horseshoe bend & antelope canyon.

There’s not a whole lot of adventuring going on these days, so here’s a few throwbacks from a summer road trip to Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon in Arizona!

In a previous post, I wrote about our separate (and totally different) road trips that we took across the country when we moved from Texas to Oregon. These two stops were some of my favorites. So much so that I sometimes bring up to him how much I want to move to Arizona or Utah for a little bit. Maybe one day!

 

Horseshoe Bend, Arizona

I walked around this place for hours. It was so beautiful.

Stayed for a dreamy desert sunset. 💛

Love seeing all the layers.

I never ever imagined having the opportunity to do this trip by myself, and I am so freaking happy I was able to. 💛💛

 

 

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

The trucks you ride in on to get to this place.

There’s a lot more people than I expected!

Compared to the outside temperatures of over 100 degrees, it was so cool and refreshing in these slot canyons.

Do you see the bear?!?

On the tour to get to Antelope, I sat next to this beautiful family. They noticed I was alone and was so incredibly friendly by sticking by my side during this adventure. Very grateful my paths temporarily crossed with these folks. I think I even still have the daughter’s phone number somewhere. Anyway, thanks to these three for their kindness and the memories.

They also took a few photos of me! Hahah

 

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself. Alan Alda

glass gardens by chihuly.

As much as we love disconnecting from everyday life to find ourselves adventuring in the outdoors, we also really enjoy simple dates within the city.

Through all of high school and early college, I was either painting or playing the piano. I love the arts and any chance we get to visit a museum, we gotta do it! In Seattle, there’s the Chihuly glass and garden exhibit that is… mind-blowing. All of the unique blown glass pieces are illuminated to show off the most vibrant colors. Your jaw will drop from how incredibly beautiful it is.

Take a peek below!

This little room with the ceiling of glass pieces and the light coming through them was my favorite!!! There are benches in here so you can sit back and just get lost in the view.

Also, the Native American blanket wall (first photo) you get to see when you enter the exhibit is incredible.

They almost look like enormous clam shells.

He got close, but he didn’t touch!!

Michael takes so many candid photos hahah

Hello, space needle!

 

Also, this is just us enjoying ourselves on a rooftop after our date. 💙

Whether the glass is half empty or half full, you have the power to fill it up. Matshona Dhliwayo

pura vida y amor.

For our honeymoon, we traveled to the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica and it was absolutely magical. Here are some photos & memories:

 

Tamarindo, Costa Rica

Being underwater is magical. We swam through so many schools of fish, saw hundreds of urchins, a few sharks, and so much more.

His first time scuba diving!!

We just sat at the front of the boat, it was incredible! Even a pod of dolphins swam along with us.

S/O to our scuba diving instructor, Remo, for giving us motion sickness pills before our trip because it made this boat ride so much more enjoyable (compared to others who got sick!). Thanks TamaDive!

 

Cala Luna, Costa Rica

Okay, so, I have to separately write about this one-of-a-kind stay. We slept in the “Getaway Suite” and we are STILL dreaming about this place!

🍍 – When we arrived, a fresh fruit cocktail was presented to each of us as well as a warm, essential-oiled towel to wipe our travels away. They took our backpacks straight to our suite.

🌴 – Our place was surrounded by so many trees that it felt like we were in a jungle with the monkeys climbing around ooh-ooh and ah-ing.

💧 – There was a huge walk-in shower with two rainwater shower heads.. need I say more?!

🥑 – The complimentary costa rican breakfast buffet was the best thing ever.

😌 – We also got an outdoor couple’s massage that put us both in such a dreamy, meditative state.

🍹– Every night between 5-6:00pm, there was a free cocktail happy hour on their private beach access. Sunsets, sangria, and rum cocktails with fresh fruit? Heck yes!

Yeah… favorite place we ever stayed at without a doubt.

Our bedroom.

Photo from website because we didn’t take any. Imagine two massage beds here!

The green around our suite was so beautiful.

Complimentary breakfast buffet!

Sunset cocktail happy hour at Cala Luna. GoPro set up made for quick photos!

happy 100th, grand canyon.

In the summer of 2017, I did my first solo road trip from Dallas, TX to Portland, OR. It included the Grand Canyon National Park.

I drove over over 3000 miles in twelve days. I slept in a tent for four days, stayed in a hostel, booked three different Airbnbs (I needed to shower), and slept in my car all of the other days. I’ve never traveled alone, so the idea of doing so for almost two weeks was slightly terrifying. But… it was one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself and I had an absolute blast! I learned how to be resourceful, self-aware, flexible, and most importantly, I learned how to trust myself. I slept in super sketchy areas, but I’m happy I did. Sometimes traveling isn’t always so glamorous, but it still can be a great experience. I know I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. 💛

Michael also had to do his road trip alone because he left for Portland one month before I did, and his road trip was totally different from mine (our maps below!).

Here’s the route of most of the places I visited. ☺️

My general route!

And this is Michael’s general road trip route below.

Michael’s map. 💙

wandering in whistler, bc.

Now this place is a very special to us (it’s where we got engaged)!

true colors in hawaii.

Sharing Michael’s parents first time visiting Hawaii! It made our hearts so happy to hear about their adventures and see their photos. We couldn’t help but share some of them. I seriously cannot get over all of the shades of blue coming off of the sky and the ocean water. It is just something else.

With Michael’s dad, Nick, having stage IV kidney cancer, seeing them take this bucket-list trip is heartwarming. They have gone on so many incredible trips in the last two years. Nick has a huge interest in war history, and he just came back from France visiting WWII sites. So having him get the chance to visit Pearl Harbor with his wife, Kim, was a pretty surreal moment. This trip to Hawaii may have been unexpected, but it turned out to be perfect timing.

I know they’re still exploring Hawaii, but we are so thankful they are still having a romantic trip together. These two have really taught us the value of making every moment count and making the best of any situation. Pretty sure Hawaii is on our travel list next year!

Look at these two cuties! 

pura vida in costa rica.

Could Michael and I just pick up our life and move to Costa Rica?! It sounds like a stretch, but we did look into jobs recently…