Hannah Elise Schultz - Blog

Travel With Me: A Toddler-Friendly Trip to Ireland in January (Dublin & Belfast)

Hannah Schultz — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:16:42 +0000

I turned 30 this year, and it had always been my dream to go to New Zealand for the big three-oh. However, sometimes you have to be realistic about finances, and between eight years of underpaid graduate school work ($1000 a month is totally livable, right?), having a newly 2-year-old toddler (which means having to buy her a ticket instead of flying with a lap-infant), moving to a new city/state with a COL increase, and trying to rent out our house in KY to no avail (and thus paying a mortgage PLUS rent), it just wasn’t in the cards this year. But that was when Aer Lingus decided to bless us with sub-$400 tickets to Ireland.

If you’ve been a long-time follower of the blog (or know me personally), you might remember that I last visited Ireland in 2017 as a new college graduate on a whirlwind backpacking trip with one of my oldest friends. On that trip, not only was I a fresh-faced, sprightly new college grad, but I was on an incredibly tight budget and visiting in the summer. This time, I approached my visit to Ireland as an exhausted toddler-mom with a slightly larger budget and less flexibility, and we also had to navigate the various difficulties of Irish winter weather.

Come along with us for this toddler-friendly, seven-day trip to Ireland (both the Republic and Northern Ireland)!

Day 1: Travel

We flew Aer Lingus from JFK to DUB, and I do see why it was the cheapest flight they offered because the flight times were just brutal. We left around 5 pm and arrived around 4 am. The flight was just short enough that our daughter fell asleep with only about 1.5-2 hrs left in the flight, which meant all of us got that amount of sleep or less. I would recommend taking a flight that leaves later, closer to bedtime, to maximize sleeping time. This flight might have worked when I was 20, but at 30, it meant we had to eat a zombie breakfast at McDonald’s, then pay an extra $35 to check in at our hotel at 8 am to take a nap. I’d like to call myself a veteran traveler, so I know better than to nap after a European flight—it’s all about pushing through to an early bedtime that first day. But my daughter needed it, and so did we. The trade-off was that we ended up sleeping in later than usual the rest of the trip and weren’t as efficient with our time.

Day 2: The National Gallery & Trinity College

Hotel: MAldron Hotel Parnell SQuare, Dublin

The hotel we stayed in was in North Dublin. The hotel itself was affordable, clean, quiet, and had a decent restaurant. The pros on the location: this is a less touristy area, so we experienced less noise (Temple Bar, where we stayed last time I was here, was NOISY) and got to try some local spots for breakfast (places where we were the only tourists in the restaurant, like Declan & Donal’s for breakfast rolls). The cons: we were a pretty good walk from the places we actually wanted to visit, which were all on the other side of the river, as well as the restaurants we saw recommended.

Transportation: Sixt Car Rental (Dublin Airport)

Breaking from our usual practice of relying entirely on trains, tour buses, and public transportation, we decided to rent a car for this trip. This is because several of our stops (Newgrange, Glendalough, Giant’s Causeway, etc.) are most easily accessed via car or tour bus vs. public transportation, it would have cost us A LOT of money (like $50 extra per tour) to pay for our toddler’s seat on a private tour (and these tours advertised 12 hr days that would not be suitable for a toddler), and the daylight in January is ridiculously short (~8:30 am sunrise, 4:30 pm sunset). We needed speed, flexibility, and low cost. For our entire trip, the rental car only cost us $115. And we were able to travel with our toddler in her car seat on the plane (just make sure your car seat is FAA certified and around 20 inches wide), which was another great choice, as we didn’t have to rent a car seat and she understands (mostly) the concept of being buckled in while in a moving vehicle. Driving on the wrong side of the road was nerve-wracking, but we did survive.

Phoenix Park (Free)

While waiting for our hotel to allow us to check-in, we visited Phoenix Park. I hadn’t realized beforehand that Ireland’s sunrise wasn’t until after 8 am in the winter, so this was a mis-planning on my account. We did, however, get to see (via our headlights) the herd of 400-450 fallow deer that have called the park home for over 350 years. Even in the dark, Flora was delighted to see the deer!

National Gallery of Ireland (Free)

After our nap, we stopped by the National Gallery to get lunch at the cafe (pro-tip: we have always have great luck with the food at cafes at museums, National Trust sites, and national parks, and it makes that toddler transition from eating to planned activity much easier). Then, we perused the art, letting our toddler lead us and comment on all of the animals she saw. They had a wonderful little art station set up by the cloakroom where she could color with crayons, and we all had fun drawing as a family.

Trinity College, Dublin (Trinity Trails & Book of Kells Experience, $39 per ADULT, children under 12 free)

I can’t say I recommend this tour for every toddler—it’s 45 minutes of walking and listening to the history of Trinity, followed by a self-guided tour through the Book of Kells. We really lucked out because Flora fell asleep in the carrier at the very beginning of the tour, and if she falls asleep on the go, she’ll stay asleep. She woke up during the Book of Kells experience, which had some interesting projections/videos that kept her entertained.

Founded in 1592, Trinity is Ireland’s oldest university in continuous operation, and it was initially founded to consolidate the Protestant ascendancy established through the British colonization of Ireland (official restrictions existed for Catholic students, professors, and fellows until the 1870s). Famous literary figures such as Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Swift, and Bram Stoker are alumni, and as our tour guide (a student there) noted, the college serves as an interesting lens through which to learn about religion, architecture, geology, and culture throughout Irish history. After having a stronger grasp of the history of British colonization in Ireland through my study and teaching of postcolonial literature, I can say I definitely appreciated this tour more than I did a decade ago.

Built in the 18th century, the college’s Old Library is the largest in Ireland, and it holds a copy of all Irish publishers’ works. Additionally, it has held the Brian Boru harp, a national symbol for Ireland, since 1782, and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic since 1916. This document was read at the beginning of the historic 1916 Easter Rising, a rebellion against British colonization that would grow into Ireland’s nationalist movement. On our visit, the iconic books of the Old Library had largely been removed for preservation and cleaning (a fascinating process in itself!). I’ve included a photo I took in 2017 for comparison.

The most well-known item in Trinity’s collection is the Book of Kells, an illustrated manuscript of the four Gospels in Latin created circa 800 AD. The manuscript is remarkable for having survived Viking raids and its extravagantly decorated pages. Only one or two pages of the manuscript are on display at any time, rotating through the year. The entire manuscript has been digitized.

Day 3: Malahide Castle & Pantomime at the Gaiety

Malahide Castle and Gardens ($20 per adult, Children under 4 free)

I actually toured Malahide Castle the last time I was in Dublin (and the photos from that trip show the gardens in all their summer glory). But a decade and scholarly insight into Irish history made this repeat visit equally enjoyable. Importantly, this was a great day-trip for a toddler, combining history, a fairy garden trail, and butterflies.

Malahide Castle dates to 1185, when Richard Talbot, a knight who accompanied Henry II to Ireland in 1174, was granted the “lands and harbour of Malahide.” It was then home to the Talbot family for the next 791 years, until 1975. As a result, you can see examples of architecture, culture, and history from the medieval to the modern as you tour the castle. One medieval wall boasts a secret passageway where the Talbots’ Catholic priest could escape, illustrating how some Irish families were forced to outwardly convert to Protestantism under a Protestant English ruler to retain their land and rights even while secretly maintaining their Catholic practices. In another room, we learned that the phrase “get plastered” to mean “get drunk” comes from mixing plaster with alcohol to create molding, which caused the workers to get drunk from the fumes. Another room boasts a Venetian fireplace procured on a European tour, where we picked up another bit of etymological trivia: “saving face” comes from placing screens between women and fireplaces to prevent their wax makeup from melting. The medieval banquet hall features a minstrel’s walk and a ghost story about Puck, a lady’s man who was allegedly in unrequited love with one of the Talbot daughters.

The fairy trail was a big hit with Flora, who enjoyed running around the grounds, finding the fairy circles, dragons, bamboo forest, and fairy houses. The butterfly house was less active than I remember it being in the summer, with only two varieties of butterflies out and about. Nevertheless, it was warm in the conservatory, and Flora enjoyed finding all the butterflies. The cafe (both the takeaway side, which features a large selection of breads, sandwiches, and pastries, and the sit-down side) was a delicious choice for a light lunch.

National Museum of Ireland (Free)

Back in Dublin, we managed to sneak in a visit to the National Museum of Ireland, a treasure trove of Irish history and culture. Located in a beautiful Palladian style building, the museum is most well-known for its Bronze and Iron Age “bog bodies.” These are exceptionally well-preserved bodies of men killed in what are theorized to be ritual sacrifices. The Bog Bodies Research Project, which employed CT and MRI scanning, palaeodietary analysis, fingerprinting, histological, and pathological analysis, has revealed many facts about these bodies, including what they ate for the months before their deaths. The bodies are quite gruesome in my opinion (all are partial, one with a twisted neck stump where he was beheaded), and the stories of their deaths are pretty grisly. My daughter (2.5 years old) had no idea what she was looking at, and she wasn’t scared when I explained these were individuals who died a long time ago, likely because she has no idea what death is. I can imagine older toddlers might have some trouble with this exhibit, but the bodies are within circular pods, so they’re easy to avoid if necessary. Additionally, the museum holds a huge exhibition of prehistoric Irish gold and an early medieval book of psalms called the Faddan More Psalter, written about 800 CE and found preserved in a bog in 2006. It is notable for being one of the few medieval books that has survived with its original bookbindings intact.

Beauty and the Beast Pantomime at the Gaiety Theatre (~$45 per adult for balcony tickets, Children under 3 free but must sit on lap)

I don’t know what I was expecting with my first panto, as I went into this experience completely blind. In the US (as far as I’m aware), Christmas pantomimes are not a thing. But this was a suggestion on Reddit for things to do in December/January in Ireland, and that was enough for me, as there were so few child-friendly winter activities for that space between dinner and bedtime.

Pantomimes are musical comedy performances of popular stage shows—most family friendly, and many based on fairy tales. They include cross-dressed characters and pop culture references, almost a parody of the original. Apparently panto was developed in the 18th century in England as a form of participatory theatre where the audience is expected to engage with the characters. In our show, Gaston often directly addressed the audience, asking for support for his shenanigans and mocking us when we all shouted, “Oh, no it isn’t!” or what have you. The pantomime dame, played by a man in drag, is another conventional character; ours was Mrs. Potts, and it was actually the end of his 14-year run as the dame at the theatre.

Flora had never seen a theatre performance before, nor has she ever watched a tv show or movie. So we had very low expectations for her as a 2.5 year old with no experience sitting still and focused for 2 hours. However, she was locked in the whole time, riveted by the songs, dancing, and, at several points, fireworks. Ryan and I also immensely enjoyed ourselves, as the “parody” songs, self-conscious jokes about the Irish accents and drag, and the plot changes transformed this from the Beauty and the Beast film or stage show we’re overly familiar with. I particularly enjoyed the number of K-pop Demon Hunters songs they adapted for the Beast.

Day 4: Glendalough Monastic Site, Wicklow Mountains National Park

Hiking at GLendalough (Free)

About an hour south of Dublin lies Glendalough, a magnificent glaciated valley. This is the site of an early medieval monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. Throughout the valley are now hiking trails as part of the national park. We started with the Green Road Walk (~1 mile), which takes you through the oak woodlands to the Lower Lake. You can follow signs here for food, and there are restrooms and a few food trucks set up near a parking lot. Options were limited, but we did get insane garlic mayo-loaded cheese fries and millionaire’s shortbread (and Flora a hot dog). Flora then took a carrier nap while we hiked the Miner’s Road Walk (~1.25 miles), which takes you through a Scots Pine woodland along the banks of the Upper Lake to the ruins of the miner’s village from the galena lead mine that operated in the valley from 1825 to 1957. About halfway through the hike, you can see a cave known as St. Kevin’s bed where he used to seclude himself. Because of the short daylight hours (and getting a later start due to a later bedtime after the evening panto), we didn’t have time to do another longer hike on the Spinc trail, which gives you views of the lakes and valley from above. Instead, we jogged up to see the Poulanass Waterfall and then headed back to the monastic settlement to walk around the ruins.

The buildings of the settlement that now survive date between the 10th and 12th centuries. One of the most impressive was a 100-ft. tall tower which served as a bell tower and a refuge during attacks. Another was St. Peter and St. Pauls' Cathedral, the sprawling ruins of a 12th/13th-century cathedral that dominate the settlement.

Hiking is one of my absolute favorite toddler activities—it burns energy, doesn’t require helicoptering to prevent mass destruction of themselves or others, and still allows you to experience the beauty of wherever you’re traveling.

Dinner - The Church Cafe and Bar, Dublin

I’m making a special note about this dinner experience because as Flora gets older and we travel more again, I’m finding it more difficult to find restaurants that are toddler-friendly, GOOD, and culturally interesting. More often than not the places I see recommended are tiny (albeit cool-looking) establishments covered in breakables, with $30 artisanal meals my toddler currently won’t touch. Child-friendly establishments, conversely, tend to be chain restaurants, ones that specifically cater to kids (and don’t taste good), or they’re far from any touristy area. So this was a gem in my opinion.

The restaurant is situated in Saint Mary’s Church of Ireland, which opened in 1701. The building has been restored and preserved, and the inside is all vaulted ceilings and galleries, giving the space a unique vertical feel. Not only did they have a kid’s menu, but there was also a live band playing traditional Irish music and traditional Irish dancers performing all evening. Flora was thoroughly entertained, we got to experience some Irish history and culture, and the food was well-received by all of us.

Day 5: Newgrange Neolithic Ruins

Newgrange Tour ($23 per adult, Children under 12 free)

In the Boyne valley between Dublin and Belfast lies a unique UNESCO World Heritage Site. Newgrange is an over-5,000-year-old passage tomb, or the site of prehistoric burials and spiritual rituals. It was built in 3,200 BCE, making it older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza, and it is estimated that its construction would have taken a work force of 300 at least 20 years. The outer kerbstones and some stones in the inner chamber are carved with megalithic art, featuring spirals and geometric patterns whose meaning remain a mystery. Newgrange is the roof-box (the hole above the door) is positioned exactly to direct the light of the sunrise of the winter solstice into the inner chamber. Because of this, scholars believe Newgrange was built to celebrate the end of winter and the coming of the new year for these farming communities. Interestingly, despite its tri-spirals that are often associated with Celtic art, Newgrange was built 2,500 years before the Celts reached Ireland, likely by Anatolian immigrants from modern-day Turkey.

Once again, the cafe in the Newgrange Visitor Center proved to be the choice—we grabbed breakfast before the tour and a snack there after the tour. We then drove the remaining hour and a half to Belfast in Northern Ireland, where we would be staying for the rest of the trip. Because we left Dublin slightly later than planned and missed the shuttle bus for the 10:30 am tour at Newgrange, we ended up getting to Belfast later than initially planned. I had wanted to do a walking tour, but it was raining, Flora was feeling a little run down and wanted to just play with her toys at the hotel, and it was going to be dark within the hour. We opted to stay in until dinner, which we had a Holohan’s Pantry, another great child-friendly find near our hotel. This was our first time trying a boxty, which is a traditional Irish potato pancake originating in the late-18th century. I had the vegetarian option, which was delicious—kind of like a hardier, savory, filled crepe.

Hotel: The Malone Hotel, Belfast

This was my first time in Belfast, and our hotel was very nice (boutique, apartment-style, in a residential area). It was near Queen’s University, and just because of the timing, this mostly worked out for us. Most of the popular, highly recommended restaurants were located in the Cathedral District, but almost all of them happened to be closed during the weekdays we visited. The other recommendations were coincidentally both in the university area and open during our visit, so we lucked out. If I were returning to Belfast, however, I would probably choose somewhere closer to the Cathedral District for access to restaurants and more tourist sites.

Day 6: Causeway Coast

Carrick-a-rede rope bridge ($20 per adult, children under 5 free)

This was our biggest/longest day and probably the one I was most excited for. The Causeway Coastal Route is a spectacular scenic drive from Belfast to Derry in Northern Ireland, featuring views of the Atlantic, awe-inspiring cliffs, and castles galore. Having a toddler, we opted not to drive the coastal route the entire way (which adds significant hours to the drive) and instead take the motorway straight to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, working our way back towards Belfast along the scenic route.

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge is 100 ft. above sea level, first erected by salmon fishermen over 250 years ago in 1755. It stretches from the cliffs to the Carrick-a-Rede island where a single fisherman’s hut still stands. The name is from the Gaelic “Carraig-a-Rade,” which means “The Rock in the Road,” pointing to the rocky island preventing the migrating salmon from finding passage to the river. Unfortunately, overfishing and pollution led to a significant decline in the salmon population; the last salmon was caught at Carrick-a-Rede in 2002.

During the summer months, the bridge is crowded, and you aren’t allowed to stop on it to take photos. However, one of the perks of visiting during off-season was that it was empty. We basically had the place to ourselves and got stunning, nearly private views as a result. The one thing to note is that during bad weather or high winds, the bridge is closed.

Giant’s Causeway ($20 per adult, children under 5 free; 1 hr “Hike”)

Another UNESCO World Heritage site, Giant’s Causeway is a short, 10-minute drive along the coast from Carrick-a-Rede. Formed 50 to 60 million years ago by volcanic activity (lava cooling extremely slowly, allowing for horizontal and vertical contracture), Giant’s Causeway is composed of interlocking basalt columns. The area is deeply intertwined with Irish mythology; the legend goes that the Irish giant Fionn was challenged to a fight by a Scottish giant, and he built the causeway to Scotland to reach him. Fionn realized the Scottish giant was much bigger than him, fled back to Ireland, disguised himself as his own baby, then when the Scottish giant gave chase and saw the giant Fionn-baby, he fled back to Scotland, scared of how big Fionn must have been if his baby was so massive. The Scottish giant smashed up the causeway to prevent Fionn from following. Various other myths connected to Fionn, his mother, a giant camel, etc. are rooted in the bays surrounding the causeway.

The visitor's center included an area that was a haven for toddlers, with interactive exhibits, train toys, a boat to ride in, and a crayon-rubbing station. We took the (free with admission) tour led by a National Trust guide, which I would highly recommend. Flora took a carrier nap while we (courtesy of off-season) got a private tour, in which we learned all about the geological history and Irish mythology. They also offer handheld audio guides for those who don’t want a tour guide. The 40ish-minute tour ends at the causeway, and from there, you have the option to continue on with more hiking. If we’d planned more of our trip around hiking and stayed in this area, I would have loved to create a whole day around the causeway and hiked out to see some of the other rock formations and up to the clifftops to get some more stunning views. But since it was winter, we hadn’t wanted to stake an entire day (or days) on good enough weather for full-day hiking. So instead, we hiked back out to the visitor’s center to continue our coastal tour.

Dunluce Castle ($8 per adult, children under 5 free)

Dunluce is definitely one of the coolest castle ruins I’ve visited. Another short drive from Giant’s Causeway (10 min.), Dunluce can be found on the sharp drop of the cliff’s edge. The first castle was built in the 13th century, then fell into the hands of the McQuillan family in 1513. It stayed with the McQuillans while they were lords of the Route, a medieval territory of Northern Ireland, until they were ousted by the MacDonnell clan of Scotland. The Scottish lords of the castle were later made earls (and Anglicized) by James I in his efforts to obtain funds and support for the union between England, Scotland, and Ireland. The castle would fall into ruin over the centuries as the clan lost status and wealth, and part of it literally fell from the cliff, reclaimed by the sea.

Notably, the castle is thought to be the inspiration for Cair Paravel in The Chronicles of Narnia and served as a filming location for Pyke, the seat of House Greyjoy, in Game of Thrones.

On winter days, you do have to be careful about timing for daytrips—there’s less daylight, and things close earlier. Getting there a little before 3:30 (the final time you can enter in the winter), we closed Dunluce down. On the drive home, we made a brief detour to see the Dark Hedges, a picturesque drive lined with beech trees, but it started raining, quickly getting dark, and we didn’t feel like parking in the hotel lot (it was unclear whether this would be free) and walking the 15 minutes in the rain to get a picture with bad lighting. That evening, we ate at Darcy’s in Belfast, and again, I’d highly rate them—both for kid-friendliness, atmosphere, and the quality of the food. I had a fish pie, which was excellent, Flora had a whole roast ham dinner off the kid’s menu, and they brought her food out earlier than ours, which was great thinking, as it gave her half a chance to finish around the same time as us.

Day 7: Ulster Folk Museum

Ulster Museum & Botanic garden (Free)

This museum combined natural history (our toddler’s favorite) with archaeology and art. It really had everything—including a cafe, where we grabbed a quick breakfast (my first scone and clotted cream of the trip). Now, what we were just starting to barely realize at the start of this day was that Flora was showing signs of getting sick (passed on from Ryan, who had been battling a cold since we left). It wasn’t clear at this point whether she was just tired from sleeping poorly or what, so we pushed through, but in retrospect, this is why I didn’t have the best time at this museum. While there were plenty of engaging exhibits, including one on the Troubles, a period of Irish history I was interested in learning more about, Flora was unwell, grumpy, and kept pushing us along at a grueling pace. She didn’t even really enjoy the kids-oriented nature discovery center, though I think it would have been a big hit had she been feeling better.

Ulster Folk Museum ($16 per adult, children under 5 free)

The Ulster Folk Museum was a bit of a drive away for us, about 25 minutes from our hotel, but it was well worth the trip. Opened in 1964, this is a unique living museum. There are buildings from various areas of the Ulster region that have either been replicated or moved to the museum and reconstructed to preserve a rural way of life that was disappearing in the face of industrialization and urbanization. So what they’ve done is essentially recreated a town from the early 20th century with the surrounding farms. The town section of the museum preserves laborers’ dwellings, a carpenter’s, a bike repair shop, a bank, a picture house (movie theater), and a corner general store, among other buildings. You can also walk outside the town to the basket maker and fishermen’s houses, a weaver’s house, a school, a meeting house, and multiple working farms with farmhouses. The houses felt strangely dwelled-in, with fires burning low in the fireplaces, and we met a few “actors” in period dress who gave us some history about the location, but I can imagine there are more workers during the summer months.

Normally, this would be Flora’s dream: to run around near-empty streets and explore cool buildings, seeing farm animals like horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep, and chickens. But she was really getting hit by whatever bug she’d picked up, ate two bites of a gingerbread cookie for lunch, then demanded to be carried for the rest of the visit, occasionally raising her head to point out animals, before taking a second nap in Ryan’s arms. We still had a good time, and I really enjoyed being immersed in a 20th-century rural Irish world. And for a trip where we were spending a lot of time in museums, it was refreshing to experience history in a different way.

Now, the rest of that day was a wash—which is just one of the trade-offs when you’re traveling with young kids. You have to be flexible and ditch the jam-packed itineraries. Had Flora been feeling better, I think we could have gotten an earlier start, then done the Ulster, Ulster Folk, and the Titanic Museums all that day, since the Titanic Museum doesn’t close until 5 pm. However, we just called it, stopping by Boots for some ibuprofen and going back to the hotel for a chill evening of cuddling and hoping Flora’s slight fever didn’t become something worse.

Day 8: Carrickfergus Castle & Home

Carrickfergus Castle ($8 per adult, Children under 5 free)

After packing up our luggage and grabbing a quick breakfast at Creed Coffee (where Ryan got the biggest bap we’d ever seen), we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle before our drive back to the Dublin Airport. Flora was, with the help of a good night’s sleep and ibuprofen, feeling much better than the previous day.

Carrickfergus is a Norman castle, like Malahide, about 20 minutes north of Belfast. It was built by the Anglo-Norman knight John de Courcy in 1177. In 1210, the English King John laid siege to it, and it fell under control of the English crown, becoming an important military and administrative stronghold. It was garrisoned continuously for about 750 years until 1928 when it became a national monument. Now, many of its original Norman features have been restored, and we enjoyed journeying through its history, including a medieval banquet hall (complete with roast pig). This was a wonderful final stop, and very doable in a short morning, before we made our way back to the airport and boarded our flight back to the States.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below. And go here to read about more of my travels.

A Year in Pictures: 2025

Hannah Schultz — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 22:07:56 +0000

Unsurprisingly (at least to those familiar with my daily life), I missed my annual year in review post for 2024. I had my daughter in the fall of 2023, then scraped together my last remaining brain cells to balance teaching and finishing my dissertation in 2024. Fall 2024 was also when we lost Argos, my soul dog whom I’d had since childhood; he survived osteosarcoma against every odd but died unexpectedly in his sleep from a heart condition. In the midst of parenting, dissertating, and grief, a year in review post on my now seldom-used blog was not at the top of my priorities list.

But I’ve been thinking a lot about community in 2025. Both in light of recent state-sanctioned violence in Minnesota, where part of my community lives, and after moving to Philadelphia and losing the community I’d built through my PhD program and my friends from childhood. Though truth be told, after having a baby, many of my dynamics of friendship changed: it was and is lonely. Most of the people I know either don’t have kids and our get-togethers are limited by my partner’s being off-work to provide childcare, or they do have kids and they’re too busy managing work and kids and food and sleep schedules to hang out. Moving has magnified this isolation, and I’m so thankful to the friendships that have persisted across state lines in texts and memes and video calls. Because it increasingly seems to me that it is part of the current capitalist, fascist, racist regime’s goal to isolate us. To divide. To turn us inwards, to foster insularity. Because community breeds compassion, empathy, mutuality, and reciprocity.

So anyway, here’s me giving an update to those who are or were part of my community. Who still want to be. Because I think it’s important that we know and care about what is going on in each other’s lives.

January

In late October of 2024, we adopted Otis, a Great Pyrenees mix (we think). He was part of a litter of puppies born in the shelter, and when we rescued him, he’d never even touched grass before. I will say that I hadn’t had a puppy that young (about 10 weeks old) in a decade, and it almost drove me insane, especially since we already had a human baby who didn’t sleep. But by this point, he’d settled in, and here you can see his ears flapping in some January snow.
One of the reasons we adopted Otis was because Winnie was absolutely devastated by Argos’s death. She really loved Otis in the beginning, wasn’t so thrilled when he got to be about her size, and now she’s come around to him again.
Otis the cuddle bug! Winnie isn’t a big cuddler, but Otis is glued to us 24/7.
One of my best friends Kayla came for a visit and brought her dog Hazel. Flora was enamored with her—she’s a dog-lover, through and through!

February

Most of my camera roll at this point is pictures of Otis looking cute/dumb and Flora being adorable/hilarious. I was deep in the trenches of finishing my dissertation by my March deadline and applying to jobs night and day.
& 3. By this point, Flora and Otis had developed a really sweet bond, which they still have! We like to say that Flora is his goat. She gets to climb all over him with impunity.

March

I finally got the pixie cut I’d been contemplating for a decade (and had never gotten because I’d been told by a certain family member that I’d look like a boy with short hair). We also visited the Louisville Zoo.
I was invited on a campus visit (job interview) to a school in Indiana. Not only did I get COVID for the very first time on this trip, but these were also just really difficult days of decision-making and agonizing over our future. I ended up being offered this job, and I had a very hard time choosing between immediate stability and a job/location I couldn’t foresee myself being happy in for long vs. taking a risk to turn down the job in hopes that something better would come along by the end of the spring. I’d already applied to over 70 jobs at that point and had no luck. The academic job market was and is very volatile, and I faced the very real possibility of having no fulltime job after graduation. I ended up taking the risk and miraculously, it paid off.
A very chaotic dog walk at the Kentucky Arboretum with my best friends (and Kari and Kayla).
A camping trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

April

I traveled to Miami, FL, for a micro-getaway with my sister (and Ryan and Flora).
The primary thing on the agenda was to help Isabelle see a beloved Thai duo who were performing in the US for the first time.
A little springtime Shaker Village visit to see the farm babies.
Quick stop by Mankato to see my best friend Kari graduate from the MFA program, where I got to have a very brief reunion with some of my previous professors.

May

1., 2., 3., & 4. Kari received a grant to travel to England for research, and Kayla, Ryan, Flora, and I tagged along—in part to celebrate my graduation from my PhD program. We had a lovely time visiting historic estates, showing Kari and Ryan our old haunts in Oxford (Kayla and I studied abroad there a decade ago!), and trying our hands at our first international trip with a toddler. (It went really well, and it gave us the confidence to go to Ireland this January!)

June

I was invited on a campus visit to a university in St. Paul, which meant a trip to Como Conservatory to sniff the flowers.
And of course, getting to spend some time with Kari!
Later that month, we traveled to Pentwater, Michigan, to a cottage that I’ve been going to since I was a kid; it was very surreal to show Flora this special place for the first time!
Flora tried her hand at kayaking on Lake Michigan.

July

Kayla and I presented at the ASLE conference at the University of Maryland.
We then did some sightseeing around DC with some of my family.
And traveled up to NYC, where Flora discovered her undying love for the Bryant Park Carousel’s cat.
And my sisters, stepmom, and I saw ATEEZ in concert!

August

Celebrating our last few weeks in Kentucky with a trip to Luna’s Butterfly Cafe for a little flower-sniffing.
After 80 job applications, 11 interviews, two campus visits, and three job offers (one turned down due to location/teaching load and one because it paid so little that it wouldn’t even have covered childcare) over the course of the fall and spring, I accepted a job as a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Haverford College outside of Philadelphia. The best decision I could have made, and I feel so incredibly lucky to be here!
Us getting acquainted with one of the best children’s museums I’ve ever visited with a young toddler: the Please Touch Museum in Philly.

September

I flew to Minnesota to attend a friend’s wedding and got to reunite a good portion of the MFA crew in the process.
I also got to celebrate Kari’s birthday with a trip to Lake Superior in Duluth while we were up there!
Then Kari shortly thereafter flew down to PA to help me adjust to the new schedule of solo parenting for a week at a time while Ryan is back in Kentucky for work. (Yes, she is the best!)
I turned 30 with a hike!

October

Flora turned 2 years old! We kicked off birthday celebrations with a visit from her aunt and a trip to the natural history museum.
On her actual birthday, we took her to a farm sanctuary, where she was able to pet animals and feed them snacks to her heart’s content. She comes by her animal-loving personality honestly.
I took the train up to NYC to hang out with Kayla for the weekend after she finished up a conference in Boston. Gotta make it work to see each other when you live too far apart!
We flew back to Kentucky for fall break, where we stayed in a cabin and hiked in Red River Gorge, as well as visited the Kentucky Horse Park, where Flora rode a pony for the first time!

November

A beautiful fall hike at the Haverford Reserve (followed by a less lovely time of removing hundreds of ticks from Winnie and Otis).
A camping trip to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. Beautiful camping right by the ocean, and it was deserted (but cold and windy). Flora had a great time searching for shells, and Otis and Winnie got to see the ocean for the first time!
The flamingo Christmas tree at the Philadelphia Zoo, and a visit from my sister-in-law!
We shopped at the Christmas markets in Philly, and of course, Flora’s favorite part was the carousel!

December

One of our friends from Kentucky came to visit, and we did a little tourist day in Philly, including our favorite sites from National Treasure (incidentally the Liberty Bell, which I’m told is allegedly famous for other reasons than the Nicolas Cage masterpiece).
First big snow in Philly! Winnie and Otis were ecstatic.
& 4. My best friends came from out of state to spend Christmas with us! It was a very full household of dogs and people, our days spent cookie decorating and thrifting and watching (for me at least) Muppets Christmas Carol for the first time (an instant classic). I can’t think of a better way to end the year.

Our (Mostly) Secondhand, Low-Waste Nursery

Hannah Schultz — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 23:55:00 +0000

If you aren’t signed up to the newsletter (go sign up at the bottom of the page!) or someone who knows us in real life, you might’ve missed the news that Ryan and I just welcomed our first baby in October 2023. I thought I might share some of our nursery details for both the curious and those looking to incorporate more sustainable living into your journey towards parenthood. This is a kind of companion post to this one that I wrote in 2019 about some simple changes I’ve made towards a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle, but this time geared towards preparing/caring for a newborn! One of the core principles with which we want to raise our daughter is a love and respect for nature and that starts with her nursery/first weeks.

One of the things I’ll emphasize throughout this post is how much money you will save by going the more sustainable route (hint: it’s A LOT), but it is by no means the only positive outcome. By being a conscious consumer, you’re creating less waste, making a more stress-free environment for both you and baby, choosing materials and ingredients that are best for baby’s health and development, and more. Babies don’t actually need that much stuff and while we’re by no means minimalists, one of the first sustainable choices we made was to forgo a lot of the extraneous baby things that our consumerist society tells you that you need (even though you really don’t).

You’ll also notice from how we’ve designed the nursery that we’re incorporating (but not following 100% in everything) a Montessori-style of parenting. To learn more about this, I highly recommend The Montessori Baby by Simone Davies and Junnifa Uzodike (which we were actually gifted secondhand at one of our showers!). The Montessori method essentially stresses that we can teach our children independence, respect, and understanding by approaching them using principles of consent and freedom from an early age. In Montessori-style nurseries, this starts with developmentally appropriate toys (more on that later) and furniture with which they can actually interact (appropriate for their height, for instance). The nursery should be a kind of yes-zone where (once they’re old enough to move around) they can independently occupy themselves without fear of injury.

Baby Showers: Give Secondhand Options!

This isn’t technically part of our baby’s nursery, but I figured I’d start here in how we approached building and decorating the nursery and preparing for our little one. One of the best things we did for our bank account and the amount of clutter/stuff we accumulated for our baby was to try our best to wait to buy her much of anything until after our baby showers. We were really lucky with how generous our friends, family, and coworkers were, and because we put mostly essentials/practical gifts on the registry, we ended up receiving a lot of what we needed from them.

I would also really recommend putting secondhand options on your registry. Babies grow so quickly that secondhand is often practically brand new, and buying secondhand means that you’re saving something from the landfill and stopping the relentless consumerism inherent in fast fashion and fads. You can link to other buying options on registry sites like Babylist, so I put used copies of books from Amazon there or found an eBay option to link. I also created a completely secondhand registry on Encore, where I could ask people to either pass on their own gently used baby items (from storage from their own previous children or people they knew who were looking to declutter) or pick out clothes and other items secondhand. We encouraged guests to visit secondhand stores like Kid to Kid, Re-Kid, Once Upon a Child, and Goodwill. Lastly, our friends hosted a shower for us where they asked guests to bring a book instead of a card and encouraged them to buy the books used!

Furniture

Sprout Montessori Floor Bed - $200 on Facebook Marketplace ($300 New)

The floor bed is part of the Montessori-style concept of independence, as it isn’t a restrictive sleeping area like a crib, which prevents them from “escaping” and forces them to rely on you for making the decision for them to sleep or wake up. The floor bed instead allows them to wake up, decide they want to go read or play with a toy to regulate themselves, then return to sleep or ask for a parent. While many Montessori parents use the floor bed from the newborn stage, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children sleep in the same room (but a separate sleeping area) for the first six months, and we don’t have room for a floor bed in our room. Instead, we used a bassinet until three or four months (when she could roll over), a pack n’ play until she could crawl (theoretically this would allow her to crawl back into bed), and finally transition to the floor bed. We have a very sleep-adverse Velcro baby, so we still haven’t made it to independent napping, but many people start there with the floor-bed transition.

The other benefit of the floor bed is that we’ll avoid having to transition from a bassinet to crib to toddler bed, with all the sticky situations in between (like climbing out of the crib!). Instead, she’ll be able to use this bed until she’s around 3-4 years old, when most children move to a twin-size mattress. The crib-sized mattress for this bed was one of the things we did not thrift, as that felt unsafe to us from a cleanliness standpoint (but it was gifted to us from our registry).

Leather Chair and Ottoman - Repurposed, Originally Thrifted From The Domestic

We originally bought this leather chair and ottoman from a local thrift store for maybe around $150. It was meant to live in our living room, but because of a massive dog bed and unexpectedly being passed along an extra couch, it wound up in my office. I immediately knew I should repurpose it for the nursery when I found out I was pregnant, as it would make a perfect place to sit and read with her or breastfeed. It’s quite low to the ground, so now that she’s able to climb, she can get onto it independently.

Side Table - Repurposed, Originally Thrifted from Habitat Restore

The side table was originally thrifted from the Habitat Restore as a two-piece set for maybe about $70 total. It was supposed to be in the living room, but again, it ended up in my office. Now, it makes the perfect little table for a lamp to read by.

Dresser - Repurposed, Passed Down from Family

This Lexington Furniture Store dresser was another repurposed item that we’d been holding onto since we moved to this house, hoping it would come in handy. It was passed down to us when another family member moved, and I actually originally hated how it looked (it was a dark cherry wood with these clunky metal drop-ring drawer pulls), which gave me reservations about using it in the nursery. However, we gave it a fresh coat of paint, and I bought some used Anthropologie knobs off Mercari (~$30, compared to ~$90 new), and voila! it actually fits the nursery quite well. Inside, I’ve also repurposed cardboard boxes we received with all our various baby items over the months to serve as dividers/bins for our cloth diapers and clothes.

Stokke Tripp Trapp High Chair - $75 on Facebook Marketplace ($300 New)

This high chair is in hot demand for crunchy and Montessori parents alike. While Montessori guidelines generally encourage the use of a baby-sized table when children start eating solids, this high chair still allows for independence (it has a step that children can use to get up to the seat) and encourages children to be part of the eating experience at the table with the rest of the family. It’s also more sustainable than the average high chair, as it’s made of natural wood, will last for multiple children, and grows with your child, as the infant insert can be removed and the height of the seat is adjustable. Because of its solid construction, this high chair is expensive, and like the floor bed, even thrifted, it sells for upwards of $175-200. However, like a lot of the items we “thrifted” for the nursery, finding it at a good price required patience, persistence, and flexibility. Daily, I would check Facebook Marketplace for specific items I knew we wanted, so I didn’t miss new postings. This was actually posted in a town a little over an hour away from us, but I reached out to see if the seller would be willing to meet us halfway. It worked out, and we got a basically brand-new Tripp Trapp (this was her baby’s backup high chair!) for a fraction of the cost.

Montessori Wooden Bookshelf - $20 on Facebook Marketplace ($150 New)

The Montessori bookshelf is one that is open-concept (without cabinets) and low to the ground to keep developmentally appropriate toys and books accessible to your baby as soon as they start crawling. These days, I find that most inexpensive bookshelves are made of that faux-wood paneling over cheap MDF, and they fall apart quickly. Thrifting older items is a great way to find solidly constructed pieces for less than you would pay even for their cheap counterparts new. This shelf aligned with what we were looking for (something like this), and after a couple of coats of leftover paint from the nursery walls, it’s absolutely perfect!

Amazon Wooden Shelves - Gifted

These little natural wood floating shelves were gifted to us at one of our showers, and it’s where we’ve displayed some of the more sentimental picture books that I’ve passed on to her from my childhood (and didn’t want torn up during the baby phase!), as well as a doll for when she’s older and the baby monitor. These higher shelves are a good way to keep her room a yes-zone for independent play!

Mirror - Repurposed, passed down from family

The final furniture piece in here is this mirror, which is something that has been sitting in my family’s attic for a very long time—so long, it might have even come from my or one of my siblings’ nurseries! It struck me as the perfect baby/toddler-sized full-length mirror to hang by the door, so she can admire her outfit. Hanging this mirror low to the ground was another choice we made to ensure this room feels designed for a tiny body!

ART

Watercolor Mural Stickers - Purchased on Etsy

One of the first things I knew I wanted in the nursery was a statement wall with some kind of nature-themed mural. I’m a relatively artistic person, so I considered painting a mural myself, but between teaching, being a PhD student, and the time-crunch of finishing multiple dissertation chapters early to prepare for my makeshift maternity leave, I didn’t think I’d have the time. Instead, I found these amazing watercolor mural stickers, which give the impression of being hand-painted without the work (and they’re easily removable/re-stickable!).

Seashell Frames - Repurposed, Originally Handmade

Since we went with an ocean-themed statement wall, we decided to move these framed seashells that we’d arbitrarily hung in the guest bathroom to the nursery, where they fit the vibe. Growing up, I used to spend every summer at the beach in Charleston, SC, and was a bit of an avid seashell collector. As an adult who was tired of moving a bunch of random knickknacks from place to place, this crafting project was the result of my desire to keep some of that shell collection in a more purposeful way where I could actually enjoy it. All it took were some shadowbox frames and hot glue!

Activities/Toys

Lovevery Play Gym - $40 on Facebook Marketplace ($140 New)

This is another crunchy/Montessori parent product, but one that I found worth it because of how much versatility it has. Infants can be very overstimulated by being introduced to developmentally inappropriate sensory objects (bright colors, sounds, textures), so I love that this playmat has different areas you can unfold only as they reach that developmental stage. It also comes with different toys, like a rattle and teether, that can be removed during the newborn stage. The other draw is that this play gym actually converts to a little play tent as they grow, meaning you’ll get more use out of it for longer. Flora loved this play mat during the newborn phase, especially the high contrast art cards and the high contrast soft ball that we hung from the top.

Like the Tripp Trapp, this product has a very high resale value, and despite joining a Lovevery BST (Buy, Sell, Trade) group on Facebook, I hardly ever saw one being resold secondhand for less than $80. Luckily, this one for $40 popped up on Marketplace one day, so I snatched it up! I do regret not holding out for someone to post one for sale locally (I saw a $50 one in Lexington on Marketplace the other day), just to have avoided shipping costs/emissions.

Wee Gallery Art Cards - $10 on eBay, Unopened ($16 New)

We’ve also got some of these on display on her bookshelf. These were unopened, still in their shrink-wrap, for a discount on eBay!

Acrylic Mirror Panels - $10 on Amazon

One of the other things you can do to promote development in your baby is use mirrors to allow them to discover their own bodies. These acrylic mirror panels won’t shatter like a real mirror, so they’re safer to use in a baby’s play area. Flora loved practicing side-lying and looking at herself in the mirror in the first several months!

Gear Essentials

Cybex Cloud Q Infant Car Seat - Gifted

One of the main baby gear essentials that you cannot buy secondhand is a car seat. The reason is that car seats have an expiration date, and they cannot be used again after being in a crash (a car accident will compromise the safety components of the seat). Unless you can say with 100% certainty that the car seat is not expired and has never been involved in an accident (meaning you probably know the source of the seat personally), it’s unfortunately one of those purchases that you should always make new. We chose this brand/model for its high safety ratings and the fact that it’s fully reclinable, meaning it’s safe for baby to sleep in when not in the car (so we can use it with our stroller for longer daily walks). While convertible car seats last much longer (they’re designed to “convert” from rear-facing to forward-facing and sometimes even to a booster seat), they aren’t portable/used in travel systems, and we would need to remember to move the seat from car to car depending on when Ryan is working (more on that problem below). Ultimately, the infant car seat/travel system fit our family’s needs better.

The car seat/stroller combo was great for family walks away from the house. However, I will say one thing I didn’t consider with the car seat travel system is that they shouldn’t wear bulky coats/bunting with car seat straps—this made it more difficult to use the car seat as her daily stroller since she was an October baby. Once she hit the weight limit in this car seat, we did purchase an open box (unused) Graco Extend-2-Fit on GoodBuyGear, another one of my favorite baby resell sites.

Cybex Balios S Lux Stroller - $225 on Rebelstork, Open Box ($550 New)

When deciding on our car seat/stroller, we opted for a travel system that integrates the two to theoretically make our lives easier by not needing to remove Flora from her car seat to move to the stroller. It also has all-terrain wheels, as we like to walk a lot, both in our neighborhood and on trails in the park. The most sustainable/cost-effective option I found for this stroller was a website called Rebelstork, which essentially sources used and open-box baby items and resells them in a marketplace setting. This stroller was open box, meaning it was either a floor model in a store, a box that had been opened and then returned (without major flaws), or new-in-box. I suppose you’re taking a little bit of a risk not knowing which option you’ll get, but you do have a 24-hr window to verify the item and return it if it doesn’t meet your expectations/needs. We were really lucky that this ended up being a brand-new model, still in all its plastic wrapping—just for half the cost!

Extra Car seat Base for Cybex Cloud Q - $90 on GoodBuyGear, Open Box ($160 New)

While this isn’t necessarily an essential for everyone, we know ourselves, and because Ryan works 12 hr shifts at a hospital an hour and a half away, if we forget something in his car that I need, I’m out of luck. This has happened many times with the wagon we used to walk Argos (our tripod Great Pyrenees who passed away earlier this year), and it was always incredibly frustrating. So we decided an extra car seat base that’s always in my car was one of our essentials. I found this car seat base that matched the production year of our car seat new-in-box for a massive discount on GoodBuyGear.

Diapering

Bumbo Wipeable Changing Pad - $30 on Facebook Marketplace ($90 New)

Every time I see one of those pretty-patterned covers on a changing mat, I just picture it getting covered in pee and poop and needing to be washed 80 billion times a week, and after having dogs and cats, I don’t trust any fabric that claims to be wipeable. Maybe that’s why the concept of a foam wipeable changing pad appealed to me so much—but why on earth are they SO much more expensive than the covered cloth ones (by at least $60)? After a long time searching, I was super happy to find this one secondhand, as I just couldn’t justify paying $100 on a changing pad.

Flora peed and pooped on her mat/herself/us while being changed enough times that I can 100% say this wipeable changing pad was worth it. The ease of wiping it down with a normal diaper wipe when an accident happens is just unparalleled.

Collapsible Drying Rack - $10 on Facebook Marketplace ($45 New)

One of the main ways you can increase the longevity of your cloth diapers (especially covers) and decrease the environmental impact of cloth diapering is by either exclusively line-drying or at least partially line-drying. I’ve also found that baby clothes can benefit from line-drying, as they almost all need to be done on the “gentle” setting, which (maybe it’s just our dryer) never actually gets them fully dry the first time; the long-sleeved onesies with the roll-over mittens especially like to stay damp even after drying. So a drying rack is an essential to cut down on energy waste!

Cloth Diapers

While cloth diapering doesn’t have a zero percent environmental impact and isn’t necessarily going to save you thousands of dollars, it has been shown to be more sustainable and cheaper if done correctly. Thirty billion disposable diapers end up in North American landfills every year, wood pulp from these diapers amounts to nearly a quarter million trees, and there are 90,000 tons of polypropylene plastic made from petroleum in them. Additionally, fecal matter from these diapers leaches from landfills into groundwater. Cloth diapers, however, can also be problematic due to the environmental cost of cotton production and energy use from laundering. The best ways you can make your cloth diapering choice more environmentally friendly than disposables is to buy secondhand, reuse diapers for multiple children (if you intend to have more than one), and to line-dry.

If you’re like me, one of your concerns might also be sensitive skin. I have chronic eczema that is triggered by any artificial fragrance and certain chemicals, and it seems Flora has inherited my sensitive skin too. Disposable diapers often have added fragrances and chemicals, so we used the Honest Company (which is also a more sustainable disposable option) while the umbilical cord area needed to stay dry the first weeks. For cloth diapers, we decided to go with the fitted inner and cover system, as it is basically blowout-proof and requires less diapers total (I highly recommend this short introductory video to the different types of cloth diapers if you’re interested!). What works for us is cloth diapering during the day and disposables at night, as you usually need to change cloth diapers more often, since babies feel the wetness and will become uncomfortable faster (which also leads to faster potty training as they age—Flora was been poop potty-trained since about seven or eight months old and is working on pee). Remember, sustainability doesn’t mean perfection!

Newborn (5-10 lbs) Diapers: Green Mountain Diapers, Puppi, Thirsties, and Babee Greens - 13 Newborn Workhorses, 2 covers, 2 wool covers - $151 on Facebook Marketplace ($255 New)

Newborn diapers and wool covers are where I made a mistake. I was sucked into an overprepared/anxiety-driven panic about my daughter possibly being smaller than 7 pounds, leading me to buy GMD workhorses, and I thought wool would be a great natural fiber cover. She ended up being over 8 pounds at birth, so she fit into the Esembly diapers we’re using as our main system right away (and I actually didn’t like the fit of the GMD workhorse inners). Lanolizing (waterproofing) the wool covers was too much of a hassle for me to even pull them out. But this is the other great thing about cloth diapering: you can resell them for much of the original value if you don’t need them anymore or don’t like them. I listed the GMD workhorses on the GMD Buy/Sell/Trade group I’m part of on Facebook and within an hour, I’d sold them for the same amount I paid when I bought them on the same group!

7-17 lbs (Approx. until 7 Months Old) Diapers: Esembly, Kotori Works, Puppi, and GMD, 22 fitted inner diapers, 11 covers, 2 wool/fleece covers, 2 all wool covers, 18 fleece liners, and one pail liner - $245 on Facebook Marketplace ($590 New)

This is our main diapering system, which is primarily Esembly. The fleece liners are to prevent wetness from staying against the skin, as the urine can pass through the fleece to be absorbed by the cotton inner, keeping the fleece dry. We’ve been doing cloth with Esembly since she was a newborn (we moved up to size 2 around 6 months old), and it is wonderful! With this size stash, we washed every 2 days.

And one last note on buying secondhand here: all of these diapers, aside from maybe two or three instances of “shadow-staining,” look brand-new. Breast-milk poop is actually water-soluble and washes out easily, and you can prevent or treat staining simply by leaving your diapers out in the sun to dry.

Cloth wipes (GMD) and peri bottle

Baby wipes are another source of waste that feels fairly preventable to me, and it’s also where you see a lot of unnecessary added fragrances/chemicals in baby products. Cloth wipes can be used either with just water or a solution of water/baby shampoo. I’ve actually repurposed the two peri bottles the hospital gave me postpartum to wet our wipes with, since I bought the Frida Mom upside-down peri bottle to use for myself instead.

Clothes

The last thing to note in our nursery is, of course, baby clothes! As mentioned above, we did request secondhand baby clothes at our showers, and we only bought secondhand clothes for her ourselves (aside from a Harry Potter Halloween outfit Ryan bought her at the Harry Potter exhibit in Atlanta and a souvenir onesie from our babymoon in Hawaii). We tried our best not to go overboard and buy only what we needed to fill the gaps in what she received from showers and random gifts. While Goodwill will force you to sort through a lot of junk in the children’s bins, you can find great (even unused!) pieces and can’t beat the price at $1 each. Kid to Kid also has a section of onesies that are only $1 each, so perfect for stocking up on basic essentials.

I’d also recommend not going overboard on the clothes-buying front, especially in newborn sizes. I’m a small person (only 5’2’’ and slim), and my husband is fairly tall (5’11’’) but not overly so. I would be the last person to predict that our baby would be above-average in weight, or that she would be outgrowing her newborn footies at three weeks old. But it makes me glad we didn’t have one billion newborn clothes to be depressed that she never got to wear. Also, newborns basically live in pajamas. Not only that, but they don’t go outside and they aren’t really having blow outs yet, so they don’t go through many outfit changes unless they like to spit up a lot. We’ve gotten away with a small stash of footies—think five or six—that she lived in for the first several weeks.

A Year in Pictures: 2023

Hannah Schultz — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 22:04:20 +0000

Happy New Year! I’ll always remember most of this year as being pregnant (it really did feel like I was pregnant an entire year by the end). The rest of it, I’ll be too sleep-deprived to remember in detail. But that’s why I have pictures!

In all seriousness, 2023 will forever be a special year for me. It was a year of travel to new and old places, the year I started my dissertation, the year I hiked eight miles and up volcanic sands while pregnant, the year we bought a wagon to take Argos on adventures again, and most importantly, the year that I become a mom.

I can’t wait to see what 2024 holds for our little family!

January

After I caught the flu on our trip to Amsterdam and Brussels, it felt like I spent the rest of December and early January recovering. Our cat, Bisous, did her best to nurse me back to health.
Winnie and her best friend Hazel on a stroll together.
After getting surprise laser eye surgery for my chronic retinal detachments last year, I discovered I’m a “super dilator.” I always like to document it at my check-ups.
On a hike with Winnie on a beautiful winter (not that it looks like winter!) day.

February

Winnie and I on a hike in Red River Gorge. We took an 8-mile hike in honor of me being 8 weeks pregnant.
I went on a trip to Austin, TX, to visit one of my oldest friends for a weekend. We walked along the river, went on a hike, and ate amazing donuts, among other things!

March

Our very first ultrasound at around 11 weeks.
Ryan and I took a camping trip to Everglades National Park.
I took a trip to Denver, CO with my friend Kari.

April

I bought a tent for my cat to safely hang out outside with us.
We took a short trip to Atlanta to go to the Harry Potter Exhibit and watch Ryan scuba dive inside one of the aquarium’s tanks.
Flower-spotting on one of our many park walks this month.

May

Ryan and I went on a babymoon to Hawaii, where we also took our honeymoon. This time around, we visited the Big Island and Maui.
I visited Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas with my friends Kari and Kayla.

June

Our first baby shower, hosted by Ryan’s mom and sister. We felt all the love for our baby girl!
This picture accurately sums up the chaos of this hike I took with Kari in Red River Gorge. Winnie and Kindi were loving the water and sand. It might have been the dirtiest Winnie has ever gotten on a hike.
Our local park flooded, and Winnie loved the reprieve from the heat.

July

My first college roommate got married!
Argos enjoying the creek at our local park.
Our second baby shower, hosted by a couple of our best friends, Cameron and Jamisen!
Kari came for a visit, and we took Winnie and Kindi to a local vegan restaurant and a cronut spot. Winnie was surprisingly well-behaved as a patio dog!

August

Argos and Winnie being ridiculous during a play session.
By this point in my pregnancy, the only thing that kept me sane was getting outside and walking or hiking as much as possible. At least once a week, we started going to the Arboretum for a two-mile walk, followed by pizza at Goodfellas. Winnie was not complaining.
A hike at Shaker Village with Kayla and Winnie’s bestie.
A hike at Red River Gorge.

September

Winnie posing in front of the flowers on yet another Arboretum walk.
A hike on the Asbury Trails down to the Kentucky River. This was the first hike we ever took Winnie on after we adopted her! I made Ryan half-carry me up the last hill (my hips were not doing well by this point of pregnancy).
Our little chubby-cheeked girl on our first 3-D ultrasound. They “gave” us an extra one because I was measuring small. Turns out she was actually measuring above average (which turned out to be true)!
A cute little box turtle on the trail at the Arboretum.

October

I celebrated my 28th birthday with my in-laws on October 3rd. This was the last picture I have of me pregnant—I went into labor at 3 am that night.
Yes, I did watch Lord of the Rings while in the hospital. If Frodo could get the ring to Mordor, then I could get through 29 hours of unmedicated labor.
Flora Eloise was born on October 5th, 2023 at 8:12 am. She weighed 8 lbs 2 oz, much to my surprise!
The next month, Ryan took PTO for the two of us to learn how to navigate parenthood together. We tried to get out of the house and enjoy the fall weather as much as possible, considering the whole newborn thing. Pictured are our first park walk, our first hike at Jessamine Creek Gorge, and our first time driving to my all-time favorite place, Red River Gorge, to enjoy the foliage. I’m pretty sure what should have been an hour-and-a-half drive took about two-and-a-half hours after the diaper changes and nursing stops.

November

Flora turned a month old!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with both our families. You can see the chronic sleep deprivation in my face. I think at this point, she was still awake for hours on end during the night. It’s (slightly) better these days.

December

Flora turned two months old!
Ryan turned 31! I made him this delicious vegan strawberry cake and put an ungodly number of candles on it (too many in retrospect).
How I spend most of my nights: Flora asleep in my arms and a cat nestled against me.
Winnie has loved getting more visitors than usual these last several months, between Flora’s birth and the holidays! She’s starved for attention and misses being the baby of the house.

Happy New Year!

Travel With Me: Maui & Big Island, Hawai'i (Days Eight, Nine, & Ten)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 11:48:00 +0000

If you missed day seven of our trip to the Maui, go read that post first!

Our final day on Maui was much more relaxed (at least for me) than the previous. While Ryan went on a scuba diving excursion to the Lahaina Cathedrals (which was one of his favorite parts of the whole trip), I got a prenatal massage at the spa at the neighboring hotel to ours and read a book on the balcony. We then spent the rest of the day lounging in the pool and enjoying some farmer’s market soursop (a fruit I’ve only ever had in Hawai’i and am obsessed with).

Dinner: Merriman’s

For dinner that night, we went to one of the most expensive restaurants of the trip. We were treated to spectacular sunset views, but I have to say, for the price, I was a little disappointed in my food. Perhaps it was just that I should have ordered something other than the mac-nut mahi mahi (which I’d previously had at Manta and not been wowed by), but the texture of the mac nut crust-topping was too chunky, and the flavors weren’t special. Ryan was a fan of his kampachi, though, and the chocolate purse dessert (phyllo pastry around a rich, gooey chocolate filling, served with ice-cream) was very good.

DayS Nine & Ten: Back in Kona, Big Island

It was much cheaper to fly into and out of Kona, even with the extra flight from Maui back to the Big Island, so our final days in Hawai’i were back on the Big Island. This time, we stayed at the Royal Kona Resort, which was nicely situated close-ish to the airport. It had a great view over the water, particularly from the restaurant, a cool lagoon-style swimming pool that was open to the ocean, and amenities like tennis courts. However, I will say I was disappointed in the resort-prices when it came to the quality of the room (it seemed like our building was falling apart a little bit), and the tennis courts were not open when they were supposed to be, so we never actually got to play.

Of course, one of the last things we needed to do was scrap our original dinner plans and make a trip back to Teshima’s instead. Can confirm that the food was just as good the second time.

Our final stop on the Big Island before catching our flight home was at Magic’s Beach Grill for an early lunch. As a pescatarian, I was really hoping we’d have a chance to go here because they have a vegetarian loco moco, a famous local Hawaiian dish that usually has a hamburger patty, rice, an egg, and gravy. This one came with onion straws, mushroom gravy, and a veggie patty. It was so good. And what was even better were the ulu (or breadfruit) wedges. Breadfruit is just a little sweeter than potatoes, providing a perfect complement to the savory main dish, and I actually prefer the texture to potatoes as well.

Thanks for reading all about our second trip to Hawai’i! Hit the ‘like’ button if you enjoyed these posts.

Maui, Hawai'i (Day Seven): Road to Hana & Wai’anapanapa State Park

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:39:00 +0000

If you missed day six of our trip to Maui, go read that post first!

By far one of the most famous activities to do on Maui is to drive the Road to Hana, a 64-mile stretch of highway along the coast, connecting Kahului to Hana. While the drive technically only takes three hours, what’s special about it is the number of roadside stops to see waterfalls, buy fresh banana bread, and take dips in the ocean. so plan on spending much more than a few hours on this excursion. While ideally you would stay the night in Hana to maximize your time for pit stops, it is possible to hit some of the highlights in a single day.

It’s also a good option, depending on your finances, to book a group tour—this cuts down on the number of tourist cars blocking the road and creating traffic for locals, and it gives you access to a guide with insider information about each stop.

Waterfalls: Upper Waikani Falls, Hanawi Falls, & Pua'a Kaa State Wayside Park

One of the distinguishing features of the Road to Hana is the number of waterfalls you’ll pass. The narrow highway passes over countless bridges, many of which provide a view back into a valley or waterfall, and this is a source of constant frustration for locals, as tourists love to either stop their cars entirely on the bridges, blocking traffic, just for a picture, park in no-parking areas, creating dangerous driving conditions, or to walk in the middle of the road and almost get hit. Do your research beforehand! Guides to the Road to Hana will tell you whether there is parking available to access a waterfall, or you might need to master the passenger-takes-a-photo-out-the-window-while-still-driving-an-appropriate-speed skill.

Our abbreviated one-day drive began with a stop at Upper Waikani Falls, or Three Bears, which is at mile-marker #19. There is a small area to park at up past the waterfall, but it does require that you carefully walk down the road, hugging a rock face, as there is virtually no shoulder. Hanawi Falls at mile-marker #24 was one that I photographed while Ryan continued to drive. And finally, on the way back, we stopped at Pua'a Kaa State Wayside Park (mile-marker #22), where you can take a short hike out to a beautiful waterfall and swim in the pool beneath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I would call hot the day we did this, so I didn’t fancy a freezing dip in the pool. Ryan braved it, however, and looked miserable while doing it.

LUNCH: Hana Farms & Huli HULI Chicken

For lunch, we first stopped at Hana Farms, where they serve pizza featuring produce grown on their farm. This breadfruit pizza was excellent. We also sampled their chocolate chip banana bread, and even though I don’t usually like bananas, this was moist and delicious! Ryan was enticed by signs along the road advertising huli huli chicken (essentially barbecued chicken with a special sauce), a local Hawaiian dish he hadn’t yet gotten a chance to try. It turned out to be advertising a stand on Koki Beach that actually featured on Gordon Ramsey’s Uncharted. It didn’t feel quite up to health codes to me, but Ryan enjoyed it.

Wai’anapanapa State Park (Mile Marker #32)

This state park, like others we visited on this trip, is only open to non-residents via reservations. Its most notable attraction is a black sand beach named Pa'iloa, which abuts a kind of cove. Unfortunately, like I said, it wasn’t very hot that day, and the waves were also pretty strong. I opted to dip my feet in the water and watch as lots of people were wiped out by the waves. One of the other cool features of the park was a cave (accessed via the beach) that led to a closer view of the natural sea arch.

Rainbow Eucalyptus Grove (Mile-Marker #7)

These are Eucalyptus Deglupta, also known as the Mindanao Gum or Rainbow gum trees, and they were one of my favorite sights along the Road to Hana. The outer barks sheds to reveal bright green inner bark, which then reacts to the air and sunlight to become various shades of orange and maroon, looking like some kind of expressionist painting. The Rainbow Eucalyptus tree is actually not native to Hawai’i; it was first planted on the islands in 1929 at Oahu’s Wahiawa Botanical Garden as part of Oahu’s reforestation efforts.

Dinner: Leilani’s on the Beach

For dinner that night, we were hoping to get a last-minute cancellation spot at the always-booked Mama’s Fish House (the most popular restaurant on the island), but we were instead rewarded with what turned out to be both of our third favorite meals from the trip. Leilani’s was a random choice from OpenTable or Yelp, and while the touristy mall location had me worried, the food was spectacular. I had the special, which was a snapper with the most amazing purple sweet potato mash (I tried to recreate it once I got home—that’s how good it was—but I could not do it justice), and Ryan got the herb roasted monchong.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Our Final Days in Maui & the Big Island

Maui, Hawai'i (Day Six): Haleakala National Park & 'Iao Valley State Monument

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 12:18:00 +0000

If you missed days four and five of our trip to Hawai’i, go read that post first!

Today was our big hiking day on Maui and one of the days I was most excited for on Maui. Haleakalā National Park is named for the dormant volcano that last erupted between 1480 and 1600 and rises 10,023 feet above sea level. Haleakalā means “house of the sun” in Hawaiian, and this name is derived from the legend that says the demigod Maui imprisoned the sun here in order to lengthen the day to provide people more time to dry cloth and grow food.

The park is divided into two regions: the summit area and the Kipahulu region, a fragile rainforest valley that can only be accessed by driving hours down the coast to a separate entrance. If we go back to Maui, the hikes in the Kipahulu district are at the top of my list! The most popular activity in the summit region of the park is to see either sunrise or sunset from the highest point. However, we had already made dinner reservations at one of our most anticipated restaurants, so sunset was out, and I didn’t realize when initially planning that as of April 2021, you need reservations (which begin 60 days in advance) to drive up at sunrise. If I hadn’t been pregnant, we could have booked a group bike tour at sunrise to get around this (no bike riding while pregnant was a rule I wasn’t aware of until actually getting pregnant), but as it was, we had to settle for entering the park at its normal opening time.

Be aware that the roads are winding, narrow, and peppered with cyclists as you make your way up the volcano. Drive slowly and enjoy the views as you rise above the clouds.

Halemau‘u Trail (2.2 Miles Total, out and back)

Our first hike was through Hawaiian native shrubland. The trail takes you down to a crater viewpoint, and if you keep hiking past the viewpoint for another mile, you’ll reach the crater floor. Unfortunately, as you can see, we didn’t have much of a view of the crater. One of the drawbacks to the extreme elevation here is that the clouds often roll in as you’re hiking, and this is one reason why sunrise is so popular, as the clouds haven’t had a chance to form yet. The high elevation also leads to varied temperatures (we learned our lesson after Volcanoes and brought layers!) and increased risk of sunburn.

Keonehe‘ehe‘e - Sliding Sands TraiL (11 Miles, Point-to-Point)

The second trail we did was much more strenuous. The Sliding Sands trail takes you across and down into the Haleakala crater (and if you hike it long enough, it eventually merges with the Halemau'u trail, meaning you can make it point-to-point if you have two cars or use a shuttle). There is no shade, and it’s important to remember that the higher elevation might make you more dehydrated and hike at a slower pace. Still, the sweeping extraterrestrial views were worth it (and if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, there’s one area that looks ~ just ~ like Mordor where Sam slides down towards the mercenary army and gets stuck in the rocks).

OverlookS

We drove up to the summit and visited the overlook there, as well as the Leleiwi Overlook, which is a short .3-mile, out and back trail that provides a different perspective on the crater. This is also where we got some good views of the Haleakala silversword (Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. macrocephalum), one of the few plants that can survive on the desert cinder slopes of the crater. They live between 3 and 90 years or more and belong to a class of plants that send up death blooms. This means they flower only once, then die afterwards, their seeds spread from their dried flower stalk by the wind.

ʻĪAO VALLEY STATE MONUMENT

On our drive back to the hotel to change for dinner after a sweaty day of hiking, this park wasn’t far out of our way. Like many state parks in Hawai’i, it requires reservations for non-residents. It’s nestled in a lush rainforest, wildly green and cut through by rocky river (in which many people were swimming and exploring!). The park is the site of the battle of Kepaniwai where the forces of Kamehameha I conquered the Maui army in 1790 in an effort to unite the islands. The main feature of the park is Kuka‘emoku, or the ʻIao Needle, a volcanic spire created by erosional forces that rises 1200 feet from the valley floor. The overlook can be accessed via a short paved 0.6 mile walk, and we also meandered through the small botanical garden, which highlights plants like taro that were brought by native Hawaiians to the valley when it was settled.

Dinner at Cafe O’Lei At the Mill House

We ended our day with dinner at Cafe O’Lei At the Mill House. The first Cafe O’Lei opened in 1997, and it has since expanded to several family-owned restaurants across Maui that focus on fresh, local dishes. The glorification of the plantation setting did not seem to be addressed at all by the restaurant, but the food was my second favorite of the trip. We got ahi nachos as an appetizer, and I ordered the swordfish while Ryan got the braised short ribs as the mains. The prices were also the most reasonable (around $30 for mains) of the “fancier” restaurants we went to on this trip, so combined with the food quality, this is a must-return restaurant for me.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Road to Hana

Travel With Me: Maui, Hawai'i (Days Four & Five)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 30 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

As of writing this post, the Maui wildfires are still ongoing after starting around the beginning of August 2023. We stayed near Lahaina, which is where the deadliest fire burned an estimated 2,170 acres and completely destroyed the historic town. About 2,200 buildings were fully or partially burned, about 86% of which are residential, and the death toll is at 115, though 850 people are still listed as missing. Part of the reason for the severity of this fire is underinvestment in local infrastructure (this wildfire had been predicted many time) and instead a focus on tourism that is damaging Hawai’i in myriad ways, from housing costs to clean water access. If you do intend on visiting Hawai’i, make sure you do so with an investment in the local economy and culture in mind, as well as consideration for the health of the local residents (COVID being brought by tourists to areas without sufficient hospital infrastructure is a huge issue).

If you missed day three from our trip to Hawai’i, go check it out first.

On our fourth day, we headed to the airport (after one last stop at Pine Tree Cafe for Ryan, of course) and flew to Maui, the other island we wanted to visit on this trip.

Accomodations/TransportatioN: MAUI

On Maui, we splurged a little bit to stay at the Aston Kaanapali Shores Resort, which is one of a number of resorts that line the coast near Lahaina. The room was very nice, with a full kitchen, a living room with a t.v. and free DVD rentals, and a bedroom. They had two pools, a poolside bar, and a number of free classes you could take (like a SCUBA intro class, lei-making, etc.). It would be a great spot to come as a family with kids if you intended to spend a lot of the trip at the hotel, playing in the pool, and were generally around the resort enough to take advantage of the “free” amenities. Unfortunately, Ryan and I are (or at least were—who knows after we have a baby!) not those kinds of travelers, so I didn’t feel we spent enough time at the resort and using the amenities to consider the extra money worth it compared to a B&B.

As for transportation, we again rented a car through Thrifty with zero issues.

Day Four: Arrival in Maui

We took it very easy on our first day in Maui, wanting to save our energy for the early start we’d have the next morning. After arriving and getting the rental car, we stopped at the Honoapiilani Food Truck Park near our hotel for lunch. Ryan got a spicy poke bowl from Hooked, which actually ranked fairly high on his list of favorite food spots.

After that, we just hung out in the resort’s pool, which had a nice little waterfall cove where you could retreat from hordes of families throwing Nerf balls across the pool. I will say that the afternoons in Maui (or at least this area of Maui) were much cooler than the Big Island, and I found myself needing to sit in direct sunlight to handle being in the water.

We had dinner at a local vegan restaurant called Moku Roots, then headed to bed for our early start the next day.

Day Five: Snorkeling in Molokini & Turtle Town

That morning, we drove down to the harbor bright and early to embark on a half-day snorkeling adventure. We originally booked this tour but were “upgraded” free of charge to the larger Calypso tour (83 vs. 66 passengers), which, to be fair, had a better food selection, with a hot breakfast and lunch, as well as popsicles, and it had two slides that Ryan could enjoy. The number of fellow passengers was slightly overwhelming to me, but this was a very touristy excursion, and I’m not sure we would’ve gotten a less crowded experience either way.

The first stop to snorkel was Molokini Crater, a crescent-shaped, partially submerged volcanic crater between the islands of Maui and Kahoʻolawe. The reef has visibility up to 150 ft. and is home to 250 species of fish, 38 hard coral species, and 100 species of algae. It is also a state seabird sanctuary.

We rented a Go Pro from the hotel, which allowed us to capture a lot of our underwater adventures! We saw plenty of parrotfish, yellow tang, and Moorish idol, and it was wild how accustomed the fish were to tourists, as the schools of black triggerfish practically let you swim right through them.

The second snorkel stop was Turtle Town, which is one of the most popular snorkeling spots in Maui because of the prevalence of sea turtles. Honu, or Hawaiian green sea turtles, are sacred in their culture, and it is illegal to touch or harass them. They are the largest hard shell sea turtle in the world, and the green color of their bodies comes from eating algae and seaweed. They can get up to four feet long and weigh over 300 pounds. All sea turtles are considered endangered species in the United States.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Haleakala National Park & Iao Needle State Monument

Big Island, Hawai'i (Day Three): Polulu Valley, Rainbow Falls, & Kaumana Caves

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 23 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

If you missed days one and two of our trip to the Big Island, go read that post first!

POLOLŪ Valley Hike (~1-1.25 miles round trip)

The Kohala Volcano is the oldest of the volcanoes that make up the Big Island, and when part of this volcano slid into the ocean hundreds of thousands of years ago, it formed the sea cliffs along the Kohala Coast. Erosion has formed seven valleys along this coastline, including Pololū Valley, the most northern valley, then Honokāne Nui, Honokāne Iki, Honokeʻa, Honopue, Waimanu Valley, and Waipi’o Valley. Waipi’o Valley is the most famous, perhaps because of its daring grade or the breathtaking views through the cliffs and back into the valley. We faced Waipi’o last time we visited the Big Island (read about that hike here), but it has actually since been closed to non-locals. Since we loved Waipi’o so much, we decided to do another of the Kohala Coast hikes and settled on Pololū Valley, which is a short but steep hike down to a black sand beach.

The hike begins at the overlook, where there is a small parking lot for those who aren’t intending to hike. They also have a trail steward here, who warns you about carrying enough water and considering whether you’re physically able to make the steep trek. After having no such guidance at the entrance to Waipi’o, one of the literal steepest roads in the world, this set our expectations high for how difficult this hike would be.

However, once we’d started, we found this hike to be a cakewalk compared to Waipi’o and really no more difficult that most hikes that include any kind of significant elevation gain/loss. You do descend about 420 feet on switchbacks in a little over a half mile, but there are plenty of spots to take a rest and a pretty good amount of shade. I had no problem hiking this trail in Chacos at 20 weeks pregnant, and the only real difficulty I found with it was a few sections of loose dirt that were slightly slippery while going downhill.

Once at the bottom, you cross a small stream and reach the black sand beach (which is really more like a black rock beach). The ocean here is not a safe place to swim, but you can take a moment to sit on a piece of driftwood, watch the waves, and eat a snack. Behind the beach, you can walk a short trail through the woods. Make sure you pay attention to areas that are blocked off as private property or because they are sacred cultural sites. This trail used to lead to a connector trail to another of the valleys; however, this trail is no longer open.

After the hike, we drove down to Hilo, stopping for warm, fresh malasadas at Tex Drive-In on our way. These Portuguese donuts are covered in sugar and stuffed with different flavored fillings. Bavarian cream is my personal favorite!

Rainbow Falls

Despite the long drive, we knew this was going to be our one opportunity to visit Hilo on this particular trip, so we decided to use the second half of the day to enjoy some of the free activities we didn’t get to do on our honeymoon to the Big Island. First up was a stop at Rainbow Falls or Waiānuenue, one of the two famous waterfalls you can see in/near Hilo (Akaka is the other, which we visited last trip).

Rainbow Falls is a short walk from the parking lot, where you can see some tropical plants and a massive system of banyan trees. The waterfall itself cascades 80 ft over a lava cave that, according to legends, is home to the ancient Hawaiian goddess Hina, the goddess of the moon.

Botanical Gardens at the University of Hawaii, Hilo

We then drove to the close-by University of Hawaii campus, where we walked through their small outdoor botanical garden. The garden is a little difficult to find, especially because it’s divided into different sections that are separated across the campus. Still, I love a free botanical garden!

Kaumana Caves State Park

This free park (which is really just a parking lot and a picnic table) gives access to a lava tube create by an 1881 flow from Mauna Loa. The tube itself extends 20 miles, but most of this is actually private property, so you can only explore the first 0.1-0.2 miles. You descend via a metal staircase, where you access the lava tube through a collapsed skylight.

Unlike the more developed/popular Thurston Lava Tube in Volcanoes National Park, there were no lights installed inside and the floor was extremely sharp/uneven lava rock. I was really lucky that I always carry a flashlight in my hiking backpack, which provided more light than our phones to see by. This “cave” was also off-the-beaten-path enough that we had a few minutes to ourselves towards the back of the publicly accessible area. We took that opportunity to turn all our lights off, and the sensory deprivation in the pitch black was wild.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Arrival in Maui & Snorkeling with Sea Turtles

Travel With Me: Big Island, Hawai'i (Days One & Two)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 12:08:00 +0000

The last time Ryan and I went to Hawai’i, it was for our honeymoon in 2021, and we visited the Big Island and Kauai (read about that trip here). This spring, when we found out we were expecting our baby girl, the first big plans that we wanted to make were for our babymoon, and we figured what better place to go to celebrate our growing family than where we celebrated our marriage. Flights were cheapest to the Big Island (by several hundred dollars) and since it was our favorite island, we opted to return there for a few of the days on our trip. The other part of our time, we wanted to explore a new island, and we decided on Maui.

Accomodations/Transportation: Big Island

After all the news about Airbnb hosts cancelling guests stays due to double-booking and general dissatisfaction with the cost/conditions/cleaning requirements of the last few I’ve stayed at, we chose to stay at a bed and breakfast for this portion of the trip. The Hale-Hoola B&B is located in Captain Cook, which is fairly close to Kailua-Kona and the airport on that side of the island. We loved our experience here. We had a private lanai with a gorgeous view into nature, they had plenty of snorkel gear/sunscreen/towels that we could use, and the breakfasts were exquisite. Every morning, we had fresh fruit (nothing beats Hawaiian pineapple and bananas—and I don’t even like bananas!), eggs or quiche, avocado, bread, and a homemade baked good (like a slice of cake or muffin), cooked fresh by the owners of the B&B. They had bird feeders on the deck for some breakfast entertainment (don’t judge us for enjoying birdwatching now, we’re old). The geckos, however, were a constant menace, trying to get into our food. They were very cute though, and we left them little bits of mango to nibble on.

As far as transportation goes, we decided to go the same route as last time and rented a car. We used Thrifty again, and aside from the scorching heat at the airport as I waited outside the rental car pickup spot for Ryan to navigate the massive line (which was expected, since we went through the same thing last time), there were no issues. We actually coincidentally got upgraded for free again to a fancy sports car. I don’t know what kind of vibe we give off to the Thrifty employees, but we are not sports car people.

Day One: Arrival, Pine Tree Cafe, & Dinner at Manta

After our flight and picking up our rental car, we headed to what is now cemented as a tradition (twice makes a tradition, right?) of our arrival on the Big Island and headed to Pine Tree Cafe. This restaurant was recommended to us on our last trip by a bus driver at the airport, and it was legitimately one of Ryan’s favorite meals the whole trip. This garlic fried chicken changed his life, and we now recommend it to anyone flying into KOA. Last time, I wasn’t especially impressed by my fried fish plate, but this time, I got the fish burger, and it was amazing.

We then checked into the B&B and napped (we hadn’t slept much on the flight over) before embarking on the long drive north to Manta Restaurant at Mauna Kea Resort. This was one of a couple of fancy restaurants Ryan wanted to splash out on now that we could afford it, and the prices were certainly not cheap. The setting was gorgeous (and would have been even better at sunset), with the outside tables on a patio overlooking the water. I don’t know that I would write home about the food—they were oddly out of a large number of menu items, and the mac-nut crusted mahi mahi was not as good as much cheaper meals that I had on this trip. I did enjoy Ryan’s kampachi more than my dish, and the wonton chips they served in lieu of pre-dinner bread were randomly really addictive.

By far, the best part about this restaurant was that there was a little path you could take down to a viewing platform beside the water. There, they had massive lights set up to attract plankton, and you could watch manta rays feeding. This was a really cool opportunity for me because I knew I would never be able to suppress my thalassophobia enough to join Ryan on a night-snorkel to see the mantas up close.

DAY TWO: Farm Tour & SNorkeling at Two Steps

After breakfast at the B&B the next morning, we set off for a farm tour at Kuaiwi Farm, a small local fruit, coffee, and chocolate farm in Captain Cook. The tour group was very small, and they were still taking strong COVID precautions. We really enjoyed learning more about the history of agriculture on the island, the production process for such a small farm when making coffee and chocolate, the stages of growth for these plants, as well as tasting a variety of fruits fresh off the tree and even getting to crack our own macadamia nut! The tour ended with a tasting of different products made on the farm, including coffee, dried bananas (a surprise favorite of ours), and chocolate. Overall, this tour was extremely interesting, informative, and tasty—I’d highly recommend it as an affordable two-hour activity in the area.

After the farm tour, we got lunch at another of our favorite spots from last trip: Shaka Tacoz. After a somewhat anxious wait for a seat at the bar outside, we enjoyed some excellent fish tacos with a sweet little gecko friend.

We then headed back to the B&B to get change and grab some snorkeling gear before driving down to Two Steps. Using our National Parks Pass (which we made sure to remember this time!), we parked for free at the adjacent Puʻuhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park, which we’d toured the last time we came. You can read more about the park and Two Steps in the post about our first trip.

The weather was a little rougher than the last time we were here, making it slightly more difficult to get off the rocks and into the water due to the short wave intervals, especially while 20 weeks pregnant, but we were rewarded with some great snorkeling. The highlight this time was getting to see two eels fighting after one mistakenly tried to slip into an already occupied spot in the reef.

For dinner that evening, we tried out a new restaurant that I’d seen recommended on Reddit. Teshima’s began as a store and tofu shop in Kona in 1929, opened by a Japanese immigrant. In 1957, his daughter, “Grandma Teshima,” transformed the store into a restaurant that fused Japanese, local Hawaiian, and American cuisine. Teshima’s was the best discovery we made on this trip (and it was so good, we even went back on our one last day on the Big Island on the way home). Ryan ordered teriyaki beef and shrimp tempura, for which they’re rightly renowned, and I got the most flavorful fish I’ve probably ever had (the misoyaki butterfish). This was another meal that Ryan immediately wanted to recreate once we got home—it was just that good. The only things to note are that the fish does have bones in it (so be aware, if that freaks you out), and they don’t have reservations/make you wait outside until a table opens up. Luckily, this isn’t much of an inconvenience when the weather is as beautiful as it is in Hawaii!

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Hiking at Polulu Valley & Adventures in Hilo

Alligator & Crocodile Encounters in Everglades National Park (Florida)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 12:30:00 +0000

It’s becoming a tradition for me and Ryan to take a camping trip over my school breaks. We roadtripped to Zion last spring break, winter-camped in Vermont over that fall break, and camped a mile out in horror-movie-worthy woods in Congaree National Park the previous year. This year was slightly different in that I was about 12-weeks pregnant, still in the new phase of being unsure how pregnancy might change things as I got further along, and we didn’t want to attempt a trip as demanding in terms of hiking as Zion was, nor did we want to be camping as far off the beaten path as Congaree, since I was waking up for an extra bathroom break in the wee hours of the morning and didn’t want to trek a mile in the dark to the nearest restroom.

We settled on Everglades National Park as our choice for a few reasons. One was that we wanted to be able to use our National Parks Pass but not feel as if we were missing out on hiking opportunities if I was feeling sick or worried about overheating. Another was that the Everglades was on our list already, and this was a perfect time to go, as the mosquitos are not yet terror-cloud-level in mid-March. And finally, the camping was reasonably priced and still had good access to facilities.

Did you know the Everglades is actually a river? The water in the Everglades moves about 100 ft. per day down into Florida Bay. The majority of Florida’s fresh water comes from the Everglades, and drainage of the wetlands and artificial control over Lake Okeechobee to expand urban development has continually threatened access to clean, fresh water for the state; the park was created to protect this resource, as well as the many plants and animals that call this place home. The Everglades contain the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere, the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America, and thirty-six threatened or protected animal species, including the Florida panther, American crocodile, and West Indian manatee. The Everglades are also significant for the number of different ecosystems it contains: freshwater sloughs and marl prairies (low-lying areas covered in water, where the nickname “River of Grass” comes from), tropical hardwood hammocks (islands of subtropical and tropical trees that rise above the sloughs), pine rockland forests, cypress and mangrove systems (Florida’s first and best defense against hurricanes, as they disperse the impact of flood waters and prevent coastal erosion), coastal lowlands (or saltwater marshes), and the marine ecosystem of Florida Bay.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Long Pine Key Campground

We opted to stay at the Long Pine Key Campground, which is just a few miles from the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center. The other option for front country camping is the Flamingo Campground, which is a much further drive all the way to the coast. We drove down to Flamingo on one of the days we were there, and it made me very glad we chose Long Pine Key, as the area was very marshy (many of the sites overlook the bay directly) and it smelled horribly of birds and fish (though perhaps that was a me-problem from my super-smell pregnancy symptom). Regardless, Long Pine Key was exactly what we’d hoped for: quiet, near a restroom with running water and potable water, with easy access to the trails and main road, and with a spectacular view of the stars at night!

Anhinga Trail (.8 miles round trip)

The first trail we went on was the Anhinga Trail, which is essentially a boardwalk that takes you through a sawgrass marsh. We happened to arrive just when a ranger was departing on a free walking tour, so we joined that—and were happy we did! We learned a lot about the ecosystem of the Everglades, the function of alligator holes, and how to identify different birds. The anhinga, for which the trail is named, is a large water bird with black feathers and a hook-tip bill. Its name comes from an indigenous Brazilian language and means “snake bird,” owing to the fact that it swims with only its neck/head above water and looks like a snake.

This is also the trail where we saw our first alligators! The Everglades are actually in the extreme southern reaches of the range of the American alligator, and the alligators found here are usually on the smaller side (closer to 11 feet for males and 8-9 feet for females). The alligator is a keystone species of the park, and its burrows (alligator holes) provide a refuge for many other animals during the winter dry season. While the alligator can reach up to 35 mph on land and has one of the strongest bite forces in the world, they are actually pretty lazy and don’t generally see humans as prey, as they prefer feeding on small animals that they know they can easily overpower. Most alligator attacks stem from the illegal feeding of alligators, which makes alligators associate humans with food, as well as approaching a female gator’s nest or walking near a gator with a pet (who might be perceived as prey). Unlike wildlife encounters I’ve had with animals like bears or moose, the alligators did not feel particularly threatening, and most slipped away into the water when people got too close to them.

Gumbo Limbo Trail (.4 Miles Round Trip)

The short Gumbo Limbo trail is next to the Anhinga Trail and takes you through a hammock of gumbo limbo trees, royal palms, ferns, and air plants. While the Anhinga Trail was relatively busy, crowded, and exposed to the heat, this trail was peaceful and shaded.

One of my favorite encounters in the Everglades actually happened on this trail. Whereas there were always other people around when we saw other alligators in the park, this trail was secluded enough that we got to watch this alligator swimming through the water without a dozen other onlookers around. It was surreal to know it was just us and this massive prehistoric-looking animal in this moment.

MAHOGANY Hammock Trail (.5 Miles round Trip)

We did this super-short trail while driving down to the Flamingo Visitor Center. It was fairly similar to the Gumbo Limbo Trail, and its most notable feature was that it boasted the largest living mahogany tree in the United States.

Once at the end of the long drive down to the coast, we walked around Florida Bay a little bit (though it smelled bad, so we didn’t stay too long), then we did the Eco Pond Trail (.5 miles round trip). The trail quite appropriately just goes in a circle around the pond, and we did see a few interesting birds, such as a little blue heron and a roseate spoonbill. However, they flew away very quickly when we tried to get a picture.

Glass-bottom boat tour in John pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (Key Largo)

On one of the days of our trip, we’d booked Ryan a scuba trip to Biscayne National Park, a nearby park that is only really fully experienced in the water. Unfortunately, it was cancelled last-minute due to dangerous ocean conditions, and we had to improvise with something else. As you can imagine, spring break in Florida leads to pretty much everything being booked up (not to mention, I was not allowed to do anything that involved bumps or intense physical exertion due to pregnancy). Luckily, we found this tour in one of the nearby keys; it takes you on a massive catamaran through the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. At the bottom of the boat, there are glass-bottom viewing areas that allow you to see the shallow reefs below and the various fish and coral inhabiting them.

Airboat TouR

We also had to do an airboat tour while we were in the Everglades. It was interesting to see how the airboat worked (I never would have imagined that it would have no brakes), and we saw plenty of alligators—it began to feel like a kind of game to find them and point them out. This activity definitely felt overall like a tourist trap, but it was worth doing once for the experience.

Shark Valley Tram Tour (2 Hours)

Our final excursion ended up being one of my favorite things we did while in the Everglades. Shark Valley is an area closer to the northern side of the park, near Big Cypress National Preserve, and it’s one of the best places in the Everglades for wildlife viewing. There is a 15-mile round-trip paved trail that leads from the Shark Valley Visitor’s Center to the observation tower; however, as a pregnant person, I wasn’t about to walk that in the heat, and I was barred by my OBGYN from riding a bike. Thus, we opted for a tram tour, which actually ended up being a great choice, as we got some shade (it was hot), received a lot of really interesting information from the naturalist tour guide, and had the benefit of a whole tram-load of people finding and pointing out wildlife.

There were two notable wildlife encounters we had in Shark Valley. One was that we saw our first (and only) American crocodile! The Everglades are the northern extreme of the crocodile’s range, and South Florida is the only place where both alligators and crocodiles coexist. The American crocodile has lighter skin than the alligator and a narrow, triangular snout. As you can see in the picture below, its teeth are also visible when its mouth is closed. American crocodiles are quite distinct in behavior and size from the more well-known African Nile crocodile, which can grow up to 18 feet in length and often sees humans as prey. American crocodiles, by contrast to these other two reptiles, are shy, secretive, and less numerous than alligators—only about 2-3,000 crocodiles live in Florida, compared to over 1.3 million alligators—so we considered this sighting to be quite a treat!

We also got to see some baby alligators up close, and they were absolutely adorable. Hatchlings grow rapidly, especially for the first four years, when they can average more than a foot of growth per year. The juveniles stay in pods of their own and other hatchlings, protected by the mother for around one to two years. The yellow banding you can see in the picture below provides camouflage and will gradually disappear as they age.

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to see more of my hiking trips, check them out here.

Brussels, Belgium (Days Six and Seven): Royal Museums of Fine Arts

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 12:04:00 +0000

If you missed day five of our Christmas trip to the Netherlands & Belgium, go here.

If you caught the sense of foreboding at the end of my day five post, it will come as no surprise to you that I woke up on day six feeling as if a train had hit me. As a person who, before this, hadn’t been truly sick since undergrad, I was not doing well. My throat was sore beyond belief, I was full of snot, and I was clearly running a fever. I sent Ryan to the corner store to get some miraculous European cough drops (ones that actual make your throat feel better instead of just being sugary candy like American ones!) and Sprite, then hoped to sleep off whatever mystery illness had befallen me while Ryan took on our itinerary solo.

Enjoy Ryan’s photos of the infamous Mannekin Pis statue. He also visited the Choco-Story Museum, where he learned all about how chocolate was made and basically live-texted the whole experience to me, complete with pictures.

After a lunch of mostly fries, my fever felt as if it had subsided, so I donned my hospital-grade N-95 mask (which I didn’t remove until I was safely back in the hotel room later that day) and decided to try to do something besides sitting in bed—I was in Europe, after all. We walked through the rain to Notre-Dame du Sablon, a 15th century Gothic church, then picked out some more famous Belgium chocolates at Pierre Marcolini. Judging by the one bad picture I took of the church, I was still not feeling great.

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

Our main event was a visit to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, which is a collection of museums, including the Oldmasters Museum, the Magritte Museum, the Fin-de-Siècle Museum, the Modern Museum, the Antoine Wiertz Museum, and the Constantin Meunier Museum. We got there fairly late in the afternoon, so we only visited the Oldmasters Museum and the Magritte Museum.

The Oldmasters Museum houses works by Flemish masters Bruegel, Rogier van der Weyden, Robert Campin, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, and Peter Paul Rubens. But I was most captivated by Hieronymus Bosch and his pupils, whose bat-sh*t crazy paintings really connected with me in my fever-addled state. In all seriousness, I was happy I got to see Pieter Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus in person, as it inspired two of my all-time favorite poems, W.H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and William Carlos Williams’ “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.”

I found the surrealism of the Magritte Museum also agreed with me, though I was fading fast. We breezed through here as I struggled to remember everything I knew about Magritte (which was all learned from my teenage-self reading The Fault in Our Stars). On our walk back to the hotel, we briefly stopped to see the Royal Palace of Brussels, then it was straight back to bed for me.

Ryan’s Solo Adventures

The museum excursion turned out to be too much for me, and I was confined to bed/the shower floor the whole rest of the evening. Ryan went back out to walk the city, visit one last Christmas market, and ride a Ferris wheel all by his lonesome.

I did get to somewhat enjoy a chocolate-doused Belgian waffle that Ryan brought back with him after his adventures. (Peep the background of the hotel bedspread.)

However, I hardly slept that night due to the sore throat/congestion, and I woke up feeling even worse the following day. Day seven was meant to be a glorious day-trip to the picturesque town of Bruges, but an early morning train ride was clearly out of the question, and Ryan didn’t feel comfortable leaving me alone in a different city. Our original itinerary was meant to include the Grote Markt, the Historium VR Museum (who kindly refunded our tickets), a canal tour, popping into the Old Chocolate House for hot chocolates, and the Light Experience Trail. Instead, I can’t even remember what I did that day (though I’m sure it involved a lot of tissues, cough drops, and tears).

It was a rather inauspicious end to Ryan’s 30th birthday trip, and I learned a valuable lesson: get your flu shot, or it might ruin your European vacation.

Travel With Me: Brussels, Belgium (Day Five of Our Christmas Trip)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 12:08:00 +0000

If you missed day four of our Christmas trip to the Netherlands and Belgium, go here.

On day five, we trekked back to Amsterdam Centraal around 8 am to board a train to Brussels, set to arrive around 11:30 am. It was the first time I'd ever taken a train to another country and not had to go through passport control—it felt very illegal! All in all, it was a very easy and pleasant trip for only $60 total for the two of us.

ACCOMMODATIONS/Transportation: Brussels

In Brussels, we stayed at the Hôtel La Grande Cloche, which was located centrally to most of the touristy destinations in Brussels, though not on an overly touristy street itself. It was more of a modern vibe, with that unfinished/industrial feel. I did find it comfortable (which was a very good thing, as I ended up spending much more time there than planned—more on that later).

As far as transportation, we just walked everywhere. It wasn’t difficult to get around, and the furthest we ever walked was maybe 20 to 30 minutes.

Christmas Markets & Grand Place

There were several Christmas markets centrally located in Brussels: La Bourse de Bruxelles Market, Place de Brouckère, and Marché aux Poissons Market. We visited these markets, ate some raclette, and despite me being fluent (or at least being fluent at one time) in French, I made Ryan order everything because ~ anxiety ~. This did hilariously result in Ryan convincing some stall-owners he did actually speak French (I would tell him what to say), but when they asked a follow-up question, he’d look so confused that they’d figure out he was American. We also spent awhile watching the chaos of ice-skating, enthralled by the two guys who were evidently in competition to show off their skills and kept almost making a lot of newbies wipe out (and actually did cause a few falls).

Among the other items on the itinerary were seeing the Grand Place, a huge city square surrounded by gorgeous 14th century historic buildings, picking up some chocolates from Neuhaus, and getting a cone of fries from the famous Friterie Tabora.

That evening, we were very basic (at my request) and ate at Wagamama (one of my favorite chain restaurants while studying abroad in Oxford). We did find something new on the Brussels menu: these fried eggplant bao buns pictured below, which were randomly EXQUISITE.

The final market we visited that day was at Place Sainte-Catherine. This market was notable for the church, which lights up every half-hour at night.

La Monnaie de Munt

Our last excursion for the night was to the opera house, where I’d booked us tickets to see a winter concert called Schuberts Winterreise, with Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano. The opera house was absolutely gorgeous, and even if this was another situation in which I felt too uncultured/not rich enough to be there, I quite enjoyed our cozy balcony seats. However, it was about one-third of the way through the concert that I realized my throat was feeling. . .funny, and as much as I love listening to an orchestra/people singing in a language I can’t understand, I was finding it difficult to concentrate. I chalked it up to being tired from traveling and the cigarette smoke in Brussels. I figured with a good night’s sleep, I’d be ready to take on the next day. (Dear reader, I was not ready to take on the next day [or three]).

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Notre Dame de Sablon & Musée des Beaux Arts

Amsterdam, Netherlands (Day Four): Hortus Botanicus, Oude Kerk, & a Day-Trip to Zaanse Schans

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 03:19:00 +0000

If you missed day three of our Christmas trip to the Netherlands & Belgium, go here.

On our fourth day in Amsterdam, we found ourselves with an unexpectedly free morning. I had originally booked us an all-day trip from 8 am to 6:30 pm to visit Zaanse Schans and Giethoorn, a picturesque village that seemed quintessentially Dutch, with its boat-filled waterways and centuries-old thatched-roof houses. Unfortunately, the tour company cancelled on us late the previous evening due to an incoming snowstorm, and we were only able to rebook a half-day trip to Zaanse Schans. In the meantime, we needed to find a few activities to fill our time near-ish the area of town where we were now meeting our tour guide.

Hortus Botanicus

We heard about the Hortus Botanicus from our Festival of Lights tour guide, and it didn’t take much convincing for me to add this to the itinerary. The Hortus Botanicus is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, established in 1638 by the Amsterdam city council (the Oxford Botanic Garden is one of the few older ones; check out my last visit to it in 2017). Like many European botanic gardens, its collections were initially amassed through imperial pursuits—in this case, largely by the Dutch East India Company. Much of its initial collection served either a medicinal or commercial purpose.

The garden hosts several greenhouses. The first we visited was the butterfly greenhouse. Tropical butterflies fly freely here amongst coffee plants, cacao trees, tea, rice, pepper plants, and sugar cane.

The three-climate greenhouse was an impressive interconnected greenhouse system that showcased subtropical, desert, and tropical plants; each zone had its own temperature, humidity, and air circulation. There were walkways to view the zones from different perspectives—a rare experience to walk amongst the treetops—and it was one of the most breathtaking greenhouses I’ve ever seen.

The final greenhouse was the palm greenhouse. This impressive structure was designed in 1911 and holds an impressive array of palms, cycads, and container plants during the winter. The most famous plant here is a 350-year-old Encephalartos altensteinii, a South African cycad.

Before leaving, we stopped at the Hortus Café (housed in the beautiful 1875 Orangery building) for lunch. The vibes were immaculate (there’s a tree growing through the middle of the room!), and the food was surprisingly high quality and wonderfully fresh and hot after walking outside through the chilly (mostly dead) gardens.

Oude Kerk

Oude Kerk is Amsterdam’s oldest building, founded in around 1213. It is located in De Wallen, which is Amsterdam’s main red-light district, and this was the only time we ever ventured there. It was quite ironic to pass disturbingly mannequin-like women in brothel windows as we were headed to visit a church!

It was originally a Roman Catholic Church, eventually becoming Calvinist, but much of its Catholic art was destroyed during the 16th century’s Great Iconoclasm, when Catholic religious images were destroyed throughout Europe. The ceiling murals were spared, unreachable by the mobs, and it remains the largest medieval wooden vault in Europe. One of my favorite aspects of the church were the misericords, or the carved wooden imagery found by the seats (ft. a bat threatening a cat, a demented owl, and a man pooping a pile of coins).

Zaanse Schans

Finally, we made it to our day-trip out to Zaanse Schans, a popular tourist attraction a short half-hour drive outside Amsterdam. The neighborhood is composed of historic windmills and distinctive green wooden houses that were relocated from across the Netherlands to recreate an 18th/19th-century village and preserve Dutch history/heritage. We watched a demonstration on wooden clog-making, where we learned that the Dutch clog is the safety shoe of the Netherlands (and I had to convince Ryan that we didn’t have room to bring home a pair in our suitcase). We also went to a cheese-making demonstration at Henri Willig, where we learned about the cheese-making process. This was followed by one of the best parts of the trip: this immense cheese store with unlimited samples. We bought several cheeses for ourselves and as Christmas gifts, and we ended up loving them so much that we ordered more once those ran out.

De Kat was the most interesting windmill we toured—it is the only remaining working windmill in the world that makes paint. I’d never considered a windmill being used for a purpose other than electricity or flour-making, so I found this quite fascinating! The mill grinds materials like chalk to create paint pigments.

When we arrived back in Amsterdam, we grabbed dinner and took one last walk through the beautiful, Christmassy streets. We had an early start the next day as we headed to Belgium!

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Brussels Christmas Markets & a Christmas Concert at La Monnaie De Munt

A Half-Day in The Hague, Netherlands (Day Three): Mauritshuis & the Royal Christmas Fair

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:00:00 +0000

If you missed day two of our Christmas trip to the Netherlands & Belgium, go here.

On day three of our trip, we trekked to Amsterdam Centraal to catch an early train to The Hague, a city most famous for hosting the UN’s International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. The city’s name often graced manila envelopes when I worked a summer at an attorney’s office, but I’d not really considered going there until it came up on a list of the best Christmas markets in the Netherlands.

It was a cold day when we departed our train and arrived in what had to be the most gray, commercial, deserted city I’ve ever set eyes on. It was a little after 9 am, and our first goal was to get breakfast. We stopped at a cute looking coffee/breakfast spot where there were a handful of bleary-eyed patrons nursing coffees inside. When we tried ordering food, the server bluntly informed us that there was no hot food, and there wouldn’t be for another half an hour or an hour. I’ll remind you that it was freezing outside, and I was starving. We walked the empty streets until we found the haven of the Golden Arches and resorted to eating a hot breakfast at McDonald’s. I don’t know if people in The Hague don’t wake up until 10 am on Saturdays, or if we were just in a weird part of town, or what, but I still can’t make sense of a breakfast spot having no hot food that late in the morning or the streets being so deserted on a weekend.

Mauritshuis

Our first proper stop in The Hague was Mauritshuis, an art museum focused on Dutch painters. The museum itself is gorgeous, housed in a Dutch Classicist home built during the 1600s. The Mauritshuis was built for Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, governor of the colony of Dutch Brazil when it was controlled by the Dutch East India Company. The museum takes care to note that they previously focused on only art history and ignored Maurits’ engagement in transatlantic slavery (at least 24,000 enslaved Africans were transported to Brazil under his authority and he owned dozens of enslaved people). They are now making a conscious effort to shed light on this part of his biography.

The most famous piece in the museum is Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring. However, I found great enjoyment in all the little oddities to be found here, from hands-holding-candles sconces, to children shaking hands with cats in the backgrounds of paintings.

Peace Palace

After the museum, we headed through town on foot to find the Peace Palace, which houses the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague Academy of International Law, and the Peace Palace Library. Under normal circumstances, I would have done a better job planning this visit (don’t blame me—I’d just spent the past four months preparing for the most stressful exam of my life to qualify to continue through my PhD program!), but as it was, we could only go through the visitor’s center, which included a short (and rather boring) audio tour with some small exhibits (though it was free at least). They are not currently allowing any guided tours inside the palace.

Royal Christmas Fair

From there, our last stop in The Hague was the Royal Christmas Fair. This was a massive market in the middle of the city, with one central avenue lined with booths selling Christmassy goods and food. I can’t remember if it was here or another market in Amsterdam where we had some Pannenkoeken, but they were delicious.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Hortus Botanicus, Oude Kerk, & a Day-Trip to Zaanse Schans

Amsterdam, Netherlands (Day Two): Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, & the Anne Frank House (+ Our First Michelin-Starred Restaurant)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 12:00:00 +0000

If you missed my post about day one of our trip, go read about it here.

Rijksmuseum

Our first stop on day two, which was our museum-heavy day, was the Rijksmuseum. The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands and is dedicated to Dutch arts and history. It’s the largest art museum in the country, making it a must-visit if you’re coming to Amsterdam. Look out for work by the Dutch masters Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, and Rembrandt. I was also intrigued by one of the paintings I noticed in their collection, pictured below, which is the only known portrait of a Black man in early European painting.

We actually began our time in the Rijksmuseum by getting breakfast at the café inside. We split the larger breakfast option, of which the stand out parts were the egg en cocotte, which is where you slow-bake an egg in a water bath, and the perfectly tangy mandarin oranges. We then perused the museum for several hours. I made a resolution on this trip that I would stop taking pictures of the famous paintings in museums (because you can find these online and I never look back at them anyway), and instead, I would just take detail shots of things that interested me or I found funny. So enjoy the Rijksmuseum through the lens of begging dogs, dancing skeletons, and people who are weirded out by bread.

Van Gogh Museum

Our second museum stop of the day was the Van Gogh Museum. This was another must-see for us, as my all-time favorite artist is Van Gogh, and this museum houses some of his most famous works, including The Potato Eaters, Almond Blossom, The Bedroom, and several of his self portraits. These paintings were interspersed with biographical information about his life and artistic development, letters, and interpretations of his worldview. I was particularly intrigued by their reading of his fascination with peasants and fields as a result of their being “close to nature,” as the museum writes. “Their life was linked to the cycle of sowing and harvesting, of life and death.” This is actually somewhat related to the topic of my dissertation research!

I managed to stick with my resolution not to take an overabundance of photos here, so these are just ones of paintings with which I wasn’t previously familiar.

Anne Frank House

Our final museum of the day was the Anne Frank House, which is both a museum and an audio-guided tour of the Secret Annex, the top floors of Otto Frank’s business where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for over two years during WWII. The Secret Annex has been preserved as it was found by Otto, the only surviving member of the Frank family, when he returned from Auschwitz. While the annex was largely emptied of personal possessions, fragments remain: photographs pasted to the walls, a map of the Allied Forces’ progress towards occupied Amsterdam on a map, and, of course, Anne Frank’s diary. Accompanying the walk through the annex were recordings made from letters, Anne’s diary, and newspaper articles, tracking the historical context of this moment and bringing to life the daily routines of those who lived there as they unknowingly headed towards eventual discovery and death in Nazi concentration camps. Needless to say, this was an incredibly moving experience.

Note: there is no photography allowed in the Anne Frank House.

Dinner: Ciel Bleu

Since you only turn thirty once, and Ryan really loves food, I figured one of my best surprises of the trip would be to take him to a fancy restaurant. This is something we never do. I’m the type of person who likes a $2 cone of fries (as evinced by my meals once we got to Brussels) just as much as a sit-down three-course dinner, and I can never seem to justify spending so much money on such a fleeting experience. But this trip was about celebrating Ryan, so I booked us a table at Ciel Bleu, a two-Michelin-star restaurant at the top of Hotel Okura.

My biggest takeaway from the whole experience was just feeling profoundly uncomfortable. I did not belong in this place with my entirely thrifted outfit. They brought out a stool just to put my beat-up little travel-safe purse on, like some kind of purse-throne. They wouldn’t allow you to get up or sit down without helping with your chair, and by no means should you expect to walk to the restroom alone—you must be escorted. Every time we spilled crumbs on the table, they’d be there to clean them off. When Ryan rearranged his silverware, plate, and cup wrong, they made sure to put everything in its proper place while he was in the bathroom. From the moment we walked in, I felt like an impostor. The guy next to us was casually talking about buying a company and laying off all the lazy employees, for God’s sake.

The food itself was very good, but in a weird way. In an experience kind of way. Like we’d been transported into the Keanu Reeves dinner scene in Always Be My Maybe. Each course was themed around a spice from around the world. There was a weird cold salty gel salad thing at one point, but the rest was excellent, though that could be in part due to how hungry we were by the time each dish arrived—I learned it takes a long time (like 3-4 hours) to eat a meal at a restaurant like this.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: A Half-Day at The Hague

Travel With Me: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Day One)

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 12:31:00 +0000

For Ryan’s 30th birthday, I offered to plan a surprise trip for him. He had some general options to choose from (beach, hiking, city, cold/hot climate), but the rest would be revealed only when we were in the airport on our way there. As a huge Christmas fan, something that Ryan has always talked about has been going to the European Christmas markets, and since his birthday is mid-December, this felt like the perfect opportunity for this trip. He ended up blindly choosing from one of my Christmas market itineraries (among the choices he didn’t pick were Munich & Salzburg, Vienna & Budapest, Vienna & Prague, and Switzerland & Strasbourg). Right after passing my first qualifying exam for my PhD, we were off to experience the Christmas season in two new (to us) European destinations: Amsterdam and Brussels!

Accomodations/Transportation: Amsterdam

We stayed at the Apollofirst Boutique Hotel, which was in a quiet neighborhood a little outside the normal touristy areas of Amsterdam but about a five minute walk from a transit stop. The room was cozy and clean. The only complaint we had was that the breakfast was crazy pricey for a fairly standard European breakfast buffet, at something like €‎20 per person.

As for transportation, Amsterdam was very easy to navigate using their version of the metro system. Across from the central train station (where you arrive from the airport), there is a small building where you can buy a Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf (GVB) card. We bought a three-day pass for about €‎25 per person. You tap the pass when you enter and exit the tram—just make sure you enter and leave through the correct doors. We learned the hard way that some of the doors were one-way only.

First Stop: Kattenkabinet Museum

After a long overnight flight and jet lag, I didn’t want to overload our first day, so I chose a small and eclectic museum to dip our toes into the famous museum culture of the city. The Kattenkabinet was founded in honor of the owner’s cat, John Pierpont Morgan. Its special collection shows the role of the cat in art and in culture through the centuries, with everything from paintings to lithographs to photographs of famous writers and artists with their cats. Ryan is a real cat lover, so I knew we needed to give this quirky little museum a visit. They even had a resident cat that seemed to be guiding us from room to room through the exhibits.

Ice Village Christmas Market

For dinner, we stopped at our first Christmas market, which was the Ice Village in Museumplein. We sampled some cheesy potatoes (thank Ryan for the very flattering picture), accordion-style potatoes, and Ryan had mulled wine, or glühwein, as it’s known there. We also got some gorgeous prints (one for us and one as a gift) from Elles, a local Dutch artist; we both loved how detailed and bursting with color her work was (not to mention, the painstaking effort of creating these pieces on-site to capture a specific moment in time). Below is one of the prints we purchased!

Festival of Lights Canal Cruise

Our final stop was an evening canal cruise to see the Festival of Lights, which is an annual Christmas event where artists install huge art pieces along the canals. The cruise was a little over an hour in a heated boat, and our tour guide was very funny and knowledgeable. We learned a lot of Amsterdam history as we enjoyed homemade glühwein and took in the breathtaking views of the canals lit up at night.

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Museums, Museums, and More Museums (& Our First Michelin-Starred Restaurant)

Terceira, The Azores (Day Six): Ponta dos Biscoitos & Alto da Memória

Hannah Schultz — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 04:10:41 +0000

If you missed days four and five of our trip to the Azores, check that post out here.

On our final day in Terceira, we took a roadtrip to the northern part of the island to check out the natural lava rock pools of Biscoitos. This area of the island is famous for its wine, and the drive took us through lush green pastures and vineyards. The lava pools are along the coast and filled by the ocean but protected from the waves. They’ve built platforms where you can sunbathe (or eat yet another grocery store atum sandwich), and some of the pools have concrete steps or ramps built down into them. The shallower pools/the ones further away from the ocean tended to be warmer, and we enjoyed swimming with some interesting looking fish while being sheltered from the waves. I would recommend having some kind of swim shoes (my trusty Chacos did just fine), since lava rock is deceptively sharp.

After a day of swimming, sunbathing, and reading at Ponta dos Biscoitos, we headed back to Angra do Heroísmo for a pre-dinner walk around town. Our main objective was to climb Alto da Memória Hill, atop which sits an obelisk built in 1856 to pay homage to the visit of King D. Pedro IV to the island during the Portuguese Civil War. From the obelisk, you’re greeted with absolutely stunning views of the city and bay, and the walk up is through a lovely garden.

We originally wanted to hang out at the obelisk until sunset, but the weather turned as we arrived at the top of the hill. We ended up having to take shelter under a very serendipitously placed tree and wait out the worst of the rain and didn’t hang around for sunset, since the clouds would have blocked most of the views anyway. Regardless, it was still a great way to take in our last views of the city!

The next morning, we soaked in the last views of the bay from our hotel room’s balcony. Below is the only proof I have that I was reading for my PhD qualifying exam this whole trip (I swear, I really read three books while we were there!). We then headed to the airport to return to São Miguel, where our return flight to the US departed from.

Back in Ponta Delgada, we just walked around the city and perused some of the tourist shops we hadn’t cared to venture into before. We ate lunch at a cafe with outdoor seating by the main square, where we witnessed a woman complain loudly about every aspect of her meal (I think she thought everything with seasoning was spicy). We stayed the night at Casa das Palmeiras Charming House, another B&B that was more centrally located than our last one. It was a cute little spot, and the breakfast there was very fancily laid out in a dining room with tables assigned to your room number.

Earlier in the trip, we’d been burned by walking all over town trying to find a dinner spot, only to be repeatedly turned away, since we didn’t have reservations and they were booked up (I know, poor planning—but I was in the middle of reading 5 books per week for exam prep and Mary was preparing for a cross-country move). We’d had good luck just stopping at one of the restaurants along the alleys near the B&B (that’s how we found O Giro), so we decided to just do that again rather than wasting our time walking an hour around the city and getting hangry. Oh boy, did we regret this choice.

I’ve written down that the restaurant was called something like Restaurante Rodizio Grill - Novilho d’Ouro, but future Google searches yielded no results. The first red flag was that they were out of almost everything on the menu. But that was fine, we just pivoted and ordered some kind of standard white fish. We also ordered bread (and said it in Portuguese as well), but we never received the bread. Instead, when the waiter set our fish down, he exclaimed, “Bread!” I still don’t know what was going on there. But by far the strangest part about this whole experience was the “salad” bar, which you were instructed to access via a back room of the restaurant. There were what looked like church potluck tables filled with plates and slow-cookers of the most eclectic assortment of foods, from coleslaw to black-eyed peas to fried plantains. Every vegetable was soaked in vinegar. The fish was rubbery and overcooked. I will admit that the fried plantains weren’t bad, if you could keep the vinegar from contaminating them.

Suffice it to say, we were in desperate need of gelato to recuperate that dinner and our final evening in the Azores.

Thanks for reading about our travels in the Azores! If you’d like to check out details and itineraries for other trips I’ve taken, click here.

Terceira, The Azores (Days Four & Five): Sightseeing in Angra do Heroísmo, Lava Tubes, & Volcanic Hiking

Hannah Schultz — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 02:33:03 +0000

If you missed day three of our trip to the Azores, check it out here.

On day four, we caught a flight from Ponta Delgada over to another island, Terceira, or the lilac island. It’s one of the largest islands of the Azores, and it’s home to the oldest city of the archipelago, Angra do Heroísmo.

Accomodations/Transportation

For our accommodations, we stayed at the Barceló Angra Marina hotel in Angra do Heroísmo. The hotel is situated at the top of a very steep road and has limited parking in the lot attached to it. There is free parking along the hill leading towards the ocean/harbor, but sometimes it fills up and the grade of the hill made us wary of trying to parallel park in tight spots. The hotel itself was decent, though after our B&B on São Miguel, we realized it was severely lacking in charm. We made use of the pool the day we arrived, and we also ate at the hotel bar/restaurant, where I had a surprisingly really tasty chickpea burger. The hotel breakfast was a buffet with lots of choices, including some American and British breakfast options, and I ate far too many of the warm custard tarts.

For transportation, we again rented a car, since we’d be driving all over the island. This time, we went through Economy Rent-a-Car and had no issues with the rental experience itself; however, the car we got was a European make completely unlike anything we’d ever driven before, and it was very difficult to figure out some of the important features to make it drivable.

After relaxing in the pool, we walked down to the harbor to find dinner and ended up at a cute little cafe with outdoor seating called Cais de Angra. We had bruschetta that was loaded with garlic and cheese and for entrees, we both got tuna steak sandwiches with caramelized onions on ciabatta buns and sweet potato chips. Would recommend!

Day Five: Sightseeing in Angra do Heroísmo

Angra do Heroísmo was founded in 1478 and served as an important port-of-call during the maritime explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries, existing at the crossroads of significant trade routes. It is now considered a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the harbor used to serve as a major military and commercial port. Now, it is a visually stunning town that holds lots of charm. Some of the important sites include the Sé Catedral de Angra do Heroísmo, or Church of the Most Holy Saviour of the See, which was built from 1570-1618, and is the largest church in the Azores (pink church pictured below), and the Igreja Da Misericordia, or Church of Misericórdia (blue church pictured below), which was built in the 18th century on top of the site of the first hospital in the Azores, founded in 1492.

The morning of our first full day on Terceira, we walked through some of the streets and major sites just to get a feel for the city and a lay of the land. The colorful buildings, alleys strung with colorful banners and recycled art installations, and the gorgeous facades of some of these major sites immediately captured our hearts.

Mistérios NegroS Hiking Trail (3 miles)

This was the only real hike that I’d say we did in the Azores, and it was a good one! This is a 3 mile loop trail that takes you through some of the varied terrains of the island, including cow pastures on the valley floor, sparsely vegetated areas of heather and Japanese cedar, small lakes, forests of endemic trees pocketed by caves, and volcanic rock left behind by the 1761 eruption.

The trail is rated as difficult, but aside from the heat (as you can tell from our very red faces), I would say it’s more so moderate. It was muddy from rain at certain points, and the only actual challenging area was when you had to climb up the volcanic rock to emerge from the forest as you headed up towards Pico do Gaspar.

Algar do Carvão and Gruta do Natal

These lava tubes are located just down the road from each other and can be accessed with a €15 combo ticket. They have strange opening hours (they were open from 2-6 pm until the end of September), and they require you to wear closed toed shoes due to how slippery and sharp the volcanic rock is.

We started at Gruta do Natal, which is a cave 2,287 ft in length formed as a result of the lava fields in this area of the island. They have you don a hairnet and hardhat, then descend into the cave. It has quite high ceilings and a specific route to follow. Christmas mass is actually held in the cave, hence its name.

We then headed to Algar do Carvão. Our first sight here was a remarkably green volcanic chimney which ends almost 300 feet below in a freshwater lagoon. Due to the over 90% humidity all year round, the cave constantly drips water, making everything very slick. There are two “vaults,” one covered in silica stalactites and stalagmites and one marked by reddish ferric veins (or iron deposits).

For dinner that night, we returned to Angra do Heroísmo and opted for Tasca das Tias, one of the highly rated restaurants in the city. It had quite a wait, but we struck up a conversation with an older American couple (who definitely thought Mary and I were also a couple). The food here was so good. We ordered an appetizer of giant shrimp (which were a little difficult for me as the only-sometimes-fish-eater, because they still had their eyes and spindly long legs and antennae). For my entree, I had the rosemary tuna with sweet potatoes and a pepper and tomato slaw. We also splurged on a chocolate mousse dessert. No regrets!

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Ponta dos Biscoitos & Alto da Memória

São Miguel, The Azores (Day Three): Hot Springs Soaking in Furnas

Hannah Schultz — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 23:34:05 +0000

If you missed day two of our trip to the Azores, check it out here.

On day three, we took a roadtrip to Furnas, which is the thermal hotspot of the Azores. The town itself is nestled in a dormant volcanic crater that last erupted in 1630. The residual volcanic activity is still present in the form of steaming fumaroles, thermal pools, and natural mineral springs.

Terra Nostra Park

Our first stop was Terra Nostra Park, which is one of the largest and oldest botanical gardens in the Azores, featuring about 30 acres of lush grounds to explore. Its collection of over 600 varieties of camellias is one of the largest in Europe, and it also holds an Azorean Endemic and Native Flora Garden.

Furnas Valley was a popular destination by the end of the 18th century due to the use of mineral water in treating health problems. The first house on the Terra Nostra property was built around 1775 by Thomas Hickling, a wealthy merchant from Boston. In the 19th century, it was purchased by a viscountess and then inherited by her son, both of whom expanded and improved the house and gardens. Hickling is the one who built the thermal water pool, which is the central feature of the park. The water is between 95 and 104 degrees all year round and supplied by a thermal spring, though the water does get cooler the further away you are from the supply spouts.

The cost to enjoy both the gardens and the pool is €‎10, which is a bargain for all the time you could spend here. The only difficulty we had was finding parking, as you need to park on the street, and we weren’t sure what was public parking vs. private. There are changing rooms and outdoor showers a short walk down from the pool, and it’s important to know before you go that the iron in the water will stain your swimsuit. The recommendation is to wear black or something old that you don’t mind getting ruined.

Overall, I really enjoyed Terra Nostra. The pool was huge, and it never felt crowded. I really could have spent even longer than we did getting lost in the gardens, soaking in the pool, and people-watching.

Poças da Dona Beija

The other hot spring we visited was Poças da Dona Beija, which was a very different experience. This almost felt like the touristy/regimented experience of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. It costs €‎8 for an hour and a half of access to the facility, which they monitor fairly strictly by giving you different colored wristbands and coming around to dismiss your color once your time is up. It’s another €‎2 for a locker rental, which I would recommend, as there are lots of people coming and going and very little visibility for your belongings if you leave them near the entrances to the pools. We rented a locker, since we had backpacks full of our things, and we actually left our phones there (so the photo above is courtesy of Google). They also had private showers with doors and changing rooms.

There are six natural thermals pools in this facility, and each of them is at a different temperature, indicated by a sign outside the pool. Some pools were cooler than others, the coolest being 77 degrees and the hottest 102 degrees. The pools were all relatively small and shallow, so there were times when we couldn’t enter a pool because of how many people were already inside (which I imagine is why they are strict about the number of visitors at a time). The iron clay that can be found on the sides/bottom of these pools can be used as a skin/facial mask, though it didn’t give me a tan like I hoped it would. Poças da Dona Beija is actually open until 11 pm (late entry at 10), so if we’d been staying closer to Furnas, a night-soak would have been an unmissable experience!

Cozido das Furnas

Our final stop in Furnas was at Tony’s for dinner. There, Mary (the resident meat-eater) sampled the traditional dish of Furnas, Cozido das Furnas. This Portuguese stew is slow-cooked for 6 hours in outdoor fumaroles, so it’s literally cooked by the heat from the volcanic soil. The dish usually includes pork, beef, chicken, sausages, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and kale. Mary’s review of Tony’s rendition of this Furnas staple was mixed: the chicken was amazing, blood sausages were not her favorite, and the pork was dry. I had what turned out to be standard tourist fare—fried white fish and boiled potatoes—so nothing spectacular.

We headed back to Ponta Delgada fairly early to pack up and prepare for our flight the following day to our second island: Terceira!

Thanks for reading!

Up Next: Lava Tubes, Volcanic Hiking, and Sightseeing in Angra do Heroísmo