Exploring Adventures at Home & Abroad
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd With the recent move to Northern California, Julie and I had been craving our next adventure, specifically something outdoors. Our trip to Europe over Christmas break had satisfied our desire to travel abroad, but focused entirely on cities (after […]
Written by Brian Callender and Julie Boyd| Photography by Julie Boyd You may have noticed we have been a bit quieter on the blog than normal, and that is because there have been some changes behind the scenes. Earlier this year, I (Brian) had the opportunity […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd
With Banff squarely in our rearview, we continued our journey along the Icefields Parkway, headed for the town of Jasper. If you’re a fan of stunning mountains and breathtaking waterfalls, then this is the place to be. Our first stop on the second half of our drive was the Columbia Icefield, a place that is truly spectacular.
Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd Winter is a magical time to visit Yosemite National Park. The valley is dusted with snow, the waterfalls are icy, the weather is chilly, and the summer crowds have dispersed. If you are lucky, you’ll get to […]
Brian and I are avid hikers, and love exploring trails in our local mountains. While there are a lot of trails near us in Orange County, we prefer to take the 1-2 hour drive up to the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains to experience […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd
Fresh off an awesome hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers, we still had several hours of sunlight left to explore the area before sunset. Julie had come across Takakkaw Falls while researching the trip, and suggested a quick visit to fill in the rest of our afternoon. While not an original part of our trip plans, we decided to make our way to nearby Yoho National Park to explore.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd As we planned out our Canadian adventure, Julie and I each had a long list of “must visit” locations. Many of these destinations were shared, and that was especially true of Moraine Lake. If you spend any time […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd As mentioned in our last post, while visiting Banff, we opted to stay outside the park in Kananaksis Country. We spent most of our first day in Calgary, but after checking into our hotel, we decided there was […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd
Off to Canada!
Julie and I had been attempting to make a plan to visit Canada for what seemed like the past few years. We previously had reserved hotel rooms in Vancouver a couple winters back, but ended up cancelling that trip in favor of a California road trip. After reading a post by one of my favorite travel bloggers about visiting Alberta, we were convinced it was time to put our daydreams into action and plan our next trip. Planned earlier this spring, our journey would take us to two of the big national parks in Alberta, Banff and Jasper, as we immersed ourselves in the Canadian Rockies. Giant mountains, blue lakes, endless scenery, we couldn’t think of a better way to spend our summer vacation, and off to Canada we went.
Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd Grand Teton National Park is truly one of the most breathtaking mountain landscapes in the United States. The jagged peaks of the 40-mile-long Teton Mountain Range are unobstructed by foothills and tower over 7,000 feet above the […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd Summer has officially made its way to Southern California, so we have our fans and air conditioner working overtime. All this heat has us daydreaming of cooler locales, foggy mornings, rainy afternoons, and snowy weekend getaways. […]
Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd
Happy Earth Day!
This week the National Park Service is celebrating our National Parks, and Earth Day, by offering free admission to all of the parks, nationwide. While Brian and I wish we could get out and take advantage of this great opportunity, our obligations with our jobs are holding us back this year. As an alternative, I thought I would share some of my photographs from past travels to national parks. Enjoy!
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Julie Boyd It’s a rare occasion for Julie and I to have a weekday off together, so we always try to make the most of them when we do. With the school Julie teaches at on Spring Break […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Brian Callender and Julie Boyd While planning our time in Ireland, we had given ourselves a very open schedule so that we could relax and enjoy the last days of our trip. After spending the rest of the trip constantly […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Brian Callender & Julie Boyd
We touched down in Dublin close to 10:00 p.m. on Monday night after a short flight from Brussels. I had pre-booked our transportation taking the 700 Route with AirCoach which came out to about $25 roundtrip for two people. Not bad considering it can easily be booked online and you ride in a comfortable coach bus. The Airlink Express is another option that runs between the airport and city centre for around the same cost and is more similar to a regular city bus (double decker).
Six years ago, I studied abroad for ten weeks in Oxford and it was one of the best experiences of my life. During that time, I fell in love with the city, the country, and travel. I learned a lot about myself on that trip […]
On our return from the Harry Potter Studio Tour on Tuesday night, we learned that there was likely going to be a Tube strike taking place beginning Wednesday evening and lasting through Friday morning. While we had always intended to take at least two day […]
Thanks to Friends, I’ll always think of “London Baby” whenever the city crosses my mind. And that’s not a bad thing because I love London and I love Friends :). If you have no idea what I’m talking about, watch the clip below.
Julie and I seriously considered “going into the map” in order to figure out our way around. But since we didn’t have one of those pop-up maps that Joey used (sadly), we settled for Google.
Six years ago, I visited York for the first time with my study abroad class. The trip was an optional add-on, but everyone went. There was so much that I loved about the city, that I made it a point to have Julie and I […]
With two long days of driving and exploring the Highlands firmly behind us, we had a lazy start to our Saturday morning. In doing so, we nearly missed making it back in time to drop off our rental car. We returned the car with just minutes […]
Friday morning we were treated to this beautiful loch view from our Airbnb. A view which made the prospect of departing for the long upcoming day an even more challenging prospect. Our host had been fantastic and we wished we had opted to stay for more than one night. But after a nice breakfast, we packed up our little car and headed back down the single track road and made our way towards the Isle of Skye.
Early Mornings & False Starts After a long and exhausting first day in Scotland, we awoke refreshed and ready to tackle our second day. Our original plan had been to take a tour of the Scottish Highlands and I spent a fair amount of time […]
Edinburgh, Here We Come Our adventure began bright and early on Tuesday morning. We were fortunate that Julie’s dad was willing to give us a ride down to San Diego to catch our outbound flight to New Jersey where we would catch our connecting flight […]
By the time you read this, we’ll be in route to San Diego International Airport for our big day of travel. Heading East, means we’ll lose our entire day to being in the air and on the ground waiting to be in the air again. No complaints here though. This has been 10 months in the making and the time it’s going to take us to get there will have been well worth it. After all, our entire roundtrip flight from California to Scotland and then back from Dublin cost us $88.80. And sure, flying non-stop, direct, would be a perfect scenario, but the logistics didn’t work out at the time we booked the trip. We leave Tuesday morning and arrive Wednesday morning.
The past couple weeks have been quite busy and as such, my writing has definitely slacked. I also turned another year older and some of the festivities included a small getaway to Marina del Rey for the weekend, highlighted by the US Women’s National Soccer Team […]
Wanderlust (noun): a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about. We inch ever closer to our European adventure. Months that seemed like years, have been whittled down to just under two. Knowing that the day is fast approaching, finally, has aimed to cure some of my […]
“You’re off to great places, today is your day!” ~ Dr. Seuss
Stories to Last a Lifetime
Beyond the destination itself, one of my favorite aspects of travel is the stories each new adventure brings. In a world where photos and to a greater extent, social media helps us in documenting our experiences, when you strip that all away, what remains is the memories that are made. And those stories we tell our friends, family, and even conversations with strangers are what help to reinforce it. Even if the internet disappeared (crazy right?) and you had no photographic evidence to support yourself, you would still have the memory, firmly imprinted on your brain, forever. A story to tell.
Last September, Julie and I booked our first trip to Europe together. As I talked about before, this is Julie’s first trip abroad (brief visits to Canada and Mexico of course, are excluded). The trip also marks the culmination of our foray into the points and […]
The other week, I overheard some of my cube mates talking about putting together a Vision Board. I definitely understand that there are some great benefits to visualizing the things you hope to achieve. If for no other reason than to keep them at the forefront […]
I absolutely love Monterey and was excited to visit the city again two years after our first trip. In 2012, we stopped in Monterey as part of a longer trip up the coast and we spent very little time getting to know the city. Other than our day trip to Big Sur, we had no concrete plans for the duration of our visit. While I love to plan and make trips detailed and organized, it’s also good from time to time to just wing it and go with the flow.