We've been driving up to NY for the last several years to spend Christmas with Eric's family and this year we finally made it a little easier on ourselves with the addition of an EZ-Pass. Any time...
Blog posts from USA Travel
Christmas 2012: food & drink finds on Long Island
With a week in NY and some planning on our part we had the opportunity to try several new-to-us restaurants and some interesting new beer and wine establishments. Bellport Beer & Soda, Bellport...
Asheville 2012: brews and food
Beer peanuts and beer @ Wedge Brewing Our weekend trip to Asheville was a mix of waterfalls hikes, views and beer tasting, so here's the beer list... Raspberry porter nitro and Oktoberfest @...
Asheville 2012: views
Last weekend we packed up the Vue, put Riesling in the back seat, and drove out to Asheville to enjoy some hiking amongst the fall color. We hit six waterfalls between Dupont Forest, Pisgah Forest...
My little niece
Our trip to Chicago last weekend was a lot of fun. While Eric was primarily up there to attend a travel workshop, my sole purpose was to cram in as much time with my 15-month-old niece as possible....
Long Beach, California: restaurants and bars
As you probably know by now, we usually do quite a bit of research into bars and restaurants before we visit a city. We found quite a few tasty places to eat and quiet spots for a drink in Long...
Long Beach, California: where we stayed
Hyatt The Pike, Long Beach Since a conference was the reason for the trip to Long Beach, we focused on hotels within a few minutes walk of the convention center. Now, a Hyatt is attached to...
Long Beach, California: daytrip down the coast
With most of a day free before Eric's conference, and a hotel next to the Long Beach ferry terminal, we originally planned on a day trip to Catalina Island. As we researched what we could do there...
end of year video – 2011
I am still sorting through hundreds of photos from our recent trip to Thailand and Hong Kong - in the meantime, here is a short video highlighting all our travels (both domestic and international)...
Hanging Rock State Park
Leandra's brother Ryan and his girlfriend Emily came to visit us for Thanksgiving, and after all the turkey we were in need of some outdoor time. Hanging Rock State Park is only about 2 hours away,...
waterfalls, lakes and rivers in Alaska
As most of you know, we love waterfalls and Alaska had some lovely specimens to share. Eagle Fork River Falls Virgin Creek Falls In addition to the waterfalls, there were other bodies of water...
A weekend around Lake Tahoe
In mid-October I spent 10 days at a conference in Davis, CA. With a free weekend I drove out to explore South Lake Tahoe, and wow, was I impressed at the landscape. Over several hikes I saw nine...
Anchorage and beyond
I put together a quick visual of the driving we did both north and south of Anchorage. The views were absolutely stunning and two full days of good weather were in our favor... click on the map...
Beaches and snorkeling in Kauai
We spent time relaxing on the beach in Kauai, mainly at two destinations: Ke'e Beach and Tunnels Beach. Both are on the north end of the island and both have an abundance of trees and therefore,...
Waimea Canyon
After having been to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I wasn't sure how impressed I would be with Kauai's smaller version. Thankfully, the clouds stayed away for most of the day so we had nice...
where we stayed in St. Louis (a lesson in third-party booking engines)
Moonrise Hotel (Adapted from my hotel review on TripAdvisor) We saw this hotel come up on Jetsetter (note: login required) early on in our planning process for the trip to St. Louis and decided to...
Missouri Botanical Gardens
Upon booking our trip to St. Louis I immediately knew one place we couldn't miss- the Missouri Botanical Gardens, or Mobot. Famous for their plant taxonomy I've known and used datasets from them for...
St. Charles, MO
On Saturday afternoon, we took a short day trip to St. Charles to hang out with friends we haven't seen since they had their first child (they now have two!) The group chatted away while I ran into...
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)
Bristol + London, UK (Jul)
Long Island, NY (Jul)
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)