I have a Jeep Wrangler. Not a souped up one, as my Jeep is my daily driver and the gas mileage is low enough as it is for commuting to and from work as it is. I’ve always been a bit conservative with the roads I take off-roading, though perhaps that’s my own cowardice and…
While researching places to stay around Portland, we found this quiet looking town on the river about an hour’s drive from the Portland airport. Camas, Washington, boasted a historic, quaint hotel that we very much wanted to try out. Our local friends also recommended the wine tasting in Hood River, only another few hours down…
One of the truest, most sad ironies of my life is that I love cheese, ice cream, and all things dairy, but I’m lactose intolerant. After numerous recommendations from friends and family, fueled by our love for cheese, we visited Tillamook, Oregon, to get the delicious goodness straight from the source. Bless these people. Seriously.…
Phillip and I try to plan vacations around our birthdays, and my trend seems to be getting away to the woods for my birthday in the fall. This past year, we stole away to Portland, Oregon, and spent some time enjoying fall scenery that you can’t find in Southern California. Some friends of ours that…
Foot sore, hot, tired, and ready to be home, we wanted to make the most of the last day of our honeymoon and the last day in Rome. We got an extra day to flights being rescheduled. We had too many things on our to do list to make it by foot, and we were…
Towards the end of our honeymoon last summer, we were getting hot, exhausted, and homesick. I ended up not wrapping up the last few days of the trip in blog partially due to a lack of consistent internet and the fact that my previous uploading method for pictures turned out ineffective. I had been blogging…
Wine tasting in Tuscany is very different from the typical experience in the United States. In the US, wine tasting is much like going to a bar. There’s a winery with a tasting room, or just the tasting room itself, where you can order a flight of preselected wines, or you can choose from a…
The days in San Gimignano blur together a little bit. Our goal was to really take time to relax, and with the heat that meant naps and hanging out at the pool. We did take some time to explore San Gimignano more. One of the best places we got gelato was at Gelateria Dondoli, which…
Arriving in the medieval city of San Gimignano
So far, nothing has quite felt so surreal as standing in front of Il Duomo in Florence. I had dreamed about seeing it in person for so long, that I felt like it was hard for me to process. Or perhaps, that was the heat. As hot as it had been in Switzerland, part of…