Tag Archives: travel

City of Trees

It’s been awhile since I’ve published anything here, but I’ve received a lot of requests about life updates, and I thought that this would be a good way to share what’s new.

Greg and I are officially residents of Idaho! While the journey to here and now started long ago, I am going to start with 3 weeks ago – the end of September. My last day of work was September 19, and that was also the day that Greg and I left for a short vacation with my family to Burlington, VT. We drove to Albany, NY on the 19th and then to Burlington on the 20th. We had awesome weather and an amazing time – highlights included biking and walking to everywhere we went, the Burlington Farmers’ Market, August First, Citizen Cider, The Skinny Pancake, biking the Island Line Trail and exploring Red Rocks Park.

*Note: all photos in this post are unedited, straight from my phone 🙂

We drove from Burlington back to Adams County on the 23rd, and then the 24th and 25th were focused solely on packing. We had done a lot of cleaning out prior to the 24th but had nothing actually packed. Those two days consisted of packing all of our belongings from the time we woke up to the time we went to sleep. At the end of the day on the 25th, everything we were taking to Idaho was in one room of our house.

We moved our stuff across the country with UPack. You load all of your stuff into a moving cube, and it is shipped across the country for you. We chose to load and unload our stuff at the trucking terminal rather than at our house because it was the cheaper option. So the 26th was dedicated to loading our UPack. With the help of Greg’s stepdad, we loaded the belongings from the room pictured above into a moving cube. I had some serious doubts about fitting everything in, but we somehow managed to fit nearly everything. Just a few small things had to stay behind. Once we were done, we closed and locked the doors and said goodbye to our stuff for more than a week. The next time we saw it would be in Boise!

After our UPack was loaded, we had 5 days left in Pennsylvania and those were filled with visits and taking care of last minute things. We wanted to get to bed early on the 1st, the day before we left, but that didn’t happen and that was okay. We were up at 4 a.m. on the day we left, the 2nd, and we pulled out of our driveway while it was still dark, at 5:45 a.m. The stars were so bright and clear on the morning that we left, and I sat on our back deck with Forest one last time before we left that morning.

Our first day of driving was our longest, 12 hours of drive time. We drove from Aspers, PA to East Moline, IL. We drove through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois on day one. East Moline is right on the border of Illinois and Iowa – right along the Mississippi River. We arrived at our AirBnb at around 6:30 p.m., settled in with Ivy and Forest and then ate delicious Mexican take-out from a spot we found once we got there – Adolphs. The drive went by pretty quickly on day one, even though it was the least scenic and longest day. We had packed our coffee, breakfast and lunch for each day in a cooler in the car, which worked out so well and enabled our stops to be super quick.

Anyone who had talked with me before the move knows that I was nervous about how Forest and Ivy would do in the car. Traditionally, Forest doesn’t settle down during car rides and Ivy just doesn’t do them, so to put them in a completely packed up car for 12 hours had me a bit nervous. Well – not only did it go better than expected, it actually went incredibly well! Ivy actually seemed to enjoy it, so much so that we joked that we would take him for rides just for fun from now on. And Forest was such a trooper for being cooped up for so long. We could not have been happier with how they did. 🙂

Day two was another early day – we were all packed up and on the road by 5:45 a.m. We drove from East Moline to Cheyenne, WY. The drive was again not that scenic until we reached western Nebraska. The landscape became beautiful in western Nebraska which was a welcome sight. We arrived in Cheyenne at around 5:30 p.m. Our AirBnb was about 10 minutes outside of the city of Cheyenne and we had the most gorgeous view of the sunset. We got Forest and Ivy settled into the space, and then Greg and I drove into the town to pick up Thai takeout. The town was adorable and I would like to visit again someday for sure.

Day three was our final day! We were on the road again at 5:45 a.m., but with a quick stop for hot coffee for our drive. We had packed cold brew in our cooler, but with temperatures in the 30’s in Cheyenne when we left, we were craving some hot coffee to start our trip. The sunrise and drive through Wyoming was incredible. We took so many photos and videos out the window and could not stop commenting on how gorgeous the scenery was. Wyoming is a beautiful state, and it just got better and better as we drove through northern Utah.

We were so excited when we crossed into Idaho and the drive from the border to Boise seemed like it took forever just because we were so ready to get there. We drove through some pretty heavy rain in southern Idaho, but we were greeted by a beautifully sunny day when we pulled into our apartment complex at about 5:30 p.m.

Not only did we not see our apartment before moving in, we had never been to Idaho at all. We knew that the moment we first saw our apartment would be exciting, and it was, and it was also a super pleasant surprise. We are so grateful that we loved the space as soon as we saw it.

We arrived in Boise on Friday, October 4, and wouldn’t be unpacking our UPack until Monday, so we had a pretty empty apartment for the first few days. Once Monday came, Greg and I were up super early to get to our UPack, drive our stuff to our apartment and haul everything up the three flights of stairs. It was a long day and we were spent at the end of it, but we were so happy to have our stuff and be able to start making our apartment our home.

We’ve been in Boise – the City of Trees – for a week now and we are absolutely loving it. We love our apartment and it’s location within the city, and the city itself is amazing. We are able to get on our bikes at our apartment and go anywhere we need to go. We’ve been hiking, mountain biking, gone to farmers’ markets, coffee shops, a brewery and all of the grocery stores. All of that is bike-able or walk-able from out apartment and I love that lifestyle. Boise has a paved commuter trail that runs the entire way around the city and we are ale to hop on that right from our apartment complex – either on our bikes or with Forest for a walk. The scenery is incredible every where you look.

We can’t wait to see what is in store for us in the City of Trees!

Nourishment Lately – Sedona

2 Replies

Sedona was beyond nourishing. I have never visited a place that had quite the effect on my being, and a week after returning, I’m still reflecting on what that effect was/is. One thing I’ve mustered: I need to work on recreating the feeling that I had there, here. The calmness, the energy, the centeredness.

I know that it’s easy to feel calmer and happier on vacation, away from any stressors at home, but this was different. I knew that I’d love being somewhere new, I knew I’d love the hiking and biking and sunshine and exploration. But I didn’t know I’d leave Sedona and come home feeling the way that I do about it. I didn’t know that I’d feel such a draw to go back, as soon as possible. I didn’t know that the very night I got back from the trip, I’d be sitting on my couch searching Airbnb for Sedona rentals. I didn’t know that I’d refer to Sedona as my favorite place.

I think it was the air, the sunshine, the lifestyle, the energy. Sedona is my soul-place.

Although Greg and I hiked (and biked) every day while there, I only took my camera out one time. Here is what we saw:

sed

Nourishment Lately – Florida

Lexington

DC: The Last of Day Two + Day Three

2 Replies

The time has finally come. This will be my last post chronicling my family’s trip to Washington, D.C. over a month ago! While I enjoy looking back at the photos, I would say that the time has come to wrap up the DC posts. To see my previous posts, click here, here, here and here.

The end of day two was spent walking to Georgetown. It was quite the trek, but worth it, in my opinion. The sights were lovely, especially with the sun setting along our walk. We passed George Washington University and the Watergate Hotel.

We stopped at a boardwalk area, right along the water, where people were enjoying the sunset at outdoors bars, despite it being slightly chilly. That area was beautiful, as you will see in the photos. There were several boats on the water and the sun was too picturesque. Greg and I talk about going back to that part of Georgetown this summer, sitting outside for some food and drink while enjoying the weather.

In Georgetown, as I talked about before, we made a stop at Baked and Wired for some sweet treats. We then walked up and down the streets, taking in the busy nightlife. The streets were packed the night we were there, but that did not stop us from enjoying our time there. Just after dark, the group decided to be done for the day. We hopped on a bus and then a metro line to make our way back for pizza then games and beer at the hotel.

Day three was our final day. We spent it in Old Town Alexandria. We also stayed in Alexandria, but a much newer part. Old Town is just charming. It is beautiful. I could have spent days there. The cutest shops, desirable restaurants and bars and again, a waterfront area. This is another place Greg and I would like to make it back to, soon.

We visited the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The Torpedo Factory was in fact a torpedo factory during World War I. Now, it is home to artists galleries and workshops. It is open to the public and also has a little cafe in it. We spent a fair amount of time there, and Greg and I feel that we could spend an entire day browsing all of the beautiful artwork. Definitely a must-see in Alexandria if you are in to unique, authentically made artwork.

We ate lunch at The Fish Market where I had crab stuffed avocados (yum!) and “The Port City Po Boy.” It was an open faced po’ boy sandwich with fried oysters, shrimp and crawfish. In complete honesty, I would not order the sandwich again. The seafood was too fried for my taste and I would have liked more veggie toppings. Overall, however, I would go back to The Fish Market in a second! Great atmosphere, and other than my choice for me, great food!

Our time in Alexandria ended with a stop at Lavender Moon Cupcakery. The first thing that drew me to the place was the name. Love it. And the cupcakes did not disappoint. At Lavender Moon, I tried a strawberry cupcake and Meyer lemon lavender cupcake. The strawberry cupcake was my favorite. It reminded me of strawberries and cream. Another great cupcake spot in DC!

We were sad to leave DC, but we are excited for the next trip. There are so many things to do in the DC area, I could go a thousand times and never get sick of it!

Please enjoy, the last of the DC photos.