It’s been my husband’s dream since we first started dating to go to NYC. He especially wants to see Hamilton on Broadway. For Christmas, his family, new in-laws, and myself pooled together to send him to NYC (obviously with me as well). Here’s how these Idaho hillbillies spent their time in the big city. Day 1: We flew out on Christmas Day because it saved us $150 per plane ticket. We also only did carry on bags to save money (check out our link with more ways we travel on a budget). If you want to see how we packed for 10 days with a carry on, check out our blog post on it. After security, we got breakfast in the airport. It’s hard to eat breakfast at 3 am and we find that eating a bigger meal at 5 am helps keep us full for the flights. Our flight left at 6 am and we somehow we were lucky enough to have good weather. All our flights ran 15-30 minutes early. We landed in Newark, NJ at 4 pm (1 pm our time) so we had to find lunch/dinner when we landed. It took us a while to figure out how to get out of the airport and get to NYC. We ended up taking the Skytrain (free airport transport out of the terminal) and bought tickets to go to Penn Station NYC (around $10 each). From there, we needed to go to Brooklyn for our AirBNB which was still an hour out of Manhattan by transit. We were starving so we decided to get food before starting the trek to Brooklyn. We ended up at McDonald’s because they had places big enough for our luggage. We wanted food and to move on and McDonald’s did the trick. If you can wait to eat, I’d recommend you wait for one of the great restaurants you can choose from. We finished our dinner and wandered aimlessly for a while trying to figure out the public transit system. It ends up you can’t buy bus tickets without a metro card or exact coin at the kiosks along the road. We went to a subway station where they had all the options we needed to get tickets. We bought the single trip good for two hours pass. We didn’t know what transit metro cards covered so we decided to do some research before taking the plunge. After an hour on the subway, we found our cute AirBNB in a quiet Brooklyn neighborhood. The streets are lined with brick townhomes and it’s so much quieter. I can already tell it’s going to be worth the extra transit time to be in Brooklyn. I also think it’s important to acknowledge how awful the time between your plane landing and getting to your AirBNB can be. You’re in a strange place, you’re tired, and you're dragging everything you need in heavy bags. All you want is a place you can *kinda* call your own and where you can nap. Getting out of airports and to the city transit is such a pain. We always get confused at some point in the process. Then once you reach the city, the new transit arrangement will throw you off for at least a little bit. I just wanted to remind you that your initial experiences at a place don’t necessarily set the tone for the rest of your adventure. Day 2: We started today a bit later than we usually do since we were catching up on sleep and recovering from jet lag. We got bagels at Cropsey Bagels. We took the subway to Rockefeller Center so we could see the Christmas tree while we still had some Christmas spirit. We got sidetracked when we saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We stopped inside and toured the beautiful interior. Even after countless European churches, it was still stunning. We then went across the way to Rockefeller center. We saw the tree, snapped some photos, and moved on. My husband wanted to see the Nintendo store so we stopped by for a bit. We went to Radio City Pizza and had pizza by the slice. It was nice to sit down and the pizza was pretty cheap. After food, we set off to Top of the Rock. We wanted to see the Empire State building on the skyline which lead us to picking Top of the Rock. They’re all around the same price anyways so don’t fuss over the decision too much. We spent a lot of time here and really enjoyed the skyline. We then made our way to Time Square. It was cool but definitely not the highlight of the day. We strolled through and moved onto the New York Public Library. The library is a very impressive building inside and outside. We were both hoping for more book stuff but we still were glad we went. We took the subway to another side of the city. We initially went for the Flatiron building which was under construction. We still didn’t think it was that cool. We then enjoyed new views on our way to Strand bookstore. They had lots of selection and variety. Unfortunately, it was pretty busy and the new and used were mixed. We’re notorious book bargain hunters so we like the used and new separate. For West Coast folks, it reminded us a lot of Powell’s in Portland. We were hungry after book shopping and got dinner at The Famous Cozy Soup and Burger. I ordered a grilled cheese and my husband ordered chili. We really didn’t want anything fancy and we enjoyed the simple, familiar meal. We picked up cookies from Ben’s Cookies down the road. They were delicious and we highly recommend stopping by. I was craving tea so we stopped by Peet’s Coffee (great tea). We then set off for our AirBNB to rest up for tomorrow. Day 3: We started off the day with more Cropsey Bagels. We love this place more each time we eat there. Then we made reservations for the Statue of Liberty. First off, make sure you only get them through the National Park Service. They have one person actually allowed to take you to the island which is Statue Cruises. They have a link in the National Park Service website. I’d recommend you go through NPS’s website to make sure it’s the right company. It’s also illegal to resell these tickets so don’t buy them from anyone except the source. The Park Service even warns you about pushy salespeople in Battery Park. It’s definitely true but not a big deal if you just keep your focus ahead and just walk by. Second off, only Statue Cruises are allowed to dock at Liberty and Ellis Island. Sure a boat can drive you past it but not actually on the island. The overall moral for this story is to do your research. Not just for the Statue of Liberty but for anything you do. We somehow were able to get day of reservations for the ferry. For the love of all things good, MAKE A FERRY RESERVATION. We bought the tickets 3 hours in advance online and we’re so glad we did. You can buy tickets at the dock but it’s a pretty long line to buy them. Then the line to get onto the ferry is insane. It loops around the park and is around 50 times the length of the reservation line we got into. We also were able to get one of the last reservations for pedestal access. This lets you see the inside of the statue and go into a museum with far less people than the main one. You get to go to the top of the pedestal and look at the Manhattan skyline. It’s free to add the pedestal but you have to reserve in advance. It’s cool but not pay extra money cool. We’re glad we did it since it was free. You can hike the stairs to the crown for only $3 but you have to make reservations way in advance. We personally didn’t feel like the 200 odd stairs anyway for a similar view. I also want to add the disclaimer that we went in December. We are definitely not here in the high season of NYC tourism. I’d plan farther ahead than we did if you’re coming really any time of year. We ended up eating lunch at the Statue of Liberty restaurant. It was surprisingly good and cheaper than expected. If you can’t avoid it, it’s not a big deal to eat there. I’d also recommend that you eat elsewhere if you can schedule around it. We could only get noon tickets and we ate a late breakfast so we were kinda stuck. Our ferry tickets took us to Ellis Island next. We both preferred Ellis Island to the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is a must but it’s fun to look at and then move on. Ellis Island is filled with so much history. Both sides of our ancestors came through Ellis Island so it was very interesting to look at what they experienced. It also has a wealth of information on the immigration that created the country we have today. We really enjoyed feeling the hope like our ancestors did so long ago. We also looked at the somber reality of what happened to Native Americans and Africans who were forced out of or into our country. It’s so interesting to look at that information side-by-side. The diversification of our country was beautiful and terrible at the same time. It’s so important that we take the time to learn about both sides of history. We got on the second to last ferry back to Manhattan to make sure that we made it back. We unintentionally ended up on a sunset/night skyline ferry ride. It was so beautiful. The sunset behind the Statue of Liberty and the skyline ahead was starting to light up. We then went to the Museum of Modern Art. They currently have free Friday’s starting at 5:30pm. We looked through the list of art and really all we wanted to see was Starry Night. We knew it’d be more hectic but since we only wanted to see one work, we decided it was worth it. The line wrapped around the entire block but it also went by very quickly. It really wasn’t bad. Once we got inside, we went straight for Starry Night so we could then enjoy the rest at a leisurely pace. Starry Night is on the 5th floor and so are so many other incredible paintings. I don’t know how we didn’t see them on the list before. So many Picasso paintings, Salvador Dali’s most famous piece, Frida Kahlo’s self portrait, and so many others. Then we found Starry Night which was an absolute NIGHTMARE. It was a mob of people trying to catch a glimpse. We stood there for half an hour and made no progress forward. The goal was for people to glance at it and then loop around. Unfortunately, many people don’t get the taking turns thing (hence why we never moved). The few people that did take turns had a certain exit route…which was in front of the other featured Van Gough paintings. We were shocked at the lack of order or logical organization for viewing one of the most famous paintings in the world. If we could redo this, we wouldn’t do the free night. We didn’t know just how much we would be seeing. It would’ve been worth the money to enjoy so much beauty in peace. The line in was fine but it was too much chaos inside. I will also say we didn’t enjoy very many pieces outside the 5th floor. We really enjoy art but we’re far from artists. We really were stumped by the actual hole in the wall with nothing but board underneath as art. Or the random rocks on the ground (but I did like the rocks themselves because I love rocks) or the fake hair tied to a wire frame. There was still some cool stuff but also the typical modern art that gets made fun of. We got out around 8pm and had dinner at Dos Toros. It was a great spot and we really enjoyed it. Then off to home we went! Day 4: Today was dedicated to Brooklyn. We started again with Crospey’s Bagels…shocker. But we did switch it up from bagels to muffins and pastries. It was so good. We set off for our first stop which was a bit unusual. We’re both fans of the show Brooklyn 99 and we found out what precinct they used for the outside shots of the precinct. My husband assured me it wasn’t weird because he was sure lots of people visit the building. The actual answer is no. There was literally no one there in the middle of a Saturday. We really enjoyed it though as fans of the show. Next was a bookstore nearby before jumping on the subway for Brooklyn Heights. We started off at Brooklyn Heights Promenade. It was cool but would prove to be our least cool view of the day. It was lunch time and we went to Cranberry’s which was up the way. It was super good and we’d highly recommend. They have minimal seating so we ended up eating in the Promenade with a view. We then moved onto the Brooklyn Bridge. This was high on my list for more than just the epic architecture. It was completed by one of the first female engineers. She had no formal training but she took over when her husband fell extremely ill and could no longer work. She never was the official engineer of the project but her husband never went on the bridge again after his accident. She basically ran the project for the final 14 years of construction. I loved how this woman took over one of the most famous features on the NYC skyline in the late 1800s while also caring for her bedridden husband. She’s just so dang cool. Then we moved onto Dumbo which was super cool. We went to One Girl Cookie and got cupcakes. We honestly didn’t think the cupcakes were that great. We also may have ordered something they’re not famous for. But we also won’t complain about cupcakes. We then moved onto the parks looking at the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. We enjoyed strolling through the parks and admiring the views (much better than the Promenade view). We then moved onto another bookstore. I found an autographed copy of one of my favorite books: Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky. She’s awesome and you should look her up if you don’t know who she is or what her work is. We returned to the parks from earlier and watched the sunset and the skyline start to light up. We picked up some groceries and had pizza back at our place for dinner. Day 5: Today was mostly dedicated to the Natural History Museum. As a scientist, I could spend an entire day there. My husband, as a culture and history enthusiast, could spend an entire day in a whole different section of the museum. We also knew that that meant we should eat lunch before we went. So this is how our day turned out planning around that. I know this may shock you but we had breakfast at Crospey’s Bagels…again. Our first stop was in Manhattan along 5th Avenue. In 1915, the largest suffragette march to date took place on 5th Ave. They marched 5 miles in all white holding banners to try to swing the upcoming vote on women’s voting rights. I wanted to walk this route and pay tribute to the women that helped make our world what it is today. We walked around 5 blocks of their route until we reached Central Park. We planned this route specifically because we had to walk Central Park to get to the museum. We were able to walk two thirds of the park with this route. We walked through the Minton Tiles in Bethesda Arcade which was quire beautiful. Then we saw the Bethesda Fountain which isn’t very impressive but it also had no water since it’s too cold. Overall, we were very underwhelmed by the park. We think it’d be cooler in different circumstances. First off, it’s winter. All the trees are just twigs since there’s hardly any conifers. Next, we literally live on lake view property right now and we’ve spent our whole lives in a beautiful natural area. Basically, we’re snobs about our nature. So don’t let our opinions of the park stop you from visiting but maybe don’t plan a whole day for it until you know it’s for you. We walked through the park to get to a restaurant called Cilantro near the museum. It was the nicest place we’ve eaten at so far and had good Mexican food. It was around $15/plate and was the most reasonable food pricing nearby (besides the food carts and trucks). We both got enchiladas (mole and tomatillo) and they were good. Mole is an acquired taste though so maybe stick with the tomatillo. We next got to the museum which was pretty busy. It was Sunday but we chose today because it was supposed to rain in the afternoon (and it did drizzle all afternoon). The line went to the corner of the block but moved pretty fast. When we got inside, it was chaos. They had two giant lines zig zagging to get tickets. It also ends up that you can just buy tickets online within 2 minutes and get in right then and there. In case you missed that, we skipped what probably would have been a 30 minute line by BUYING ONLINE. I have no idea how more people in that line didn’t have that figured out because it was super easy. Once we got inside, the early attractions where pretty crazy. I get a bit bitter at these things because I want to read about science and some 5 year old is screeching like a banshee or cutting in front of me when I’m trying to read s omething. ADULTS WANT TO LEARN TOO. I also want to use this opportunity to link to our blog about being a considerate traveler. Look around, be aware that other people are trying to enjoy the exhibit, and just try to make it so everyone can enjoy. With this initial chaos and a pretty hard to understand map, we got really lost. The map was easy to read once we oriented ourselves but it took us two hours of exploring the museum to finally use the map effectively. The exhibits were super cool though. It had an awesome variety of material that’s very visually interesting and lots of engaging information even if you’re not huge nerds like we are. I don’t want the chaos we’ve described to keep you away from this epic and must-see location in NYC. I’d just mentally prepare for some chaos. But then again, you have to be ready for a general level of chaos at all times while in such a large city. We spent 3.5 hours at the museum. We did all the biology sections and scan through 4 ancient civilizations exhibits. We only saw maybe half the museum and half of what we saw we had to skim. I will say, we were so tired for the last hour. We wish we could’ve seen everything and absorbed all the information but we were mentally and physically spent after 3.5 hours. So plan knowing you could spend all day, open to close at this museum (it even has a cafeteria) but it may wear you out. We then went to find dinner. We can across the 71 Ave Cafe. It has just about any food you could want. We got chicken noodle soup and it was amazing. We then back tracked to Ben’s Cookies because my husband couldn’t dream of only having those cookies once. They were again super amazing. After the only subway that could get us home ran 40 minutes late, we finally made it back to rest up for tomorrow. Day 6: The weather was terrible today. It misted all day and there were gale wind warnings. We had our usual Cropsey Bagels and then slowly got ready for the day. By the time we made it to Manhattan, it was lunch time. We ate at Burger One and it was one of the best burgers we’ve ever had. We’d highly recommend it. Next we planned on going to The Met since the weather was bad. Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea. It was a huge line, it was raining, and we didn’t think we were there early enough to be able to take it all in. So we decided to save The Met for a better day when we could take your time. We were cold so we decided to find a coffee shop for a hot drink. In typical NYC fashion, most of the places had full seats. We wandered for what felt like forever until we found Irving Farms Coffee Roasters. They had a huge seating area, a variety of drinks, and some fun snacks. I ordered a chai tea and a blueberry crumble donut. My husband ordered a mocha and a brownie. Everything was so good and we really loved the atmosphere. While we were there, we tried to find stuff to do in the rain in NY and didn’t have much luck. So we decided to head home early and order pizza delivery at La Casa Bella. Day 7: So let’s just get this out of the way and say we had Cropsey Bagels again. We immediately went to The Met. We set aside all of today for it. We felt rushed at the Louvre in Paris and we didn’t want to repeat that. We did our research before we went and planned our priority spots as soon as we got a map. There’s no way for you to really enjoy everything in a day. You have to pick your favorites and musts, take your time through those, and then go down your list of priorities from there. All of these places we’ve been to so far also have some kind of cafe or lunch place inside. We ate a small lunch there (planning ahead to a bigger dinner) of soup and a yogurt parfait. They also had sandwiches, gelato, etc. so we easily could’ve made a meal of it. We spent 6 hours at the museum and we were able to look at everything we wanted to. Our priorities list worked out well. We could’ve easily spent another 6 hours there. I’d describe ourselves as mid-range art admirers. We like looking at things and reading up on the history but we also aren’t analyzing the style of the century or the brushstrokes. Just realize this isn’t just for artsy types. Then we went off for dinner at Serafina’s. It’s on the pricier side of what we usually eat but it was so beautiful and delicious. We were celebrating 6 months of marriage and it was a perfect date spot. We then picked up cheesecake from Wrap it Grill and went home to avoid the New Year’s craziness. Day 8: Today was another chill day starting with Cropsey’s Bagels. We’re honestly starting to run a bit low on stuff to do. We have lots of food we want to eat but we’re not so sure what to do in the middle of all the good food. We started today off with lunch at Oaxaca Taqueria in Hell’s Kitchen. The tacos were soooooo good. We’re taco snobs so we’re always on the hunt for good tacos. Next we want to Schmacker’s cookies for some dessert. Also amazing food. We wandered Time Square some more waiting for the Tkts to go on sale. As a side note, Tkts is an official retailer of Broadway and NYC show tickets. When tickets for that day aren’t sold by 3pm the day of the show, they get handed off to Tkts to sell at a discounted rate. It’s actually a non-profit with the goal of allowing everyone to enjoy the arts. We’ve checked for tickets every day at 3pm like clock work. You have to go to one of their 3 booths to buy the tickets and can’t purchase them online. It’s not as streamline as scheduling early and buying online but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. Anyways, we’ve been keeping our eye out for Freestyle Love Supreme (featuring different Hamilton cast members as random appearances so my husband wants to go; it’s an improv hip hop show) and the Rockettes (I’m a former competitive ballet dancer so I always want to see a dance performance). Today the Rockettes were only $35 a ticket so we bought those for the early show. By the time we got through the line (and it’s a pretty long one but it’s also well managed by employees), it was around 4pm so we made our way to Radio City for the show. The show was awesome! My verdict was that it was an awesome show with some epic dancing. They do a lot more than just kick their legs. They’re very talented dancers. My husband also enjoyed the show but he said he wouldn’t have gone without me. There were also several more theatrical or musical style parts to the show. This is pretty normal for performances like these. They don’t want it to seem like a dance recital and most people aren’t trained dancers so they need something for everyone. We personally enjoyed it and we’re glad we went. Hopefully our assessment of the show can help you decide whether it’s for you. After the show, we found a place that looked more like a convenience store at a gas station with a brick oven for pizza. We got by-the-slice pizza that was good but I honestly don’t remember the name of the place. Then we went home to prep for tomorrow which will be book stores and Hamilton. I think my husband may have a heart attack from all the happiness. Day 9: Today was the big day, the main point of the trip: Hamilton. We started off the day with Cropsey’s Bagels. The performance was at 8pm so we needed to keep busy but also easily get to Broadway so we could be early. My husband made an extensive book crawl in Manhattan for this occasion. I’ll let you read his blog on that yourself. We started in Soho which is a cool neighborhood that’s more chill than Time Square where we were yesterday. Our first book store had a coffee shop so we could sip a chai latte and mocha. Then we went from book store to book store, wandering through various neighborhoods. We found Ott’s Tacos along our path and decided to stop by for lunch. The tacos were amazing. We also ended up close to Ben’s Cookies. So we stopped by Strand Books and Ben’s for the third time in 3 days. After some more book stores, we were still pretty full but we also had to head towards Broadway. We found Potbelly’s which has soups so we could have enough of a snack to hold us over through the show. Bob got chicken enchilada soup and I got mac and cheese. Then we went to Broadway and waited for the show. Hamilton was a great show! I enjoyed it even though I’m not into musicals. My husband said it was one of the best days of his life. I’ll let him talk about Hamilton because it’s definitely his expertise. The show got done at 11pm and thankfully we could still catch our normal subway at the normal schedule. Day 10:
Today we just wanted to have a chill day in the city. After our usual Cropsey’s, we went to the Mysterious Bookstore which was a store with only mystery books. We noticed that a taco place we tried to go to earlier but was too busy was down the road so we decided on that for lunch. Los Tacos No. 1 was great and we highly recommend. We were in the Wall Street area where we hadn’t been before. So we wandered around the area exploring. We went to Trinity Church and saw Alexander Hamilton’s grave. We walked past the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge and we decided to go back to Dumbo. We walked the whole bridge and went back to One Girl Cookies to relax. Last time we got cupcakes but this time we got the tea cookies along with some hot drinks. I’d highly recommend the cookies more. Get the more artsy, unique ones. My husband got chocolate chip cookies but they were just okay. Likely because you just want a giant cookie with lots of chocolate chips and a fancy cookie place isn’t the place to get that. My fancy cookies with apricot, layered sheet cookie, and mini macaron type thing were awesome. So we just enjoyed some cookies and drinks for a while looking over the city. We moved onto picking up Chik-fil-A for dinner. We don’t have it back home so we usually end up eating there at least once if it’s in the area. Then we want back to pack for our trip back.
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Going to New York has been on the top of my husband’s bucket list for a long time. Our trips have fit in nicely like a puzzle for the next year and a half and unfortunately, left no room for NYC. Since we’re teachers, we have some long breaks. Our only unscheduled break was Christmas break. This break usually stays unplanned because the weather is too bad for road trips and trips to tropical places are expensive for break. It ends up that it’s cheap to fly to NYC on Christmas Day. So we booked tickets to spend 10 days in NYC in the winter. This is a travel heavy year (YAY) and we’re working on saving for our first house so we’re employing all of our money saving travel techniques (read our blog on ways we save money so we can travel more). This money saving means not only that we’re going in the winter where all the clothes are bulkier but we’re only bringing carry ons. It’s $120 for us both to check bags and that money adds up if you keep spending money you don’t have to. It doesn't look big in the overall budget but those expenses sneak up on you. Here’s how I packed for ten days in a personal item and carry-on: Outfits Day-by-Day Here's how my outfits turned out! As I've said before and will say a million more times, I'm not big on fashion. So this is really inspiration for the person just trying to be comfy and get the job done.
Personal Item:
I decided on bringing my camera bag for my personal item. I could easily fill the whole thing with only camera gear but I need all the space I can get. Like most camera bags, mine has compartments with foam dividers that are velcro for customization. I shuffled my barriers around to fit my needs. They make for great bags for these kinds of things.
I’ve been doing photography for 10 years now. Over that time, I’ve been through 4 different camera bodies and 8 lenses. Every time I go to upgrade, I struggle to figure out what camera is the next best step. You’re not going to go from a basic DSLR to top of the line in one upgrade. You also need a step big enough that the difference in your photography is apparent. Here’s the upgrades I did through the years in hopes that it will guide your decisions on your camera upgrades. Camera Bodies:
Camera Lenses: Now lenses are different from camera bodies. First off, they’re just specially arranged glass. They don’t outdate as quickly as camera bodies do. Camera bodies are good but lenses make even more of the difference. Lenses are also more specific to the kind of photography you’re capturing. Camera bodies are more general and can work well for more situations. My camera body section is in order of lowest to highest quality. This lens section is more going to explain why each lens is great and then you pick from those strengths according to what you need out of a lens. Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6: This is the basic lens that almost every basic camera setup starts with. This lens is nice because it has a lot of range. It can go wide angle or it can zoom in for farther objects. It has a higher f/stop so it’s not great in low light. It’s a good lens if you just want basic photos. Canon 75-300mm and 55-250mm f/4.5-5.6: These are two different lenses and really the only difference is 50mm of additional zoom. This is usually one of the kit lenses that come with a basic camera setup. This is a good one for wildlife photography or sports photography when it’s something like football. The one issue with zoom lenses is that it narrows how much light can enter the camera. These lenses also have higher f/stops so that’s another way they let less light in. They work great in sunny or cloudy situations but fall short if you’re trying to take photos in a darker place. Canon 50mm f/1.8: This lens is a fun one. It’s only $100 and does really well in low light. It has a low f/stop so it lets in lots of light. The low depth of field also gives you a beautiful blurred background. If you like close-up or portrait photography, this is a great lens. It’s not so good for wide angle or nature type photography. This is usually the first lens I recommend for people who only have the lenses above. It’s a small investment that allows you to see what different features can do to a lens and the photos it produces. It's my cheapest lens, I've had it for 7 years, and I still use it frequently. Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8: This is the first fancier lens I bought for my camera. At the time, I was taking lots of sports photography and wildlife photography. Since it has a f/2.8, it does well in low light and blurs the background nicely. As I’ve moved away from wildlife and sports photography, I now use this lens a lot at weddings. It’s a nice way to stay out of the way. I hate when photographers stand at the altar during the ceremony and become distracting. First and foremost is the wedding and then the photography second. It’s also nice for candids because you’re not standing right next to the person you’re photographing. I also bought the Sigma version of this lens because it was almost $1000 cheaper. Sigma makes some great lenses that are significantly cheaper than Canon brand. Just make sure you do your research before buying an off brand. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8: This was my most used lens for a long time. This is the first lens on my camera for every portrait session. It has nice range in terms of zoom. You can get 8 different perspectives on one pose without moving. It has nice blur in the background and takes low light well. This is a pricey lens but it’s my jack-of-all-trades lens. I can make it work in just about any situation. Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5: This is one of my favorite lenses. Since I love scenery and travel photos, this lens is perfect. It captures so much of the scene. This is a prime example of something a DSLR can do that a cell phone just can’t handle. You don’t want to use this lens at 10mm for a portrait though. The face will look slightly distorted. You won’t have those same issues with it for scenery. The only reason I don’t use this lens anymore is because it doesn’t fit on my full frame. This lens is made for crop sensors (like the Rebels or 7D). Canon 17-40mm f/4 L: This was my replacement for my 10-22mm when I got my full frame. This lens is just like the one above. Remember that crop sensors make the lenses act like they have more zoom than they actually have. On my full frame, the photos look the same at 17mm as they do on my crop sensor at 10mm. This one is also a nicer lens than the one above since it’s an L series. With my wide angles though, I’m usually dealing with nice conditions since these are for fun photos. Both lenses have worked great for me.
This is usually the only lens I bring when I'm traveling. All these other lenses are used for portrait and wedding photography (what actually makes money). Since I'm usually taking landscape type photos (see my travel photos), I just really don't need anything else. If your style is different though, you may be bringing a different range of lenses. For Thanksgiving break, we took off to Vancouver for a few days. The end of November can be unpredictable weather wise which lead us to pick a city with a combination of indoor/city activities and outdoor activities. The goal was outdoor activities but we didn’t want to show up to terrible weather and never be able to see anything. Vancouver was a perfect balance for it. Here’s how we spent our 3 days in Vancouver. Day 1: We initially spent the night in Seattle. We always start driving after work so we don’t lose time at the spot we’re going to. After a relaxing and slow start Saturday morning, we drove north to Vancouver. We ate at Tim Horton’s as soon as we crossed the border which was around lunch time. I’d recommend one stop at Tim Horton’s per Canada trip but don’t get too hung up on the new fast food place unless you especially love it. We made our way to Stanley Park outside downtown Vancouver. This was when the day quite honestly went downhill. We set navigation to the park but accidentally hit the bike route button. It took us 45 minutes to figure it out. It kept taking us to dead end roads that we could hardly turn around in because we were driving my truck. It also tried to keep us off the freeway and the other busy (but more convenient) roads. I’m pretty sure it would’ve taken us 20 minutes to get there if we hadn’t messed this up. By the time we figured out our mistake, we were too deep in the route to get on the convenient route. Over an hour later, we made it to Stanley Park. We had around an hour of daylight left after our slow morning and navigation disaster. That was when we figured out that we had left my camera in the living room at home. As a professional photographer who gets so much joy out of capturing our travels, I was pretty upset. It was 40 degrees, raining, and all I had was my old needs-an-update cell phone to take photos with. We ended up taking a couple laps around the park. We stopped at the Lions Gate viewpoint (worth it), a beach viewpoint (not as worth it), and a pond with a view of the Vancouver skyline (worth it). By then, the sun had set and we went to our AirBNB with a view of Deep Cove in North Vancouver. It was the perfect base for all the spots we wanted to go all around Vancouver. We ordered a pizza from Nektar Pizza and Greek and just relaxed after our afternoon of bad luck. Day 2: We dedicated this entire day to driving the Sea to Sky Highway. SO. BEAUTIFUL. Since the days are so short, we left before sunrise and drove back during sunset. It was easy to plan with such a short day but I’d highly recommend that you put in the work to fit your schedule to sunrise and sunset. The sunrise started as we got on Highway 1 towards Whistler. We had a bird’s eye view of the Howe Sound as it glowed pink and purple. It had rained the day before so there were some sparse clouds rolling around the peaks. I’ve seen some epic stuff but that was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, there’s not really any places to stop for photos on the way there. So don’t get disappointed and just enjoy the view. We made it to Whistler in time to sip some Tim Horton’s tea and coffee and make a game plan. They had free Wifi and I didn’t have cell service. By the time we finished planning, the shops in the Village were beginning to open. We wandered the shops and waited to see if the clouds blocking the mountains would burn off. After a couple hours in Whistler and accepting that the clouds were there to stay, we started back towards Squamish. We’d recommend spending at least a night in Whistler. There were some places an hour outside Whistler that were epic looking. We just didn’t have the time to drive three hours one way when we had so much to see in Vancouver. We meandered our way back and stopped at as many spots as we could. Our first stop was Alexander Falls. Navigation took us one turn too far and brought us to the back of the falls. It’s pretty easy to tell where you actually need to go if you look at the map. It was a nice easy stop with an epic waterfall. We then made a straight shot for Squamish. We meandered more than expected and had a late lunch at Howe Sound Brewing. There weren’t very many food options in Squamish and we wish we would’ve waited a bit longer and eaten lunch in Whistler. Since we were in Squamish, we were right down the road from Shannon Falls. We looked at the falls and then wandered around the forested area. We hit the road again and started meandering our way down. We stopped at every viewpoint along the way but none of them had a particularly good view. You have to get off the main highway and go to some parks to see the view. It was also partially overcast so maybe our views were obstructed. We ultimately stopped at Porteau Cove Provincial Park. It had our best view of the Howe Sound. We ended up watching the sunset over the Howe Sound there. It was absolutely stunning. Now that it was dark, our outdoor activities of the day were done. We still had some energy so we went to a used book store (one of our favorite things to do). We found Book Lovers in North Vancouver. It was a great book store with lots of variety and good prices. It’s even dog friendly but it’s also a narrow book store. So our 15lb Sophie was fine but my parent’s 70lb golden retriever would not have fit. After our book store adventure, we went back to our AirBNB and ate our leftover pizza. Day 3: We dedicated this day to more nearby Vancouver locations. We started with a breakfast at Waves Coffee House. After multiple days of rising with the sun, we were ready for a relaxing morning. We went to downtown Vancouver in search of a used book store. We parked in a parking garage because we were driving my truck (in case of snow) and we didn’t want to mess with parallel parking. Unfortunately, there was construction outside the bookstore and we couldn’t figure out what entrance we could access. We instead made our way to Gastown. There’s a steaming clock that everyone is excited about but we really didn’t get the appeal. We snapped a photo of Sophie with it and moved on. My husband collects magnets from everywhere we go and I collect stickers. So we found some gift shops and got our souvenirs. It’s a great area for your typical tourist souvenirs. We then made our way to one of the many parks around Vancouver. We went to Whytecliff Park in hopes of seeing some ocean critters. I’m personally always hoping for a whale sighting because of who I am as a person. The odds of finding whales during November isn’t great though. It was a cute beach with a rock area to explore (as a side note, make sure that your exploration isn’t killing sea critters; just be respectful). They were filming some mermaid show on the beach which wasn’t ideal. There was hardly any parking because they had so much stuff set up. Thankfully since it’s November, there really wasn’t anyone competing with us for those few spots left. It’s a great park that we recommend. Hopefully you won’t catch it on a filming day. We went to the little downtown area near the park to get lunch. We just got cheap by the slice pizza so we could splurge more on dinner. The pizza was good and then we planned on moving onto Lighthouse Park. It’s a beautiful little park with a cute lighthouse. The forest is a typical, heavy rain, PNW forest. Our next stop was Capilano Bridge. We started some research for details and realized it’s $54 (Canadian so more like $40 in US at the current exchange) per person. The bridge looks cool but it also was busy. It definitely wasn’t worth it to us for that price. We decided to wrap up our day at Deep Cove in North Vancouver. We walked around the the park with Sophie and watched the sunset over the cove. We picked up sandwiches for dinner and some donuts for dessert at Honey Doughnuts (recommended by a local which is always a good call). The sandwiches and donuts were amazing. We ate our dinner and packed our bags for the drive home the next day. 3 days wasn’t nearly enough for this beautiful area and during November, there’s some things you can’t see or do. We look forward to a return trip during the summer someday!
One our favorite parts of our travels is watching our corgi run around. It’s so adorable and we wouldn’t be able to travel nearly as much as we do if we didn’t bring her along. I also have many memories as a kid about the disaster that unfolded every time we took my childhood dog on a trip. My parents once drove 5 hours roundtrip to take our dog back home during a trip just so we could stay sane for the rest of the week. So here’s how we’ve made bringing our dog traveling a joy rather than a nightmare:
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Miki & BobWe're an adventurous couple that travel internationally and travel nationally in our RV. We have a corgi named Sophie that comes along on our adventures. Our goal is to encourage others to travel and show genuine travel over Instagrammable travel. CategoriesArchives
April 2020
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