Travel

Catskills Getaway

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I did not write a blog about our Christmas trip to Atlanta because despite seeing family and having bonding time, it was… not great. Everyone was sick, Toddler A slept terribly, we were all very stressed and cranky, and then we had a 16-hour flight delay when we returned due to snow in NYC. 5 days later, when Chris wanted to plan our travel for 2026, I was VERY wary. I was in no mood to travel ever again, nonetheless soon. But sometimes you just have to trust your spouse and suck it up, so we planned five trips for the first half of the year.

I’m so glad I let myself be vetoed, because last weekend we had the best trip we have had with Toddler A, and it wouldn’t have happened if I was stubborn. I’ll do a recap/postmortem at the end of this post about why I thought it went so well, because I have been reflecting for a week on how to make it happen again.

You may remember our Babymoon/MaybeMoon at Chatwal Lodge in the Catskills, well, it was Chris’s idea to go back there with Amari. At first, I was hesitant because there isn’t much to do there. Even the things that there are to do, are not baby-friendly. But then I realized that when we’re at home, he doesn’t do much either and he thrives with large spaces to run. There’s nothing larger than empty fields and rooms!

The trip started as every outing with children starts: late. Thankfully we only had to drive, so there were no flight delays, but we were trying out a new car seat, and since we are New Yorkers, every car trip means a new rental I have never driven or installed a car seat in. I tried to figure it out for an hour, and then I gave up and we ended up using our old car seat. Eventually we got on the road, and there was about 45 minutes of unexpected traffic which turned a 2-hour drive into a 3-hour drive. That’s a big difference with a toddler. But Ms. Rachel got us through, and we arrived just in time for dinner.

One of the best parts about this place is the food. The resort/hotel only has 14 rooms, and it is all-inclusive for food and non-alcoholic drinks. The food is so fresh and so amazing. Chris says it is the best food he has ever had at any hotel or resort, and better than at least 90% of the restaurants in NYC. That is extremely high praise, and I agree. They also had a kid’s menu, which I wasn’t expecting, so we could put in chicken fingers immediately for Toddler A while we chowed down on the first 3 courses ourselves. Surprisingly, Toddler A enjoyed a lot of our adult menu food, too, especially the bread with garlic and herb butter, and the potato leek soup. The only downside of multiple courses was that by the time we were finished with appetizers and starters and bread courses, Toddler A was totally done and wanted to be let out of his highchair. We worked around this as best as we could, eating our main courses in shifts and never once ordering a dessert but that’s ok.

We didn’t really need dessert because they had an entire “cozy concierge” menu for the room, which included room service warm chocolate chip cookies and milk. You could also order a bath kit and a teddy bear, both of which we took advantage of later in the weekend. After dinner, they drove us to our room for a room tour, where our bags were already there waiting for us. They valeted our car and for the rest of the weekend we just texted them, and they picked us up from our cabin within 5 minutes of texting. Not only was the crib already set up, but our cookies and milk were already there!

We decided to move the crib into the bathroom because 1: the bathroom was HUGE, and 2: it had a door, which we found from experience is mandatory. If Toddler A can see us, he will not sleep. The bathroom set up worked pretty well, with the main obstacle of actually having to pee during the night. We eventually figured out a solution involving tip-toeing and hand sanitizer. Surprisingly, Toddler A only woke up once every night, and always before 11 pm so we all got great sleep.

Everyone loves garlic butter, even toddlers.
MORNING SLUMBER PARTY
Family Matching Socks, bear themed seemed fitting.
Our bathroom a.k.a. A’s bedroom

Saturday, our first full day, also happened to be Valentine’s Day and our engage-iversary. If you’ve been here a while, you’ll remember that we got engaged at Bubby’s the place we had our first date. I had brought Chris a few gifts from Bubby’s including a beanie and pancake mix. Toddler A enjoyed pulling off the wrapping paper. We headed up to the main lodge for breakfast, where Toddler A again surprised me by trying lots of the adult food including bacon and sausage along with his yogurt pouch and new love: blueberries. After breakfast, we went to the downstairs of the lounge where we played a rousing game of hide and seek. I don’t think he had ever seen an area that large with so many corners to hide. I may have been more out of breath than he was! My Oura ring tracked me a workout. Then, we found the game room where Toddler A promptly found the puzzle with the most number of small pieces (1000), and dumped it on the ground. Fun times.

When we thought he was tired enough, we went back to our cabin, and we planned to try to get him to nap. You know what they say about the best laid plans.

This was not ideal for the rest of the day’s activities, but we made it work. We watched Zootopia in bed, we ran around, we blew bubbles on the porch, we ordered in lunch to the cabin while we watched Ms. Rachel, and we read Going on a Bear Hunt approximately 800 times.

I thought he would love taking a bath in the huge bathtub, but I was wrong. We switched off taking showers (couldn’t do that at night since Toddler A was sleeping in the bathroom), and then it was time for our romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner.

(Narrator: it was not romantic at all).

The dinner… did not go as planned. Remember, Toddler A had no nap, so by 6:30 pm, things were devolving quickly.  We made a gametime decision to quickly order him some French fries and chicken fingers, then we ordered the rest of our dinner to the cabin so we could let him yell and run around without interrupting the other happy (quieter) couples. That may have been the best decision we made all weekend. We had our leisurely, and frankly, probably more romantic dinner in our cabin and there was no need to chase a toddler or worry about his volume, speed, or safety. I didn’t mention that the main lodge had about 100 candles burning everywhere, but that was another concern.

Cozy vibes
They gave us this teeny toy that Toddler A fed food and water at every meal.
Snowy escape
Family breakfast
What a big boy!
Hide and Seek. I couldn’t find him anywhere!
A flexible definition of “hide.” (Chris in the shower).
Failed nap. How can you nap when there are suitcases to play with?
Chief Cozy Officer!
Ms. Rachel and my dream hair.
Pre-Dinner wiggles.
Pre-Dinner Selfie.
Aforementioned open flames, perfect for a toddler in nonstop motion.
Our romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner, me alone at the table with Toddler A’s chicken tender leftovers.
Back at the cabin.

We had another surprisingly great night of sleep, complete with more tiptoe bathroom trips, and then we were on our second (and last!) full day. After our second fantastic breakfast, we decided to spend time in the Recreation Center. Last time we went to Chatwal, Chris and I spent a good amount of time at the Rec Center. We played pool and bowled and I did crafts there. We also participated in the nightly bonfire and s’mores. This trip was a little different.  

Our main Rec Center activities this time were running, hide and seek, going up and down the stairs, and of course more running. Toddler A also enjoyed Jumbo Connect 4, but I think that was just because it meant we lifted him every time to drop in a chip. After lots of energy was expended, we went back to our cabin for nap time. On day 2, we learned from day 1’s lessons, and we did not even attempt to put A in the crib. I just let him snooze away on the king size bed next to me while I read my Kindle. It was a much more restful day for us all.

Post nap time, we played with the 2 toys I brought, a ball, and bubbles. Since Toddler A is just learning how to kick, he absolutely loved the ball. Also, bubbles were a huge hit since we don’t have an outdoor space at home to use them. Both activities were a success, and before we knew it, it was time to have a light room service lunch, finish Zootopia, shower, and get ready for more Rec Center time before dinner. Our room had a MASSIVE shower that I believe was larger than my first room in Manhattan. It had a built-in bench, which came in handy since I mentioned Toddler A despised the bath. The shower also made for a fantastic “hiding” spot for hide and seek despite the glass door (we have realized the “hide” part of “hide and seek” means something different to a toddler). Night 3 dinner went slightly smoother, but we were basically full by the time the main courses came out, which worked out well because Toddler A was also over it.

Our final morning was fun and uneventful, we packed as best as we could, while Toddler A actively took items out of our bags as soon as we put them in. We had a slow breakfast while they pulled our car around from the valet and loaded our bags and then we headed home and made it back to the city by naptime.

I promised at the end of this blog I would recap why I think this trip went so well, and I will be brief:

  • Low expectations. After our last few trips, I just expected chaos and lack of sleep. I was pleasantly surprised!
  • No Airports. I know I have said this before, but airports are no place for toddlers. There are too many people, and toddlers do not like being strapped in when they could be running up and down the terminal. Also, the hour+ drive to the airport + security line + waiting at the gate, + sitting on your lap the whole flight, just no. Air travel is hard.
  • No other people. I know, I know, it’s nice to see family and friends. And I’m still a semi-extrovert. But when traveling with or to people, you need to take other schedules into account. When the only schedule you need to stick to is your toddler’s, things go far smoother.
  • Sleep. I think it goes without saying that all things are more enjoyable when you are rested. Our toddler woke up once each night we were away, and every night it was prior to 11 pm, so we had 11:30-7:30 blessedly quiet and alone. This made for all-around happier campers.
  • BYO Food. The place we went had all inclusive food. But you can never depend on a toddler eating new foods, so we brought our own. Having pouches and his favorite cheese on hand was helpful. It also meant I didn’t need to stress about whether he’d eat at mealtimes with us.
  • Screens are FINE. We allow screens in the afternoon at home, usually around 4:30-6:30, but we run around while it’s on, play hide and seek, climb things, run away and come back, etc. If we suddenly said, “NO MS. RACHEL” on our trip, we may have had a mutiny on our hands. So instead, we just used that time to shower and get ready for dinner. It was great, and we icky-sticky-bubble-gummed through an hour of the afternoon.

We had fun, we ran around a lot. We relaxed, and we would definitely do it again.

Rec Center open space to play. SO many books to pull off the shelves.
CONNECT 4!
Stairs. The best novelty.
More stairs.
Nap success!
Purple Bear in his rightful place: center of the bed.
bubble fun!
Zootopia!
Kisses and huge in the snow.
Serenity… and bubbles.
Our room service lunch setup.
DELICIOUS burrata with blood red orange and walnuts, and grilled shrimp.
Not exactly the way you play pool…
We took this exact photo when little man was in my belly! So surreal to have him here.
Shenanigans
AMAZING mushroom pasta that I had 4 bites of because I was already so full.
Final breakfast, happy and relaxed!
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Travel

Albania, Bosnia and Montenegro Part 2

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I’m back with more travel content. This time I am writing a month after returning, so here’s hoping my post-2-babies brain remembers a few things. The photos help a lot! My friend’s and my shared Google album had 1,142 pictures in it!

Anyway, we left off my last post in Dubrovnik, where we had a jam-packed day in the old city. The next day was our final day in Dubrovnik, but again, we booked a tour to leave the city, actually the country! This meant yet another border crossing, and we were in for a surprise when we discovered that in the last 2 days since our previous border crossing, the entire EU had changed their rules and now required fingerprints or facial recognition. This slowed us down a bit, but we still made it to our destination: Bosnia!

Bosnia was not a place I ever considered visiting, but I am glad we went. We started the day in Mostar, where a local guide took us on a quick 1-hour tour. He was young (20) and told us that in 1995 when he was born, he was the only baby born in that hospital the entire year because the war had just finished. How insane that this was during my lifetime? It was so interesting to hear about his childhood while the country was being rebuilt. He told us that his school was across a river, but there were no bridges left standing after the war so for a few years until they were rebuilt, they had to swim across to school.

He took us to see two of the most popular sights in Mostar, the Stari Most bridge, and Kriva Cuprija, or the crooked bridge, which is a mini version of Stari Most that they made as a practice. Unfortunately, Stari Most was destroyed in the war, so although it is again complete, it is not original. Stari Most is known for its professional bridge divers. They collect money from tourists, and when they get enough, they jump. This is not for tourists to do, it is 90 feet high!! Unfortunately, we didn’t see anyone jump, but we saw someone gathering money for an eventual jump!

We ate a delicious lunch at a restaurant where our servers wore classic Bosnian clothing, and did some souvenir shopping, then headed to our next stop, the Kravica waterfalls in Herzegovina. While most people did not get in the water, my friend and I braved the 55-degree temps for a few minutes. YOLO! When else would we swim in a natural waterfall in former Yugoslavia? We dried off then headed back to the bus for our journey (and border crossing) back.

Bosnia
Ruins from the war that was only 20 years ago
Crooked Bridge
Our tour guide, the only person born in 1995
Stari Most
Look closely to see a bridge jumper!
Lunch timeeee
YUM
view from the top of Stari Most
On the way to Kravica Falls
View from above
View from below!
SO. COLD.
Can you tell we were shaking?

The next day was our biggest travel day: we were moving from Croatia to Albania, via Montenegro. We looked into all sorts of options to get from Point A to Point B, but the only one that made sense by time or money was to book a driver. We used a website called DayTrip that my friend found, it was so easy and went seamlessly. Our driver was nice, spoke perfect English and acted like a private tour guide!

We started the day by taking a surprise car ferry, where we were able to get out and enjoy the views on our 7-minute journey across the Bay of Kotor. Our driver took a great photo of us on the ferry deck. On the DayTrip website, we picked to add a stop in Montenegro, but in a different place than we had been a few days prior. My friend had seen a TikTok about an “alpine coaster,” a roller coaster that you control your own speed, on the side of a mountain. To get there, we took the longest cable car I had ever seen, and we got our own car. We literally ascended past the clouds.

The Dubrovnik Cable Car holds about 40 people, whereas the Kotor one is more like a ski lift where it is in constant motion (except once on the way down when it paused for 20 seconds and I nearly had a heart attack) and each car holds up to 6 people. We were alone in both directions and the views were breathtaking, at least before we were above the cloud cover.

At the top of the mountain, we discovered the best playground. It had 6 trampolines, a rope swing, and two multi-level slides. Of course, my friend and I had to jump on the trampolines and do the slides multiple times. It was SO fun and unexpected (and free). I wasn’t sure if I’d be strong enough to go up the jungle gym, or small enough to fit down the slide, but I was, and I did! After the playground, we went on the coaster, and it was thrilling… and scary. I definitely did NOT go as fast as I could have made it go. My friend, on the other hand, was obsessed with going the max speed, and even decided to go for a second run!

After our playground and coaster adventures, we worked up an appetite, so our tour guide/driver took us to one of his favorite restaurants in Montenegro. The serving size was HUGE. We had enough for breakfast and lunch the next day. We finished our journey in Shkoder, Albania, and said farewell to our driver.

Unfortunately, that’s when the drama began. A few hours prior, I had received a WhatsApp that our day trip the next day had been cancelled, but the message was so strange that I had ignored it, assuming it was fake. I had reason to think it could be fake, because my friend had a fake WhatsApp earlier in the trip where somehow, the texter had her information from Viator but wasn’t the official trip operator. However, after more investigating, I realized it was true, and our trip for the next day was in fact cancelled. We were supposed to do a river cruise on the Shala River, but due to the dam, the water levels in the river were too low for the journey.

The next 3 hours were a frenzy of us trying to rearrange our next 3 days, because we had no reason to be in Shkoder if not for that trip. After a lot of stress and MANY WhatsApp messages and calls to different tour guides, we decided on a plan: we would leave our Airbnb 1 night early in Shkoder (it was only $40/night/person), and we would change our transportation for our next part of the trip and go up to Theth, Albania early.

We went to sleep thankful for a slow next morning instead of our originally planned 6 am wakeup and leisurely got ready to sightsee in Shkoder. The first must-see attraction was Rozafa Castle. It’s 4000 years old and has gorgeous views. We walked around for an hour and took lots of photos and then went back to the city to walk on Rruga Kole Idromeno, (the pedestrian street) to get souvenirs, coffee, and snacks for our afternoon journey to the Albanian Alps.

Car Ferry
The longest cable car ever
Cable Car Views
Can you spy my friend on the other jungle gym?
LFG
Not quite too tall
Above the clouds
COASTER TIME!
Can you tell I’m scared?
Rikki’s second time on the coaster
Views on the way down
Montenegro lunch
Made it to Albania!
So many gorgeous mosques. This one was right beneath Rozafa Castle
Lots of castle views
Selfie
Our new album cover
Another gorgeous mosque

We grabbed our bags and found our bus. Everywhere we traveled within Albania was an adventure. There was a language barrier, and it always seemed there were additional unplanned stops. On our way up to Theth, we first stopped at a hostel to get 4 cases of olive oil, and then we switched vans halfway up. Somehow, we figured out what was going on but it was not easy.

Eventually, we arrived at one of the most beautiful places my eyes had ever seen, Hotel Thethi. Everywhere I turned, it looked like a fairy tale. I don’t know how else to explain it besides that it seemed fake. We learned that the road we were on was only finished in 2021! Before that, it was rugged gravel, requiring a 4×4 vehicle. Our hotel was in the middle of NOWHERE and yet, it was 5-star luxury. The beds felt like clouds. The rain shower looked like something I’d seen on TikTok and never experienced IRL. It was unbelievable. I should mention… it looked like something I’d seen on TikTok because I did. I actually found this hotel through a TikTok when I was searching for people who had been to the north of Albania. When I saw how inexpensive it was, I knew we had to go. The rooms were under $100/night and included breakfast. As a nice surprise, we booked single rooms, but they gave us each huge king rooms because they had them available. I was so glad we decided to go for an extra night!

We relaxed in our rooms, took long showers, read books, scrolled our phones in bed, almost fell asleep, and then just when I didn’t think it could get better, it was dinner time.  

Since we arrived by bus and we were in the isolated mountains, we didn’t really have options for dinner. Our options were: eat at the hotel restaurant or not eat. We decided to go to the hotel restaurant. We were not disappointed. The hotel is known for “Albanian hospitality,” and we didn’t really know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t a 7-course meal where each course was more delicious than the last. We tried so many traditional Albanian foods and loved them all.

We went back to our rooms to luxuriate in our comfortable beds and enter a food coma. Thankfully, we had a very late start the next morning. As we found out in our mad dash to reconfigure our itinerary, although there are amazing hikes in Theth, all of the trips originate in Shkoder. Our accommodation had said they could get someone to drop us at the trail head, but we wanted a hiking guide, and I’m glad we got one! Through some WhatsApp stalking, we were able to contact a guide whose tour began in Shkoder, and he swung by to pick us up from our hotel in Theth. While the bus started pickups at 7 am, we were leisurely picked up at 10 am after another fabulous breakfast compliments of our hotel.

I could not have wished for a better day. We made friends with our bus mates from Germany, France, Ireland and the US, and we saw the most spectacular scenery. Also, we got in a few great hikes. We started with a hike to the Blue Eye, which again, I heard about from TikTok. When we got out of the car and saw a bridge that looked like it was falling down, we joked that it was the way to the Blue Eye. HAHAHA. Except… it was. It was the scariest part of the hike, but the rest was pretty simple (with the help of our guide).

It took about 2 hours round trip, plus of course our break to swim. Once again, not a single person from our group got into the water except my friend and me. If we thought 58 degrees was cold, this was 44!! Everyone thought we were insane, but again, YOLO!

After a change out of wet clothes, we went back to the car and headed to hike #2, the Grunas waterfall. This hike was more strenuous, but much shorter. It was beautiful, yet again. We stopped as a group for some lunch, and since we were all friends by then, we shared dishes for the table so we could try all the Albanian cuisine. Before being dropped at the hotel, we finished at another must-see destination in Theth, the church of Theth, built in 1892.

We headed back to the hotel to take another amazing shower and relax before another meal! We couldn’t fathom skipping the fabulous hotel dinner since it was our last chance to have it, so even though we had a late lunch, we still managed a big dinner. We were sad to pack and get ready to leave the next morning to Tirana, the capital of Albania, where our flights home were leaving from the following day.

As with the rest of our Albanian travel, the trip from Theth to Tirana was… unexpected. The bus didn’t have room for us despite our reservation, so one guy stood up until we ran into another bus he transferred to, and another guy had to sit between seats on a crate to accommodate us. Then when we got to Shkoder, we had to transfer (which we were not originally told) and then we changed buses two more times. One of those times, we transported a woman with 4 buckets of olives 4 blocks. You can’t make this sh*t up.

Eventually, we arrived in Tirana at our airport hotel, which was literally across from the airport. This came in handy, because the next morning for our flight, it was raining and we just had to run across the street with our bags! But first, we went to dinner at the one place we had made a reservation the whole trip, Tartuf, a restaurant specializing in truffles that again, I found from TikTok. The day prior, we realized one of our hiking buddies from Theth had a similar itinerary and would also be in Tirana for the night before her flight, so we decided to share a taxi into town and explore then dine together. It was so fun to sightsee and eat with our new friend! I found some classic Albanian clothes for gifts, which I had been searching for all trip. We bought a few more last-minute souvenirs and then headed back to our hotel for our final sleep before the trip home.

Overall, the trip was AMAZING. I saw everything I wanted to see and more. I had time to feel like myself again.  I didn’t change a diaper for nearly two weeks. I had uninterrupted sleep. I saw new places. I bonded with a friend. I created new memories. I ate amazing food. AND, I missed my family and my bed. I would absolutely recommend the trip to anyone, but for me, I think it was a little too long! I was happy I went, and I was happy to be home. I did get some sort of horrible illness (food poisoning?) that caused me to not be able to eat anything solid for 10 days upon return, but it was worth it!  I’m not sure when my next travel blog will be, but maybe I will have gone somewhere else by the time you finish reading this novel.

On the way into the Albanian Alps
Eyes peeled for flora and fauna
Eyes peeled for flora and fauna
Our ride (the second van)
View from our accomodation.
More views. How is this real??
More.
The scary bridge to the Blue Eye
Despite fear, my friend stopped on it for a pic.
Different scary bridge with our whole hiking group on it.
Stunning.
Clearest water
Fairy tale
The epic Blue Eye, as beautiful as it looked on TikTok
Only the bravest for the 44 degree temps
ice blue
Grunas Waterfall
Happy to be sitting
This ravine was terrifying to cross… but not too terrifying to pause for a selfie
Our post hike lunch spot had cows!
Church of Theth
Name a more beautiful place to be buried…
Tirana city center, notice the building is shaped like a face?
The iconic Pyramid of Tirana (also known as the Enver Hoxha Pyramid), which has been recently renovated into a cultural and educational hub
Found traditional clothes as gifts!
Truffle spot. Is this how I got sick? I’ll never know.
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Travel

Croatia and Albania (and Montenegro) Part I

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I just returned from my longest time away from Baby A (now Toddler A), and it was great, and also LONG! When I got back, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t changed a diaper in eleven whole days. What??? That seemed unbelievable. I went on this trip with a good friend, and when we booked flights, she wanted to pay extra so she could choose a seat. She couldn’t believe I didn’t care. She said, “what if you get a middle??” I had to explain that having an ENTIRE seat to myself, with no one on my lap kicking me in the face, or sleeping on me, or screaming and crying, was absolute luxury. Middle seat with headphones and a movie? Or a BOOK? Or… closing my eyes without worrying my baby would end up in the aisle? Unheard of.

Anyway, it was a fantastic trip. We saw so many things, went so many places, ate so much amazing food, and surprisingly didn’t spend too much money. Also, everyone survived at home! My husband, my baby, and of course our bonus family member – our nanny. They were all happy to have me back but the fact that there were no major crises definitely boosted my confidence in them, and also in the fact that I could go away again, but probably not for as long. Around day 6 I started to get homesick. I missed the tiny hands and tiny slobbery kisses and of course my husband and my bed! But the part of the trip I was most excited about was at the end, so that kept me going through the homesickness.

When I left home, I had 1 stamp in my passport from Mexico, because after I changed my name, I had basically been consistently pregnant and scared to travel, or postpartum. Now, I have 8 stamps. That is a lot to write about. Where do I start?? I guess, the beginning.

Why Croatia and Albania? Well… the flights were cheap. I paid under $700 round trip. Also, neither of us had been to those places before. We figured if we flew into one place and out of another, it would basically make an itinerary for us. And that’s basically what we did! We built our trip with the help of AI a lot. “What should you do with three days in Dubrovnik?” “If you have 7 hours in Hvar, what are the must-see attractions?” Etc. Who needs a travel agent anymore? We even asked questions like, “how do you get from Dubrovnik, Croatia to Shkoder, Albania, how long would it take, and how much do the options cost?”

We started our trip in Split, Croatia, because that’s where the cheapest flight went to. Also, I had never even heard of Split. We didn’t spend too much time there, but we had enough time to sample their famous Cevape sandwich, and go to the absolute must-see destination, Froggyland, the world’s largest collection of taxidermy frogs (507!!) set up in crazy positions, like Olympics, courtrooms, etc. No photos were allowed, but if they were, this blog would have probably been solely dedicated to Froggyland.

On our one full day in Split, we took a day trip somewhere else, a boat to three islands including to the Blue Lagoon. The water was cold, but of course we still got in. YOLO! How often are you in Croatia?? It was worth it.

Welcome to Split!
View from our AirBnB
Exploring the UNESCO sites
How adorable were they?
Cevape sandwich (we had this both nights we were in Split!)
Boat Day! Our new friends.
Look at that water.
Peace sign! Feigning comfort in the freezing water..
Froggyland!1
I wish I could show you the actual frogs…

The next day, we left Split, but when we first landed in Croatia, we found out that our original boat tour day was cancelled, and we had to reschedule. Since our newer boat trip didn’t include a stop in Hvar, we rearranged our Split to Dubrovnik transfer so we could spend 6 hours in Hvar. It was the right choice! Our ferry was going to stop there on the way anyway, and this way we got off, checked our bags at a place by the port, and then explored for the day. We took a Free Walking Tour (I LOVE those) and learned all about the island, how isolated and deserted it can be in the winter without tourists, and about their native crops (pomegranates, capers and olives) and animals (wild boars… and vipers!). We also learned that the guy who invented fingerprinting was from Hvar. Randomly, the international sprint Spartan race was taking place in Hvar the very next day, so we spent a lot of time watching them set up the course and watching the athletes practice. Talk about a gorgeous setting to work out! We headed back to the ferry after sampling the famous Hvar Cake and then caught the most beautiful sunset from the boat.

View from the top of Hvar
Juan Vucetich the first guy to use fingerprints in criminal investigation
More breathtaking views
Pomegranates everywhere
Also olives!
Come on.
Spartan practice! (and content-making)
Despite looking like a pile of doodoo this is actually Hvar cake.
Sunset from the ferry

The next day was our first full day in Dubrovnik, except, we planned a day trip to Montenegro so we actually woke up at 5:45 am to leave the country. I told you I was collecting passport stamps! The trip, while early, was worth it because we made it to our first stop, Perast, at 8:45 before anyone else. We took a tiny boat the largest man-made islands in the Adriatic Sea, Our Lady of the Rocks. According to legend, it was formed by a tradition of local seamen who added rocks after successful voyages, after finding an icon of the Virgin Mary on a rock in the sea in 1452.  

It was absolutely beautiful, and the lack of other tourists made the photos even better! We had some classic Montenegrin almond cake and a coffee, and then headed to the next stop, Kotor. As you’ll see, we went back to Kotor a few days later, but this time we stayed in the Old Town, and let’s just say… it was CROWDED. We later learned that Dubrovnik limits their cruise ship ports to 3/day, but Kotor does not limit the ships. It was obvious. The streets, while tiny and windy, were packed to the gills. The only thing there was in the whole old city was souvenir shops. They mostly only sold cat things. Yes, you read that right: cats. Kotor is known for their cats. They introduced cats a few hundred years ago to get rid of pests, and now the city takes care of them. They are everywhere. They even had a cat museum! We went. It was… interesting.

The ride back was actually shorter than expected because the border crossing went smoothly (another passport stamp!) and we got back to Dubrovnik 2 hours early. With our newfound time, we decided to catch the sunset, and we hoped it would be as great as the previous day. It wasn’t, but it was still beautiful. We went through a tiny hole in the walls of the city, and headed to Bard Bar, which my coworker recommended. I had a mango-lime hard cider and it was DELISH. Then we went to a burger place that is known for their calamari “burger” (calamari on a bun) and it was yummmmmyyy. Great end to the day!

Boat taxi to Our Lady of the Rocks
Looks fake
Photo opp
More photos
Again… looks fake
Made it to Kotor
I do not know how Rikki made it looks like there were no people here
Hiding in corners to get away from tourists
Souvenir shops abound (can you find the cats?)
Cat museum incoming…
CATS
Back in Dubrovnik, about to find a bar through this secret passageway
yum!
calamari burger

The next day was our only full day in Dubrovnik, even though we stayed there for four nights. We wanted to get an early start, but not as early as our insane 5:45 wakeups for day trips. We compromised that we would try to be at the walls by 8:00, and we made it by 8:30, which is pretty good, if you ask me. We heard that the walls could get extremely crowded midday, so we beat the people and got gorgeous photos. Also, in direct sunlight, even at 9 am it got warm! I cannot imagine how hot it is midday, or in the summer. We took a LOT of photos, and we were done by 9:30 am so we could meet our Free Walking Tour at 10.

Our guide, Marko, was awesome. He was born and raised in Dubrovnik and had amazing stories about living in Croatia and being shipped away to a remote island during the war with his mom and siblings. His only real memory was coming back on the ferry when he was 4. You’ll hear more later about young guides and their war experiences. During our whole trip, it was interesting to hear from people younger than me what it was like to grow up in war times.

When we purchased our tickets to walk the walls, we realized we could buy the “Dubrovnik Pass” for the exact same price, and it would include entrance to a few museums as well. We hit up the museum of ethnography after our tour to see classic examples of clothing from Croatia. For those of you who don’t know, my parents actually met in a Yugoslavian Folk Dance troupe, so I was very interested to see all of the outfits from the region. The outfits reminded me of the pictures I saw of my parents while growing up!

We felt like we had already accomplished a lot, but it was only 1:30 pm! We did some more sightseeing and then decided to take the cable car to the viewpoint at the top of the mountain. It was beautiful, but a little underwhelming if I’m honest. The ride was about 4 minutes long, and the cable blocked all of the views! Also, we had pretty great views that morning on top of the wall. However, I had an AMAZING blueberry cheesecake ice cream pop so that was worth it.

The day was still (surprisingly) young, so we went back down the hill, and then climbed up to the fortress, which was also included in our Dubrovnik pass. We took many more photos as the sun was starting to go down, and then we QUICKLY went to two more museums before our day pass expired. We went to the Museum of Natural History, and we made it to the Franciscan Monastery with 6 minutes to spare. There we saw a bullet hole from the war, which was still preserved in two walls, and we saw the longest-operating pharmacy in all of Europe, still operated by monks.

It was a LONG day! We were ready for dinner. We went to a place recommended by Marko, and I had a Dubrovnik special called “dirty macaroni.” It was basically braised short rib and pasta and it was DELISH. On our way to dinner, we came across two separate weddings and processions. It was interesting to see the different cultures. We learned later that the guy in the front of the procession waving the Croatian flag is an honor given to the groom’s best friend, but according to our friend we learned this from… it’s TIRING.

Thank goodness I was no groom’s best friend because I was exhausted. Actually, I’m tired just from writing this! Can you believe this was only the first 4.5 days of our 10 day trip?? Part 2 coming soon!

Early on the walls!
Wow.
Wall selfie! 2 hours later and there would have been 100 people in the background
Peekaboo!
Our guide Marco telling us how this was an old orphanage and people would put their babies in that window to give them up
Classic Croatian garb
More
Accessorizeeee
Look! It’s my mom! No, really, that’s her on the left.
Rubbing the nose of Marin Držić, known as Dubrovnik’s Shakespeare (note the bullet hole in his neck)
View from the cable car!
Ice creammmm
Hiding in the fortress nooks and crannies
Fortress chillin
PHOTOSHOOT
Museum of Natural History
JUMPSCARE
Franciscan Monastery
Dirty macaroni!
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Travel

Niagara Falls

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Last weekend I went on a belated birthday trip with Chris to Niagara Falls. This trip was supposed to be a surprise. Back in June, Chris surprised me with a belated birthday trip to Chicago. The main problem with me planning a surprise, though, is that I have no mental capacity for planning or surprises. Also, Chris loves to use credit card points and frequent flyer miles. So, instead of making it a surprise, I said, “do you want to go to Niagara Falls for your birthday two weeks late?” and he said yes, and then he booked us the flights and hotel rooms. Yes, two different hotels, we will get to that later.

Thursday, we had a 7 am flight. This departure time, of course, was thanks to my sweet husband who doesn’t require 8+ hours of sleep like my depressed self does. Despite his favorite hobby, morning-of-trip-packing, we managed to make it to the airport on time and we were even upgraded to first class. The trip was off to a great start. The plane didn’t have TVs, but thankfully it was ungodly early, and the entire flight took 50 minutes so I mostly dozed. We landed and we were at our hotel in Buffalo by 9 am. Unfortunately, since hotels don’t allow check-in that early, we took up residence in the lobby and we asked the front desk to hold our suitcases. Thankfully, the lobby was huge because we both had very full days of work. I know what you are thinking, “this blog sucks, no one wants to hear about you taking an hour-long flight to make zoom calls in a different part of the state.” I agree. Don’t worry, it gets better, but not quite yet.

Finally, our room was ready, so we went upstairs to check it out. We opened the door and found a massive table, a desk, a coffee bar, a fireplace, and a sofa. No bed. There was a conference table that sat 12 people, but no place to sleep. I started laughing hysterically because I truly thought Chris booked us a meeting room instead of a hotel room. It was only then that he remembered that the front desk had said we were in 1501/1502, so we went back into the hallway and sure enough, our keys opened the adjacent room as well, which thankfully had a bed. We later discovered a third door in the hallway that we could close so that we could prop the two rooms open and create a suite. It was a bizarre set-up but it did give us two bathrooms, so I couldn’t complain! We went out to get a late lunch/early dinner, and then, as it happens when you wake up at 5 am, we went to sleep. What a thrilling first day!

Day two started the same way, with work and emails. Eventually we ate breakfast together and continued with our work day. Around lunch, I went for a walk and explored the Erie basin. I came across the African American Veterans Monument, and multiple Navy ships including the USS Little Rock and USS The Sullivans. I had no idea there would be ships docked in Buffalo, but you learn something new every day. I walked back toward the hotel and came across the McKinley Monument, which I later found out was built because President McKinley was shot in Buffalo when he attended the Pan-American Exposition in 1901. Every time I go somewhere in the United States, I realize how little I learned in high school AP US History.

Our Board Room
Complete with fireplace… and no bed.
Erie Basin Walk
Came across some ships
McKinley Monument in Buffalo

Back in the hotel I worked some more, and thanks to Chris’s hotel status, in addition to the executive suite we also got a 4 pm checkout. This was when the real adventure began. I decided to shower before we switched hotels, and just as I was getting out of the shower, housekeeping walked into the room. Chris explained, as I was in a towel, that we were checking out in 45 minutes. 10 minutes later, a different housekeeping person walked in. I put on clothes, and 10 minutes later, another random man entered the room with a key, the guy staying there after us. This had never happened to me before. Three people walking in? Including a subsequent guest? While I was in a towel? My husband (a man) did not seem phased by this at all. In fact, he didn’t even mention it when we checked out. A woman would never.

Anyway, we finally checked out and went to continue our adventure on the other side of the US-Canada border. The problem, of course, was that there was an international border. My sweet husband, who I really cannot blame because I did exactly zero research or planning myself, said he checked Reddit and that it would be “no problem” to cross the border. Unfortunately, there was a problem. You couldn’t order an Uber, and the hotel couldn’t guarantee that if they called a cab, they would be able to take us across. We decided to take an Uber as far as we could and figure it out. Chris said we could walk across the bridge. With our bags. I was not pleased. Do not fret, we left our Uber at the border, and a man approached us and asked if we needed a cab. Me, a woman, would have said “no thank you, stranger, I do not want to get into your car.” Chris, a man, said, “that would be great.” Readers, do not worry, I am still alive to tell the tale. Our cab driver ended up being a main character of the weekend. It turned out he used to live in Manhattan and had a store 2 blocks from our apartment. He told us that we could see what we needed to see in Niagara Falls in 4 hours, and then we should go to Toronto HAHA. A true New Yorker. I will admit that made us feel better, since we only had a day and a half there, and I was scared we would miss out.

We went into our hotel room and the view was amazing. We were on the 37th Floor, and our room overlooked Horseshoe Falls. But the sun was setting quickly, and we wanted to go down and get an up-close view, since it was supposed to rain the entire next day. I assumed the Falls would be impossible to see at night, since they were natural, but I learned quickly that I was wrong, they are lit up by multicolored LEDs from 6 pm – 2 am every night. Anyway, I didn’t know that at the time, so we thought we were on a time crunch. The valet told us that we could walk down to the Falls, or we could take the “incline,” which would get us there in 4 minutes. We opted for the lazy way, and found that the “incline” was just a 30-foot funicular. It was hilarious because we could have easily just walked up the hill, or they could have built a staircase, but they didn’t and instead charged $7 roundtrip. We were on vacation, so we splurged and took the 15-second trolly ride.

This is where we found out cab driver. On the side of the road.
We crossed this border 4 times in 2 days.
View From the Room
Not a volcano, this is the Falls at night!
So beautiful. Night view from dinner.
Before our 15-second ride to the Falls
Could we have walked up this hill? Yes.
Selfie in the Incline!
I found this sign hilarious. Like… duh.

It was worth it. It was truly spectacular. I didn’t know, but “Niagara Falls” is made up of three Falls, the American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe, or Canadian Falls. While the first two are all in the United States, 90% of Horseshoe Falls is in Canada (Americans will be quick to tell you that all three are technically in the USA). Despite where they are located, the direction of the Falls is such that they are much better viewed from Canada. From the United States, it’s more like infinity pool vibes and you can’t actually see where the water drops down to. According to their official website, 3,160 tons of water flows over Niagara Falls every second. That is so much water. It’s hard to wrap your brain around.

Chris and I took many photos at the Falls. Of the Falls. Selfies of us at the Falls. Then we had some strangers try to take photos of us at the Falls. We learned quickly that strangers are mostly shorter than us, and while we are fantastically photogenic, if you take photos from below, you will get great pics of us, but you will have exactly zero of the scenery in the background.

I learned a lot of facts about the history and usage of the Falls, but I won’t bore you with all of them. I did find it especially interesting that 50-75% of the water is diverted to hydroelectric power stations depending on the time of day and year, and those stations supply more than one-quarter of all power used in New York State and Ontario. The water is then returned (unpolluted) to the river. This means that the crazy amount of water we saw and experienced was less than half of what it could be. Also interestingly, some people try to go over the Falls. Most of them try to do this in barrels, and most die. But some survive! In fact, the very first to do it successfully was a woman, Annie Edson Taylor, who achieved her daredevil dreams on her 63rd birthday. She tested her barrel in advance by putting a cat in it (who also survived!). There are now steep fines for people who attempt this, but as our tour guide advised us, you only have to pay if you survive!

Chris is a Falls Paparazzi
Our selfies were better quality than stranger pics
A+ selfie
Photo 1 from strangers with 0 Falls included.
Photo 2… slightly better?
My pics of the Falls
Photo 3 from a stranger, better!
Me!
We are Annie Edson Taylor
HOLD ON!!!! (no cats were harmed in the making of this photo)

Speaking of our tour guide, Saturday was the big day. The one thing I did to plan for this trip was book a tour. I specifically booked a tour that went to both the American and Canadian sides. The universe, which has recently not been working in my favor, had another joke up her sleeve, and decided to forecast for rain the entire day. WOMPWOMP. Good news is, we were planning to get wet anyway. Our tour guide told us that rain is actually great because it reduces your inhibitions of being wet at the Falls, because you’re wet anyway. My therapist loves a good reframe, so I decided to opt into this one, too.

We started the day with a bang: my favorite part, the Maid of the Mist boat ride. We suited up in our ponchos and boarded the double decker boat. It was spectacular. We rode right into the basin of Horseshoe Falls, where it felt like we were in the side wall of a hurricane. The water, wind, mist, and turmoil was all around us, and then the boat did a 360 while we were poured on from the waterfall. It was awesome. In case we weren’t wet enough, our next stop was to the “Cave of the Winds.” Despite the name, this is not an actual cave. It was a cave, and there were tours from 1841 to 1920, but a rock fall collapsed it, and now it’s a series of walkways built into the outside of Falls, which is actually torn down and rebuilt every single year. The walkways bring you right to the base of Bridal Veil Falls, and there’s even a Hurricane Deck, where you are basically inside the Falls. It is very. Very. Very. Very. Wet. My feet were not dry until many hours later when I got back to the hotel.

The rest of our tour took us to a few other amazing views, including Three Sisters Islands, where we could walk little pathways into the middle of the Niagara River, and see where it flowed down to the Falls. Then we headed to the Whirlpool Rapids, which were absolutely stunning with the changing colors of foliage. Again, from their website, “Horseshoe Falls crushes into the narrow Niagara Gorge, creating the whirlpool rapids […] where the gorge abruptly turns counterclockwise. The river’s abrupt change of direction creates one of the world’s most mesmerizing natural phenomena.” Our final stop of the day was the Skylon Tower, where we took a 52-second elevator ride to observation decks 775 feet above the Falls. The views were amazing, but the ride up was my favorite part!

We headed back to the hotel where we took a nap, because we’re old, and then we went to dinner at a nice restaurant in our hotel with a view of the Falls, again lit up for the night.

We had an amazing time, and just like our cab driver said, a day and a half was plenty of time. We saw what some people call, the 8th natural wonder of the world. Some do not say that, but some do. We spent time together. We slept 8 hours/night. We ate great food. And we were home by 3 pm on a Sunday. That’s what I would call a successful trip.

  • Selfie with our best tour guide #TeamJessica
  • Chris loves state parks!
  • Squint and see which pink ponchos are Chris and me!
  • Selfie before getting soaked
  • Actively being rained on by waterfalls
  • Cute, not yet saturated.
  • About to be saturated…
  • Very, very wet.
  • Such a majestic view.
  • I was ready to hit Bridal Veil Falls and the Hurricane Deck!
  • Chris and I soaked.
  • It’s hard to explain how loud it was here.
  • Inside Bridal Veil
  • HURRICANEEEE
  • Whirlpool Rapids in all of its fall foliage glory
  • View from Skylon Tower. Breathtaking.
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Grief and Pregnancy Loss, Travel

Peru Part Uno

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It has been a LONG time since I’ve written a travel blog, so I’m excited to bring you new, world-traveling content this week (and next!). My original plan was to split this blog into two: one where I talked about all of the positives about traveling, getting away with friends, exploring new places, seeing amazing scenery, eating local delicacies, etc., and one where I talked about the difficult co-existing emotions of going on a trip during this #veryhardyear. Then, I was chatting with one of my loss-mom internet friends and she said it was inspiring to see me “finding joy amongst the griefyness,” and that’s why I decided to write this instead as a fully integrated post. The good, the fun, the sad, and the complicated. However, a 2-in-1 post means this one is a pretty lengthy, so strap in. It’ll be posted in two installments, but stay tuned, I included pictures.

Let’s start at the top. Many months ago, my therapist asked me what used to bring me joy so I could try to find it again. I could barely remember, but I told her I guessed it was traveling with friends. She suggested I start small, like a brunch. But I didn’t want to go to brunch, and I didn’t want to see my friends.

In my past life, I traveled in the early autumn every year because I always had extra time off from work. 4 months ago, when I realized I wouldn’t be tied down with a baby this season, and when I realized I’d have three friends having babies in September (blog about this coming soon), I requested a week off from work mid-September. My time-off request was approved. A group of my friends started talking about possible places to go. My therapist was so proud of me. Many, many messages and ideas were sent back and forth. Then in July, I fell off the face of the earth. I deleted my social media and I stopped answering any texts. The trip planning ceased, at least on my end. I couldn’t think in advance even one day, nonetheless a few months ahead, and I couldn’t fathom booking activities when I was just trying to get through the current hour.

Then in August, since I hadn’t been on any group chats, I fired up a group message via text and asked if anyone was still up for going on a trip. I was honest about my lack of planning abilities. I said I’d still be down to travel, but that I just needed someone to tell me where to book a flight and that I’d be mostly useless on planning. Ideal travel buddy, right? Thankfully, my friend stepped up and suggested Peru. It seemed like the ideal location because there were nonstop flights from NY and FL and only a one hour time difference, which was great since we had about 9 days total and didn’t want to deal with jetlag. My friends booked flights. I couldn’t get my act together until the next day, when flights went up $150 but it is what it is. It’s just money #thingsprivilegedpeoplesay.

Anyway, we settled on Peru and we started planning. By “we” I mean, not me. My main contribution was asking other people for Peru recommendations and throwing them in a google doc. The one thing I did was book us an Airbnb for Lima. My friend liaised with a travel group in Cusco and did the extremely heavy lift of coordinating everything with the travel agency. The agency took care of everything from tours, airport pickups, train and hotel reservations, and anything else we could have wanted, like advice on how much to tip drivers. Did I mention this was all done 3 weeks in advance? We had extremely low expectations given that this was a slapdash, last-minute trip, and we were all extremely pleasantly surprised.

Our trip started with three girls (including me) in Lima, and we had zero plans. We had a few lazy days exploring the city. We slept in, left the Airbnb around 11 am, got iced lattes, and went on a few free walking tours. We explored the Huaca Pucllana pre-Incan ruins that are right in the middle of the city. We also did some solo exploring, first at the nearby John F. Kennedy Park. The strangest thing about this park is not that it is named for a US President, but that it houses hundreds of stray cats. One of the friends I was with is obsessed with cats, so of course me made multiple visits to the park. These are not just dirty street bodega cats, thankfully. There is an association, Gatos Parque Kennedy, that cares for, feeds, and provides sterilization for the cats living in the park. There’s even an adoption process in case someone wants to take one home. I don’t think you’re allowed to transport cats across the border, otherwise my friend may have tried to smuggle one home (she did not).

We went on a tour of the historic city including the Gran Hotel Bolívar, the Plaza de Armas, the House of Peruvian Literature, and the Santo Domingo Church. At one point, we passed a woman dressed as a zombie bride holding a dead bloody baby, and she had 3 other bloody babies at her feet. I’m not sure if anyone else on the tour noticed her, but I did. At first, I thought I was making it up so I brought it to my friend’s attention. I said “do you see all those bloody babies?” It was not in my head, they were indeed there, but they were dolls. At another point we went into the Church of San Francisco, where our tour guide said “see all those little toy cars by the statue of Jesus? Each one was put there by a parent for their dead child. Ok! Let’s move on.” He was a fast-moving guide. It took me a few moments to shift gears.

We ended the tour with a Pisco tasting in a souvenir shop, where we tried 8 types of Pisco, and then we were hustled into buying souvenirs (we got adorable pom pom hair ties).

The next day, we went on a free walking tour of Barranco, which started out with a bang because we had to take a local bus there with the tour guide. We were surprised to find out that the buses do not actually stop at stops, but instead just open their doors while moving and expect you to jump out. What an adventure. Thankfully we all survived.

Barranco is known as the artsy neighborhood of Lima filled with murals, street art, and lots of great local food. In Barranco, you can also find the famous Bridge of Sighs, where legend has it, if you’re able to walk across the bridge while holding your breath, your wish will come true. I won’t tell you my wish, but I bet you can guess.

Cat Park Visit 1
Cat Park Visit 1000
Malecon
Love Park
Mosaics
Pre-Incan Ruins
Selfies all day
Very fast-moving walking tour

Throughout my trip to Peru, you’ll see that eating was a main theme. Lima has become a bit of a food destination, and it’s often called South America’s culinary capital. While we didn’t do any of our fancy eating until the last few days of the trip (stay tuned!), we did a good amount of eating throughout the trip. On the front end of the trip, we ate a lot of street food. I was thrilled to be traveling with fellow adventurous eaters, so we tried and shared a lot of Peruvian delicacies, starting with antichuchos (beef heart). We also tried a classic dessert called picarones, aniseed-flavoured doughnuts with mashed squash. We bought a caramel-filled churro from the street, as well as an ice-cream-looking cone, but it was more like marshmallow fluff? Later in Cusco, we tried alpaca and guinea pig (I’ll save you the pictures). Alpaca tasted like bison, guinea pig was a little bit like rabbit. We knew we had to try the classic rotisserie chicken, but since we like to go big or go home, we went to a chicken place and got chicken three different ways. All three were amazing. We also sampled Inca Cola, which I hated, but I don’t like soda so I wasn’t surprised.

In between our eating, we got our steps in by exploring the city. We walked to the shoreline along El Malecon, a cliffside walking path. There’s a mall there as well, called Larcomar. We walked around and chatted while we sat on a bench and were approached by many locals who wanted to practice their English (and ask us for money). It was beautiful and peaceful. There was also a “Love Park,” which was dedicated on Valentine’s Day. It features a massive sculpture of two people embracing, and it’s surrounded by mosaics with romantic lines from Peruvian poems.

Antichuchos
Picaronnes
Alfajores
???
Churros

On our final day in Lima we decided to book an excursion to the Palomino Islands. According to TripAdvisor, they promised we would see Humboldt penguins and sea lions, and that we’d get wet suits and have the opportunity hop in and swim with them. The reviews were less stellar. Most of the recent reviews said that the sea lions were extremely stinky, and that the water was too cold and the sea lions wouldn’t get in. We decided it was worth a try anyway. I don’t know why, but I expected we’d see maybe 10-15 sea lions. I am not exaggerating when I say there were THOUSANDS. I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. We donned our wetsuits and were told to put our feet up in front of us to show the sea lions we were not aggressive. Soon enough, the sea lions were hopping into the water off the rocks and swimming all around us. It was absolutely breathtaking, and not just because they were smelly (they were). Our guide had goggles he passed around, and when I looked under water, they were all around us. Hundreds of them were swimming below and alongside us. It was insane. Truly one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. In theory, sea lions sometimes come up to you and kiss/lick your feet, but none of them did this to me. I was a little disappointed but also relieved because they are HUGE up close and intimidating. It was a real adrenaline rush.

In our $2 Uber back to our Airbnb to shower off the sea lion smell, I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing the experience was, and I started getting soooo sad. My thought process went like this: “wow that was the coolest experience ever. I can’t believe I got to do that. I wish I hadn’t been able to do that. No, that’s not true, I’m really glad I got to do that. I had so much fun. I wish I hadn’t had fun. No that’s not true. I’m glad I had fun. But I wish I had a living child instead. If I had a baby, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. I’d rather have a baby. But I don’t get to choose. I wish I could choose. Why don’t I get to choose? Everything is so unfair. Why am I upset every time I’m happy? Why am I like this? Why can’t I just be happy? I hate who I am now. I don’t want this life.” Etc. etc. in circles. It’s really frustrating to be mad at myself every time I’m happy. Some may call this survivor’s guilt, but it isn’t really guilt. It’s more like a consolation prize. I’m happy I got a prize, but it pales in comparison to the real prize, the one I really wanted. And if I had a choice, I’d give up the consolation prize in a split second for the real prize. But I don’t get to choose, and that just fucking sucks. This was the first of many times during this trip that these spiraling thoughts happened to me.

There were many nights where I cried myself to sleep, but I am a pretty quiet crier, and I think mostly no one noticed even though I was sharing a room. Mornings used to be hard, back when I’d first wake up and realize my life wasn’t all a bad dream. But now, nights are the hardest, especially when I’m away from Chris, the one person who I feel truly understands what we have been through. Even he doesn’t always understand how I feel, but he understands best.

As we prepared to go to Cusco, which is approximately 11,500 feet above sea level, we were told to buy altitude sickness medication from a pharmacy and to start taking it one day before arrival. Since Manhattan is about 250 feet above sea level, I thought it would be smart to be prepared. However, as I googled the side effects, I realized that there may be some contraindications with my blood pressure medications I’ve been on since my pregnancy. I scrambled to message two of my doctors and hoped they would write me back. Thankfully they both did, but one of them recommended I down-dose my other meds, depending on what my blood pressure was reading at high altitude. I probably should have brought a monitor, but I didn’t. I spent the next 4 days worried I’d pass out in the street and end up in a Peruvian hospital. Thankfully, that did not happen, but the constant low-grade anxiety was not ideal. These are all just fun continuing repercussions of having a dead daughter, I guess.

The next morning, after taking two doses of altitude meds, we headed to the Lima airport to take a short, 80-minute flight to Cusco, where we would meet our fourth friend and begin our hiking adventures.  Don’t get it twisted, we did not do the Inca Trail 4-day hike, we took a train to Machu Picchu. But we did do a good amount of walking and stairs over the next few days. We saw some of the most amazing landscapes I’ve seen in my life. I don’t usually go for blog post cliffhangers, but this one is already long, so get ready for Cusco and Sacred Valley adventures next week!

Can you see how many sea lions are behind us?
A moment for the braids.
Before we hopped in to swim with the smellies!
Look at all of the sea lions!
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Travel

3 Last-Minute Days in Stockholm

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Remember back in August after our honeymoon, when I said I was going to be in town for 6 full weeks? Well, that is not exactly what has happened. I was looking forward to a slow and relaxed September with 0 flights on the agenda, but the world had other ideas. First, on Labor Day weekend, someone in my husband’s family was in an accident so we went down to Texas to visit. Then, 2 weeks later, my sweet husband said, “I kind of want to go somewhere between jobs, what are you doing next weekend?” I didn’t have any plans, and I was expecting he would suggest upstate New York or something. But no, he suggested Stockholm, Sweden. I know you’re probably wondering if there was some deep reason why he picked Sweden, but the answer is simple: Delta flies there nonstop, and the prices were semi-reasonable for a 3-days-in-advance booking. Chris loves his Delta flights. And I love him.

Honestly, I was a bit anxious about the trip. I am already spending a lot of money and energy planning a trip to Australia for October, and I am heading into my busy season at work. Also, Chris loves to sit in a hotel room but I have this compulsion to explore new places and see ALL THE THINGS. It’s a lot of pressure to plan an itinerary solo with 3 days’ notice! I know this is serious first-world-problems, but I put a lot of stress on myself. Thankfully, a lot of people on the internet have done research for me. I googled “3 days in Stockholm” and sure enough, I found a lot of blogs and sample itineraries, things to see, and food to buy on a budget.

We booked it, and we were on an 8-hour redeye Thursday night, to get in at 10 am Friday Sweden time. The actual trip to the airport was more stressful than any other part of the trip (except the trip back, I’ll get to that later). We forgot it was the UN General Assembly, so traffic was standstill, basically a parking lot. We asked our Uber to drop us off at the subway instead, however, we had packed LARGE bags and I definitely regretted going to the gym earlier that day. After 2 subways and an Airtrain, and a walk because the Airtrain station at our terminal was closed for construction, we got there in time to check our bags and go to the Delta lounge for a small pre-flight dinner.

The flight was uneventful, although I couldn’t sleep at all. When we arrived, thankfully the hotel had the room ready so we could take a 2 hour nap. We stayed in Gamla Stan, or “the old town,” which is a perfect location for sightseeing right next to the Royal Palace and Parliament. We quickly realized that the next day was the Stockholm Half Marathon, and the finish line was around the corner! Before you ask, no, I did not braid any hair.

Since I have a big trip coming up next month, I didn’t take any days off of work, which meant that I had to work from 3-11 pm Stockholm time on Friday and Monday. After my nap, I went to a cell phone store to try and get a sim card (unsuccessful), and then I went to a hotdog stand that I read about in my research. It was called Bruno’s Korvbar, and they had 25 different types of sausages, spicy to mild, and many topping choices. I got a “baguette double” with the House spicy sausage and the lamb merguez. It was AMAZING. Possibly the best thing I ate in Sweden. And it was $9. I headed back to the hotel to work, and then later went to the lobby restaurant for Chris to eat dinner even though I was still full. The couple sitting next to us struck up a conversation, and it turned out the woman randomly knew me through my work AND had seven mutual Facebook friends with my dad. What are the chances??? Small world.

Even on the rainy days it was gorgeous.
More gorgeous?? These sausages.
Selfie stop!
Look at this place *heart eyes*

The next day was Saturday, so I was ready to hit the town early for some sightseeing. Chris… was not. But that’s ok, I know we vacation differently, so I knew I’d be a solo tourist. I started the day with a cinnamon bun, or kanelbullar as they say in Sweden. To be honest, I started EVERY day with one of those. Anyway, after an iced latte and sugar fuel, I headed to a 9:30 am Free Walking Tour. Free walking tours are the best when you first arrive in a new place because you learn things, get your bearings, AND it’s an easy thing to do solo and meet people. There are other tourists to take pictures of you, and the guides are always willing to give tips on things to see, places to eat, and where to spend your time.

The tour guide gave me my next destination, the changing of the guard. Supposedly this happens at the Royal Palace daily. It was a lot of pomp and circumstance and it took FOREVER. I left after about 40 minutes of the band playing and young soldiers marching around. I headed next to the Wooden Horse Museum, which is a souvenir shop, but it was still pretty cool. Wooden dala horses are kind of a symbol of Sweden, dating back thousands of years. After that, I went to the Nobel Prize Museum, which was small, but I learned a lot! Supposedly the Nobel Banquet is televised every year on December 10th and goes on for 5 hours. Meanwhile, I had never heard of it. I also learned that at the banquet, the only acceptable dessert to serve pre-2010 was ice cream. I had no idea. Me… an ice cream connoisseur!! They serve the famous ice cream in the museum café so of course I had to get this for lunch. It had sorbet, ice cream, and cotton candy. Also, it had Hanukkah gelt! (It was actually a fake chocolate coin Nobel Prize, but same thing.)

I searched Atlas Obscura for other strange things to see and explore, and found myself at the Public Library, which has supposedly been named one of the most beautiful libraries by Conde Nast Traveler. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of construction happening, but I still got a chance to walk around the 360-degree balconies of books. After my exploring, I needed a snack, so I checked out another food stand I found in my research. This one was known for fried herring. I was extremely hesitant, but I ended up LOVING it! I got a smaller portion, kind of like an open-faced rye bread sandwich, for $4. The best part is, the half marathon was running right by the stand, so I took a seat on the bench and watched people run 13.1 miles while I reflected on my day of food: cinnamon bun, ice cream, fried herring.

I headed back to the hotel and woke my husband (it was 6 pm) for dinner. I saw from my quick online research that many people recommended a place called Pelikan for authentic Swedish food. It was in a neighborhood we hadn’t been to called Södermalm, which was described to us as the Brooklyn of Stockholm. I thought that was sus, but sure enough, I understood why they said that. The streets were filled with too-cool-for-school people, vintage stores, coffee shops, and bars. Very BK-esque. I ordered the Swedish meatballs for dinner (or just… “meatballs” in Stockholm), which were delicious and SO filling, I could only eat half! I was very glad we had a 30-minute walk home to digest.

My first of MANY cinnamon pastries.
Tiniest 6-inch status shown to us on the free walking tour.
Best part of free walking tours: free photographers!
Marching band at the changing of the guard.
So many young soldiers!
Nobel Prize-winning ice cream!! Sorta…
Little pit stop at the half marathon finish line.
Fried herring, YUM!
I got him to join me for dinner!
DELICIOUS meatballs.

Day 2! Are you exhausted yet? Thankfully I was not because Sunday was our ONLY sunny day. After my Day 1 discovery of the kanelbullar, I decided to google the best ones in Stockholm. Of course, they have an annual cinnamon bun competition, as one does. So I set out early to two bakeries that made the top 5 list to conduct my own taste test. That meant heading back to Södermalm. While I was there, I went to two lookout points to take in the sunny views, and it was absolutely breathtaking. I went back to the hotel to share my five pastries with Chris, and then we headed out to the HIGHLIGHT of the trip: Segways!!!

I am not going to go too much into Segways, because a full blog is coming. I actually can’t believe I haven’t written one yet! This was one of the best tours we had been on, mostly because the people were fun, no one was a beginner, and it was LONG! We got to go all around Stockholm and learn things, like that there is a whole island in the archipelago dedicated to ship-building, and that Sweden supplied torpedoes and other things to the Nazis (not too many locals advertise this). We only had 3 other people in our group and we had a BLAST zooming around the city for 2 hours.

We worked up an appetite and felt like something more substantial than a pastry, so we went for burgers at Boo Burger. I had no blog recommendations for this place, only google reviews, but they did not lead me astray – it was delicious!

Ever since I started researching Stockholm (3 days prior) I had heard it was the “Venice of the North” and I was dying to get on the water. Unfortunately, when I researched over lunch, I realized that the sightseeing tours only leave at 10:30 and 2 pm, so we missed out. Good news though, Stockholm has an extremely efficient public transit ferry system. We hopped on a ferry, which was very easy to access by just tapping our credit card at the entrance, and we did a little self-guided tour on Ferry 80, thanks to Google and “wikivoyage.” We had a very busy day, so we rewarded ourselves with a few hours at the hotel spa. They had a sauna and cold plunge but we just hung out in the “warm room” and read books. We capped off the night at Pharmarium, a cocktail bar that is in the building where the first pharmacy in Stockholm opened in 1575. It was cozy and the drinks were delicious.

Early bird gets the best views!
Just a FEW pastries
SEGWAY time!!
Got my other half to come to Stortorget with me.
SUCH good burgers omg.
WE’RE ON A BOAT!
We’re cute.
#VIEWS

Monday was our final day in Stockholm and by this point I bet you can guess how it started: pastries. I saved the top museums for the final day because it seemed like the perfect rainy morning activity before I had to start work. Chris came with me to museum #1: The Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a ship that went on her maiden voyage in 1628… for 20 minutes. Then it sank. 300 years later they found her at the bottom of the water almost completely preserved. The ship stands in its 98% original form in this museum and it really is remarkable. We did an English guided tour and explored for a bit, then Chris took the ferry back to the hotel. I went to the Abba Museum, which the internet specifically said not to go to alone, but I’m not one for rule-following. I did some singing to Dancing Queen, I did the photobooth, and I learned a LOT about ABBA that I did not know before (I knew almost nothing).

I went back to the hotel and worked for the afternoon and evening, until we went to dinner at the pièce de résistance: the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, “home to celebrities, high-profile events and everyday bon-vivants since 1874.” This hotel is magnificent, and they host a nightly smorgasbord buffet at a reasonable price. Unfortunately and fortunately for us, it happened to be a seafood buffet that night. Unfortunately, because it was 2.5x the price, fortunately, because it was delicious and we ate all of the lobster and shrimp and crab and salmon and all other fish to our heart’s content. The views were also impeccable. It was a special way to cap off our trip.

The AMAZING Vasa.
Look at the detail!
Try to find which one is me!
See that girllll, Watch that sceneee
Selfie!
Selfie at our seafood feast

But our adventures were not over! The next morning, we headed to the airport… without Chris’s passport, which he had left in the safe in the hotel room. We made it to the airport within the check bag window by 5 minutes. This was the second time in 7 years that he forgot his passport for an international trip. That man sure does love to keep me on my toes!

If you’re interested in seeing videos of my days, I made an Instagram Reel for each day of my trip!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

And of course, a compilation of food.

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The Honeymoon Phase

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Well guys, we got married. I guess that means we are now in the “honeymoon phase.” However, we have been together nearly 7.5 years so I think that era is long-gone (sorry, babe).

Good news is, getting married did give us a great excuse to take a vacation! And I know what you’re thinking, wasn’t your wedding in Cabo? Wasn’t that vacation enough?? And the answer is clearly “no.” Cabo was gorgeous and we had the most amazing time with family and friends, but we wanted time to hang out with each other and relax, and a wedding is not that.

When choosing where to go on a honeymoon, I was thinking of far-flung, once-in-a-lifetime places. Like Africa. Or the Maldives. But my husband, Mr. Finance, wanted a place that was in a relatively similar time zone in case he needed to check emails, and preferably with a nonstop flight since the flight delays and cancellations this summer have been terrible. Also, we planned to go in August so we had to think about hurricane season, and try to avoid it. Since we went to Aruba last summer, we decided to go to Curacao, its slightly larger next-door neighbor. The ABC (Aruba-Bonaire-Curacao) islands are below the hurricane belt, and JetBlue flies there direct 3 times per week!

The best part about a honeymoon is the feeling that you can splurge. And yes, I probably should have started this blog with an acknowledgment of our privilege but, yeah, we were not thinking about money at all during our trip. That said, things are not too expensive, so we didn’t spend a crazy amount. We did upgrade to EVEN MORE SPACE seats, though. BALLIN!

We decided not to stay at an all-inclusive resort. There are certainly pros and cons to both, but not having food included in the price opened up our budget to try new restaurants, new neighborhoods, and to be honest, it meant I drank a lot less! There’s this feeling at an all-inclusive that you need to eat and drink your money’s worth. At a regular hotel, there was all-day availability of drinks, and when I wanted one, I got one! I had an Aperol spritz almost every evening while getting ready for dinner. That said, it felt less like a booze-fest because I was more thoughtful about getting drinks and there was no alcohol in the room. Another big advantage of no all-inclusive was that we felt we could be more flexible about when and where we ate. For example, after jet-skiing (more on that later), there was a little bar at the pier and we decided to stay and hang out and do happy hour there. Since the drinks weren’t included at our hotel, there was no feeling of having to get back to “take advantage.”

More about the hotel, since we didn’t stay at a crazy all-inclusive resort, we were able to book the BIGGEST suite in the entire hotel. It was wholly unnecessary for 2 people and we felt like king and queen of the resort. I even filmed an MTV cribs-style video of the whole thing, it took 3:15 to walk around!! We had 2 separate wrap-around balconies, two full bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a bar, a dining table, a soaking tub, it was MASSIVE. And it was $200 less per night than the cheapest all-inclusive.

Our suite had double doors, that’s how you know it was big.
We both took advantage of this tub. Me with an aperol spritz of course.
The private beach at the hotel. absolutely gorgeous!

It’s no secret that Chris and I like to vacation differently. That’s why you see me always going on vacation with my friends. My friends and I love to explore and do ALL the things. I usually come back from vacation and feel like I need another immediately. Chris, on the other hand, likes to take vacation to RELAX. As in, he likes to stay in the room. In bed. Hang out. Watch tv. Be on his laptop. The good news is, we’ve been together a long time so we know this about each other. I tried to be respectful of his ideal vacation when I was looking at activities for our honeymoon. I tried to think of our top 3 activities we were both interested in doing, and then mixed in days between where we relaxed. Extra perk – I got a great tan reading on the beach and I finished two books! I also spent a lot of time on Alabama Rushtok. Typical honeymoon, amirite?

Last summer when Chris and I went to Aruba, we went on an ATV tour and had a blast. This year, we wanted to do something similarly adventurous, but a little different so we decided to jet ski. To be completely honest, it was not great. We chose to go at 4 pm so between the sun setting in our eyes and the salt water spraying in them, the visibility was abysmal. Also, I had never been on a jet ski before and the instructor didn’t really want to instruct. To make matters worse, my jet ski was broken and started to beep uncontrollably when I slowed down, and then stalled out. This meant I had to constantly go very fast, on a vehicle I’d never been on before, and when I couldn’t see. Not ideal. Halfway through, the instructor switched jet skis with me, which was terrifying on open water, but definitely helped because I never stalled out again! I pulled my adductor gripping on to the thing for dear life, which is still recovering, but I don’t regret doing it. It’s a story!

The next adventure we did was a full day boat trip to Klein Island, or little Curacao. This was way more our speed. We showed up to the dock, and they drove us around. The waters on the way there were ROUGH, but I had read about that in a lot of the reviews. I am not exaggerating, we ran out of barf buckets and had multiple people just heaving into plastic bags. Once Chris and I went to the top level to get away from the vomit, things went a lot smoother. We spent a leisurely day at the beach, on the boat, snorkling, and hiking to see an old lighthouse. It was a great day and while it was technically an excursion, it didn’t involve too much energy expenditure.

Our final big excursion was a day of beach hopping. We went to Grote Knip, where we heard the beach was one of the most beautiful on the island (it was). We went to Playa Forti to jump off of a cliff. By “we” I mean “me.” But my husband did an excellent job of watching our towels and filming the content for Instagram. An equally important role. We also went to Playa Piscado to snorkel with sea turtles, and I actually saw two! The water was SO clear it was amazing. We attempted to see wild flamingos on the way back to town, but unfortunately they were hiding from us, or from the heat.

Jet Ski Adventure!
Post jet ski, happy to be able to see again.
Boat Day and Klein Island
Selfie Ashore
Adorable and flattering photo of us both
Our ship!
Chris in his element. In the shade.
Hike to the Lighthouse
Getting suited up to search for turtles.
Found one!! TURTLE!
Do you see me jumping off the cliff?
HAIR UP!

Throughout our trip, we ate at great restaurants, and being on a small island for a week meant we had time to revisit some of our favorites. We had breakfast twice at BijBlau, where it was inexpensive, delicious, and you could sit literally on the beach. We had dinner twice at Rozendaals; Chris still dreams of the apple tart dessert. We had lunch and snacks twice at Gouverneur de Rouville and watched as the Queen Emma Bridge swung open and closed for boats. One night, we went to Coconut Night at Shelterrock Paradise, where they cooked our dinners in coconuts over an open fire, and ended with a lively night of karaoke led by both staff and guests. Chris impressed the crowd with his version of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, and I killed it in a song fitting for a honeymoon: Let’s Hear It for the Boy.

My honeymoon outfits were *chef’s kiss” if I do say so myself. I brought a combination of outfits I had bought specifically for the honeymoon, dresses I bought for our wedding in Mexico (look at me, so thrifty!), and I also subscribed to a month of Rent the Runway so I could have fun, new-to-me clothes. Unfortunately, despite my research prior to the trip, while the airport had plenty of American-style electric outlets, our hotel had zero. So my hair tools did not work and my hair… has definitely looked better. I tried my best using my limited resources, and I’d say we still had a great time despite my hair looking awful.

Our favorite breakfast spot on the beach
Our dining partner at breakfast
Best part, climbing on rocks while waiting for food.
Instagram Husband Gold
Our favorite drinks spot with A+ view
Selfie on Queen Emma Bridge
<3 <3 <3
Coconut Night!
YUM
Followed by Karaoke

Since we went to Aruba last year, a lot of people have asked me which island we preferred and it’s tough to say! We had very different trips. For one, in Aruba we stayed at an all-inclusive and did not rent a car. While we did a few excursions, we mostly stayed on the hotel grounds. Also, it’s much smaller so a car isn’t needed as much. In Curacao, we were there longer, we explored more, we drove around the island, and we ate all of our meals outside the hotel. There was no room service at all, so we really explored restaurants and snacks/drinks places. It also felt a lot more foreign! The first language in Aruba seemed to be English. Everywhere we went, people greeted us in English and took US Dollars. In Curacao, it seemed we were the lone Americans. Most tourists were Dutch and spoke Dutch, and the menus were all listed in Antillean guilder (ANG), or NAf. Both islands had gorgeous beaches, perfect, sunny days, and amazing Aperol Spritz. And of course my adorable husband!

Now we are back to real life and already dreaming of our next vacation.

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Portugal – Lisbon, Algarve and Alentejo

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Olá! Jet-setter here. I just returned from 5 days in Iceland, 10 days in New York, then 11 days in Portugal. Have you missed me? I’ve missed you. For Portugal, we didn’t book flights until 8 days before. That meant we did very little planning. The whole time we were there, we said we wished someone had written a blog about the places we went, things to know, and the necessary things to see. Maybe someone did write one and we just didn’t have time to research. Or maybe no one has and that’s why I’m writing one now. Don’t worry, I won’t take you step-by-step through our journey because it was so long! But there are a few things we did that I wouldn’t want you to miss.

First of all, you need to know where we went. We landed in Lisbon (non-stop flights FTW), stayed there for a few days while some of us worked remotely. Then we went to the south coast (Algarve). We stayed in Portimão but traveled to Sagres, Lagos, and Albufeira. Then we drove up to the Alentejo region where we stayed in Cuba and traveled around to wineries and Evora. Then we drove back to Lisbon and stopped in Montemore-o-Novo for lunch at A Ribeira. See below, you won’t want to miss that place.

Tram 28 in Lisbon (I ended up falling asleep due to jet lag, woops).

Let’s start with things you need to know about Portugal:

First of all, they are very laid back around time. Things are super sleepy in the morning, and just like siesta time in Spain, most things close from 3-7 in the afternoon. Don’t expect to eat during that time. One of my friends had to settle for gelato, which, tbh, is never a bad thing. Also, since the dinner time is relatively short (8-11 pm), you’ll need a reservation in most places. Our first Airbnb in Lisbon had a binder of useful info, and we learned one of the best tips from it: the app called TheFork. This app is a combination of TripAdvisor, Groupon, Seamless and OpenTable. You can read reviews, see the menu and pricing, book a table, and best yet, a lot of restaurants offer huge discounts if you book a table through them! We ate at 4 different restaurants where we got 30% off our meal (food only, not wine) just by reserving a table on the app. You can’t beat that. Also little-known fact, since parts of India were Portuguese colonies for 400 years until the 1960’s, there are a lot of amazing Indian restaurants. When we were tired of seafood, we had Indian (twice) and it was a delicious change of pace.

Important tip: taxes are HIGH. Like 23% high. This means that if you are renting a car, expect those extra charges to add up big time. 5 Euro/day/extra driver is a lot more when you add 23% tax! Good news is, tipping is not really a thing, so restaurants are still way cheaper than in the US. At least cheaper than New York by far. And remember to use TheFork!

Another important tip: ROUNDABOUTS. The Portugese loveeee them. There are barely any traffic lights outside of the main cities. At first, we thought they were super fun. That is, until we realized they have super complicated laws about them and they are STRICT. We saw 3 police cars pulling people over for violating the rules in a very tiny town. Read up on your roundabout rules, especially for the 2- and 3-lane ones.

Fun fact (sorry about this Mommy): Strip clubs. We were approached by a promoter in Portimão to come to a strip club because it was 10 Euro entry fee and it included a drink. WHAT? So cheap. Most importantly, the strippers are on salary. I guess this makes sense, since they don’t want people throwing coins on the stage at unsuspecting half-naked (or full naked) people. But the fact that they are not begging for money makes it an entirely different experience. It’s like a drink and a show instead of a crazy hectic pushy environment. Also, at this particular club is was men and women strippers that switched off. Unfortunately we were too busy having fun and dancing at a nearby bar so we only got there 10 minutes before closing, but this was still a hot tip I couldn’t leave out.

  • Gelato for lunch (and DIY nails!)
  • Pre-strip club bride-to-be shenanigans

Hot tip: take a unique tour. I didn’t write a blog about Iceland, but I was supposed to do a snowmobile tour on a glacier and it got canceled. After that experience, I really wanted to do something unique. We knew we needed to get on the water in the south so we could view the caves, particularly the famous Benagil cave, from a unique view, and we booked a sunset boat tour. Unfortunately, when we got to the port, the boat was coming in from the last tour and they said they had an engine problem and couldn’t take us out. That may or may not have been true, but we knew we needed an alternative plan. We got some gelato (always the answer) and started trying to rearrange our itinerary for the next day so we could take a different tour. One of my friends was pushing for a kayak tour, because she thought we would be able to go into smaller caves unreachable by boat. She was right. I was nervous about my arms (10 days of no Peloton and copious amounts of wine meant I was very out of shape), but we took a tour that was half catamaran, and half kayak, about one hour on the kayaks. It. Was. AWESOME. We went in about six caves, and we were able to pull up on the beaches and walk around. It was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Plus we got a workout and amazing photos.

  • Working hard or hardly working?
  • We had a 2-person kayak which was easier on the arms.
  • Post-kayak and swim, back on the catamaran.
  • Benagil cave photoshoot.

If you aren’t sure where to eat, check google and TripAdvisor reviews. You never know what you will find. For example, on our way back from the standing stones, Almendres Cromlech, we wanted lunch and looked to google for suggestions. We found a restaurant that mentioned singing and stand-up comedy. We were sold. We didn’t realize it would be singing, stomping and clapping on a center table the whole time. It took us an hour to realize he was singing THE MENU. We were in for a real treat when we paid the bill – he sang the entire thing to us in Portuguese while pointing to the things on our table and explaining. And he made sure to add “plus whatever you want to give me as a tip” at the end. It was a true experience. Plus it was cheap and delicious!

Last hot tip: WINE IS SO CHEAP. This is true everywhere in Europe, but honestly you can buy wine for $4-6 American dollars for a BOTTLE. The “expensive” wine from the wineries is still under $15/bottle. Related hot tip: red wine doesn’t really give you a hangover. Also cheap: UBERS. I mean dirt cheap. We took $4 Ubers all throughout the south coast. We couldn’t understand how they made money! We had a rental car, but this way we didn’t need a DD. They didn’t have many Ubers available in the Alentejo region, but along the south and in Lisbon, they were readily available. Even our Uber from the airport was $13 USD.

Now for a quick list of places NOT to miss:

Sagres: we went there in the morning for a quick excursion, and we were so glad we did. This used to be thought of as the end of the world. It’s the Southwestern tip of Europe. Portugal was the world power in exploration in the 15th century, and many famous explorers left from here, never knowing if they’d make it back. The views are breathtaking, and you can climb along a lot of the cliffside.

Lagos: Again, cliffside climbing but here there are boardwalks with railings so you can feel safer. You will see a lot of people climbing all the way down the cliffs but there are many, many signs warning people not to do this. In fact, there are spots where you can see the cliffs have collapsed. Stay on the boardwalks or far from the edge.

  • Sagres
  • Sagres
  • Sagres
  • Lagos
  • Salema beach break

Evora:

Chapel of Bones. This place is literally made of human bones. It’s creepy but also very cool! Only 5 Euro and includes a museum that has hundreds of Nativity scenes made from different materials.

Aqueduct and Roman Ruins: If you haven’t been to Rome or Athens, Evora is an awesome place to view Roman ruins and step wayyy back in time. The Aqueduct is truly impressive. We ate in an Italian restaurant right under the aqueduct and asked our server if the water was from the aqueduct. He either didn’t understand our joke or just didn’t think we were funny.

Sintra: This is a very adorable town 30 minutes from Lisbon. We took an Uber there because they were so cheap, but you could also take an inexpensive train. There is a big castle (Pena Palace) at the top of a hill which you could walk to, but we took a tuk-tuk and it was SO much fun. Our driver was a little bit crazy (he had a little flag that said “tip driver, help buy wine”), which made it even better. The views are spectacular, and they have huge gardens to walk through as well as a chalet made of cork that looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale.

Overall, the trip was so much fun, and I feel like I need to go back to Portugal so I can explore the north, like Porto and the Douro Valley. I’m feeling sad because I don’t have any other international trips on the books for 2021, but who knows – maybe I’ll book something with 8 day’s notice again soon!

  • Sintra Walking Tour
  • Wildest Tuk Tuk of my life (also my first)
  • Our buddy
  • Pena Palace Selfie
  • Cork Chalet
  • Roman Ruins in Evora
  • Chapel of Bones!
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Alaska – The Last Frontier, My First Foray Back into Travel

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I just returned from the trip of a lifetime to The Last Frontier! It’s been a LONGGG time since I’ve written a blog about my travels, but I am #vaxxed and ready to explore again! Initially, I wanted to travel internationally but it was incredibly complicated and then they canceled our flights last minute soooo we decided to go domestic but as FAR as we could get from New York.

My best friend and I booked our flights 7 days in advance. They were $259 round trip. If that isn’t a meant-to-be price, I don’t know what is. Plus, it opened up a lot of our budget to do amazing cool things basically every day. I won’t bore you with ALL of the details, but our rough itinerary was:

Night 1: Fly into Anchorage, arrive at 2 am Alaska time, 6 am Eastern Time. Woof.

Day 1: Explore Anchorage, drive to Seward

Day 2: Kenai National Park Fjord Tour (on a boat), explore Seward

Day 3: Drive back to Anchorage, stop along the way at the Wildlife Conservation center and in Girdwood at the famous Alyeska ski resort to take the tram to the top. Drive to Thunderbird Falls for a quick hike, then to Eklutna Lake for more photos and scampering about.

Day 4: Matanuska Glacier Hike. Drive to Denali, stopping along the way in Talkeetna.

Day 5: Drive to Fairbanks, stop in Nenana, explore a bit of Fairbanks, see the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, see NORTH POLE Alaska, say hi to Santa, go to the Chena Hot Springs, dinner in Fairbanks at a BBQ place recommended by Guy Fieri

Day 6: Denali Bus Tour (the only way to see the park besides multi-day hikes), drive back to Anchorage

Day 7: Fly on a TINYYYY plane to Lake Clark National Park. VERY long hike (was supposed to be 3 miles, ended up being 8, oops), cook dinner for ourselves

Day 8: Fly back on tiny plane, explore Anchorage, see world’s largest chocolate fountain, the railroad depot, and a suburban street where every house has its own airplane hangar (atlas obscura FTW).

Are you tired reading that? I am! I need a vacation from my vacation! Honestly, this blog could be 20 pages long, so instead of going into each of those things in depth, I’ll talk to you about the highlights:

Food and Drink

As I read many blogs in the 6 days between booking our flights and getting on the actual flight, a lot of people talked about how expensive the food is because everything in Alaska is imported. We didn’t have that experience, but that is likely because of 2 things: 1. We live in NYC where everything is ungodly expensive so anywhere we go, things are cheap in comparison. 2. We ate 1-2 meals a day because we were so busy.

Mostly, we went to breweries. There were bars and breweries EVERYWHERE! Maybe because there is not much else to do, or maybe because after hiking, all you want is a beer. We went to Seward Brewing Company, Denali Brewing Company, and 49th State Brewery (twice!). The food was great, kind of like elevated bar food. Most days, we opted for seafood because it was amazing and fresh. We had fish and chips with fresh Alaskan Halibut, we had clam chowder/seafood chowder more than once, we had panko-encrusted tilapia, etc. etc. Also, we tried some gamey meats. Reindeer sausage skillets, yak burgers, etc. Honestly, everything was delicious. My favorite was probably the crab artichoke dip or the crab cakes. If you go to Alaska and want food reccos, come to me!

We also tried lots of local beers, usually only one per day because of the amount of driving we were doing. But in Anchorage, there were multiple breweries walking distance from our hotel – score! Also, we bought 3 bottles of wine at Walmart on Day 1, so we had some alcoholic supplies on the road for the hotel rooms after our longer drive days.

Freedom of a Rental Car/Having Two Drivers

Speaking of drive days… WOAH did we drive! We picked up the rental car the day after we arrived (or the day we arrived, technically, since we landed at 2 am and passed out immediately). The car was by far our biggest expense ($1500 for the week, plus $20/day for an extra driver), but it was necessary. We never would have been able to see what we saw without one. It was fun to have the freedom to add or remove stops whenever we wanted. Like on the last day, I decided to go to 3 random places I saw on Atlas Obscura. And on our drive to Fairbanks, we realized we were 15 minutes from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline so we went to go see it.

Not to mention the freedom of leaving all our crap in the car. As a New Yorker, I forgot about that! On Day 1 we bought a case of water and we drank almost all of it. Great way to stay hydrated on the road and not have to physically carry much. Also snacks. So many snacks. We were slightly worried about being BEAR AWARE with all the snacks in the car, but thankfully we moved them all to the trunk each time we parked and we were safe.

The best part of a road trip: two drivers. There’s no way I could have done multiple days with almost 8 hours of driving by myself. Most days we switched off every 2 hours, but on days with a lot of driving, or when it was getting late, or we got up really early, we switched off every hour. Sometimes we had a place to stop along the way, and sometimes we just pulled over and did a quick switcheroo.

Long Days

I mentioned long driving days, but I didn’t mention that the days were literally LONG. I’m talking 5 hours of darkness long. This really came in handy because we had days that were packed from sunrise to sundown, so like, 6 am-midnight. Knowing we weren’t trying to beat the sun meant we could drive longer, eat later, and do things until far into the night. Also, it meant we didn’t need to worry about being stuck in the forest on a hike with no cell service in the dark. This came in handy because we got lost on a hike. As in… a 3 mile hike turned into an 8 mile one. Woops! Good news, it stayed light. Bad news, we were STARVING because all food was required to be in bear-safe containers, which we didn’t have, so we didn’t bring any with us!

Wildlife

Speaking of bears… the wildlife in Alaska is top-notch. First, moose. They are EVERYWHERE. Actually! Most roads have 12-foot fences because they roam onto the road. In fact, they are killed often by cars and you can even get on a roadkill list where they will give you a killed moose to eat! We saw 3 while driving, just standing beside the road, and we saw many, many more in Denali National Park. Also along the road, we saw porcupines! I had no idea these were in the wild. In Denali we also saw Dall sheep (the only white sheep in North America), hawks, and many, many caribou.

But even cooler than the land animals were the sea animals. On our second full day in Alaska, we went on a boat tour to the Kenai Fjords and National Park. It was the craziest day for wildlife viewing that our boat captain had ever seen. He kept saying “Wow ladies and gentleman, what a day for a sail. I’ve been doing this a long time, and… we are having a very lucky day.” We started straight out of the port with a bald eagle. Then we saw many seals laying about. THEN WE SAW WHALES. Not just saw, they literally swam up to us, around us, under us. It was crazy. The humpbacks were the largest animals I have ever seen. After the humpbacks we saw Orca (killer whales) and they were jumping all around us! We also went right up to the Holgate Glacier.

Glaciers, Waterfalls and Other Amazing Scenery

Everywhere we went in Alaska, the scenery was breathtaking. On our very first day, we drove down to Seward and along the way we stopped at a place called Beluga Point, trying to see Beluga whales. We didn’t see any, but the views were actually unreal. They looked fake! I kept saying I felt like I was on the Truman Show. Throughout our trip we were constantly in awe with the beauty of nature. We stopped multiple times in the middle of a drive just to look around and take pictures.

My two favorite parts of the trip revolved around amazing nature: the Matanuska Glacier Hike and the Hike to the Tanalian Falls in Lake Clark. The glacier hike was pretty difficult. We were in the port-o-potties when they assigned groups, so when we came back, we needed to quickly tell them if we were in the “advanced” or “slow-moving” group. We picked advanced, not sure why, since we are city dwellers who have never donned a pair of “micro-spikes” before, but there we were trekking along with our helmets. It was AMAZING. We got to see crevasses wider than cars, and moulins (basically the black hole/kitchen sinks of glaciers), and we even got to refill our water bottles from a glacial waterfall.

Speaking of waterfalls, the Tanalian Falls were so beautiful. Honestly impossible to capture in photos or in words. Even though it took us 3 hours longer to get there than it should have, it was worth it.

Planes!

The last amazing piece of the trip was the planes. Planes, planes everywhere! Supposedly you learn to fly in Alaska when you are 14 and there are more unlicensed pilots in Alaska than in any other state. There was a lake right by our hotel in Anchorage where planes take off and land from the water all day and night. And we even went to a suburban neighborhood where each house sits on a private runway and has an attached airplane hangar like a garage! Totally wild. For our final adventure to Lake Clark, it is only accessible by plane. We took a 10-seater and tried not to pee our pants. It was VERY scary but SO COOL. They let us sit in the front seat as copilot (me on the way there, my friend on the way back), and the views of Alaska from the sky were even more breathtaking than from land.

If you were thinking about going to Alaska – do it!!! Warning, they barely wear masks at all there, so get vaccinated first. If you have questions or are building an interior Alaska itinerary, I’d be happy to give you all of my recommendations. Now today I’m off on my next adventure. I’ll update you on that soon!

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Lake Tyler Covid Getaway

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Well guys, it’s been 6 months of quarantine/social distancing. SIX. MONTHS. HALF A YEAR. How is it possible that I feel SO TIRED from doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING?? I know I am coming in strong with the all-caps. I promise to calm down. I wanted a great way to express my frustration with 2020. Yelling via capital letters seemed fitting.

After 5 months of sitting in the house, my fiancé and I decided we needed a weekend away. Or rather, I decided I needed a weekend away, and he said he’d come with me. I promised to do all of the work as long as he split the cost. I know there are people out in Instagram-land who are now comfortable traveling by land or by plane, gathering with friends, renting houses together, going to the beach together etc., but the more I look at the science and facts about Covid, the less comfortable I am doing any of those things, which limited the scope of my “weekend away” plans. I had three goals in mind:

  1. Change of Pace/Change of Place
  2. Alone
  3. On the water.

For the past 6 months, we have been staying at my fiancé’s family’s house. Don’t get me wrong, we are thankful. It is beyond generous that they have allowed us to stay this long. But I have not lived with kids or parent-figures in 15 years. And I have lived ALONE with my boyfriend for more than 3 years. It is not the same to have kids running around asking if I’m working (yes, it’s Monday), or if I can play (no, I’m working). There are also (cough cough) certain parts of a relationship that are difficult when there are 6 other people constantly in the house.

And as for a change of place on the water… I really miss the beach. I am a Florida girl at heart, and despite not living by the beach for a decade in New York, I ALWAYS make at least 2 trips to the beach per year. Sometimes it’s the Jersey Shore, sometimes it’s Greece and Italy. Being land-locked in a state larger than most countries has felt a bit like being in jail. I missed the water. A lot.

I went on VRBO and started looking for waterfront properties within 5 hours driving distance of our house. I set a budget of $400/night. If there was a hammock, it got extra points. I whittled my list to 5 properties and sent it to Chris to pick. (This a strategic thing I always do, so that if the property ends up being bad I can blame him. But if it’s great then of course it’s because I put the list together!) On the list, I had a few lake-front properties in Texas and Louisiana, and one in Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico. We went with a place in Whitehouse, Texas, on Lake Tyler, which was only 2 hours from our home. It was $199/night and only slept 2 people – perfect! Our plans were almost ruined when the dueling hurricanes in the Gulf threatened to hit our place, and I felt very lucky that Chris picked a property in Texas, not Louisiana. Go Chris!

We drove to the house after work on Thursday, and thankfully Chris drove so I could snack. Sure, the drive was only 2 hours, but I packed enough road trip snacks for an approximately 24-hour drive. We hit a slight roadblock when Google Maps led us to a road where there was no house with the number on it. Thankfully, the property owner picked up his phone right away and explained there were TWO roads with the same name. After a 15-minute detour, we got the right place and unpacked our things.

If you are looking for a blog about all of the things we did on our vacation weekend, you won’t find one, because we did NOTHING and it was GLORIOUS. Most of the time was spent sitting outside on the covered deck. Eating meals. Reading books. Listening to music. Reading more. Listening to an audio book. Watching Love Island. Eating some more and lounging around. It was fabulous.

  • Every morning.
  • Coffee and fresh air, nothing like it.
  • But are we cute? DUH.
  • Thumbs up for lazy days.
  • You can find me with my Kindle and Pina Colada.

I am a HUGE Fitbit fan, and despite working from home, I have been trying to keep up with my 10,000/day step goal since social distancing began. The last day I had not met my 10K goal was April 6th. The first day at the lake I got 3.9K steps. And I was proud of that.

The second full day we were there, we did a few activities. We rented paddle boards from the owner of the house, I floated around in blow-up floats I bought from Amazon for the weekend while we listened to country music on our Sonos speaker, and then we played Corn Hole on the owner’s lawn. There were so many games in the house including mega-Jenga, Horseshoes, Poker, and cards. We played a few rounds of Phase 10 in between episodes of Love Island.

Not to be corny, but it felt like we were on our own love island! The house itself was AMAZING. We didn’t know at the time of booking, but it was set back behind the owner’s house, completely separate from his home, and surrounded on all four sides by water. It was fully renovated with a dishwasher and bathroom and water views from every room. Also, there was a covered and uncovered deck. The décor was adorable, with “Lake Life” and “Lake House” accents everywhere. Also, it was tricked out! They had a state-of-the-art dishwasher/fridge/ice machine/blender/convection stovetop, fully stocker Keurig, etc. They even had a wine cooler. There was an Apple TV (we brought our own, because duh), and a Bluetooth speaker we could bring onto the deck (we also brought our own because duh), and I wish I could have stayed there a whole week.

The only issue with Covid “vacationing” is the food. We had to BYO everything and we weren’t sure about the availability of delivery. Especially in Texas, we wanted to limit our time in grocery stores/anywhere in the sticks where people are less likely to wear masks. There were many trips back and forth from the car; 3 meals a day for two people is a lot of groceries! Not to mention a case of beer and pina colada mix. To make cooking easier than it is at home, I made Chris sit down and meal-plan with me before we left. We had options for each meal. Breakfast: eggs/cinnamon rolls/sausage. Lunch: Sandwiches/grilled cheese/tacos. Dinner: Burgers/Frozen Pizza/Chicken Parm. Cooking was easier with only 2 people’s dishes and a dishwasher. For some reason it felt WAY simpler than cooking at home.

  • Breakfast
  • More Breakfast
  • More Lunch
  • Dinner
  • More Dinner
Covid Vacation Home Cooking

The owner was available for any questions all the time, and we saw him a few times when he came down to take his boat out (not included in the house LOL), but he always texted first to warn us. Also, he gave us a better deal on the paddleboards than he advertised on his listing, and provided life jackets, which was nice of him. He was kind enough to mention to me that we just missed the Trump Boat Parade the weekend before. (Not the infamous one from last weekend. See pics below, there were still plenty of boats left with flags on them.). Chris lost his Goodr sunglasses in the lake and I left my flip flops on the grass (guess I had too many ciders playing corn hole) but besides those two losses, we had only wins and successes. My best friend had been telling me for months how important it was for mental health to get away and have a change of pace; I should have listened to her earlier.

We booked one more weekend trip for this upcoming weekend, our LAST weekend in Texas! This time, we got a BIG house, lakefront again, and we’re bringing the whole family as a last hoorah! I can’t wait to share more with you about it. And if you’re ever in the Lake Tyler area in Texas, I’ll send you the VRBO listing, I can’t recommend it enough!

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