Acadia National Park

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I have been wanting to visit Acadia National Park in Maine since we moved back to New York in 2018 and we finally planned to a trip to visit at the end of this summer.

Acadia National Park is a 47,000-acre preserve that sprawls across Mount Desert Island. It is a beautiful area with rose-colored rocks, hiking trails, coastal views and dark blue lakes. I also can’t forget to mention the lobster rolls! Technically, the lobster shacks are found outside the park, but they were a key addition to our trip! I had three lobster rolls in the five days we were there! 🦞

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Patagonia - El Chalten

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The final destination of our Patagonia trip was to El Chalten, two hours north of El Calafate. El Chalten is also part of Los Glaciares National Park and was named a "World Heritage Site of Humanity" by UNESCO in 1981. After looking at the weather for the upcoming days, we saw the best day for hiking would be our first day in the park. With that in mind, we woke up at 4:30am in El Calafate, checked out of the hotel, and drove directly to El Chalten. The hotel in El Chalten was nice enough to store our luggage for the day and even let us have breakfast and coffee from the buffet! After a quick bite, we drove the the start of the Laguna de Los Tres Hike. This 14-mile out and back hiking trails leads you to the base of Mount Fitz Roy, Laguna de los Tres, Glacier de los Tres, and Lago Sucia.

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Patagonia - Torres del Paine National Park

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Alex and I recently returned from an amazing two-week trip to Patagonia in South America. Patagonia was a region which was not really on my radar until watching an episode of Chef’s Table in 2015 where the show focused on chef, Francis Mallmann, who lives in the region. Seeing this beautiful area on television, really solidified a desire to visit and explore such a remote and pristine place. I’m not sure I stopped thinking about it since and each time I came across an article or travel blog, I saved it for later use!

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Vancouver + Whistler

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Okay, so this post is massively delayed, but I’m following the mantra “better late than never!”. Alex and I visited Vancouver and Whistler at the beginning of September where we spent the week.

With the time change, we didn’t arrive until early evening the first night in Vancouver. Our hotel was downtown, so we spent time walking along the pier nearby before grabbing dinner. Vancouver ranks 34th in the world for the least sunshine year round, so I considered ourselves lucky when we woke up the next morning to a bit of sunny skies! We started the day walking around the busy port and watching the sea planes takeoff and land which was extremely thrilling to see!

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Italian Dolomites (Part II)

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For the second part of our trip in the Dolomites, we stayed in the small town of San Candido, which is only a 5-mile drive from the Austrian boarder! One of the most popular hikes we did was the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Not only does it cost €30 to park, but they also charge €1 to use the bathroom! This certainly did not stop anyone from taking part in this hike - the parking lot was PACKED! This 6.2-mile loop circles the three spires of Tre Cime. It’s a beautiful hiking trail and made the parking + bathroom costs worth it!

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Italian Dolomites (Part I)

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Alex and I traveled to the Italian Dolomites over a month ago and this post is overdue! Looking through the pictures, makes me wish I could go back! It is such an interesting and beautiful place. One thing Alex and I loved most was so many of the hikes we completed were much more achievable, shorter and just fun to do than some of the other hiking trips we’ve taken.

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Provence (Part II)

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One of the most popular destinations in the Luberon area of Provence is the village of Roussillon. The concierge at our hotel described it as the “Grand Canyon of Provence!”. Roussillon is set at the top of the world’s largest ochre vein and the rust-colored rock is a sight to behold. Although, certainly not as big as the Grand Canyon, it was a beautiful area to explore and really popped against the green of the hills and valley below.

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Provence (Part I)

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One country has been on our wish list to “travel back to” since international travel was placed on hold due to the pandemic. Once things felt safe again, we started planning a trip to France! We still speak fondly of our Paris trip in 2017 and all the beautiful sights we saw and delicious food we ate. We flew from New York to Paris and arrived around noon their time. Thankfully, we were both able to sleep pretty well on the flight and after dropping our belongings off at the hotel, we set out to see the sights!

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Joshua Tree National Park (Part II)

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We took a bit of a detour from Joshua Tree National Park on Monday and drove two hours to the The Mojave National Preserve. The Mojave National Preserve is one of the largest national preserves within the continental United States and covers 1.6 million acres! It is home to sand dunes, petrified lava and the largest Joshua Tree forest in the world.

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Joshua Tree National Park (Part I)

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About a month ago, Alex and I flew to California to explore Joshua Tree National Park. During the 1930’s, Minerva Hoyt, a desert lover and community activist, recognized the human threats to the ecosystem of the area and persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim Joshua Tree a National Monument in 1936. It was renamed in 1994 to Joshua Tree National Park and protects over 790,000 acres - mostly wilderness - where the Mojave and Colorado Deserts converge.

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Charleston Tea Garden

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Alex and I are back in South Carolina after renting the same house we did last year in Kiawah Island. We figured we might as well take advantage of the remote working opportunities while we can! It’s been a wonderful retreat and I was happy to getaway during the freezing temperatures in New York.

We’ve been taking daily bike rides and beach walks and trying to explore some new to us restaurants in Charleston. While researching things to do in the area, I came across the Charleston Tea Garden. The tea garden was originally a potato farm until tea plants were planted in the early 1960’s. The gardens and gift shop are free to wander around, but it is worth the $14.00 to take the guided trolley tour. The guide who did my trolley tour was amazing and I learned so much about tea growing and harvesting. She also threw in some pretty epic tea jokes. So, without further adieu, please enjoy the photos from a beauTEAful day at the Charleston Tea Garden (one of the guides tea jokes!).

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Banff National Park - Part II

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Our first three days exploring Banff National Park have been incredible! With that said, my knee was still giving me trouble, so we took Wednesday off as a complete “rest day”. It ended up working out perfectly as we had plans to check into another hotel that day and did not have any hikes planned. We were both really excited about this second hotel as the property sits on the shore of Lake Louise and we couldn’t wait to wake up to that view each morning!

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Banff National Park - Part I

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After almost two years, Alex and I recently returned from our first international trip since the global pandemic began! We traveled to Canada where we explored and hiked Banff National Park. This was especially exciting as we were supposed to go in 2020, but it got postponed due to travel restrictions.

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Day Trip: Savannah, GA

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During our time in Kiawah Island, we took a day trip to Savannah, Georgia. Alex and I have been to Savannah twice to celebrate New Year’s Eve when we lived in Charlotte. It is only a two-hour drive from where we are staying in Kiawah and after going back and forth on whether or not to stay the night, we opted to just go for the day. I’m still hesitant about indoor dining and as it gets pretty chilly in the evenings, we figured we might as well make the most of the sunshine hours and then had back as it starts to get dark.

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Sullivan's Island

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This past Sunday, we headed to Sullivan’s Island, a two and a half mile barrier island north of Kiawah Island. Sullivan’s Island has a strong military background and was the site of a major Revolutionary War battle, The Battle of Sullivan's Island, as well as being involved in the first shots of the American Civil War. It is home to around 2,000 residents and has a small beach town feel.

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Kiawah Island

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Back in the fall, after realizing this pandemic was not going anywhere and instead was worsening, Alex and I decided to rent a house for a few weeks in January to get respite from a dark and cold winter. We wanted a location in which we could drive, had warmer weather, and outdoor space. After considering several options, we chose Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Kiawah is 40-minutes south of Charleston and an area we have visited in the past and are familiar with.

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Orchards and Artwork

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Happy Fall! This past weekend, Alex and I rented a car and drove out to the Hudson Valley. Every year we’ve lived in the city, we have always gone apple picking during October. It is one of my favorite fall things to do and it has the added advantage of being a very socially distanced activity!! Plus, enjoying warm apple cider donuts and fresh apple cider is always a win in my book!

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The Adirondack Mountains

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Alex and I spent Labor Day weekend in the Adirondack Mountains. This was our first time leaving New York City since March and I cannot tell you how enjoyable our time upstate was. Simply being able to sit outside by the fire, hike several great trails and relax in a bit more space was exactly what we both needed.

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7 Best Quarantine Purchases

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Hello! My oh my, it has been awhile!! Since the last time I posted way back in October, A LOT has changed to say the least. 2020 has been a wild year - can you say global pandemic, murder hornets and an election year to top it off? Uggh. There are moments it feels like time is going by so slowly with nearly every day looking the same, but at the same time, I can hardly believe we are already nearing the end of August! Time certainly moves differently right now.

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