Fun-sized: A Travel and Life Blog

4 Days of Climbing in the Dolomites

This last September, I spent a week climbing in the Dolomites with some friends! I’ll just share a few top tips in case you’re planning a similar trip.

Top Tips for Travel & Climbing

Fly into Venice. Munich was the other airport suggested when I was doing research, but Venice is more straightforward and only a 2 hour drive from Cortina D’Ampezzo.
Stay in Cortina D’Ampezzo. This area kept coming up when we were planning and is one of the biggest towns in the area. It’s very walkable and a short drive from climbing destinations.
If you’re going to be climbing, you need a car. Cars are a must for being able to get into the mountains. I believe you can arrange some shuttles for hiking areas but for the climbing areas, having a car is really a necessity. The roads are a bit narrow and it can be hard to get a non-manual car, so be aware!
Make sure where you’re staying has a parking spot for your car. In many of the smaller towns, most parking is street parking and crowded so check that your Airbnb or hotel has a spot for your car.
You’ll have to pay a tourist tax, and may need cash for it. We didn’t need cash really for the lifts, tolls, or food (except to buy chocolate at Pichler’s) but we did to pay the tourist tax on our Airbnb when we got there and had to pay in cash.
Buy a guidebook, but don’t expect it to be 100% accurate. I bought The Dolomites: Rock Climbs and via Ferrata (Rockfax Climbing Guide Series) which we would have been lost without but definitely missed a lot of climbs. There are often labels on the routes (carved in or as small plaques) with the route name and grade (get comfortable with the French grading scale – see table below) that are not in books, so just look around a bit. Mountain Project was supremely unhelpful and missed 95% of the climbs, so definitely don’t rely there. I didn’t find the conversion guide completely accurate but usually am comfortable climbing mid-5.10s and felt OK with any 5s (the 6s started feeling more like low 5.11s to me).
Trad gear is helpful, even for sport routes. The multi pitch sport route my group did in Cinque Torri was very runout and definitely a mixed route. Bringing trad gear was essential for adequate protection. A lot of the climbing areas in the Dolomites are trad (but that’s not what my group currently much of) so hopefully I can go back and tackle more!

Rockfax grade conversion table – expect to see grades in the Dolomites labeled with the French scale (the far left column)

Climbing Areas & Favorite Climbs

Areas where we sport climbed:

Falzergo Pass
Sass Dlacia
Cinque Torri
Citta dei Sassi

Out of these Cinque Torri (five towers) was definitely my favorite! It’s a stunning area and I’d love to explore this area more for hiking. The weather cut our day short but it was great to be able to take cover in the refugio for sandwiches and hot chocolate and I loved taking the lift up to the climbing area.

My second favorite area was Citta dei Sassi – or “city of rocks”, a big mountain biking and hiking area, but the climbs were all very short (basically a field of large bolted boulders).

My two favorite climbs of the trips for pure fun factor were Per Le Donne, 5.10a at Sass Dlacia (fun big moves on great jugs and really cool rock) and Per Mario, 4c+ at Citta dei Sassi (easy easy route but really fun juggy climbing for a warm up).

Image of Cinque Torri from Awaiting Outdoors because I’ve used up all of my storage on this site and I refuse to pay for more

Image of Citta dei Sassi from TripAdvisor

3 Days in Istanbul, 2 days in Cappadocia

Taking some time to record thoughts from our trip to Turkey this past May! Technically we spent 9 days in Turkey but a lot of our time was lost to travel so I wanted to record a really solid itinerary and thoughts for the full days we spent playing tourist, as well as recommendations for traveling in Turkey overall.

Istanbul, Day 1: Sultanahmet & Karaköy (i.e. the tourist day)

The first few days in Istanbul we stayed in Sultanahmet and, honestly, I wouldn’t recommend it. The area is really touristy, with lots of folks standing outside of restaurants yelling at you to come in. It was not our favorite. That being said, this is where a lot of the major tourist sites are like The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Grand Bazaar, and Spice Bazaar. Honestly, I’d probably pass on a lot of these, but I understand wanting to go. We went into the Blue Mosque (it’s free but closes at certain times; you have to wait outside in a line and they give you hair coverings if you don’t have something – and obviously cover your legs and shoulders) but found it a little underwhelming. We passed on Hagia Sophia because like many of the sites in Turkey it was SUPER expensive to get in (25 Euros) and we didn’t feel like we’d get much out of it. I would say the Grand Bazaar is worth going to, pass on the Spice Bazaar, but honestly none of these wow-ed us and we felt like they were all very touristy.

We kicked off the morning with a Turkish breakfast at Myterrace Cafe & Restaurant, which I would highly recommend. Turkish breakfast involves plates and plates of tiny side dishes (cheese, clotted cream, honeycomb, breads, meats, fruit) and was overwhelming and way too much food but delightful.

We spent the afternoon walking across the Galata Bridge to explore the neighborhoods across the water. We grabbed a glass of wine at Karaköy Gümrük (a very cute cafe in the Karaköy neighborhood, just across the water), ate Balik Ekmek (a grilled fish sandwich that was totally worth it and generally cheap). Then we hung out for a little in the Çukurcuma neighborhood and hit up Popstel Liquor, which was absolutely adorable and in our favorite neighborhood that had a few other awesome very hipster bars.

Istanbul, Day 2: The Asian Side & Çukurcuma (i.e. the cool girl day)

We kicked off our day by taking the ferry across to the Asian side of Istanbul, which was very easy to do (walk on and tap your credit card and less than $1 USD). It’s a quick 20 min ferry ride and we loved the Asian side! We definitely would recommend folks either stay there or in Çukurcuma. We put together a little self-created food tour in Kadıköy and hit up Kadıköy Midyecisi for stuffed mussels, Çiçekişleri Kadıköy (our favorite shop of the trip where we got adorable tiny clay houses), Ozcan famous pickle to get a cup of pickles, Cold Neron for Turkish ice cream (not my favorite type of ice cream but it is interesting and chewy?), Dopamine Coffee Shop – Moda & Simyacı Şarlo for a drink, and Say Cheese for some street pasta. The vibes of the bars in this neighborhood were great – it seemed like it would be a rowdy but fun place to go out in the evenings and the area was lively with cute cafes during the day, perfect for some day drinks.

We walked by the water to digest and went into Tarihi Moda İskelesi, an adorable library and cafe out on a pier.

I swear the stray dogs in Istanbul were MASSIVE

Istanbul, Day 3: Spa Day & Vintage Shopping

Our third day in Istanbul was actually at the end of our trip; we lost a few days of our trip to travel into or out of Istanbul since the airport was about an hour drive away and we aimed to be there 2 hours before our flights.

On our full day back at the end of the trip we stayed in Çukurcuma instead, which we loved and was the neighborhood that had tons of cute bars and little vintage shops.

We went to Ağa Hamamı in the morning for a spa treatment. This is one of the oldest hamams (Turkish bathhouses) in Istanbul and we got the advice to book in advance (even just the night before). We opted for a package with the scrub and massage included for about $130 USD. The sauna portion is co-ed and was all tourists so people were in bikinis and swim shorts. You get your own private room with a key so we could leave all of our things there and we opted for going nude under our towels, which we felt a bit awkward for in the sauna room but wasn’t an issue in the scrub or massage areas, where I think you’d be expected to strip (but only get paired with someone of the same gender). We overall had a great experience with this and found ourselves pampered and slightly manhandled in the nicest way.

We followed up our spa treatment with drinks and vintage shopping. There are a lot of cute shops in this neighborhood, so it’s just a nice place to take a wander! We grabbed sandwiches at Asya Büfe, drinks at Solera Winery, San Sebastian cheesecake at Tea or Coffee (Turkey is really big on Basque cheesecake? random but delightful), and dinner at Mayko Lokanta. Honestly, I feel like we nailed it everywhere we went to eat.

Cappadocia, Day 1: Rose & Red Valley Hike

We stayed in Göreme in Cappadocia (FYI seems to be pronounced with more of a staccato “kia” at the end instead of a soft “cha”) after doing some research. Göreme is definitely the most common place for tourists to stay with Uçhisar being the other main option. We definitely felt we chose well and I would recommend anyone stay in Göreme, at least right now. Almost every hotel was beautiful and very aesthetic. Uçhisar was so quiet – the hotels seemed lovely but the town was really dead, but we could see it getting really popular within the next 10 years. Göreme was about an hour from the airport and our first day we mostly just puttered around the town, so I’m not really counting that day in this list.

Our first full day, we attempted but weren’t able to do a hot air balloon ride. We booked the hot air balloon in advance of our trip through Viator (specifically with Turquaz Balloons, who we did like) but I think we easily could have waited and booked when we were in Cappadocia. It IS good advice to try to fly your first day there since, as with us, it didn’t work out the first day due to wind and we ended up getting rebooked for the following day. Do expect that you’ll have some early mornings, since they came to pick us up at 4AM for our sunrise flight. It was awesome though! I would highly recommend going for a ride, which is obviously the main tourist attraction of Cappadocia also.

After our balloon failure, we went for a hike of Rose & Red Valley. For us it ended up being 6.8 miles, 990 ft elevation gain, 4 hours total. We did walk to the start of the hike from Göreme, which was about an extra mile each way, so about 9 miles in total. Definitely do this hike in the clockwise direction and I would HIGHLY recommend downloading AllTrails and tracking against the trail that they have listed there since the path is quite poorly marked and easy to lose. There are only a few semi-sketchy parts of the hike where you’re scrambling up choss with a rope (or down without a rope) but we enjoyed it! We did find that the latter part of the hike (I think when we hit Red Valley) part of the path was closed and we had to get a little creative before we rejoined the track.

This hike was one of our favorite parts of the trip! The hike takes you by many cave churches – I’m not quite sure when they were created but it sounds like somewhere between the 1st and 11th century AD. You can do little scrambles up to the churches and look at the paintings and carvings on the ceilings. Our favorite was a MASSIVE cave church with cathedral height ceilings and huge columns. We probably only passed 4-5 hikers the entire hike so we had all of the areas to ourselves to explore. I’d definitely go back and visit more of these cave areas, there were so many and they were all quite unique!

We rounded out our day with some drinks at one of the many rooftop bars in Göreme and grabbing dinner at Dibek with their killer mezze plate (we had so many mezze plates this trip).

Cappadocia, Day 2: Hot Air Balloons, Love Valley Hike, Uçhisar

The next morning we had our successful hot air balloon launch and then followed that up with a hike through Love Valley to Uçhisar and back. It was about 5.5 miles, 1200 ft elevation, 2 hours to get to Uçhisar and then another 2.6 miles 115 ft elevation, 1.5 hours to hike back to Göreme through Pigeon Valley (I was hauling there and hiking more slowly back). This wasn’t as much of a top hike for me as the Rose & Red Valley hike but it did get you very close to the most phallic of the fairy chimneys. Uçhisar as I said previously was fine (a big castle that didn’t honestly have much to see but was only abut $8 USD to get in) but we got a great Turkish breakfast for lunch at Wish Terrace, and the Pigeon Valley hike back was very cool with lots of little caves to look at from a distance. It was another trail that was very easy to lose so again I would highly stress having maps downloaded (though I had service the whole time) and tracking against your maps.

General Thoughts

Overall we had a great trip! I wouldn’t rate Istanbul as one of my top cities and it felt similar to me to Budapest (though I like Budapest more) but I loved Cappadocia and hiking around and visiting the caves.

Taxis. We didn’t really end up taking taxis around Istanbul, with one exception where we booked in advance though our hotel. In general, we ended up booking transport to and from the airport through the hotel shuttles, which generally cost us about 50 Euros each way. It almost certainly would have been cheaper to just hire a taxi to get us to and from the airport but we’d heard mixed reviews about tourists getting ripped off by taxis, so we were very hesitant to call for one. Uber isn’t really a thing in Turkey and what we heard was that any ride share services really just call taxis and use the taxi meters, so you don’t get absolute costs in advance in the same way that you do with Uber. In addition, the airports were quite far from Istanbul city center and Göreme where we stayed in Cappadocia, so we were typically driving for about an hour each way. Overall, I don’t know that I would have done things differently since we went with the shuttle option to have it coordinated in advance and for peace of mind. But note with those hotel shuttle options you will need to pay in cash.
Cash (specifically Euros). So, Turkey uses Turkish lira BUT basically everywhere seems to accept and prefer Euros. Getting money out of ATMs was kind of a nightmare as well, with fees often being upwards of $30 USD. So my recommendation would be to just keep Euros on hand and take them out in advance of arriving in Turkey.
Overall cost. We didn’t find Turkey to be SUPER affordable at least where we went. There were several times we felt like prices were being inflated for us as tourists or we were being taken advantage of and, when we looked at menus from 5 years ago of restaurants on Google Maps, prices had more than doubled. I get the sense that 5 or 10 years ago Istanbul was an awesome place to visit, and now it seems just fine but not a huge standout or great value for your money.
Clothing choices (for women). We didn’t find Istanbul or Cappadocia to be overly conservative. We did bring higher necked shirts and clothes that covered our arms and legs but these areas tended to have more tourists or more university aged students who dressed more liberally so overall I wouldn’t say being overly concerned with what you wore in these parts of Turkey was a huge thing. Be relatively modest and don’t just wear bike shorts and a sports bra out and you should be fine.
Alcohol. Not an issue! I was worried that we might not be able to get easy access since my friend had that situation in Egypt but most bars, restaurants, and stores sold at least beer and wine. Turkey does have many local wines and wine regions (my friend loved the Emir wine) and generally I liked it though it was a bit more acidic.
Safety (especially as a woman). I never felt particularly unsafe, though I was with my friend at all times. I would have felt fine traveling here as a solo female traveler though! In some of the more populous tourist areas, some restaurant vendors can get a bit pushy (and I had one guy grab my arm to try to get me to come into his restaurant) but otherwise we didn’t have any trouble.
Turkish Delight. I dunno, man, I feel like we got sold a lie by The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – it’s just not that good. I tried it a few times and had some that was OK but overall I feel like it’s pretty passable and just too sticky sweet.
Cats. The cats in Turkey are delightful and very sweet and well cared for! You’ll see water dishes and little piles of food everywhere and definitely get a lot of opportunities for pets and seeing kittens, which was our favorite part about the trip.

Helpful References

Here are a few of the reference sources I used when planning!

4 Days of Climbing in St. George, Utah

A not-so-mini post! I went down to SLC for a friend’s birthday climbing trip and hit some crags in St. George and Zion. I was very fortunate to be with some more experienced climbers (and folks who knew the area) so I got to lead and top rope some stuff of higher grades than I usually would have done.

We were primarily sport climbing single pitches (a few multis, a little trad) in the 9s, 10s, and 11s realm (a few 12s for our hardos). I typically like areas with relatively short approaches, a mix of easier and harder things, and really pretty scenery. I will say a lot of the areas in St. George seemed pretty exposed in terms of the sun and stuff got HOT. I’ll give a little rating and summary below of the places we climbed.

Day 1, S-Curve and driving down to St. George

You can JUST see the moose behind the car

★★ S-Curve, Big Cottonwood Canyon: Nearby SLC, great hiking and short, but rocky approaches (i.e. wear shoes). The rock was brutally cold in the morning and I regretted not bringing hand warmers for the first climb because my fingers were so numb. The scenery is beautiful though and we saw a moose in the parking lot!

Chorus Line 5.9: I was SO cold on this one – definitely leadable for my level but the move around the first bolt was pretty icky to pull yourself over the shelf with numb hands, so I just followed. You’re just traversing around the 2nd / 3rd bolt (so much so that we were kind of confused if we were on the right route originally) and then it turns into straight slab at the top, but I really liked it! A really solid warm up route.
Red Light District 5.10a: My favorite one of the crag! Again did a follow on it but got it clean so could have led. It feels a bit exposed but the moves are all really fun and you have lots of great hands.
Black Monday 5.11a: I definitely cheated a bit by going left at the start and then got hauled a bit up the middle section with the overhang and things being a bit reachy and pumpy. Definitely above my current climbing capability but it was cool one!

Day 2, Snow Canyon and Chuckwalla Wall

★★1/2 Snow Canyon: Firstly, this area is STUNNING. It’s really pretty and has a bunch of great multi pitch. Our group wasn’t doing too much multi pitch though and we were looking for easier sport climbs and there weren’t a LOT. The approach from the parking lot is super easy, basically walking a short distance along a road and on a flat sandy path. Definitely hit this in the morning as early as you can before the sun comes, after which it is way too exposed.

We really struggled finding the routes on this wall. We climbed entirely in the Island In The Sky area but were originally looking for the Sand Dunes wall (in Island In The Sky) and some unfriendly older German climbers intentionally misdirected us! We eventually figured out Sand Dunes is the second pitch area of Indian Wall, which is on the far right as you’re facing the crag. Since we got pointed in the far left direction instead, we ended up having some members of our group climb in The Doghouse and I climbed on Circus Wall.

Circus Wall has a cave maybe 20ft up the wall with some names and dates carved into it from the 1800s, which was very cool and there were a lot of casual day hikers coming to take pictures of the cave while we were climbing.

Before the sun chased us out, we did the first pitch of a 5.9 (I think Jimmy the Greek?), which was uncomfortably slabby and then what I believe was a 5.10D further right on the wall, like a 2 minute walk away, perhaps on Aftershock wall? We honestly had such a hard time identifying where climbs were, seeing anchors or bolts and a lot in the area was multi pitch, which only some members of our group wanted to do. Our hardo friends who climbed 5.11s and 5.12s in The Doghouse had an amazing time and were in the shade for longer, but I personally would probably pass on this area again until I was a better climber or did more multi pitch.

★★★ Chuckwalla Wall: This is SUPER close to St. George and has a really short approach (sandals are fine). We hit this in the afternoon and the easier routes at the crag were in full sun with some harder routes in a shaded just 50ft away. Our hardos climbed in the shade and loved it, we climbed in the sun and honestly loved it too. From the angle of having lots of things I was interested in climbing (9s and 10s), this was my favorite crag. Huge huecos made for great jugs with really fun moves, and routes that were long enough to feel satisfying, basically just outdoor gym climbing vibes.

Dirtbag 5.10-: In a twist of events, I led this! I didn’t get the last move to the anchors (it felt a little sketchy to me, very tiny crimps and thin feet – it would have been safe to fall but I hate falling on lead) but I think I could do it now that I’ve seen the beta. Honestly super super fun and I would do again!
Sands of Blood 5.9-: Honestly, who comes up with these names? They’re so good. I led this too! This was such a fun one – I never felt scared at all (got all my nerves out on the previous one) and the hands felt so secure the entire way. I think this (or a route the following day) were my favorite climbs of the weekend.

Day 3, Prophesy Wall & Namaste Wall (Zion)

This was definitely our most tiring day! Both of these spots have some VERY long first pitches and we were RIGHT at the end of 70m ropes (we had one 80m rope fortunately). Tie your stopper knots of these, folks! We were LITERALLY right at the end of our 70s and had a few we wanted to do but realized we’d need 80m ropes. Bring your long, long ropes if you want to climb at either of these crags.

★★★★ Prophesy Wall: One of my favorite crags of the trip, easily. There was multi pitch, 110ft 5.9s, slab, crack – the variety here was insane. Another one to definitely hit in the morning because the sun gets very hot and I would recommend hiking shoes here as opposed to sandals because you have a short semi rocky hike up. It was very easy to find routes and there was a peregrine falcon nest up near some of the routes, so we saw them flying in and out and heard the babies in the nest!

Whatever Happens…Happens 5.9: Dude this route is so long. A 70m just reaches and you end up lowering them off to the right onto a slabby ledge. Honestly so fun though, I think this WAS my favorite route of the weekend. Really long, super fun moves, just felt really great to climb but very heady at 110ft.
The Soffit of Jericho 5.9 I led this clean! This honestly felt scarier than Whatever Happens…Happens (in part because I top roped that one) because The Soffit of Jericho is so vertical. Still, a great route!

Some folks from our group messed with Wuhan Bat Cave, Quarantine, Antivaxers, Remains to be Seen, Put Up or Shut Up – honestly everyone loved the climbs they did and there was so much to do. This crag had a lot of our top climbs of the weekend and they were SUCH long routes.

★★★★ Namaste Wall (Zion): This area was iconic. For approaches it was the longest of the weekend with a 30 min 1200ft elevation gain hike up but the last bit is just walking through a flat, beautiful canyon. It was so stunning. The climbs here are huge huecos in long lines down juggy, pumpy overhangs on 140ft routes. I will say I’m not very afraid of heights but after 80ft up dangling on a rope on an overhang…. I was feeling it.

I did the first 70ft of Dost Mitra 5.11a/b on top rope before I got sketched by a big move off a pockety pinch that my hand was too small for. My group did Namaste 5.11d, 1/2 Route 5.10+ (I really wanted to do this on top rope but I was pumped after the 11), Huecos Rancheros 5.12b (which was a lot of folks’ favorite route of the weekend).

Everything is juggy huecos but it is so overhung. Even on top rope, you can only climb as a follow and call for takes at the clips (otherwise you swing out FAR), so they’re beefy climbs. Still, the area is so beautiful and, for at least a place to visit, it was my favorite wall (even if there was hardly anything for me to climb there).

Day 4, Bonus Day! Meadow Hot Springs

We headed back north to SLC and stopped on the way in Meadow Hot Springs, which was about halfway back (2 hours from St. George). They’re natural hot springs (3 pools – one warm one, one luke warm, one cold) that you can swim in! They were pretty empty when we got there (thanks to a thunderstorm that afternoon) and we had them all to ourselves for a while and then a family with a lot of children and some other folks got there, but the pool is large. Folks were saying you can dive in the pools and they’re connected by lava tubes, so that’s kind of crazy. They were lovely and free and we had the best time. The road to the parking lot is an OK dirt road and there’s a parking lot that’s generally OK. There’s a road that goes past the parking lot, closer to the springs but NOT ok for cars (we saw two cars stuck there in the mud while we were there that got hauled out by a pick up).

Dude I don’t want to put these people on blast, but damn

Overall an amazing trip! I’m hoping I get some more invites to these group trips and can join them when they go to some other places to climb like the Grand Tetons.

Day Trip to Maui

A short post! I did a brief day trip to Maui to visit a friend and she took me around to see some sights, so I thought I’d share a few of the highlights. Apologies in advance for some sloppy / inconsistent accent mark usage.

The obvious big things to do in Maui are the road to Hana & Haleakalā, but those were both a bit long for a day trip (and I didn’t want to ask my friend to drive a bunch) so we skipped those and I’ll have to circle back for them! I would have also loved to pick some Kula strawberries but, alas, next trip.

If you’re from other parts of Hawaii, the big local treats to have on Maui, are Krispy Kreme (because this is the only one in Hawaii) or the “dirty Dr Pepper” from Sonic (Dr Pepper, coconut, lime, maybe creamer?). For other non mainland treats, you can get dry mein, which is essentially a saimin stirfry with no soup.

Overall I really liked Maui – it was my first time going and I feel like it blends a lot of the amenities you get on Oahu with the old school local charm of Kauai, and way less traffic than Honolulu. I could definitely see why a lot of celebrities choose to build their vacation homes on Maui. In addition, you can see a bunch of the other islands very easily from Maui (Kaho‘olawe, Lanai, and Molokai) which is very cool. You can sometimes see Maui and Molokai from Oahu but only very distantly on really clear days, so it’s a totally different experience.

Quick Interstitial on Interisland Travel

I haven’t done much interisland travel (Kauai within the last few years, the Big Island a few times as a kid, Kaho‘olawe once on a school service trip – which is an island that you can’t generally go to). Most islands you can fly to, some direct and some only through Honolulu. You can’t generally go to Niihau because it’s privately owned and Kaho‘olawe isn’t generally accessible because the military used it for target practice and it may still have some unexploded ordinances. To get to Lanai and Molokai (both very close to Maui), you can either take a ferry from Maui or fly.

Maui is very easy to fly to with lots of flights every day (almost every half an hour all day) with Hawaiian and Southwest. Flying Hawaiian was such a nice experience! My friend let me know that I could basically just show up at the airport whenever I wanted before my flight and take an earlier flight if I wanted by talking to the folks at the counter. The gate agents even put out a call on the PA that folks from later flights could board the earlier flights if they came up to the counter! Overall, this made it feel much more like taking a ferry between islands than an actual flight. If you have pre check, you definitely don’t need to get to the airport more than an hour in advance of your flight.

What I did on Maui: A Randomized Set of Tourist Activities

This was much more of a “visiting my friend” trip than a tourist trip, so I left it up to my friend what we ended up doing.

We started with a stop at Stillwell’s Bakery & Cafe, which was very cute and apparently is known for their cream horn, which I didn’t end up trying because I’d already brought Liliha Bakery treats from Oahu for my friend. Stillwell’s is close to the airport in Kahului, which is the most populous city on Maui at 27k people.

From there we went to walk briefly around ʻĪao Valley to look at the needle and the stream that was very full from some recent rainfall. People apparently swim (more like sit) in the river but it was quite cloudy from the recent rain and I wouldn’t personally. You have to pay entrance fees if you’re not kamaʻāina (i.e. local with a valid Hawaii ID).

From there we stopped at Pukalani Superette, a local grocery store, to pick up some treats for me to bring back for my family, pet the local celebrity cat Midnight, and buy a Pukalani Superette sticker that featured Midnight. Driving around I also saw a bunch of jacaranda trees, which were in bloom and so purple!

We then went to walk around Twin Falls, which are actually three sets of waterfalls but the upper falls, which are the nicest, were closed because of the heavy rainfall. You can apparently swim here but again, kind of sus. Also very easy and short walks and there’s a farm stand, again with kamaʻāina discounts.

From there we drove to Ho’okipa Beach, which was probably my favorite stop of the day. SO MANY TURTLES. I’ve been impressed before going to Laniakea Beach on Oahu where you can usually reliably see at least a few turtles. The turtles at Ho’okipa were practically piled on top of each other and there were easily over fifty turtles. It was insanity, so cool, I could not get over it. There was also a high school surf competition happening at the same time and a bunch of wind surfers out, so overall just a very cool stop.

As our last stop of the day, we drove down to Kihei to see the sunset from the beach before I flew out! Overall a short day but it was easy to see all of this and still have some downtime throughout the day. I am definitely looking forward to going back to Maui again and hitting up some of the highlights I missed!

2.5 Weeks in Thailand

It’s been a while! I just got back from two and a half weeks in Thailand with a friend and wanted to break down some of my top tips for traveling in Thailand and recommendations for things to do & see in Chiang Mai, Krabi, Koh Lanta, and Bangkok.

Chiang Mai Recommendations

Chiang Mai had chill smaller city vibes with great night markets and street food. I’d definitely recommend it for a first trip but don’t think it’ll be a repeat spot for me.

Some top recs for Chiang Mai are:

Walk around old town (I’d recommend staying here) & eat street food. Huen Phen was a great spot to eat with a lot of unique northern dishes, super cheap, almost cafeteria style.
Take a cooking class. (Viator has great options.)
Go to the Sunday night market (one of my TOP items from the trip).
Go to Mystique (insanely cool bar).
Do a day trip to the White & Blue temples. (These are both very unique and SUPER worth it, particularly the white temple, which is more of an art installation.)

Krabi Recommendations

We were in Ao Nang…which, honestly I wouldn’t stay there again. If you do stay in Ao Nang, stay away from the water by at least a few blocks because the beach is full crowded tourist Waikiki vibes.

We LOVED Railay beach (and Tonsai) and I would try to stay in Railay next time I went to this area. The only way to get to Railay & Tonsai is via longboat, so you’d have to wade into the water with all of your luggage but I think it’s definitely worth it. These two areas are right next to each other and a climbing mecca, so we had an amazing time climbing there through the climbing schools. Railay also had a great but very sketchy hike and Phra Nang Beach was the nicest of our trip.

We went to James Bond island which was fine but I wouldn’t make it a top destination, it’s quite crowded.

I can’t not post a picture of this smoothie bowl

Koh Lanta Recommendations

Koh Lanta was super chill! There’s not a ton to do but it’s a very chill beach town vibe. I would highly recommend NOT staying in the north area (Long Beach) and instead staying on the southern half of the island. The southern half is chill beach bars and more rural, while the north my friend accurately described as Myrtle Beach – very concrete, dusty, and crowded.

As some activities I would recommend in Koh Lanta:

Rent a motorbike and take a look around the island (Lanta Old Town was a fun shopping area).
Book a snorkel tour (Koh Haa and Koh Rok are the best spots).
Chill out on the beach with a drink and relax.

Bangkok Recommendations

Honestly, we found Bangkok a bit overwhelming but this was near the end of our 2.5 week trip and we were getting a bit worn out. It’s definitely a cool city with a lot to see but VERY crowded in malls / on the street and the streets are LOUD.

That being said, we went to some really cool theme bars, some cool neighborhoods, and sick rooftop bars! It’s definitely a big city, so go expecting that vibe.

We stayed in Chinatown and if I stayed again, I’d recommend staying in the area around FEST Restaurant instead, I think that’s the Phrom Phong neighborhood. It had really cute restaurants, shops, and bars and felt a bit more bougie (not luxury, but apparently it’s a big expat area and felt more curated).

Some other areas I’d recommend checking out are:

The Iron Fairies Bar. This was our top bar of the trip! Magic themed and great live music (they were playing alt 90s hits). Hex Bar was another cool magic-themed speakeasy I would recommend!
centralwOrld mall. Going to malls is definitely one of the top Bangkok activities and this was our favorite. It had Kinokuniya and a Carebear cafe.
Thanon Ram Buttri. This is a cool street for walking around & grabbing street food or a drink at night. It’s very close to a BIG party street (that’s the next one over) and I wouldn’t recommend that one as it’s very loud, young, really overwhelming.
Chatuchak Weekend Market. This market is MASSIVE – enough that you’re definitely not going to see all of it. Still it’s worth checking out! The full market is only open on the weekend during the day but sections of the market are open during the week. They have sections for furniture, live animals, vintage clothes, local beer tastings – honestly anything you could ever possibly want. I’d recommend grabbing a coffee at Omise Cafe.
Warehouse 30. This entire neighborhood is very cool and industrial artsy, so I’d recommend walking around and grabbing breakfast at Sarnies (several locations throughout the city). Warehouse 30 itself had a bunch of very cute galleries and a great coffee shop with one of our favorite stores inside of it.
Soi Cowboy. A neon fantasy of a street, we were in love. Definitely one to go to at night. We just walked through and we got enough of the experience, but very cool.
Any rooftop bar. There are lots! They have great views and some have good happy hour specials.

Top 10 Tips for Thailand

Carry toilet paper on you at all times. While I didn’t run into many non western toilets, using a spray instead of toilet paper was the norm and not all bathrooms had toilet paper. In most places, you weren’t allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet.
Carry cash on you (and be ready to haggle). I am the worst haggler and just don’t do it, but there was definitely an expectation that you would haggle and I could tell a few times that I was overcharged. Even with the upcharge, things are very cheap in Thailand but if you want to buy food from the street stands (and you do), keep some cash on hand at all times! I’d recommend taking out about 5000 Baht (about $150 USD)/person/week.
If you’re going to temples, bring long pants & a cover up in a tote. It was VERY hot so we usually just wanted to wear tank tops and bike shorts everywhere but, if you’re a woman, you need to cover your shoulders and legs before entering the temples. Honestly, the temples got to be very same-y to us, so we only went to a few beyond the very unique ones, but this is something to consider.
Drink orange americanos. Dude, I dunno, it sounds gross but they’re amazing.
Download Grab and Bolt. We got the recommendation to use Bolt through most of Thailand as the cheapest option for ride shares but in Bangkok Grab was the only service that seemed to work well.
Buy an eSim for your phone BEFORE you leave your home country. Don’t be an idiot like me and wait until you’re in Thailand, sometimes that doesn’t work well.
The monkeys are not your friend. They are, in fact, terrifying.
You probably don’t need a converter. If you’re from the US or Europe, your plugs should just work!
Book half-day experiences in advance (that you can cancel). We were honestly sapped after our full-day tours and ended up doing cancellations for some of our experiences. Viator was awesome for being able to book and cancel, would highly recommend.
Be careful what sunscreen you buy. Firstly, sunscreen in Thailand is expensive, even compared to the US. Secondly, I accidentally bought some with skin whitening and, for the two minutes until I could successfully wash it off, I looked like a mime.

5 Days in Salt Lake City and Zion

This last month, I spent a few days down in Salt Lake City and down in Zion to do Angel’s Landing!

Day 1: Arriving in Salt Lake City

I got in Friday afternoon and we had a chill evening before our weekend adventures began! We went to The Front Climbing Club – South Main for some sport climbing and then walked over to Second Summit Hard Cider Co. for drinks and food. The Front Climbing was an awesome location, with three floors and lots of options for working out and bouldering, as well as some insanely tall walls. Second Summit was very chill and had free pickleball courts out back (though I couldn’t convince my friend to play).

Day 2: Salt Flats & Pink Lake

Saturday, we hit some of the most stunning views and photo op spots. We headed out very early in the morning to the Bonneville Salt Flats for sunrise. The sunrise itself didn’t photograph well with our phones but the early dawn light was ideal for some beautiful pastel pictures. The salt flats are an hour and a half drive from SLC and I would definitely recommend checking them out! It was very empty while we were there too, with only a few other groups, so we got the area pretty much to ourselves. (Note – there’s really nothing in this area for food or coffee, so come with your own snacks.)

Mid-morning, we started the drive back to SLC and stopped at the Pink Salt Lake, which is part of the Salt Lake near Stansbury Island (go to the Stansbury Viewpoint). The road is a little rough getting out there but it is 10000% worth it and was such a unique experience. While you definitely CAN get in the lake, I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s incredibly salty and had our clothes, shoes, and legs very crusty until we could wash them off (and there’s no shower or hose out there).

We rounded out the afternoon with a little hike on the Lower Mill B North Fork Trail (2.2 miles, 895 ft elevation gain) for some views of the Cottonwood Canyon area, which is apparently also a great climbing area! The bottom part of the hike had a little waterfall with a few climbing routes, though they were mostly 5.12s.

I wrapped up the night with a killer BLT and really, really good fries and a flight of beer at Hopkins Brewing Co. before we prepped for our driving day down to Zion.

Day 3: Arriving in Zion

We kicked off our Sunday morning with a visit to the Wheeler Farm Farmer’s Market, which was located on a historic farm and had a great selection of food, veggie, and crafts for sale. We picked up some great bread and tasted some local honey and honey products (Utah is the beehive state).

We then started our 3.5 hour drive down to Zion (listening several murder podcasts on the way). The entrance to Zion didn’t seem to be checking for National Park Passes (though we both had one). We settled in that evening at the Watchman Campground (no showers) and were treated to some amazingly clear skies (killer stargazing with a late moonrise and very visible Milky Way) and super high winds that kept us up a good chunk of the night.

Day 4: Exploring Zion

Monday was our day to explore Zion before we hiked Angel’s Landing on Tuesday and we kicked off the morning with Watchman Trail (3.1 miles, 636 ft elevation gain). After our morning hike, we took the shuttle from the visitor’s center to Narrows (the only way to travel in this part of Zion) where we walked around but didn’t do the Narrows hike.

We walked quite a bit this day, just exploring the area and checking out some of the museums in the park. We wrapped up our evening with some OK food and great fresh watermelon margaritas at Bit & Spur Restaurant & Saloon, which had really nice outdoor seating, live music, and a craft market on their lawn.

Day 5: Angel’s Landing

Angel’s Landing (4.3 miles, 1800 ft of elevation gain) is now only accessible with a lottery permit and there were rangers posted at the bottom of the turn off for the hike checking for permits. I applied for the lottery back in April (I don’t believe it’s a very competitive lottery) and winning my permit became the motivation for planning this trip to Utah.

You choose during the application process if you want to begin the hike before or after 9AM and I chose the earlier slot. Most of the hike is open to anyone (the portion that is on the West Rim Trail) for the first few miles and you’ll hit a very nice viewpoint. From there, the permitted section is the Angel’s Landing trail, which is not particularly strenuous or long but is not well protected, though there is a chain on one side you can hold for most of the hike. Overall, I did feel that it was more sketchy feeling than Half Dome and sparked off more of a fear of heights for me, particularly since people have really died on this hike.

That being said, the view was amazing as you’re basically walking on a ridge and have a killer view of the valley floor below you. I would absolutely recommend this as a hike that is not too difficult but is tricky for those who are afraid of heights. We did the hike in a total of 3 hours, which included jogging back down after our descent from Angel’s Landing.

Part of the view of the chains & Angel’s Landing

3 Days in Yosemite

It’s been a while! I’ve missed posting a few trips but I just wrapped up a a few days with a friend to Yosemite for the Half Dome lottery and wanted to record my thoughts on it while they were fresh!

You do need a permit to hike Half Dome and can either apply with the daily lottery or can apply in March on the recreation.gov website (which is how I got my permit – see more details on the permitting system).

Day 1: Arriving in FAT and driving to Yosemite

On Sunday, we flew into Fresno Yosemite International airport, which was the closest airport to the park. We rented a car (honestly a horrible experience with the Budget person) and drove the 2 hours to the Yosemite area.

We drove in through Merced and out through Mariposa. I definitely think the drive through Mariposa is prettier, though very winding. Honestly, the drive is a little bleak and dry each way in July until you get close to the park.

We were staying in a cabin at Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes, which I would highly recommend! There was a fan in the room, minifridge, and plenty of outlets (though our overhead light was broken). We had read some negative reviews about the bathrooms but they seemed to be newly redone and very nice! Great shower pressure and warm water. The site has a gas station and convenience store nearby and very tiny mini golf section and river access. Overall, great stay location and would stay there again!

They gave us some great recommendations for activities outside of the park, so we checked out Rainbow Pool in the afternoon. It was a $10 entry fee per vehicle (not sure if they took card but I paid with cash) and it was definitely worth it! It’s a lovely swimming pool with a sliding / jumping rock. I was too chicken to try it (it looked terrifying) but there were children doing it and everyone said it wasn’t too bad. It was great swimming there and really helped beat the 100+ degree weather.

We grabbed dinner at Lucky Buck Cafe, which had a great menu with a hefty vegetarian selection (but no wifi). I would definitely recommend it and it was very affordable for being one of the few restaurants in the area.

Day 2: Exploring Yosemite National Park

Monday was our tourist day in Yosemite and we hit the major sights in Yosemite Valley. We entered the park at 4:30AM (because we didn’t have a reservation, see my Tips below) through the Big Oak Flat entrance and watched the sunrise from Tunnel View 5-6AM, which was a great viewing spot! Definitely get there early as spots in the two lots fill up by sunrise.

After sunrise, we hit up these sights in the Yosemite Valley, which are all very close together (note: many roads in the valley are one-way), including Bridalveil Fall and El Capitan Meadow – which made for great photo spots (and not crowded at 7AM).

In addition, we hit the Welcome Center & Village Store (along with the Ansel Adams Gallery & museum) and a food hall in the area that included a Starbucks and several options for breakfast. We found that food in the park was actually really good and affordable, which was a pleasant surprise! And all of the many gift shops and convenience stores sold beer and wine, even hard alcohol!

We did a small walk up to Lower Yosemite Falls (very hot and crowded) and down to Swinging Bridge, which was a lovely spot to take a dip.

We turned in early for the night after another swim at our campground, all packed up for our early morning start of Half Dome.

Day 3: Hiking Half Dome

Tuesday was our Half Dome hiking day! We heard that the hike typically took 10-12 hours and was about 18 miles with 5000 ft of elevation gain. We took about 12 hours to do it with breaks on our way up and a long stop at the top of Half Dome and clocked about 20 miles (had a few detours for lookouts) and 5500 ft of elevation gain.

We hit the trail around 4AM and hiked the first hour in darkness with our headlamps, in an attempt to wrap up the hike before the hottest part of the day.

There were more bathrooms / outhouses along the way than I would have expected, though I definitely peed at least a dozen times off trail because I ran through probably 8-10+ liters of water throughout the day.

We went up the Mist Trail (somehow missed the stairs by the waterfall but were on it for a good chunk) and came back down the JMT, which was what we had recommended to us. It’s definitely a climb up but I didn’t think it was too punishing and there were stretches of slight downhill and flatness throughout. There is medium coverage from trees, except in the last 4 miles or so, which are fairly exposed and get very hot. The last fill spot is the river by the Little Yosemite Valley campground, so be sure to fill up lots there, because it needs to get you through a very tough 4 miles up and the 4 miles back down.

The hardest stretch of the hike is definitely when you start climbing Half Dome itself. Before the cables, there’s a stretch of TOUGH ascent, completely exposed on rock. It’s very hot and steep with only the occasional tree for shade. Poles are especially helpful coming down in this section.

The cables weren’t actually that bad but look HORRIBLE as you come up to them. With the angle you walk up to the cables at, it looks almost completely vertical and impossible but, when you’re directly under it, you can see that there’s a bit of a slope. People were bailing at the base of the cables but unless you’re afraid of heights or get vertigo, it’s not too physically challenging. You DEFINITELY want to make sure you have grippy gloves for it and there was a pile of spare gloves at the base of the climb. There are wooden slats connected to the pole spikes, so you basically push hard up 10-20 ft and then perch on the wooden slat. There were some people using harnesses and clipping into the cables – which I wouldn’t recommend. It seems sketchier and more time consuming to do it that way and maybe 1 out of 50 people took that option. The most difficult part about the cables is that you have to wait for people and folks come up and down the same route, so you have to let people pass. More annoying than physically challenging in my opinion, but you will want to be in reasonably good shape!

The top of Half Dome was massive and flat and you can walk around for quite a while up there with amazing views from all directions. It’s definitely worth the climb!

I had a bit of a snafu getting separated from my hiking partner on the way down (hence my recommendation for walkie talkies – you’ll get almost no reception on the hike), but overall the day was very successful! I’ve included my tips for Yosemite overall and Half Dome specifically below, including my recommended packing list.

Final Thoughts

I was expecting Yosemite to be a bit overhyped and overcrowded but I actually loved it! I thought it was much less crowded than Yellowstone (but maybe that was coming in 100+ degree weather) and incredibly beautiful. I didn’t see much in the way of wildlife (apart from some very bold squirrels, ravens, stellar jays, and a few deer) but the natural beauty of the mountains was incredible.

Visiting definitely is inspiring me to take the leap into trad climbing and multi pitch so I can come back and climb – hopefully later this year!

Tips for Yosemite

Download offline Google maps for the area. In addition to downloading maps for the trail on your trail app of choice, downloading offline Google maps is a MUST because service is spotty around and in the park (honestly got my best reception within the park). So for driving around, offline downloaded maps are super helpful.
Make your camping reservation EARLY. I’m not sure exactly how early but when I received my lottery results in April the campsites for July were already full. We ended up staying just outside of the park (Thousand Trails Yosemite Lakes) and snagged the last available cabin. It was still an hour drive from the cabin to the main portion of Yosemite Valley (13 min to the Big Oak Flat entrance and another 45 min to the Half Dome area), so factor that in!
You need a reservation to enter the park in the summer, or just wake up VERY early. In peak season, the park is reservation only for those who want to enter between 5AM and 4PM. If you have the Half Dome permit, you can enter the park the day of your hike and the two days after but, for the day before, we just chose to enter the park at 4:30AM to watch the sunrise from Tunnel View. There wasn’t anyone at the entrance when we got there and we left without them checking us in the afternoon (though I have a National Parks pass) so entering early is a way to avoid the entry fee as well.
BYO own floaties. I didn’t think of Yosemite as a good place to do a river float, but it totally is! We got the recommendation to enter by Curry Village and get out by the Swinging Bridge but they had stopped renting floats for the summer since the water level was a bit low (and no floats are sold in the park). But you were allowed to use whatever you brought!
Food was actually pretty good and affordable. This one surprised me! We packed some of our own food but often bought stuff in the park and it wasn’t crazy expensive.

Tips for Half Dome

Check in with the Wilderness Office. You don’t have to check in at the office but they were awesome for sharing information on trail conditions (e.g. what hours Mist Trail was closed for repairs) and tips.
Start hiking Half Dome EARLY. We started at 4AM and definitely were not the first folks at the trailhead. Especially in summer, it gets so hot that you really want the early start.
Maybe don’t hike Half Dome in the summer. Speaking of how hot it gets, maybe don’t? If I were to come back and do it again (which I would), I would aim for a cooler time of year, like September.
They don’t seem to check Half Dome permits. You should DEFINITELY get a permit if you want to hike Half Dome and print a copy / have a screenshot on you when you do the trail. But no one was checking permits the day we did it and I heard that was somewhat common and there were certainly folks who didn’t have permits and were doing the hike.
Do the Mist Trail up, the JMT down. This was the advice I’d heard online and got from rangers at the park. The Mist Trail goes up by a waterfall and has stairs and is a bit more steep (so it’s not ideal to go down). Somehow we ended up skipping the first chunk of the Mist Trail and joined up with it later on, but it afforded some great views of Silver Apron.
Bring a water filter & gloves! Gloves were a must for the cables (though there was a pile of available gloves at the base of the cables). I got these off Amazon for $8. Definitely bring a water filter as well! It blew my mind that some folks didn’t bring one as there was very little potable water on the train (only within the first few miles). The last water fill is at the Little Yosemite Valley campground (at the river), about 4 miles from the Half Dome summit, so you need to fill up there.
Bring electrolyte tablets / Pedialyte mix. This was key and kept me actually semi hydrated throughout the hottest parts of the day.
Secure everything INSIDE your backpack when climbing up/down the cables. Within just the climb up / down the cables, we saw three people lose water bottles that slid out of side pockets.

Recommended Packing List for Half Dome

Phone with GPS / downloaded maps & power block (the trail is generally well marked and straightforward but there were a few points I was glad I had the GPS map for)
Printed copy of your Half Dome permit
Walkie talkies (if hiking with a partner)
Headlamp (for the early morning start)
Hiking poles (might necessitate checking your bag, or you might be able to get them through TSA)
Gloves for the cables
Hiking shoes / socks
Sunglasses
LOTS of sunscreen
Bug spray (I’m a big fan of DEET)
Water filter & at least 2L of water storage (I’d recommend the Sawyer Squeeze paired with the Cnoc filter bag, because I hate the Sawyer bags)
Electrolyte tablets / Pedialyte
Lots of snacks and food (squeezy peanut butter recommended)
Buff / bandana
Leukotape
Trowel and toilet paper (just in case you need to poo away from the outhouses)

24 Hours in Nashville, TN

Well, we’re here; it’s January; it’s cold. Regardless — we squeezed in a last-minute Nashville weekend trip since we’ve been meaning to visit.

I need to go back in the summer since I don’t think Nashville is at its peak in the dead of winter (and I want to do some hiking) but it still made for a fun weekend!

Before we went, I did some research from the following:

Mainly to get a sense for the best neighborhoods to visit and the main attractions. We did get to most of my top items except for trying hot chicken (specifically Hattie B’s) & going to Hatch Show Print, which is known for producing show posters.

Day 1: Saturday, January 7th

It’s about a 4 hour drive from Cincy to Nashville (and a change from EST to CST time), so we got in around 12PM CST. Our drive was pretty unremarkable except for an excellent coffee stop at Crescent Hill Coffee in the Louisville Crescent Hill neighborhood. The area was adorable with a lot of cute shops and bookstores and definitely worth a visit if you’re in Louisville.

We opted to stay in downtown Nashville, since I heard that finding parking downtown could be a real beast and wanted to have a guaranteed hotel spot. After checking in to our hotel, we grabbed lunch at Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant, which is downtown and I heard had good BBQ. It was excellent and we split a platter that was still an overwhelming amount of food (we didn’t even touch the half-chicken).

“The Whole Farm” from Puckett’s Grocery & Restaurant

After lunch, we drove through the Vanderbilt University area and stopped to see The Parthenon (a full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon), before walking around the 12 South. 12 South is an adorable, bougie neighborhood (complete with a Marine Layer and Madewell) that has lots of cute local businesses and Five Daughters Bakery, which is known for their cronuts. We got the classic and matcha cream – both of which were delicious!

We were feeling a little tired and cold after our outing so, after re-charging back at the hotel with some of our copious lunch leftovers, we checked out Broadway, which is the main music & bar scene in Nashville. Several friends had recommended Florida Georgia Line (named after the band), so that ended up being the bar we stopped at for live music (early in the night before it got crazy) There were lots of other options on Broadway as well, including Luke Bryan and Kid Rock’s bars. As someone who doesn’t really partake in country, it was borderline surreal — but the live music was excellent!

Day 2: Sunday, January 8th

We wanted to get back to Cincy early afternoon so the only stop we made on our way out of town was in East Nashville to check out the Five Points neighborhood. It was very cute and definitely up-and-coming with a fun hipster vibe. It had lots of cute shops, bars, and restaurants and is definitely the neighborhood I could most see myself living in.

We walked around exploring a little before grabbing a delicious breakfast at Snooze, an A.M. Eatery (their smashed avocado benny and buddha bowl — which have both inspired some at-home meals over the last week).

It was a quick 24 hours in Nashville but we saw quite a bit, even while trying to take things at a slower pace. I’m looking coming back down in the summer when I’m not freezing my butt off!

2 Days in Chicago

This past week, I spent Thursday and Friday in Chicago with my sister to see the BLACKPINK concert!

This was actually my second trip to Chicago (the first time was Lollapalooza 2021) and it was such a fun couple of days (even if we both ended up getting sick).

We had the top goals for the trip of:

Seeing some jazz / going to a speakeasy
Watching improv
Having a Chicago hot dog
Getting some local beer
Visiting:
- Lincoln Park Zoo
- Millennium Park
- River Walk

Some recommendations I got from co-workers that we didn’t have time for were:

Historic Hotels (The Drake / Palmer House / Congress Hotel)
Deep dish pizza (Giodano’s, Lou Malnati’s, or Pequod’s)
Sandwiches (Redhot Ranch, Al’s Beef – specifically the combo hot, Parson’s Chicken & Fish)
Cuban food (90 Miles Cuban Cafe)
Mexican food (Big Star)
Neighborhoods (Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square)
Brunch (Lula Cafe & The Chicago Diner)
Museums (Museum of Contemporary Art, Field Museum)
Blues (Kingston Mines)

And we did some research with the following sites:

Day 1: Downtown Chicago

We both flew into O’Hare around 9AM and took the metro into downtown Chicago to drop off bags at our hotel. For our two day trip (3 days including our flight out), we each picked up 3 day metro passes for $15/each, which was great for being able to hop on any of the rails or bus lines throughout our trip.

We started off our morning at Hanabusa Cafe, which is a Japanese soufflé pancake shop near Millennium Park. I had gone there last time I was in Chicago and completely fell in love with their Earl Grey Soufflé Pancakes, which are cloud soft and the perfect level of salty and sweet.

Thursday was actually quite hot (a high of 71F even in November), so we ended up stopping by Uniqlo so I could replace my sweatshirt with a lighter flannel and then checked out the Bean in Millennium Park and walked along the River Walk.

We were feeling a bit tired, so we grabbed a quick lunch at Eataly downtown. Eataly is an Italian food hall (started in Italy) with a few dozen locations globally. It was actually wildly cool with SO many options for food items you can’t find other places — like eucalyptus honey, sheep yogurt, and violet candy. We got a few treats there (mainly chocolate) and some very fancy sandwiches (which my sister said was her favorite meal of our trip).

After a post-lunch nap, we went over to Goose Island Brewhouse, where we grabbed a tasting flight and some amazingly good house-made chips and dip (seriously cannot more highly recommend them), before our Second City show! We saw the Best of Chicago show, which was super funny with some of their “classic” bits (a guy pretending to be a horse eating an apple messily had us ROLLING and the world’s most painful father/son baseball game made me feel like I was going to die of situational awkwardness). The show was $39/ticket for a 3-hour performance in a really small theater with great seats, so we got our money’s worth.

We wrapped up our night at The Drifter, an original 1920s speakeasy downtown below Chicago’s oldest bar The Green Door Tavern (built in 1872). You can find a good article on The Drifter here. The bar has a cool vibe with great drinks and amazing lighting / intimacy (it’s tiny). The door isn’t labeled, so you need to know that the entrance is what looks like a shelf by the bathroom.

Day 2: Lincoln Park & Fulton Market

We kicked off a chilly Day 2 with breakfast at Goddess and The Baker, which is a cafe with several locations throughout Chicago. We both opted for smoked salmon items and holy-cow the Smoked Salmon Plate was amazing. The cafe has a very casual vibe — kind of like a Starbucks that serves sit-down meal items.

Our plan for the day was to walk up to Lincoln Park before our concert in the evening, so we started walking north and stopped first at La Colombe. There are La Colombe locations nationally but none near us, so we were quite excited. La Colombe is known for their cold draft lattes, which are…incredible. Imagine melted coffee ice cream, both in flavor and foaminess (but only 170 calories).

From there, we walked up through Old Town (stopping in some cute shops) to Lincoln Park. We hit up both the beach (my sister’s first time seeing a Great Lake) and the zoo, which was wonderful! I love that Chicago has a free zoo in the middle of Lincoln Park and there was enough inside exhibits that we weren’t completely freezing.

Smoked Salmon Plate at Goddess and The Baker

For lunch, we headed back downtown to grab Chicago hot dogs at Portillo’s! Multiple people had recommended Portillo’s as the best place to grab a hot dog and it did not disappoint.

Apparently, the components that make up a Chicago hot dog are:

Yellow mustard
Chopped white onions
Bright green sweet pickle relish
A dill pickle spear
Tomato slices or wedges
Pickled sport peppers
A dash of celery salt

It is loaded and was really good!

After a short rest, we headed over to Fulton Market for a quick pre-concert dinner at Ramen Takeya, which was a great little izekaya. I had gone to Fulton Market last time I was in Chicago but it was dead early in the day. At night, it was bustling with the TimeOut Market food hall and lots of cute trendy restaurants. I’d highly recommend it as an area for dinner & drinks!

As our last activity of the trip, we headed to United Center for the real reason we were in Chicago — the BLACKPINK concert! They were so good and we sang our voices hoarse to all their bops — wrapping up a fun two day trip to the Windy City.

3 Day Autumnal Cozy Trip to Cincinnati

I had a friend visit me in Cincinnati this last week and I pulled out all the stops for the coziest, most autumnal trip! The leaves were in full force and the weather was perfectly crisp.

My friend said he liked cocktail bars, wanted to see the leaves, and to go to Renfaire, so I planned our long weekend around those parameters!

Some ideas that I had were:

Visit an orchard
Renfaire
Spooky season activities
Cocktail bars (e.g. Ghost Baby & Somerset)
Go for a hike (Mt Airy or out of town in Yellow Springs or Red River Gorge)
See a concert
Brunch at Cedar or Maplewood
Breweries (Rhinegeist, Madtree, Taft’s, Braxton)
Walk around Covington (breweries, Lil’s Bagels, Mama’s Mornings, Hierophany & Hedge)
Findlay Market
Go roller skating
Go to a drive-in movie theater, like Starlite
See what events are happening in Washington Park
Cincinnati Zoo
Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Catch a hockey game (but the season started after his trip)

Day 0, Thursday: A Quiet Workday

Thursday didn’t really count since we worked from home but we did have a nice breakfast of fancy oatmeal and broke into my Costco beef stew and french bread for lunch (which he said was actually one of his favorite things he ate on the trip).

In the evening, we headed over to Rhinegeist Brewery for game night with some friends! Rhinegeist didn’t have any exciting autumnal beers but it was a good time and we got some soft pretzels as a snack.

Day 1, Friday: OTR Exploring & A Short Hike

We both took off Friday, so we had a nice slow day in OTR!

In the morning, we headed to Maplewood downtown to grab breakfast (I had their amazing chocolate chip cornflake cookie) and then wandered around Washington Park, Vine Street, and Main Street in OTR, which are the main cute areas in the neighborhood.

In the afternoon, we grabbed a small lunch and the much-coveted Pumpkin Spice Latte Beer at Alcove by Mad Tree Brewing in OTR and then drove to Mt Airy for a mini hike around Everybody’s Treehouse, which had some fantastic leaves!

In the evening, we got BBQ at Lucius Q in Pendleton (just a short walk), which I hadn’t been to before but was fantastic. Then, full of BBQ, we hit up my three favorite cocktail bars in OTR: Ghost Baby, Somerset, and Homemakers Bar / Fifty Fifty Gin Club. My friend said that he thought Ghost Baby had the best cocktails and Somerset had the best ambiance — which is undeniable!

Day 2, Saturday: Renfaire

We kicked off Saturday with breakfast at Taste of Belgium, where my friend tried his first ever Liege waffle. American “Belgian waffles,” while delicious, are not the least bit authentic and the two real types of Belgium waffles are Brussels (basically just Eggos, I don’t like them) and Liege (circular with more of a cake donut consistency and often with pockets of sugar crystals).

In the afternoon, we headed over to the Ohio Renaissance Festival in Waynesville, which was on its second to last weekend. It was packed but still super fun with lots of games and prolific quantities of cheap alcohol.

For dinner, back in OTR, we got some fried chicken sandwiches from The Eagle, which is well known around Cincinnati for having the best fried chicken. We then spent our evening with a little “amuse-bouche” of spooky TV shows and watched one-off episodes of: Werewolf by Night (our favorite of the evening), Little Demon, Hit Monkey, Over the Garden Wall, Devil is a Part Timer, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle.

Day 3, Sunday: Covington & Hidden Valley Orchard

We started off our Sunday with some pastries from Brown Bear Bakery in OTR, which had a lot of new treats for the fall. I got a squash croissant, lemon poppy seed brioche, and a “chips and dip” croissant, which was amazing. They had a lot of other pumpkin treats as well, so now is a good time to hit them up!

After our morning treat, we walked through downtown to Covington, which is a 30 minute walk from OTR, across the Ohio River. In Covington, we hit up Lil’s Bagels for a bigger breakfast, Bircus Brewing for our first beer of the day, and then Hierophany & Hedge, which is my favorite store in the area. Hierophany & Hedge is this killer dark academia magic shop with lots of spell books, candles, and spell components in jars on the wall. It’s definitely worth a stop if you’re in the area but you need to check the website because they don’t keep regular hours.

In the afternoon, we picked up another friend and drove 40 minutes to Hidden Valley Orchard in Lebanon (very close to the Renfaire we were at on Saturday) for some prime autumnal vibes and treats. It was hopping with lots of people, live music, a well-stocked farm store, autumnal cocktails (e.g. caramel apple moscow mule), and seasonal soft serve (including pumpkin, caramel, and apple cider slushie floats). I really loved it and it’s going to the top of my fall activity list!

For our last evening together, we grabbed food from Aladdin’s Eatery (great Lebanese food) and popped on a few seasonal movies (Leprechaun 3, Addams Family Values, Hit Monkey Episode 2) for a nice night in.

Bonus Day 4, Monday: Departure

My friend was leaving on Monday and I was working so we didn’t do much, but did grab breakfast at Sugar & Spice Diner, a 1940s diner on the border of OTR and Pendleton.

All-in-all, it was a great trip and I loved having someone coming to visit! My friend had low expectations for Cincinnati but was really positively surprised by the city and said he had a great time. Autumn is definitely an awesome season to visit Cincy!