The time has finally come to catch up on my black hole of content from August of 2016 to April of 2017! I can’t wait to turn my detailed notes and journals into blog posts from Canada, the United Kingdom, Hawaii, Thailand and Bali! But first, my final stop in the continental US, Martha’s Vineyard. My…

What says Independence Day more than sand in your toes, cold drinks in the cooler and burgers on the grill? For the Allen-Baackes family, not much. Yet last summer, I broke with my usual tradition of spending July 4th with my family on the beach in Martha’s Vineyard to go camping in the woods of Upstate…

One of my favorite things about being the in the US for the summer is getting to try out crazy fitness trends. Aqua cycling in a pool? I’m in! Zumba with drumsticks? Sign me up. Hot yoga to hip hop? Literally obsessed (All three of those are real classes in my regular rotation when I can…

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from my reader surveys over the years, it’s that you guys really don’t love my Martha’s Vineyard posts. I admit there are an abundance of them — after all, my mom live there part-time and I visit every year (though, in a move that makes me cringe, my summer…

Martha’s Vineyard… on a budget? I admit, it doesn’t sound right. Like Thailand and good bread and cheese, or Brazil and being on time, or England and a reliably sunny weather forecast, it just doesn’t feel like a feasible travel combination. But lean in, because I’m about to spill what feels like a major secret. The…

We’ve partied in Miami, adventured all over Bonaire, and chilled out in Aruba — our blogging trio gets together whenever we can. But Kristin, Angie and I don’t get to see each other nearly as much as we’d like to, which would ideally be like, oh I don’t know, every day or so. (Which luckily is…