As a peninsula, you are never that far away from the Adriatic on Istria, and we stopped to explore three coastal towns during our visit. Rovinj One of the better known towns on the west coast,...
Blog posts from Travel
Europe Spring 2024: Istria hilltop towns
Istria has a lot of hills, and quite a few feature a town with a tower poking up from the middle. Over our long weekend we managed to stop by a handful. Pazin Our homebase in Istria, featuring a...
Europe Spring 2024: Plitvice food & drink
As it was a 15 minute drive on a rural road into Rakovica, we limited our trips, but still managed to try three places. Bistro Old Shatterhand - We had made a reservation for 8pm, but it was not...
Europe Spring 2024: Plitvice Lakes National Park
Plitvice Lakes National Park was an absolute must-do on this trip, and it did not disappoint. After a quick breakfast, we grabbed our backpack and were out the door before 8:30am. Our hotel was just...
Europe Spring 2024: Driving to Plitvice, Istria, and Zagreb
On this trip we focused on northern Croatia, spending the majority of our time near Plitvice and in Istria. That necessitated a car, and all together, we drove about 800km across small country roads...
Europe Spring 2024: 18 hours in Zagreb
We had less than a day in Zagreb, but we tried to get a feel for the city nonetheless. Our drive from the airport to a downtown parking garage was relatively straightforward, followed by dropping...
Europe Spring 2024: Croatia intro & where we stayed
Following our time in Valencia, we wanted to take the opportunity to check out a new part of Europe. After making a list of direct flight options from Madrid, then cross-referencing which ones were...
European Spring 2024: Madrid Open tennis
Our one full day in Madrid was all about tennis! The morning security line was long, but moved relatively quickly. Staff was very strict on no water bottles and we saw a growing pile of fancy...
European Spring 2024: Madrid, pt 2
Our train ride back to Madrid from Valencia was uneventful, but the Chamartin station was quite busy on Sunday, so topping up our Madrid metro card with a 10-ride pass took longer than expected...
Europe Spring 2024: Palma sights
We spent all three days of our trip to Mallorca in Palma, and with the exception of the airport bus, we explored on foot. Right across the street from our hotel was a lovely view of the the Torrent...
Europe Spring 2024: Palma food and drink
Some of the more popular places in town are difficult to visit on the weekend without reservations, so Leandra booked us both lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday ahead of our trip. El Camino for...
Europe Spring 2024: Catedral de Mallorca
The Catedral de Mallorca is an imposing Gothic structure on the outside, and inside is even more impressive. Said to have 61 stained glass windows, the central rose window is a highlight and...
Europe Spring 2024: a weekend in Palma, Mallorca
While there are a lot of areas to explore in Valencia we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a weekend getaway. Initially we considered options that were a reasonable train ride away, but...
European Spring 2024: Madrid, pt 1
We arrived in Madrid after a turbulent overnight flight in business class. I think Leandra was glad to be off that plane! Even though we had a metro card we could recharge, we decided to take an...
European Spring 2024: 30 hours in Chicago
Our flight to Spain left Chicago O'Hare on Monday, so we decided to position ourselves in the city on Sunday just in case of travel delays. Unfortunately, Southwest only had an early Sunday morning...
Florida’s Sun Coast: overnight in Savannah
For our trip back to NC we decided to spend a night in Savannah - it would break up the trip into two easier driving days, plus we had a free night certificate at an IHG hotel that we needed to use....
Florida’s Sun Coast: Sarasota sights
During our two weeks in Sarasota we were a 10 minute walk from Crescent Beach so we visited multiple evenings. Even when the color wasn't great we were entertained watching the pelicans and terns...
Florida’s Sun Coast: restaurants
During our two week stay we tried lots of restaurants, ranging from classic breakfasts to a beach cocktail spot, and from in-restaurant to take-away. Breakfast Original Word of Mouth - Quite busy on...
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)
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)