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Category: Destinations

Destinations

72 Hours in Los Angeles (2022 Edition)

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November 27, 2022
Destinations

Exploring Past, Present, and Future at Miami’s Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

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June 5, 2022
Destinations

A Guide to the Libraries of Mount Desert Island

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March 10, 2022
Destinations

A Tourist-Free Retreat to the Cranberry Islands

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February 24, 2022
Destinations

Sight-Seeing Along Acadia’s Park Loop Road | 5 Must-See Stops

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February 2, 2022
Destinations

5 Things I Learned on Our First Multi-Family Vacation

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July 20, 2021
Destinations

Living Like a Local in Dauphin Island, Alabama

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July 2, 2021
Destinations

Trekking Peru, Part 3 | Majestic Machu Picchu

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November 12, 2020
Destinations

Trekking Peru, Part 2 | Lost in the Andes

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October 13, 2020
Destinations

Trekking Peru, Part 1 | Entering the Sacred Valley

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October 5, 2020

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Fall Break, 2016: my only-ever trip to @greatsmoky Fall Break, 2016: my only-ever trip to @greatsmokynps. Our intended campground was unexpectedly closed, and, in a race with the setting sun, we had to find a new, last-minute place to sleep. We landed a nice site next to a babbling brook - no reservations, just driving up and paying at the gate. Is that even possible anymore? It was only 10 years ago, but the state of travel now feels so vastly different.

And though it was just early October, it legitimately felt like fall. The Smokies were smokin’, and I needed a morning jacket for our first adventure to one of the park’s most visited locations.

In 2016, Kuwohi, the highest peak in the park and in the state, was still called Clingmans Dome. In fact, I didn’t even know official naming had changed until I started researching for this post. Kuwohi has always been the Cherokee name for the peak, a sacred location within their ancestral lands. Following petition by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and support from the National Park Service, the name was officially restored by the US Board of Geographic Names in 2024. (Note: this is the same agency that, just a year later and following executive order, introduced us to the “Gulf of America”).

The photography gods blessed me with perfect foggy conditions for this scene that looks straight out of the Jetsons. Back in 1956, the National Park Service launched Mission 66, a 10-year plan to modernize park infrastructure to support the surge in post-war, car-based tourism. Rustic-style architecture was replaced with midcentury lines and concrete Brutalism. Built in 1959, the Kuwohi Observation Deck is a quintessential example of that architectural trend. 

If I’ve piqued your interest, there’s a great @natgeo article from Aug 2025 on this retro park architecture!
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#kuwohi #greatsmokymountainsnationalpark #mission66 #nationalparkphotography #smokymountains
Took a fall family hike on the 2.5-mile Warner Woo Took a fall family hike on the 2.5-mile Warner Woods Trail at @friendsofwarnerparks and though the leaves were definitely dry (thanks to our indefinite drought), it was still 80° outside. 🙃 

Summer forever?
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#percywarnerpark #nashvillefall #nashvillewithkids #outdoorkids #explorenashville
Indignant that my stable, gratifying job requires Indignant that my stable, gratifying job requires me to be inside for 180 days of the year. 🙃 

📍1- Smith Park trail system, Brentwood
2,5,6- @reelfootlakestatepark 
3- @longhunterstateparktn 
4- @natcheztracesp 
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#tennesseeoutdoors #exploretennessee #tnstateparks #getoutside #natureaesthetic
I’ve been trying to write about my trip to Morocco I’ve been trying to write about my trip to Morocco for 9 months now and I can’t seem to get the words out. I don’t entirely know what to say. 

My iPhone notes are full of narrative threads and turns of phrase, usually ones that popped into my head at 3am. I write. Abandon. Reread 2 months later. Delete most of it. Start again in a new direction. 

It was a significant trip but, in retrospect, not monumental. It didn’t change me but rather scratched an itch; it was more confirming than enlightening, so why does it matter? Why is my story worth telling? 

I’ll probably never be able to answer that question, but maybe eventually I will actually have one to share. 

(And also, I’ve never shared most of my photos. So I’ll share a few now, as my days are filled with little more than school, work, and soccer practice.) 
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#moroccotravels #surfculture #sunsetphotography #travelauthentic #sidikaouki
Shoutout to all my Instagram and IRL friends that Shoutout to all my Instagram and IRL friends that have sent me memes about it still being summer. You get me. 😉

SUMMER FOREVER!
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#summerdump #summervibes #tennesseesummer #endlesssummer #madeintn
Catching end-of-summer vibes at Pickwick Landing S Catching end-of-summer vibes at Pickwick Landing SP. (@pickwick_landing_state_park)

✅ Lakefront living
✅ Modern lodge amenities (@lodgepickwicklanding)
✅ Quality fam time

This park is slightly off-the-beaten path bc it’s not near any major interstates—you go about halfway between Nashville and Memphis and head straight south towards the TN-MS-AL border. 

The lake is magnificent (those sunsets!) and the lodge is pretty stellar, too. 
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#tnstateparks #lakedays #exploretennessee #outdoorkids #pickwicklake
Not me crying bc I had to spend every day last wee Not me crying bc I had to spend every day last week indoors. 😭

Back to school is rough. 
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#tennesseeoutdoors #exploretennessee #nashkids #outdoorfamily #getoutsidewithkids
@hopsandskips

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