Lately, my new hobby has been creating digital scrapbook pages, mostly of my road trip adventures. These are some of my favorite memories and I’m very excited to have them all captured in one place. I’m big fan of traditional scrapbooking as well but digital also gives so much creative freedom and can easily be kept. If anyone is interested in creating a similar scrapbook, I created all of my pages in Canva. Stay tuned for more pages to come!
Winter is always the time of year where things slow down and there’s less happening. Years ago, I used to dread this time of year, it’s colder, darker, and the holidays are over. But, throughout the last few years, I’ve learned to make the most of this time and romanticize the slowness this season brings. Here are some of my tips on how to romanticize this time of year.
Woodstock, Vermont seems like a town right out of a hallmark movie! It’s one of the coziest places I’ve ever visited, especially during the fall season. Patrick and I had the opportunity to visit this past fall while traveling through Vermont and we had such a fun time strolling around this area for an afternoon. Here are some of my tips and favorite spots:
Woodstock, Vermont is a small town that offers local shops, restaurants, covered bridges, and the perfect place to soak in the fall foliage. That being said, I would recommend combining a trip to Woodstock with another nearby Vermont town. We visited Woodstock and Stowe within the same trip which was ideal and gave us more site seeing and activities to enjoy.
Stroll the shops! We had so much fun going in and out of the local shops within the town. Some of our favorites:
Enjoy delicious food. Woodstock has a few great food and coffee options! Here were some of our favorites:
Visit a covered bridge. Woodstock is known for some of their covered bridges! You can drive under the bridges or walk along the side.
Check out the Woodstock Inn. This is a famous hotel right in the heart of Woodstock. The public is welcome to their restaurant and to walk around the grounds. If you’re able to stay here, I imagine it would be a wonderful experience!
Walk to Pleasant Street. This street captures so much charm Woodstock offers and it feels like you’re walking on the set of a hallmark movie. The homes are also so fun to look at and imagine what life here would be like. Keep your eye out for one house on Pleasant street that has become well known during the fall for simply placing little pumpkins along the fence line. It makes for a really sweet view and picture!
Enjoy a maple creemee! Woodstock scoops has amazing ice cream and they are famous for maple creemees. A creemee is essentially soft serve and is a popular treat in this area. I would highly recommend trying while passing through!
Stop by a maple syrup farm. Sugarbush farms has become a famous spot in Woodstock for their tours of maple syrup and cheese making. We didn’t have a chance to do this but I’ve heard such great things about this farm it seems worth recommending!
This past fall, Patrick and I went on a two week road trip through various areas of New England. The trip ended with some time in Maine where we first explored Acadia national park and then made our way down the coast to visit various coastal towns. The best part about this area of Maine is that these small coastal towns are all within a short drive from each other so it’s possible to pick a home base and make some day trips. Patrick and I fell in love with this area of Maine and enjoyed about three days exploring various little towns, eating amazing lobster, enjoying sunsets at gorgeous lighthouses, and to top off our time in Maine, we left engaged! Here’s a quick guide to a few of our favorite towns along the coast of Maine.
Portland is a major stop when traveling through this area of Maine. We had a half day here and mostly strolled around the main areas of downtown going in and out of shops and enjoying some of the best lobster we’ve ever had! Some of our favorite stops:
Food
Shops
Activities
When we were planning this road trip, we weren’t planning to stay in Kennebuckport or pass through it. However, we had a last minute change to our itinerary because we decided we’d rather have an airbnb instead of camp the last few nights of the trip so I quickly found us a cute spot to stay and it ended up being in Kennebuckport. We were so happy this came to be! Kennebuckport is such a charming coastal town. It gives that small town feel where all the locals know each other, everyone walks to work, and there’s only small businesses in town. I’d definitely recommended stopping or staying in Kennebuckport if you’re driving down the coast. Some of our favorite stops:
Food
Shops
Ogunquit was a stop along the road trip I was excited about because I had seen some many other blog posts and photos highlighting the town’s beauty. It’s another charming coastal town with such a special feeling. We enjoyed spending an afternoon here walking around and soaking in more incredible Maine views. In the future, I’d love to visit this area again and stay overnight. If you’re visiting as a day trip like we did, keep in mind, parking can be a bit pricey. Our favorite stops:
Food
Shops
Activities
York was another last minute stop. We had some down time and we saw York was only 20 minutes away from Ogunquit and we decided to make the drive there for sunset. York ended up being one of my favorite stops because of the memories made here. One of the main things do to in York in visit Nubble lighthouse, it’s the heart of the town. We decided to spend sunset here and it was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’d ever seen. As the sun was setting, Patrick and I set up our tripod to take some videos and photos together, as we always do when traveling together, and to my surprise Patrick ended up proposing! It was such a beautiful moment and I couldn’t have asked for a better sunset and evening. York is a place I’ll cherish forever because of this incredible moment.
Since we were only in York for a couple of hours, the only thing I can really recommend is going to Nubble lighthouse for sunset! There is a sweet gift shop right near the lighthouse with bathrooms, souvenirs, and information about the town. While driving through the town, it seems like a sweet area with lots of activities especially available during the warmer months of the year.
Activities
Patrick and I recently spent a long weekend in the Great Smoky Mountains national park. This was our second time visiting the park and it was just as magical as we remembered it being three years ago. This trip was special because it’s the first time we’ve gotten to revisit a national park we’ve already been to and we were celebrating my birthday. This trip, we were able to do and see a lot more compared to our first trip in the park. Here’s a weekend guide to the park based on some things we did:
Cades Cove loop. This is the top activity I’d recommend doing while visiting the park. Cades Cove offers a scenic 11 mile one way that you can drive along. There are so many pull off spots you can use to soak in the stunning views. You will definitely see wildlife here while driving through, this past trip we saw black bears from a distance but three years ago, we saw a family of black bears pretty close to the road which was incredible! This area does get crowded since it’s so accessible, so be prepared for lots of crowds and people driving slow to soak in the views and capture photos. There’s also an option to bike the loop and you can rent bikes at the convenience store before starting the loop. The Cades Cove visitor’s center is located along the loop, there are bathrooms there and a store you can stop by as well.
Newfound Gap Road. Another scenic road I’d recommend driving along is the Newfound Gap, it’s extremely scenic and also offers plenty of pull off spots. This road also takes you to popular hikes like the chimney tops trail and the alum cave trail.
Drive parts of the Blue Ridge highway. We had this on our list for the weekend, but weren’t able to fit it. The south end of the Blue Ridge highway is located close to the North Carolina part of the Smoky Mountains. It’s a long highway but worth driving along parts to soak in more mountain views!
Visit popular towns nearby. As I mentioned, the park is located around so many towns that offer lodging, restaurants, and souvenir shops. We spent some time exploring Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. I’d recommended exploring or checking out a restaurant in town. These towns are definitely overcrowded, especially in the summer time but still worth driving through.
Hike! Of course when visiting any national park, there will likely be some great hikes to try. This trip we planned for two popular hikes and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to hike these trails. Keep in mind, during the summer months, the parking lots for the trails fill up extremely quickly! We weren’t able to get to either hiking trail early in the day so we had to circle around a few times to find a parking spot. Some hikes I’d recommended adding to your list:
Go Fishing. If you like to fly fish, the park has some great rivers that are easily accessible. One thing to keep in mind is you do need a Tennessee or North Carolina fishing license if you plan to fish inside the national park. Fishing licenses can be purchased online, they are not sold at any store in the park.
This week is the summer solstice and it will officially be summer! It’s hard to believe it’s already time to welcome a new season. I enjoyed this year’s spring season so much and I hope to embrace as much magic into the summer season. This summer, I’ll be focusing on cherishing time at home, finding ways to continue making my house a home through crafts and other creative outlets, and engaging in all of the fun summer activities. I’ve loved seeing small starts to summer this month; warmer days, daylight in the evenings and early mornings, and farmer’s markets on the weekends. I wanted to share some photos I’ve captured so far to welcome a new season and my summer bucket list I’ll be working on throughout the next couple months.
Summer bucket list:
Wishing you all a sweet start to summer!
I wanted to share some recent home updates Patrick and I have been working on. A few spaces and rooms in our home have been on our ‘update to do list’ for a while and we finally got around to refreshing some of these spaces. Since we’ve moved in, our home has truly been a work in progress but it feels good knowing how much care and time we’ve put into creating a home that feels like us. I wanted to incorporate more photos of our favorite memories and places, as well as details that capture our love for exploring and traveling to national parks. There’s more eventually we want to accomplish but I’m very pleased with our recent updates.
I’m back with another film photo collection. Last year, I started sharing some of my favorite film photos I’ve taken as I’ve been on a journey of experimenting with a film camera. Shooting on film and getting it developed has been so much fun and I’ve enjoyed seeing the film I’ve taken months later. I recently developed rolls I still had from our big road trip last year which included photos from Glacier national park.
Happy Earth Day! Today is such a special day that reminds me how special and blessed we all are to live and explore this beautiful planet we call home. In honor of Earth day, I thought I’d share some of my favorite photos and memories of times I’ve been able to experience the true magic that earth provides. I hope you enjoy today!
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