This week was 100% about my friend Emmie’s birthday! To celebrate, we had insanely overpriced popsicle cocktails at Loopy Doopy, ate our weight in junk food while binging Parks & Rec, and saw our city from a new perspective on a sunset cruise. What a week!
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Hey friends! Just a quick photo post today to catch up on life in NYC in between the trip to LA and having my sister in town.
In honor of National Fry Day and National Mac and Cheese Day being back-to-back, I indulged in both on the same evening at Schnipper’s
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My brother and his girlfriend got at cat, and I am obsessed. Meet Tuna!
Nothing like Christmas in July to break up the sweltering summertime heat.
National Ice Cream Day also fell this month, and I indulged in my favorite – Van Leeuwen – in between work and church. (It was National Ice Cream Day last year when I first had their strawberry ice cream, and it remains the best!)
The day before I left for LA was the birthday of S’MAC, a mac and cheese place I discovered thanks to my mom last fall. Their all-American dish was only $1 that day, so really, it only made sense to indulge.
Another picnic in the park ruined by thunderstorms, but aren’t those clouds pretty?!
I couldn’t believe it when this little guy flew up to me in the park and settled on my arm. He sat there for several minutes!
Finally: I purchased a Giving Key with the word ‘trust’ after receiving a generous gift card from my church. I love it so much!
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I’m back from another fab vacation! This time I jumped on a westbound plane and spent five days with friends and family in Los Angeles, California. It was, I believe, my eighth trip to LA – but my first in nearly two years!
Upon arrival, I dumped my bags and jumped in an Uber to the beach, because obviously.
On Day 2, I spent some time with my mom’s brother. We always have such a blast! He took me to lunch at The Grove farmers market, shopping on Melrose Ave, and strolling along Rodeo Drive to the Beverly Wilshire hotel.
OF COURSE I wasn’t about to visit LA without tacos and margs at Don Antonio’s. Best tacos in America!
On Thursday nights there are free concerts at the Santa Monica Pier! Such a great excuse to picnic on the beach. Check out that sunset view.
The one and only thing I especially wanted to do on this trip was visit the Venice Canals! They were built in 1905 and are absolutely gorgeous. Many more photos to come!
After the canals, we hopped on beach cruisers and rode to Malibu and back. I’m not much of a biker, but it’s always a good time once I get rolling (last time I rode was in the Netherlands over a year ago!)
On Saturday we ventured to Brentwood to visit the Getty Museum with my aunt and uncle. Check out those views!
Probably my favorite activity on this trip was picnicking and watching Willy Wonka at Hollywood Forever Cemetery! There are movies in the parks in NYC, but this was truly a unique experience.
Thanks to my college bestie Kathleen for letting me crash with her, and for driving me all around and buying me brunch! Can’t wait to see you in NYC sometime soon.
You may have noticed that with the exception of my trip to Boston, I haven’t been on Instagram quite as much lately. I attribute most of that to my new Snapchat obsession, although I’ll admit that life has just been a little hectic lately with fewer moments to slow down and appreciate the little things. Still, I wanted to share a bit of what I’ve been up to in NYC lately!
My friend Breanna has been driving our church’s truck back to its home in Brooklyn after services lately, and sometimes I get to ride along! I snapped this while cruising over the Manhattan Bridge a couple weeks ago and it basically carried me through the next few days of early wake-up calls and work on work on work.
I popped into Best Buy a couple weeks ago for new earphones – for someone with a reputation for being “adult” and “responsible,” I lose and break those things more often than is really reasonable. It gets expensive, especially when I grab other trinkets off the shelves such as this Kate Spade phone case!
There was a crazy storm here one evening that seriously reminded me of the monsoons we used to get in Colorado and Arizona. But the payoff was an incredible sunset!
The Fourth of July weekend was weirdly gloomy, but that didn’t stop a group of us from gathering under the Brooklyn Bridge for a six-hour picnic (getting good fireworks spots is seriously competitive!) Eventually the skies cleared up…
… and we were rewarded for our perseverance with another stunner of a sunset! As well as an incredible fireworks display.
Wednesday was the anniversary of one of the best days of my life – four years ago, I woke up at 1 a.m. (seriously) to drive from my Orlando apartment (betcha didn’t know I lived in Florida for about 5 minutes!) to the coast to watch the last-ever space-shuttle launch. I got to report, photograph and blog about the event for the Orlando Sentinel and it was 100% the highlight of my career.
I guess July is always my month, because Thursday was also an anniversary – one year from meeting my best friend Emmie! We met up at the spot where we met – Chloe’s Soft Serve near Union Square – to stuff our faces, reminisce, and hide from a rainstorm that came out of nowhere. Here’s to another year of adventure!
And yesterday, by some miracle, my roommates and I were all free so we gathered for some Korean BBQ (cooked right at our table!) and the Minions movie (which I highly recommend).
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I’m back from what turned out to be an incredibly rejuvenating four days in Boston, Massachusetts! While I sort out my thoughts and edit the 200+ photos I took over the coming days, here are the Instagrams I posted while I was gone – they turned out to form a great overview of my trip.
As soon as I stepped out of the South Station bus terminal, I knew I would fall in love with Boston. The blue skies and perfect weather (which lasted my entire stay) certainly helped, but I suspect this city would have charmed me regardless.
On day 1 I walked the entirety of the Freedom Trail, and then some (let’s just say if I spot a waterfront I will go out of my way to explore it). This shot is from the Charlestown Bridge during golden hour, and it makes me want to jump in a sailboat and forget all my worries!
On day 2 I finally achieved a lifelong bucket-list item: A Red Sox game in Fenway Park! I’m a Red Sox fan, but any baseball fan would appreciate the oldest park in America – it opened in 1912 and retains much of that vintage feel.
Another golden hour shot because Boston is just so photogenic! I was basically obsessed with the weather, the architecture and taking photos throughout my stay.
On day 3 I finally made my way to the top of the Prudential Tower! I’m so thankful for better weather than my visit to the World Trade Center a few weeks ago – I could see all of Boston and then some.
Finally on day 4 before hopping back on the Megabus, I ventured out to Cambridge to visit Harvard University. It was pretty cool to explore the campus and the surrounding area – just being there made me feel a little bit smarter!
I’ll be posting more in-depth content on my Boston trip over the coming weeks, but in the meantime you can follow me on Instagram here!
A Life of Genuine Delight 