Written by Julie Boyd | Photography by Julie Boyd I first fell in love with Quaking Aspen trees when my family and I visited the Eastern Sierra in October of 2009. The trees burst into vibrant amber hues all around the June Lake Loop. On […]
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 […]
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 to take the next step in my full-time job, which required a move to Northern California. As two kids born and raised in Southern California, it’s been a big change for us to move to a new city. Though we are sad to leave our first home, we are so excited to explore the many destinations in our new backyard!
So what have we been up to so far?
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. […]
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 the scenery of the high altitude trails. People ask us all the time for advice on what hikes to do, so here are some of our favorite trails in Southern California.
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 […]
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 […]
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 enough sunlight left to explore our home for the next three nights. Kananaskis, and the area it encompasses, is named after the river which runs through it. If we had more time, this is definitely somewhere we would loved to have explored further. There are supposed to be some great hikes in this area, though several of the places we stopped at were closed and warned of bears in the area. For that reason, and because it was later in the day, we only made a couple of brief stops to check out the scenery.
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 […]
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. In that spirit, we’re excited about our next two planned trips! Here’s what we’re looking forward to as we hit the halfway point of 2016:
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 […]
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 on the move, our pace slowed down when we reached Dublin, and it was a welcome change. Aside from exploring the city, the only other item on our must visit list was the Cliffs of Moher. It’s nearly impossible to think about Ireland and not envision the striking views from the cliffs. Arguably the most popular tourist destination in the country, the cliffs are a tremendous draw for tourists looking to soak in the Emerald Isle.
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 […]
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Brian Callender & Julie Boyd 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 […]
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 trips while staying in London (Windsor & Oxford) a strike would almost certainly impact our plans (spoiler alert: it did, big time). Knowing this, we made our way out to visit the town of Windsor and its famous castle.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Brian Callender & Julie Boyd 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 […]
Written By Brian Callender | Photography by Brian Callender & Julie Boyd 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 […]
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 to spare (they close at noon are not open on Sundays) savings ourselves a headache later on. No longer able to rely on our trusty little Toyota, we were back to public transportation and hopped on a bus headed for Edinburgh city center.
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 […]
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 on to Edinburgh. Originally, the flight we had booked was scheduled to depart at 12:35 p.m. but at some point, had been bumped up to 10:55 a.m. This change, although pushing us out the door earlier, allowed us some extra time between flights once we landed in Newark. That extra time served us well in finding a place to sit down, eat dinner, and catch the second half of the USA vs. Germany World Cup soccer match. Arriving at the airport early, we made it through security with time to spare and sat down to a quick breakfast.
Following dinner and a USA win while in Newark, we caught our connecting flight, waited through an hour delay, and made our way to Edinburgh.
Written by Brian Callender | Photography by Brian Callender “You’re off to great places, today is your day!” ~ Dr. Seuss
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 […]
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.
I love vacations. The longer the vacation, the more I forget about my regular work life and the cubicle walls I sit behind. But smaller trips have their perks as well. Sometimes, we just don’t have the time or flexibility in our schedules to really […]