Category: United States

Destinations, Washington DC

DC Summer Series: Paddleboating & Brunch

Washington, DC has a very particular energy during the summer season. The universities are on summer term, those fortunate enough to have vacation days head out of the city, and even the most driven professionals feel the urge to sneak out a few minutes early. The interns take over the metro and bars, everyone sweats in their suits, summer Fridays are pervasive, business booms for restaurants with patios (and the servers hate the patio section), a Friday at Jazz in the Garden is a must, a couple rooftop happy hours are equally as essential, and suddenly Virginia and Maryland are more enticing for a visit. 

As a DC resident of five years, I have passed by the Tidal Basin and seen people floating along on the paddle boats that are available for hire during the summer and into the fall and frequently thought, “oh, I should do that some day!” on numerous occasions. My coworkers and friends had similar thoughts- “oh, I’ve always meant to do that but never have.” Well, yesterday became that day for me. Continue reading “DC Summer Series: Paddleboating & Brunch” →

Destinations, Washington DC

DC Summer Series: A Guide to Tubing at Harper’s Ferry

Washington, DC has a very particular energy during the summer season. The universities are on summer term, those fortunate enough to have vacation days head out of the city, and even the most driven professionals feel the urge to sneak out a few minutes early. The interns take over the metro and bars, everyone sweats in their suits, summer Fridays are pervasive, business booms for restaurants with patios (and the servers hate the patio section), a Friday at Jazz in the Garden is a must, a couple rooftop happy hours are equally as essential, and suddenly Virginia and Maryland are more enticing for a visit. 

Recently, I went on a daytrip with a group of 18 people to go tubing at Harper’s Ferry. I had never been tubing before, and it was ridiculously fun as well as a learning experience in the art of young professionals getting together in a mix of carefree floating and some serious responsibility. Here is everything you need to know for planning a DC summer tubing trip: Continue reading “DC Summer Series: A Guide to Tubing at Harper’s Ferry” →

Destinations, Washington DC

DC Summer Series: The Dulles Air & Space Museum

Washington, DC has a very particular energy during the summer season. The universities are on summer term, those fortunate enough to have vacation days head out of the city, and even the most driven professionals feel the urge to sneak out a few minutes early. The interns take over the metro and bars, everyone sweats in their suits, summer Fridays are pervasive, business booms for restaurants with patios (and the servers hate the patio section), a Friday at Jazz in the Garden is a must, a couple rooftop happy hours are equally as essential, and suddenly Virginia and Maryland are more enticing for a visit. 

If you’re working through the DC summer, or just want to mix up the weekends you do spend in the city, daytrips and other roadtrips are a  great way to get out while staying put. Today I visited the second Air & Space museum (the Dulles Airport sister of the original DC museum), named the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, for a fantastic mini-adventure.

The museum consists of one main, massive hangar filled with planes, a second, space-themed hangar attached perpendicularly to the main hangar, a restoration hangar that you can observe, and a control tower.

If you have any interest in planes or flight at all, this museum is amazing. I arrived right at 10am, when they open, and had several areas of the museum to myself or just with another group nearby. By the time I left in the afternoon, the place starting to fill up- if you have any interest in using the flight simulator, heading up to the control tower, taking a tour, or seeing a movie, I suggest getting there as soon as it opens for no wait times. Continue reading “DC Summer Series: The Dulles Air & Space Museum” →

Accomodations, Destinations, Florida, United States

Review: Z Ocean Hotel, South Beach

Last week, I enjoyed a young professional version of spring break on South Beach in Miami, Florida. My travel companion and I stayed at the Z Ocean Hotel (Crowne Plaza South Beach), located on the main strip of Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. After extensive travel site reviews, comparisons, and map plotting of South Beach’s various top hotels, we selected Z Ocean Hotel as it offered the best amenities and characteristics for all of our points of interest: location, room design, location, pool, price (including evaluation of additional fees such as valet parking and resort fees), beachside services, luxurious feel, and overall ratings.

Our stay met all of our expectations and was very enjoyable. Here are some noteworthy aspects, written and photographed, about the Z Ocean experience: Continue reading “Review: Z Ocean Hotel, South Beach” →

Destinations, Florida, United States

Calling All Snowbirds: Tips for Planning a Florida Vacation

Before I came a fully-fledged Washingtonian, I was a Floridian. So for all you snowbirds (which I am now, though the Florida license plate of my parents’ cars would never betray that in peak-season traffic), I’ve got a few tips for a Florida vacation. Given that my travel companion for my upcoming tropical trip can’t leave the country (visa renewals are an unfortunate process), we decided on Florida, and I’ve been doing a bit of thinking and research with the lens of a visitor and the expertise of a resident.

Here are some ideas for planning a trip to sunny Florida: Continue reading “Calling All Snowbirds: Tips for Planning a Florida Vacation” →

Destinations, Europe, Florida

Holiday Travel Preview: Florida, Stockholm, London

It’s my opinion, fostered through an international family and a wonderfully travel-filled upbringing, that no year is complete without leaving my country of residence. This Washingtonian did go on a Caribbean cruise in March, which was a great trip, but that’s not something a former Floridian would classify as international travel. Anyway, to close out the year, I have three destinations planned or in progress: Southwest Florida, Stockholm, and London. Continue reading “Holiday Travel Preview: Florida, Stockholm, London” →

Washington DC

A Very District Holiday

The holiday season is well underway in Washington, DC and there’s been quite a few events and occasions to see or do already. Here’s a bit of what you can expect in the District during December:

The under-construction Capitol after the tree lighting.
The under-construction Capitol after the tree lighting.

Each year, Christmas trees spread throughout the city and light up the streets and parks. The two main trees in central DC are the Capital tree and the National tree. Both have lighting ceremonies, both typically in the first week of December, but do note that the National lighting requires a ticket and involves a concert while the Capital lighting is a much smaller affair. The tree is lovely, however.

DC is also a major university town and young professional hotspot. If you are interested, alumni events are just as prevalent as office parties. Personally, I attended the DC Hoyas Holiday party for a lovely evening at F. Scott’s followed by Tombs after. Continue reading “A Very District Holiday” →

Destinations, Florida, United States

Weekend Getaways: A Young Professional Retires to Southwest Florida

The holiday season officially kicked off with my family’s annual pre-Thanksgiving holiday season decor extravaganza.

After flying in from Dulles, which had an incredibly unfortunate and rather inhospitable Terminal Z, with Frontier Airlines, which charges you for carry-ons as well as checked bags, it was time to retire for the weekend. What’s a young professional to do during a weekend of early retirement?

A Frontier flight at dusk.
A Frontier flight at dusk.
Fine homecooked dining, driving around snowbirds, enjoying the sunshine, going to the opera, and Christmas decorating was perfect for two nights and two days.

Continue reading “Weekend Getaways: A Young Professional Retires to Southwest Florida” →

Destinations, Washington DC

An Evening at the Embassy of Estonia

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit Estonia, or at least the Estonian embassy in the U.S., to learn more about the Baltic country’s past, present, and future.

The embassy is centrally located in Dupont Circle at the southern end of Embassy Row, and is housed in a beautiful, large townhouse. The evening featured a welcome and presentation by the ambassador, His Excellency Eerik Marmei, followed by a reception of Estonian cuisine.

As a Swede/Finn, I’ve always been curious about and interested in visiting Estonia. Ferries such as Silja Line (now Estonian-owned by Tallink) cruise regularly between Tallinn, Helsinki, and Stockholm. Estonia’s dramatic, forward-thinking development in cohesion with is historic cities makes it the top Baltic state on my list of places to visit. Continue reading “An Evening at the Embassy of Estonia” →

Destinations, New York

New York City Sights: A Highline Sanctuary in the Urban Jungle

Starting in the Meatpacking District and running almost entirely parallel to the Hudson River into Midtown is the New York City Highline, which, as I discovered last week during NYC’s Climate Week, is much more than a walkway with foliage. The Highline is a former train track for the New York Central Railroad that was just recently repurposed as a linear park.

As world leaders descended upon the city and rallies reverberated through finance districts and central Manhattan for Climate Week NYC 2014, I visited the city’s newest and most popular repurposed park to see how NYC can be green. Continue reading “New York City Sights: A Highline Sanctuary in the Urban Jungle” →