I’m back with part II of our West Coast adventure. After we made our way through wine country, we took a drive down to Muir Woods National Park and hiked through the Redwoods (to be fair, it was more of a nature walk  — not a hike. There were grandmas whizzing by me in wheel chairs, but I like to pretend I was a tough outdoorsy chick who hiked!). It was a magical place; not only are you walking through these magnificent massive trees, but just a few minutes down the road is one of the most breathtaking beaches and coastal views I’ve ever seen.  Processed with VSCOcam with f2 presetSan Fran 5

After our ‘hike’ I earned a tasty dinner at Foreign Cinema — and swooned over the food and the restaurant interior. We spent our last day in the city exploring, including via boat where we circled around Alcatraz and underneath the Golden Gate bridge. Such a fun way to see the city! When our boat pulled back into the docks we saw a massive group of sea lions that just chill all day right at the edge of the pier —  I took about 400 pictures of them and was completely enamored — I mean, aren’t they the cutest? At the end of our trip we finished things off with a Giants game, because I like to finish all of my vacations with hot dogs and beers (and the lovely water views didn’t hurt!).

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We celebrated our 1-year anniversary a little early with a trip to Napa and San Francisco last weekend — I was traveling for work in the area so we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it! I know most people visit Napa and drink their way through the region, but I think we actually spent more of our time eating our way through. We wandered through Oxbow Public Market and feasted on Hog Island Oysters (paired with a rosé of course) and then made our way to Gott’s Roadside for burgers (paired with a milkshake of course). And we did manage to do tastings at a few vineyards (Robert Sinksey was our favorite, they had  tasty little snacks paired with the wines and the whole place had a laid back atmosphere).  We ended our day strolling through downtown Yountville — I had perhaps the tastiest salad of all time at Redd Wood — an asparagus, bacon, and burrata salad, yum! Before we left to drive down to San Francisco the next day we made an obligatory stop at Bouchon Bakery, where I had a croissant for breakfast and of course couldn’t leave without picking up some macarons for the road!

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In all of the holiday hustle and bustle I totally forgot to share pictures of little pre-Christmas adventure up to Quebec City! The trip has become a bit of a tradition for us, this marked our 4th year going, and the first time since we got engaged there two years ago.  It was a winter wonderland to say the least, we tromped through a fresh foot of snow to do window shopping, warmed up in cute cafes and restaurants with tasty soups and treats (macarons, of course!), and admired the holiday decorations on the old city’s streets. It’s always such a perfect little retreat to get in the holiday spirit.

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Luckily summer is almost over, because this Saturday I am confident it peaked — I had the.best.day.ever.  We went with some friends for a day trip out to Nantucket and had the most perfect summer day. It  was my first time there, so we explored the quaint little cobblestone streets and did some window shopping, we took a ride out to the Cisco Brewery and did a tour and some tastings, and we had a delicious seafood dinner as the sun was setting over the island. At one point we were sitting outside with the sun shining, eating oysters and enjoying some drinks while listening to a live band play at the brewery, and I just felt so overwhelmingly happy — I mean, does it get any better than that? photo5photo2photo3photo4photo

This particular road-trip stop is special enough to get its own post. We had a loose itinerary for our trip, we knew our general route, and when we needed to be in LA for our flight back, but everything else was a spontaneous plan. And when we ended up making it California with an extra day to spare, we decided to spend a night in Palm Springs — using the HotelTonight app we struck some amazing luck and got a room at the Viceroy Palm Springs. We joked upon arrival that I was checking-in to instagram heaven, it was one of the most picture-perfect places I have seen (with credit to Kelly Wearstler’s design). I had to be dragged out of the pool at check-out time — it was so hard to leave!

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I shared a bunch of honeymoon pictures yesterday, but this particular type of trip called for a follow-up post with a focus on the food. We pretty much ate with abandon for two whole weeks, (with thanks to my trusty Food Network app we hit up lots of hidden gems). Chicago was all about the pizza, I wanted to buy tickets for a pizza walking tour, and when I found out they were sold out we decided to do a self guided version. We hit up some Guy Fieri approved drive-ins, and had some of the best fajitas I’ve ever tasted in Moab. And we tried some things that were almost beyond my imagine: a breakfast pot pie in Denver, a sweet pea and corn grilled cheese in Cleveland, and the winner of best road trip find: macaroni and cheese with a homemade cinnamon applesauce to dip the pasta in. You have to eat it to believe it.

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Trying to narrow down pictures to share from this honeymoon was nearly impossible, I want to sit down and show every single person I know all of the photographs I took on our two-week  adventure. When we first told people we were going to drive cross-country for our honeymoon, we got lots of ‘well, if your marriage can last that, I guess it’s meant to be’ comments. I’m happy to say we proved the naysayers wrong, we’re still married! And we had so, so, so much fun on our trip, we saw so many amazing places and landmarks. We took in a game at Wrigley when we were in Chicago, we wandered around the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas City, saw a concert at Red Rocks in Colorado, drove through Arches National Park in Moab, and hit up the strip in Las Vegas. After 3700 miles we hit the Pacific Ocean, coast to coast. It was a perfect adventure to start off life as husband and wife!

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The wedding festivities continue: in between seating charts and dress fittings I squeezed in an amazing weekend with my girlfriends in Newport, RI for my bachelorette party. My friends have mastered the planning of a successful girls weekend: we hit up a local winery, toured the vineyards, and had a decadent picnic after a wine tasting. We walked around Newport to do some shopping and take advantage of the preppy wares; and we topped the night off with some dancing and quite a few cocktails. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to go through dozens of pictures to find a few ‘blog-appropriate’ versions to share. But hey, that’s what a bachelorette party is all about, right? Now that I’m nearly recovered from the debauchery we’re in the final countdown: just under 3 weeks ’til we say I do!

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It seems almost like this was already months ago, but it was just last week that I spent a few days in San Francisco (my first time!) for work. I have to say, it may be one of my favorite cities I’ve ever visited. Of course it helped that right after stepping off the plane I made my way to the Ferry Building and discovered the macarons and sea-salted caramels at Miette; one bite and anyone would have fallen love! Another highlight of the trip? Playing tourist and seeing two equally important landmarks: the Golden Gate bridge and of course the row of painted ladies houses from the opening of Full House (a childhood dream come true seeing them in real life!).  I promise I got some work done while I was there too!

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We took a little trip to New York this weekend to spend time with family. My jam-packed schedule included a little Friday night lights for my brother’s football game, a pop-in at the pumpkin patch, and a few fun stops in the city — I finally got to try Shake Shack (yum) and explore C.Wonder (wow). It looks like we’re going to be stuck inside for the next few days with this crazy weather, so I’m glad we got in our whirlwind of fun before the storm hits!

 
 
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