The Perfect Cross-Country Road Trip (Part 1)

Who doesn't love road trips?! Fifteen-hour car rides through miles of corn fields, forests, and deserts, eating Twinkies and watching Monsters Inc. way too many times are some of my best childhood memories. Although commercial airlines are nice to get you from point A to point B quickly, I think there is a lot to say for driving; driving exposes you to parts of the country you would likely not ever see if not for road trips and is kind of like a vacation on the way to a vacation! One thing that has been on my bucket list for years is taking a huge road trip across the US, so this post I will be highlighting some of the places I would love to stop by.

1) San Diego
In my dream road trip, I would start off in the lovely San Diego. San Diego is pretty dang close to being the southwestern-most (is that a word?) point in the US, so it gives you the opportunity to maximize the amount of the country you can see. From San Diego, I would rent a convertible (preferably blue, of course) and drive up the California coast. I actually did this for about 100 miles with my mom in 7th grade, and it was gorgeous, so I definitely want to try again to get as much of the coast in as possible.

How fricking gorgeous does that drive look?
Image Courtesy of: Federal Highway Administration

1.5) San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo is one of the cutest towns I have ever been to, so on my trip up the coast, I would be sure to make a stop here and maybe stay in a B&B for a night or two.

2) San Francisco
As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I LOVE San Francisco. This wonderful city would be the next stop in my dream road trip. I mean, who's gonna drive all the way up the California coast and miss out on San Francisco?! I would be sure to stock up on peace, tea, and killer Asian food for the rest of my road trip here, too.

3) Yosemite
I have vague memories of visiting Yosemite as a little kid, but I can remember absolutely loving it (probably because we went with my first grade boyfriend)! Yosemite is gorgeous and I would definitely want to spend a while camping here on my road trip. (Fun fact: My parents got married in Yosemite, and that is how I got my name, cuz it's in the Sierras, get it?).

My sister and I road-tripping to Yosemite whilst trying
to pull out my tooth. We were weird children.

4) Portland
Next stop on my dream U.S. road trip would be the lovely little city of Portland, OR. You don't ever want to pass up Portland, with all of its food trucks, bookstores, and bearded guys!

5) Seattle
After Portland, I would head over to Seattle. I haven't been to Seattle for a while, but I would love to visit while taking my road. Maybe I'll take a ferry over to Orcas Island, one day, too.

6) Somewhere Nature-y
For the past few months, I have been dying to go on a hike in Montana. I don't know why; I've never even been to Montana and I kind of hate hiking, but I've had this vision in my head of me hiking somewhere all nature-y in Montana, so maybe I'll hit up Yellowstone or Glacier National Park on my road trip, as well!

Hopefully, this can be me one day... if I don't have an
asthma attack or get eaten by a grizzly bear on the way up there!
Image Courtesy of: All Trips Missoula

So this pretty much covers the West coast portion of my dream road trip, so next post we'll head over to the East coast and finish there!

Straya Mate!

So this past week, I have been informally polling my friends, getting their opinions on where I should do my next blog post on (since I was kinda running low on ideas), and it appears that the majority of them think I need a post on Australia, so guess what this post's about? If you guessed Timbuktu, you're wrong. It's Australia.

I have to admit, I honestly have never given much thought to a vacation in Australia (probably because I always just associated it with crocodile wrestlers and violent kangaroos), but after thinking about it over the past few days, it actually sounds kind of fun! The first thing I would want to do in Australia is visit Sydney Harbor, where a lot of the really well-known things in Sydney, like the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge, Botanic Gardens, and ferries are. I've kind of had a thing for harbors and sailboats ever since I visited Baltimore's Inner Harbor this summer, so I would definitely want to see Sydney's harbor if I ever get the chance to visit.

An aerial view of Sydney Harbor.
Image Courtesy of: Wikipedia

Since the first time I watched Nemo however many centuries ago, I have had the life goal of finding the real life 42 Wallaby Way Sydney. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, you really need to waste more of your life watching Disney movies. I would have no problem spending an entire in Sydney looking for this address. Unfortunately, however, the prospects of me actually finding this address are looking slim, based on my search on Google Maps; it comes up with a map of Utah, so that's always promising!

This movie is honestly my life!

Video Courtesy of: YouTube

Another thing I would want to do in Australia is visit Tasmania, an island off the coast of the Australian mainland. Because Australia was more separated from other continents as they broke away from Pangaea, they have a lot of really weird animal life that is not found on other continents, and Tasmania is kind of like weirdness of most of Australia x 10. They have (well, had, because some of them are extinct now) these weird Tasmanian tigers, Tasmanian devils, these big poisonous lizard-dragon things that I saw on Animal Planet once, and more! I would definitely want to see as many weird Tasmanian animals as I could while in Australia.

Look at that cool Tasmanian tiger! Too bad they are extinct :(
Image Courtesy of: Daily Mail

Finally, while in Australia, I would like to creep on hot guys and hear them talk. I think it is unanimously agreed that Australian is the hottest accent (although I have some friends who would argue that Portuguese is), so if I ever get to go to Australia, I would be sure to shut up enough to hear my fair share of Australian accents. While at my nerd camp this summer, my roommate's best friend was from Australia, and I loved her accent so much that every time she would come into our room, I would turn off my music just to hear her talk!

Are you guys going anywhere fun over Spring Break? Let me know if you are; I'd love to know where people are going to be visiting!

Netherlands: The Beautiful Country

I am currently in the middle of reading John Green's The Fault in Our Stars for my English class, and right now I'm at the part where Augustus and Hazel are visiting Amsterdam, and I have to say, it sounds like a pretty cool city. I have always wanted to visit the Netherlands, with its wooden shoes, and underground-ness, and weird language and all, so this week's blog post is featuring one of my top dream travel destinations of all times: the Netherlands.

One thing I would want to do when visiting the Netherlands is visit Keukenhof, which is the world's second largest flower garden (second only to some flower garden in Dubai, and we all know Dubai is a show-off). The Dutch are well-known for their flowers, especially their tulips, so a trip to the Netherlands without flowers is no trip to the Netherlands at all! Keukenhof is home to nearly eighty acres of flowers (that's seven million flowers total!) and a seventeenth century castle, as well. I would love to visit such a gorgeous place, but I might O.D. on Zyrtec, considering I have pretty bad pollen allergies. But YOLO (if it's still cool to say that).

Doesn't it look like it could be the set
for Sleeping Beauty or something?
Image Courtesy of: World For Travel

Another thing I would want to do in the Netherlands is take a canal cruise in Amsterdam. I know this is probably on the list the most touristy, cliché things you could possibly do in the Netherlands, but I don't care; boats are cool. Taking a canal cruise would be a great way to take in all of Amsterdam's gorgeous architecture and the night lights of the city once the sun goes down. Plus, some of the cruises supposedly have really nice food, and you can't really ever go wrong with that!

A cruise boat in one of Amsterdam's canals.
Image Courtesy of: Carnival

While visiting the Netherlands, I would love to go to De Efteling, a theme park in Kaatsheuvel. Anyone who knows me really well knows that I love theme parks (minus all of the germy, whiny kids and the unbelievable number of Big Gulp cups scattered throughout the park, of course). De Efteling is kind of like Disney with a Dutch twist; it's fantasy-themed and looks like it just came out of Grimm's Fairy Tales. It has a lot of really neat-looking rides, including a water coaster, a bobsled ride (!!!), and a tow boat ride that I would definitely want to try.

The Flying Dutchman water coaster at De Efteling
Image Courtesy of: Theme Park Review

Finally, I would want to visit Oude Kerk, the oldest building in Amsterdam. Oude Kerk was (and still is) a Calvinist church in the Red Light District. Interestingly enough, its patron saint was St. Nicholas, as in Santa! But I think the most astonishing thing about this building is simply its age and history. It's crazy to think about all of the people who walked in and out of this building over the past eight hundred years, and think about who they were and what their life was like.

Oude Kerk in Amsterdam.
Image Courtesy of: Netherlands Tourism