Growing Up Inside A Snow Globe… At the age of 6, my mom moved me to a new home. A magical and otherworldly wonderland home. The welcome sign at the entrance road to this unfamiliar land proclaimed that you were entering Leavenworth, Washington, the “Bavarian Village.” The sign included a new, unfamiliar, and strange looking group of letters that read…
Part I: An Early Explorer My now husband and I were tucked between two lumberjack (err, gentlemen’s) clubs and an empanada food truck on SE 82nd Avenue when he realized without a doubt he wanted to marry me in 2012. We had found our way to a Vietnamese travel agency in East Portland thanks to our building handyman, Binh Nguyen’s…
People keep asking us…what’s your favorite country? What’s your favorite food? What kind of travel apps do you use? So, we’ve compiled our top 20 list of things we’ve experienced so far... our 2018 Geney Awards! Most Epic Scenery Mestia to Ushguli Hike in Northwestern Georgia Most Charming Medieval Town... Mikulov, Czechia Most Captivating City... Kiev, Ukraine Most Siesta Friendly…
When we left in July 2018, we thought our "world trip" was going to be a two year and done situation. And, the hospitality bar was set extremely high right off the bat when we opened up our trip by staying with the amazing Ek family in Kullavik, Sweden, about an hour southwest of Gothenburg. The Eks, whom Mandy knew…
So much of the incredible Rocky Mountain landscape is designed for superlatives. From the rugged solitude of Kootenay, to the stunningly hypnotic colors of the lakes of Banff, to plentiful waterfalls of Yoho, to touring along the Ice Fields Parkway on our way to Jasper, the highest parkway on the continent, we knew a trip to the magnificent national parks…
Nicaragua is hiding something amazing. Itself. Inexplicably, Nicaragua remains off the radar of many travelers to venturing to Central America. Those who do decide to make the trek to discover it however, are rewarded with exquisitely rustic new world colonial charm found in the cities of Granada and Leon, azure lakes that defy your senses, in-your-face volcanic landscapes, three(!) types…
If you're a traveler, or even just an arm-chair fantasizer, odds are you have at one time or another lusted dreamily over the magical land of Patagonia. This slice of paradise is at the tail end of South America encompassing 260,000 square miles of pristine and breath-taking beauty between Chile and Argentina. It is known for electric blue glaciers, mountains…
Venturing to "the end of the world" is somewhere most travelers aspire to journey at least once in their lives, and although we did this trip back in February 2016, during a whirlwind 21-day tour when we still had full-time jobs, we're so happy that we got to set foot in that little sliver of a paradise called Chile. From…
