If you are looking for a beautiful fall drive in the Blue Ridge, absolutely add this one to your list! En route to the hike and then taking an extra long return trip home (No, GPS, we will not make a U-turn!), we found gorgeous rolling hills, golden fields, the protruding tops of mountains, and trees all shades of color from lemon through burnt umber.
Read MoreThe town of Appomattox, Virginia, is nestled in a county by the same name. They are named for the local Algonquin-speaking Appomattoc tribe that lived in the area and were one of the five original tribes of the so-called Powhatan Confederacy and were one of the tribes that John Smith and early European settlers interacted with upon landing at Jamestown.
Read MoreIn April 2012, my mother and I booked a long-weekend trip to explore some new parts of the state. We stayed in Lynchburg as a central point, explored that city as well as made short trips to both Poplar Forest (Thomas Jefferson’s home, a retreat from Monticello) and Appomattox, a small town most famous as the site where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865, officially concluding the American Civil War.
Read MoreCades Cove is a valley that had been frequented by Cherokee hunters and was settled in the 1820s by Europeans who built a community in the valley. About 100 years later, the states of Tennessee and North Carolina were purchasing land for what would become the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and Cades Cove was in the middle of the area. Some of the community sold their property willingly, others signed agreements whereby they could live out their lives on the land and that it would be granted to the national park posthumously, and other families fought the efforts in court.
Read MoreTo celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary in 2012, we booked a long weekend at a cabin in the mountains near Gatlinburg, TN, with the primary purpose of exploring the Great Smoky Mountains which neither of us had visited before.
Read MoreCharleston’s historic downtown is remarkably walkable and each street offers its own views of stately antebellum houses, many of which date to the early 1800s. We decided to spend our third day in the area touring Charleston entirely on foot.
Read MoreEdinburgh is a relatively compact city that can be toured by foot, which is what we did. Depending on the amount of time you have in the city, your interest in walking, and how much you’re trying to see, you may prefer to look into public transportation or other options as well.
The main part of the city of Edinburgh is comprised of the West End, Old Town, and New Town, descriptive in their origins. The entirety of our time was spent in New Town and Old Town.
Read MoreIn April 2016, we spent 4 days in Charleston with a day-trip to a really cool island off the coast. We actually had to cut the trip a day short because we got sick and so got to miss seeing a few other sights but still had a wonderful time.
First, a short geography lesson - Charleston is a 17 mile long peninsula sandwiched between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. At its tip is Charleston Harbor, an inlet just off of the Atlantic Ocean. In the downtown portion, the width of the peninsula is about a mile, with the downtown area in a 4-5 square mile area. In short, it is incredibly walkable. And with so much to see, walking around the city is a great way to go!
Read MoreIf you were playing a game of word association and someone said ‘Bermuda’, the words that would likely come to mind would be warm-weather related words like beach, ocean, and snorkeling. Bermuda also has a good number of off-season options if you prefer to explore the other activities provided by the island nation and - better yet - to avoid crowds.
Read MoreWe weren’t really sure what to expect from Bermuda’s dining scene before we went. Visiting without any preconceived notion, we found ourselves surprised by the multicultural and eclectic options. It became evident in our experience that Bermuda has combined the flavors from many parts of the world and put its own Caribbean spin on some classic dishes.
Read MoreWe found Bermuda to be a very easy place to visit, but there are some tips that we would recommend you consider when planning your own trip to Bermuda to ensure your trip goes smoothly and you’re prepared!
Read MoreBermuda is just a tiny dot of an island in the middle of the ocean, so transportation around the island must be a breeze, right? It turns out that transportation options on Bermuda can get a little complicated and so planning ahead is a must so that you can enjoy your trip and have easy access to whatever is most important to you.
In this post, we’ll cover the general lay of the (is)land and the various spots you may wish to get to and from, the transportation options available to you, and tips and lessons learned to help you plan accordingly.
Read MoreIf you’re planning an off-season trip to Bermuda and wondering what to pack, you’ve come to the right place! We weren’t fully sure ourselves when we took a 4-day trip in late November. Here are the tips we picked up while there.
Read MoreIf you’re looking for some outside time exploring a less populated part of Bermuda, we’d recommend you check out the small area that holds Blue Hole (a bright blue swimming hole), Tom Moore’s Jungle, and Walsingham Nature Reserve.
Read MoreFor the second morning in a row, on Saturday we returned to Dangelini's Cafe and Bakery along Front Street where I ordered a cappuccino and ham and swiss cheese croissant, and Dustin had a mocha with a turkey, egg, and cheese melt on an English muffin. For breakfast dessert, which is totally a thing, we split an apple turnover, which was delicious and not overly sweet, which is how breakfast desserts should be! We noticed that at least in the off-season, Dangelini’s wasn’t open on Sundays so made a mental note that we wouldn’t be able to return the following day.
Read MoreOur destination for the day was to be St. George’s, the parish at the opposite tip of the island and closer to the airport. While Bermuda is a small island, the roads are curvy, narrow, and roundabout so that getting anywhere takes longer than the mileage would suggest it should.
Read MoreArriving in another country at night is an odd experience because it’s nearly impossible to get a sense of the place. We knew we were driving on a causeway over the water right after the airport but could only hear it, not see it. We got flashes of brightly colored houses as the taxi’s headlights shifted on the curved, narrow road (more on Bermuda’s roads later).
Read MoreFor some reason, Bermuda has always piqued my interest. Maybe it goes back to my childhood and watching Bermuda’s Olympians marching in during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in their Bermuda shorts. Maybe it’s that an island isolated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from any other land mass seems like such a different way to live.
Read MoreThe island nation of Malta is roughly 122 square miles, less than half the size of New York City, and is located in the Mediterranean Sea, about 100 miles south of Sicily. The three islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino are the largest and most often referenced in descriptions of the country; however, there are also dozens of tiny islands of varying sizes. While most of these islands are too small to be inhabited, a few others are. Cominotto is a popular tourist destination, and Manoel Island, located between Valletta and Sliema, has long been inhabited and currently features several modern day yacht clubs and also a large fort dating back to the 1700s. The formation and evolution of these islands dates to about 35 million years ago (relatively recently when you consider the dinosaurs went extinct about 60 million years ago) and are, much like the archaeological history of Malta, inexorably tied to the sea.
Read MoreWhen we booked our trip to Malta, we did so on a whim after just about an hour doing online research. Why did we book this trip on a whim? Because we found an amazing flight deal, which is as good a reason as any, right?! But in that hour of research, what sold us that Malta was worth visiting were the number of historically and archaeologically important sites scattered around the island and the role the island itself had played in important events of history.
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