I love to travel, and I love to write about my travels.
Do you live in the Washington DC area and are looking for a quick vacation spot that is close to home? Are you visiting DC soon and want to add in a day trip to somewhere outside the city? Do you wonder how how find direct flights from nearby airports? Do you need some packing tips? If so, check out this presentation:
Do you love Washington DC? What is your favorite place to visit outside the city itself? Let us know in the comments below.
After a two year hiatus due to Covid, Burning Man returned to the Black Rock desert in Nevada for the full nine-day festival of art, music, theme camps, yoga, dance, art cars, iced coffee, and scantily clad participants. With temperatures topping 100 degrees for at least three of the days, as well as several multi-hour dust storms, this year was a challenging one.
However, just as in 2018 and 2019, it was the incredible art projects, the quest for a camp serving grilled cheese at midnight, and the energy of 70,000 participants that kept this girl going. Here’s a look at some of my very favorite experiences over the week. Of course there was so much more to see and do- but I left my camera in my tent for most of the week.
Were you at Burning Man this year? Which piece was your favorite? Leave a comment below.
Spending three days in Leon, Mexico is the perfect amount of time to get to know this city in Central Mexico. With the Silao international airport just 20 minutes away, Leon is an excellent side trip if you’re already spending time in Guanajuato or San Miguel de Allende, or as a destination in and of itself.
For our recent trip to Leon, we stayed in the Othelo Boutique Hotel, located at the southern edge of the Central Walking Zone. It was a very modern, very cute hotel, with about sixteen rooms, featuring a library (named Yago) and a roof-top breakfast bar (named Desdemona). At under $50 a night, it is a bargain. The staff there are super nice and attentive; we enjoyed our stay there.
Leon has a hop on/hop off bus tour, but it only runs on the weekends. Instead, we decided to create our own walking tour over the three days we were there. On day one we focused on the Centro Historico, the next day we explored the Conjunto Poliforma and the Zona Piel, and on our last day, we stayed near the Barrio San Juan de Dios.
The Centro Historico is about eight blocks long, and four north-to-south. The interior streets are pedestrian-only zones, so you can wander through the two main plazas, enjoy an ice cream, listen to the musicians play, and gaze at the Cathedral of Leon to your heart’s content. Leon’s main neoclassical cathedral, called BasĂlica Metropolitana de La Madre SantĂsima de la Luz, was consecrated in 1866. Outside the gates of the Cathedral is a wonderful art exhibit of artistic photographs of some of Guanajuato state’s most interesting sites. Within the Centro Historico, shops run from basic everyday items to luxury jewelry, clothing, and formal-wear. There is also the Museum of the City of Leon, and the Theatro Manuel Doblado. At the far end of the Centro Historico, the Triumphal Arch of the Causeway of the Heroes starts the next walking zone of the city.
On day two we started at the edge of the Centro Historico, at the Triumphal Arch. Passing through the arch and enjoying the jumping water spouts, we headed down the promenade towards the Conjunto Poliforma. This multi-purpose area includes a university, an ecological park, the Museum of Art and History, and a sports stadium. After spending the day meandering through these, we returned by way of the Zona Piel- the leather zone. Leon is considered the leather capital of the world and people come from all over to purchase hand-crafted boots, shoes, jackets, saddles, and more. The leather zone stretches for several blocks, and dotted in between the hundreds (literally hundreds) of small stores are cafes, smoothie stands, cervezerias in case you get thirsty during your leather goods shopping.
For our third and final day in Leon, we stayed closer to our hotel and explored the immediate neighborhood around the Templo San Juan de Dios. This modest church, still showing damage from bullets from the Mexican Revolution, anchors a large park where you can sit on a bench, eat an ice cream, and watch the people of the neighborhood gather for walking, chatting, dancing, and eating. For dinner we ate at Tamales LuLu, a small mom-and-pop place across the street from the church. Afterwards, we sat in the park and watched musicians play as residents of the barrio antigua danced with each other under the rising moon. An ice cream and churro combination from ChurrerĂa Las Duyas is a delightful way to cap off dinner, before heading over to Harry’s for a chelada or a michelada.
Have you been to Leon? If so, what did you enjoy there? Answer below in the comments:
Anyone who has been to Texas can tell you that it’s hard to road-trip out of this state- in some directions you can drive for 10 hours and still be in Texas! For our long MLK weekend we were looking for a road trip to a place we hadn’t been to, out of Texas, and on the way to DC. Bonus points if we could tag a national park! We settled on Hot Springs, Arkansas.
After an overnight visit with friends in DFW (thanks Ken and Kristina for the hospitality!), we drove to Hope, Arkansas- which is the birthplace of our 42nd president, Bill Clinton. His childhood home, where he lived with his mother and grandparents for his early years, has been preserved by the National Park Service, and is open to visitors daily, with a tour every hour.
From Hope, it was just a couple more hours driving to get to Hot Springs, Arkansas. A light snow was falling, and the visitor’s center was about to close, so we popped in quickly to get some info about the area (visitor’s centers staff always have great suggestions). We had dinner at Picante’s Mexican Grill and then checked into our motel for the night, Dame Fortune’s Cottages (yes, I picked it solely for the name).
The next morning, we were up early to get in line at the public bathhouse. As of January 2022, the only open bathhouse is the Quapaw, which dates back to 1922. Visitors can book for private baths, massages, and other spa services, or for $20, can access their four public thermal pools, each at a different temperature. The thermal waters that flow into the Hot Springs area have been carbon-dated back to 4000 years ago- meaning that, the waters we were bathing in there had fallen as rain in 2000 BC- as old as the pyramids in Egypt. The water is high in minerals such as silica, calcium, magnesium, free carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, and sulfate. For centuries, these waters have been famed for their healing properties. If you do visit the Quapaw, be sure to bring your own shower shoes, and get there early- they do not take reservations for the public pools- and they are closed on Tuesdays.
After spending a couple of hours in the baths, we showered, dressed, and got ready to explore the rest of the town. First off, a fabulous lunch and craft beers at Superior Brewery, formerly Superior Bathhouse. The main street of the town of Hot Springs is also the national park- in fact, it is the first national lands set aside in the United States (not to be confused with Yellowstone, which sometimes claims that title). The waters and area around Hot Springs were designated national lands as far back as 1832, when President Andrew Jackson set aside the lands as a public reservation. It wasn’t until 1872 that the area really came under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, and by then, several families and businesses had settled and built structures there. After several fires in the wooden bathhouses, the row of Victorian, fire-resistant brick buildings that we see today were built between 1912 and 1932. In 1921, Hot Springs officially became our 18th National Park.
The row of bathhouses thrived during the first half of the 20th century, but by the 1950s, many of the buildings were in decline. Every one of them except the Buckstaff (still in existence but temporarily closed due to Covid) had closed by 1985. A campaign started to revitalize the area, and various other businesses were allowed to purchase and marginally renovate the eight Victorian bathhouses along Bathtub Row. Now, the buildings have been repurposed into Superior Brewery, the Hale Hotel, the Maurice Bathhouse (currently vacant and available for leasing), the Fordyce, which is now the park’s official visitor’s center, the Quapaw Bathhouse, the Ozark, which houses the Hot Springs National Park Cultural Center, and the Buckstaff. The last building on Bathtub Row, the Lamar Bathhouse, includes a small national parks store, as well as a research library and the park archives.
The National Park’s Visitor Center, housed in the old Fordyce Bathhouse, is definitely worth a visit. All three floors are open to visitors, and you can see the old changing rooms, gymnasium, baths, massage rooms, and resting rooms that the clients of the bathhouse using in the Roaring 20’s. If you go down to the basement, you can see where the hot spring actually comes out of the ground. Original Art Deco stained glass windows and other embellishments are still in most of the buildings along Bathtub Row.
After visiting the town of Hot Springs, and driving out into the park a little- the Hot Springs Mountain Tower has an observation deck from which you can view the surrounding valleys- we wended our way toward Little Rock. I needed to catch a flight back home, while Chris needed to keep driving to DC. We stopped at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site and learned about the civil rights events of 1957. The school is still a functioning high school, and there is a Visitor’s Center across the street with videos, images, and articles about the turbulent fight to desegregate schools in the south. If you’re in Little Rock, I definitely suggest you spent a couple of hours here. It was the perfect way to end our 3-day weekend and think about the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr, and other civil rights activists.
With ever-changing airline restrictions and countries closing their borders due to Covid, we decided to play it safe and travel mostly domestically for the time being. For our winter holiday, we chose to fly to Puerto Rico, which, being technically part of the United States, meant that we wouldn’t have to worry about finding and taking a Covid test to arrive or to return back to the US.
We spent the first few days in Old San Juan, enjoying colonial-style architecture, rich history, and delicious food. Between a walking tour of the small old-town area, and the two remaining fortresses, we learned a lot about the explorers, pirates, traders, and soldiers who have made San Juan their home over the past five centuries.
Favorite dish in old San Juan: the Puerto Rican Sampler at Deaverdura
Where we stayed: Hotel Casablanca (which features 4 stone bath tubs on the roof terrace)
From Old San Juan, we took an Uber to the outskirts of Fajardo, a smallish town on the east coast of the island. We stayed at a high rise condo just beside a marina, and attempted to do something we rarely do: nothing. Our condo was a mile away from the nearest restaurant or small market, and two miles from the nearest grocery store. We loaded up on some provisions, had a delicious mofongo dinner out the first night, and then hunkered down for a few days. We did wind up booking a scuba diving excursion for Christmas Day, but other than that, we stayed put and watched the sea birds, the boats, and the water from our 9th-floor balcony.
Favorite dish in Fajardo: Mofongo relleno de Camarones en Crema de Cilantro at Sal y Pimienta
Where we stayed: A studio condo listed on AirBnb in the Dos Marinas Tower
Luquillo is a laid-back beach town in the north of Puerto Rico, a perfect place for swimming, surfing, and drinking rum. We took a taxi from Fajardo to Luquillo, and arrived at our AirBnB apartment just a half block from Playa Azul. On our first evening in town, we walked over to the famed Luquillo Kioskos, a row of 30 or so bars and restaurants stretched out along the curve of a shallow bay. We drank beer and ate fried seafood and enjoyed the warm evening. For the rest of our time in the town, we tried out each of the other restaurants and cafes- Luquillo has just enough to try out two a day and not have to repeat, all without having to walk more than a mile. With views of the El Yunque Rainforest behind us, and the ocean in front of us, we were content to stay there and rest, relax, and toast the end of 2021.
Favorite food in Luquillo: Drinking a cold, creamy coquito. Here’s the recipe. I’ve already made two batches since we’ve been home.
Where we stayed: possibly my favorite Airbnb apartment. This one’s a gem, and under $100 a night
Of course this is only one small corner of Puerto Rico- there’s still so much to explore on this beautiful island (and the smaller barely-populated islands near it). Have you been to Puerto Rico? What was your favorite city or area?
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