Adventure! Playa Mujeres, Mexico

This past month has been a crazy amazing month full of adventure, family, and celebrations! Now that life is settling back into business as usual, the temps are frigid and the snow flakes are flying, it's the perfect time to share a few of my favorite photos from our trip to Mexico!

We stayed at the Excellence Playa Mujeres, a beautiful resort just north of Cancun. We had the time of our lives enjoying every minute of our stay. We took a catamaran to Isla Mujeres and checked out the island by golf cart. We enjoyed the most incredible food and drink everyday and relaxed our butts off.  But our favorite part has to be our swim out room right on the lazy river. That's right - a lazy river!! This trip couldn't have been more perfect.

Adventure! Madeline Island

We visited the Apostle Islands last year and loved it so much we just had to go back. For our adventure this year, we decided to stay on Madeline Island and I'm so happy we did. We had a blast! It was the perfect combination of relaxation + exploring. We brought our boat and were lucky enough to take it out on Lake Superior twice! Plus we rented mopeds again this year because we loved it so much last year. The weather was incredible (70's and sunny the whole weekend) so we were able to set our lawn chairs on the shore and enjoy a few beers. This was one of the best weekend getaways ever.

Adventure! Itasca State Park

I've lived in Minnesota my whole life and I'm ashamed to say that I have never been to Itasca State Park. I know, I know... I'm a bad Minnesotan. We made it a priority to get my butt up there this summer and let me tell you...I'm so glad we did. It is so beautiful. I did the whole walk across the Mississippi River thing, but the best part was Lake Itasca. Everywhere I looked I was stunned by how incredible it was. And the loons?! Oh my gosh...so many loons! It was really awesome to hear their calls and see them with their babies.

Adventure! North Shore

We spent Memorial Weekend on the North Shore and let me just say...I'm in LOVE!  I think the Gunflint Trail is my new favorite place in Minnesota. The weather wasn't in our favor, but we made the best of it. We checked out the adorable little town of Grand Marais, drove to Canada to hit up a Tim Hortons and drove the entire Gunflint Trail. It's been a dream of mine to see a real, live moose in the wild...and we saw one standing right in the middle of the Gunflint Trail! Ah! So amazing.

Adventure! San Francisco

A work convention had me traveling to San Francisco and since I've heard so many great things about the city, I thought I would extend my trip and see all there was to see! My friend Jodi met me out there and we enjoyed three fun-filled days of beautiful weather, interesting sights and all the touristy things you have to do while in San Francisco.

Trip highlights included a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown and fortune cookie factory, a cable car ride (which was WAY more fun than I could have ever anticipated) and sitting on one of the many piers enjoying the beautiful bay weather. My favorite part, by far, was Muir Woods National Monument with the oldest and largest trees I have ever seen in my entire life. For a girl obsessed with trees, this was a dream come true. I loved every moment of our time there and would love to go back!

All in all, San Francisco was a super cool city and I would definitely visit again, only next time I would be more prepared for the crazy hills, over priced food and seeing all the homeless people laying around.

Adventure! The Great Smoky Mountains

Andy and I just took a 10 day, 7 state, 2700 mile road trip to Tennessee. We started in Nashville, hitting all the major must see spots...Broadway, Music Row, the legendary Ryman Auditorium where we saw Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton perform (amazing) ... and a few lesser known places like Hatch Print Show (oldest operating letterpress company in the US).

Next, we headed to the Great Smoky Mountains where we spent the days exploring the absolutely amazing fall colors and the evenings relaxing at our cabin nestled in the mountains. Without a doubt, we picked the best time of year to check out this National Park, the scenery was breathtaking with every single turn on these windy mountain roads.

Our last stop was in Asheville, North Carolina where we meet up with my friend Jodi. Asheville is the coolest town ever...beautiful mountain scenery, awesome art scene, amazing food and (Andy's favorite) a pinball museum. We immediately loved everything about it and can't wait to go back!

Hope you enjoy a few of our favorite photos from our time in the mountains.

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Adventure! The Apostle Islands

Andy and I love to go on adventures. Even if it's just bumming around town, going places we've never been before. So, for our two year anniversary, we wanted to get away and go somewhere we had never been. I had heard from so many people that the Apostle Islands were amazing and we needed to check them out. So we headed up to Bayfield, WI. I am so happy we did. That area is incredible and I can't wait to go back. 

The highlights of our trip included a 3+ hour sunset boat cruise through over half of the 22 islands - complete with history of the islands, lighthouses and Great Lakes and our crazy captain getting us soclose we could almost touch the rock formations at Devils Island!

We loved bumming around the adorable little town of Bayfield checking out all the cute little shops.

But the best part was probably the ferry ride to Madeline Island where we spent the day cruising the island on mopeds. That's right MOPEDS!! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun!