Albany to All Over the World

Sharing my stories from trips across the country and the globe __tlid = '897927051325997059'; setTimeout(function(){(function(d,t){var s=d.createElement(t),x=d.getElementsByTagName(t)[0]; s.type='text/javascript';s.async=true;s.src='//cdn.thinglink.me/jse/embed.js'; x.parentNode.insertBefore(s,x);})(document,'script');},0);

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At ease, Lieutenant Colonel.

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As you can see, Nate’s mother was very accomplished in the Army! The second picture (top right) is wire fencing from the DMZ in North Korea

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Highlights from a military retirement

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Kansas, Day 2

Most of my plans for this trip that I took were pretty laid back because we were staying with the people that we were visiting. 

Nate took me onto the base so I could see the layout. I’m in a military family, but all of my family members that served lived on a base before I was born- we didn’t get to go to the base my dad served on when we were in San Diego. He showed me where his family lived on base back in 2005 before moving internationally, and we went to the PX (the closest thing the military has to a ‘mall’ on a base).

These recap blurbs will be shorter than most other trips because everywhere we went was relatively close to where we were staying, and we didn’t have any BIG plans until tomorrow and the day before we left.

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The only pictures that I have from driving around on the base at Fort Leavenworth. I felt obliged to withhold from taking pictures on a military base, partially because I wasn’t sure if I could!

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Kansas, Day 1

Yeah, I never thought I’d be traveling here either, but I had an excellent reason for it! My boyfriend’s family lives out here and I hadn’t met them in person since we started dating in October 2017. We went at the end of June 2018 because Nate’s mother was retiring from the Army, and so that I could meet all of his family members. 

Our first day was a longer day of travel, because Albany doesn’t fly anywhere direct that isn’t Florida. From Albany, we flew to DC to get our connecting flight to Kansas City. (Fortunately, no weather messed up our flights like it did in Charleston!). We were picked up from the airport by Nate’s mom, grabbed something quick to eat, and then drove into Leavenworth to the family store.

Nate’s parents run a yarn shop- his mother has always been big into knitting, and they jumped at the opportunity when they saw it for sale, especially since his family can’t really go anywhere while his mom was still in the Army. Once we got to the store, I was able to meet Nate’s dad (he does the finances for the store), and then we walked around the main street of Leavenworth. For those who aren’t familiar with this region of Kansas, many military families plant roots in the area after serving in the armed forces. Many of the businesses are locally owned and are supportive of the community. It was a little toasty outside, so after that quick walk around we went to the family house 15 minutes away in Lansing. From there, I was able to meet Nate’s two younger brothers; I had already met his sister because she goes to school in NYS.

We shared dinner together and then started unpacking. I was staying in Nate’s brother’s room- his brothers slept in the other brother’s room for the duration of our stay. It wouldn’t be until the next day where we started to explore!

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Can now officially check off the Midwestern US!

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Spring Break 2018, Days 3 and 4

Today was the last day we spent with Ian and Amy, and it wasn’t even for the whole day :( We got breakfast from Chick Fil A and headed over to the train station, where Ian bought our tickets to return back to Charleston. It was a beautiful train ride, so the next time I’m in the south, I will definitely opt for a train ride over driving on the highway.

We took an Uber to check out The Citadel campus, and I wish I had spent more time taking pictures. The upside to this is that I was too busy living in the moment and enjoying a nice walk around the oldest military academy in the country.

In my ~infinite~ wisdom, I seemed to think it was a good idea to WALK from the Citadel to downtown (hint: it wasn’t). Nate’s sunburnt feet were starting to catch up to him, and I made him walk at least 3 or 4 miles to get downtown. We made a pit stop at Bruegger’s to grab a late breakfast, and I treated us to some ice cream once we got to the main street. We had to shift gears a little bit once we got downtown because there was a 5K going on, but that didn’t impact our transportation out of the city.

I didn’t really get a good chance to see a lot of Charleston, so I’m keeping it on my places to check out. I’ve heard a lot of great things and beautiful landmarks that I missed in my couple of hours in the city, so I have many things to anticipate for my next trip.

We hopped on a bus to take us to the airport, and some bad weather screwed up our flights. The original flight to bring us to DC was delayed to the point where we’d miss our connecting flight, so we decided to buy a different ticket to a plane that would get us in before, but not by much. We would’ve made our connecting flight in DC if our plane parked at a gate... the plane parked on the tarmac (it was a smaller plane) and we had to go through security all over again. We literally missed our flight by a minute or two, because we got there as the plane was leaving the gate. United was nice enough to reroute us to Boston, and fortunately I have a girlfriend that lives nearby that was able to take us in for the night. Go figure that it was the weather down SOUTH, not the unpredictable northeastern weather of mid April, that threw a wrench in our plans.

My friend was super hospitable and bought breakfast before driving us into downtown Boston to catch a Greyhound bus that brought us back to Albany (Thanks Meg!). It wasn’t quite the ending we had hoped for our mini-trip, but we took care of Nate’s feet and caught up on sleep before going back to the real world the next day.

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I couldn’t find any pictures of the Citadel on Tumblr, and The Citadel’s Instagram page doesn’t have a TON to offer, but this video shows some nice shots of the campus.

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I wish I had taken more pictures of the Citadel during our brief time back in Charleston! 

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Spring Break 2018, Day 2

Since this was Nate’s first time to Savannah, we had to go back to the beach. Tybee Island is a must for the next time I go back to Savannah, because it has everything about a beach minus the humongous crowds. 

Unfortunately for my boyfriend, he does not have any Italian genes to help ward off sunburns... his feet (his feet!) were so badly burned that they swelled up and were redder than any sunburn I’ve ever seen before. This wouldn’t affect him until the next day, which has quite the story to it.

We wanted to go to Spanky’s because they have great sides, but there was a long wait to get a table. We walked over to Wet Willie’s instead because we could get slushie drinks and food. Nate needed new sunglasses so we went to the souvenir shop across the street, and then we walked up to the pier to grab another drink - I’ve mentioned before that I LOVE the open container laws in Savannah, and I promise I don’t drink that often!

Amy wasn’t with us until later in the day, as she had things to do for school. We met her at the rooftop bar that we had been at the day before, and then all of us went to get Mexican food for dinner. Some of Amy’s friends met up with us there, and we took a brief pit stop to oblige for another Bonaventure picture for Nate. After eating, we went back to Ian and Amy’s place and just hung out before going to bed. We had a long day ahead of us that was going to become longer because of weather...

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Don’t mind me, just casually trying to hide the sunburn on my face in the top picture... 

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One beach bum (heh) and her beau

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Life ~Happens~

As I’m sure those that have followed this blog know too well, I sorta disappear from time to time. It usually coincides with a lot of personal stuff popping up, so let me address that first:

Teaching is by no means an easy occupation, let alone being a substitute for a teacher during the remainder of a school year. I finished up that position in June 2018, got my M.S. in Education, and moved to Utica! From there, I bought my first apartment, started my first official year of teaching, and subsequently moved into another apartment with my boyfriend. Don’t worry, though- I have plenty of trips to post on here, with the hopes of being a little more consistent with posting. I still have to share all of the trips from before 2017 that I went on myself AND I’ve been making big moves throughout 2019.

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Spring Break 2018, Day 1.5

I’ll explain that 1.5 in a second! After what was by far the most lit year ever in terms of everything, I went out with a bang in 2017 by completing my Master’s degree in Education! I also picked up a leave replacement position for a Spanish teacher in a suburban middle school, so the earliest opportunity I would have to travel was during the school’s spring break.

Nate surprised me on Valentine’s Day by telling me we would be going to visit Ian & Amy again in Savannah (what he didn’t tell me was that he didn’t have the tickets booked...), so we threw a plan together to get back down to Georgia!

We flew from Albany to Charleston, SC and arrived later in the night, so we rented a car and drove from Charleston to Savannah. I think we got into Ian’s around 12:30/1 AM, so we technically didn’t see them until the next morning (and explains the .5 of the 1.5!)

That following morning, we had a proper reunion and used our rental to drive to Bonaventure Cemetery- there was NO WAY Nate would have missed seeing anything related to his alma mater. We made a pit stop at Krispy Kreme for breakfast, and then drove downtown to check out Forsyth Park and that wall where everyone looks good taking a picture :)

It probably has to do with how jam-packed our trip was, but I really don’t remember where we ate lunch. I do know that we took a picture on the rooftop bar I visited last time, and I remember revisiting River Street Sweets because I bought pralines (YUM). We drove the rental back to the airport, and then I can’t tell you where we ate dinner... actually, wait! I do remember this because they didn’t give me all of my meal.

The real reason I was there was to see my friends, and while I obviously did eat etc., my priority was to enjoy the limited time I had with them.