After completing our second vaccinations, our first activity was driving down to Florida to visit family. Since we drove and were staying with Leandra's folks we brought Pasha, who definitely...
Blog posts from USA Travel
NC Mountains, October 2020: Lake Toxaway
As mentioned in a previous post [link], Smoky Mountain NP was too crowded for us, so the next day we changed gears and headed south to Lake Toxaway, an area we've driven past but hadn't explored on...
NC Mountains, October 2020: Smoky Mountain National Park
We have planned trips to Smoky Mountain National Park multiple times over the years, and each time something has caused us to cancel the trip - sick dog, bad weather, etc. This time we did finally...
NC Mountains, October 2020: Blue Ridge Parkway and nearby waterfalls
One of our primary reasons for staying in Western NC was the ability to access the very end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the only part we hadn't driven. Our first visit to the BRP was way back in 2002...
NC Mountains, October 2020: Intro and Food
Facing a 14-hour drive back from Illinois, we knew we would want to stop somewhere along the way. As we checked over the map for options, Western North Carolina looked viable (~10 hour drive). It...
Midwest 2020: family time in the Chicago ‘burbs
Spending time with my sister and her four girls is always an adventure — exhausting but fun. I spent the majority of my aunt time baking with everyone (cinnamon rolls, cake pops, etc) and Eric was...
Midwest 2020: overnight in Cincinnati
In September we drove from North Carolina to Illinois to spend a week with Leandra's sister and family. Given it is a ~14 hour drive we broke it up into two days, spending a night in Cincinnati....
NY Summer 2020: sunsets
One of our favorite activities on Long Island is going to the beach for sunset, especially since Pasha is allowed off-leash. in 2020 we were able to go quite a few times, and each time was a unique...
NY Summer 2020: a day trip to Montauk
Leandra had never been out to Montauk, and I was a little kid the last time I had visited, so we decided it would be a good outdoor day trip for this summer. We managed to rope my parents into...
NY Summer 2020: North Fork Food + Drink
With coronavirus restrictions we were very selective about where we went this year, but still got to try a few restaurants, breweries and wineries. Food A Lure Chowder House - This was the first...
Patagonia: a day in Atlanta
Originally we had tickets to fly into Atlanta a few hours before our late Sunday evening flight to Santiago, but about three months out Southwest cancelled that flight and moved us to a 6:50am...
2019 Travel Overview
Previous years-in-review – 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 Some of our travel stats for the year: 7 countries visited (on 5 continents!): new countries this year included...
Oregon Wine Tasting, Dec 2019
Since we are members of two wine clubs in the Willamette Valley, we wanted to get out to there to do some tasting of the wines that had been released and get a feel for what would be released soon....
Memory Monday: TWA Hotel @ JFK’s Terminal 5
When we landed in the US after a 14 hour flight from Seoul, we had been awake for 18+ hours, and had another 8 hours to endure at JFK before our final flight home. Since we were flying from Terminal...
Japan: long layover in NYC
Our flight up to New York on Jet Blue was smooth and left on time. After landing, we were slightly delayed getting off the plane due to jet bridge issues but thankfully we were in no hurry. Uber and...
Weekend in Dallas: breweries
HIDE - Technically not a brewery, but they did make lovely cocktails. I loved my Darkwing Duck, and Leandra had the Limon Andaluzia (both good but mine was better). We found a table easily around...
Weekend in Dallas: food
Rodeo Goat - Great burgers and lots of local beers on tap. We landed a bit late so decided to split a burger (Mike Rawlings) and a side of fries - it was more than enough food! I had the Lakewood...
Weekend in Dallas: sites
Downtown Our first stop on Sunday was the Dallas Museum Of Art. There was a lot of open space to the point where it felt like half the museum was empty. However, the standard collection is free, so...
Our Itinerary
2026 Trips
Parrish, FL (Jan)
Medellin, Colombia (Feb)
Wilmington, NC (Apr)
Madrid, Spain (May)
Asturias, Spain (May)
Galicia, Spain (June)
London/Cotswolds, UK (July)
Long Island, NY (July)
Western Ireland (Aug)
Vietnam (Nov)
Laos (Nov)
Cambodia (Dec)
Singapore (Dec)
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls (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)
day trips from Bologna (Oct)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
Greensboro, NC (Nov)