travel

Exploring DC

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Nate and I decided in early October that we wanted to do a November weekend trip somewhere! We first considered the Adirondack’s, but decided it would be way too cold all the way up there 🙂 So we picked DC! We had visited DC together once before during the summer of 2013, which was my first time there. I love it the first time, so I was super excited to have more time to explore!

I scoured Airbnb for a nice place that wasn’t too far from the attractions (aka: museums). We ended up renting a small row apartment in Capitol Hill and LOVED it. The apartment itself was really nice, and the neighborhood was even better. Super cute and walkable to a lot of restaurants!

Our flight got us into DC around noon and we spent the next few hours walking to and exploring the monuments. Since we were only in town for 3.5 days, we had both brought small duffles, so walking around with them wasn’t bad. It was a super windy day and we took a lot of selfies. Also, my life-long (I’m exaggerating) dream of touching Lincoln’s boot at the Lincoln Memorial was squashed when I realized it’s not even remotely possible to do that. I don’t know where I got that notion. Nate made fun of me the entire trip for it 😉

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We spent time catching up with our long-time friends, Kait and Logan. Together we explored the Museum of Natural History for an afternoon – my favorite exhibit is the jewels and rocks. So sparkly. 🙂 Being locals, K+L suggested a delicious lunch spot called Ted’s Bulletin where we all ate a great meal (and tried to finish pieces of chocolate cake the size of our heads!).

Wait ANOTHER favorite part (ok, I just really liked this trip!) was the National Postal Museum! I love stamps. Like a lot. I just didn’t know HOW much until I was in a huge room full of thousands of old, historic, gorgeous stamps! I loved seeing the design through the ages and learning about all the history behind them. I maybe was so overwhelmed with happiness that I had to hold back tears. Stop making fun of me.

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Ok, but the Library of Congress blew my mind! It was the mosaic floors that really got me. Full walls and ceilings and floors of mosaic had me wandering off from our tour to admire! (Nate listened to the tour guide and told me all the important stuff later) But seriously, this building was gorgeous and I was mesmerized by all the inspiring art in the form of crushed up stone and glass. I was in mosaic heaven – mostly because it reminded me of Barcelona, one of my favorite places.

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We also hit up the National Gallery, Freer Gallery of Art, the Eastern Market and went to the top of the Washington Monument. Needless to say, we like DC a lot.

Stephanie

P.S. I don’t recommend breaking in new Converse on a trip when you walk between 15 and 20 thousand steps a day. :/

I’m the King of New York

- Stephanie Leave a comment

(Title is from a Newsies song.. it’s the only thing I can think of when I think about New York City. This has also resulted in me listening to the whole soundtrack while I write this post. It’s fine. I’m not a nerd.)

Last weekend I went to New York! And last weekend I ate my way through New York! But I also visited some friends along the way 🙂 My lovely friend lovely Kelsey (of Tickle Me Pink blog) was gracious to let me stay with her in her cute apartment and show me around the city!

I loved exploring the West Village and the Meatpacking district and hitting all the cute spots. I fell deeply and madly in love with the Chelsea Market and all their trendy, healthy, maker-type businesses that fill the old mill building. Of course I didn’t take a photo because I was living in the moment, but one of the stores I found fascinating was Artist and Fleas, a collective of over 30 crafters and makers in the city!

We went to a ton of great food spots so I wanted to share them! I didn’t take photos at every place we ate, because again, trying to live in the moment, slash some of them had bad lighting. Here’s where we ate, what I ate, and my rating out of 5 stars (because I’m obviously a food blogger, not.)

Friday Dinner: Quarter – the quarter burger with fries – 5 stars
Saturday Breakfast: Murray’s Bagels – pumpernickel bagel with maple walnut cream cheese – 4 stars
Saturday Lunch: Meme Mediterranean – chicken chopped salad and hummus with falafel – 5 stars
Saturday Dinner: Blue Ribbon Sushi – shrimp tempura and spicy crab rolls – 4 stars
Sunday Brunch: Bubby’s (High Line) – bubby’s breakfast – 4 stars

So pretty much Kelsey took me to all the best places and now I’m eating salad for 3 weeks to make up for it 😉 😉 jkjk.

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This trip made me remember why I <3 NY. Did you know, I was dead set on moving there after college graduation, but a silly/cute boy named Nate convinced me to move to Boston instead. 🙂 I wouldn’t change it, but I’m definitely excited to plan another weekend trip to New York in the fall!

<3 S

Weekend on the Cape

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Last weekend Nate and I gathered up all our campiest camping gear (aka: we went to Walmart and bought new sleeping bags because we didn’t own any) and drove down to the Cape with two of our college friends. We really wanted to stay at a campsite to get the not-so-typical Cape Cod experience. After a bit of research we landed on Sippewissett Campgrounds in Falmouth, MA. The fun part about this campground is that they have huge tipis you can rent that fit 6 people! So we didn’t even need to pitch a tent (good thing, because we don’t own one 😉 )

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Our friends ARE actually avid campers, so they saved our butts on a lot of the things we needed to make this camping trip successful. We even made our meals over the fire! If you’re going camping soon, don’t forget a tightly-close-able trash bag, extra towels, water bottles, mouth wash and baby wipes. They’ll all come in handy, I promise. 😉

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We lounged at Old Silver Beach for an afternoon. It sprinkled a little bit, and Nate had to fend off seagulls from stealing our bag of cherries, but other than that it was enjoyable. We stopped by the Nobska Lighthouse on a foggy morning and did a little exploring. This view is what I always imagine all of Cape Cod to look like. I kind of want to paint it!

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And if you’re ever in Woods Hole (like, if you ever wait for the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard), definitely stop by Pie in the Sky cafe. We went twice! I had a chai latte and an iced coffee; both were very good! On a different note, I can’t believe it’s the middle of July already! Summer is flying!

Cape Cod Summer - Letters from Rita_0017~Stephanie