Taylor Travels

Nashville (Sept. 2016)

June 8, 2017

The fun thing about renting out our house on Airbnb is that we get to meet a lot of great people from all over the country (a few from different countries, but not many). Last April, we rented out our whole house to a family who were in town for their daughter’s BYU graduation. We met Elaine at check-in, found out we had some mutual acquaintances, and got on really well.

After their stay, she told us we could come visit them in Nashville anytime, probably thinking (like most people) that we wouldn’t take them up on the offer. But when there’s a new city to explore with a place to stay, it’s hard for me to turn that down—especially in a city that Ben and I had been wanting to visit for a while.

So, a few months later, we booked our flights for Labor Day weekend. It’s actually pretty pricey to fly SLC —> BNA, so we used some points from our FlexPerks credit card to cover the cost (I’m a pretty big points/miles nerd, and this was definitely the best redemption value).

Visiting Grandparents in Dallas (Aug. 2016)

March 17, 2017

The cutest grandparents you ever did see.

My grandma’s health started to deteriorate rather quickly last year, so my parents paid for each of the kids to fly down to Dallas to spend some quality time with her. This was Ben’s first time visiting Dallas and spending an extended period of time with my mom’s parents.

The last time either of us saw them was at our wedding four years earlier, when my grandpa collapsed right after our ceremony and had to be rushed to the ER—they found a leaky valve in his heart, and they had to spend about two more months in Minnesota until he was healed. Luckily he’s doing much better, but my grandma is now struggling with some Alzheimer’s and atrophy problems.

Quick Trip to Portland (July 2016)

March 5, 2017

Climbin’ around at Three Pools.

Ben and I planned a road trip to visit our friends in Portland again, most especially because one of my best friends had had her baby, and we needed to meet lil’ Graham! We were only there for about 2.5 days (got there Friday night and left Monday morning).

I mostly just took pictures of our time at Three Pools and our friends’ church building to send to Textures of Mormonism, a brilliant account run by our good friends.

My only request was to return to Nong’s Khao Man Gai, so we went there Friday night when we got into town.

Northeast Work/Anniversary Trip (July 2016)

February 2, 2017

Rainy downtown Pittsburgh.

MY GOOGLE MAP FOR PITTSBURGH

Ben needed to travel to Erie, PA, for work, so we decided to make an anniversary trip out of it. Our good friends own a condo in Pittsburgh that they rent out on Airbnb, so we stayed there for a few days before Ben’s meeting in Erie. Then we stopped in Niagara for 24 hours before flying out of Buffalo.

Harry Potter World + Other Orlando (June 2016)

January 14, 2017

Let’s get to it—HARRY POTTER WORLD is crazy magical and fun. If you’ve only been to the Hogsmeade portion and weren’t thrilled, I feel ya. We did only Hogsmeade on the first day, and while it was fun, I was a little disappointed. But when we took the Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley the next day, omgomg all my dreams came true. I’m posting the pictures by category rather than chronologically because it’s more fun that way:

National Parks (April 2016)

January 14, 2017

View from Angel’s Landing at Zion National Park.

I’ve lived in Utah for almost seven years and, until this past April, had never visited any of the state’s national parks. So, Ben and I changed that over the course of two weekends by visiting both Zion (not “Zion’s” or “Zions.” Locals will roll their eyes at you if you say either.) and Arches.

New York: October 2015

July 10, 2016

My Google Map for NYC

This will definitely not be my most beautiful post; there are a lot of iPhone/Snapchat photos because it was easier, and, let’s be honest, there aren’t a ton of strikingly beautiful things to photograph in NYC, so my iPhone did just fine documenting my food (which is the vast majority of what I photographed).

Pups + Pals Peruse the PNW (May 2015)

May 26, 2016

The dream of the ’90s is alive in Portland.

+ Seattle.

Our next grand adventure was in May 2015 to Portland and Seattle with our good friends Matt and Jessica + their dog, Lola, and our (then) puppy, Scout. Our other good friends had moved there earlier that year, so we went to visit them and a few other friends who also recently moved there (Portland is where it’s at).

Lucky for us, Ben’s hometown is right on the way to Portland, so we stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho, for the night and stayed with Ben’s family. We stopped at the Buffalo for breakfast (a must) and Shoshone Falls on our way out of town.

Final Europe 2014 Post: Barcelona

May 19, 2016

After taking an overnight bus from Marseille, we arrived in Barcelona super sleepy around 6 a.m. We hesitantly messaged our Airbnb host, Carlos, to see if we could check in early, and to our delight, he said the room was ready for us and we could come anytime. Carlos was referred to us by our friends, who had stayed with him a few months prior, and he and his adorable dog, Gazpacho, were true gems—super kind and thoughtful host I’d recommend to anyone visiting Barcelona (also located in a primo spot/neighborhood).

Southern France–Only Two Years Late!

May 13, 2016

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, July 2014.

Well hello there! No time like the present to finish up my Europe 2014 blog posts! I’ll spare you the details of the delay, but basically I finally have all of my photos in one location and can much more easily post them.

I won’t be offended if you don’t make it through this entire post because it’s ridiculously long.

SO. We left off our adventures in late July 2014 in Morocco. We took a plane to Marseille . . .