Photo Stories
The drive up the Pacific Coast Highways is probably on of the biggest perks to living in southern California. One of my favorite activities is planning a getaway and researching new spots to stop and explore along the way. Maybe eventually I’ll share some of my favorite itineraries, but for now here are a few of my favorite captures from my latest escape.
I found this draft post, tagged with photos uploaded and the works scheduled for March 1st... 2017! What is even worse is that these photos were from my trip to Venice in 2013!!! So here they are 5 years later. and although they are not the best quality (yay for improving photography skills) let's just say this post is for closure.
If you have been following along here for a while, you probably know that I love to tack a quick stopover onto my trips to Europe. It's probably my subconscious way of scoping out my next destination! This year the city I spent a few hours exploring was Stockholm. Here are few photos of Gamla stan (old town, or the medieval city center) and what I saw on my way there.
After this sneak preview I cannot wait to return and spend much more time in Stockholm!
Today is the last day of September and it is truly starting to feel like Fall here in NYC. So appropriately, I am going to share some images of a perfect Summer day! Only a couple of weeks ago I was still on vacation in Europe (oh, how it feels like so long ago already!), among our stops in Spain and Portugal was the seaside town of Sitges.
Taking the train from Barcelona was one of the smoothest transits I've experienced in Europe, and the station is a short 10-15 minute walk to the beach. It is worth walking it slowly though, because the buildings and alleyways are filled with beautiful hanging plants and other wonderful gems.
We decided on visiting San Sebastian beach, one of fifteen or so beaches. It was small but not crowded like Barceloneta in Barcelona.
And we packed a couple of sandwiches from a bakery near our airbnb and some fruit for a picnic by the waves. But we were still very tempted to grab a sangria and some paella at one of the many restaurants along the beach.
After hours in the sun and sea, and a bit more wandering the streets (all the while taking in more spectacular views of the water of course), we headed back to the train station. Before we knew it we were back in Barcelona.
All and all a solidly successful beach day. And surprisingly close to to the big city!
I fell in love with Southern California, and it only took a week.
Last month my honey and I took a somewhat impromptu trip to LA. We usually mull over our destinations up to a year a head of time and then spend months planning. Maybe it was because of the tireless winter this year, or the depressing politics wearing away at us, but this trip was different. We decided in early February to get away and we on a flight in March. Let me just say, I could get used to this kind of spontaneity if this is what it produces.
We left California inspired and rejuvenated. And one of my favorite places was El Matador Beach in Malibu. The beach was a bit crowded, and the water freezing cold but nonetheless it was well worth the short drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. Just see for yourself...
More Of California
March has finally arrived and Spring is around the corner, but this has not stopped my MAJOR travel fever for coming on full strength. To satiate my wanderlust (or possibly egg it on!) this Friday photo story is in honor of the beautiful city of Rome, one of the few cities I have visited so far that I could see myself calling a home base one day. Enjoy!
I haven't been up for writing over the past week or so. I have some serious new administration blues that seem to worsen with each press release. So until I get my attitude together and figure out a way to contribute positively I will post about other's beautiful contributions to society! Today I want to share with you a few photos from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco.
Sharing this feels particularly relevant for me considering all of the political actions against the federal science agencies and anyone federally funded in the sciences (especially working on climate change and sustainability). As a climate scientist who relied on federal dollars for all of the research I have ever been involved in I feel the hurt. I hurt because this work, work seeking to help humanity and the most vulnerable communities do not receive significant funding from other sources, certainly not from private one. So this post is dedicated to the determined scientists out there, inspiring hope, art, and a better society for all on a daily basis. We shall resist, we shall overcome.
While at the YBCA I examined in depth Tom Sachs' third Space Program, Europa which ran through the 15th of this month. In the introduction to this work Sachs writes,
In our age of disaffection, the sculptures in this exhibition are also objects of love that support the rituals of studio practice, all things analog, and the handmade. Their meaning is born out of action in time - the original act of their making, and later their use, charges them with purpose beyond art for its own sake.
That's it for my little glimpse into this intricate exhibition and truly hope you get to see some of Sachs "postindustrial mashup of high and low culture" (as he has said) in the future! Save a few hours to if you do, it is very thought provoking and such a spectacle to see.
Situated in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is the de Young Museum of fine arts, known for near panoramic views of the city as stunning as its collections.
On my first day sightseeing in SF my first stop after brunch was to this museum. I was eager to see the beautiful gardens, building and of course artwork and this turned out to be the perfect activity for what was a very chilly morning.
The majority of the museum is contained in just a few floors with wide, geometric galleries that transition one to the next with such ease that I would forget where I was coming from by the time I arrived at the next exhibition.
As a visitor to the city I was very eager to see the views from the museums twisted tower. From the glass walled observation deck I admired the hilly, yet very flat and brightness of San Francisco (a stark contrast to my tall and grey New York).
After admiring the view from above I was eager to see the sculpture garden I have been glimpsing through the gallery windows all morning. From there I could admire the work of architects Herzog and deMueron against the bright blue sky. The sharp geometry of the building and perforated facade created so many dramatic and subtle shadows as we approached midday.
A morning well spent in the company of lovely art, inspiring architecture, and beautiful foliage. What more could I have asked for!
In December I was giving a short talk at a conference in San Francisco for some research I have been involved in (yay! my first oral presentation!!). Since I was already making the trip to the west coast I extended my stay to include the weekend. Here is a tiny taste of what I packed into those two days!
Isn't this city so pretty?! Very different from NYC thats for sure. Look out for my San Francisco weekend guide, I will be posting it later this week!
A couple of years ago I went on my first solo trip around Europe. My last stop was a couple of days in Paris. It poured the entire time but it was incredibly romantic. I saw some of the classic tourist sights such as the River Seine, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Sacre Coeur, and (of course) the Eiffel Tower.
In 2015 my partner and I spent a weekend in Greece to celebrate the union of 2 very lovely people. We arrived in Athens in the wee hours of the morning the day of their wedding and after much celebration late into the night we awoke the next day to take in as much as we could in 24 hours! These are 5 things you absolutely must do when you visit Athens, Greece.
Number 1 (and most important), eat! But don't just eat anywhere, avoid the tourist traps and eat where the locals do. One of our lovely Greek friends guided us to an incredible restaurant near our airbnb. The food was so amazing we didn't manage to take a single picture of it all (probably the truest test of an amazing meal these days)!
Of our many delicious meals our first and most memorable was a spot (I forgot the name of) located at the corner of Kidantidon and Kallisthenous in a neighborhood just west of Filopappos Hill.
Filopappou Hill, also known as Hill of the Muses, is a massive park with beautiful geologic outcroppings, trails for hiking and ancient ruins. A group of us wedding guests, led by our Greek diaspora friend-turned benevolent tour guide, slowly hiked through the park all the way to the Panatheanic Way.
We took in the beautiful scenery that gradually built up our excitement until the Acropolis was finally revealed!
Of course the Acropolis... no trip to Athens is complete without visiting the this rightfully significant spot. The site is home to many structures including the Parthenon, an architectural masterpiece. It is a symbol of democracy, citizenship, and western civilization as we have come to know it today.
Truly the Acropolis is an incredible sight to be seen and even more stunning than I had ever imagined. And the views of Athens cannot be beat!
After seeing the incredible ruins of the Acropolis we went to the beautiful Acropolis Museum for a deeper dive into history and afternoon cocktail. Be sure to schedule enough time here because you can honest spend hours here without realizing it!
And finally Pláka! Pláka is a historic neighborhood in Athens at the easterly base of the Acropolis. You can spend lots of time wandering the maze like streets imaging yourself in ancient times or just shopping around in the many shops that line the footpaths.
Stay for dinner and you may be lucky like us and find yourself a rooftop table with romantic views of the Acropolis and a pink sunset!
Although our time in Athens was short, it surely was memorable and I look forward to returning to Greece and seeing much more of it's capital city soon!
It may be the cool weather or the fact that I can feel the end of 2016 creeping up on us, but I have been nostalgically sifting through old photos lately. During one of my digital strolls down memory lane I stumbled upon my 2013 visit to the beautiful French beach City of Nice.
This sweet French Riviera town was not originally part of my itinerary that year. After visiting friends in London I decided to book and impromptu flight and spend a couple of day on the beach before heading to Italy. While my stay was short it was certainly memorable... maybe 2017 is the year to return..!
When I am not traveling I love to spend my weekends exploring new places around me in NYC. Recently the city had Open House New York (OHNY), and annual event where institutions and businesses open up their doors for exclusive for discounted tours that highlights design and planning around the boroughs (so cool right!?). My partner and I decided to cross over to Brooklyn to tour Kings County Distillery.
Kings County Distillery is the oldest distillery operating in the the 5 boroughs, but that isn’t saying much because it opened in 2010! It was the first post-prohibition era distillery to open up and has become a whiskey lover's favorite. I personally am not a whiskey kind of girl (I much prefer a spicy gin or full bodied glass of wine) but I had gifted my partner a small bottle of the bourbon a year or so ago based on the beautiful look of the bottle. He was immediately smitten.
The distillery is located in Brooklyn’s historic navy yard in the relatively small former paymaster’s building. Because of their artisan small batch roots this is not a problem for the whiskey and moonshine makers. What they lack in volume is more than made up for in quality. Over the course of the tour we learned that the founder, originally from Kentucky, began making moonshine with a roommate after college, and later decided to move their small illegal operation to the navy yard once demand exploded and the FBI caught wind.
We toured the basements where the mash is fermented in open air vats and then made a spirit by the stills. And then went upstairs to where the bourbon is barrel aged in a delicious smelling room. We ended our tour with a tasting of the classic moonshine, seasonal spiced moonshine, classic bourbon, and chocolate whiskey.
In all it was a lovely to see how a product I respect so much is made, and meet some of the people part of that process. It really sparked my desire to learn more about other local products!
I recently went to visit my Grandmother and parents in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Although originally from NYC, I spent most of my childhood growing up there. I always thought of Winston-Salem as home and not a place to discover and explore, but on this trip I recognized that is not so. On this trip I took a few hours with my mother and sister in tow to wander about Reynolda Gardens, a place I know but never really appreciated. That changed on this visit...
Reynolda Gardens is part of the former estate of tabacco magnate and businessman Richard Joshua Reynolds. The grounds were developed in 1906 during a period called the Country House Era where wealthy industrialists would build lavish estates to which they could retreat to for fresh air and relaxation. Now the garden's 129 acres are maintained by Wake Forest University and used for educational and public purposes. While there we strolled though the gardens near the greenhouse (above) and the Reynolda House museum (below), and on my next trip I plan to explore the boathouse and meadows. And as you can see we also took lots of selfies and pictures of the beautiful botanicals!
Just writing this post is exciting me to get back soon and see so much more of that Winston has to offer!
Last year, during a whirlwind Euro-tour, my partner and I spent a few days in the beautiful Barcelona. Him the architect, and me the architecture adorer made the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) our first stop. This modern museum is located at Plaça dels Ángels in El Raval, one of two historic districts adjoining the popular La Rambla neighborhood. Famed architect Richard Meier's largely glass and concrete building was erected in 1995 amongst the old gothic architecture of the neighborhood. The windows allow light to flood the spaces in streams. All in all the art was fine but the building was magnificent...
Ahhh, just so lovely. I mean look at us happy campers!!!
My honey and I just returned from a wonderful week-long trip to Mexico. Neither of us had ever been before so we thought we would make our first trip to the beautiful city of Tulum located on the caribbean side of the Yucatán Peninsula. Here is a first look at and some of my favorite snapshots of this gorgeous locale!
Hasta luego from me and my photogenic cat friend!
For more photos from the trip check out my instagram and #seesoomuchMexico
As a continuation of last month's found photos, I thought I would share some of my favorite Machu Picchu pics. The fact that I got to visit this world heritage sight was a great fortune. When I arrived in Peru in January 2010, the mountain regions were experiencing significant precipitation and thus flooding and landslides. So much so that Machu Picchu was closed to tourists... that is until early April just a week or so before I was set to return to the States. Immediately I booked a tour and made my way to the city of Cusco.
Spring has finally sprung in NYC and yet all I can think about is a getaway. About this time of year two Spring seasons ago my sister and I went on our very first trip together. We went to Costa Rica and it was incredible...
Olivia (above) has always been the wild one out of the two of us. She can be disorganized at times, spontaneous and full of creativity. All the energy she doesn't waste on worrying about things (like having her passport days before our trip) she spends on caring for others and being what everyone who knows her would describe as the most compassionate and amazing friend.
I, on the other hand, worry about everything. I plan and over plan in attempt to make my life smoother, and never learn you can never plan for everything, like forgetting your passport in a hostel safe as I actually did on this trip!
Olivia and I spent about 2 weeks backpacking it in Costa Rica, a rare opportunity that only manifested because we both happened to be in school at the time, her in undergrad and me back for grad school. We landed in San Jose, her from Washington DC and me from NYC, and somehow we met with perfect timing in the passport line despite having no real plan or way to communicate once in country. Once oriented we were off to find our way to what would be an awesome hostel with the nicest people and excellent pancakes.
On our first full day we were eager to get out of the city of San Jose and make it to one of the tropical beaches we'd been adoring online for months. We walked from our hostel to the city center, soaking in the old European-style buildings along the way. We made it to a bus terminal in a seedy part of town that would take us to Puntarenas where we would catch a ferry and continue on to Montezuma.
It wasn't until sundown that we arrived in Montezuma which allowed us to enjoy the most incredible sunset on the water. From there we went door to door until we found a hostel with an available private room to stash our packs while we looked for a dinner spot.
After an incredible seafood platter dinner right on the beach, a couple of drinks and a good nights rest we were ready to explore this small town on the Gulf Coast of the country. We wandered the town and rocky beaches and later decided to "hike" the Montezuma Falls.
What began as a leisurely hike became and intensive climb to the top of four tiered waterfalls. Once at the top we lounged on the rocks and waded a bit until some Italians convinced me to cannonball from a rope swing into the pool of water. Olivia was smart and skipped the swing, but maybe it was my leap that got one of the Italians to invite us their pasta dinner at the hostel next to ours that night.
The following day we took a small tour boat out to Isla Tortuga for a barbecue and snorkeling. The island was small and quiet with the whitest sand and most aquamarine water we had ever seen. We spent the entire day in awe, going to and fro from our shaded spots on the sand to the warm clear water.
The next day we explored some more and enjoyed the beach until it came time to head to our next destination, the Costa Rican rainforest. We spent 2 days in Monteverde where we ate in a treehouse, ziplined across the rainforest canopy and did some much needed laundry. We decided to cut our time there short in exchange for more beach time, this time on the Caribbean coast.
By the time we reached Puerto Viejo Olivia and I were totally in love with Costa Rica and plotting ways to stay forever...
It wasn't until we made the long walk to Punta Uva that we really understood just how magical Costa Rica is. Although said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the country, Punta Uva was relatively desolate the morning we arrived. The beaches were undisturbed and the palms were picture perfect. Olivia and I could barely believe such a place existed.
We spent hours here until our stomachs demanded our attention, and then we made our way back to town. First walking and getting caught in a morning shower, then sharing a cab with hotel-less strangers and finally reaching a roadside cafe of sorts where we shared our meal with an adopted pup of the hour (Costa Rica has so many dogs, we made more canine friends than human ones on this trip!).
Our last days were spent exploring other beaches, Like the black sandy Playa Negra, and the many shops around town until we had to head back to San Jose and ace the inevitable return home.
I somehow envy myself each time I look back on this trip. The places we saw were incredible, but even more so exploring it with my sister is what I truly treasure. We learned so much about one another and relied on each other more than ever before. Naturally, there were a couple of quarrels but far less than I expected! And yet we could have had 10x more fights and it still would have been an amazing trip.
This Summer I chose an extended stopover in Iceland and ventured out for six hours to explore it's largest city, Reykjavik.
Despite the chill in the air, the foreboding clouds, and the fact that my body was still at 1am local time I thoroughly enjoyed the first stop on my European adventure! I am completely inspired to make it back to Iceland soon to see all of the natural wonders it has to offer.
My first priority was breakfast (more so coffee) and I was happy to find Prikid was open and had seats available downstairs. I totally indulged in a breakfast of champions while gazing out of a window with sill lined in old magazines. Prikid has the cluttered charm of a place thats been around for a while, which is why I don't doubt it's claim one bit that it is the oldest restaurant in Reykjavik.
After my belly was full and my body was warm I began my aimless wander. I walked down to the port and over to the famed Harpa Concert Hall (Icelandic Opera). It was so stunning I actually forgot to take many pictures of it! The massive glass structure reminded me of the children's book Rainbow Fish.
My feet also took me to some slightly smaller and less shiny houses as well.
I walked my way back through the heart of town and followed the rainbow-paved road to the iconic cathedral Hallgrimskirkja.
I took the slow elevator up the clock tower and I was stunned by this amazing view of the Icelandic capital.
After admiring the city and a rainy jaunt in a statue garden across from the cathedral, I rushed back to the bus that would shuttle me back to the airport for my next destination, London!
