the Dominican Republic

On my last day in the Dominican Republic, I woke up early and snapped a few shots on the quiet beach so that, on nights like tonight when I'm hunting down sweatshirts and drinking hot tea to fight the chill, I can torture myself with memories of the sun and sand.

I am looking forward to returning to New York tomorrow, but I am not looking forward to braving the cold, that's for sure.

Sonia & Jordan's Wedding Fire Show | Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Alternate title:

More proof that my friends are badasses.

Not only did Sonia & Jordan get married in paradise, but after the gorgeous ceremony and the delicious dinner and the dancing and the general merriment had by all, we were escorted out to the beach to view a fire show.  A FIRE SHOW.  Who does that?  MY FRIENDS, that's who!  And then they stand around looking glamorous, making out and smoking cigars casually while fire dancers galavant around them and we all look on in amazement.  Can you tell by the shrieks of glee that we were all pretty excited about it?  Was that a coyote I heard?

Yep, my friends are awesome.

Home!

for a few days, anyway.

Europe 2012 (in feet)

My friends and I have a habit of taking pictures of our feet - I know, something so unusual for twenty-something year old girls.  Here are our feet across four countries.  We even got Moritz to participate in a few :) And by the way, how awesome is it that our outfits and shoes stick with the same color palette throughout the duration of our three week trip?  Great minds :)

We got caught in a (freezing) rain storm toward the end of our trip, so we ducked into a salon to ensure our feet photos stayed cute ;)

en route: Dominican Republic

trading in this New York weather for some caribbean sun.
See yaa!

I will not have phone or computer access while I'm away.  All messages will receive a response upon my return next week.

San Francisco in Snapshots.

I purposely planned my trip out west to be a lengthy one.  I got to see my friends in Los Angeles, road trip through one of my favorite places (bonus points for lack of cell service!) and it all ended with shooting a beautiful wedding of two really cool people.  Between the road trip and the wedding, I scheduled some down time to wander around San Francisco and hang with Camilla.  We had so much fun.  Going through these photos makes me really miss San Francisco.  I want to go back, like, now.

Highlights included:

• Showing up on pizza night.  Girl makes good pizza.  And I know good pizza.
• Finally meeting Damir!
• Pizza at Gioia.  And, you know, learning how to eat a pizza like a New Yorker.  Thanks, Gioia.
• Finally meeting Claire!
• Spending the afternoon at a dive bar being ridiculous and playing pool.
• Meeting Graham!
• Playing beer pong, having dance parties and watching the vice-presidential debate (most fun I've ever had watching a debate, letmetellyou).
• Having drinks at the Tonga(aaaaaaaa) Room in the Fairmont.
• Camilla talking our way up to the penthouse where she and Damir were married.  Getting the full tour, complete with all of the great stories from the day.  
• Delicious brunches with exploding ketchup bottles.
• A walk through "the dark forest" which sounds (and looks) like something straight out of Harry Potter.  That place is pure magic.
• Humphry Slocombe.  Did I mention that already?
• Chatting with Jody while staring at the incredible view from her living room.
• Walking into my hotel room on Friday night to discover all of those windows.  And that view.  And the sunset.  Hello, room service?
• Not being the only one with a camera permanently attached to my face :)

Until we meet again, San Francisco.  And soon, I hope.

Amsterdam is for pancakes.

We left Bruges and traveled by train to Amsterdam.  We had booked a hotel, but aside from the address, we had no idea where it was.  We approached a man in a very official looking uniform and asked him sheepishly if he spoke English.  Yes! He told us impatiently.  We showed him the address of our hotel and asked him if we should get a taxi.  He glanced down at the paper in Katrina's hand.  Ahh! He said.  Go outside and wait for the 5 tram.  Get on board and get off at the fifth stop.  That is where you will find your hotel.  Thank you! We smiled, putting our backpacks back on.  We rolled our roller bags out front and I laughed as my camera bag, heavy with that stupid video light (I actually really love it), went topsy turvy on the cobblestone streets.  Well this is fun! I joked.

We found the 5 tram and climbed aboard, counting the stops as we went along.  Amsterdam looked so lovely through the tram window, with it's canals and bicycles and cobblestone.  So quaint.  So cozy.

We got off at the fifth stop, Keizergracht, and started looking for Sebastian's at number 15.  We stood with our bags, staring at the doors in front of us.  We looked at each other.  Was this some sort of weird Amsterdam thing?  Did they number the doors differently than they do in the US?  Did their numbers go in a different order?  Now let me just stop right here and say that we are not idiots.  Katrina "I got a perfect score on my math SATs" and me "full academic scholarship" were perfectly capable of seeing the situation logically, but when we don't like the situation and the situation has the capability of really, really pissing us off, we will entertain the unlikely possibilities - really any possibility that would make the number 514 on the door in front of us closer to the number 15 on the door of our hotel.  Any possibility that would mean we didn't have to walk for miles with multiple wobbly roller bags on a cobblestone street, dodging cyclists (ding, ding! ding, ding! ding, ding! YEAH WE GET IT!). We were exhausted.  We were hungry.  Every bar we passed made me want to cry a little.

When we finally made it to the hotel, the sweet dutchman at the front desk showed us a map of our route.  As it turns out, our hotel was a short three block walk from the train station, where we started.

As frustrating as that long walk was, it's a great example of why Katrina and I travel so well together.  We laugh through our frustrations.  We're quiet when we need to be quiet.  We don't pry.  And when it's all over, we spend a good half hour in our bright orange hotel room laughing about it until we find a giant dragonfly and try to catch it.  Turns out, dragonflies up close really creep me out.  Gross.

Other highlights of Amsterdam included:

• The Ann Frank House.
• Puff Pancakes (omfg so delicious).
• quiet coffees on cafe patios.
• renting bikes.
• fun interiors stores.
• cheese shops.
• the Flower Market.
• the Red Light District (sparks some pretty interesting conversations, let me tell you).

We also got Mexican food that night.  I know that's something you're probably not supposed to do in Amsterdam, but it wasn't so bad.  We ordered guacamole as an appetizer, though, and they gave us a dish the size of a shot glass.  It was the most pitiful guacamole I've ever seen.  Of course, had I sampled puff pancakes earlier in our stay, I probably would have refused to eat anything else while I was there.  I'm not kidding.  Give me some pancakes.

This is what happens when we are respectively told to pose for pictures.  I'm really good at it, y'all.

After a week together, Katrina and I unintentionally began dressing alike.

Holiday Gift Guides: for the globe trotter

1. Steamline Luggage: by far the most stylish luggage I've ever seen.  I'm slightly obsessed.
2. Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality: My favorite author recommended this memoir on her Facebook page and I pre-ordered it immediately.  It sounds incredible.
3. Universal Travel Adapter: it's BLUE! and more importantly, all-in-one.  Pretty clutch tool for anyone who travels abroad.
4. Scratch Personalized World Map Poster: my friends have this hanging in the guest room of their apartment right outside of Paris.  It's a cool twist on the old pinned maps (although I do love me a map with some pins in it too).
5. Chuck Taylors: If I am flying, you can count on me wearing either Toms or Chucks.  I love this pair in Pearl Blue.
6. JCrew Colorblock Luggage Tag: The pink will make their bag easier to spot on the carousel and you can have it monogrammed.  Plus, it's really pretty.
7. Paris versus New York Postcard Box: A Tally of Two Cities in 100 Postcards:  For correspondence or for decoration.

Big Sur

I thought about flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but it wasn't really much of a debate.  It's been a while since my last road trip -- even longer since the last one on my own.  Maybe it was the countless hours of my youth spent sprawled out over the backseats of my family's suburban watching tumbleweeds out the windows, or one of the i-don't-even-know-how-many trips between New York and Georgia throughout the past seven years.  It's a combination of things, really, that makes me love being on the road.  See, I'm very good at distracting myself -- a contributing factor to my success.  There are always photos to edit! photos to take! websites to build! E-mails to answer!

My brain has a really difficult time turning off.

There's not much you can distract yourself with on the road, and soon you're forced to face whatever thoughts are nagging you - whatever you've been trying to distract yourself from in the first place.  There's always something.  And it helps, facing it.

And stopping to take in the scenery along the way helps, too.

William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach, San Simeon Bay

Near Ragged Point