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). 

Big Sur Road Trip

Over Labor Day weekend, I decided to take a little solo road trip down the California coast. It was just me, Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance on audiobook (hilarious fyi) and Highway One.

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!

Christmas in the homeland

Christmas 2014 was one of the best ever! My family and I headed back up to Canada and spent an amazing week with family and friends. We started by first visiting with my mom's side of the family for a super-sized Christmas with all the aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents under one roof- 13 foot tall Christmas tree, hours worth of opening presents and a beyond excited six year old made for a perfect Christmas morning. On Boxing Day, we loaded up the car and headed over to Vancouver Island to visit with my dad's side of the family- and met my cousin's super cute baby! After a few days on the island, we headed back to Vancouver to visit with friends then headed up to Whistler to get some snowboarding in before heading home. Epic Christmas- 2015 has a lot to live up to.

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!

#10 Visit Washington DC

Ever since I became an American way back in 2011, I've been wanting to go to DC (it is on my list after all).  So many iconic American buildings and monuments are there- plus I had to see in person the city where Scandal and House of Cards take place. 

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.

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.

Trip to the Homeland

Blogging took a back seat to life (again) but wanted to catch up on a few fun things that happened in the past 6 months...btw how the eff is it already June?!?! Anyways after coming back from such an amazing trip, I only made it until the end of February before I was in desperate need of a break again so I booked myself a ticket to the homeland. With a crazy work schedule right before I left, the break couldn't have come at a better time. It was a very mellow trip (mostly because I didn't have time to tell people I was coming) that involved lots of fam time and sleep. First things first though was to shove some of my favorite Canadian foods into my face asap: the Legendary burger from White Spot (just sauce, gravy on the side for fries/heart attack) and sour keys!!! 

Last Stop = Sydney

Sydney | Day 24

Expectation: I won't have much time in Sydney so an overnight flight from Bali would be the best way to save time (and money on a hotel room!)- plus I sleep great on flights so what could go wrong???

Reality: Six long, sleepless hours of pure flying hell. It seemed as if everyone on the plane was sick- coughing, sneezing and sniffling fought their way over the sound of the plane engines to be the main soundtrack to the flight. There weren't any TV screens, so I used my phone to stream Virgin Australia movies/TV shows except they kept cutting out and I kept getting elbowed by my fellow passenger every time we hit turbulence (which we did A LOT). Lovely.

We finally stopped in Melbourne where I had a very short amount of time (due to the delayed Bali flight) to pick up my bags, clear customs and immigration AND stand in line with the rest of the holiday crowded to check in for my next flight. Ran to the gate just as it was starting to board and managed to grab a quick smoothie before being one of the last passengers on board. At that point, I had the clumsiest 55 min flight of my life. I dropped my cell phone twice (and forced the kind lady behind me to contort her body to pick it up off the floor in a crowded plane), I dropped my kindle, I went to lean my head against the window and misjudged the distance and ended up slamming my head into the side of the plane AND I dropped my smoothie on myself so I smelled like mango coconut for the flight. The second time I dropped my phone was near the end of the flight and I looked over at the (very tall, good looking) guy next to me and at the same time we burst out laughing...yup, I was a total disaster who could barely function but at least I was amusing. 

Bali

Ubud | Day 21-23

I woke up early and enjoyed one more morning on the sunny rooftop deck of my Brisbane hostel before heading to the train station. I got to the airport early without any problems and then spent the next hour lying on a couch watching AFL game coverage (which I know nothing about) before my plane boarded. I will watch anything on TV- literally anything- its a problem which is why I do my best to avoid it. Right before we got on a plane a woman loudly announced that she packed 5 different kinds of diarrhea medicine for the trip- A) major TMI and B) I got freaked out that I didn't have any (was unnecessary thank god). The flight was uneventful but way longer than I expected it to be (Australia is huge)- I just wanted to get to Bali!

Koalas and Kangaroos and Wombats Oh My!

*Yea that title isn't as catchy as the orig but it'll have to do- also it was less 'oh my' and more me shrieking 'oh my god oh my god oh my god this is the best!' repeatedly. 

Brisbane | Day 20
I flew in the night before and checked into my awesome hostel- the Brisbane City YHA. This was the best hostel I stayed in and here's why:
-the views from the rooftop deck are beautiful and there is a rooftop pool! Yup rooftop pool!! The kitchen and dining area was on the top level too so you could enjoy the view- also the herb garden outside was easily accessible
-there was an onsite bar and restaurant with well priced food (had dinner there both nights-veggies tasted awesome!)
-awesome elevator floor (see shark image below :-))
-the multi-share rooms have individual lockers to hold your backpack (with outlets inside so you can lockup your stuff while it charges <-- soooo smart!)
-each bed has its own light so you can stay up reading without pissing anyone off
-and most importantly (since it was super hot) each room had AC

The hostel was near a huge supermarket so the first night I picked up some food for breakfasts/snacks (Tim Tams!) and then headed back just as a huge thunderstorm kicked off. I was exhausted and had a big day ahead of me so I ended up crashing early (after getting some much needed laundry done).

Kaikoura

Kaikoura | Day 18

This was the last overnight stop on our tour and so we knew we were going to have a big night. None of us wanted to spend too much time in the hostel- it was probably the least nice one of them all (bathrooms were NASTY). Some people spent the day on the water (fishing, dolphin watching, whale watching, etc) but my friends and I hung around town shopping and hanging out on the beach.