A Much Needed Mini Getaway
Usually, I don’t have a problem staying home…
I love being home but I think that I speak for all of us when I say that I just couldn’t take it anymore. Roger & I started looking into places nearby that we could drive to, first we were thinking about going on a road trip out of state but decided to leave that for another time. We were so happy that we came across an island called Little Gasparilla which is just a 3 hour drive from where we live.
I’ve been wanting to stay at a beach house for some time now and most of the places that I came across were pretty far from Miami so we were both pleasantly surprised by this hidden gem.
Get you a man that will collect seashells for your dumb instagram pictures :) Here I was laying on the beach, like a washed up sea lion, with seashells on my leg waiting for him to bring me more cool ones in order to take the first picture you saw in this post.
I have never seen so many sea shells on a beach before. Every time the waves would retreat back into the ocean you’d hear such a beautiful sound. The sound of the shells gently clashing against each other, it was so therapeutic. I never knew I needed to hear a sound like that but I’m so glad that I did. We took a long walk and both sat down near the shore and just listened.. I can’t express how much more I’ve learned, or should I say, been forced to learn how to appreciate things like this.
There are no bridges to the island so in order to get there you either have to take your own boat or book a water taxi which can get a bit pricey if you’re planning on getting off the island throughout your stay. If you search Little Gasparilla Island on airbnb, almost all of the houses are on the beach (like the one that we stayed in) but even the inland houses are pretty cool. Most of them also have their own private boat docks and golf carts.
We had a great time but some suggestions would be to make sure you take bug repellent and long sleeves. Walking to the beach during or after sunset was nearly impossible because of the noseeums.. but they only really come out during the late afternoon. However, the mosquitos are out all day so if you’re planning on roaming around the island and aren’t near the beach during the day, take your repellent with you!
Taking a small trolly would also be helpful since you have to take all of your bags with you on the boat & since there is no garbage pick-up service on the island you also have to take your trash off of the island with you.
Overall, it’s a great place to visit & we can’t wait to be able to take our family & friends next time.
If you aren’t subscribed to my YouTube channel, be sure to do so if you’d like to see more of our trip in my next vlog. :)
Colorado
As most of you may know, we purchased our first home last year & while we are very excited and grateful to have a place of our own, we did have to put all of our beloved traveling aside and focus on turning our little house into a home. We did not travel at all in 2017, I truly think it's one of the only years I didn't go on some kind of trip (first world problems, I know) and while I was happy to be home I really missed the smell of new grounds.
Colorado has always been on my list of places to visit, everyone has always told me " If you really want to see snow, go to Colorado" & I am so glad I did. It really is true, I have never seen that much snow in my life, it was truly magical. Everywhere we went, it was so scenic, whether there was snow or not, the views were breathtaking.
We flew to Denver and drove a couple of hours to our cabin located in Fairplay, we got to Denver very early so even though the drive was long we were able to appreciate the entire day and the drive was beautiful. Our cabin was secluded from everything and it sat in between the most stunning snow-filled woods, when it wasn't snowing, you could see the mountains from a distance through the ceiling-high windows, it was the best view to wake up to.The entrance of the cabin was a down-hill road (pictured above) which made the perfect slope for sledding.
On our second day it snowed while we were on our way to Breckenridge, we were so excited we stopped the car to take pictures. ( Much more excited than I look in this picture, I promise. )
The first activity we did was snowmobiling, I didn't take any pictures while doing it because I was too busy filming with my go-pro and figuring out ways to do so without having my hands literally freeze off, so here is a picture I took of the pups ready to take people for some dog sledding before our tour started. We opted not to do dog sledding because snowmobiling was funner in our opinion and even though these dogs REALLY seemed like they loved pulling I just couldn't bring myself to have them pull me around for fun so we just pet them and they were the friendliest.The day after we did snowmobiling we did some tubing in Frisco adventure park, again, I captured most of that day on video so I didn't really take a lot of pictures, you're probably wondering why we didn't ski & we all decided that paying almost 200 dollars was just not worth it, we preferred spending our money discovering/driving to new places.
Nothing like a good ol llama visit, these little guys were just up the road from our cabin so we stopped to say hi and they were seriously just the cutest.
I think that one of the highlights of the trip for me was visiting Twin Lakes and walking on my first, and probably last, frozen lake. The only reason I would even do such a thing ( even though it has always been on my bucket list) is because there was a bunch of people riding their ATVs and dirt bikes all over the lake so I figured, if it can hold that kind of weight then it can hold me. I am so glad I did it, it was such an amazing experience. The views were something out of a movie, none of the pictures I took truly do the scenery any justice.
After out visit to Twin Lakes, we spontaneously decided to drive 40 more miles to Aspen. We all felt like a Colorado trip wouldn't really be a Colorado trip if we didn't visit Aspen, so we jumped the gun and started driving. The trip there was STUNNING, I live for these kinds of views, I kept telling everyone to " take it all in."
Again, too busy taking videos and forgot to take pictures but here is one of a bar we visited in Aspen called Hooch, we were the only people there because it was superbowl Sunday and this bar didn't have any TVs but I really liked the ambience and the beer was really good. We then decided to go to a sports bar to watch the game & it was a good time.When we left the bar it was already almost 9 pm (big mistake). The drive back to the cabin was about 3 hours and a half and I wanted to die, I had a mixture of car sickness, altitude sickness, claustrophobia & major anxiety from being in the car for so long at night while there was a blizzard outside but all in all I think the drive TO Aspen was one worth taking and we did have fun while we were there.
On our last day we woke up to so much snow fall! It was so beautiful, we really didn't want to leave, everything was so white and fluffy.Overall, I really enjoyed my trip, I had a great time with great people and I definitely recommend a visit to Colorado, especially if you have never experienced a WHITE winter, this wasn't my first time seeing snow but it was definitely the best snow experience I've had. I loved every place we visited and the scenery was amazing almost everywhere we turned.
Las Vegas, Utah & Arizona
My friends and I decided to go on a short trip to Nevada and drive up to Utah & Arizona while we were there.To tell you the truth Las Vegas has never really been at the top of my list because I'm not much of a party animal & well, Vegas is .. Vegas lol. No one goes to vegas to sight-see. However, My boyfriend & I both agreed that it really wasn't as bad as we expected. Noted, we didn't go during crazy pool party season or none of that but all in all it was a good time with good people.The first day in Vegas we went ATV riding through the desert/dunes & it was amazing, triple-digit heat & almost died of heat stroke but still amazing.We spent most of our time "hotel-hopping", Honestly every hotel along the strip is truly worth a visit. Each hotel has a different show or some kindof attraction. Many of the hotels have roller coasters in them, it's so cool.Best part about Vegas? THE PRICES!!!!!! Jesus christ. Coming from Miami it's almost unheard of to find hotels with such attractions for anything under $100 & I kid you not, almost every hotel in Vegas is less than $100 a night. Along with that, there are so many things to do, whether it be a show, a restaurant, a pool party, you name it.Our last night my boyfriend & I stayed in a suite at the Luxor (pyramid hotel) for a total of 60 bucks. WTH? lol we had so much unnecessary space but it was great :) Try finding a deal like that in South Beach, HA!We drove to southern Utah on our third day to visit Zion National Park, we hiked about three trails, one of which was the narrows, which is basically composed of two mountains with a river through the middle which you can walk through and as you continue walking the mountains become closer & closer (narrower & narrower) it was beautiful.That night we drove to Page, Arizona & visited Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend that next morning.Antelope Canyon was 100% the highlight of the entire trip, at least for me. I definitely think that it should be on everyone's bucket list. It's one of those places where you take 300 pictures of the same thing & none of the pictures truly do the place justice because it's just so cool-looking from every perspective once you're actually there.Don't forget to check out the Vlog I made for this trip if you haven't already HERE
Europe Trip part 2 Athens & Santorini
Here are the second half of the pictures from our Europe trip ( refer to previous post for part one). This one includes Athens & Santorini. I still can't believe places like this exist.Out of the 5 places we visited I have to say my favorites were definitely Venice and Santorini, they are the types of places where ever single corner makes for a beautiful picture and no matter how many pictures you take, none of them truly do them any justice. To every person that has asked me how my trip went, I quickly replied, do not die without visiting Venice or Santorini.I want to go back to Santorini for a longer period of time, one day is really not enough, let alone a couple of hours like we had, since we went on a cruise. However, I do recommend cruises if you're visiting Europe for the first time and want to visit several places in one trip, especially places along the mediterranean. It was truly a great time, many times my boyfriend & I said to one another " is this real?, are we really here?!" there really are some breath-taking places in this world & I'm so glad I've had the chance to visit some of them.
