Please note: This post was created in partnership with Marshalls; all opinions are my own.

I am currently suffering from a major case of wanderlust, and have been browsing flights, daydreaming of new destinations, and mentally packing my bags for a new adventure. I don’t exactly have the vacation booked yet, but once we decide on where we’re going, I’m going to be ready! When it comes to prepping for a trip – big or small – I have developed my own system for staying organized and making packing a little bit less of a hassle. read more

This past week we took a little family adventure up to Vermont. Mike had some time off from work, and we both had a few ideas on our travel wish list to visit there. I have been wanting to visit Field Guide Stowe since it opened, and had a trip to the King Arthur Flour campus in mind. Mike is a beer guy and wanted to visit a few breweries in the area to check out their selection. And Miss Jane was ready for her first overnight in a hotel, so we packed up our bags and headed north!  read more

Last week I shared a little recap of our babymoon getaway weekend. Before we decided to spend a weekend on Nantucket for some R&R pre-baby arrival (and the madness of the holiday season), I was doing some research on babymoon destinations and felt like there weren’t many resources out there for this type of a trip. The babymoon concept has gained more popularity in the last few years, and up until recently most people I knew that took one ended up going somewhere warm and tropical. It wasn’t really an option for us to pick a destination that required plane tickets or tons of time off (and sadly, with the spread of the Zika virus, my doctor cautioned us against traveling anywhere too far south). Those factors kept us in the New England travel radius, and helped me narrow down a few key places to consider going. We ended up picking Nantucket because it was just at the edge of the off-season and neither of us had been there for more than a day trip before.img_5571 read more

Almost a week later, a little recap of our babymoon adventure on Nantucket seems fitting, because I’m heading into this weekend thinking about what an amazing relaxing time we had and how grateful I am for the getaway! We were lucky to catch some unseasonably warm weather last Friday, paired with a few crisp cool fall days the rest of the weekend — the best of both worlds! It gave us some time to stroll out the beaches and lighthouse, while bundling up in our autumn-best for an awesome off-season day at Cisco Brewery. Pregnant lady at a brewery you’re wondering? With live music, bowling, pumpkin carving, and a BBQ pig roast going on, I almost didn’t miss the beer tasting (almost!). img_5667 read more

How gorgeous was the weather this weekend? It had that crisp hint of fall that makes me so darn happy. We spent what felt like our first glimpse of autumn up in Portland, Maine this weekend to celebrate some the wedding of our good friends. While our trip was brief, we managed to pack a ton in and I thought I’d share my mini-itinerary should you ever find yourself with 24 hours to kill in Portland, Maine!
maine-recap_edited-1 read more

One of the best things about this blog is that I’ve made some really amazing ‘blogger buddies’ and get to do fun things with them. Alison of Long Distance Loving and I got the chance to have a little Boston Bloggers ‘pow-wow’ at The Break Hotel in Narragansett last weekend to kick back, relax, enjoy the amazing (and unseasonably warm) weather, and do a little planning for our Boston Bloggers group. The folks at Lark Hotels know how to make a girl feel special, and treated us to some spa-time (manicure for me!), beyond delicious food at their restaurant Chair 5 (um, s’mores ice cream sandwiches, do I need to say more?) and even hooked us up with a cooking lesson with Chef Basil Yu (more on that in another post!). It was a perfect girls getaway in one of the prettiest places I’ve ever stayed — if you’re ever looking for a weekend near the water check this cute spot out! rarebrick_20150624_1152 read more

Our trip to New Orleans last week was full of what the city had to offer …. lots of eating, lots of drinking, and lots of exploring! We stayed at the Old No 77 Hotel and Chandlery, which was beautifully decorated and had a hip, laid back vibe. It was a great location, right on the edge of the French Quarter and close enough that we could explore other areas of the city. The first day we arrived we walked around the Garden District and meandered down Magazine Street to check out the shops, and then the second day we tackled the more touristy areas in the French Quarter. As always, I collected a list of all of our favorite places we visited along the way!
Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

read more

Well, would you look at those two nerds taking a selfie with Elvis? (My husband is a saint for agreeing to my antics, don’t you think?) We just got back from another road-trip adventure, our favorite vacation ritual. We flew into New Orleans for a few days and decided while we were there to take a quick excursion to Memphis for the day to see Graceland and get some local Memphis flavors (read: BBQ!). Graceland was everything I hoped it would be, tacky and over the top. The house itself is actually sort of small by today’s ‘mansion’ standards but the interior design was hilariously gaudy and rich. One of the best parts is that you can tour the inside of Elvis’ two planes and check out his massive car collection too. Graceland was the main Memphis attraction, but we also stopped into Central BBQ to try one of just about everything on the menu (my favorite was the pulled pork).

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

read more

I posted last week about some of my tips for planning an instagram-worthy vacation, but I  have to admit that I’m guilty of keeping all of those vacation pictures and on my phone and camera long after we return home. Remember the good old days when you couldn’t wait to run out to the photo store and get your film processed from vacation? With the instant gratification of digital photography, I rarely actually print out images anymore, they end up just living online. Snapfish offered to let me try out their new website and travel photo books to help me put an end to all of my vacation pictures staying on my iPhone.

read more

Let me let you in on a little secret: I love the process of planning a trip almost more than I do going on the actual trip. It’s like a sport for me — finding the hidden gems in a new city, organizing our days to maximize all of the different neighborhoods I want to explore, and collecting as many recommendations as I can before we leave about what I *must* eat or drink in our destination city. We have taken some pretty amazing trips over the past few years that lead to awesome adventures (check out our travels to Austin + Marfa, Nashville, and our cross-country honeymoon road trip for a few examples!). Someone commented on one my instagram posts last week and asked how we go about planning for these fun little getaways, and it dawned on me that I actually do have a pretty standard process that I thought I’d share here today, check out my tips for note to plan awesome getaways:  

read more

 
 
Verified by MonsterInsights