a former gymnast with a neverending case of wanderlust
My travels up and down the east coast of the US. Each post is also specifically tagged with the state(s) it takes place in.
During the course of our two days in the Smoky Mountains – in addition to all the hikes I talked about in last week’s post – I managed to check two more state high points off my list. Admittedly, not in the “proper” way. After all, to be a high pointer don’t you have to… Continue reading On Top of: Tennessee & North Carolina
After returning from our three days on the AT, we headed off for the final couple days of our trip in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This was actually a last-minute addition… as my uncle explained in last week’s post, our original plan was for a longer backpacking trip, but that went up in flames… Continue reading Appalachian Adventures, part II: Great Smoky Mountains National Park & the Blue Ridge Parkway
I’ve never been much of a backpacker. I went about 3 times as a kid with my dad but – as you know if you’ve followed me for a while – he and I don’t get along. We never did. The result is that my sister and I wound up hating almost everything he ever… Continue reading Appalachian Adventures, part I: backpacking the Standing Indian Loop in North Carolina
You’d think after so many years together, Pat would know better than to leave me unsupervised with vacation planning. Apparently, he still hasn’t learned that lesson. Or maybe he secretly enjoys when I book things at 10:30pm and then he finds out about it the next morning. This was one of those things. One night… Continue reading Ten Hours in Miami, Florida
A while ago, I wrapped up a seven-part series on the state parks of Connecticut. And while the parks were my most common destinations, I also explored lots of other areas of the state from time to time. So, as somewhat of a wrap-up of the 6 years I spent calling Connecticut home, here's a… Continue reading 25 ways to spend a day in Connecticut
I didn’t used to like beer. At all. But somewhere along the way, as everyone always told me I would, I acquired a taste for it. People keep telling me that about wine, too, but that’s not going so well. But somehow I’ve turned into a total beer person. Pat’s dad and stepmom also enjoy… Continue reading A Taste of Connecticut: Beer Edition
I’d been wanting to make it up Cape Cod since the day I moved to Connecticut, but for some reason it never happened. I did make it part way out once, to approximately the “elbow,” for a bachelorette party. (Ask anyone from New England where something is located on Cape Cod and they’ll hold up… Continue reading Labor Day Weekend at Cape Cod National Seashore
Ask anyone in New England what the most iconic image of New Hampshire is, and they’ll probably say the Old Man of the Mountain. I imagine most of my US readers know what I’m talking about: the giant cliff face that looks like the profile of an old man. This was actually somewhat of an… Continue reading Flume Gorge & the Old Man of the Mountain… sort of – Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire
My mom always enjoys telling the story of how this White Mountains trip came to fruition. The short version is this: a couple days after making the campground reservation, I FaceTimed her to discuss a gift I wanted for my birthday. The camping and our plan to climb Mount Washington came up in conversation and,… Continue reading Exploring the White Mountains
In my quest to summit all the state high points of the northeast, Mount Washington long seemed so out of reach. It was a 4-hour drive from our house, making it too far for a day trip. It was even really too long for a normal weekend trip, considering it takes a whole day to… Continue reading On Top of New England: Mount Washington, New Hampshire
Handstands Around the World 