Travel Archives -

Virtual Coffee Date [4]

If we were having coffee…

I’d tell you that I’ve recently started drinking many more homemade Matcha Lattes.
I’ve followed the blogger trend and will blend my matcha to achieve optimal foam. One part water, one part oat milk, a dash of sweetener, and one teaspoon matcha powder. Blend it up for 30 seconds and pour into mug. It really does make the best foamy at-home matcha.

Allergies in Seattle this year are insane. I once swore I did not suffer from seasonal allergies, but there’s no escaping the pollen, grass, tree, and EVERYTHING that is floating in the breeze. I’m not feeling so “Claritin Clear” this year.

Jumpsuits. I’m really digging the return of the jumpsuits for similar reasons that I adore wearing dresses; you don’t have to take time to match an outfit and you appear as though you spent great time putting yourself together. Do I look like Audrey?

We just returned from a wedding in Davis, CA. A long weekend with all of my favorite people from college under one roof was a treat. Five years later and we’ve all changed, but have largely stayed the same.

I’d tell you that Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again is a much higher quality movie than Mamma Mia 1. This movie is most enjoyed in theaters while wearing a jumpsuit to really immerse yourself in the era. We sang and danced and had a really, really, really, good time (name that song!)

Cheers!

Iceland in Three Days

How to plan a trip to Iceland – Our Way:

“Can you get time off work for a long weekend to Iceland?”
“Well…only three days…sure, let’s go!”
Book tickets
GO

And that’s how we took an extended weekend to the Nordic Island where, in the summer, the sun never sets.

Four friends, one digital guidebook, a rental car, and a hunger for adventure we set out on three packed days our touring.

Our itinerary went something like this:

Day 1: Reykjavik

Take a 3 hour nap to off-set the zero sleep
Walk around Reykjavik downtown and pop into any museums we find of interest
Drink espresso, eat lamb hotdogs, try local beer, and hit the hay early to prepare for our driving tour

Day 2: The Golden Circle

Drive the scenic route, through the “mountains” (foothills compared to the PNW)
Stop at Gullfoss, Thingvellir National Park, Geysir Geothermal Area, Secret Lagoon
Stay out until 4am at the bar singing-a-long to American songs

Day 3: South Coast

Wake-up at 1pm and begin our day
More Waterfalls: Seljalandsfoss and Gljúfrabúi, Skogafoss
An Iceberg you can walk on and around
Vik’s Black Sand Beach
Drive until we are too tired to do anymore and then head home. Arrive home at 12:30AM (and it’s still bright as day outside)

Day 4: Blue Lagoon and Fly Home

Highly recommend. Would travel to Iceland again. 14/10

Zagreb,Croatia and Plitvike Lakes [3]

We left off the last Croatia post as we boarded the plane from Munich to return to Croatia, this time landing in Zagreb. Zagreb is the polar opposite of Dubrovnik, it’s a fast paced metropolis that slows down in the evening only to continue business meetings over dinner and drinks. I enjoyed the hustle of the scene, but was ready to head back to the slow old city feel of Dubrovnik.

We stopped over in Zagreb for two nights and after four nights sharing a room with four strangers in a hostel we decided to splurge for a 4 star hotel. Chocolates on our pillows and beer in the fridge was the ultimate warm welcome.

We walked around and enjoyed the city views, breakfast off the square with the freshest eggs I’ve ever tasted, and many prosciutto platters.

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We rested up and after two days rest began our drive out to the Plitvike Lakes National Park. After taking an electric boat off the main entrance visitors choose to take one of five routes. We opted for a shorter hike, approximately 5 miles due to starting later in the day and still having a long drive to go. You can expect to see dozens of waterfalls, birds, and beautiful lakes that are essentially untouched.

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This hike was the highlight of my trip. If we’d known to plan for more time around the park we would easily have spent an entire day and gone for a longer hike. If you visit Croatia, this national park should be a must see on your list.

Basic Coding is to 2018 as Basic Typing is to 1997 [and other ‘Friday Thoughts’]

It’s another Friday and we’re two weeks into February, six weeks into the new year, only 319 days until Christmas (better start shopping now).

First, a few housekeeping items, how are your goal sheets coming along? They aren’t? Well, feel free to download your copy of “Champion Your Life” the bullet journal gone digital here. I’ve knocked one item off my list and see being able to check one more off this weekend.

Second, have you checked out the “He Says, She Says” section?

If not, take a peek at some of our comical takes on life ranging from commuting, reading, and computer usage. This series is still up and coming, but we’d love your feedback!

Now, onto High-Five Friday Favorites/Thoughts:

1. After numerous conversations with friends in varying career paths (psychology, marketing, teaching, and tech), we’ve decided that going forward basic coding will be an essential skill in life. Knowing any HTML, CSS, or Python, might be useful in the future. Kids are already taking programming classes in 3rd grade, many millennials may need to up their skill set to stay current in the near future. What are your thoughts on this?
2. Boats that are actual hot tubs AKA hot tubs boats are amazing. Everyone should give it a try, AKA something new I tried last Sunday.
3. Housing is so expensive to rent or buy in Seattle, I’m going to be poor the rest of my life. #shouldHaveBeenAnEngineer #iWishIwasBetteratMath #maybeI’llFranchiseHotTubBoats?
4. Old Friends are Gold. Even across time zones. I’m grateful for having friends near and far.
5. We had a Girls Night Out and watched the latest 50 Shades of Grey. I’d never seen any of the others, so my expectations were LOW. This movie turned out to be a little funny and have some action. I was pleasantly surprised, I’d give it 1 out of 5 stars.

What’s one highlight for you this week?

Are you teaching yourself to code?

On This Day: 1, 3, and 9 Years ago- Cuba, Little Si, and Vancouver, B.C.

It’s a Tuesday that feels like a Thursday with a Monday that felt like Friday.

That’s what happens when your friend matches with her Med School Residency program on a Monday and there’s glitter EVERYWHERE. I shook a little glitter out of my hair during a meeting on Tuesday and said, “No, I wasn’t at a Ke$ha concert, just a residency program reveal party.” They nod as though they understand, but to be honest, I also didn’t know what to expect until we were at the party. It looked a little something like this…

Aside from this week taking on the state of molasses, I wanted to take a peek at what was happening on this day the past 1, 3, and 9 years ago.

2/7/17: The last day we were wandering around Havana. When we learned the difference between the Spanish word for tortilla and its translation in Cuba are different. Think eggs.

2/7/15: Hiking around the Seattle area at Little Si while wearing the largest gloves I owned at that point. They still froze.

2/7/10: Adventures with high school friends around Vancouver and conquering fears of suspension bridges. Taken with a high quality iPhone 4(?)

That’s all for today.
What were you doing the past few years on this day?

Bullet Journal Monthly Goals: Digital Edition

I’m taking my bullet journal and going digital.
I know, I know, the whole point of BUJO is the physicality of the book. But, I’m no Martha Stewart when it comes to crafting. I still love to plan and craft, so I turned to PowerPoint to make things colorful, neat, and easy to track. We loved the gold start system as kids, so why not use it as adults? #Millenial.

I’m building off last month’s theme and use of the Self-Care Bingo card. Combining the inspiration from my bullet journal and the easy to read digital format I’ve shifted the Bullet Journal monthly spread on to a PowerPoint slide.

The previous card had 25 target goals to complete, but that turned out to be a bit lofty when some required multiple days or hours. I’ve take the card this month and cut it down to 16 items that vary in time, energy, and thought. The idea of the running list in the bullet journal is to eliminate any weekly items that roll over at the end of the month. I have a couple items that I’d still like to complete by the month’s end, so you’ll notice a few repeats. If you’d like to use this template for your own purposes, feel free to download it and edit in PowerPoint.

BUJO Goals February

Aside from the monthly goals, I have a few Friday Favorites to share.

This Is Us
The build-up to this episode has me on edge, I’m so anxious to see what happens during the house fire!
Taking a deeper dive into what it means for automation/machine learning as part of the workforce as project I’m researching for one of my leads.
Celebrating birthdays with friends as they all begin to enter their 29th year (I still have one more until that birthday!)
The Christmas tree in the living room that is now a “Valentine’s Day Tree” with red and white lights
Going on my first run in 8 months with 5 girlfriends that we followed with dinner and watching The Bachelor.

Here’s to the weekend! Let me know if you like this goal tracking format or have one that you enjoy using.

Virtual Coffee Date [3]

If we were having coffee, I’d share with you…

The Christmas tree is still up and there are no plans to take it down until after Feb. 14th. It’s now been dubbed the “holiday” tree.
Global warming seems real right now; it’s 55 degrees in Seattle in the middle of January. But, I’m not mad about it at all…look at this afternoon sun lighting up our plates!

The first full week back at work is rough, I’m not the only one feeling this, right?
I’m plowing through my Self Care Bingo and I’m getting down to the items that will take more time than a couple hours. I think I’ll have to start planning these a bit further in advance.
The Annual Cookie Exchange lives on and the 4th annual party was held a bit late this year, Jan 7th. I’m glad it was thrown together last minute, our friends brought their A-Game. Surprisingly, not a single cookie was repeated! Here’s a before and after picture.

The book High Performance Habits is still on my bookshelf and I’m still loving it and having “ah-ha” moments every chapter.
Just listened to the RD Real Talk podcast and learned a little bit more about one of my favorite bloggers.
I’m attending a career workshop this Saturday that came highly recommend from a friend. I’m eager to learn more about resume tips and always having a prepped Linkedin website. We’ll see how it goes!

Are you looking forward to anything this weekend?

Croatia/Munich [2]

After a quick exploration of Dubrovnik we were once again headed to the airport towards our 2nd stop, Munich. Yes, Munich is not in Croatia and yes, we did miss Oktoberfest by 4 days, but this was to our benefit. You see, by missing a major holiday by a mere 4 days we were able to take full advantage of discounted prices. Dirndl and Lederhosen for 50% of the price? Yes, please!

On our first full day we fought through our colds (that we picked up on day one in Dubrovnik) and caught an early train to see the Neuschwanstein Castle that inspired Mr. Disney’s Cinderella Castle. What a view, eh?!

My favorite hostel vibe of the trip was here, we stayed at the Wombat City Hostel and it was positioned perfectly by a subway, but off the main street. 12/10 we both highly recommend this as a stop during your European travels.

A few highlights for us were:

The Standing Wave

Dachau

BIER at Hofbräuhaus

Other highlights from Munich were our Michelin star lunch, a day at the zoo, stumbling into the Glockespiel at noon, a modern art gallery, the National Theater, and many other sights. After four nights in Munich we head back to Croatia for the reminder of our trip!

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Friday Favorites: Hulu, Doughnuts, & Spreadsheets

It feels a little like a Thursday and a lot like a Friday. These short weeks should be a regular thing. I’ve read compelling arguments for the shorter work week both here and here.
*If you’ve yet to download or receive a copy of January Self-Care Bingo, leave me a comment or download your image from the link!*

On that note, I’ve joined the link-up and here are a few Friday Favorites!

Friday Doughnuts

Aside from needing to rescue my Tupperware from the office refrigerator, working from the office on Friday means a Top Pot doughnut. It’s the perfect incentive to occasionally cross the floating bridge on a Friday.

Younger

I’m not one for binging a television series, ever. But, I did watch four, albeit short, seasons of Younger last week. It’s comical, slightly relate-able, and takes place in Manhattan. Hillary Duff makes her debut back to television as an editor at a publishing house and a 40 year pretends to be 26 to get a job at this publishing company. 21 minutes episodes fly by and I’m highly anticipating the 5th season.

If you watch it, I hope you’re also rooting for Liza and Charles to end up together.

2018 Planning & Goals

People generally fall into two categories when it comes to a new calendar year. Those that buy planners and those that don’t. I fall into the first category and I maintain that planner for approximately 50% of the year. Nevertheless, I enjoy planning out a variety of general goals I’d like to accomplish. It seems everywhere I look “goals” is a forbidden word this year, but sometimes a goal is the best way to fuel motivation to accomplish something. Intentions are the 2018 buzzword. Look at it this way, you build a foundation of intentions that are lasting and these help you to accomplish any and all goals. So, get it girl, GO BOLD, set BIG GOALS.
I see how both can fit into your life.
My friends and I sat together this week and created vision boards for 2018, a little serious and a little fun. I’ll have more on that next week.

Spreadsheets and Work Tools

Not the most exciting, but i’m helping out our staffing team this week with role placement and planning. It’s a great change of pace!

Reading for Pleasure

High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way is the book in my backpack. I have a separate post planned to take a closer at this book, but I’m crushing on it so much that I had to share a little early. It’s based on years of research and provides dozens of anecdotes throughout each chapter. If you want to learn more right now, check out his guest appearance on this podcast. High Performance Habits: Episode: 104 with Brendon Burchard. (He’s also an Accenture consulting alum!)

If you decided to skim through the favorites, I hope if nothing else, you leave with a smile on your face from this dog picture.
This is Paisley, the 2 year old Samoyed!
Tuckered out from a day at the park and waiting for her owner to take her home & away from this gaggle of girls watching The Bachelor Premiere. 12/10

What’s your Friday Favorite?
Are you in favor of the 4 day workweek?

A Year in Review: Travel by the Numbers

To all the MVP and those in the million miles club, congrats! It takes a lot of travel to rack-up the miles. Those of you commuting to work by plane every week, I’m mildly envious you can claim the miles and fly free for vacations!

This was a year of great travel both near and far for weddings, leisure, bachelorettes, and football. Out of curiosity and a desire to throw things on a pie chart, I dug into my Alaska member account and reviewed itineraries for an overview of my airport adventures.

The second half of 2017 was truly a whirlwind! Looking forward to 2018 with a few plane hops already in the works!

What was your favorite getaway of 2017?