Showing posts with label Wanderlust. Show all posts

Exploring Niagara Falls

K and I flew into Buffalo, NY last week Thursday as our plan was to drive to Niagara Falls to see the American side and then cross the border to see the Canadian side of the falls. The rental car company upgraded our car to a brand new Jeep Wrangler because it had Ontario plates so they wanted to get it back over to Canada.

Hello Houston!

It was a last minute decision to fly to Houston for the weekend to visit a lifelong friend who is now 7 months pregnant. This is my first time visiting anywhere in Texas so I'm excited to explore Houston and get some quality time with my girl friend.



I'll catch you all next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Boston Trip Highlights


Happy Friday lovely friends! I'm so relieved this was a short work week because our Boston adventures last weekend left us feeling exhausted. After getting home super late on Monday night due to two delayed flights, the week started off a bit rough so the weekend will definitely help me get back on track and hopefully enjoy some relaxing even though I have a few plans with friends.

Exploring Music City


Nashville treated us very well and it was an amazing time touring the city. It was a short trip but we made sure to pack in as much as we could.

  
K's birthday falls on Labor Day weekend so we usually try to travel somewhere new to celebrate and take advantage of the long weekend. This year he chose Nashville to visit one of his good friends and explore a city neither of us had been to before.



Saturday
After dropping off our luggage and relaxing for a bit we headed over to Broadway Street to explore Music Row and get the full Nashville experience. We quickly realized that this city is the #1 bachelor/bachelorette party central in the US. It made for some good people watching and I now know why it's nicknamed "NashVegas".
 


Our first stop was at the world famous Tootsies for some rooftop drinks and a view of all the action down below. We spent the entire day walking around exploring the music scene and checking out the shops in between.



One of our favorite places was The Stage on Broadway which was a nice relaxed bar/venue with amazing live music.


After hours of fun and exploring, we settled at Merchants Restaurant for dinner which is on Broadway Street in the heart of the action. The food and craft cocktails were excellent!



Sunday
On Sunday we had reservations for brunch at Pinewood Social which was recommended to me by several people and for good reason. This place is more than just a restaurant, there's a full bowling alley, pool area, cafe, large outdoor patio and several bars. The atmosphere was fun and trendy, the service was great considering how busy this place gets, and the brunch menu didn't disappoint!




After our hearty brunch, we walked around the premises to check out the different areas and then made our way into downtown on foot to walk off those calories and sight-see in slow motion.





Once we made it to Broadway Street, we were ready to cool off and relax our feet so we stopped at the George Jones Entertainment Complex to walk through the museum and have a cold beverage at the bar overlooking the Nissan Stadium.




The entire day was spent exploring all the fun things Nashville has to offer and of course we returned to The Stage for more live music.


 

After another action packed day it was time for dinner so we jumped in an Uber to head to Peg Leg Porker for dinner. Several people recommended this restaurant for amazing BBQ so it was on my short list but when we arrived, we found out it's not open on Sundays so we had to take another taxi and head back to where we originally were.

 

We settled at The Stillery for dinner which was a place my boss had told me and about he raved about the sriracha deviled eggs. He wasn't kidding!


Monday
Our flight home was in the evening so we had a few hours to enjoy Nashville before heading to the airport. We went to visit our friend's parents at their beautiful home.
 

It was then time to make our way to the airport but TSA precheck bought K and I some time to stop for lunch at another highly recommended restaurant called The Pharmacy Burger Parlor and Beer Garden. We loved the outside patio/beer garden and the burgers were excellent!


Even though it was a very short trip, we loved Nashville and hope to return again to see the beautiful Fall foliage.

US Cities: Loves & Lusts


Good morning!

We meet again for Wanderlust Wednesday travel linkup hosted by Kate, Kerri and myself. I hope you will join us by sharing your favorite travel-related posts and hopping over to read the travel adventures shared by other bloggers. Although I've traveled quite a bit throughout my life (yet still not enough) I'm running low on new places to post about due to lack of picture taking before becoming a blogger.

Over the past few years I've been trying to cover some ground on the US map and I've been to some cities that have just blown me away so I wanted to share a few of my favorites along with some cities that I've been dying to visit...some of which are already booked for this year.

Loves

San Francisco
I've  visited San Fran twice recently for work conferences but found some free time to be a tourist and explore. It's hard not to fall in love with this city. Here's my San Francisco travel recap.



Savannah, GA
 K and I drove up to Savannah for my 30th birthday a few years ago and had an amazing weekend exploring the history and indulging in some of the best food I've ever tried. Read more about our adventures in Savannah.



New Orleans
K and I made our way over to New Orleans last year to celebrate his birthday which falls on a long weekend. NOLA is another city with amazing food and a rich culture that's worth checking out.


New York City
Well isn't NYC a given? I visited New York for the first time for our 1-year anniversary and I was so amazed by the density of the city and the buildings as we flew in. I'd never seen anything like it. We did all the tourist things possible and really took in all that New York has to offer. 


Chicago
K and I visited Chicago with Kate and her husband in 2014 and once again did all the tourist things we thought were interesting. Some of my favorite things were exploring the Navy Pier, a scenic architectural boat cruise, going to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, having a bloggers lunch with Nikki for some deep dish pizza, and lots more. Chicago is another city you can't help not falling in love with.



Lusts

Denver
Luckily we have a trip booked for the end of this month! Although I still haven't actually planned some fun things to do on the trip.

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Boston
I was hoping to make it to Boston in July when K has to go for a work event but his schedule is way too busy for this trip to make sense so I'm hoping to make it there sooner than later.

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Nashville
Nashville is another trip we have booked for later this year to visit some friends and explore Music City. I can't wait!

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Charleston
I've been dying to check out all the charm and history Charleston has to offer so hopefully I can make a trip happen in the near future.

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Key West
 Key West is just a drive away for us but still a 6-7 hour drive so we still haven't found the right time to make it there. I have been before over 10 years ago for Spring Break in college so I think a return trip is much needed at this point!

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What are your US City travel loves and lusts?


1. Follow Kerri, Kate and myself on Bloglovin
2. Link up your favorite travel recaps or travel related posts
3. Grab our Wanderlust Wednesdays button and link back to our blogs
4. Be sure to visit other blogs and build your travel bucket list!

Wanderlust Wednesday: St. Augustine, Florida


I recapped our Easter weekend trip to St. Augustine a few weeks ago and talked about all the amazing restaurants we tried and some fun things we did but I didn't share too much details about the city itself and what makes this northern Florida city so enchanting.




St. Augustine has some fascinating history dating back to 1565 and claims to be the oldest city in the United States. Today it's a slow paced city with lots of gorgeous Spanish colonial architecture and historical sites to explore. The Castillo de San Marcos stone fortress from the 17th century being one of the more popular sites which overlooks the inlet. St. Augustine is also known for having some cute Bed & Breakfast Inns, quaint antique shopping, bakeries & coffee shops, and lots of history to be learned. I'll let the photos I snapped do the rest of the talking.






















As you can tell it was an overcast day but that meant cooler temps to walk around outside and it made a nice setting to take photos of this beautiful historic town. Hope you enjoyed exploring St. Augustine through my camera lens!


Link-up Rules:
1. Follow Kerri, Kate and myself on Bloglovin
2. Link up your favorite travel recaps or travel related posts
3. Grab our Wanderlust Wednesdays button and link back to our blogs
4. Be sure to visit other blogs and build your travel bucket list!