Walking the Golden Gate Bridge

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I love when you're on vacation and plan for one thing but then another happens. It's so much fun to see where it will take you and the adventure of it all is always worth it! Well that's how I ended up on the wrong side of the Golden Gate Bridge...

Twin Peaks San Francisco

If there is anything I love about major cities it's seeing their skyline. Be it from a plane, rooftop or the top of a mountain, I love it. I feel like it's a great way to truly "see" the city and it always makes for awesome experiences...

Omni San Francisco Hotel

San Francisco: Fishermans Wharf and Lombard Street

Who is ready for a touristy post surely to blow your mind? Obviously not actually blow your mind but it would be fun to think it was that special, right? Let's jump on in!

World Trade Memorial & Observatory

I've been wanting to visit the 9/11 memorial and museum since it opened, but as you may know, it's not an easy thing to do. I knew it was going to be very emotional but I also knew that it was something I wanted to honor and see.

So on Saturday Andrew and I went downtown to visit the memorial, the museum and then made our way to the top of One World Trade. The whole day was emotional but amazing and I wanted to share our time with you all.

10 Tips for Planning Your Perfect Vacation

Nantucket

1. Pick your destination // 
The very vital first step for all vacations-- know where you want to go! I have a long list of places and I love to check them off when I can; it's also fun to write down some 'bucket list' items and make them your goal.

When picking your destination, know the amount of time you have-- is it a weekend trip? A week long one? Or more? Know your budget-- nearby? Across the states? Or across the ocean? And finally, know what you want to get out of the trip-- beach vacation? Big city, bright lights? Or cabin in the woods?

Seattle

2. Pick your time frame //
Once we have an idea where we want to go, it's time to narrow down some dates. What I usually do is pick the amount of nights I want to go and then give myself a range of time to take the trip.

Say I want to take a four night vacation: I can either go beginning of week, mid week or plan around a holiday and go late week into the next week. Being more flexible on days to travel (and nights you want to stay) are really helpful in finding the best prices for your trip!

3. Research prices //

Like I quickly mentioned above, if you're flexible you can find the best prices (for airfare specifically). You all know I love me some Google Flights and I use it exclusively when I book airfare.

It has this great tool that tells you cheaper options if you leave a day earlier or later. It's complicated to explain in a short paragraph, but you can see my full post on Google Flights here!

The Hamptons

4. Research the city //
I love researching the city and finding things to do. My go to is TripAdvisor-- it's so easy to just type in where you want to go, then "things to do" and review! I usually sort by rating because I love to hear what other people think is the best part of their city. You can also narrow your look by landmarks, parks, tours, museums and so on.

I usually end up finding some great places that I've never even heard of. It also makes a check list of places you want to do and see really easy. And it's helpful seeing photos so I know what I'm getting myself into.

5. Ask for recommendations //
Friends, family and co-workers are great resources for recommendations to a new city. You know these people and trust their advice so why not ask what their favorite place to go or thing to do is? While I usually use TripAdvisor for things to do, I usually ask people for places to eat.

With so many options for food all over, it's fun to hear exact places people like to eat. I also know they come with high standards because when have you ever told someone an eh place to eat in your city? This is your reputation for recommendations we're talking about-- don't want to mess that up!

Cruise to the Bahamas 

6. Plan your activities //
After I've complied a list of things I want to do (I usually go overboard) I start planning out the trip. It's easy to map things out so you can hit a lot of places that are near each other in a shorter amount of time. A tool I found a while back that I actually love to use is Tripomatic.

It basically does all the work for you and maps out your list of things to do. Then you can pick places and add them to your itinerary and use them on the go! It gives you a time frame for how close/far one thing is from another. It's a fun thing to play around with! 

Nantucket

7. Be flexible //
While I like to plan things out, I know that my plans are always flexible for the most part. Maybe I'll stay longer at a restaurant that I love and skip the book store I had planned for later. Maybe it rains on the day I want to hike... things happen. Be flexible and remember you're on vacation! No stress, just go with it. 

Seattle

8. Book in advance //
Booking in advance kind of goes for a lot of things like flights, hotels, cars, reservations... you name it! If you can book it ahead of time, it's usually a lot cheaper and more hassle free. You also secure your spot so something doesn't sell out or get booked up.

9. Know your budget //
It's really easy to spend spend spend on vacation. Before you go on your trip, make a budget for how much you want to spend. I usually try and withdraw some cash and realize that once that's gone I should be a little more cautious about my spending.

You should budget before and during your trip-- so don't forget! Budgeting before is for the big expenses like hotel and flight while budgeting during is for food and transportation or any miscellaneous things that might pop up!

Grand Cayman

10. Enjoy! // 
This one is pretty easy but ENJOY YOUR VACATION! Get out and DO things. Turn off your emails and turn on the camera. It's called vacation for a reason #duh.

Any other tips you'd like to add? I'm sure I'm missing some-- let me know in the comments below!

PS-- Check out one of my most read posts to date: How I Afford to Travel!

Smorgasburg

If you live in New York (or even if you've been once) you've probably heard of Smorgasburg. I've been wanting to go for so long. I finally decided I would make the trek and go this past weekend. I enlisted the squad aka Courtney (from Color Me Courtney), her friend Kristin and the boys for a fun day in Brooklyn and we were off. 

SHOP MY LOOK HERE:

What's in My Carry On Bag

Gingham Dress / Fendi Purse

Every good carry-on has a few essentials and today I'm going to share mine. Now remember that when I pack a carry on I also bring a full change of clothes, my jewelry and important electronics. This is all just in case my luggage gets lost or stolen!

Everything listed below are my travel items that I really don't go anywhere without. I honestly think all of these things (minus my computer and my headphones) are in my purse right now. So let's get to it:

1 // Computer

I don't think I have ever traveled without my computer! Last year I got the MacBook Air and I seriously couldn't love it more. I use it almost exclusively and it's great for traveling. The computer is super light and so easy to carry around.

2 // Headphones

I've talked about these headphones before but I really do love them. They are hands down the best thing for traveling. I hate trying to listen to a movie and shove my headphones into my ears just to hear what they were saying. These headphones cancel out all the noise on airplanes and have really amazing sound. Bonus points: they're collapsible so they're extra easy to carry around!

3 // Nourish Snacks

You might have seen my tweets about them already, but I don't leave home without a pack of these snacks. I have a bad habit of snacking but I don't feel so bad when I snack on these. I've gotten everyone in my office addicted to them and I'm slowing starting to take over my friend group with them as well. I can't start to tell you how good they are (and good for you!)

You can buy them online (10% off when you use COVERINGTHEBASES) and my favorites are mocha-mazing, monkey love and mind your p's and bbq's. I started out with the sampler collection to try them all and find my favorites and I think that's the best way to go about these. You have to try them and let me know what you think!!

4 // Extra Contacts

I'm actually really blind so losing one of these is a serious no-go for me! Better safe than sorry.

5 // Dry Shampoo

I don't know about you but every single time I travel my hair gets so greasy! I don't know what the deal is but instead trying to fight it I just pack dry shampoo. It's so easy to throw in your hair and go. I also use dry shampoo every other day of my life so leaving home without this would not be good. 

6 // Lotion

My hair will get greasy but the rest of my body gets dry. SO annoying! I carry around lotion to give extra hydration to my sensitive skin. I'm also testing out the waters (no pun intended) on this spray moisturizer. 

7 // Lipstick / Chapstick 

Chapstick because you always need some and lipstick for the special occasions -- you never know!

8 // Water

Always make sure to stay hydrated during travel. It's so easy to forget about but it's so very important. My favorite water (although I love them all) is Liquiteria's Aloe Water. It's seriously refreshing!

9 // Phone Charger

This is the best $35 dollars I've ever spent. This phone charger can charge two devices at once and can recharge one phone up to three complete charges. I have two that I switch off carrying around and it has been a lifesaver. I can't even tell you! I have one in gold and one in silver :)

10 // Keys 

This is self-explanatory. But how cute are my keychains!? I love my LL Bean boot and my needlepoint key fob :)

11 // Sunglasses

Learned this the hard way, but always have a pair in your purse. Always. 

12 // Notepad + Pen

I have the best inspirations when I'm traveling and really have time to just sit down and think. Because of that I never leave home without my note pads and a pen (one for blogging and one for everyday life). Nothing fancy, just something to get the job done!

As for what luggage I use when I travel, you can check out my striped duffle here, my casual travel style (and real luggage) here and my top picks for my favorite carry-ons here!

What are your go to carry on items?! Would love to know below!

Cadillac in the Hamptons

True life: I think I'm a closet car nerd. Really beautiful cars get me way too excited! I think you'll find out why below... 

If you don't know by now (which, I'm not sure why you wouldn't but...) I live in New York City. Which meant that, like a true, poor-ish New Yorker, I had to sell my car before moving here. Bummer, right?

While there are times I'm grateful I don't have a car, (parking is a joke ($$$) here) more times than not I wish to be able to drive and get away. I get a little stir crazy in the city, especially when the warm weather hits. I think I was just made to be at a beach somewhere! 

This is where the wonderful team at Cadillac comes in. They loaned me this gorgeous car for the weekend so I could escape to the Hamptons and be at the beach for a weekend. How amazing are they!

When I first saw the car I was in total awe. It was so beautiful and sleek; super sophisticated and extremely well made. Every little detail in the car was well thought out, planned and executed! I've been driving SUVs my entire life so to say this was a change of pace would be correct. 

But it was so awesome. I loved how well the car drove. It hugged all the curves, it was smooth on and off the highway and it was extremely intuitive. 

The coolest features in the car were dedicated to the drivers needs. A reflection on the window kept you aware of your speed and cars nearby and the side mirrors would flash when there was a car in the blind spot.

One of the cooler features was the seat vibration for different alerts. Depending on where the alert was coming from (left, right, front) the seat side would vibrate accordingly and make you extra alert!

The car also would honk twice when turned off and doors shut if you accidentally leave the keys in the car. I'm not going to tell you how I found that one out hahah! This whole keyless car start is new to a girl who hasn't had a new car in a couple of years.

I felt totally safe in the car with all the extra protection. The seatbelt even tightened to make sure you were properly strapped in every time you start driving.

Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty great driver. And in all honestly the car made me an even better one.

Thankfully (or not depending how you look at it) we were also able to test out the car in different conditions. It rained a lot of the weekend in the Hamptons and I found the car performed just as well in the rain. The dashboard screen even had a handy little weather map next to the GPS and the music!

The windshield wipers were totally automatic. They adjusted to how little or hard it was raining without me even bothering to touch it. So cool!

One of the weird things about the car was the ability to play music. The car had a ton of USB plugs for us to charge and use our phones which was great but for some reason it didn't want us to use Spotify. It was so crazy!

Sydney and I would plug in and turn on our music (in Spotify) which would randomly shut off and be overtaken by our iTunes. We have no idea why but after a couple times wrestling with it going back and forth (like 15 times), we won the good fight and got to listen to our music for 30+ minutes at a time. 

That is until it got shut off again hahah. We should have just given in! Does anyone actually still have up to date music on their iTunes? Mine is full of teen bop 2000's music that I'm embarrassed I paid money to download.

Thankfully our trip out to the Hamptons and back was great weather so we were able to open the sun roof and roll down the windows. It was nice to enjoy having a car again! I was actually really sad putting it back into the garage at the end of the night Sunday. I didn't want it to go!

You can read all out our weekend in the Hamptons here!

Here's a full picture of the beauty:

So I've never owned a Cadillac myself but I'm pretty sure after this experience I might need to look into one. What do we think?! Has anyone else driven this car and loved it as much as I did??

This post was in no way sponsored but, Cadillac did loan me the car for the weekend upon my request. This post was just me wanting to share my honest thoughts and reviews on the car (just like all other posts). 

Travel Tuesday: Southampton

If you remember two weekends ago I traveled east to Southampton with Sydney for some time with Country Club Prep. Hope you enjoy my weekend recap!

(Swan)

Travel Tuesday: Nantucket

Yay for today's Travel Tuesday! And it's all about my recent trip to Nantucket. If you remember last year we went as part of our larger trip to Boston, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

We obviously loved Nantucket so much last year that we decided to make a trip of it this year. This was actually part of my Christmas present so I've been counting down for some time now!

Friday:

Anyways, we left early Friday morning on a direct flight to the island. From JFK to ACK it was about a 45 min (take off to touch down) flight. So to say it was pretty easy was an understatement.

We landed, picked up our rental car and headed off to our "hotel."

Travel Tuesday: Carry On Luggage

DVF Adieu / Louis Vuitton Pegase / Mint Correspondent 

Bric's Bellagio (all sizes) / Tumi International / Bric's Bellagio (carry on)

This might be the first Travel Tuesday of the year that I'm not recapping a trip! Whew, it's been a crazy few months, can you believe it's already March? It's so amazing how quickly time flies. Anyyywayyysss, today's Travel Tuesday is all about the carry on.

My go-to right now is my LV pegase which I love, but I travel so much that I'm really finding the need for something more functional. I love the four wheels on my big suitcase and I think having them on a carry on would be awesome. I'm also really digging the hard shell luggage trend. I feel like you're able to fit a lot more into the suitcase and since they're so new, the room for organization is there.

I mean if I had all the money in the world, I'd get the LV zephyr 55, which would have everything I mentioned above BUT $3K is way too much to spend on luggage. So I found some other really intriguing options that have met my criteria and are also pretty darn cute. I love the styling on the outside, don't you agree? Which one is your favorite? 

Travel Tuesday: Portland, Maine

Today is Travel Tuesday so you know what that means: time to recap my trip to Portland, ME. I've never been to Maine before so it was a nice little surprise to get a trip up there for a long weekend as a Christmas gift. Minus the mini hurricane snowstorm and the bitter cold, Maine was a lot of fun! I can't wait to go back in the spring/summer.

SATURDAY:

We left really early Saturday morning for JFK for my global entry interview and our flight. Global entry was soooo worth it and it comes with TSA pre-check, so if you're looking into it, I highly recommend!

We of course flew JetBlue. Thankfully they had nonstop flights straight to Portland so it was a quick 45 minute flight up and we were there. Helllooo grey skies!

We got there around 10 am and picked up our car for the weekend. Since we couldn't check in to our B&B until 3pm, we decided to take a trip up to Freeport. It was just a 20 minute drive away and totally worth it. I had never been to the LL Bean campus but you know I had to go! We spent so much time there, I can't even tell you. I mean I could get lost in that store!

So lost that I decided to sit down waiting to find Andrew. LOL ya girl took a quick cat nap in the home store. I was SO sleepy #earlymorning #dontjudgeme

Yes, that's a giant bean boot *praise emoji hands*

After Freeport (and more time in the LL Bean store) we stopped at a local brewery then headed to our  B&B for the weekend. We ended up staying at the Inn on Carleton and had an awesome stay. I've never stayed at a B&B before but I was pleasantly surprised! I had a great time and it was such a cute little (little meaning four floors) house!

Our room and bathroom. So cute, right?

After hanging out and watching Gone Girl, it was time for some din din. We had reservations for Valentines Day at Back Bay Grill. I had planned to wear a pink dress for dinner but the storm was like nuh-uh so I ended up wearing this outfit, which totally worked out.

Dinner was to die for. Everything was so good -- the wine, the mussels, the DUCK. Omg yum. It was a cute little place too. We ended up Uber-ing there and back because the snow was so bad. 

SUNDAY:

The next day we were able to fully enjoy(?) the snowstorm. It was so cold that the city actually shut down! We tried to venture out for donuts only to find the shop was closed (#sadface). We just had enough fight in us to stay outside long enough to snap this outfit photo before we headed back to the B&B! I mean, look at all that snow!

After a day spent mostly inside watching movies, we walked around for as long as we could and tried to enjoy what Portland had to offer. I found this house and of course fell in love!

After that we decided it was probably best to get some food. We had recommendations from our friend at LL Bean to check out Eventide Oyster Co. and it was soooo good! I'm a little biased because I love oysters, but whatever it was really good. The music - believe it or not - was even better! 

Andrew and I split some oysters and we each had a lobster roll. I forgot how good those were. I ate it too quickly to get a picture so... yolo. 

After a this quick bite, we went to another brewery (I'm a good girlfriend) and then to Central Provisions for dinner... where I had more oysters :) 

MONDAY:

On our last day I was FINALLY able to go visit The Holy Donut (the donut shop that had been closed due to weather the day before). It came highly recommended from a ton of friends and followers (thank you!) and it lived up to expectations! SO yummy! I think I read somewhere that they were made with potatoes? Don't quote me on that... 

We went to another (yes, another) brewery and then to J's Oysters (GUY'S I JUST LOVE OYSTERS) for a quick bite before the airport. The little restaurant was like a dive-y place that you could tell local fisherman went to. That's how you know it's legit. It was right along the water (that was all frozen over) and I couldn't believe how much snow there was! It was UNREAL. I mean I thought I knew snow... but oh man. 

Then it was off to the airport to go home. Just a casual six hour delay then wha-la! We were home hahah. It was a really fun weekend but man was it COLD. Any weekend spent away exploring a new place is a good weekend to me! Especially when it's filled with good food and lots of oysters!

(Our B&B)