500 Travel Gems - The Future List

Tis the season! I got this as a gift over the holidays and felt the urge to blog. I have a feeling this is the source of many future travel blogs and a LOT of travel dreaming. Lord help my savings account!
Check out National Geographic's Secret Journeys of a Lifetime - 500 of the World's Best Hidden Travel Gems. I'm loving the colorful and vivid photos, the location history and details, and lots of travel tips. Some locations you might expect in a book like this but some truly are hidden gems.

I'll leave you with a sneak peek at some of the awesome photos - plenty of photography inspiration!

Flying High Over Seattle

In the heat of a Seattle summer, one of my favorite people celebrated his birthday. To make it extra special, I booked a flight lesson to see Seattle from a very different angle than we're used to. Surprisingly enough, the weather gods were on our side as the cloud parted, the wind died and the sunny skies illuminated the city beautifully. 

After a thorough check of the plane and quite interesting lesson on how airplanes fly, we were off into the sky! Here are some pictures from our flight adventure over the Seattle/Bellevue metro area.

The control panel of our Cessna 172

The spacious cabin.... or not. :)

 West Seattle is the BEST Seattle! View of Alki.

The pilots

Does this make me a Backseat... Flyer?

View across the beautiful Puget Sound. 

Green Lake, north of Downtown Seattle.

View of all the sail boats on Lake Union shadowed by downtown Seattle...

 

Downtown Bellevue...

Hello, Microsoft!

Looking north over Kirkland...

View of Lake Union, Space Needle, Key Arena and the rest of Seattle...

Gotta love this city (when it's sunny)...

Downtown Seattle in all its glory...

The stadiums, home of the Seahawks and Mariners...

We survived the maiden voyage! Nice flying skillz, Michael!

If you're now so tempted that you, yourself, need to get up in the air to fly your very own Cessna 172... I highly recommend Wings Aloft. Awesome place. And if you get a guy with a thick southern accent - you're especially in luck!

The Village of Seabrook, WA - Check!

Early in July my dear friend Connie proposed an awesome girl's weekend trip to Seabrook, WA. And what else could this travel-addicted devotee say besides "HECK YES!!"?

Seabrook is nestled along HWY 101 on the southern Pacific coast. Several years ago this quaint neighborhood did not exist, or at least in the capacity that it is today. The vision behind it is to create a place for full-time residents alongside vacation rentals to provide an escape from the craziness of today's world. Personally, I think it was created to bring back that old-time charm of a safe and friendly neighborhood with a touch of Pleasantville and a hint of Mr. Rogers.

Walking (or cycling via the borrowable and very awesome beach-cruisers) down a street of Seabrook takes you back in time and erases any worries you arrived with. The homes are nestled along side each other with inviting front porches, American flags handing, and white picket fences lining the sidewalks.

 

A short walk across HWY 101 will take you to the open and very beautiful Pacific Coast Beaches. For select months during the year, this beach actually becomes one of the only recognized highways located ON A BEACH. So you will see cars driving out on the expansive flat sand, speckled with bonfires, kite flying and fireworks.

 

 

 

 

I'll leave you with an awesome shot (courtesy of Rose Ruiz) of your favorite photographer/blogger on this very same beach! :)

Here's to more relaxing beach trips to the Washington coast!

Pre-New Year's Resolution

Sadly, it's been approximately nine months since my last blog post. Completely unintentional. So much has happened in this time that I'm making a pre-New Year's resolution to catch up on all the exciting happenings of the last several months. And for kicks, you'll notice a renovated blog design to admire while you're at it!

Here's a sneak peek of what's to come!

A trip to Seabrook, WA...

Flying high over Seattle...

A trip of a lifetime to Peru...

Wedding bliss.....

U2 Concert review....

Washington tour....

And plenty more! Check back as I make good of my pre-New Year's resolution and take you through some awesome travel reviews. So grateful for this year.


Olivia - This first blog post is dedicated to you. Hopefully, I'll revive my blog to its former beauty. :)