Into the Wild (2 minutes from downtown)

We made it to Charleston yesterday afternoon to hang with our dearest friend Nate.

While I decided to take a nap, Lar and Nate took a quick trip over to Nature Island. Charleston is made up of a number of islands and places called islands that aren't really islands. It's all very confusing, but beautiful. 

Lar doing a little dance under some palm frawns.

Nate at home in the wild.

Greetings from Nature Island!

More Charleston photos on the way. . . we're heading off to the beach today.

CL

Sequins

I found this fantastic shirt at Vacation this weekend. It's an extra large and I have to roll up the sleeves, but I loved the colors and it was on sale for $15.


I just threw the top on over a pair of jeans so I could take a photo for this post, but I'll probably pair it with black leggings when I wear it out. Hopefully I'll have my bangs trimmed by then too!


Hope you all had a great weekend!

Check it: www.vacationisawesome.com

CL

Eat.Shop.

I love looking through city guides. I've planned whole trips and have found some of my favorite shops with them. So you can imagine how happy I was to stumble upon the Eat.Shop series. I found Eat.Shop Atlanta at a local bookstore. It has a great listing of locally-owned shops and restaurants and each page has a grouping of colorful photos from the featured businesses. Of course the guide is narrowly focused and doesn't include great landmarks like The Wren's Nest or the Cyclorama, but it would make a nice addition to anyone's travel-planning book collection.

You can purchase your copy at www.eatshopguides.com.
CL

A Trip to Oakland

With our parents in town for Thanksgiving we decided to show them the not-so-touristy sites of Atlanta. To a non-Atlantan, taking visitors to Oakland Cemetery might seem a bit morbid, but really it's an amazingly beautiful - and airy - place.

Oakland Quick Facts:

• 88 acres, located southeast of downtown Atlanta.
• Burial place of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind, golfer Bobby Jones, Joseph Jacobs, creator of Coca-Cola and Maynard Jackson, first African-American mayor of Atlanta.
• The cemetery was expanded to its present size in 1872 to provide more burial space for Confederate soldiers.
  

On Lauren (left): H&M jacket, Cheap Monday jeans, Target boots. On me: H&M jacket, American Apparel poplin tunic and leggings, Payless boots.
The cemetery is packed with ornate mausoleums:

The Lion of Atlanta guards the nearly 3000 Confederate dead:

More photos from our non-touristy adventures to come.

C.L.

Gobble Gobble

(Photo from Wish Atlanta)

Vacation Shopping

Here's the last batch of our vacation photos. We didn't do too much clothing shopping in Washington, but we did visit a handful of really cute shops.

Olga's is on Orcas Island and reminded me of a small, more elegant Anthropologie. The store was a mix of jewelry, clothing and home decor goods. The dressing room had the most beautiful wallpaper in it - like something you'd see in Domino magazine.


At a nearby shop, Lauren and I fell in love with these Mongolian-inspired Ugg-like boots. If they had been a little cheaper, we would have both gone home with a pair. I really don't know what I would have worn with them, but I'd wear them everywhere. The boots remind me of something that a celebrity would be caught wearing in US Weekly's worst dress section, which makes me like them that much more. In the end, my practical side got the best of me and all I have to remember these Mongolian ugg boots by are these photos.


I think I spent most of my money at Seattle's Pike Market. I couldn't get over the rows and rows of fresh flowers available there. We purchased a bunch of Sweet Peas for $5! That kind of money might get you a few carnations in Atlanta - if you're lucky.

CL

Eats

One of the best things about going on vacation is trying different types of food. The northwest isn't necessarily an exotic location, but the delicious food we hand certainly deserves to be mentioned in its own blog post.

Of course there is an abundance of coffee shops/cafes in Seattle and the surrounding areas, so we got our fill of the stuff. Lauren enjoyed her iced espresso in downtown Seattle.


Being so close to the ocean meant eating fresh seafood almost everyday - except for our cook-out on the beach where we feasted on hot dogs, chips, hard cider and s'mores. We also filled up on Rainer cherries and golden raspberries.

It was a lot of fun picking oysters then cleaning them, shucking them and eating them at the oyster farm. It was my first time eating raw oysters without a ton of lemon butter or cocktail sauce and I'll admit that I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious they were.



Other meals included mussels and crab cakes - yum.
Even though it was 10:00 in the morning, we stopped by Dick's, a Seattle fast food institution, for strawberry and chocolate milkshakes.

You can't visit Seattle without going to the Pike Place Market. I found it a bit overwhelming because it was so crowded, but it has yet to turn into a really touristy-type place (apart from the original Starbucks, which was a madhouse). We spent a while at the German meat market shop. Maris' green dress complimented the colorful packages of the German baked goods, jams and pickled-things. The Three Girls Bakery has the best chocolate macaroons and ginger cookies. After Pike Place we stopped by Uwajimaya, an amazing Asian market where we bought sushi and my all-time favorite cha siu baau (steamed buns).

Having just returned from Hong Kong, Maris brought back these cute cookie tins for all of us. I love the guy on the front and the cute designs on the back. The little cakes that come inside are separated by flavor. Given my past experiences with Asian desserts, I know they can either be really good or really, really bad - so I have yet to muster up the courage to try a cake. Until then, I'll enjoy the cute packaging.

4th of July would not be complete without pie.
CL

Lavender Fields

One of the best things about Friday Harbor (and there's a lot) is the Pelindaba Lavender field. You can cut your own lavender or go to the gift shop for an endless amount of stuff made with lavender. They have everything from lavender ice cream to lavender all purpose cleaner.



CL

At One With Nature...almost

The views from the islands were amazing. On Orcas Island you get a clear view of Mt. Baker.

The climate of the San Juan Islands is similar to that of the UK. There are flowers everywhere.
We stopped by an alpaca farm on the way to Roche Harbor. Pretty gosh, darn cute.
Frick and Frack. Two baby raccoons by the beach.
An oyster field. We chose to buy the ones that had already been picked, which made for a faster cleaning process.
Having fun with bits of dried-up seaweed.
Have to wonder what the message of this etching is.
CL

Vacation Outfits

We tried to go against our nature and pack lightly for our trip to the northwest. This was a difficult task considering that we had to plan for hot days and cold nights. During the day we wore skirts and shorts with tees and at night we wore skinny jeans with hoodies, jackets and scarves.
We took a couple of ferry rides around the San Juan Islands and passed the time by reading and writing in our journals. Lauren protected her nose from sunburn with a scarf, which resulted in a kind of international waters-pirate look (top right) and Maris relaxed with her large Marc Jacob sunglasses (bottom left).
I didn't realize until after reviewing our photos that we wore mostly blue on the trip.
Lauren's outfits were more colorful than mine with more reds and purples.
Bundled up and eating breakfast on the 7 am ferry to Friday Harbor.

CL

Greetings from Seattle!

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the brief hiatus. We were expecting to have readily available internet access to keep you updated on the ins and outs of Friday Harbor and Seattle. No such luck, but never fear! We will be back in the ATL tomorrow with high-speed internet (I can tell you, I have not missed dail-up... attempting to upload just one photo is driving me insane) and photoshop. Look forward to some gorgeous pictures of the pacific northwest...we're in love.
LL