Showing posts with label Wanderlust. Show all posts

Wanderlust Wednesday: 2015 Travel Recap

Looking back at last year, apparently it was a fairly successful year of traveling and exploring some new and old destinations. I also have some really exciting travel plans lined up for this year which I'll share at the end of this post. So here are the sites and scenes from 2015:

San Francisco & Sonoma
 In March I traveled to San Francisco for the second time to attend a conference for work but I made sure to fly in a few days early to explore more of the city and wine country.  I have some friends that live in San Fran so they picked me up and we drove out to Sonoma on the Sunday. It was a gorgeous day to visit the wineries and have a picnic outside plus every wine we tasted was amazing! (Here's another travel recap of my time in San Francisco over the past couple years.)





Trinidad & Tobago
In early 2015 I traveled to Trinidad and Tobago twice both times for weddings which I was a bridesmaid in (wedding recap here and here). It was a bit hectic to attend back to back destination weddings but I made it all work and got to spend time with family and catch up with friends while I was there.





Las Vegas
K and I visited Las Vegas for the 4th of July long weekend to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary coupled with a good friend's 30th birthday. Our days were packed with exploring the strip and lounging by the pool. Our nights were spent having some nice celebratory dinners, seeing Tiesto perform at Hakkasan, going to the "O" show by Cirque du Soleil and losing some money in the casino. What can I say? It's Vegas after all.

 

New Orleans

K and I traveled to New Orleans for the Labor Day long weekend in September which also happens to be K's birthday weekend. I'm usually a big planner when it comes to trips but K doesn't always like to follow a strict schedule so I made no big plans for this trip. We had some must-eat-at restaurants on our list as well as a ghost pub crawl and that we did along with lots of exploring, some shopping, and of course some drinking because Bourbon Street. (And here's NOLA Part 2 trip recap.)
 

 

Lots of Disney Trips

2015 was definitely filled with lots of Disney action and we made good use of our annual passes before they expired. Epcot was our favorite for the Food & Wine Festival but each park has it's own adventures to enjoy. If you have annual passes Disney it's also the perfect place to go to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, bachelorettes, etc so we did lots of that! The Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot (which is going on now) is also a gorgeous time of year to visit. Here are some of my favorite Disney memories from last year: one, two, three, four, five.




Barbados

In October we were off again for another destination wedding that I was a bridesmaid in but this time it was in the beautiful island of Barbados. The trip wasn't as long as I was hoping for (because lack of PTO at this point) but we did manage to squeeze some fun things in when I had some free time from wedding responsibilities. K and I went on a catamaran cruise around the island and then on our last day, some friends drove us around for an island tour so we got to see the best of both worlds.





Ft Lauderdale
Heading to Ft Lauderdale for New Year's Eve was kind of a spur of the moment decision for us. We didn't have any plans for NYE and were seeking some fun and adventure. We decided it was the perfect time to visit some good friends that live in the Ft Lauderdale area and when we were able to find an affordable dog-friendly hotel near to the beach, we were sold! We ate lots of good seafood and rang in 2016 beachside with good friends plus Lola got to join us for this trip.



Here's a sneak peak of what 2016 is looking like so far:

St Augustine, FL
Denver, CO
Coral Gables, FL
Boston, MA (tentative)
 Montego Bay, Jamaica
Toronto, Canada
Nashville, TN



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!


California Dreaming


I had the opportunity to travel to California twice for work over the past few years and I took some personal time to explore. Both times I stayed in the heart of San Francisco and on the second trip I was able to make it out to Sonoma Valley with some friends to explore wine country. I'm dreaming of the day I can make it back to see other parts of California because San Francisco and Sonoma stole my heart for the entire beautiful state. Just look at that majestic view of the Golden Gate bridge I was able to capture on a clear day. It's typically quite foggy around the bridge.

Here's a glimpse at some of the scenery I witnessed while touring California.

San Francisco











Sonoma, CA







This recap makes me want to plan a trip asap back to California to explore more of the beautiful US west coast.

Wanderlust Wednesdays

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!


Wanderlust Wednesdays: Alaska Cruising


In 2005 my Grandmother organized a family cruise up to the Arctics. We all flew into Vancouver, Canada and then left for seven days on a Royal Caribbean cruise up to Alaska. Since this trip was over ten years ago, I couldn't find many photos on file but I was able to dig up some from Facebook.



Before we left for the cruise my entire family spent the day exploring Vancouver. We went to check out the Totem Poles in Stanley Park which are carved out of red cedar wood. There are nine poles in total and each one tells it's own story. We also checked out Lion's Gate Bridge and several other attractions/monuments.


The next day we left on the cruise and stopped at three Alaskan ports - Ketichikan, Skagway and Juneau. Although my ideal vacation typically includes sun, sea and sand, it was an amazing seven days spent with my cousins and family at sea. We saw whales through the window while eating dinner, enjoyed the icy scenery and got lots of quality time with each other. More importantly, it made my Granny extremely happy to have all of her family together since we all live in different countries/cities.




The time-stamp on some of the photos below are incorrect. This trip was in 2005 despite my cousin's camera saying 2004.





Alaska was beautiful but that will probably be my first and last vacation there. It was good to experience it but Europe, several US cities, and lots of tropical islands are on my radar for the upcoming years.


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!

Wanderlust Wednesdays: Negril, Jamaica

 
I visited Negril in Jamaica a few years ago for my cousin's wedding and to celebrate our honeymoon a little late since their wedding was only a month after ours and couldn't swing two big trips. We flew into Montego Bay Airport and took a shuttle for about 1.5 hours to get to Negril. We stayed at the Riu Negril Resort which is an affordable all-inclusive resort located along Negril's seven mile beach. About 25 family members and friends made it to Negril for the wedding so our days were spent doing water sports and hanging out on the beach and at the pool bar. 









Most of the trip was spent at our resort since there was everything we needed in one spot including lots of entertainment and water activities however K and I made sure to plan some time alone for our "honeymoon". We went on a private boat tour up Negril's coast stopping at several spots to snorkel, have lunch or a drink, and eventually cliff dive at the famous Rick's Cafe.


Margaritaville Negril




Some of the locals are professionals at diving off the cliff and even our cruise tour guide got up there and took a back dive off the cliff.


There's a big possibility we'll be going back to Jamaica next year for another cousin's destination wedding so I hope she choses a different area such as Ocho Rios or Montego Bay since we got to see all that Negril offers. That coast is just beautiful though!


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!