Welp, when two of your best friends move to Seattle you go visit asap!! This was a great trip and I had so much fun with @imdanielwoods and @ohheyits_ish. I stayed with them in their cozy Seattle apartment for 4 days and 3 nights. We explored the city, visited the Big Four Ice Caves, went to Pike Place Market, a greenhouse, waterfalls, and hung out with friends. I partnered with a few sustainable brands on this trip as well; eTruism, Boody, and Bel Kazan. Seattle definitely did not disappoint and I can’t wait to go back and visit!
Yosemite Feat. LNBF, Gaston Luga, Baume, Boody, Krochet Kids, Blanca Flor, & Fazl Socks
I had an itching to do some wilderness exploring and shooting so I assembled a small group of creative gal pals; Stephanie (@stephanieklotzphoto), Hannah (@hannahrosesesser), and Rachel (@notrachelmcadams), and we went on a 3-day, 2-night glamping trip to Yosemite National Park.
We stayed at one of the housekeeping units in the park. It’s basically a roof, bunk beds and a full size bed, a couple power outlets, covered by curtains and a fire pit, bear storage locker for all food and anything with a scent, and a table for meals. It wasn’t much but it was the perfect set up for what we wanted. It was kinda like camping but we didn’t have to set up tents and had a little more security with the bear lockers.
Over the course of the trip we visited a lot of the popular tourist destinations in Yosemite Valley, took lots of photos, made s’mores, wandered and explored! We worked with a handful of awesome sustainable brands also on this trip including Leave Nothing But Footprints (LNBF), Boody, Gaston Luga, Baume, Krochet Kids, Blanca Flor, and Fazl Socks. It was such a great time getting to adventure with these rad gals and I can’t wait to do it again!
Exploring Portland
My friend Toria (@toria.webber) and I had a few days free mid-week in January so we decided to book a trip to the PNW on a whim! We were deciding between Portland and Seattle, but with Portland we could stay with a friend of mine from college, Ana (@ana_nelson3) so Portland it was!
We booked such an early flight! I had to wake up at 2 am, so getting to the airport was a struggle. Our flight had only 17 people on it so we basically had the whole plane to ourselves. Woohoo!
We took the train to Ana’s place upon our arrival, and conveniently used the key she had left for us while she was at work. We got settled and relaxed for a little bit before we ventured off to find some lunch!
If you didn't know - Portland is a vegan mecca, with bomb vegan food on every corner. We went to a vegan cheese restaurant called Vtopia, and ate UNREAL mac n cheese, a cheese platter, and a buffalo tofu jam sandwich with caesar salad. Toria isn't vegan and she loved it too!
After lunch we explored the city near Hoyt Arboretum. It rained each day of our trip, so getting around was a little harder but we took the train and bus system everywhere and then walked with a raincoat or umbrella. It was just too wet outside to take photos near the arboretum, and since we didn't have a car to travel elsewhere, we decided to wrap it up, get some donuts at VooDoo, and go meet Ana for dinner!
We went to Pine Street Market; a collection of different restaurants and vendors in a cute market setting. I got ramen - nom nom nom. If you haven’t already noticed, FOOD is a HUGE part of any Allison Carol travel experience!
The next day, Toria and I were feeling adventurous and planned to visit the one of the nearest waterfalls, Multnomah Falls. It had supposedly been closed due to all the rain but had recently re-opened. We took a train 1 hour and 45 mins, and then a Lyft for 30 minutes only to arrive and have it be... you guessed it.. closed!! It was very disappointing, but we still viewed it from a distance and got some really cool photos!
Despite our initial disappointment at arriving to a closed venue, our biggest ordeal was actually trying to get back to Portland—apparently Uber and Lyft were not on the regular routes to the Falls, and after trying taxi companies that were way beyond our budget, we finally and luckily connected with an Uber to get us back to the train station, and off to Portland.
Exploring for food, (once again), I found this vegan tiki bar called No Bones Beach Club that was amazing! I would highly recommend the place! Ana met Toria and me there once she was off work. When we returned home, we stayed up watching Definitely Maybe while eating sweets and snacks before bed. I had forgotten how much I liked that movie, and its star, Ryan Reynolds.
In the morning, Toria and I took the train to downtown Portland and went to Petunia's Pies and Pastries - an all vegan bakery. It was such a cute bakery, everything was branded so nicely with blush pastels and delicate fonts and embellishments.
After brunch we took the train and bus to St. John's Bridge, walked around the riverbank and took photos. What a gorgeous area! We then went to 23rd street and shopped around - mostly window shopping but it was such a cute area as well Stopped in Lush - one of my favorite natural beauty companies for some zero-waste shampoo and conditioner bar containers too!
After meeting Ana for dinner at a Thai restaurant, we stopped at the famous Salt & Straw for dessert down the street. All of their limited edition monthly flavors were vegan (bless their souls).. so I did my fair share of sampling and decided on a cup of Heidi Ho Lemon Cheesecake. Heidi Ho is one of my fave vegan cheese brands by the way. They are known for having a creamy consistency like goat cheese, but the ‘cheese’ is actually made from cashews. :)
We finished off the night at Ana's packing and getting ready for an early flight the next day. Ana was such a sweetheart and offered to drive us there at 4 am…blessed.
Overall, it was such a great few days and I really enjoyed spending time with the girls. Tips for next time: 1) go during the summer, but still be prepared for some rain! 2) rent a car – despite good public transportation, in our case, it was a time-waster to not have our own vehicle. Thankfully I'll be 25 soon and won't have to deal with high rental car fees. Yay! Until next time Portland!
Eaton Canyon Trail & Waterfall, Pasadena
Hey readers, meet my handsome boyfriend, Zach. He really is the best. He's currently working his butt off getting his doctorate in Physical Therapy at California State University Long Beach, but when he's not studying or at class, I'm probably nagging him to go out and adventure with me. This includes but is not limited to traveling, going on photoshoots (he hates that, but also secretly gets into it too haha), trying new vegan-friendly restaurants, going to events/festivals, etc. A few days ago, I used one of the "2 hour photoshoot" coupons he gave me as a birthday gift. Yes, you read that right.. he knows how much I like to take pictures and issues me photoshoot coupons. Haha I love it. Anywho... we went out exploring in Pasadena at Eaton Canyon Trail and Waterfall. To be honest, it was way longer of a hike than we were expecting... like an hour to an hour and a half just to get to the waterfall which was not near as big as I had seen in photos, but it was still a nice time to spend together. We followed our hike/photoshoot with a yummy dinner at Little Pine - a super cute fancy vegan restaurant nearby. Their mac n cheese was to die for. Like I literally thought it was real cheese. Bomb.com.
Brown Hat - Brixton
Brown Dress - Free People
Vegan Suede Hat - Free People
Gray Sweater - Free People, purchased on consignment from Buffalo Exchange