Kiawah Island, SC

On our last day on Kiawah Island, Garrett humored me by joining in on a bicycle ride. I always love exploring via bike, even though traffic and bumps and declining hills tend to fill me with anxiety.

I'm so glad that we took the chance to ride our bikes through the island, though, because it's one of my favorite memories from the trip. We rode past golf courses, through marshes, over bridges, and in the forest. Everything was so green, so lush, that we felt like we were somewhere tropical. Oh, and it rained the whole time, too.

For whatever reason, the rain didn't bother us. Well, it bothered Garrett for a moment, as he was worried about ruining his Allen Edmonds. After slipping them off and into his backpack, all was well again.

Garrett and I stopped in a dry spot as the rain started to come down particularly hard. For a moment, the world was quiet. The cicadas stopped singing and traffic ceased. The only noise to be heard was the hush of the torrential downpour as it fell with all of its fury.

Once the downpour lightened a bit, we rode on. It was a warm, humid day, and the rain provided relief as the cool drops fell onto our sunburned skin. To me, there are few prettier things than rain falling in sunlight. The air shined gold as the drops fell like tiny golden needles to the ground, scattering and dispersing light as they hit.

When we returned to the condo, out of breath and wet from the rain, we discovered that it hadn't rained there at all. Shivering from the cool of the air conditioning, we changed into dry clothes and sank into the couches to rest.


About an hour later, Garrett asked me if I wanted to take another bike ride, this time down the beach. I readily said yes. We changed into bathing suits and hopped on the bikes once more.

This time, it wasn't raining, but it was equally as beautiful. The sun was setting and everything around us was covered in a dusting of blue-gold light. We were being cheesy and singing off-key to a hodge-podge of songs, happy to be near the ocean and playing outside once more (something you can't do in the heat of a Phoenix summer).

We rode our bikes until the terrain allowed us to ride no more, after about 3 miles. The ocean, which had flanked us on our left side, turned in and stopped us from riding further. There was a small boat filled with passengers drifting in the tiny cove and three other people standing on the banks. Everyone was quiet.

Neither of us doubted why the others were there, it was so beautiful. Garrett and I hopped off of our bikes and grabbed some water. We both nodded out to a grouping of Great Blue Herons, swooping in and standing together. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted two dolphins rising about a foot off of the bank to catch air.

"OH!" I yelled, covering my mouth quickly as though I had scared the dolphins away. "Garrett," I whispered harshly, "look! Dolphins!"

We trekked through small puddles and parked ourselves  as close as possible to the water's edge. After a moment, one of the dolphins rose again.

We stood there, trying to stretch our vision over the entire cove to see where the dolphins might rise next, for a long, long time. Everything was silent, not a person spoke. Even the boat, trolling after the dolphins, made no noise. The only sound that filled the air was the gentle rushing of the water and the intermittent puffs of breath from the surfacing dolphins.

The sky was still a golden blue, reflecting doubly in the iridescent glint of the ocean. The water sparkled gold as the dark, navy blue backs of the dolphins broke its surface. Each time they rose I  felt as though I was experiencing one of the most beautiful sights in the world. My cheeks ached from smiling and my chest tired from the constant strain of excitement, but I didn't care. Standing there, holding my husband's hand and witnessing one of the finest gifts nature has ever offered, I was in pure bliss.

That bliss dropped slightly as a loud boom of thunder clapped our ears. I kept my eyes straight ahead, searching for the dolphins. Garrett looked to the right and saw the storm rolling in. The soft lighting changed, ever so slightly, as black clouds began to take over the sky.

 "Aud, we have to go," Garrett said, "I just saw lightning."

I didn't want to leave. I didn't care about the storm. I could have stayed there on that quiet beach forever. Garrett, however, could not.

With a sigh and slight slumping of my shoulders, I acquiesced. We hopped on our bicycles and peddled off, away from the water's edge. Garrett was of course moving faster than I was, and I took a chance in diagonally drifting back to the water. My timing was perfect, because three dolphins rose right then, right there.

"Garrett!" I called, laying my bike on the ground. "Come back! Look! They just rose right here!"

Sensing my childlike excitement, he rode back to join me. We waited another five minutes, and saw the dolphins break surface once more on their way out to the ocean.

"Ok," Garrett admonished, "we have to go now." As if to back his urgency, the thunder clapped again.

 I said a mental goodbye to the dolphins, the herons, and the peace of that tiny cove.

We rode toward home in a hurry, Garrett ahead of me and circling back to give me encouragement. My legs were tired. My knees were achy. I was sore, but more importantly, completely happy. The black sky washing in with every boom of thunder and flash of lightning didn't bother me. For Garrett, though, I tried to ride faster. It was maybe the longest three miles of my life.

Fat drops of rain started to fall just as our condo came into view. Knowing that I was close to being done,  I gave one final push. We approached the boardwalk, hopped off as the sand got thick, and pushed our bikes home in the rain.


I will remember this day and keep it close to my heart forever. If I close my eyes, I can still see the rain falling in the sunlight. I can feel the grind of the sand beneath my bicycle wheels. I can taste the salt of the air. I can hear the puff of the dolphins' breath. And, above all, I'll remember holding my husband's hand in wonderment through it all.

Charleston, SC

I'm in love with Charleston, South Carolina, and I don't care who knows it!

On our recent trip to S.C., we got to spend a day in one of my favorite cities of all time: Charleston.

We started the day off at the Farmers Market in Marion Square, on King and Calhoun Streets. It was probably the largest farmers market I've ever been to, and it offered so much! We grabbed our breakfast here--Garrett and I got empanadas and coffee, others got huevos rancheros, omelets, grits, and green smoothies. Everything was delicious. After eating and strolling through the market some more, we grabbed some fresh veggies to cook for dinner and headed out to explore the rest of the city.

From the farmers market, we headed down King Street, which I took to be the main shopping strip. It was pretty, but not the part of the city I was interested in. Garrett and I separated from the group and found a small coffee shop, which has become one of our new favorite vacation to-do's. We fell in love with City Lights Coffee as soon as we stepped through the door.  A small, quaint, and colorful environment flowing with blues music--who wouldn't love this place? His espresso and my smoothie didn't disappoint, either.

After finishing our drinks, Garrett and I met up again with the group. Everyone was tiring and ready to move on to the beach house, but I still felt that we hadn't seen the best part of the city: the residential area. I was ready to comply and head out with the group, but Garrett swooped in and saved the day. He knew that I wanted to stroll through the neighborhoods because I had talked about it so much before arriving, so he was wonderful in making sure we got the chance.

We continued down King Street in the direction of the water, and soon the shops died down and beautiful old homes took over. The residents of historical Charleston take such pride in their homes, as they should. No two homes were the same, which was especially nice to see in this day and age of cookie-cutter neighborhoods. So many of them had wrap-around porches, which I die for. What I loved most were all of their gardens--almost every residence had an alleyway leading into the front entrance of their home that was lush with greens and flowers and light. If I could come home to such beauty every day, why, I'd just have to be the happiest person in the world.

If you follow King Street all the way down, you end up at a park facing the water. Garrett and I smiled at each other when we saw the ocean--just a few weeks ago, we had our toes in the Pacific Ocean. We acknowledged our luck to now arriving at the Atlantic Ocean. 

The homes flanking the waterfront are, of course, unbelievably huge and gorgeous. I couldn't decide which way to look--stare at the pretty houses, or look out across the bay to Fort Sumter? We stayed by the water long enough to have time for both.

After getting an adequate fill of the ocean view--we got to see a sailboat race, too--we rambled back into the neighborhoods. We strolled down Market and Church Streets, and took lots and lots more pictures.

This city is a dream for anybody who appreciates beauty and loves history. I feel as though I could spend a whole week getting lost in all of the neighborhoods and enjoy every minute of it. If you have the chance to visit Charleston, go. And take every chance you can to wander off of the beaten path.

DIY Travel Map: A Fun Way to Keep Track of Your Travels


I think that an integral part of building a new household and family is developing your own traditions. Making my own traditions with Garrett and my other family members as an adult is something that I'm really looking forward to as we get older.

If I recall correctly, Garrett and I have had one on-going tradition thus far: I get him a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream every year on his birthday. This started our freshman year of college (God knows how I got my 18-year-old hands on a bottle of Bailey's); we hadn't been dating that long and I was unsure of what to get him. I'm not sure how I settled on the creamy whisky liqueur (there were other small gifts, too), but it stuck. Seven years later, he still receives an annual bestowment of Bailey's come his birthday.

I wanted to develop a better, more sentimental tradition with my husband than giving him a bottle of booze every year. So, from adapting the ideas of others, I decided that we should make a Travel Map.

Our Travel Map is exactly what it sounds like: a world map upon which we mark our travel. Garrett came home with a framed map from a garage sale some time ago and it's been hanging in our dining room ever since. It's a good map, but obviously not the most expensive one, and though it's framed, it isn't glassed-in...a.k.a. PERFECT for a DIY project!

Last night, on the eve of our 1st anniversary, Garrett and I marked all of the places that we had traveled to in our first year of marriage. We decided to use pins (stickers, sharpies, thumbtacks, etc. would work the same) to mark our destinations. It was a little hard to not mark everywhere we'd been in the past almost 7 years of being together, but we opted out on that because this will be one of our new marriage traditions. We used pink pinheads to mark this year's travel (Garrett marked the few destinations he'd been without me with green), and will use a different color for every year of our marriage. I can't wait for the pins on this map to multiply!

 

As you can see, Garrett and I were pretty lucky in our travels this past year. We started with our wedding in Newport, Rhode Island and from there traveled on to Bozeman, Montana, San Francisco and Half Moon Bay, California, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, back to San Francisco, California, then to Ambergris Caye, Belize, and, finally, to Los Angeles, California. We've also taken advantage of in-state trips to Tucson, Sedona, and Flagstaff. Garrett and I clearly love to travel and I'm glad that we will have this mapping tradition in years to come to reflect on all of the places we've been and how blessed we really are.

See pictures from our year one destinations below!

The start of it all...pictured outside of Ochre Court in Newport, RI on our wedding day.

Garrett fishing off the banks of the Yellowstone River in Montana.

The two of us in front of Half Moon Bay, photographed outside of the Ritz Carlton.

Picture taken at a friend's Christmas party in Michigan.

En route to Ambergris Caye, Belize by way of water taxi from San Pedro.

At a brewery in Pasadena, California.