Wanderlust

How to be a high-schooler in a six steps:

1. Wake up at an ungodly hour, get dressed, eat
2. Go to school for 6 hours
3. Participate in extracurricular activities
4. Go home and do homework/study for a million hours (take a break to eat dinner with your family)
5. Finally go to sleep at an ungodly hour
6. Repeat for four years

Yep, that's generally how it goes. Every. single. day. Recently, combined with cabin-fever because of the icky cold weather, I've become dissatisfied with this daily routine. I mean I live a happy life, I am supported by loving family and friends, and I recognize my privilege, but sometimes I want to drop everything and just leave. I don't mean just a passive resort vacation. But a real travel experience.

I've also applied this to my overall life plan. I don't want to think I wasted my life fiddling away at a desk 9 am-5 pm. I've gone to Europe every year since I was a baby, and even though I've been to the same place every time, I haven't seen it all. And to know there is still an entire world waiting for me... I feel obligated to explore it.

Americans are known to be those obnoxious vacationers just visiting an area for a week, hitting all the tourist traps, then packing their bags and leaving. But that's not what I am looking for. When I say I want to travel it means I want to integrate into the culture, try to adopt a few phrases, interact with the people that live there, wherever it may be. I want to find the hidden gems: the undiscovered, raw, and unexploited areas. I want to leave with a new perspective, additional values, new knowledge and understanding.

Maybe this entire idea is laughable, completely irrational, and utterly unattainable (let alone expensive), but I really do want to travel, even if it's just to a few places. I might not find every secret, chat with all the locals, or learn all it's history, but at least I'll have a memorable adventure.

And since you (hopefully) read all of that, here are photos of some beautiful places around the world that someday I hope to visit in person.

The Grand Canyon, USA

The Milford Track, New Zealand  

Dubai, UAE


Swing at End of the World, Baños, Ecuador


Riomaggiore, Italy


Grundarfjordur Harbour, Iceland 


Cherry Blossoms in Japan


Santorini, Greece

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Where do you want to visit? Any favorite places you've been to? And if you want to see even more spectacular places around the world, click here. 

I hope everyone that is dealing with this harsh winter weather stays warm!*Take a sip from hot chocolate while snuggling in a luxurious blanket on the couch*

xoxo,
Anastasia

Linked

Via

As a pet owner, this photographic story was so happy yet heartbreaking at the same time. It takes a lot to get me to cry but I was in tears by the end.

This just came in the mail. I'm in love.

I tried out this cookie recipe and was blown away by how amazing they tasted.

These two music videos are absolutely hilarious. Every line is basically true to society these days.

Bon Voyage! I'm taking this next week off to do some exploring

Have an excellent weekend and I'll see you all next Monday

While I'm away, be sure to follow along on instagram

xoxo

HBM

Roadtrip!

This weekend, my family and I went on another mini vacation/roadtrip. The main point of this adventure was to see Beck live in concert. He is performing in Maryland, but we would be in Yellowstone on the day he would play here so we'd miss it. My whole family loves Beck and he only tours occasionally so my dad knew we had to go to a show. He bought tickets for the concert in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is a bit of a hike for us, but to make the drive more worth it, we scheduled a few stops in between. 

The trip started on Thursday when my friend, NSR, came over to bake cookies and have our mini book club and then spend the evening at the Orioles game (which they won!!). From there we dropped her off at her house at around 11pm and hit the road. We stopped at a McDonalds around midnight for a bathroom break and milkshake/coffee stop and then I passed out in the car until we got to our hotel in northern Virginia at 1 am. The next morning we left the hotel and drove for an hour or two to the drive through safari park in Natural Bridge.

Let's Go O's!!

I can now say with no doubt in my mind that emus are terrifying creatures. I was scared they'd try to eat my hand if I fed them

HA! My dad was a little worried by this

See the one with the bucket? It pulled the bucket away from my brother and poured all the food out!

I'm pretty sure I took this but what can I say? I always manage to capture the derpiest of faces...

baby bison nursing...my heart was melting

another heart melter...

..and another! This fluffy white alpaca had me freaking out and yelling at my mom and dad to take a picture

I mean can you blame me? LOOK HOW CUTE IT IS!!!

Wildebeest just casually grazing

The safari was so cool! There was the section where you could feed the animals out of buckets from your car (which was crazy...the zebras were sticking their heads in the car #what) and then, once you were done, there was a zoo portion where you could feed parakeets and have them land on your arm/finger/etc and a kangaroo walk.

The Parakeets matched my shirt ;)

See the baby's feet sticking out of the mama's pouch?

Once we were thoroughly satisfied with our safari experience, we hopped back into the car and drove 4 hours to Charlotte, NC where we checked into our hotel and grabbed a bite to eat.
Then, we saw Beck in concert.

The lead singer of the opener (The band name was the Ghost of a Saber-Tooth Tiger) was John Lennon's son (Sean Lennon). He sounded just like his dad but with an American accent

My mom decided to not bring the camera to the concert which was fine, but we ended up not getting any clear pictures of beck. I took a few videos of my favorite songs but was singing louder than I realized and my lack of pitch was captured as well (there's a reason I'm in marching band and not chorus...). Even without a ton of pictures, this was one of my best evenings ever. The live music was amazing and I can truly attest to the talent of both Beck and his band. It was so great, I got a tee shirt (bonus!!) and spent the night rocking out to some of my favorite songs.
The next morning, we drove for 4 hours to Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home during his retirement, his place of death, and his eternal resting place). Weirdly enough, it was here that I discovered my new favorite scent.
We went to the gardens first and then went on the house tour

I could see why TJ wanted to retire there...

This is the iconic image on the back of a nickel

It's just so beautiful

This is the back view

From there, we raced (and I do mean raced...) to Luray Caverns

Dream Lake

That's a reflection, not a group of stalagmites

The formation known as Pluto's Ghost. The column in the foreground is known as Persephone, or his wife

This is for a sheer size comparison. There's me in the corner, and there's and medium sized column

The largest formation in the caverns

National Geographic named this to be the most perfect draping formation

These reminded me of star-wars-esque city buildings

We were due to pick up our dogs from the doggie resort at 11 pm so we were on a bit of a time crunch but we made it home with 15 minutes to spare. Overall, this was another lovely trip and I've learned just how much I love roadtrips: the driving is calming and it's lovely to be able to see so much of our beautiful country.
How was your weekend?
xoxo
HBM