Stephanie and Andras
Stephanie and Andras Joined: April 9th 2007
Logged in: February 13th 2012
Logged in: February 13th 2012
Back-Logged Blogs: New York City, San Diego, Oregon Trail
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Travel Blog Posts
4th of July Fireworks
Happy Birthday America! Wow. Over 40,000 shells in an array of colors ranging from the predictable red, white and blue to the dazzling gold and silver shimmers and even green, orange, turquoise and purple, juxtaposed with the black inky waters of the Hudson and the steel and concrete skyline of Manhattan. These pyrotechnics were certainly part of the largest fireworks we’ve ever seen. Andras even stated (unprompted, mind you) that a day spent sitting on a New Jersey sidewalk was well worth it, and that he was very glad we didn't decide to call it quits when it started getting hot and we were looking to run out of a water. That should tell you how amazing this was. Because we found ourselves in a major metropolitan area this 4th of July, we decided to fore-go ... read more
Springtime in Central Park
I have a difficult time deciding on a favorite season, but when it comes to spring in New York I must admit that for all the pros, I can think of very few cons. Flowers everywhere, with such a vibrancy as everyone slowly emerges from a season of black wool and boots to colorful sundresses and sandals. A time when picnics supplement dinner reservations and productivity slowly gives way to long, meandering walks in the park. After months of dismal weather the sun emerged over the weekend showering the streets with a explosion of petals as trees burst forth with blooms and buds. Because I've been in "thesis mode" for the past several weeks, it took a little convincing from Andras to put down the books, step away from the keyboard, and emerge from my academic ... read more
Rathrevor Beach
As the day ends we watch the tide slowly wash away the products of the day - sand castles melting away under the persistent rising water, removing away all residue and reminders of the days activities. It's the perfect metaphor. Awakening to a new day, a new beach and a new start. Rathrevor Beach Provincial Park is incredible; I would have never imagined that such an endless expanse of sandy beach existed anywhere this far north along the west coast. The shallow shelf allow what feels like miles of exposed shoreline to appear every day as the water recedes. It was an entirely unplanned stop. The original 'plan' was to leave Point-no-Point and zig-zag a path across the island out to Tofino, but Andras spotted a one-page article on Rathrevor in one of the magazines at ... read more
Sunset from the Balcony
Vancouver Island is beautiful, especially once you start moving away from the strait and venture closer towards the coast of the Pacific. Wild berries, eagles, seals, crashing ocean waves, water worn pebbles, the sound of gulls riding a current and the fresh scent of fir and pine. Magnificent! It's as if all the quintessence of the northwest has somehow been condensed and put on display for all to see and experience in one spot - which really, if you think about it, is what transforms a location into a locale, particularly one visitors might desire to visit. The lure of such imagined Northwestiness was too strong to resist, especially for two Northwesterners, and even when our actual experiences failed to align with our anticipated ones, the lovely thing about memory is that you can conveniently neglect ... read more
Legislative Building at Sunset
Andras gets only one week of vacation a year (one!) but with a brand new passport in his hand, and an underused one in mine, a trip outside the border was imperative - so hello Canada! For the longest time American citizens didn't need a passport to cross back-and-forth over the 49th parallel and the city of Vancouver is similar to Seattle in so many ways that in order to feel like we were actually "going someplace else" we ferried across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the decidedly more European feeling city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, and spent our time there rather than on the mainland. As the legislative seat, the atmosphere of Victoria certainly puts the 'British' in British Columbia, at least as far as two Yanks are concerned, and if one ... read more
The beach at Coney Island
It's a strange peculiarity of east-coasters to refer to 'summer' as a verb, whether it is to "summer in Martha's Vineyard" or "going to summer upstate." Being the impoverished graduate students that we are, my roommate and I decided to "summer at Coney Island" the last weekend before our classes were to start. This involved a ridiculously long ride on the subway, stopping every two blocks as we made our way down to the shores of the Atlantic. Apparently, two hours on the F train gets to where the N train will take you in 45 minutes, but we didn't know this. So we sat, and waited. And waited and waited, stalled somewhere in Brooklyn wondering what possessed us to wake up so gosh-darn early in the first place as we glanced around the empty subway ... read more
Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline
When Andras and I first arrived in New York back in August, it was with an anticipated mixture of glee (at having never been to NYC before), uncertainty (at the prospect of settling into to an entirely new environment), and sorrow (at having to say goodbye to each other at the end of the trip). I had already made a reconnaissance trip back in July to sign a lease and meet my new roommate, whom I would be living with while I attended graduate school at NYU, so for me this trip was all about the big move. For Andras, it was his week of vacation to help me get settled in before we embarked on our hardest journey to date - a long distance relationship separated by over 2,000 miles of the sprawling North American ... read more
Odd Man Out
Did you ever watch the Wizard of Oz and in that scene where Dorothy et al are running through the endless red poppy fields trying to reach the Emerald City think "I wish I could do that!" Same here! Well we finally made it to the tulip festival (fittingly, a few hours north of Seattle, our own "Emerald City"). I've been wanting to visit the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival with Andras for years. Not only does the area transform into a photographers dream, but acres upon acres of wildly colored flower fields cannot manifest any feelings other than happiness. Last year the rare April snow delayed the bloom and our work schedules prevented us from leaving the city and this year the weather almost threatened to do the same thing, but during the last few days ... read more
Happy Holidays from Seattle!
We've been hunkered down riding out the extremely uncharacteristic winter weather for the past week or so, and it finally looks like it's going to let up this weekend. Who would have thought Seattleites would actually be looking forward to a forecast of 40F and rain. One of the news reporters this morning commented that we'd be waving the white flag of surrender to Mother Nature but it would just blend into the background. After a series of snowstorms have hit the area, we're waiting out the longest stretch of snow this area has seen in several decades! I'm not complaining. I love snow and miss that we don't regularly get a blast of white powder raining down from above every December. Transportation has been a complete mess for the past week though, what with the ... read more
Vines on Red Mountain
There is something so inherently classy and romantic about the great wine regions of the world. The quaint reserve of Riems, the misty mornings in Napa Valley, the feed store in Prosser with the heavy-set lady pushing an equally hefty child in a stroller out front....okay that last one doesn't exactly fit the idyllic image you get when you think of wine country, but then again this area is young. Up and coming. It hasn't yet traded it's rustic, agricultural charm for formulaic tourist facade, although that transformation is on the horizon. It's that very principle that makes the Yakima Valley area both refreshing and challenging to visit. On one hand, many wine makers are still so involved in the development of their product that you can speak with them personally in a tasting room instead ... read more
