In April 2024 my son and I ventured on an epic trip to NYC and then on to upstate NY and Vermont to be in totality for the solar eclipse. It was my son’s first time in the city. The day we arrived it was very rainy and windy. But before the worst of it set in we made our way from our Flower District hotel through Madison Square Garden area and to Times Square and got some great pics of the bright lights reflected on the wet pavement. 

Despite the continuing rain the next day, and against our better judgement, we made our way to the top of the Empire State Building. It was so windy on top that it felt like your phone was going to fly right out of your hand. My one regret was not having Will take a slo-mo video of the wind blowing my hair around. It was insane. Despite it looking like this, we had a good time:

Our third day the skies cleared and we made the most of it. We made our way from the Flower District through Chelsea Park to The High Line and Hudson Yard. Then we worked our way through the Garment District for a brief stop in Bryant Park and a pop in to Grand Central. Here are some random pics from all of our adventures that day.

I’m revisiting my travels over the last several years and finally posting a few trips I’ve taken since post-COVID. Like most people, I took the quarantine very seriously so there is definitely a gap between pre-COVID and post-COVID travels. Plus some really intense personal issues interfered in my leaving my hometown for a very, very long time. Finally in 2022, I ended up taking a couple of small and rather local trips. I always love traveling because it inspires and ignites my interest in taking photos. This blog post is dedicated to just a couple of small trips I made to North Carolina. I started small. 

First up is a girl’s grip to Asheville in June. My best friend and I traveled all around the city on an e-bike with The Flying Bike.  These pics are from our e-bike tour but also from our hotel room and a walk we took down by the river and near the River Arts District. 

My second trip in 2022 was also a hyper-local trip to Highlands, NC with my son in July. These pictures were taken in and around downtown Highlands. 

Laura is my “oldest” friend. We met in the 5th grade, which means we’ve known each other for nearly 40 years. That is almost unfathomable to me – not only that we are *that* old but that our friendship has endured for so long. Late in 2019 I decided that 2020 had to be a year when I let go of almost everything else and instead committed to traveling and to re-connecting with friends. So I told Laura and Mark that I was coming to Arizona! I had not seen them in 10 years! And I bought my ticket in early February and I flew on virtually the same day that everyone started freaking out about the Corona Virus. So the flight over and back was filled with internal reminders not to touch your face! And constant hand sanitizing! And hoping I didn’t end up on the plane next to someone who was coughing or sneezing. 

I arrived at the Tucson airport around noon and my friends had a full weekend planned for us! We went directly to the good stuff: Saguaro National Park. Because we were getting a late start we just did the driving tour and got out of the car for a couple of small forays off the road and into desert to take a closer look at things. Of course, this was like nothing I’d ever seen before! I was immediately in awe at the beauty of the Sonora Desert. 

Day 2 we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and saw a variety of different animals in addition to all the unique cacti. I was so enamored with the landscape and those Saguaro littering the hills in every direction you looked. And I don’t think I could begin to count the number of different types of cacti that I saw. 

Day 3 we were threatened with rain but we drove over to Sabino Canyon anyway and took the open air shuttle tour up to the top.  I didn’t snap too many pictures because I didn’t want my camera to get wet. I think the rain clouds made for some very dramatic scenes. It was another day of feeling in complete awe of the beauty of this planet. Sabino Canyon was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was pretty magical.

On the morning of my last day we drove over to Tubac, Arizona, which is a small artist community with tons of small stores full of local art.