NEW YORK: A Morning in Central Park

On our final morning of vacation in New York, we decided to explore Central Park. Located in the heart of Manhattan, Central Park is an amazing piece of planning and beauty. Established in 1857 and  at almost 800 acres of land, it takes up a lot of the cities real estate space and separates the cities upper east side and upper west side basically in half. It is also one of the most filmed and visited sites in the world.

Luckily for us we got to visit at the peak of the Autumn season to see all the colors of the fall. This is like no other park in the world. Besides the beautiful scenery and people watching, there are 29 amazing sculptures/statues in the park including many historic figures. There is also Belvedere Castle and "the mall" which is a walkway seen in various movies throughout the years. You can literally spend all day exploring this park, and still find new things. 

Early morning was a great time to visit. While the park was still busy, it was easier to capture photos with less crowds.

While Central Park is gorgeous year round, we heavily recommend seeing it in the fall.

33 MORE DAYS TILL WE VISIT ICELAND!
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NEW YORK: Our Tour of New York City

With approximately 48 hours to spend in New York City,  we set out to see as much as possible in what time we had. Although we had both been to the city before, we had never gone together. We set out to find some good food & coffee, and visit all of the tourist-y destinations within walking distance of our hotel. 

After dropping off our rental car and traversing in an Uber into Manhattan, (a great means of travel - sign up here for $20 off your first ride!) we dropped our bags off at our cute little hotel and were on our way to being tourists in one of the biggest cities in the world. We stayed at The Pod - a cute, compact, accommodation within about a mile from Central Park. The room was the tiniest hotel room we had ever shared, but we spent majority of our time walking the city. The location of the hotel allowed us to save money on transportation, as most destinations within Midtown were within walking distance. Make sure to do your research when booking a hotel in a major city: it is sometimes worth it to spend a little extra money and have easier access to the places you plan to  visit during your trip. 

Museum of Modern Art
As we are both artists, we decided our first stop was going to be the Museum of Modern Art (the MOMA). Choosing between the MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) was difficult. In the end, we chose the MOMA because of its wider array of artists that are a little more current. We recommend going early to avoid the crowds - though the museum was still pretty busy despite our early arrival.
Make sure to book tickets in advance because this place is one of the most visited sites in NYC. We came during the week so it was busy but not too bad. Getting through the crowds to view some of the more popular paintings (such as DaVinci's Starry Night) was a little bit of a pain but worth it.

Last Rites Gallery
Continuing with the art theme, we made our way to Last Rites Gallery. Last Rites Gallery is free to enter, and hosts a rotating exhibition of contemporary surrealism and dark art. This is an absolute must-see for anyone that enjoys tattoo art and culture. For us, it was incredible to see the work of these artists (which we follow on instagram) in person. You can see some of the art we saw here.

St. Patricks Cathedral
One of the most recognizable landmarks in the city, St. Patricks was built in 1879 and is a beautiful piece of Neo-Gothic architecture. Try to arrive early to beat the crowds. When it comes to photos, I find that aiming your camera upwards can provide plenty of great photos of the architecture minus the people. Shoot in manual without flash, and have patience to get the shot right.  

30 Rock & Rockefeller Center
Home of NBC, this massive building and surrounding area are full of tourists taking pictures and ice skating (in season). It's worth a stop to pay tribute to pop culture, but otherwise this isn't a place we would ordinarily seek out.

Times Square

Probably Manhattan's most famous area, Times Square is located at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. While we don't really like to shop on our travels, we had to stop by this epicenter of consumerism for the sake of checking it off our tourist list.

On our final day in NYC, we spent our morning in Central Park, which you will be able to read about soon. 

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OREGON: The Search for the Wizard's Hat

I'm sure you've all probably seen photos of this iconic rock structure - the wizards hat. Being as I'd seen it all over Flickr, I figured it was a pretty popular spot for photographers in Oregon. On the contrary, we discovered that no one we met had any idea what we were talking about. This strange rock ended up bringing us on quite an adventure.

(source)

With a little research, we discovered that the Wizard's Hat was located on the shore of Bandon, Oregon. With the help of photography communities on Flickr, we were able to find exact coordinates which we plugged into our Google Maps. While the coordinates gave us an idea of where to find the Hat, it did not at all help us find somewhere to park. After a little driving, we were able to find a location a little further down the beach that had parking available.

Upon pulling up to the beach, we looked along the shore but didn't really spot it. We asked the other beach-goers, and no one seemed to know what we were talking about. Apparently it's not as iconic as the internet would make it seem.

We wandered down the beach until we finally found it, among several larger formations.

And so of course, we promptly got to posing in ridiculous poses along side it to celebrate.

The sky was overcast that day, and so the lighting wasn't ideal for the dramatic photographs we had seen throughout the internet. Regardless, we decided to continue exploring the beach and see what else we could find.

We were exploring between a few rock formations, when suddenly the tide started to come in. One moment I was walking along a sandy beach, and the next I found myself waist-deep in the ocean. Josh, upon the wave hitting his ankles, promptly scurried up the nearest rock to safety. Holding my camera over my head, I tried to climb up and dropped my cell phone into the wave in the process. With a little searching (read: splashing around in the water in a blind panic), I was able to find my phone and get out of the water to safety, soaked from the belly down, with my boots full of fresh Pacific Ocean water. We decided to call it a day for coastal wandering.

Lessons learned:
1. The ocean is not to be trusted
2. Samsung Galaxy phones are surprisingly durable
3. Waterproof boots are only waterproof to a certain depth

At the moment, this was terrifying. We had never seen a sneaker wave, and there was no warning. We promptly learned to be more careful while exploring the Pacific Beaches. In the end, the phone recovered, no one was hurt, and it makes a pretty funny memory.

What are some of your funniest travel memories?

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NEWS: Let's Get Social

Social media is a huge part of our culture, so we've decided to finally embrace it with our blog. While we don't want to take over every aspect of social media, the following are some great places where you can reach us or see more of our work. If you're interested in following our work, we thank you! Please comment so we can say hello :)

NEW YORK: Long Island

After spending a few days in the Hudson Valley and Catskills of upstate New York we decided to spend the next day traveling through Josh's birthland of Long Island. Our first stop was to his hometown of Bellmore which is located on the South Shore of Long Island near Jones Beach. We stopped at a local park for a break from driving, and had lunch at Piccolo Restaurante with a few traditional slices of pizza (honestly, they were nothing special). If you're wondering, our favorite pizza for the trip was eaten in the city - we will be talking about that in upcoming posts.

After Bellmore, we made our way East towards the Hamptons and Montauk Point Lighthouse, which is at the Eastern most point of the island. The overall trip distance throughout Long Island was about 3 hours, so we spent a decent part of our day just driving. Montauk Point Lighthouse is the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the USA, dating back to 1797 and is located in Montauk State Park.

The park also contains Camp Hero State Park. Camp Hero was used by the US Army in 1942 as a coastal defense station. This site is rife with conspiracy theories, but we didn't see anything out of the ordinary throughout our hike - just some deer.

Overall, Long Island was a fun stop, but we wish we had more time there to really explore. If you've been to Long Island - what are some of your favorite spots?

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BUCKETLIST: Top 10 National Parks in the US

We have a goal in mind: visit all of the US National Parks! We have seen a few, but this list includes some of our ideal destinations. As much as we love exploring cities, we like to balance our trips with a lot of hiking away from crowds. The National Park Service protects some of our planet's most unique ecosystems. It's important to visit these places with respect to what they stand for while also enjoying the scenery.