Musée d'Orsay Wow. Just - wow. The Orsay covers mid-19th century to early 20th century, and simply has so many masterpieces. We visited on Thursday evening when they are open late until 9:45p, and...
Blog posts from International Travel
Paris 2017: Château de Fontainebleau
We decided to skip the uber-famous Versailles in favor of Fontainebleau in the hopes of much smaller crowds, and it worked out well for us. The trickiest part may have been figuring out the trains...
Paris 2017: introduction
In February 2017 I had an important decision to make - should I share a good deal ($385) on flights from Raleigh to Paris with Leandra? If I did, it would mean returning, and while it was nice...
Canadian Rockies: Yoho Valley Trail
On Wednesday morning we still hadn't heard any good news from our house-sitter, but once again, I figured someone had found Riesling and would bring her into a local vet's office or the shelter. She...
Canadian Rockies: Stanley Glacier + Silverton Falls
We had a later start on Tuesday, as I was starting to get stuffed up. Fun fact: You don't need to speak to a pharmacist to purchase pseudoephedrine in Alberta! We drove back to Kootenay NP to hike...
Canadian Rockies: Moraine Lake, Consolation Lakes, Marble Canyon + Paint Pots
Going to bed early the night before allowed us to wake up before dawn on Monday to get to the Moraine Lake area at sunrise... along with a hundred other people! Our planning paid off though because...
Canadian Rockies: Johnston Canyon, Lake Minnewanka + Johnson Lake
A few of the hikes we wanted to do involved beating many of the other park patrons to a parking lot, so we found ourselves up with the sun to drive to Johnston Canyon on Sunday morning. After a...
Canadian Rockies: Sundance Canyon hike + seeing old friends
We landed late into Calgary and had to wait a bit for the shuttle van to the hotel but the welcome sign was cheerful! Woke up early to meet our friends Jay & Anne who drove us to our rental car...
Scotland 2017: layover in London
What to do with a half day in London? How about enjoying art, beer, and a show? We started at one of our favorite museums, the National Gallery. Leandra hadn't seen Cagnacci's Repentant Magdalene (a...
Scotland 2017: Spirit of Speyside day 2
For our last day in Scotland we mixed several Spirit of Speyside events along with some drives and hikes through the beautiful countryside. I started off the morning with a photo session of the...
Scotland 2017: Spirit of Speyside day 1
The Spirit of Speyside event registration opened right after our return from Malaysia. A few days before that we went through the events available for Saturday and Sunday and made a prioritized...
Scotland 2017: Exploring the Highlands
Our second day in Scotland involved lots of driving, several waterfalls, one particularly rainy hike, and a few drams of whisky (naturally). We headed north out of Inverness along the A835 to Rogie...
Scotland 2017: Loch Ness
Upon landing and waiting for the rental car, the weather changed multiple times... sunny, pouring rain, cloudy, back to sun, etc. So, welcome to Scotland! We were waiting behind a couple who were...
Scotland 2017: waterfalls and whisky!
Back in late November, whilst enjoying the end of a warm day in New Zealand, we discovered some great deals to the UK. After some discussion we booked two trips, one to London in February, and a...
Italy 2017: Vatican Museums
From our research we knew that the Vatican Museums were going to be an epic undertaking. To make sure to see all of the most interesting bits before our feet gave out we planned out a route in...
Italy 2017: Palatine Hill, Roman Forum, and Colosseum
One ticket gets you into the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the landmark Colosseum, so we spent the better part of a day exploring the ruins. We took a (rather jarring) bus ride that dropped us off...
Italy 2017: food & drink in Rome
Sunday Looking for a late lunch, we quizzed our hotel guy for options nearby. One of his recommendations was Lo Zozzone, hidden in an alleyway off a tourist restaurant street. There were many...
Italy 2017: exploring Rome
Sunday The quick 1.5 hour train ride from Florence to Rome was fairly uneventful. It took us a few tries to find the subway entrance from Termini as it wasn't well marked and a few entrances to the...
Our Itinerary
2025 Trips
Tampa Bay, FL (Jan)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (Feb)
Villa la Angostura, Argentina (Feb)
Bariloche, Argentina (Feb)
Iguazu Falls, Argentina + Brazil (Feb)
Miami, FL (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Mar)
Boston, MA (Apr)
Kathmandu, Nepal (May)
Bhutan (May)
Slovenia (Sep)
Treviso, Italy (Sep)
Bologna, Italy (Sep)
Turin, Italy (Oct)
2024 Trips
San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Puglia, Italy (Sept)
Matera, Italy (Oct)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Mosel Valley, Germany (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
London + Manchester, UK (Dec)
2023 Trips
San Diego (Jan)
Orlando (Feb)
Richmond, VA (Apr)
Northern Italy (Apr)
NC Mountains (May)
Long Island (Jul)
Wisconsin (Aug)
Chicago (Aug)
Oak Island, NC (Sept)
Brooklyn, NY (Sept)
Bordeaux + Rugby World Cup (Sep)
Castilla y León (Sep)
Seychelles (Nov)
Willamette Valley (Dec)