I know I already wrote about our time in India and included lots of photographs, many of which were architectural in nature, but I couldn't help but post a full collection. India really has some of the most amazing buildings! There are so many beautiful structures that they almost start to strike you as common place. Almost. I didn't feel like including captions describing where each photo was taken (I'm pretty lazy sometimes), but would be happy to tell you if you ask. I will say that these photos were taken at the Taj Mahal, Jaigarh Fort, Jal Mahal, Amer Fort, City Palace, Hawa Mahal, and the Red Fort. Ready to feast your eyes?
Read moreYou Know You're a Budget Traveler When...
Heating up lunch left overs in our hotel room with a blow dryer, to avoid paying for dinner.
You Know You're a Budget Traveler When...
- An included breakfast at your accommodations is the best news ever, because if you eat enough at breakfast then you can skip buying lunch and maybe even dinner!
- You refuse to pay for a hotel on long layovers. Stuck in Heathrow for 18 hours? Tough luck. As long as you can find a row of seats without arm rests you'll be okay. And if you can't find that even a patch of carpeted floor will do. You're a veteran of sleeping in public.
- You do your laundry by hand unless you're somewhere you can get it done for a couple of dollars or less.
A Review of The Manor: Tales of Irony in Delhi
Up until India, the fanciest place we'd stayed was a three and a half star hotel in Thailand. However, when I planned our trip to Nepal and India I decided for once we were going to splurge with two days at a luxurious boutique hotel in Delhi called the The Manor. I think some sort of premonition guided me to this decision, because after two weeks of trekking, rafting, a major earthquake, and the chaos of driving around India trying to get in as many sights as possible, The Manor was an extremely welcome end to our trip. This experience was not only relaxing, but also a slightly nerve racking adventure at times because heck - we don't know much about the protocols and expectations of fancy people in fancy places!
Read moreGold vs Sunshine Coast?
This fall I was lucky enough to make a trip to Australia to visit my sister, Bri, who has decided to call Brisbane home. Now in the Southern Hemisphere, fall is the beginning of summer, so a trip to the beach was mandatory - to me anyways. The main beach options from Brisbane are to head north to an area known as the Sunshine Coast, or south to the beaches near the city of Gold Coast. I never realized that the Gold Coast was actually a city! I thought it just referred to a stretch of beaches, but apparently Gold Coast is the second most populous city in the state of Queensland. Anyways, we decided to visit both areas, first with a trip south to Currumbin and then with a trip north to Caloundra.
Read moreA Visit to the San Juan Islands
Just got back from a much needed trip to the San Juan Islands. I say much needed because a) we're always antsy to travel and b) this trip was the first vacation Justin's gotten in the six months since he started his residency program. Bummer that it was just one week, but we'll take that over no break at all! A week is too short for an international trip (at least in our opinion) and so we looked closer to home and chose the San Juan Islands, located off the coast of Washington.
Read moreTraveling Without Regrets
All we want to do is read...
Have you ever gotten back from a trip and realized you could have made more of it? That you could have had a richer experience? I hate that and sadly it's happened to us more than once. A few months ago we traveled to Mexico and stayed in the beach town of Playa Del Carmen. It's super close to Cozumel so we were going to go over there to dive. We didn't end up going. Instead, we pretty much just sat in our hostel reading books and eating cheap food from the mini mart down the road. We're still filled with shame just thinking about it!
Read moreAdventure Misery: Is It Worth It?
Justin's toes rubbed raw after hiking the Narrows
Ever wonder why we do this kind of stuff? Why you do this kind of stuff? Seriously. We could just drive somewhere epic, but we choose to walk for days. We could be at home going out for a nice dinner and coming home to a hot shower, but instead we cook some ramen at the end of a long day and crawl into our sleeping bags caked in sweat. There's blisters, rain, intense heat, unexpected snow storms, and usually some serious B.O. I've lost toe nails, hoisted a pack onto bruised hips day after day, woken up to find ice sheets on the inside of our tent from our condensation, and nearly cried a few times. I don't know about you guys, but we do it because we can't imagine how boring our lives would be if we always did things the easy way - only focused on living a comfortable life.
Read moreTwo Days in the Enchantments
We left Friday evening and drove up to Leavenworth (WA) which is the nearest town to the Enchantments. The Enchantments is not a loop, so it can be hiked either direction from two different trailheads. We decided to hike straight into the Upper Enchantments via the Stuart Lake trailhead since this route reduces the total elevation gain by 2,600 ft. The bad part is that you have to climb Aasgard Pass, which rises 1,900 ft in less than a mile. Regardless of which route you take, to reach even one lake the minimum price is a seven mile hike with at least a 4,400 ft elevation gain. The Enchantments are not for the faint of heart.
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