Month: November 2017

5 Easy Ways to Squeeze Travel Into Your Busy Schedule

5 Easy Ways to Squeeze Travel Into Your Busy Schedule

Do you wish you could add more trips to your busy life?  Do you scroll through Instagram and wonder how people have time to travel so much?  Here are five easy ways to squeeze travel into your busy schedule:

  1. Schedule your vacation time – Does your job offer vacation time?  Have you ever spent the whole year “saving” vacation time just in case, and ended up using it at the end of December before it expired?  Try this instead:  Think of your dream vacation destination.  What’s the best time of year to go there?  As soon as you acquire more vacation time, block off a week or two during that time of year.  Already have plans to use your vacation?  Is it a planned event, or a “someday” dream of going somewhere?  Scheduling your work’s vacation time is a great strategy for longer trips (1-2 weeks).  I want to go on a shark SCUBA dive in Nassau in the winter.  I will pick a week in December or January to block off, and then schedule my trip around that.  If you find a better travel deal on a different date, you can always tell your boss to change it.  If you’re flying somewhere to go SCUBA diving, don’t forget to schedule an off-gas day!
  2. Holidays – A holiday (three- or four-day weekend) is a great time to travel.  Since airlines jack up the prices during holidays, a better strategy might be to plan a backcountry outdoor adventure nearby.  When I lived in Phoenix, a group of friends and I went camping in Prescott National Park for Labor Day Weekend.  It was gorgeous! 
  3. Weekend Getaway – Only have two consecutive days free?  No problem!  When I was in Portland, OR, I took a weekend trip to San Francisco to visit friends from college.  We went kayaking in the San Francisco bay with wind surfers.  Note:  longer flights or car/train/bus rides and crossing multiple time zones may severely limit the time at your destination.  In extreme cases, I’ve packed a whole weekend’s worth of adventures with only one day off.
  4. Day Trip – Can’t break away for more than one day?  That’s ok!  Travel does not have to mean spending all day and night getting to a far away destination. See if there’s somewhere you’d like to go within a few hours from home.  When I lived in Atlanta, I took a day trip to Lookout Mountain to go hang gliding.
  5. Staycation – Have you ever explored your hometown (or current location) as if you were a visitor traveling there on vacation?  Check out that art gallery you’ve always wanted to see.  Or the rose garden.  Go on that hike you’ve always wanted to try.  Bonus if you have friends or family that can join you from out of town.  It will seem more like a trip because it is a trip for them!  While living in Miami, I took my mom and nephew on an airboat ride in the Everglades.  What gems does your location have to offer?

Travel does not necessarily involve having unlimited time off of work.  With a little strategy and planning, you can travel more, too!  What are your favorite ways to make time for travel?

VLOG: Packing Light Challenge

VLOG: Packing Light Challenge

I recently went on a weekend getaway trip with my mom and my dog.  My mom booked the trip on Spirit Airlines with no checked bags and no carry-on bags.  Later, I learned that the dog does not get a personal item (for food, treats, and poop bags, etc).  Here is how I packed light enough to share a personal item with the dog, and fit everything into one bag.

 

 

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How to Take FOMO worthy Selfies on a Solo Trip

How to Take FOMO worthy Selfies on a Solo Trip

Are you excited about your upcoming solo trip!?  Great!  Are you worried about how to get awesome pictures when you’re alone?  Good news, you don’t have to miss any of your favorite photo ops!  In this post, I will show you some of my favorite photos from solo trips, and explain how you can use these techniques to get great photos on your trip.  You don’t need any fancy equipment.  A smartphone with a camera is all you need to get great pictures.

Use the selfie mode on your camera:

Stand in front of a beautiful scene you’d like to capture, then turn on front facing camera.  Look at the screen and pay attention to the background.  I moved the camera around a bit in order to find the best shot for this photo overlooking downtown Miami.

 

 

 

 

Use the timer feature and a rock:

To get this picture, I set my camera to selfie mode (front facing camera), and added a 10 second timer.  I leaned my phone against a rock, hit the button, and hurried into place at Capital Reef National Park in Utah.

 

 

 

 

 

Use selfie mode and take video:

For this one, I set my camera to selfie mode and leaned it against a rock again.  This time, I skipped the timer.  Instead, I turned on the video camera to capture a video of the entire jump.  Then I chose the best frame from the video.  Note that when you use the video camera, the quality isn’t as good.

 

 

 

 

Ask a stranger:

When I was at the Grand Canyon, many strangers asked if I wanted help taking my picture.  But that’s not always the case.  If you have trouble asking strangers to take your picture, look for people trying to get a group photo/selfie.  Offer to take their picture, then ask for them to take your picture in return.

 

 

Make friends:

If you’re staying at a hostel, chances are good that you’ll go sight-seeing or out on the town with some of the other guests.  Use this opportunity to get pictures of you and your new best friends.  Clearly, I need to use this option more often.  I had to cheat and use a picture from World Domination Summit in Portland, OR.  A group of us stayed at a hostel together, but we knew each other before the conference.

 

 

 

Take pictures without you in it:

Finally, who says you have to be in every single picture?  Sometimes it’s better to capture the moment without people in the photo.  Sometimes you’ve already tried all of the above options, and didn’t quite get the shot you wanted.  This picture was taken at the Sunshine Skyway South Fishing Pier on a road trip.

 

 

 

 

Bonus:

Having trouble finding a rock to lean your phone against?  Try a small $10 smartphone tripod like this one.  The legs can bend in any direction, and it’s small enough to fit in your carry-on suitcase.

 

I have never used a selfie stick, but if I ever do, I’ll let you know how it goes.

What are your favorite ways to take pictures while travelling solo?

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Dog Kissing Booth Costume + Behind the Scenes Video

Dog Kissing Booth Costume + Behind the Scenes Video

My dog had the cheapest, easiest to make, and cutest costume – a dog kissing booth.  I literally cut a hole in a box with a case cutter and then wrote on the box in sharpie.  It only took 10 minutes.  Here’s what it looked like:


Adorable!  But getting the video was a lot harder than I expected.  I wasn’t sure how to get the box to stay around the dog’s head.  But it didn’t matter because she wanted nothing to do with the box.  So how did I get such a cute boomerang?  In the video, I walk you through the problems I had and how I worked around them.  I show you how you can recreate this scene, even if your dog hates the box.

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