Tag: Life & Travel

Get Out of Town: Montréal

May 29, 2015

 In our undergad days, Jay and I didn’t travel much.  So many of our nearest and dearest were of adventuring through unchartered corners of the globe or taking semesters off to backpack India (and fall madly in love).  Whereas we were sticking around the island, being boring, doing homework and saving to buy a house.  However, in the last year we have set out sights on travel while we are still childless and young.  So we been trying to take every opportunity that we can to escape Brooklyn and explore new corners of our incredible continent.  Predominately we opt for road trips because it gives us the leisure of taking travel at our own pace.  However, after doing a touch of research I learned that the train trip between NYC and Montreal has been awarded for being one of the most scenic routes on the continent.  With that fact in my back pocket, tickets were bought and hotels were booked.  The result of which was an exceptional long weekend escape from the city.  Here are the highlights:

Continue reading “Get Out of Town: Montréal”

Get out of Town: The Catskills

March 10, 2015

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We have been MIA the past number of weeks.  Truth be told our last month and a bit has been pure insanity.  Jameson is traversing time zones and racking up airmiles like a crazy person- not that this is anything new.  But between his 90 hours work weeks and flight delays we have also been wrangling some work on our house in Victoria, prepping for the US work visa lottery and grieving the very big loss of my grandpa.  We have been having all the big conversations about what comes next for us if I win or if lose the US visa lottery in April.  Needless to say our plates have been full.

In the middle of it though we have managed to sneak away with two of our favourite people for the weekend.  This group of NYC fam jam is who we do all our travels with, and all we wanted from the weekend was to set time aside to connect with our most cherished.  In very un-Renée fashion I had zero plans for our escape other than locating a cabin on AirBnB.  Our only goal was to simply press pause for a few brief moments and regain some sanity.  We managed to accomplish just that by barely leaving the cabin the entity of the weekend.  Instead, we built fires, cozied in under warm blankets and sipped at a glass of wine while we read books.  We did switch it up a bit by watching old VHS tapes of 90s rom coms but the climax of our days were long naps, hot baths and home cooked dinners.  It was perfection in the truest sense. Continue reading “Get out of Town: The Catskills”

Get Out of Town: Maui

November 25, 2014

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Jay and I were so fortunate to be able to spend a week in Maui celebrating two of our nearest and dearest.  Ryan stood beside us five and a half years ago on our wedding day.  So naturally I was a ball of mush, tears and sniffles watching Jay stand beside him as he married a girl we have both grown to know and love deeply. The first time I met Michelle was at 2 a.m. in a McDonald’s parking lot (classy I know), and since then we have to enjoyed doing life with her and Ryan. They have such an exceptional future ahead of them, and the world better get ready for their seriously fit offspring (or at least mine and Jay’s future pale, scrawny babies better)  Beyond the amazing couple, we also loved being able to get some uninterrupted, low-key quality time with some of our oldest friends.  We  celebrated new marriages, and pending upcoming adventures.  We grew acquaintanceship into full fledged, they are going to get so sick of us friendships (because we totally developed a couple crush on two amazing people who can eat as much as we do. That’s our demarcation of true friend-love right there).  Friends, sunshine and beaches. I seriously cannot think of a better wedding week or winter vacation.  Here are some of our ultimate highlights: Continue reading “Get Out of Town: Maui”

Get Out Of Town: Provincetown and Cape Cod

October 27, 2014

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Jameson was up in Boston again this week for work, and took Fab along with him.  I made the journey up on Friday night after work to join them, and spend the night at our favourite Boston hotel, The Fairmont Copley Plaza.  Saturday morning, we nabbed Aaron before heading off on a road trip to Cape Cod. It is a little past peak season, and many summer establishments are more or less in the tail ends of operations before closing for the winter.  Personally, I am actually glad we waited until fall to explore the Cape because the New England colors made for a seriously breathtaking drive.  So regardless of the timing we LOVED every second of our mini vacation. The beauty of the ocean, the quirkiness of the Ptown and the sheer, utter friendliness of the people blew us away.  It was the perfect weekend escape from the city.  We didn’t do much other than scout out places to eat, sip wine by the fire pit and walk the beach.  It was perfection in its truest form. Our recommendations for a quick weekend getaway in Cape Cod would have to be:

Continue reading “Get Out Of Town: Provincetown and Cape Cod”

Exploring Brooklyn: Favorite Coffee in Fort Greene

October 10, 2014

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As all our New York nearest and dearest know because they finally got to meet her -my mom came to visit for a week.  Having her in town is always a roller coaster.  I spend the week before she lands being a ball of quivering, excited energy.  Once she arrives, my emotions run high as we adventure, talk and just be.  We really do just love to hang out. Then the morning she leaves I wind up standing in my go-to coffee shop with my eyes welling up with tears as the barista asks how my morning is going. Regardless of the tidal waves of emotions I experience in the few short days surrounding her visit I am always so, so glad she is able to come.

This isn’t her first visit to our city, it is actually her third; she is pretty much a veteran New Yorker by now.  So this time around we took it easy.  We had a girls day complete with brunch at Walter’s in Fort Greene, followed by a spa day at the Plaza Hotel.  We tackled the Met Rooftop after church on Sunday.  Throughout the week she came with me to work, or met me for lunch at the Breslin Bar and Dining Room at the Ace Hotel.  But most importantly we drank a lot of coffee from some of our favorite places. Including: Continue reading “Exploring Brooklyn: Favorite Coffee in Fort Greene”

Get Out of Town: Best Summer Escapes from NYC

September 19, 2014

Beach view by Alex Talmon

We are slowly settling into a new fall rhythm.  Jay is still traversing multiple time zones per week and racking up air miles like it is a business, but as for me I am transitioning into a steady pace of life and loving it.  So as we ease into autumn it has me reflecting on the truly spectacular summer we had.  On top of graduating grad school, landing a brand new (amazing) career and celebrating five years of marriage, we got out of the city to explore the greatness that sounds us as much as possible.  A dear friend, Pat, mused that Jameson and I have left no stone unturned in our first year in New York.  This summer that especially rings true.   This summer alone has led us through eight different states.  Here is the short list of some of our favorite getaways, and some of the highlights of each adventure. Continue reading “Get Out of Town: Best Summer Escapes from NYC”

Summer in NYC

August 11, 2014

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Summer in the city is arguably my favourite yet (minus the humidity and skin scorching temperatures).

We have been so fortunate to have three of our nearest and dearest come to town to explore a New York summer with us.  My dad and his wife Maureen, came at the start of July to help us settle in and explore our new neighbourhood.  Then last week my brother, Sean, ventured over to help us tackle many of the items on our NYC tourist bucket list. We loved having them along to explore our surroundings.  Sharing the energy and pulse of the city with those we love, and exposing them what has made us fall love with New York really is the best treat. We SO loved having them. All bias aside I think Jameson and I have a pretty awesome family.

What follows is a few of our top picks for summer activities in the city. Continue reading “Summer in NYC”

Victoria { as seen through my iPhone }

July 22, 2014

So we took along our fancy camera with all the intentions in the world of capturing our trip home with it.  However, we got too caught up savoring the people and events of being home that the only remnants of our visit are pixelated iPhone snapped photos.  I would be more bummed if it wasn’t a testament to just how wonderfully full and heart filling our time at home was.

We were honored to celebrate the most exceptional bride and groom.  The wedding wound up being perfectly wonderful evening of catching up with old friends, and on top of that making some pretty spectacular new ones (Y’all come visit now!). As for the bride and groom, these two are a truly remarkable couple.  They have been together since early high school and are seriously going to kill it as husband and wife. We love them.  So much so that after the wedding night I lost my voice for the remainder of our trip because I talked, laughed and cheered way, way too much.

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Trans America Road Trip Route

June 24, 2014

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It is almost the 1 year anniversary since we set out on our Trans America road trip from our little island hometown to New York City.  A week doesn’t go by that Jay and I don’t talk about the time we packed all we could fit into the back of a crossover and set out across country.  So far it has been one of the best adventures of our young lives.  I chronicled the entire adventure on the blog, and all those posts were and actually still is the most viewed entries on the Jordan Project.  They are still being pinned again and again on a daily basis.  I keep getting asked to map out the route we took to get ourselves across this great nation.  So in honor of the requests and in encouragement that everyone really, really should take this trip here is the route we planned.

Before leaving we fielded comment after comment about how fun it will be to take it as it comes and stop where the wind takes us.  Clearly these people under estimated my sheer level of A-type personality and the utter thrill I get in planning.  Every detail was accounted for. I had mapped our route 10 months before we left, researched and booked the perfect hotel in each location and even devised an itemized list of where to eat and what to see (including a route on how to maximize our time in each spot so we could do and taste it all).  Here is the result of my madness.  It was sheer, perfect bliss. 12 days of bliss. Continue reading “Trans America Road Trip Route”

10 Reasons to Visit Vancouver Island

June 4, 2014

10 Reasons to Visit Vancouver Island

It has become a running joke that since moving to New York I have become incredibly patriotic and pro-west coast island living.  Friends have even gone so far as to dare me to go a length of time without harkening back to the beauty and sheer awesomeness of where I grew up (I always fail).  Jay has chastised me for routinely google searching images for “Vancouver Island Scenery” and showing them off in every NYC bar, dining establishment and house party ever.  He goads me that New Yorkers love New York so I best be careful with my belligerent bragging of the awesomeness of my island home. Well New Yorkers can have their New York, this article chronicles the essence of why I love island life.