travel | loveliness. | Page 20

Category: travel
- lady liberty
  
  Posted at 8:19 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 21, 2014
  
  On a bitterly cold morning in NYC, at the crack of dawn basically which seemed like a good plan when I was planning our trip, but didn’t take into account the drinking into the wee hours of the night before, we loaded onto a boat to go see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
  
  We stood up at the very front of the boat, outside, to get the best view, but we were completely alone. Everyone else was inside the cabin, warm and toasty and looking at us like we were nuts. My mother pointed out that she lives in Canada and it’s way colder there. I reminded her that I’ve been living in Hawaii and California for the last seven years, and helpfully offered to push her in the water so she could remember what it felt like to be freezing.
  
  Once we got to Liberty Island, we climbed up about 250 stairs to the top of the platform. The Statue of Liberty is definitely smaller than I thought it was going to be, it looks absolutely enormous in all of the movies and shows I’ve ever seen, but it was still really neat to see it in person.
  
  I was also surprised and a little worried that I was the only person I could see to have posted an upskirt shot on Instagram. You learn new things about yourself everyday, apparently, like the fact that you are a kind of a pervert.`
  
  As we were leaving Liberty Island, we noticed an empty tour boat heading to New Jersey that nobody was on. We asked the guy where we would get tickets, thinking we might go over and have lunch in New Jersey, and he gave us the strangest look and said “New Jersey? You don’t need tickets for New Jersey. Who would pay to go to New Jersey?”. He was not wrong.
  
  Posted in exploring, New York, travel | 3 Comments | Tagged exploring, New York, statue of liberty, tourists
- top of the rock
  
  Posted at 5:56 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 19, 2014
  
  One of the coolest things we did in NYC was go up to the top of Rockefeller Plaza and look out at the city. We actually had tickets to go up right before sunset so we could see the day, the sunset, and the night views, but we had some issues with the hotel we were at so we ended up having to go later.
  
  The view is really amazing from up there, you know there are a lot of people in New York, but seeing all of the lights stretching out for miles and miles in each direction is pretty humbling. It was a pretty warm night so we stayed up there for quite awhile just marveling at the beautiful view and taking pictures.
  
  I was fairly devastated when I saw this a few days later. It was on The Tonight Show on Monday, and we were up there on Saturday, so it was likely filmed sometime over the weekend.
  
  If we would have made our earlier ticket time, it would have been me he was photo bombing, and then I could have been in a photo with, and possibly met Jon Hamm. And then I would have probably just jumped off the roof and ended it, because there is really no where to go from there but down.
  
  Posted in exploring, New York, travel, USA | 1 Comment | Tagged city lights, jimmy fallon, jon hamm, New York, photo bomb, rockefeller plaza, top of the rock
- central park
  
  Posted at 9:41 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 17, 2014
  
  We flew into NYC at 5:30 am last Friday. After a few hours of creeping around trying to figure out where we were supposed to be going, we found our hotel in Midtown, dropped off our bags, and set out to explore the city. The very first place we stopped was Central Park.
  
  It was a gorgeous day, apparently it had been cold for weeks before we got there, so the park was full of people running, walking and playing hockey. It was amazing to see the huge, beautiful park surrounded on all sides by towering skyscrapers. We climbed up on top of one of the big boulders and just sat there people watching and sunning ourselves like lizards.
  
  One of the things I liked most about New York was how easy it was to get around everywhere, either on the subway or just walking. We walked about 10 miles a day every day we were in the city. If I lived there, I would have legs of steel.
  
  We visited Central Park several times on our trip, and just spent hours walking through and looking at all of the sites, including the Belvedere castle which I thought was in my imagination since we walked all over the park and couldn’t find it, but we eventually made it there on our last stroll.
  
  There were lots of great things about our time in New York, but those first few hours in Central Park were definitely one of my favourite things. It reminded me so much of spring time in Canada, when you finally feel the sun on your face after months of bitter cold, and even though there is still snow on the ground you can finally feel the end in site. Everything smells fresh and clean, and you just want to go play outside.
  
  Posted in exploring, New York, travel, USA | 2 Comments | Tagged Alice in Wonderland, belvedere castle, Central Park, exploring, hockey, life, nyc, travel
- manhattan
  
  Posted at 3:45 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 11, 2014
  
  Our time in New York is going so fast, only two more days and we’re off to Toronto. It’s been such a busy, fun week though.
  
  I worked from our Manhattan office today, it was really nice to finally meet a bunch of people in person that I’ve been talking to every day for months.
  
  Also, I found a place that makes really good lemon drops so I’m pretty much all set.
  
  Posted in exploring, life, New York, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged lemon drop, Manhattan, New York, travel
- ny
  
  Posted at 4:23 pm by jasminedesirees, on March 6, 2014
  
  I actually can’t believe it even as I’m typing this, but we are leaving for New York tomorrow. Also I haven’t even started packing, so right on schedule then.
  
  Some of the things I want to see are:
  
  Statue of Liberty : This one is pretty obvious, I think it’ll be pretty neat to see in person after seeing so many images of it all my life. Or maybe it’ll be super underwhelming and actually be like 10 feet tall, like the Mona Lisa is apparently very tiny and unimpressive.
  
  Metropolitan Museum of Art: I’m really excited to visit The Met, and my mom is a painter, so it’ll be really fun to go see it with her.
  
  9/11 Memorial: I remember exactly what I was doing when I found out about the attack on the World Trade Center. I was sitting on the bathroom vanity doing my makeup, and I heard my dad yelling from upstairs.
  
  Central Park: I’ve always wanted to visit Central Park, especially Belvedere Castle. Even though it’s just going to be one big snowball, it’ll still be awesome to see. Actually I’m pretty excited about the snow, it’s been too long.
  
  The Plaza hotel: I’ve wanted to visit the Plaza for so long that I can’t even remember when it started. I suspect that it was when I was about 9 years old, when I started reading The Babysitter’s Club books my Ann M. Martin. Stacey was my favourite character, and her favourite book was Eloise, a story about a young girl that lived in the Plaza hotel. I’ve never even read Eloise, I guess I just assumed that if Stacey liked it, it was probably amazing. It probably is.
  
  And tons of other things. I know it’s all super touristy stuff, I’m also just excited to creep around and do some exploring, but I want to have a list just in case we do have some free time, we won’t waste it trying to think of what we want to do.
  
  We’re going to be staying with a friend in Brooklyn for most of our visit, and I’ll be working out of our Manhattan office, or as is more likely, getting lost on the subway and crying on a street corner.
  
  I’d love to hear any suggestions that anybody has for fun places to visit, or great restaurants!
  
  Posted in exploring, life, New York, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged Brooklyn, Central Park, Chicago, explore, Manhattan, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, statue of liberty, Times Square, travel
- a house in the sky
  
  Posted at 8:46 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 25, 2014
  
  I recently finished reading A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout. The memoir describes her time traveling the world as a freelance journalist, and her eventual kidnapping by Muslim extremists in Somalia, where she was raped, beaten, and held for ransom for over a year.
  
  Amanda is a Canadian girl, she grew up only a few hours away from me, so this story hit home for me even more. She came from an unstable home, and moved out as soon as she was old enough. She spent time as a waitress in Calgary, and managed to save a lot of money. She had never left the country, or done any traveling, but she booked herself a ticket to South America, where she traveled around for months.
  
  She began returning to Calgary to earn enough money to travel, and then spending six months at a time away traveling the world, eventually making her way to the war torn countries of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where she began working as a freelance journalist and photographer as a way to earn more traveling money, even though she had no experience or schooling.
  
  From there, she went on to Somalia, hoping for her “big break” as a journalist. After only 3 days in the country, she was taken.
  
  It was a really great read, I knew what the memoir was about before I started reading, but even though I knew where her story would eventually lead, I was still envious over her travels, and entranced with her descriptions of her adventures and all of the amazing places she was able to visit.
  
  It was difficult to read about her terrifying ordeal, every time it seemed like things were about to turn around for her, they would actually get worse, but she was very brave, and lived to tell her story.
  
  Amanda still travels the world, and she started a non-profit foundation to help provide education and aid in Kenya and Somalia.
  
  You can order A House in the Sky here.
  
  Posted in books, travel, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged A House in the Sky, Amanda Lindhout, books, Canada, Journalist, memoir, reading, Somalia
- bolinas
  
  Posted at 4:49 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 18, 2014
  
  This last week was kind of a strange one, I just couldn’t muster up the energy to do anything, and I’ve been really tired. The long weekend helped a bit, especially since we got out of the Bay and went for a day trip to the Marin county coast, touring around Olema, Bolinas and Point Reyes. It was kind of cold to be out at the beach, but it was so nice to just be outside and to be surrounded by trees.
  
  One of the things I noticed when I lived in Honolulu was that sometimes I would just get really grouchy and lethargic, without a real reason why. Then we would jump in the car and leave the city, head to North Shore or Lanikai for the day, and I would instantly feel better. Being surrounded by people and buildings and cars all the time is just not great for me, and sometimes I need to get away from all of those things and recharge.
  
  We stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant in Olema, did a bit of wandering around on the cliffs at Bolinas, and made our way to Limantour beach, which was gorgeous, but freezing. We finished off the day in Point Reyes, with a visit to the Cowgirl Creamery.
  
  Posted in art, exploring, life, travel, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged beach, bolinas, Cowgirl Creamery, exploring, hiking, limantour beach, Marin county coast, Northern California, ocean, Olema, Point Reyes
- birthday-ness
  
  Posted at 9:01 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 11, 2014
  
  One of my really good friends is getting married in Toronto on my birthday, which is really exciting. I get to go back to Canada, hopefully see some snow and also gorge myself on Canadian treats( I’ve already been Googling the Toronto airport to find out where the Tim Horton’s are located, I wish I was kidding) and also celebrate the marriage of one of my favourite people.
  
  I am also VERY excited, because the company I work for has an office in New York. Since we’re going to be on the East Coast anyways, we are going to be spending a week there, sight seeing, creeping around and visiting friends.
  
  I’ve wanted to go to NY for most of my life so I’ll pack as much into those few days as possible, but one of the things I would love to do while we’re there is go see a Broadway play, especially The Book of Mormon.
  
  Tickets for their shows in San Francisco were astronomical, I literally looked it up and started laughing, so hopefully it will be a little more reasonable there. Getting tickets to that show would be the best birthday present ever (hint, hint).
  
  Speaking of birthday things, I found these bracelets on a random website a few months ago, and almost ordered a couple for myself because they are so pretty, but decided to hold off because I think they’d be a great birthday present, for when people ask me every year what I want, and every year I still can’t think of anything.
  
  Also, this backpack would come in very handy in the next couple of months. Hopefully it’s like Mary Poppins’ bag and I can fit everything I’ll ever need in here, but somehow I doubt it.
  
  And, as usual, almost anything from Brandy Melville. Merci beaucoup.
  
  Posted in life, travel, Uncategorized | 3 Comments | Tagged birthday, Book of Mormon, Brandy Melville, Canada, New York, Toronto, travel, wishlist
- L.A. wanderings
  
  Posted at 12:54 am by jasminedesirees, on January 25, 2014
  
  Just a few more pics of our trip to L.A. last weekend. We ended up doing everything I had on my list, and lots of other things, like spending the day cruising down the PCH and checking out Venice and Huntington.
  
  We were there for four days, and didn’t have any real concrete plans so it was very relaxing. We ate lots of yummy food, and found hoards of 49ers fans in Huntington beach to watch the football game with on Sunday. The niners lost, but it was a beautiful day, and it was $3 mimosas so I wasn’t too upset.
  
  Also I read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) on the trip and at the beach, and loved every second of it. Mindy Kaling is my spirit animal.
  
  It made me endlessly happy that there is a restaurant called Pink Taco and that their sangria was basically the nectar of the Gods
  
  Santa Monica pier at night
  
  Kt von D’s tattoo shop. I was very excited, her eyeliner makes my life complete
  
  Grauman’s Chinese theater, the Harry Potter cast
  
  Posted in beach, food, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged beach, California, L.A., Los Angeles, macarons, Venice
- rectory
  
  Posted at 1:44 am by jasminedesirees, on January 23, 2014
  
  I signed up for AirBnB awhile ago, but hadn’t had a chance to use it yet. After the new year I got an email from them offering one night free if you booked two nights, so I decided to give it a try when we went down to L.A.
  
  We found this amazing house to stay in, it used to be an old Catholic rectory, turned into a home by a cool musician and his wife. Our stay was lovely, he worked nights and slept during the day so we barely saw him and had the place to ourselves, and it was one of the most beautiful and most unique places I’ve ever stayed.
  
  There was a lot of stained glass windows, and lots of tiny little details that really made it special. I also loved his collection of musical instruments, scattered around the house as decoration, and also ready to be played at any time.
  
  Our first AirBnB experience was awesome, I’m planning a trip to New York in March (I’ve never been, and I’m soooo excited, I’ve wanted to go since I was little) so I’ll definitely be looking around to find a neat place to stay there during my visit.
  
  Posted in California, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged AirBnB, architecture, catholic church, decoration, design, Los Angeles, rectory
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