18 Hours in South Beach

The first stop of our babymoon adventure was a very short stay in Miami.  When we were looking at flights we decided to book the option that gave us a night in Miami before heading to Belize.  Usually we avoid layovers but adding a city that neither of us have spent time in before sounded kind of fun... we were inspired by Anthony Bourdain's Layover series.

For a one night stint we decided it had to be South Beach.  Art Deco, the beach, palm trees... a perfect start to our travel adventure.

We had an awesome dinner out and pricey drinks (of the non-alcoholic variety for me) while listening to live music to celebrate Dan's birthday.  It was a pretty great night.  But the morning is when all the eye candy from the scenery had me in full on photo-taking mode.  We had a perfectly lovely morning walk on the beach and Ocean Drive.

It was a fun little visit and I can say that would absolutely do an overnight layover again.  In general I like more time to explore a place as you can barely scratch the surface in a one day visit but for the right spot it is a fun add on to a trip.  My impression was that Miami is a great spot for this type of quick visit.

After our walk on the beach and brunch we were ready to get headed to Belize. 

A Weekend in NYC

The first of November I headed to NYC to attend a conference for work.  The moment I found out I was going to New York I emailed Dan to see if it would work to extend my stay and have him meet me out there for a long weekend exploring the city.  It was such an amazing weekend.  We both fell hard for New York.

As in looking up rentals in the West Village and doing internet research on random NYC living things.  It is still unclear if our crush will be strong enough to actually make the move (it will have to last a few years as we aren't quite ready to leave Chicago) but one thing is for sure we went from kind-of-intrigued to totally-in-love for this city over a weekend.

We wanted to see as much as possible during our short visit so we became friends with the subway and basically spent the days walking (my legs were so tired Sunday night!).  Here are a few favorite shots of the city from the weekend...

If you aren't completely tired of looking at photos of NYC at this point, there are more in this set on flickr.

An Evening Walk in Midtown

Just a few snaps from my phone during a walk yesterday evening in Midtown that I wanted to share with you.  I can't even describe how excited I am to be in NYC... this is the first time I have truly visited this city (short work trips don't count).  The Folio Show wraps up today (I am learning so much!) and then Dan is joining me for a long weekend exploring the city.  It is going to be fantastic.

Fall Getaway to Kentucky ~ Around Louisville

As much as I like to visit the countryside on a getaway for a break from city life, I also appreciate fitting in time to hang out in different cities.  For our super short fall roadtrip we decided to make Louisville our home base and so we got to see snippets of the city as well as tour bourbon distilleries and horse farms and hike in a national forest.

In Louisville we spent time on Market Street as that is where our hotel was and we lucked out- it was such a neat area!  Nice, local restaurants, interesting buildings, and shops made it a good area for walking around.  We also spent time in Old Louisville to walk around Central Park and a bit of time in downtown. 

We both really enjoyed our time in Louisville.  It was less hours of driving to get down here from Chicago than to the areas in Wisconsin where we go camping and comparable to going to the northern part of Michigan so Louisville is a very reasonable distance for a getaway from Chicago.  I would probably allow for more time (we left Chicago after work on Friday and were back Sunday night)... maybe a three or four day trip as there is so much to see and do.

Hope you enjoyed seeing snippets of what caught my eye in Kentucky!  Next up for travels is NYC... I can't wait! 

Fall Getaway to Kentucky ~ Red River Gorge

One of the things I like to do when traveling is hiking.  It is such a nice break from the city and even though you are getting lots of exercise I find it to be so relaxing.  When planning our trip for Kentucky I came across an article from Backpacker magazine on the Red River Gorge and immediately added it as a must for our itinerary.

After driving through the bourbon and horse country, we were definitely ready for getting out of the car.  The fall colors were beautiful from the window but it can't beat being out on a trail.  And we absolutely got a work out on this hike - there were so many hills!

 

Loved my visit to the Red River Gorge area.  During the hike we talked about doing a backpacking trip as this area would be perfect for that type of adventure.  Maybe.  Either way I hope that we make it back to Lexington to visit more distilleries, do more country road drives, and more hiking at Red River Gorge. 

Next (and last) on our Kentucky getaway are snippets from Louisville.