If there’s one place I could have stayed all day in London, it was the Covent Garden Market. Chris and I perused the market briefly one rainy Saturday afternoon (rain + weekend = everyone at the market), and because of our lack of patience with crowds, we just didn’t get to explore as much as I’d have liked. I would have loved to poke my camera into every little nook, and if we could have found an empty seat I definitely would have enjoyed the people-watching opportunities. Next time, I say!
Again, I have to admit I’ve been away from writing and posting once more because I was working on the final video from our Ireland/Scotland trip, and it’s done! This is my second attempt at using Premiere Pro CC and I have a lot to learn, but I’m getting there. I think I know how to use oh, five percent of the features. So if you have any video editing tips or tricks, I’m all ears!
It’s that time of the year, when it has turned unbearably cold in Virginia and I’m dreaming of sun and sand. Chris and I don’t tend to try to get away to the islands during our winter months because we typically use our free time to play in the snow, but right now we’re at the point where it’s bitterly cold without any snow. When that happens, I turn my daydreams toward beaches. Thankfully I can look back on my images of sandy shorelines, and look forward to island trips ahead (Mexico is calling our name this year)! So on that note, here are some of my most favorite beach photos from the past several years. It’s the closest to beach therapy I can get at the moment!
Would you believe the first time I remember ever going to the beach wasn’t until I was twenty years old? I grew up in land-locked Missouri and Colorado, and when I lived in Texas we were a good five hours from any sandy coastlines. My family took plenty of vacations, but not to the beach, so it wasn’t a familiar sight to me when I went on my first trip to the Outer Banks with Chris. It has taken me many many years to get used to the water, but this first trip to Corolla will always be special to me.
A few years later Chris and I found ourselves on Oahu for a conference. Despite my adventurous nature and love for exploring, I still harbored a pretty serious fear of ocean creatures at this point. So after seeing a sign on Waikiki Beach warning swimmers not to go in the water due to jellyfish swarms, that was it for me. I didn’t get in the water the entire trip! But I enjoyed gazing at the water from a distance, and of course I took pictures of the enchanting colors. These photos are actually from our return trip to Oahu in 2008 for a friend’s wedding.
When Chris’s dad invited us to spend a week with him on St. John, it began our love affair with the island and we ended up returning two more times after that. I don’t have photos of my favorite beach, Cinnamon Bay (where we went for a short snorkel before a sting ray freaked me out), but I do have a photo of one of the most photographed beaches in the Virgin Islands. Trunk Bay is the one that shows up most frequently on postcards from St. John. I snapped this photo on our third visit after a tropical storm had just visited the island.
And it’s easy to get that view of Trunk Bay – there is a road that passes by overlooking the beach, and there’s plenty of room to pull off for a photo op!
Without meaning to, I turned this post into a timeline of my ocean phobia, but this day trip to Virgin Gorda (from Tortola) was a huge turning point for me. Chris talked me into getting in the water at The Baths because he knew I’d be crazy about the cute, brightly colored fish. Sure enough, I put my face in the water to see a school of blue tangs trailing nearby, and it was enough to make my fears melt away. I’ve been more and more curious about the sea ever since.
Smuggler’s Cove on Tortola is still one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Being able to see everything around me is key to my comfort while swimming, and the crystal-clear water at Smuggler’s Cove put me right at ease.
By the time we booked a trip to Grand Cayman in 2014, I was ready to go all-in with snorkeling, diving, and playing with sting rays in the water. We missed the chance to dive on this trip, but we did get to see some stunning beaches. Seven Mile Beach and Starfish Point stand out in my mind as favorite stretches of sand on the island.
When you think of Iceland you probably don’t think of beaches, but our visit to the shores of Vik was my first sighting ever of dramatic black sand.
This long, narrow island in Belize isn’t typically known for its beaches, but we did enjoy the little strip of beach outside our villa on Ambergris Caye.
Even though this beach wasn’t really swimmable, Chris, my sister, my brother-in-law, and I loved the view from our villa in Vieques along the northern shore.
Speaking of unswimmable beaches, Chris and I had a great time exploring the rocky coastline of Ireland when we stopped at Derrynane Beach off the Ring of Kerry. It was too cold to even dip a toe in the water while we were there (and signs warn visitors not to swim there due to strong currents), but it was beautiful to photograph.
Last but not least, one of my favorites of the favorites: Saligo Bay on the Isle of Islay in Scotland. I just didn’t realize we would find such pretty beaches in Scotland, but lo and behold they’re all over, and here is one of them.
Even thinking about beaches that are too chilly for swimming makes me feel warmer on this blustery day in Virginia. I’m hoping to add some more shoreline images to my collection this year with a visit to Isla Mujeres, and I’m hoping even more that we have warm, sunny weather while we’re there. Something to look forward to, for sure!
Full disclosure: packing for a two-week trip in Ireland and Scotland gave me a fair bit of anxiety. The weather in Ireland and the UK is fairly unpredictable to start with, and on top of that I wasn’t sure if our early September trip would call for summer or fall outfits.
The temperatures for our trip ended up ranging from 55-70 degrees as the high. Most days were sunny or partly cloudy, and even when it started off with a cool morning we rarely needed all of our layers all day. My main goal was to keep our luggage very light since we were moving from eight different accommodations over the course of two weeks, so I booked a couple of places with access to a washer/dryer and planned do laundry a few times.
As far as the level of casual vs. formal, Chris and I expected to have mostly active days (tons of walking/hiking) and we wanted to eat as much pub food as possible, so jeans and casual tops were fine for us pretty much every day. I was able to wear a long-sleeve top with a scarf plus my flats for a few places when I needed to look a wee bit more polished. So here’s what I packed for fifteen days in late August and early September:
In case it helps to have some more details, here are a few of the specific things I packed:
1. Long-sleeve waffle henley from Eddie Bauer (similar); 2. Striped long-sleeve top from Loft; 3. and 4. Long-sleeve cotton crewneck tops from Nordstrom; 5. Warm puffer vest for layering (that I wore on so many days) from J. Crew Factory.
1. Soft and warm wool scarf; 2. Pretty patterned scarf; 3. Hat; 4. My favorite small camera bag to hold my SLR and a point-and-shoot; 5. Super comfortable North Face Ultra Fastpack GTX (similar) waterproof hiking shoes; 6. Tieks foldable leather ballet flats.
1. Comfortable and water-repellent Mountain Hardware Chockstone hiking pants; 2. Jeans; 3. Space Dye Strength Hoodie 2 from Athleta; 4. North Face Carli Jacket for the rain that we didn’t get (yay!).
All of our stuff went into my trusty Eagle Creek packing cubes and we each brought one carry-on suitcase. I ended up wearing everything I brought, and didn’t really feel like anything was missing. Of course, if room wasn’t an issue I would have liked to have more shoes just because, but the lone two (!) pairs I brought worked out well. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about packing for either of these places!
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For the past several big trips, I’ve created “snapshot” posts with a summary of superlatives and sidebars from our travels. It’s a fun way to me to reflect back on specific moments and to include some photos that I might not have blogged previously, so to continue that tradition here is my Scotland snapshot!
Both Ireland and Scotland have been on our must-travel list for quite a while, so it was just awesome spending a whole week in each. And, this was my most complicated itinerary to plan so far, with multiple flights involved, two rental cars, two ferries, two trains, and eight different accommodations. I was pretty anxious that something major would go wrong and foil our plans, but everything went more smoothly than I could imagine.
As for a Scotland-specific Best Moment, I couldn’t have been happier to find a Highland cow. Chris counts the whole Islay weekend as his favorite moment. I also loved my quiet morning on Calton Hill, watching the sun rise over the city.
This cringe-worthy moment is still a little fresh for me (ugh, pun not intended) and I didn’t even mention it in my post about our Islay distillery tours, but it easily wins hands-down as the Worst Moment on this trip so I suppose I have to divulge it now!
Chris and I were on the Water-to-Whisky Experience with Laphroaig, walking over a hilly pasture on the way to see the water source. I was in the back of the group pausing every so often to take photos, so I had to quicken my steps to keep up. I thought I was being careful enough with my footing, but while walking down a slope my shoe slipped on a wet patch of grass, I landed in a big pile of mud, and I slid several feet down the hill. Only it wasn’t mud.
I had smeared a thick layer of fresh cow patty all over the seat of my hiking pants, and we weren’t even half-way through the 4.5-hour tour! I had no choice but to finish the hike to the water source and sit awkwardly through lunch. Thankfully our guide was able to drop me back off at the distillery after our picnic, and I was even more thankful that Chris and I had our suitcases in the car parked at the distillery parking lot. Laphroaig even had a washing machine that I could use to launder my pants and shoes and I was able to change and meet up with the group for the rest of the tour, so it wasn’t nearly the disaster that it could have been, but it was still my least favorite moment!
Fact: overhead can lights don’t make it easy to take a decent iPhone snapshot (so the one I took below is pretty bad). Terrible food photography aside, the Malt Shovel Inn on Cockburn Street served my favorite meal in Scotland. Their traditional Bangers and Mash sounds perfect as I write this post on a cold and dreary day at home in Virginia.
The Real Mary King’s Close tour taught us about the streets and spaces that were hidden underground in 17th century Edinburgh. I think that would have been a hard concept for me to imagine if I hadn’t seen it first-hand, and it was a fascinating tour that I highly recommend to anyone visiting the city.
Outfits with layers. Half of our days in Scotland were a little on the chilly side, and the other half we found ourselves shedding jackets and scarves. It was nice to have options while still keeping our luggage to a minimum.
Rain gear! I would still recommend to anyone visiting the UK that they bring a rain jacket and I’d certainly never travel there without one, but we really lucked out with the weather and never needed our rain gear.
I deeply regret falling onto cow poop.
We only scratched the surface of Scotland. Our main goal was to see Islay and Edinburgh, and I didn’t want to squeeze much else into our one week there. I’d love to see Isle of Skye and more of the Highlands. Chris wants to cover Speyside as well, so we’ll make a return trek for sure.
Chris ranks this photo of the Laphroaig barrels in his top favorites.
And I picked a photo of Edinburgh, one of Victoria Street, and probably every single Highland cow photo we took!
