Will Write 4 Travel

Week in Review (June 10 to 16, 2013) + Revenge Wears Prada Book Signing

2013-06-17T08:35:00.000-04:00

It has been exhaustion central at the Stirling household. Traveling every weekend has taken a toll on me and Raisin Bread is not far behind as he is still in summer school. On Saturday, we spent the whole day in Pennsylvania on an antiquing mission. We also got to see both of his parents and my baby brother! It was quite a long and successful day. I'm serious when I say long. We woke up at 4:30

Toronto: The Food and The Parties

2013-06-13T08:59:00.000-04:00

During my stay in Toronto, I only had a few opportunities to try out the local eats. After our Toronto Photo Walk, Rebecca (big sister/Cruising Goddess) and I stopped for lunch at Mother's Dumplings to try their handmade dumplings. What else? The two of us shared orders of xiao long bao (pork dumplings), scallion pancakes and steamed shrimp dumplings. I thought the first two items were

Pre-TBEX - Toronto Photo Walk

2013-06-11T08:30:00.000-04:00

Prior to the start of the recent TBEX conference, I had the chance to go on what turned out to be a very strange Photo Walk of Toronto. I found it to be strange because the group was relatively large at about 25 participants, and the Photo Walk leader didn't tell us anything about what we were shooting. Even now, I have no idea what half of the sights we visited are called! The tour was also

Week in Review (June 3 to 9, 2013) + {Product Review} RunGuard Sensitive Anti-Chafe

2013-06-10T08:38:00.000-04:00

This weekend, Raisin Bread and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in Maine! We visited Acadia National Park and I definitely ate my fill of lobster! We did lots of hiking, ate a ton and spent some quality time together. The weather wasn't great, but we were still able to make the most of it. Expect to hear more about Maine later. For now, here is a sneak peek at the natural beauty of

The Biggest Loser RunWalk 10K/5K is Coming to Washington, DC

2013-06-06T08:18:00.000-04:00

Image Credit: Biggest Loser RunWalk In a little more than a month, The Biggest Loser RunWalk will be coming to the RFK Stadium Fair Grounds in our nation's capital! I'm uber excited to run in this inaugural event for a bunch of reasons. The biggest reason though is because I'm slightly addicted to watching The Biggest Loser. I find the show to be so inspirational. Watching the

Week in Review (May 27 to June 2, 2013)

2013-06-04T09:21:00.000-04:00

This Week in Review is coming to you one day late. I am writing to you from a Starbucks in Toronto. Will be heading to the airport shortly! It has been a successful and busy weekend and I am looking forward to being back home, especially because I get to see Raisin Bread! You'll be hearing more from me about my trip but for now, here is what the last week looked like. I ran my first ever

Got A Health Goal? Make it SMART!

2013-06-03T08:27:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may know that I am still in Toronto for TBEX 2013. While I'm away, I will be handing over Will Write 4 Travel to Michelle Pino for the day. Michelle is coming to us from the Skana Spa at Turning Stone Resort in upstate New York, and she will be sharing with us some tips and inspiration on how to make and achieve our fitness goals. Big

Cross-Country Drive: Great Smokey Mountains and To Our New Home

2013-05-30T08:46:00.000-04:00

Our last full road trip day was a long one! We were planning to have breakfast at the Loveless Cafe, but the wait was so long that I wound up ordering lunch. Starvation central. Of course, we had to also order a plate of their fluffy, buttery biscuits. I had their dark meat fried chicken with green beans and hashbrown casserole. Although the food was scrumptious, the wait brought the whole

How this Newbie is Gearing Up for TBEX 2013

2013-05-29T08:30:00.000-04:00

In just a few days, I will be traveling to Toronto to attend my first travel blogging conference and my second blogging conference. There are two main reasons why I am hoping to get more out of TBEX than I got out of BlogHer 2012. It's much smaller. TBEX recently surpassed 1,000 registrants, making it the largest TBEX in history. In contrast, BlogHer 2012 was the largest BlogHer ever

Cross-country Drive - Through the Deep South to Nashville

2013-05-28T10:22:00.000-04:00

After our day of fun in New Orleans, it was time to move on with another 500-plus mile drive for the day, with our destination being Nashville. With it being July 4th, we hoped to make it in time to see some fireworks and live music. First, we had to make it through Mississippi and Alabama. We didn't have any places for lunch picked out since we didn't know how far along we would be, so

Week in Review (May 20 to 26, 2013)

2013-05-27T11:13:00.000-04:00

Source "On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation! Long as the sun doth shine upon it Shall glow the goodly pine upon it, Long as the stars do gleam upon it Shall memory come to dream upon it." --- Thomas William

Business School Graduation!

2013-05-23T08:27:00.000-04:00

After three long years, I graduated from Business School this past weekend with my MBA. My whole family came into town to see me walk across that stage. Thank you so much, family, for taking the time out of your lives to celebrate with me! On Friday morning, we all met up for brunch at Ted's Bulletin in Eastern Market. I ordered a couple of side dishes because I wasn't very hungry. I had

Cross-Country Drive: Biking, Dining and Music in New Orleans, Louisiana

2013-05-22T08:38:00.000-04:00

What is there to say about New Orleans? It is one of my favorite cities in the world. The architecture, food and music somehow make me feel at home there even though I have only visited it twice. Our arrival to New Orleans coincided with the annual Essence Music Festival which takes places at the Superdome. What this meant for us was that everyone was at the Superdome during the day while other

Week in Review (May 13 to 19, 2013)

2013-05-20T10:30:00.000-04:00

Source I had an eventful week of graduation events and my family coming in to town to see me graduate. I managed to get quite a few workouts in. Having my DailyBurn membership definitely helped me fit them in this week. I also did a TON of walking on Friday and Saturday around DC to visit some sights. I'll be creating a post later this week about my graduation activities. Until then, here is

Cross-Country Drive - San Antonio to the Big Easy

2013-05-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

I am fast approaching my three year anniversary in the DC Metro area. It seems as good a time as any to look back on how I got here. Taking a cross-country road trip is something that I think everyone should do once in their life and if possible take a leisurely drive. My drive "across the country" wound up being neither across the country nor leisurely. The week before I was to leave the West

Week in Review (May 6 to 12, 2013)

2013-05-13T10:30:00.000-04:00

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably know that I have been taking advantage of my new found freedom from academic life. On Wednesday after work, I headed to the headquarters of LivingSocial to make a terrarium. They are super easy to make and sound easy to care for, but I'm really bad at keeping plants alive. They are also so pretty to look at so I am hoping mine stays around

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Art Deco South Beach

2013-05-07T11:00:00.000-04:00

The next morning marked the final day of our road trip. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The weather was gorgeous and the music was already pumping at some of the neighboring hotels. It was spring break after all. Once we were done with breakfast, we had to check out of our room and store our luggage. Then we took a long walk to the Art Deco Welcome Center on Ocean Drive. I love

Week in Review (April 29 to May 5, 2013)

2013-05-06T11:00:00.000-04:00

Done with business school after 33 long months!! Now, I can get my life back. I can't tell you how good it feels to not have schoolwork. My left foot has been feeling strange since the middle of last week and I was afraid that I had aggravated it more by running and doing that difficult yoga class over the weekend. I had an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday, so I decided to hold off on

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Welcome to Miami

2013-05-02T10:50:00.000-04:00

After our night in Homestead, we made our way to Miami proper, the final stop in our travels around Florida and coincidentally the same place we started. Our first destination was Little Havana's La Camaronera Seafood Joint and Fish Market for lunch. I was starving because our hotel apparently starts clearing the breakfast area 15 minutes before breakfast ends. No fair. I ordered fried fish roe

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Winter Homes and Alligators

2013-04-30T11:00:00.000-04:00

After our amazing manatee snorkel trip, we drove south. We planned to end our day at a hotel in Naples. On the way, we decided to make a stop at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers. We arrived with just enough time to see the property, but unfortunately, were not able to spend much time in the museum. Thomas Edison purchased this winter retreat in the late 1890s and his friend,

Week in Review (April 22 to 28, 2013)

2013-04-29T10:55:00.000-04:00

I'm entering my last week of business school and I can't wait to be done! What will I do now that I will "only" be working? I was able to do a couple of things to relax last week. On Monday, I took advantage of SpaWeek and got a massage and foot scrub. The week also wound up having a few firsts for me. On Wednesday, I saw an acupuncturist for the first time and it was an interesting experience.

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Manatees

2013-04-23T08:30:00.000-04:00

Who knew that one of the best experiences of my life would take place during our impromptu trip to Florida? Our morning called for a pre-dawn wake up that included packing up our belongings and driving an hour and a half to the city of Crystal River for a 6:15 am snorkeling trip with the most amazing and beloved creatures this side of Giant Pandas. Yes, folks, we swam with manatees! I am

Week in Review (April 15-21, 2013)

2013-04-22T08:30:00.000-04:00

What a long, crazy week this has been. At this point, anything that I would like to say has already been said. So I'll just say my thoughts are with the people of Boston, West, TX and Sichuan province. I'm at the tail end of my MBA program and I have had a hard time being motivated to run or do schoolwork. I've pretty much felt like this the whole week: Source Monday: rest Tuesday: 2.46

{Product Review} CORE Foods Defender Meals

2013-04-18T08:30:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I received a box with word "PERISHABLE" printed on it in huge letters. Well, then. What was inside? CORE Foods' line of three Defender meals. I don't know about you, but when I see a food item, wrapped in packaging like this, I typically don't immediately think "perishable." So I was surprised to find that these bars are actually fresh and, because of that, only last up to

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Art Interlude

2013-04-17T10:00:00.000-04:00

Our second full day called for rain, which made it perfect for seeing some art. After breakfast at the hotel, we drove to St Petersburg to visit the Chihuly Collection. A number of years ago, we saw Chihuly's exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Seeing his work in a museum space was incredibly different from seeing the pieces mixed in with plant life. I found this experience