Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // BFF Visit, Alone Time, & Tourist Tuesday

Last week, my BFF Hannah came to Wisconsin to visit! It was SO much fun but if I start going into details about what we did and how fun it was this post will literally turn into a dissertation because it was THE BEST! Before she came to visit, I was thinking of things to do with her. My initial response was 'there's nothing to do here' which is ridiculous but its still the thought I had. Milwaukee is a big city but it's not New York or Seattle or Denver, places that tourists flock to visit. But after thinking about it more, I realized there were so many things big and small that I could take her to do. I think that wherever you grow you, or maybe it's just me, you become a little desensitized to your surroundings and take for granted the uniqueness around you. I know I definitely did!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Travel by Page Behind Enemy Lines

As I'm sure many of you readers can relate to, I am constantly being inspired by books. I recently started rereading THE ALICE NETWORK by Kate Quinn on audio and it immediately brought me back to my deep love for this book. It also reminded me of my deep love, fascination, and inspiration for the very real women spies that played such a vital role in previous wars. With this love and inspo running through my veins, I thought it would be a fun post idea to do a Travel By Page...Behind Enemy Lines to highlight my favorite female spy novels. If you haven't read any of these books below, you need to immediately because they.are.amazing.!.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Vancouver, British Columbia

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Vancouver, British Columbia! I've been to Canada before, Toronto, Quebec City, and Montreal, and loved it! (Minus Montreal but that's another post and story). I fell in love with Vancouver! I love when cities have the juxtaposition of urban downtown style AND nature; Vancouver has this and so much more. Canada is so incredibly beautiful and I could spend months wandering around this gorgeous --and massive!--country! But alas, I only had 4 days. These were my favorite parts.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Favorite Travel Photos of June 2017

June was a great month of traveling to Canada and appreciating the beauty around me at home, even literally right out side my window! I love the big things but sometimes it's the little things that count just as much if not more. Here are my favorite travel and photos of June! Don't forget to check out my Instagram for even more photos!

Ready to leave for Vancouver with a great book!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Favorite Travel Photos of May 2017

It's no secret that I LOVE taking photos! I invested in a new Sony a6000 prior to my last trip and I'm obsessed with it! I also love taking photos with my iPhone 7+ which also gives me amazing quality. I thought it would be a fun idea for my Adventures post to do a Favorite Travel Photos of the Month post and just include my favorite photos I took. This month will be a little long with a lot of photos because I spent an amazing week in Denver so I have a few favorites from there. I also went up to Appleton, WI which is about a 2 hour drive away to watch my cousin play in the Division III College World Series which was SO fun! I hope you enjoy my favorite photos of the month, let me know what you think below!

Flight to Denver well-spent

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Short Flights vs Long Flights

Last week when I was flying to Denver I read my book the whole time. Not something unusual. But for whatever reason it made me realize that I have different habits when I take a short flight vs when I'm on a longer flight. Of course, I took that thinking opportunity and turned it into a post because the more I think about it the more curious I am if other people are the same way.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Travel By Page to Italy

It's no secret I am in love with Italy. It falls just behind the UK in where my mind always goes to and where my heart lays. The food, the culture the architecture, the history, there is nothing about Italy that I don't love. So of course, I find myself reading quite a few books that take place here. Today I'm featuring my favorite books that take place in Italy, both past and present, to help you travel by page to one of my favorite places in the world...Italy.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // BFF in the ATL

If you've seen my Instagram or Twitter, you'll know last week I had the most amazing time  visiting one of my very best friends, Hannah, in Atlanta! I was so excited to finally visit her and hang out and meet her new little man! I can honestly say this was one of the best weeks ever. Hannah and I had so much fun and I wish I could have just moved into her guest bedroom and stayed for a long time. Geography continues to be my best and worst enemy because leaving made me so sad but I'm legit already looking at cheap flights to get back. This was how Hannah and I spent our time in the ATL!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Best of Mt. Kilimanjaro

After recapping my experience on climbing Mt Kilimanjaro last week, I wanted to highlight my favorite photos from my trip. It's no secret I love taking photos. I love Instagram. I love grabbing good angles, experimenting with selfie angles, and shamelessly asking people to take photos of me from behind. What can I say? I love that look! It's definitely an amateur hobby but I love taking and sharing photos so I hope you enjoy some of my favorites from my eight days on the mountain. Definitely leave some love down below if you enjoy them!

Day 1

Rainforest climate

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro

If you've been following me on Instagram you'll have already seen some of my Mt Kilimanjaro photos and--spoiler alert--I made it to the top! It was without a doubt, the most incredible experience of my life. I have been thinking about climbing Kili for my 30th birthday for almost 5 years. Ever since reading Me Before You where the main character, Will, says that's what he did for his 30th birthday, I've been inspired to do something epic when I reached that milestone. When I first read it, I thought to myself, 'Yes, I'll do something really exciting but I could never do that.' And after thinking about it a few weeks, I couldn't get it out of my mind and my stubborn streak reared its ugly head and finally said, 'Why CAN'T you climb Mt Kilimanjaro? What's stopping you?'...and from there the dream was born.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Why I Love Traveling {1}

This is a serial post I've been wanting to do for awhile. I love to talk about travel--obviously--and I'd love to be able to expand and talk a bit more in-depth of what it is about traveling that speaks to me on a deeper level. So I thought the perfect first topic would the reason I keep booking plane ticket after plane ticket. That reason? The feeling.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Travel Trinkets

One of the questions I got while doing my Q&A was what do I do with all the trinkets and ticket stubs I keep. There's a few things I've done with them so far, I'm sure there are a lot more creative ideas but I haven't delved into the Pinterest world to see what other people, this is what I've come up with so far.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Travel Woes and Getting Lost

If you've been here before then you know I'm a fan of being brutally honest and keeping it real. Which is why I knew when I started writing more about my travels I wanted to include what I like to call, the stuff you won't see on other travel blogs aka when shit goes wrong. It's all well and good to post beautiful pictures and talk about the amazing time you had. I do this. But it's not always all sunshine and rainbows and beautiful sites. Shit goes wrong...a lot. And it's not all glamourous. So welcome to my first post of Travel Woes. This post will talk about my real one and only gut check, holy fuck what am I gonna do, panic moment of traveling. Thank God and baby Jesus that I've really only had one, maybe two, moments of panic. Here's one...

Excited and Instagram'ing pre shit hitting the fan

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Gift Guide for the Traveler in Your Life

The holidays are approaching so I thought it would be fun to put together gift ideas for somebody who loves to travel. Everything I'm talking about or featuring are gifts I myself have received so really, all the credit goes to my amazing friends and family who have been ever so thoughtful to me over the years. I've also broken them down into fun categories (well *I* think they're fun!).

For Travel Inspiration

Notebook with a Go-Getter Quote // I love notebooks. I especially love notebooks with travel quotes on them and I use them to brainstorm and plan my trips. A travel quoted notebook and help inspire you traveler where to take their next trip! (Thanks, Steph!)

Prints with Travel-Inspired Quotes // One of my favorite gifts ever was from Ellice (featured in the middle). It's my favorite quote from Me Before You by Jojo Moyes on a vintage map. SO thoughtful and inspiring and I LOVE looking at it. I'm obsessed with it and it is one of my most treasured gifts. This gift is thoughtful, inspiring, and will help your traveler feel read to take on their next adventure.

Book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die // What better way to inspire wanderlust than with a book highlighting not one, not ten, but a THOUSAND places to travel! I keep this on my nightstand and am always reading through different countries to inspire my next adventure. (Thanks, Estelle!)

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // UK Adventure Part 2

Hello, again! Welcome back to part 2 of my UK adventure posts! In my previous posts I talked about Scotland and the day trips I took, today I'm focusing on what I did in London. I was very fortunate to spend an extended amount of time in London and my heart was so happy. Having been to London several times before, it has never felt like enough. There is something about this city--and the entire of the UK, let's be honest as you can see in my other posts--that just speaks to me. I feel at peace when I'm here, when I'm in Scotland, it just makes me feel complete. This place is my travel soulmate. So yeah, I got to go back to places I've been before and loved and got to do so much new stuff and see places I haven't before. Best 3 weeks of my life! Here's my London, hope you enjoy!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // UK Adventure Part 1

After wracking my brain on how to sum up my recent trip to the UK, Great Britain actually if we're being technical but I digress, I finally came up with a way to summarize my trip without making myself go crazy or you reading until your eyes bleed. I would love to be able to write a copious amount about everything I did because I had the absolute BEST time! I love each trip I've taken for different reasons but this trip in particular aligned directly with my heart and soul. England and Scotland are as much a part of my heart as Sicily is in my veins. I cannot say enough about how much these two magical places speak to me. I may or may not currently have both of their flags waiting to be hung in my room...

SO, what did I come up with?! A 3-part post highlighting my favorite places/photos in Scotland, London, and all the day trips I took. Starting with Scotland, here are my favorite spots and a little bit of why I loved them so much.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Travel Quotes

In a less than two weeks I'll be leaving for another adventure! I'm so incredibly excited to be off to London, Scotland, and Wales I could explode just thinking about it! Seriously, I cannot wait. With that said, I wanted to share my favorite travel quotes with y'all today. I think about these all the time and they are the inspiration to me for everything I do. And a fun fact is that all the photos the quotes are on are my own personal photos I've taken while traveling. I mean, I'm in a lot of them if you couldn't tell but this project is one I'm especially proud of so I hope you enjoy!

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Madrid, Spain

Seville may have stolen my heart but Madrid is a close second. Prior to leaving for this trip I was most excited to see Madrid. Again, I was not disappointed. Madrid is beautiful and while I only got to see a few key locations, I loved spending my time leisurely wandering around the Palace and Cathedral...see below.

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Quebec City, Canada

While Montreal was not my cup of tea, Quebec City was fantastic! About a 2.5 hour drive north of Montreal, Quebec City is an city enclosed by a stone wall-not sure if I'm saying that correctly but it is true for the most part. I think it's made of stone but I digress.

My day included the drive, a quick stop at Montmorency Falls for some photos, and then exploring the upper and lower portions of Quebec City. For this post I decided to focus more on photos than text because to be honest, I don't have a ton to say because I didn't do a whole lot in Quebec City minus walking around. It might sound lame but take a look at the photos below and you'll understand why I spend a good 4 hours just walking around this beautiful city.  

Montmorency Falls

Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere // Montreal, Canada

While not every city I go to will be a favorite, I was really surprised that Montreal didn't impress me more. It wasn't that I strongly disliked it, it was just that I wasn't blown away. I'm a very intuitive person and this city just didn't click with me. When you know, you know and Montreal wasn't a 'know' for me. There were beautiful parts of the city but overall it felt like any other major city to me. Disclaimer: It goes without saying, once again, travel is subjective and one man's trash is another man's treasure. Instead of talking about what I didn't like, I'm going to highlight the few parts of the city I did really enjoy!