Our Travel Adventures

My husband and I started traveling very early on in our relationship. Our first trip was just under a year in while we were seniors in college and it was a road trip to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. In retrospect it was super ballsy to go on a road trip, sleep in the car one night no less, with someone who I was pretty convince (aka 10000% sure) I was going to marry but had been dating for less than a year. Oh and we were college level broke. But hey! It not only worked out but quickly set us off on a score of trips that have only brought us closer together (even when we argue about the right way to walk on the side of the road in Italy…).

This is a list of all of our trips, with related blog posts linked below!

Johns Hopkins campus

2013 Spring Break Baltimore & Washington, D.C. Road Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 9 days
  • Accommodations: our car (seriously), Best Western in McLean, VA, the floor of my sister’s dorm in Johns Hopkins, & some hostel in D.C.
  • Favorite Memory: eating at a hole-in-the-wall Ethiopian restaurant in D.C. because we got to step into a different world for a bit!
  • Least Favorite Memory: nearly freezing to death in the car, I underestimated late February temperatures in the South

Blog Posts:

2013-2014 Winter Break Italy Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 14 days
  • Accommodations: a combination of hostels & tiny studio apartments
  • Favorite Memory: mass at St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Francis at his first Christmas Vigil – I still can’t believe I got those tickets!
  • Least Favorite Memory: being a wimp going to bed early on New Year’s Eve while in Florence

Blog Posts:

2014-2015 Winter Break Virginia Road Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: ~8 days
  • Accommodations: a glam yurt (Mongolian tent) on the Shenandoah Valley BlueGreen timeshare resort
  • Favorite Memory: visiting the gorgeous Luray Caverns for the third time
  • Least Favorite Memory: freezing in a horse-drawn carriage ride

Blog Posts:

2015 President’s Day Weekend Savannah Road Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 3 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb room in a historic home
  • Favorite Memory: mass in the gorgeous St. John the Baptist Cathedral
  • Least Favorite Memory: expecting, and not finding, a plantation at Wormsloe Historic Site

Blog Posts:

2015 Spring Break Colombia Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 8 days
  • Accommodations: hostel in Bogota & my best friend’s student housing in Tunja
  • Favorite Memory: spending a Friday of Lent inside the immense Salt “Cathedral” in Zipaquira
  • Least Favorite Memory: the mini-bombs that went off at the university while we were there from student protestors

Blog Posts:

2016 Summer Cape Cod Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 8 days
  • Accommodations: Will’s aunt’s house for FREE
  • Favorite Memory: walking around the incredibly charming Martha’s Vineyard
  • Least Favorite Memory: not finishing the Museum of Fine Art (I went back another time!)

Blog Posts:

2015 Summer Panama City Beach AP Summer Workshop

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 7 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb studio apartment
  • Favorite Memory: seeing the sunset on the beach
  • Least Favorite Memory: the trashy people all over the place

Blog Posts:

2016 Summer Costa Rica

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 6 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb room in Jaco Beach & an AirBnb house in the mountains in Monteverde
  • Favorite Memory: walking out onto our porch nestled in the mountains
  • Least Favorite Memory: the trashy town by Jaco Beach

Blog Posts:

2016 Thanksgiving New York City & Boston

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 8 days
  • Accommodations: my cousin’s studio apartment in NYC for FREE & Will’s aunt’s house in Cape Cod for FREE
  • Favorite Memory: Seeing my first Vermeer in person at the Frick Collection
  • Least Favorite Memory: squeezing 3 adults into a tiny studio apartment but hey it was FREE!

Blog Posts:

2016-2017 Winter Break Germany

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 14 days
  • Accommodations: various AirBnb apartments
  • Favorite Memory: the scary, crazy night that was New Year’s Eve
  • Least Favorite Memory: the overnight train from Munich to Berlin where Will & I had to share a bunk bed

Blog Posts:

2017 President’s Day Weekend Tampa Bay Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 3 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb in a suburb outside of Tampa
  • Favorite Memory: spending time in the Dali Museum alone as Will chaperoned a Marine Science Bowl team
  • Least Favorite Memory: my car battery 100% died as I pulled up to my uncle’s house

Blog Posts:

2017 Spring Break Belgium & The Netherlands

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 8 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb studio apartment in Brussels & a hostel in Amsterdam
  • Favorite Memory: each of the beautifully quiet Beguinages (Bejinhofs)
  • Least Favorite Memory: not getting to see my favorite painting, The Milkmaid, because she was in Paris and I didn’t know

Blog Posts:

2017 Summer New York City Road Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 7 days
  • Accommodations: air mattress in my best friend’s living room & my cousin’s studio apartment in D.C.
  • Favorite Memory: seeing one of my best friends after such a long time & hanging out with her and her husband
  • Least Favorite Memory: the heat that is involved in a summer trip through the South

Blog Posts:

2017 Religious Worlds of New York NEH Summer Workshop

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 3 weeks
  • Accommodations: dormitory at the Union Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights, NYC
  • Favorite Memory: every house of worship we got access to
  • Least Favorite Memory: New York City feels like Hell in the summer heat

Blog Posts:

2017 Fall Weekend Washington D.C. Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 3 days
  • Accommodations: random hotel picked by my travel companion
  • Favorite Memory: seeing a few new pieces from the AP Art History curriculum
  • Least Favorite Memory: not seeing The Milkmaid by Vermeer because she was the ONE piece from the exhibit not to cross the Atlantic Ocean

Blog Posts:

2017 Thanksgiving Southern California

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 9 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb room in San Diego, my aunts house outside of L.A., & AirBnb room in Canyon Lake
  • Favorite Memory: meeting awesome family for Thanksgiving
  • Least Favorite Memory: our flight on Frontier over was the most uncomfortable thing ever

Blog Posts:

2017-2018 Winter Break Yucatán, Mexico

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 9 days
  • Accommodations: my aunts beach house outside of Progresso & hotel in Valladolid
  • Favorite Memory: walking along the beach, buying fresh fish from the boat & frying it at home
  • Least Favorite Memory: the crappy, rainy weather we had for New Year’s Day

Blog Posts:

2018 President’s Day Weekend New York City Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 3 days
  • Accommodations: my aunts house in Long Island, New York
  • Favorite Memory: being in the city when my baby cousin was born & winning the baby delivery pool
  • Least Favorite Memory: only having a weekend with family in one of my favorite places & the fact that Will couldn’t join me

Blog Posts:

2018 Summer Andalusia, Spain

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 9 days
  • Accommodations: AirBnb apartment in Cordoba, AirBnb apartment in Granada, & an AirBnb apartment in Seville
  • Favorite Memory: although there were many, stepping inside to the rhythmically gorgeous Mezquita in Cordoba was a dream
  • Least Favorite Memory: missing our flight in Madrid to Seville, luckily the next flight was only an hour afterwards but it sucks when you are in an all out sprint in the airport just to realize there was no way you were ever going to make it

Blog Posts:

2015 A Reverence for Words: Understanding Muslim Culture through the Arts NEH Summer Workshop

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 2 weeks
  • Accommodations: NYU dormitory in Brooklyn
  • Favorite Memory: encountering truly breathtaking Islamic poetry and music for the first time
  • Least Favorite Memory: there were a few lectures that didn’t jive with me or rambled without purpose

Blog Posts:

2018 Fall Weekend Daytona Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 2 days
  • Accommodations: Airbnb on Daytona Beach
  • Favorite Memory: walking around this beautiful garden/nature preserve hearing nothing but the crunching on my own shoes
  • Least Favorite Memory: I got bored alone on day 2 while Will was in his tennis workshop

Blog Posts:

2018 Fall Weekend Cape Cod Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 2.5 days
  • Accommodations: the hotel suggested for the wedding
  • Favorite Memory: attending the lovely wedding of Will’s cousin & the fantastic family part afterwards
  • Least Favorite Memory: that we couldn’t stay longer in the gorgeous New England fall

Blog Posts:

2019 Spring Break Athens & Aegean Cruise School Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 8 days
  • Accommodations: hotel chosen by travel company & Crystal Cruise Ship
  • Favorite Memory: spending the day wandering around Rhodes in peace
  • Least Favorite Memory: trying to keep track of 40+ participants at one time & trying not to lose anyone

Blog Posts:

2018-2019 Winter Break Umbria & Tuscany, Italy

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 10 days
  • Accommodations: monastery in Assisi with French cloistered nuns, AirBnb apartment in Siena, youth hostel in Rome, & airport hotel in Copenhagen
  • Favorite Memory: exploring the adorable town of Pienza
  • Least Favorite Memory: Will getting sick and having to adjust our day-to-day plan so he could rest

Blog Posts:

2019 Dimensions of the Middle East Duke University Summer Workshop

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 1 week
  • Accommodations: hotel in downtown Durham (provided by the Qatari Foundation International)
  • Favorite Memory: hearing the sorrowful and emotional music of a Muslim rapper
  • Least Favorite Memory: the bigoted “reporter” who wrote a nasty anti-Islamic article on the program

Blog Posts:

2019 Teaching the Holocaust through Visual Culture NEH Summer Workshop

Trip Stats:

  • Length: 2 weeks
  • Accommodations: dormitory at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
  • Favorite Memory: getting to meet eminent scholars of Holocaust & Nazi art research
  • Least Favorite Memory: the debacle of my canceled flight home that caused me to stay an (expensive) night in Boston

Blog Posts:

2019 Thanksgiving Charleston Road Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Days: 8 days
  • Accommodations: Riverside Hotel in St. Marys, GA, AirBnb room in Beaufort, SC & our friends’ house outside Charleston, SC
  • Favorite Memory: the feral horses on Cumberland Island were just such a delight, especially on the beach
  • Least Favorite Memory: having to grade DBQ essays while on the trip, I did not plan that out well

Blog Posts:

COMING UP! 2020 Winter Break Pennsylvania Road Trip

Trip Stats:

  • Days: 15 days
  • Accommodations: our neighbor’s parent’s cabin in Cherry Log, GA, my cousin’s empty apartment in Washington, DC, & AirBnb in Philadelphia & Scranton, PA
  • Favorite Memory: TBD
  • Least Favorite Memory: TBD

Blog Posts: