Unique New York

I'm always proud to call New York my original home, and I can deliver some pretty haughty side-eyes when people assume I'm from Delaware or New Jersey. The Empire State was a wonderful area to sprout roots, learn, and grow. And now every visit leaves my heart feeling full and a little nostalgic.

Here are some photos from my recent visit to the Hudson Valley, including a yoga dad on his birthday and some meditative romps through the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Enjoy!

Home Stretch

It's kind of weird when your mom sells your childhood house and you don't know where to call home anymore, but if she decides to live half of the year on Long Beach Island and the other half in Savannah, GA, you learn to adjust pretty quickly.

It was nice to close out August by visiting a few of my eastern homes. Every year since I moved to Austin, I've had the good fortune to be able to visit the New York/New Jersey area for at least a week at a time. I'm back in Texas now, feeling fortunate to have seen so many wonderful friends and family members.

Let's do what we can to stretch this summer as far as it will go!

How to Pack for a Budget Airline

1. Get one of these:

If you think you need more than this, you don't! Resist your consumer lifestyle urges to pay extra for a carry-on or a checked bag. You chose this airline for a reason! Stuff your backpack to its brim, and bring a clutch for phone, wallet, and boarding pass-type essentials. Or, if you're a menswear wearing person, make the most of your large pocketed jeans and shorts. Maybe throw in a chapstick, if you're going to Denver.

2. Pick two to three bottoms only.

There is some strange, unwritten observance that, whenever we travel, we imagine we'll suddenly start wearing all of the outfits that have been hanging in our closets at home for months. In normal life, do you wear the same pair of jeans many times in a row without washing them? Bring those jeans! Why do we think that when we travel we are going to become miraculously cleaner, fresher versions of ourselves? Unless you're rolling in mud or are a very sweaty sweating machine, you can wear something more than once. Your friends are used to seeing you in the same five outfits, mix 'em, match 'em, and save your space.

3. Choose your shoes.

The heaviest ones go on your feet. If it's summer, pack sandals. If you need sneakers, get some flat folding ones like these. Let your footwear be comfortable and your walks will be plentiful.

4. Have a Kindle. 

Budget flying leaves not much room for books. Reading apps can fit hundreds of them. Choose your battles.

5. Only laptop if you really, REALLY need to.

You are escaping! Stop working! Save your computer activities for low-level days like Monday :( or Tuesday :/. A tiny personal item restriction is a great excuse to be freely traveling without your ties. If you really need it, your phone does many of the same things in a more portable way. If you're traveling a budget airline for a work trip, find a better job.

6. Unlimited underwear.

Have small underwear that can squeeze in any extra space. Remember what I said about sink-washed underwear before, and give yourself this simple luxury.

7. Respect the limits of Ziploc bags.

I don't know the point of toiletry bags other than making me look very put-together and grown up. Many of us are not those things on a regular day, so why choose now to pretend? You'll need the baggie for security, anyway, so fit your toiletries in one and call it a day.

7. Go somewhere cool.

So that you care more about what you're heading towards than what you're bringing with you. Try Colorado. They have a lot of good looking sights to see.

8. Bring some friends.

Maybe they'll share the stuff that you couldn't fit! Remember that all you really need is the unmatched license/passport, credit card, phone combination, and head on your way.

*Note: This process has served me well for 3 to 4, maybe 5-day trips if it's beach weather. If you are budget flying for longer, I respect you and await your tips for the packing.

Lands of Enchantment

If you're a person who thinks ticket prices make it too costly to travel, try buying this $60 tent, packing up your car, and driving over to the next state. You just might find yourself in another world.

Sometimes you can camp for $10. Sometimes you can camp for free. Sometimes it will be too windy to camp and you'll get to sleep in your car, which could have been free, if you hadn't already reserved a campsite.

However you choose to sleep in the great outdoors, get out there! There's a lot to see. 

On Retreat

Lainie's getting married, so we dropped everything and flew over to Denver. After the initial cold and snowy shock to my system, the weekend was otherwise magical. We celebrated a beautiful being and looked pretty good doing so.

Enjoying an adventurous getaway with such fun, positive, lovely women had me wondering why we only rarely find the time to come together like this. What makes us wait until once-in-a-lifetime events happen to gather wonderful groups of ladies (or gentlemen) together?

Let's do it more often.

40 Hours

If you're going to drive from Texas to Georgia, you'd better make sure you've got some entertaining traveling companions on the road and an amazing hostess of a mom waiting for you when you get there. Lucky for me, I was blessed with both, so I was miraculously able to survive the longest car trip of my life. Waking up for school on Tuesday morning was a bit grueling, but enjoying a Spring weekend in Savannah is always worth any amount of hours spent traveling.

A stopover in New Orleans more than satisfied our party requirements for the trip. Apparently the bars never close there? And the next few days in Savannah brought us back to nature. We trapped a snake, viewed alligators from afar, and watched dolphins swim in the sea.

It's hard to beat the beauty of Spanish moss, southern hospitality, and fried chicken paired with mac and cheese. I'm so glad my mom has chosen to make a little home down here.

Chapel Hill

One positive part of growing up is that you might have more friends scattered about in more appealing places, so you can stretch your roaming limits (and budget) further than your younger network may have allowed. My friend Matt is the best kind of faraway friend who will even offer to sleep on the couch and give up their bed to let you rest your weary traveling bones. A gigantic thank you to him for taking me to all of the breweries, wood-fired pizzerias, and string-lit bars that are making Raleigh-Durham the next Austin/Denver/Brooklyn/Place for people who like food trucks and Snapchat. I didn't mind it one bit.

Being in Chapel Hill during spring break offered a time of reflection for me. Back when 16 year old Cori was checking out schools and planning her future, baby blue t-shirts and tar-covered heels were expected to be a major part of it. I did all of the AP-ing and SAT-ing asked of me. I went to their volleyball camp. I bought a lot of blue clothing items. I learned to appreciate vinegar barbecue. But still when the decision mail came, my envelope was disappointingly skinny instead of invitingly thick.

I was devastated and confused. I cried in my room a lot and quickly formulated plans to move in with my uncle so I could apply again as an NC resident. I'm pretty sure my best friend and I forged notes from our parents to skip Chemistry class and eat waffles, because we did that a lot anyway and because there is still nothing like waffles to heal a broken teenage heart. I think I only chose to go to Delaware later on because it had flowers and brick buildings and vaguely resembled UNC.

It was a long while before my focus started to shift. During Fall semester of sophomore year, I remember gathering my printed transfer applications, ready to be filled-in and sent off in the Spring. I was so sure that I knew where I was going and that there had to have been some strange mistake. It took a few years, a trip to Argentina, and a lot of new friends to convince me otherwise. I never ended up sending those transfer applications and I stayed at Delaware for two extra years. Now I only think about Chapel Hill once a year, in March, when I become a short-term college basketball fan.

Walking around the campus during my visit with Matt reminded me the importance of letting go when my thinking mind is so certain that it knows what's best for me. I realize how much we might miss if we try to squeeze our lives into the perfect plans that we've doubtlessly determined for them. Looking back, I can't imagine my path having gone any other way than it has. If I had transferred to North Carolina, I probably never would have met so many of my best friends, checked as many study abroad countries off my list, or become the mostly well-rounded person I am now. Or maybe by some universal magic I would have ended up as the same me in exactly the same place, but I definitely don't think I would have gotten to shake former Vice President Joe Biden's hand.

So I'm sending love to you, hoping you can always find the very, very good no matter how unexpectedly your path seems to be twisting. I believe it's all working itself out.

Easing East

After Nashville, the east coast was calling us back, so we packed up Gillie and hit the road to North Carolina. I was ready to put my National Park annual pass to work once more before its April expiration date, but we found out that the Great Smoky Mountain is free because this. Our visions of long hikes and stretching the legs were cut short by rainy snow, and we only left the car for a few moments to do dog things and snap some photos.

I imagine things were looking very pretty underneath all those clouds. Maybe I didn't pick the ideal time of year for my visit since the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed, too, but that only gives me another reason to go back.

Thank you to the friendly people who took our family portrait. Thank you to the National Park Service for having $80 annual passes. Thank you to Lainie and Warren for wearing my handmade hats.

Next stop, Asheville!

Southeastern Spring

Spring Break happened last week, and as a person who has not had a spring break in some time, I can tell you that it was a miraculous feeling. Spending your hours with 4-8 year olds can be a ton of fun, but I was pretty excited to only interact with humans in my age range for 7 straight days. Not needing to set an alarm was pretty great, too.

The first stop was Nashville, which I knew would be a marvelous place since everyone I've ever met from Tennessee has been of the friendliest and most down-to-earth nature imaginable. Lainie (you already know her) met me at the airport, and her amazing friend Lindsay let us stay in her amazing apartment for the whole weekend.

It was cold[er than Austin], yet sunny, which turned out to be the perfect weather for walking around and snacking on scotcheroos (link warning: very, very addictive), hot chicken, and the most incredible donuts you'll taste in your lifetime.

Anyway, we two-stepped a bit, too, so it must have all evened out.

There's No Place Like...

Thankfully in my summer planning, I saved the most coveted and anticipated destination for last...

New Jersey!

I spent a lovely week beaching, yog-ing, shopping, and eating with my mom, then clicked these heels all the way home to NY to watch my friends get married on top of a mountain. The day was perfect, the ceremony was beautiful, and later on there were sparklers and a bonfire. What (s')more can a girl wish for? Congratulations Cait & Jon!

Thanks to Mom, friends, and my favorite date for an unbeatable week!

7 Parks in 7 Days

On the last two days of our trip, we managed to visit three more National Parks, bringing our total to seven in seven days. What better way to celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service?

Plan your own route here.

Nurtured by Nature

Sometimes when you’re lucky enough to find yourself on a long vacation, you notice that similar things keep happening to you over and over again and, because of them, your vacation tends to take on a certain theme. On our latest road trip adventure, that theme turned out to be the power of Nature to make or break our plans.

We discovered that when we drove along, flying by the seats of our pants, without forcing or timing anything, we would end up seeing unexpected, mesmerizing stuff like this:

Lake Powell, AZ

Beginnings of the Grand Canyon

And whenever we planned, plotted, and Yelped our way into a city, Nature would remind us of her right to step in and throw us a different agenda. We realized this when we were forced to sprint through the second half of our Sedona vortex hike as threatening storm clouds rolled in. And when the list of hip bars and restaurants to visit in Phoenix was cut short when we stepped out the door into the dust storm/thunder/lightning filled night. The next day, flash flooding on the interstate interrupted our quest for the best sopapillas in Albuquerque and kept us pulled over until after the restaurant had closed. And I already told y’all about the forest fires.

Storms in Sedona

During our time in the campgrounds, our bodies learned to adjust to the schedule of the sun. We woke up early, stayed outside all day, started our fire as the sun dipped down, and went to sleep once the cinders settled into ash. We didn’t need much more than the excitement of the changing flames to keep us entertained until bedtime. When we traveled to the bigger cities, we tried to fight this newfound rhythm and go against the flow of things, but Nature had different plans for us. However, she had already let us graciously cool off in our campsite river after a 102 degree day in Zion and given us so many other lovely gifts on the trip, so we weren’t too upset about our updated schedules. Plus we still ate other sopapillas in Albuquerque and our trip to Phoenix was saved by a bomb-a** breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast. Thanks Matt! (Asterisks because I'm pretty sure my mom and her friends make up 90% of the readers of this blog).

Sunrise outside Albuquerque

So, Nature, we dedicate our trip to You. We are feeling more grateful than ever for the constant reminders of your power and our own efforts to bow to you as we sit back and appreciate the way things are meant to be.

Utah, Part III

Summertime camping at popular national parks means the excitement waking up well before you want to, sometimes driving to multiple campgrounds, circling loops of tents, and asking around to find out who is leaving and when. Arriving at the right place at the right time means you'll be able to secure your spot for the night. Luckily most campers are friendly and they'll let you stake your claim to their site while they pack up, or they are park rangers and will let you know which sites have already opened or are about to. We felt very fortunate to be able to camp where we wanted every night without having to wait in huge lines or battle anyone for a section.

We followed B's family's recommendation to enter Zion from the East, which turned out to be excellent advice since you drive from not-Zion into a tunnel, and when you pop out, you're in Zion. It looks a lot like this:

We seemed to be having even more "right place, right time" success because we soon saw a man pulled over taking pictures of bighorn sheep. B had recovered from my moose/branch and bear/deer confusion in Yellowstone, so he agreed to pull over too. I'd finally found the animal that I'd waited the whole trip to see:

We saw another one about 2 minutes later, but it was so still and so close to the road that I thought it was a statue and didn't take any pictures. Note that if you see a very life-like animal in a national park, it's probably not a statue!

Zion was also the first place that I've ever been afraid of heights. Like paralyzed with fear, turn around, I'm not going levels of afraid. We had decided on a hike to Angel's Landing since we found it in a book of the most beautiful hikes in the world. On the way, there were signs reminding us to bring a lot of water and telling people who are afraid of heights that they should reconsider. It was 102 degrees and we are not afraid of heights, so we were more worried about death from dehydration than any height-related nervousness.

No problem. The majority of the hike was like this:

And B was wearing his "Vacation Dad" outfit so I felt very secure.

We got to what we thought was the last segment and it seemed a little scary, mostly because there were a lot of people on the trail headed in opposite directions, but we didn't think at all of turning around or not going to the top. We even took this photo saying, "Ha! Too bad for all those people who are afraid of heights. They don't know what they're missing."

Thennn we got over that hump and saw the real Angel's Landing summit, which features a 2-foot wide ridge trail with 1,000+ foot drop offs on both sides and looks like this:

So I made us turn around and go back down! (Sorry B!) I don't regret it now since we later read that Angel's Landing is one of the deadliest hikes in the world and fit, reasonable people die there just from stumbling or missing a step. Maybe I'm getting old, but when we hiked another of the deadliest hikes (Huayna Picchu), it did not give me the same feelings of terror that this one did. I only took this one photo of the view in my frenzied fearful state:

We descended, avoiding the feisty rock squirrels, to do some more tourism, and I felt ok about it. But if you are a normal, athletic, confident person who wants to do it, Angel's Landing does look pretty cool and you should do it! Otherwise, Zion is a breathtaking place where you can find many other ways to entertain yourself. 

Utah, Part II

Utah's national parks are a world of dreams and magic.

We hiked the Fairyland Loop trail in Bryce Canyon to get a view of the canyons from all angles, and I can't recommend it highly enough. We spent the whole day in a constant state of amazement, and when I walked out of the tent at night to head to the bathroom (squat down at the edge of our campsite), I saw the biggest shooting star of my life. Thank you Utah for your incredible skies and scenery!

Utah, Part I

I didn't have many expectations about visiting Salt Lake City for the first time since I hadn't heard much about it, but the name implied that there would be a lake... probably a salty one, bordering or surrounded by a city. When I dreamt of going there, I imagined taking walks near the lake, watching the sunset over the lake, or maybe even doing a few lake-related activities besides swimming because the stinging of the Dead Sea taught me better than that.

Silly me. We had an Iceland situation on our hands. 

From our pre-trip research, which tended to occur in the last hour of driving before reaching any of our destinations, we learned that the lake is 30-60 minutes outside the city and that people don't go there. Allegedly it's hot, smelly, and full of flies. So we changed our plans and instead climbed up to fancy Park City to eat delicious sandwiches, take pictures with animal statues, and watch the sky turn pink.

Then we went back down to take pictures of LDS buildings and sleep, since a city full of Mormons doesn't offer much in the way of nightlife. On to the next!

WOW-oming!

Phase 3 of the trip brought us to a new state for me and a new phenomenon for both of us: forest fires!

As we crossed into Wyoming, we began to notice a lot of smoke in the air and started to hear gas station gossip about nearby towns being evacuated due to wildfires in the area. We had a "wouldn't it be cool if...?" moment* and, about 10 minutes later, the universe provided. 

*"Wouldn't it be cool if we could see a wildfire up close while we're conveniently protected by our car and far enough away that it won't impact our lives or our travel plans so we can go to Idaho and eat square-shaped ice cream in peace?" It was pretty sobering to see rows of homes about to be eaten by the flames and the firefighters who were in the air spraying water from helicopters or on the ground trying to push the fire back from the road. We felt guilty taking pictures while so many people's lives were being uprooted, but once-in-a-lifetime experiences sometimes call for photos and so we summoned the war photographers in us and proceeded.

While we were busy looking back at that (^), we didn't notice that these were slowly sneaking up on our right:

The Tetons!

The Tetons gave us shelter and an unbelievable view for the night while we entertained ourselves with long hikes in inappropriate footwear. B showed off his fire-building mastery and I cooked dinner on my brand new Coleman 2-burner camp stove, which I would regrettably end up breaking on the second night of camping, but which would be fine since I'm afraid of gas explosions anyway.

Next, we went to Yellowstone and decided to do everything in one day, a decision that was exhausting but one that we still stand by. The stones were really yellow, Old Faithful erupted while we were in the parking lot, and I learned that branches often look like moose antlers and your driving partner can get upset if you call out too many animal photo opps that are actually not.

The Earth was full of hot springs and gurgling pools and was feeling very alive! WOW-oming certainly lived up to B's nickname for it since I don't think we said any words other than amazing, incredible, beautiful, awesome, and long breathless wowww's for most of this phase of the trip. We would have loved some more time to explore, but Utah (and showers) beckoned.

Colors of Colorado

In case you haven't been paying attention, Colorado has been busy making all the other states jealous by having just about EVERYTHING to offer. The whole time we were there, it felt like nature was performing a personal show for us, and she was certainly pulling out all the stops. Making up for all the hours of flatness and windmills of the Northwest Texas drive, we crossed the NM-CO border during this sunset: 

And made our way to Denver to spend a few days with B's sister, Kelsey, who should sign up for AirBnB a.s.a.p. because she is an incredible hostess who makes us feel better than at home every time we visit. Thank you Kelsey! She took us all over the city, and of course, to Red Rocks, the concert venue of all concert venues.

Red Rocks provides enough entertainment in itself that I would see anyone play there, but lucky for us one of the most musical geniuses of all musical geniuses, Sufjan Stevens, came through to knock our socks right off.

Among the red rocks, Father Sky and Mother Earth continued their dazzling dance by giving us this (these) rainbow(s):

After our short stay in the Mile-High City, we headed over to the Higher-Than-Mile City to find out what summer in a ski town is like. I'm sorry to break it to Killington, Mount Snow, Smuggler's Notch, and all of the other East Coast resorts of my youth, but Steamboat Springs is the real deal. Much like the rest of the Colorado, I can really only describe it using superlatives! It was the first time in my life that I wished for summer to immediately turn to winter.

We spent the rest of the week hiking, tubing, eating, and shopping our way around town while enjoying some uninterrupted family time and our 2,000 sq. ft. porch! There were so many more sunsets, more rainbows, and more unforgettable views that we sometimes had to laugh in disbelief.

If you're still not convinced about Colorado's beauty, here is what the backyard of a regular old Chipotle restaurant looks like there:

We were sad to leave on Sunday (and even sadder that our alarms were set for 5 a.m.), but we packed up the car and rolled onwards to see what the rest of the Wild West had waiting for us.

A Wandering Whirlwind

We made it through Colorful Colorado, Wild Wyoming, I-Don't-Know Idaho, Utopic Utah, Astounding Arizona, Not-so-bad New Mexico, and now we're back in TOO BIG Texas! I had my first square ice cream and we learned that dust storms are a real thing to watch out for.

I imagined The Road having a lot more internet than it actually did, so I've got a backlog of adventures to tell you about. To start off, here are some signs from some states:

Hope your Monday was even half as good as an unemployed yogi's spent buried in loads of laundry, grocery goods, and car crumbs!

Namaste.

Happily Home

I've been back in my Austin home for a whole week and it's easy to see why I missed it. Before I pack up and leave again, it's been nice to take the time to appreciate some stillness.

Right now, home means...

This place:

This gardenin' gal:

This musical man:

These life-changing tools:

This ol' thang:

And a whole heck of a lotta these:

We leave tomorrow morning for Colorado, and I can't write you a post about packing since I've barely done that yet! At least my backpack didn't have time to gather any dust. See you soon!

Travel, Behind the Scenes

As glamorous and thrilling as it appears in social media posts, at times in real life, worldwide travel can look a little different. It's not all laughing and playing and feeling #blessed as the pictures would lead you to believe. Sometimes it's boring. Sometimes it's exhausting, scary, or emotional. Even taking a small step outside your comfort zone can leave you feeling a bit raw.

Sometimes "travel", a word we've come to associate with adventure and luxury, means swallowing your pride and sleeping on the floor of the airport for ten hours! Sometimes it means wearing the same pair of socks until you can smell them from outside your shoes! Sometimes it means getting homesick, even though you feel silly since you're only gone for a month and the home you're missing didn't even exist until a few years ago! But it's a feeling and you're having it. It can even mean eating grilled cheese for the 25th day in a row because your host mom is respecting your vegetarianism and you are thankful, but would like a little variety! 

In reality, there are train cancellations, miscommunication, lost suitcases, and layovers. For all the good it brings, travel can also be uncomfortable, confusing, and exasperating. And then, of course, we remember the new places, friendships, and cultures it leads us to, and somehow it all works itself out. Travel can mean so many different things to us, but in my brief 28 years of experience, it has always-- and I mean the every-single-time type of always-- been worth it.