B obby and I made the most of our time traveling from Miami to Vermont this year. I love road trips with him at the helm – Bobby can drive for hours and hours without thinking twice about it and I’m an excellent meistro of podcasts (if I do say so myself). Sometimes I read aloud (for this trip, we were reading A Year of Living Prayerfully: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life. I’d highly recommend it.) Sometimes I take selfies with Graham.

In short, the three of us make a good team.

Let’s begin at the beginning, though. The day before we pulled out of Miami, I pulled an all-nighter to get our apartment ready for our early morning walk-through and Bobby slept for a few hours to rest up for the drive. The important thing is that WE DID IT. We survived yet another move-out process and have lived to tell the tale. Here is us with a spotless apartment:

After a successful walk-through with our landlord, we hopped in the Prius – which had been expertly packed by Bobby (high five, husband of mine!). I’m telling you, not an inch of space was wasted. I always start hyperventilating when I look at the piles of things we need to transport, but Bobby always manages to remain calm. He’s a magic man when it comes to packing a car. There were a couple times when he was like, “Wow. I never knew how much space crafting supplies could take up…” Still, he dutifully slid them all in and never ONCE questioned whether I really, honestly needed all of those supplies even when he saw that they took up half the car. It goes without saying that he’s my hero.

We took one day to get up to Charleston, where we happily stayed for a mini-vacation. It is easily one of our favorite cities and deserves an entire post dedicated solely to its charm…so I’ll share more later, but here is one quick photo of a morning walk we got to take with Graham. I swoon over EVERY SINGLE STREET in downtown Charleston (particularly when there is such a handsome man and a cute dog strolling down them).

After Charleston, we visited Bobby’s parents in North Carolina for several days. Graham loved seeing his Grahamparents and not being smooshed next to practically every possession that we own.

We had drinks at the golf club…

Finished the last season of House of Cards and rested…

Drank SO MUCH juice straight from the Vitamix…

Saw dear friends from New Orleans who now live in Greenville and remembered just how life-giving it is to hang out with people you sync with (hi Travis and Anna!)…

Please note the guy who photo bombed that picture. Ha!

We had a beach day in Wilmington where we put our toes in the sand, flew a kite, and advertised my blog in the sand (marketing opportunities are everywhere)…

Saying goodbye to Rob and Gini is never easy, but eventually we had to continue onwards. I’m continually reminded of my need for a selfie-stick in moments like this:

Then we proceeded up to Philly where we snuck in a few precious hours with my friend Liz.

Liz obviously knows me well because she asked if I wanted to walk to the flagship store for Anthropologie. Would I?!?!? A thousand times, yes. It did not disappoint. You must go if you’re ever in Philly! Four stories of inspiration in a gorgeous, historic building.

We made the final push up north, stopping in NYC and paying millions of dollars in tolls – but it was all worth it to stay with my brother and sister. Leah fed us homemade Thai curry upon our arrival along with mini-banana cream pies for dessert. Epic.

Stephen attempted to make friends with Graham by feeding him treats, avoiding eye contact, making himself small, and generally trying to help Graham get past his intimidating facial hair.

Leah took us to a Brooklyn park where we saw the NYC Dog Whisperer.

And I practiced my creeper skills while snagging a picture of this adorable girl playing with a dog – that was not hers, might I add. This was the first time they had met. HOW PRECIOUS IS THIS?!?

After our short stop in New York, we finally made it up to Vermont. The SKIES! The QUIET! The move-in process that consisted of driving our car onto the front lawn of our house instead of scheduling a move-in time with the condo association and taking multiple rides up 24 stories in an elevator! (Miami, I love you, but your move-in/move-out process was less than stellar.)

Pretty sure that Henry David Thoreau was talking about road trips when he penned this quote..

Grateful for safe roads to travel on, endless places to see, good people in so many locations, and the chance to experience another Northeast summer and fall. Stardust and rainbows, indeed.