Category Archives: Travel

Travel

Weekend Getaway: Dallas

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With cheap airfare and only a 2-hour plane ride away from Chicago, Dallas is the perfect little getaway. A friend and I recently visited from a Friday night to a Monday afternoon, an ideal amount of time for seeing the major stops in the city, and even a dabble of nearby Fort Worth.

The best part about this trip was the company (we went to visit another friend who recently moved to Dallas), but the food was a really close runner-up. Here is a list of a few of the really delicious joints we tried out:

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Travel

Cayman Islands: Weekend in Paradise

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The Cayman (K-Mon) Islands are absolutely stunning; with turquoise waters and hot temperatures, it’s paradise. My friend Kim from Hong Kong is working there for two months so she invited me to visit. Since it’s only a few hours and a few hundred dollar flight, I was in! While on the trip, I realized a few things about myself and re-realized a few more:

  • I love fall, but summer weather is amazing. On Facebook, everyone’s photos from back home showed them in boots and coats while I was frolicking in a swimsuit, flip flops and shorts. Tears nearly fell in my last minutes in a swimsuit.
  •  Traveling when your accommodation is free is the best idea ever. Such a money saver! I got four nights in a hotel suite complete with a pool and a 2-minute walk to the beach for free! Also, two of our dinners were paid for by Kim’s coworkers. Nothing was cheap in Cayman so I saved myself another hundred dollars by eating with them!
  •  With a good book or magazine, I can hang out by the pool, lounge at the beach or sit in an airplane/airport for hours on end. This trip was accompanied by an old Cosmo and my book club book called Love with a Chance of Drowning. Both of which were entertaining and perfect beach reads. (I recommend the book, by the way, I just haven’t told my book club that yet!)

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Travel

Camping in the UK

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Have I told you before that I love my job?? I mean, seriously, how many jobs send you to England to sightsee in London and go camping for 11 days?!

With 8 high school girls and 2 other adults, we started our adventure in London. We went nonstop visiting Abbey Road, the Tower of London, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace, as well as a hop on/hop off bus tour seeing many of the other sites.

A mere 46 hours after landing at Heathrow, we took public transport to Windsor where we were meeting 8,000 – yes, that’s right, eight thousand people from 40 countries for a camping expedition called WINGS 2014! There were about 1,000 volunteer staff members, 1,500 leaders and 5,000 scouts. In the UK, Scouting is a coed organization, so there were both males and females camping at Great Windsor Park – a massive park down the street from Windsor Castle, home of the Queen. Both Scouts (the coed version, which partakes in many activities like Boy Scouts of America) and Girl Guides/Scouts could be found at WINGS.

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Travel

Andalucía

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Andalucía, in the southern part of Spain, is one of the prettiest places I’ve ever visited. With its glistening beaches, hillside views, rolling fields, and voluminous mountains, Andalucía is a feast for the eyes. As part of a recent trip to Spain, Shelley and I visited multiple cities here. And while there are plenty more places to see amongst the mountains and valleys, here is a list of our favorite sites:

Seville

As I mentioned in my post about Barcelona, it’s especially great in European cities to start your time on a walking tour. They’re free and usually take you past many of the can’t-miss sites. Our tour in Seville (aka Sevilla) began at Seville Cathedral, a 16th century architectural masterpiece, complete with a minaret of the mosque that was once in that place. My favorite photo opp on the tour was at the Plaza de Espanya – this gorgeous semi-circular building constructed for the Americas Exposition in 1929.

We spent our nights in Seville at a crusty little hostel, so after each day of exploration (detailed below) we explored the city’s streets for beer and tapas. Seville is certainly a town I’d go back to just to laze around the streets and eat an abundance of jamon iberico (deliciously thin ham).

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Travel

Colorado…the Land of Adventure and Scouts!

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I really do have the best job ever. Last week, I traveled to sunny Colorado with 18 girls and 3 other adults to partake in adventures galore. Below is an account of our fun from email excerpts that the girls wrote to their parents. Enjoy!

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We’ve arrived in beautiful Colorado! After a short, yet somewhat turbulent flight, we hopped on a two-hour bus ride to Snow Mountain Ranch. We arrived just in time for dinner, then did a group activity and a map orientation of the camp. We’re on our way to bed now in order to get up nice and early for a ropes course.

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Travel

Barcelona, La Bella

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If Spain is on your bucket list, then place Barcelona straight at the top. While touristy in some places, there are nooks and crannies where you can hide away from the bustling crowds with a cheap beer, tasty treat, or amongst the trees at a beautiful park.

On a recent trip, Barcelona was the first stop on a whirlwind tour of gorgeous Spanish cities holding famous sightseeing locations. There is so much to do and see in Spain, that four days in Barcelona proved to be the perfect amount of time. Whether you’re tacking on more of Spain or are traversing around Europe, a long weekend is just right for fitting in amazing churches, delicious dishes, and quaint gardens.

Things to Do

*The #1 can’t-miss, must-do in Barcelona is La Sagrada Familia, the architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece cathedral. I know what you’re thinking – another church in Europe? No big deal! But you would be very wrong. La Sagrada Familia is unlike any church I have ever seen. With columns formed like trees reaching over 150 feet, stunningly translucent stained glass windows, and a grander façade than I’ve seen before, you will be in awe. Best tip I can give you here – get your tickets online first! Lines circle around the building and can last hours. Second best tip: do the audio tour. It’s a few bucks extra, but the fun facts are totally worth it.

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