Thursday Lunch @ Le Petit Marche - Having just landed and dropped off our bags we needed lunch, quickly! Even at 1:30p this restaurant was packed, but they managed to squeeze us into a small table....
Paris 2017: picnic in Luxembourg Gardens
After visiting the Musée de l'Orangerie and several other sights on Sunday, we took the metro down to the Saint Germain area and picked up picnic supplies for a relaxing lunch in the Luxembourg...
Paris 2017: sights
On this trip we spent a lot of time inside the major museums and a palace, which will have their own posts. In between we wandered around the city enjoying the many Parisian sights, taking full...
Paris 2017: museums
Musée d'Orsay Wow. Just - wow. The Orsay covers mid-19th century to early 20th century, and simply has so many masterpieces. We visited on Thursday evening when they are open late until 9:45p, and...
Paris 2017: Château de Fontainebleau
We decided to skip the uber-famous Versailles in favor of Fontainebleau in the hopes of much smaller crowds, and it worked out well for us. The trickiest part may have been figuring out the trains...
Paris 2017: introduction
In February 2017 I had an important decision to make - should I share a good deal ($385) on flights from Raleigh to Paris with Leandra? If I did, it would mean returning, and while it was nice...
A warm weekend in Minneapolis / St. Paul
In late September we flew to Minneapolis to visit friends and explore the area, and lucky us, it was warmer there than back home in NC! The heat made us a little lazier than we might have planned,...
Canadian Rockies: Yoho Valley Trail
On Wednesday morning we still hadn't heard any good news from our house-sitter, but once again, I figured someone had found Riesling and would bring her into a local vet's office or the shelter. She...
Canadian Rockies: Stanley Glacier + Silverton Falls
We had a later start on Tuesday, as I was starting to get stuffed up. Fun fact: You don't need to speak to a pharmacist to purchase pseudoephedrine in Alberta! We drove back to Kootenay NP to hike...
Canadian Rockies: Moraine Lake, Consolation Lakes, Marble Canyon + Paint Pots
Going to bed early the night before allowed us to wake up before dawn on Monday to get to the Moraine Lake area at sunrise... along with a hundred other people! Our planning paid off though because...
Canadian Rockies: Johnston Canyon, Lake Minnewanka + Johnson Lake
A few of the hikes we wanted to do involved beating many of the other park patrons to a parking lot, so we found ourselves up with the sun to drive to Johnston Canyon on Sunday morning. After a...
Canadian Rockies: Sundance Canyon hike + seeing old friends
We landed late into Calgary and had to wait a bit for the shuttle van to the hotel but the welcome sign was cheerful! Woke up early to meet our friends Jay & Anne who drove us to our rental car...
Scotland 2017: layover in London
What to do with a half day in London? How about enjoying art, beer, and a show? We started at one of our favorite museums, the National Gallery. Leandra hadn't seen Cagnacci's Repentant Magdalene (a...
Scotland 2017: Spirit of Speyside day 2
For our last day in Scotland we mixed several Spirit of Speyside events along with some drives and hikes through the beautiful countryside. I started off the morning with a photo session of the...
Scotland 2017: Spirit of Speyside day 1
The Spirit of Speyside event registration opened right after our return from Malaysia. A few days before that we went through the events available for Saturday and Sunday and made a prioritized...
Scotland 2017: Exploring the Highlands
Our second day in Scotland involved lots of driving, several waterfalls, one particularly rainy hike, and a few drams of whisky (naturally). We headed north out of Inverness along the A835 to Rogie...
Scotland 2017: Loch Ness
Upon landing and waiting for the rental car, the weather changed multiple times... sunny, pouring rain, cloudy, back to sun, etc. So, welcome to Scotland! We were waiting behind a couple who were...
Scotland 2017: waterfalls and whisky!
Back in late November, whilst enjoying the end of a warm day in New Zealand, we discovered some great deals to the UK. After some discussion we booked two trips, one to London in February, and a...
Our Itinerary
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls, Argentina + Brazil (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Doha, Qatar (May)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Matera, Italy (Oct)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London + Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)