Canada, Alaska, & Seattle Feat. Poshmark, Boody, & Healthade

Full disclosure, I’m way behind on my blog posts due to my other business obligations and time – oh, and yeah I traveled a lot these past few months! This is also going to be a fairly short post because honestly, a picture speaks 1,000 words and I have so many pictures! My trip this summer to Canada, Alaska, and Seattle was once in a lifetime and was made possible by our family “travel agent” father, Scott, who spent so much time researching places to go and things for us to do. Unfortunately, we only had half of our regular crew with us as my brother, Nathan, his wife, Deanna, and my boyfriend, Zach, couldn’t make it. Thankfully, my schedule is flexible enough that when Mom and Dad want to take a killer vacay, I’m tagging along forrrsureeeee.

I partnered with a couple great brands on this trip as well; Poshmark, Boody, and Healthade. Poshmark is a recycled fashion marketplace and app (maroon felt hat) - yay for sustainable secondhand finds! Boody is an eco clothing brand made from bamboo viscose (cream scarf, white 3/4 sleeve top, and I wore the black 3/4 sleeve top under a lot of outfits too for extra warmth). Healthade Kombucha is a healthy vegan non-gmo probiotic tea.

We started off in Vancouver, Canada where we were able to spend time with one of my close friends, Janie, from Arizona who is getting her nursing degree up there. From Vancouver, we took a cruise through the southern coast of Alaska. We visited Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, College Fjord, and then from Anchorage we took a train up to Denali National Park and Denali State Park where we spent a few days on land. We took the train back down and spent a day kayaking in Whittier and two nights in downtown Anchorage. This concluded my Alaska portion of the trip.

Although my my dad is about 70% vegan, he just “couldn’t” go to Alaska without fishing (lol), so he stayed for a few days to go on a guided fishing trip while my mom and I finished off our trip in Seattle for some girls time. We had the best time there together finding all the cool places to go and vegan foodie spots. So cheers to an amazing trip with my amazing parents, you guys rock!

Canada ————> Alaska

Alaska ————> seattle

Big Bear, California feat. DeLezhen & StyleWe

I recently went on a trip to Big Bear, California with some of my creative peeps! Originally the group was supposed to be pretty big but it narrowed down to just four of us: @koltinsullivan (early bday boy and group organizer, yay!), @snow.fox_, and @rex.dude. We all met up at Koltin's house and carpooled from there. It was only about an hour and a half drive to the airbnb in Big Bear. We explored the area and shot at a few different locations until dark. There weren't many options for dinner haha but we ended up finding a nice Chinese restaurant called Dynasty where we all chowed down. We relaxed at the cabin and Koltin continued shooting some artsy indoor stuff with Rex and Cindy until bed. The airbnb was huge and could have fit like ten people, so it was super spacious with just us four!

We had a lazy morning the next day and then began to scope out some more good places to shoot. We were later accompanied by @lisajstarrett and @elliepanger and shot two looks for each of them. We had originally planned to stay until sunset, however we were getting tired and a little pictured-out from the weekend and decided to head home a little earlier. Koltin was a superstar driver and drove the whole way (again) while the rest of us (maybe just me haha?) instantly fell asleep for the drive. We arrived at his house and said our goodbyes and parted ways. 

I also partnered with a few brands on our little excursion: DeLezhen and StyleWe. Delezhen is a USA-made small jewelry company that makes the cutest dainty pieces! They sent me a white and gold druzy necklace (pictured in photos 3-5). It's super versatile and can go with so many outfits! Love love love it!!

As for StyleWe, this is my third time partnering with them on a shoot - yay! They sent me two pieces as usual for me to style, one of these is the Blue Lace Up 3/4 Sleeve Stand Collar Denim Mini Dress and the other is the White Vintage V Neck Floral-embroidered Midi Dress. Honestly, I was kinda up in the air about what type of setting I wanted to shoot these in because they could both totally work for a beach theme too haha but I like how the nature vibes from Big Bear turned out even better! I joked on my Instagram that the maxi dress could have gone one of four ways: 1. beachy 2. pregnant lady 3. mariachi band or 4. a super unrealistic (yet totally cute) adventure in nature with it.. obviously I chose option four lol. Needless to say, this trip was a blast! I'm so thankful for the memories as well as DeLezhen and StyleWe for the goodies! 

Maui, Hawaii

So when your parents invite you on vacation you say yes, always... unless for some reason you REALLY can't get out of work, school, or have some serious life complication or situation you're dealing with. Because when parents take you, you don't have to constantly calculate if what you're about to do will fit in your budget... and they love you unconditionally and are actually really fun to hangout with (my parents are at least). I know I know, I got pretty lucky! 

This winter break, Zach had a longer break from graduate school than usual so we went to Maui in the third week of January to avoid the peak times. To be honest, I can't remember the names of half the places we went to because most have super Hawaiian names that I can't even pronounce haha.. but I will do my best to recall!

One of the big highlights was the Road to Hana. I do not recommend this drive if you get squeamish about dangerous roads, heights, or rocky cliffs, however it was really beautiful. There are multiple waterfalls, black sand beaches, scenic landscape you would see in Jurassic Park, and gorgeous coastline. Perhaps one of the best stops on the Road to Hana is Coconut Glen's, non-dairy coconut based ice cream aka a vegan's dream. Side note: before I went vegan my favorite ice cream was peppermint (no, not mint chocolate chip - the REAL seasonal peppermint), and I have never been able to find vegan peppermint ice cream before... until COCONUT GLEN'S! Not going to lie, I got seconds it was so good. No shame people.. No shame. They had other great flavors too and  awesome coconut candy (and I'm not even a big coconut fan). 

Another big highlight to the trip was scuba diving Lanai with my dad with Extended Horizons. We saw dolphins twice above water and once while diving and I was freaking out.. they're my fave animals along with small dogs! We saw multiple whales on the boat too. The place we dove is called Cathedral 1 because of its underwater tavern-like formation. It was probably the coolest spot I've ever dove. Also, the dive staff and captain were awesome and so informative!

We spend a lot of time on different beaches, went to different hotels during the day, visited the Nakalele Blowhole, and went on a whale watching booze cruise. The cruise was on a catamaran called SeaMaui and was such a blast. We had a lot of whale sightings, got a little buzzed, and noshed on some food.. not too shabby. 

Overall it was a wonderful trip with my parents and boyfriend, Zach. Until next time Hawaii!