8//28- Day in DC

I spent my last Friday of summer at the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (both in the same building) and had an amazing time. I was really itching for some culture since coming home from London and got to see some really cool artwork in both museums. My favorite part was probably the contemporary art gallery in the American Art museum even one of my favorite pieces was the painting of the War of 1812 a few pictures down. (Ps the last photo is not from the museum but an Anthropologie close by that we stopped into.) 

xx

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UK Trip- The Second Installment

School is in less than two weeks and I am less than pleased about it. I have had the most amazing summer and am so grateful for all of the experiences I've been fortunate to have. I just don't want it to end. I genuinely feel as though this summer has changed my life for the better. Oh well, I knew I would have to go back to reality eventually. On a better note, welcome to my second (long overdue) trip recap!

We only had one day in Scotland :( which we spent in a city called Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-bore-oe by the English, and Ed-in-bra by the locals!) I fell absolutely in love with Edinburgh, so much so that I dragged my parents over to the visitor's center for Edinburgh University and grabbed a pamphlet or two because the school is incredible. It's a city campus similar to NYU, however these buildings are already significantly older than the entire city of New York. It was incredible and  Edinburgh stole my entire heart. Anyway, we visited the castle and did a ton of Scottish shopping around the city, purchasing three scarves and more, because when in Scotland amiright?? Overall we had an amazing day, despite the cold, darkness, and rain.
WARNING: photo overload ahead

We slept over in Edinburgh and then headed over to Ireland super early in the morning via ferry. We arrived in Belfast, a port city of Ireland where we visited the Titanic museum. The Titanic was built in Belfast and departed from their port, so the museum was built pretty much on top of the dock and primarily focused on what went into building the ship and how it affected the Irish people. Not my favorite part of the trip but still interesting nonetheless. If you follow me on Instagram (which you totally should) you'll know that I posted the same photo as below of the Titanic Museum and ironically it looked to me as thought the museum was underwater. I thought that to be a bit odd. After the museum we continued onward to Dublin, which I'll talk about in my next post!

To be continued... xx

UK Trip- The First Installment

Welcome to the first official recap of my trip to the UK, (and as I recently discovered, does not include most of Ireland, which I did also visit!) I thought that I'd just go through what we did each day of the tour and post a few pictures, all in four different posts over the course of the next few weeks! So here goes:

For our trip my family decided to go with a tour group because it was our first time there. Although we didn't know who was going to be on the tour, or what age bracket it would consist of (I was the youngest person there,) I'm really glad we did. It was an awesome opportunity to meet some really great people, including a 75 year old couple who summer in an RV in Mexico and are currently backpacking across Europe. Pretty amazing, I know. Anyway, the tour was ten days long, however we felt as though that wasn't long enough, so we flew up two days early, and rented a flat for about five days after the tour had ended (more on the flat later.) So when I posted a few weeks ago about falling in love with London, that was during our time on our own before the tour had started. In hindsight, I am really glad we had two days on our own because we got a chance to figure out what we wanted to do on the backend that the tour didn't include.

So the first place we went to with the group was Cambridge University! While I could never get in there, I'm glad I went because the school is gorgeous. Every building you see has these beautiful, ornate, gothic carvings that you hardly see in America, if ever. Then we went to two small cities called York and Durham, which were just as amazing. We walked around these great big churches and whilst walking through the towns, I actually felt like I was in Harry Potter. The buildings are all sticking out into the alleys full of cobblestone streets and the houses are pretty much leaning on top of each other because they're so old. It was in awe at how seemingly every single thing we walked by had some sort of historical significance.

Bridge near the entrance to Cambridge

Beautiful buildings in York

It was then that we ventured up north to my new favorite place, Scotland. Putting aside the ridiculous looking kilts and the fact that their national animal is a Unicorn; Scotland is just an amazing place. I loved it from the second I stepped off the bus and then promptly ran back on for my jacket because it was like 50 degrees in the middle of July. I honestly can't put into words how much I loved it because it would take too long, so I'll just carry on with the end of this post. Our first stop in Scotland was the home of Sir Walter Scott, a world renowned (now dead) writer who was given the title of Baronet when he recovered the Crown Jewels in Edinburgh Castle. This guy was incredible. He was obsessed with collecting things, and wanted his mansion to look just like a medieval castle so in every hallway, every stretch of wall had some odd artifact on it. It was awesome. We then drove to our hotel and crashed for the evening because we had some pretty amazing things to do the next day in Scotland!

To be continued...

xoxo

{happy travels}

So I'm leaving for the UK today and that's pretty surreal. I'll be spending most of the trip in England but will also be in Ireland and Scotland for a little bit. The farthest I've ever been is Israel and I can safely say that I am ready for a new adventure. I love traveling with my whole heart, but as a self-proclaimed amateur photographer going far away can be tricky when dealing with what gear to bring.  This is what I'll be bringing on my trip (more or less,) I hope it's helpful!

 WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS ODD PHOTOGRAPHY TERMS. If you're not super interested in photography don't worry about reading it, I'll try not to be overly offended. Ps if you have any comments or questions feel free to leave them below!

From left to right, those items not mentioned will not be accompanying me on my trip.

iPad// Due to the large amount of bouncing from hotel to hotel this trip, I opted to bring my iPad rather than my heavy MacBook Pro. If you have an Air, or some other light, thin laptop you might as well go with that, but my iPad made for sense for this trip. In terms of photography, I'll mainly be using to dump pictures so I have enough space on my memory cards, but I'll also be using it to blog, read, and watch movies!

NIKON D5000+ 35mm// It actually took a lot of thought (and a pros and cons list) to figure out which camera I would bring, and for a long time I had planned to bring a superzoom rather than a DSLR. However after a lot of consideration, I felt as though if there was ever a trip to bring the more heavy duty camera, it was this one. So into the bag Betsy (my DSLR) went. Betsy is currently attached to a 35mm, 1.8 nikon lens. Quite fast, could be wider but very versatile which will also accompany me to Europe. 

Zoom Lens// This particular lens is a 70-300 4.5-5.6 Nikon zoom lens. Not super fast I know, but it does the trick when it comes to getting up close and personal. I have a better one that's a bit faster but unfortunately it's an SLR lens and super heavy. Not ideal for wandering around England. 

JOURNAL+PENS// Pretty self-explanatory, I hope to journal the whole time I'm there and capture some good memories!

PASSPORT// Duh.

iPHONE// Very useful in wifi equipped situations.

EXTERNAL FLASH// To be quite honest, I don't know much about flashes. I just happen to have this one because my dad bought it a while ago and it works pretty well, especially in low-light situations and when using a manual lens. So I threw it in the bag, why not.

CAMERA CHARGER// Also, duh.

iPOD// Just in case of situations that lack wifi or in predicaments involving spotty wifi. Also handy for airplanes.

85mm LENS// This lens is a Nikon 85mm 1.8 portrait lens. Although it's manual and therefore a little on the heavy side, I like it because of how fast it is. Having said that, it is also pretty narrow, so it's not usually my go-to.

iPAD+iPHONE USB CABLES and BRICK// Still, duh.

SD to iPAD ADAPTER// That little block under the charging brick allows me to dump my photos from an SD card to my iPad to ensure that I have enough space on the cards to last me the next twoish weeks.

SUNGLASSES// Lastly, duh.

NOT PICTURED- LOWEPRO COMPUDAY 250 (carry on)

What photo gear do you rely on? xoxo, Chesapeake Classic

{What's in My Carry On}

Traveling is probably one of my favorite things to do. I've been flying since I was little and have since grown to be obsessed with anything travel related. Flying, airports, planes, car rides, rest stops; anything. I love traveling; every aspect of it. So the fact that I am flying to Memphis tomorrow to visit one of my best friends is pretty exciting for me.

Now despite how much I love to fly, it does come with a lot of preparation, which is why I tend to gravitate towards the same few things that I seem to be needing in my carry-on every time I fly. Here they are!

Earbuds//Longchamp//iPod//Book//Hand Lotion//Magazines//Wallet//Sunglasses//Pinch Kit

xoxo, Chesapeake Classic