My best friend and I met back when we were both undergraduates at Eastern Michigan University. Since I graduated, I’ve been consistently on the move and lucky for me, she’s come with me!

In 2015 I graduated from EMU, spent the summer in Germany and the Czech Republic, and then came back to the U.S. to begin graduate school.

New York City

In 2017, before I graduated from UNR, we decided to visit New York City for Thanksgiving to see the Macy Day Parade! I’d never been to NYC so I figured why not?! We stayed at the Broadway International Hotel & Hostel which I think I had found on HostelWorld.com. It was very basic, nothing fancy, and a little more north of town than we probably would have liked to be, but it was something two college students could afford that would allow us to spend our money on other things. I didn’t have any complaints about the place, it was just somewhere clean to rest our heads for a couple hours at night.

Below are some pictures I took of the different falloons (I didn’t even know this was a word before writing this blog).

We were incredibly lucky with the weather, it was sunny and cold, but not yet too cold. We were able to roam around Central Park, see the carousal, and Bethesda Fountain.

As museum lovers, we also made sure to visit two very iconic museums of New York City: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa). Both of which lived up to the hype. I loved seeing a real Jackson Pollack at the MoMa and the surreal energy of the crowd while entering the Met.

Before leaving NYC we were sure to explore Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, Grand Central Station, the 9/11 Memorial, and the Rockefeller Center Top of the Rock Observation Tower.

There’s so much to do in New York City that we couldn’t have possibly done it all in one trip. If I make it back to New York City, I’d love see a play on Broadway, cross the Brooklyn Bridge and walk on the High Line, and even ride over to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Houston, Texas

After graduation at The University of Nevada, Reno, I moved to Texas. Of course this means my best friend had to visit so she flew down and we explored Houston and my city together. Houston, being the 4th most populated city in the U.S., had plenty for us to explore in a weekend. If you’re ever visiting Houston, I highly advise you purchase a CityPass! (Also, if you’ve never heard about CityPass, look for my upcoming post about it!)

While in Houston we HAD to visit Graffiti Park! Shana is an artsy person and I just love Graffiti so this was a really nice stop along the way. The park is basically a couple abandoned buildings taking up a block that are all covered in graffiti, and of course always changing. I’ve seen some really incredible art on these walls. They make for great photo opportunities and are just really impressive to look at.

Shana and I both really like museums, especially those out of the ordinary so we’ve made it a goal to visit any and all museums that seem even slightly cool. Because of this, we’ve been to a few really cool museums that seemed incredibly underrated and under-known after we finished our visit. One of these museums that doesn’t look like much on the outside and isn’t advertised nearly enough is the National Museum of Funeral History. We didn’t really know what to expect when I found this on the map, but thought, why not! Entrance fees are inexpensive, it’s unique and maybe we’d be surprised.

That we were! This museum was super cool! It was way bigger than it looked on the outside so definitely worth the money to visit. There is a lot of great information provided and there is plenty to look at. If you don’t like to read too much, this museum is for you. There’s so much to look at and explore in addition to reading all the cool history. The museum explored all kinds of funeral histories in different cultures and eras such as mummification, embalming, burial, and cremation. I learned a lot at this museum and would highly suggest you give it a visit if you’re ever in Houston! I’ll let you all google images of this place because I can’t narrow down what I want to include.

Some Houston attractions I didn’t love included the Houston Aquarium – this place is VERY overpriced, only takes about 20 minutes to walk through the whole thing, and is a huge disappointment. It’s cool because of it’s location and it has a indoor and outdoor sections, but I’ve been to numerous aquariums across the world and this is by far the worst one I’ve ever visited.

Additionally, we went to the Menil Collection, which is an art Museum and I don’t have much to report here. It was okay. Nothing stuck out to me as being vastly memorable and I don’t think I’d really recommend it unless you have extra time to waste.

Roadtrip through Oklahoma

In 2019 we took one of my most favorite trips of my life so far. We started at my home in College Station, Tx and road tripped it up through Oklahoma. I’ve been on a mission to visit all 50 states and OK is close to home so I figured why not! At first when I pitched the idea of OK everyone asked “What’s in Oklahoma?!” and I can’t quite blame them because I thought the same thing… but knowing that I wanted to visit it and explore I started doing my research and found PLENTY to do in Oklahoma.

A summary of the places we visited:

• Turner Falls (hike, scenic spot, waterfall)
• Norman (university, street fair, foooooood)
• Oklahoma City (Myriad Botanical Garden, The Museum of Osteology, and a street fair)
• Stillwater (Oklahoma State University tour, visited a friend on campus for a night)
• Tulsa (Center of the Universe, The Blue Dome, Arts district wandering, and delicious BBQ, The Gathering Place Park)
• Lastly, The Oklahoma Aquarium and both of our first time eating Braum’s (an Oklahoma burger place).

Austin, Texas

In other visits Shana and I have explored my town as well as Austin, TX – which so far is my favorite city in all of Texas! We hiked up to Mt. Bonnell for beautiful views and then skipped over to the 360 Bridge for me views. We of course got drinks and mini donuts on Rainey Street and visited the “Greetings From Austin” mural. We had a really full day of shopping, eating, and just exploring some of what Austin has to offer. There is so much more we could have done, but we were just visiting for a day and heading back to College Station.

Hollywood, Florida

The last trip we took together was just last weekend to Hollywood, Florida! This was our first vacation where we had no real plan, no museums to visit, no events to attend, nothing at all. We just wanted to get out of town and get into the sun.

Both our lives have really been beating us up over the course of the last couple months (or for me, really the last year) so we decided lets just unplug, hit the beach, spend quality time with each other and try to reset ourselves for life.

We spent four days relaxing on the beach, eating and drinking at different restaurants, laying by the pool, napping, reading, and overall, just not thinking about the hardships that have been challenging us. We enjoyed each other’s company and focused on the good for the weekend and it was much needed.

There will be many more adventures for the two of us, and hopefully, for the rest of our lives to continue to connect and travel all over. Maybe someday we’ll even go overseas. For now, though, I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures and maybe feel a little inspired to just get out and go somewhere. Getting out of your town and away from work, your friends, and your family can be really good for you sometimes. What are you waiting for?! Go travel!