travel – Page 4

Road Trips and Theresa’s Graduation

May 28, 2018 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Happy Memorial Day. I’m playing catch up here and recapping my road trip and travel from last weekend with my sister’s graduation. I don’t even know where last week went. It was a crazy busy week where I barely had a break and I opted for sleep when I could.

Let’s back up to Thursday May 17th.

I left work and drove to Syracuse, NY to stay with a friend. I had an early flight out to Chicago Friday morning. It was the most beautiful night and I enjoyed a long walk before all my upcoming travel hours.

Friday morning I arrived at the airport with plenty of time, thank goodness because 2 flights were leaving early and the kiosks decided that they didn’t like every other person, so checking a bag was slow. Thankfully I have TSA precheck so security was a breeze and I grabbed a small iced tea to drink before the flight.

Oh and I got moved to this flight a couple months ago due to my original flight being cancelled so then I didn’t have a seat. The airlines offered vouchers for a few people to give up their seat so I did get on and was excited when I even got a window seat (it’s the little things). It was a beautiful morning and I could literally see land/water the entire flight, not a cloud in sight. I listened to a couple podcasts and before I knew it, we were landing. Landing took a bit of time I think because we arrived early so we had to circle in the air once (which I HATE). I’m glad I discovered the joys of podcasts on my travels last year as they help to take my mind off the flight because really it’s my nerves when flying that get to me, but I still love to travel.

We landed at O’Hare airport and it took some time to get to our gate. I noticed as we pulled to our gate that 5 planes were in line behind us to taxi to a gate too. O’Hare is super busy and HUGE. I always used to fly in and out of Midway airport in Chicago which is much smaller.

I followed the signs to the baggage claim, stopped for a bathroom break and literally arrived at baggage claim when my bag came out. Talk about perfect timing!

I then made my way to Enterprise for my rental car. First stop: Michigan!

It’s just a 2 hour drive from Chicago to Benton Harbor where my friend lives so the drive wasn’t bad at all. Plus the weather was beautiful and sunny. I even stopped at Panera and ate some lunch outside.

I then arrived at my friend’s house. The baby was sleeping, but I played with Isabella who is 4 years old until the baby woke up and I finally got to meet Grayson. He is 10 months old and he loved me from first sight, just grinning at me and wanted me to hold him. My friend was at work so I was home with her husband and the kids.

At 5 we headed to pick up my friend and decided to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel. Of course it decided to start raining right at 5, so we couldn’t get to the beach which was a bit of a bummer.

Once we came home for the night, we watched a movie while the kids were being crazy and then it was finally time to sleep.

Saturday morning was the Royal Wedding. I was up before anyone and had a snack and just read blogs on my phone for a bit. Once my friend was up with the baby, she live streamed the Royal wedding on her phone. Honestly, I was a bit bored watching it. Maybe it was just the clip we started at.

I decided to leave around 8am as I had to drive to Iowa which was going to be 6-7 hours. Thankfully the time zone change was in my favor, gaining an hour.

Knowing I would be on the road for a while, I made a stop at a cute café, The Mason Jar café, in Benton Harbor and had a delicious breakfast of pancakes and sausage. It was actually quite filling because I didn’t eat again for 4-5 hours.

the mason jar cafe — cute little art exhibit in the cafe

The drive was long, but it went well. I hit some sprinkles of rain, but for the most part, the sun was out. It was only when I was 20 miles away, it literally started to pour so hard, the highway went from going 60-70mph to 40 mph because you could not see it was pouring so hard.

I was glad I was so close by that time and I arrived around 3pm central time to my sister’s (Theresa) apartment.

The first thing I wanted to do was shower. So my parents headed out on a tour of something (I didn’t pay attention haha). I showered and relaxed. Then Theresa and I headed out to buy some cupcakes because there is a really good cupcake place, Scratch Cupcakes in Des Moines, Iowa. I couldn’t decide how many to get as there are so many I wanted to try, but we settled on 4.

One cupcake was gone immediately upon getting back to my sister’s apartment. The Vegan Maple Cinnamon cupcake was delicious as an afternoon snack.

My parents returned and they weren’t hungry for dinner since they all went out and ate a big lunch. Theresa gathered some food she had in the cupboards for me for dinner, which was perfect. I loved how I didn’t have to eat out actually. We watched the movie The BFG and then my parents headed back to their hotel. I had some relaxing time and then slept on the couch at Theresa’s.

Sunday was the big day. I had some breakfast when I got up. I had brought some oatmeal with me because I am such a big breakfast person and need to eat when I get up.

Theresa headed out at about 8:30 and once I was ready, I just watched Jane the Virgin on Netflix until Theresa’s friend arrived and my parents stopped by to pick us all up. The graduation was open seating and not limited on tickets. We ended up sitting in the bleachers which was far away but my dad had a nice zoom lens to capture some photos.

The graduation only lasted 2 hours which wasn’t bad and then it was paparazzi time. All the photos were taken!!

the grad 1 — favorite headshot that I took

the grad 2 — Theresa and her best friend who met us for graduation

the grad 3 — sisters being goofy, recreating a similar photo from my graduation

We went out to lunch and grabbed another cupcake because Molly’s cupcakes was next door. Then we relaxed the rest of the day. Theresa and I watched The Kissing Booth Netflix movie which was ok and made some dinner to end the night.

I could barely keep my eyes open after 9pm and I slept well.

Then Monday came. That was an adventure and could have its own post. To keep it short, my rental car wouldn’t start. I got a jump start thanks to Theresa’s boyfriend, but ultimately, I got stranded at a rest stop in Iowa an hour and a half into my drive because I stopped to pee and it wouldn’t start again. There was something wrong with the car because trucks were clearly telling me to pull over as well. I have no idea if it was smoking or something, but at least I was safe at a rest stop.

yoga and stretching at the rest stop while I wait for the tow truck

That put me an hour and a half behind my plan to get to O’Hare to fly out. Thankfully I got a new car in Iowa city and made it. Of course to make it worse, I didn’t turn well into the Enterprise lot and scraped up the passenger side of the car a bit with the yellow entrance pole. It was a mini van and I wasn’t used to driving that.

But besides all that…I made it on my flight in time with even 30 minutes to spare before boarding. I was home around midnight and Tuesday was a long day at work. I was catching up on sleep all week, but thankfully the weekend and sleep in days arrived. Phew…

All in all, it was a good trip minus the last day of travel. I was reflecting on all the bad luck I had that day, but in the end I was grateful to be safe and made my flight. I was really trying to remain positive. Also Oprah’s podcast episode I was listening to reminded me, the sky is always blue, but sometimes clouds are in the way. The drive was very grey and sometimes rainy, but the sky is always blue, you just have to get above the clouds (which I did when flying).

the sky is always blue — sunset above the clouds and blue sky

So we are all caught up on last weekend. Stay tuned for a memorial day weekend post.

Tips for staying positive when everything seems to be going wrong?

Have you ever had a bad rental car experience?

The Campervan Test: Tips for Traveling with Your Significant Other

June 14, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

Even though Brian and I have been together over 7 years, a majority of that time has been long distance. In fact, it wasn’t until our travels that we really tested our relationship because we saw each other 24/7 for 3 months! That is literally the most we have spent together continuously.

Let me back up and give you the short story on how we met and our 7 years so far together. We met in college and lived in different dorms or apartment complexes. Between studying and classes, we didn’t even see each other daily. Our relationship has gone through many tests, from me going to Costa Rica for 5 weeks in 2010 with very limited internet and paid phone cards and then me studying abroad in Australia in 2011, literally on the other side of the world for 5 months. From 2012 to early 2014, I was living at home in Chicago and Brian was in Binghamton. We saw each other about once every 3-4 months or so if we planned trips. When I lost my job in 2014, I knew I needed a change and moved to Philadelphia. I like cities and it was just over 3 hours from Binghamton (a lot better than 12 hours driving to Chicago). Brian’s work is basically 7 days a week with occasional 12-36 hour breaks. Once I started a new job and yoga teacher training in Philadelphia, I was pretty busy. Brian would try to make it down about once a month on a weekend. In early 2016, Brian lost his job, but he worked with his father a lot and always had projects to do. He continued to come down about once a month and it was always a treat. We would cook dinner at home or go out and it was kinda like dating once a month which continued until our travels began in the end of 2016.

I didn’t give much thought to seeing each other daily but reflecting back on our travels, it really was a good test in our relationship. Even better, renting a campervan and living in it together for 2 weeks at a time. We first rented one in New Zealand for 2 weeks and then rented the smallest size (basically a mini van) in Australia for 2 weeks. When you are in a small space for a while, it’s easy to get worked up about little things not being in the right place or trying to read but you constantly have a smelly foot next to you and don’t have room to spread out.

We now would recommend to any couple considering getting married (and yes we still are getting married but need to save money and figure out a date still) to try out “The Campervan Test.” I also think traveling to new countries with your significant other for a long period of time (at least a month) and not having a plan is a true test as well. Below are a few tips I came up with for traveling with your significant other. Most of these tips relate to campervan travel, but some can be applied in regular travel as well.

Be flexible
- This is mostly for me, because I am a planner. Even when travel is planned ahead, it may not go as planned. If something doesn’t go as planned, think about what you can do to fix the situation instead of wasting energy being angry that it went wrong.
  - Ex: we rented our campervan in New Zealand and literally 10km into our drive, our windshield was hit by a good size rock leaving a crack and forcing us to turn around and get a new windshield. Also we didn’t buy the insurance, so we paid out of pocket, but since nothing else went wrong after that, we paid less than adding insurance would have cost for 2 weeks. We were just delayed another hour or so in our driving.
Always have a book to read
- Something about travel, but I read more when I am traveling. Though it helped we went out of the country and at times had little cell service or no wifi. I felt like having a book to read in the evening was a great activity and a way to keep me occupied and out of Brian’s hair. I also brought a coloring book which I did get out one evening after finishing the book I was reading.
Don’t be afraid to do an activity on your own
- I like to wake up early in the morning. Brian likes to sleep in. Each morning I would get up and have my breakfast and make some coffee for Brian while we were in our campervan. If I did something, I would be less antsy.
- Traveling in general, I still highly recommend this. While we stayed in a hostel in Melbourne, I would go to a yoga or pilates class each morning to get moving and start my day. By the time I would return, Brian would be about ready to get up and we would eat breakfast together. I liked having something of my own to do and then I wouldn’t bug Brian to get moving so quickly.
Stay positive and focus on what you can do
- When traveling, you don’t have your whole house of stuff with you and have to make do a lot with what you do have. Try to focus on the positive and the things you brought with you or have accessible to you to use. This really comes in use in a campervan since you are not only limited on space but if you are renting a campervan, you have to make do with the supplies they provide. This is always important for me to remember when cooking. Think simple dishes. No fancy zoodles here unfortunately.
- Having a positive attitude makes it more enjoyable for the both of you
Get outside
- To make a tiny space seem bigger, you have to remember to get outside for fresh air. Bring a folding chair outside or a bean bag. Maybe hang out in the camp site room. Take a walk around the camp site or the town if you are near one. When I get cooped up inside for too long, I go crazy and start yelling and getting mad at everything. This happened at one place in New Zealand and Brian told me go for a walk while he could be in peace cleaning up. When I came back, I was slowly getting myself together and eventually felt better.
Assign tasks for cooking and washing dishes
- Brian usually cooked the meat and I usually assembled salads by chopping veggies, etc. When you have little space to work, you can’t have two people trying to do the same thing.
  - Another tip for campervan travel, cook a bunch of meat at once when staying at a campsite with a grill and then store in storage bags in the fridge for an easy meal later or on the road.
- It’s one of my pet peeves to see dirty dishes in the sink. I need to clean up right after dinner. Even more so in a campervan so that you have dishes for breakfast and just so you have counter space for charging your phone or something overnight. Our second campervan, the kitchen equipment was in the back, so I had to actually step outside and pull out the little sink to wash dishes (or use the camp site sink when available) and make sure everything was put away to close the hatch.

To sum this up, I think the biggest things are: be flexible, have your own activity to do as well as activities together and be positive to really enjoy the experience of traveling. Be grateful for what you do see instead of thinking about all the things you missed. When traveling for a long time together, enjoy the little things, like grabbing lunch together or cooking together. But also don’t be afraid to go explore separately if you have different interests. I know this can be scary when in a new country and maybe not having a phone to text each other, but people did it before phones and you will come up with a meeting place.

I’m so thankful that Brian and I took this leap to travel for a while. We met people around our age and also retired couples who just loved to travel. I think I passed on the travel and see the world bug to Brian and I am glad that it is something we will continue to do in the future together. Whether the trips are one week, a month or more, I look forward to traveling and exploring with my partner.

I hope this post gave you a few tips if you are considering a semi long travel with your partner or even if it’s your first trip together, this hopefully leaves you with a few ideas.

Have you traveled for a long period of time with your partner?

What are some of your travel tips?

Aix En Provence and Southern France Highlights

June 7, 2017 by Alicia 2 Comments

I can’t believe it’s now June so it has been 2 months since I was in France. It has taken me so long to try to sum up my time in Southern France. Part of this is because half the time I was just living life. I was enjoying sleeping in (ok I was up by 7am each day), catching up on laundry, watching Netflix and getting back into yoga (my favorite!!). After all the traveling for 3 months, it was kind of nice to relax and just be doing normal everyday things and not worry about running around everywhere.

I had the most amazing family friends hosting me and showing me around what I imagine is just classic French style towns. Their house is in Saignon, a town that is tens of thousands (maybe 100 thousand) of years old and it was just so amazing to see the cobblestone lanes and beautiful architecture that remains. A few weeks before I was in France, I had seen the new Beauty and the Beast movie. When I was in Southern France, I felt a bit like Belle, walking around the small town with cobblestone paths and cute little shops and a fountain. The house I stayed in was made of stone and it felt like a mini castle to me. It wasn’t huge, per se, but the stone walls just reminded me of a castle feeling. They also kept the house nice and cool, which is great for summer.

I didn’t realize how popular it was for people to vacation in southern France or the Aix En Provence, but I now can see why. It is so beautiful, especially spring time. Flowers were in bloom and the weather was gorgeous the week I was there.

While I am definitely no expect on the Aix En Provence area of France, I wanted to share some of the highlights of my trip you may want to check out when you book your next vacation there. I’ve split these highlights into two categories, quick trips within 30-45 minutes of Saignon and then day trips that require about 4 hours roundtrip driving.

Near Saignon

Lacoste – a town just 20 minutes from Saignon and worth checking out. The views from the top of the mountain are beautiful. I went here a couple of times as there is a university campus as part of SCAD where my friend teaches.
view from LaCoste
Fountain de Vaucluse – I found this fountain very fascinating. It’s the biggest spring in France. The fascinating thing about it is that research is still being done to figure out where the water comes from. Divers have gone down to explore and some have died with the depth that it goes. With more advances in technology, they have been able to send technology devices down through the tunnels. Still, a lot remains a mystery. The fountain is also in a little village with an old paper mill and tons of stands directed to tourists. I also had a pretty delicious Nutella crepe here.
Fountain de Vaucluse

nutella crepe

La Sorgue River leading to the spring
Markets – you can’t miss the markets as they are so fun and a great cultural experience. I went to the two listed below. The Goult one is small, but still fun to check out. I brought some soap home from the market and love the lemon scent. The Apt market on Saturdays, you could get lost in for hours as there are so many vendors and fresh fruits and veggies and cheese.
- Apt – Saturdays
- Goult – Thursday

Day trips

Marseilles and the Marseilles Mucem – Marseilles is just a two hour or so drive from Saignon. There are many cruise ships that come into and leave from Marseilles. I am still in awe of how big cruise ships are. I am not a boat person, but there are many boat tours you can take in Marseilles. We just went to the Mucem and learned more about European history. Then we walked around the city, viewing the churches and walking through some markets going on in the street.
Van Gogh Foundation – Arles, France – We actually went here and then the park below in the same day. While this museum is called the Van Gogh Foundation, they also feature work from other artists. The museum is pretty small and took about 2 hours to go through. Great for a person into art and some art history.
Camargue Natural Park – Two words: wild flamingos! I have never seen so many flamingos. I have seen flamingos in a zoo, but it’s very different from seeing them in a natural habitat and hundreds of them!! This place was definitely one of the highlights for me that I will always remember. Watching the flamingos fly was like watching airplanes take off and land. Flamingos take a little running start on the water and then up and away, putting their feet back. When they come in to land, they put their feet down first and land in the water. While we were at the park, the flamingos were feed and it was madness as the flamingos were getting the food. In this area there is a lot of horseback riding. We actually tried to go to one place but arrived and found out they had already closed for the day.We then drove down to the beach area to get a view of the sunset and test the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

flamingo france — love the open wings in this picture

There are so many day trips you could do from Saignon. You could drive to Nice, France or even Italy. I would prefer to stay overnight at one of those locations just because it would be a lot of driving, but definitely on my list of places to see. I hear the beaches in Italy are quite nice if visiting in summer.

In my time in Southern France, I had a bit of difficulty with all the hills as I get motion sick. Besides the major roads between cities, the town roads are old and were not built for modern cars for the most part, so it’s scary when it’s two way and you feel like only a car and a half will fit on the road. Oh and then mountains and driving around blind corners with the edge of a cliff next to you. Just a bit scary and I wasn’t even driving around there. Besides that though, I was happy I got the opportunity to experience more of the French culture. With smaller towns, there is definitely less English spoken, not like visiting Paris. I think the small town is a nice escape from a stressful busy life.

Have you ever been to a small European town?

Dublin Ireland in 36 hours

May 24, 2017 by Alicia Leave a Comment

I ended my Europe travels with a short visit to Dublin. This was because it was cheaper for me to fly through Dublin after being in Barcelona to head back to Chicago and they have direct flights to Chicago which is always my preference. I decided to leave Barcelona on a Thursday and the next flight to Chicago was Saturday. Another thing I loved about leaving to the US from Dublin was that you do your American customs in the Dublin airport so when you land in the US, you just go to bag check and you are set. Keep this in mind if you are headed to Dublin, as you will want to get to the airport at least 2 hours (preferably 3) before your flight.

While my visit to Dublin was short, I got some great recommendations from an old co worker’s daughter who lived there and enjoyed my short time, even though I was also fighting some sort of stomach bug.

My number 1 recommendation if it is your first visit to Dublin, would be to do a walking tour. I discovered Next City walking tours while in Barcelona through my hostel there and noticed they had tours in Dublin. It’s a “free” tour, as in pay what you wish, and takes about 2.5 hours or so. Our tour guide was super knowledgeable and took us around Dublin to the popular sites. If I had stayed longer, I would have loved to do more of the guided tours at the specific places we stopped, which I will list below.

Here are a few places you won’t want to miss while visiting Dublin. All of these places are within walking distance of each other and can definitely be visited within 2 days if you time everything. If you are visiting Dublin for a longer period of time, there are many more sites to see, but these are the top places and things I did for a short stay.

Arlington Hotel Dinner and Celtic Dancing show
- This was recommended to me to see some Irish dancing and enjoy an Irish meal. Keep in mind you should book online. Also there were two times, 6 and 8pm, but the show doesn’t start until the later time so if you go early, you may be done eating by the time the show starts. I really enjoy Irish dancing and Celtic music so the show was great, though I left early due to not feeling well.
St Patrick’s Cathedral
- A medieval cathedral and The National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. There are also tours you can go on to see the inside during the day.
Christ’s Church
- The second medieval cathedral and a must visit.
Dublin Castle
- Though there only remains one original piece of the medieval castle, the castle has been kept up and rebuilt over the hundreds and hundreds of years and is used for the Irish government now. There are castle tours daily, but go early in the morning as they sell out of guided tours quickly. There is always a self guided tour though for a small fee.
Trinity College
- Ireland’s oldest university and home to the Book of Kells. It’s amazing how much history fills the walls of this university. Definitely a must to walk around and try to get a tour at least into the library to see the millions of books and the Book of Kells.

My short stop in Dublin was kind of a sneak peak for me to learn what I should visit next time. I unfortunately didn’t make it to any guided tours of the inside of Dublin Castle and Trinity College, but would love to go back and do those. I would also take a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, even though I am not a beer drinker, the tours are interesting and I know it is something Brian would enjoy. I would also love to stop in the Temple Bar area to take a yoga class at Samadhi. I’ve taken workshops with Greg Walsh, one of the teachers, in Philadelphia at The Yoga Garden but unfortunately didn’t have time to meet up with him.

I hope this guide helps you start your list of places to see in Dublin and if Dublin wasn’t on your bucketlist before, it should be now.

Have you been to Dublin?

Do you like Irish Dancing?

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