Portland to Bay Area in one day = not recommended) so we only had a few hours. First stop was Voodoo Doughnuts where I got an Old Dirty Bastard and Maple Bacon- too much sugar first thing the in the AM so wasn't able to finish them unfortunately. Then we walked our sugar coma off a little bit along the water before heading up towards Powell books (amazing as always) and a quick stop in Deschutes brewery <-- very necessary for the 10 hour drive we had coming up as I wanted to sleep as much as possible. I love Portland so while it was a good visit, it was much too short- wish we could have stayed longer.

Seattle

I decided to drive back to California from Canada with my parents (road trip!) in order to cross off two more states on the list. While I had been to Washington and Oregon before, I had never been as a full on 'Merican so I needed a redo. We quickly made it to Seattle where we stopped at Gas Works Park for a cool view from the water and then headed to Kerry Park which had a spectacular view of the city and Mount Baker. Since we were only in Seattle for a few hours, I wanted to get the full tourist experience so we headed down to Pike Place Market for a late lunch- unfortunately it was fairly quiet (and most restaurants were closed) since it was New Years Day so I definitely need to come back. Beautiful afternoon in Seattle and next up was Portland!

Old Town Alexandria Virginia

Considering I was there last September, this post is way overdue! To catch up, I'm going to keep things quick from now on- pictures over words (and you can always follow along on Instagram which I'm always updating). Anyways, I'm going to count Virginia on my list of states visited however I didn't really do a whole lot of exploring beyond Old Town so I definitely need to go back. I stayed at a great Airbnb spot right in the heart of Old Town and it was fun wandering down the old brick sidewalks and checking out the architecture (and fun colors!) as I made my way to the train to take me to DC. The food was also fantastic- the most memorable being dinner at Vermilion- everything was delicious!

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!

Razmataz Weekend 2013

Utah vaycay! Bonnie's uncle Tim organizes a big ski/snowboard trip every year to Park City and I've been joining in for the last four years. We stay in this awesome cabin near the Canyons resort- close enough that we take a shortcut home from the resort and end up tobogganing down the icy street on our snowboards (so. freaking. fun).

Magnetic America

In keeping with my goal of visiting all 50 states (only done 4 so far...looong way to go), Lindsey and I have decided we need to collect magnets from all 50 states. So far there are a few overlaps (both went to Hawaii this year) and some non-American ones (holla at one of my favorite places in Vancouver- Stanley park!) but we are slowly starting to get a good collection going. Looking forward to adding a Texas magnet to the collection when I go in October for my yearly visit. Bonus: if we get enough magnets it'll hide how ugly our fridge is- win win! So, if anyone wants to go on a trip/road trip to another state and want a travel buddy- you just let me know and I'll be there with Swedish Fish (my fav travel food).

Hawaii Vay-cay

Quiet beach, sunny day, new book, cold beer and marinating in sunscreen...what could be better?!?! Nothing...actually sea turtles would make that better but more on that later. Bonnie, Rebecca and I decided we needed a girls vay-cay earlier this year and settled on Hawaii (3 states visited- only 47 more to go)!! We woke up bright and early (and I mean early...5 AM<-- ugh) to make our flight. Quick fyi: the flight to Hawaii is 5 hours not 3 hours...now THAT was a fun surprise when I got to the airport (always need to account for that pesky time-change). We got in with plenty of time to hit the beach...which was incredible! I ran around taking pictures because I couldn't get over how perfect it was...super sandy beaches, gorgeous blue water and coconut trees everywhere (which made sense after I found out we were on the Royal Coconut Coast <-- so fancy).