california recap

{photo credit: me}

we are home from california! what a great, busy, fun trip we had. we packed a lot of activities and adventures into our week long stay. i think we were in a different city almost every day! we stayed in san jose with friends of his but spent time in pacific grove, monterey, carmel, santa cruz, and san francisco. san jose is in close proximity to some really cool cities which is why we were able to take so many day trips.

i think my favorite day was our afternoon/evening in san francisco. we played disc golf in golden gate park, ate street style tacos at tacolicious, went climbing at planet granite with friends of his, ate more mexican food for dinner and walked to chile pies for homemade pie milkshakes. when your day involves eating mexican food for two of your three meals, you win. drop your mic and leave the stage.

dan lived in the san jose area for a year after college and made some really great, solid friends during his time there. it was really nice to meet all of the guys i've heard so many stories about and see him interact with them. even though it's been several years since his time out there, the main group of guys still keeps in regular contact which is really neat. it's hard to find those kinds of friends.

all in all, our trip was really great, and my heart really does belong out west i do believe. if in a month from now i announce i'm moving closer to the pacific, don't be surprised.

{photo credit: dan}

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{photo credit: dan}

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weekend in wisconsin

hello! i've been MIA since the beginning of this month, and i only have a good excuse for about four of those days. that leaves eight days unaccounted for. how about i make it up to you with pictures? lots of pictures?

i just got back from a long weekend in wisconsin with the boyfriend. he was born and raised outside of milwaukee and moved to raleigh around the same time i did about 4 1/2 years ago. one of his good friends from back home asked him to be the best man in his wedding so i went along as his date and had a chance to meet his family. what an awesome trip! his family was really great and welcomed us into town with a cookout complete with delicious brats straight off the grill. wisconsin knows how to do it up right.

i didn't take as many pictures as i hoped to. we were so busy with activities and hanging out with his friends and family that i forgot to take more pictures. i guess that's a good thing though, right? having such a good time that you lose track of where your iphone is? i'm going with it.

it was really sweet to see dan interacting with his family and good friends. they love him so much, and he was super happy to spend time with them. i just love to see him smile. it makes his blue eyes even bluer if that's even possible.

thanks for a great trip, wisconsin! i'll be back. you have the most delicious creamy custard, and don't even get me started on your cheese curds.

{photo credit: me}

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jewelry souvenirs

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if you guys have been around my blog block recently, you know that i love to travel and i try to as much as i can. within the last year i've been able to travel to lots of different cities (and a new country!)

i've had such wonderful experiences during each of my travels, and as a way to help me remember my trips, i decided to start a new tradition. instead of getting a type of souvenir that i honestly won't use-a plastic snow globe, a gift store t-shirt, a picture frame with garish colors-i had the idea to get a piece of jewelry from each place i travel.

i think it's such a cool way to remember a trip and definitely something that i will actually use and wear. the piece of jewelry doesn't have to be expensive (one of the bracelets i got in england already has fake jewels missing, who cares), but it does have to be something i like, something that will remind me of the trip when i wear it. and it's fun to be able to tell people where it came from when they ask!

here are most of the pieces i have collected within the last year.

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starting from two necklaces at the top:

necklace on the left: claremont, ca
necklace on the right: charleston, sc
brass triangle bracelet: wilmington, nc
jeweled chain bracelet: cambridge, england
stone wrap bracelet: nashville, tn

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small silver studs and turquoise square studs: cambridge, england

do you guys have any special souvenirs from travels you've made? the jewelry idea works for me, but i'd love to hear if you look for a different something special when you go on trips!

england recap

{photo credit: me}

it's taken me so long to tell you guys about my trip to england because i'm still in deep denial that it's over. i wish really hard that when i wake up in the mornings, i'll be back in the land of british accents. coming off a vacation high is no joke. i need a vacation from my vacation. 

in a nutshell, the trip was wonderful. we had funnnn. we stayed in cambridge for the majority of our time with one day of sight-seeing in london at the end of the trip. 

cambridge is beautiful. it is so picturesque, and i'm jealous of our friends who live there. i literally saw literal thatched roofs. and on those thatched roofs there was moss. growing. 

we stayed with my roommate's boyfriend who is stationed there, and his apartment was within easy walking distance to most everywhere we wanted to go. we walked to markets and out for drinks and to evening church service and to restaurants and to our friends' house across the river. one afternoon i walked to a great coffee shop all by myself. proud moment for me. i get lost driving to work.

some of my favorite parts of the trip where the few times we went out running through the city and along the river. what a great way to see the sights! there were so many people out walking and jogging and a ton of crew teams rowing along the river. we ran through neighborhood streets, and i admired all of the cute apartments and houses that looked like something straight out of a storybook.

one morning our friends took us out punting along the river cam. punting in england does not mean the same thing it means here. my thought process: "we're going to the river to kick footballs around? i didn't bring a football. or any ball. how is this fun?" silly american. punting is basically like riding in a gondola. everyone piles into a boat with a lead person guiding the craft along the river using a long pole to push off the bottom. similar to a lazy river but without inner tubes and bad tan lines. 

on our last day, my friend liz and i took the tube into london. we only had one afternoon to do as much as we could so after we checked into our hotel, we got to walking. we saw a lot of the "big deal" sights. buckingham palace, st. james park, the london eye, big ben, parliament, westminster abbey, and a trip at harrod's for lunch and (window) shopping.

i honestly have barely touched on all of the things we did and the fun we had, but the post already feels too long. i know my own attention span is waning so yours must be completely shot. there is only so much interest you can feign in somebody else's vacation. i get it.

can we hear it for england? it showed us a really great time, and i hope we didn't overstay our welcome because my piggy bank is already jingle jangling with a few pennies i've saved up for our next trip.

cheers!!

cue inordinate amount of vacation photos.

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{photo credit: liz}

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england bound

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dear union jack, red phone booths, double decker buses, 

HERE. I. COME! 

tomorrow evening i am flying to jolly englandtown for a week of vacation with good friends. of the trips i have taken in my life, i have a strong feeling this one is going to top the list.

have any of you ever been to england? any suggestions for me? we will be staying in cambridge, but i definitely want to make the trip into london a time or two. 

i have been a bad blogger as of late. guilty. life has gone from 0-60, and i have taken an unintentional break from posting for the last week or so. ah well. such is life. you still love me, yes? RIGHT?

off i go across the pond. cherrio! will return with many pictures of our adventures with which to bore you.