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  • Fall Road Trip Packing List: What To Actually Bring

    Fall road trips are my favorite kind of road trip, and I say that as someone who lives in a truck-and-trailer combo 365 days a year. The light is better, the crowds thin out by mid-week, the dogs stop ...

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    Fall Road Trip Packing List: What To Actually Bring
  • The Ultimate Dog Hiking Gear List For National Parks

    If you're anything like me, your dog is your favorite hiking partner, and honestly? They're probably better at it than you are. Loki, Freya, and Caly have logged thousands of trail miles with us ...

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    The Ultimate Dog Hiking Gear List For National Parks
  • The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip: A Six-State Foliage Loop (2026)

    I lived in New England for 7 years, which means I experienced 7 autumns. Seven rounds of watching the whole region turn absolutely feral with color for about three weeks and then go quiet for the ...

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    The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip: A Six-State Foliage Loop (2026)
  • The Girls Trip Guide to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park

    An honest, all-seasons guide from someone who lived there for six months I need to set expectations right up front, because I'd rather you hear this from me than find out at 9:30 on a Saturday ...

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    The Girls Trip Guide to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park

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August 10, 2021

One Day In Sleepy Hollow, New York

Planning a Sleepy Hollow day trip? This 2026 guide covers the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, Irving’s Legend, the Headless Horseman bridge, dog-friendly options, and how to get there from NYC without a car, plus what’s new and what’s closed this season.

July 29, 2021

12 Fun Things To Do In Cape Breton Highlands

If you’ve never heard of Cape Breton Highlands National Park, let me ask you, do you like gorgeous ocean views, spotting moose, and amazing sunrises and sunsets? Well, if you do then you need to add Cape Breton Highlands National Park to your list…

July 27, 2021

11 Must See Waterfalls In The Smokies

Looking for a waterfall hike in the Smokies? Check out these 11 Must See Waterfalls In Great Smoky Mountains…

July 22, 2021

How To Spend 3 Days In Asheville, North Carolina

This weird and charming city has tons of accolades including landing on “The South’s Prettiest Cities” list and “The South’s Best Food Cities” list, respectively. After visiting Asheville it’s easy to see why everyone raves about it. Not only is it a city filled with food and art, but it’s incredibly dog friendly too (bestill my heart)…

July 20, 2021

Cades Cove: The Ultimate Guide to the Smokies’ Most Popular Valley

14 Fun Thing To Do In Cades Cove! Including to where to stay, where to eat, and what to do on your visit to Cades Cove…

July 15, 2021

16 Tips For Traveling With Dogs

Traveling with your dog(s) can be a great experience (for both of you) with just a little extra planning. If you know me, then you know that I take my Huskies, Loki & Freya with me all the time. I started training both of them early to be ok with travel and to be adaptable to changing environments, and I’m glad I did…

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Hi! I'm Vanessa, a 30 something, sunset chasing traveler. I'm here to inspire you to travel wherever, whenever, and with whoever you can. My Huskies, Loki and Freya are usually along for the ride. I have a soul that likes to wander, a desire to experience the unknown, and a curiousity to discover things off the beaten path. I hope you'll stick around for awhile!

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Let's be friends! I know e-mails can suck but mine won't and I promise cute pup photos too!

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Recent Posts

  • Fall Road Trip Packing List: What To Actually Bring
  • The Ultimate Dog Hiking Gear List For National Parks
  • The Ultimate New England Fall Road Trip: A Six-State Foliage Loop (2026)
  • The Girls Trip Guide to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park
  • Acadia National Park October Guide: Fall Colors, Weather & What to Pack

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13 Fun Things To Do In Livingston​, Montana

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If you were a 90s kid who watched Hocus Pocus appr If you were a 90s kid who watched Hocus Pocus approximately 847 times (like Me), this one’s for you. 😂🧙‍♀️

Because apparently I’m old enough to plan my Halloween around the filming locations of a movie I watched on VHS.

You can actually visit a bunch of the locations without spending your entire day in the car.

🛑🚫 A VERY Important PSA: Max & Dani’s House is someones actual home. Please don’t walk onto their property. Don’t go on the porch, don’t knock on the door. Be respectful.🚫🛑

It’s all in my Salem in October Cheat Sheet ($)

Comment SPELL and I’ll send you a direct link as soon as IG stops banning me!! But it’s at the link in bio and stories in the meantime 🧙‍♀️
🍁🍂 October in Acadia is the kind of pretty that ma 🍁🍂 October in Acadia is the kind of pretty that makes you pull over every five minutes.

It’s also the kind of busy that can have you questioning every life choice you made that led you to Park Loop Road at 11 a.m. 😂

I stayed on Mount Desert Island for 6 months, and October taught me one thing: timing matters.

Go midweek if you can. Start early. Have a backup plan for parking. Know when the shuttle stops running. Don’t assume peak foliage will show up on the same date every year. And maybe don’t try to cram 14 things into one day just because they all looked good on Instagram.

The payoff? Golden leaves, pink granite, cool ocean air, and those ridiculous Acadia views that make all the logistical nonsense worth it. 🍂

I put everything I wish I knew before visiting Acadia in Octobe, including foliage timing, crowds, Cadillac reservations, parking, what’s actually open, and how I’d plan the trip now into my Acadia in October guide.

🍁🍂 Save this for your Maine trip, then go read the full guide ($) before you start planning 🍂🍁 

Comment Fall and I’ll send you a direct link when Instagram decides to let me send links again (ASAP, hopefully 🤞)

Would you brave peak foliage crowds for this view, or give me a quieter week?
I didn’t expect much from the Upper Peninsula. The I didn’t expect much from the Upper Peninsula. Then I spent a day in a fairytale forest chasing waterfalls.

Sable Falls: 168 stairs to Lake Superior.
Miners Falls: an easy mile through the northwoods to a 40-foot drop.
Tahquamenon: 200 feet wide, root-beer brown

And then a ranger told me about Laughing Whitefish Falls on the way to dinner. It wasn’t even on my lis5, and somehow became my favorite waterfall in Michigan.

Fall is the best time to do this. Nobody tells you that about the UP either!

Save this for next October or this one if you’re already planning! The full waterfall day, with trail lengths, passes, and dog rules is on the blog.
10+ years ago, I started saving pictures of camper 10+ years ago, I started saving pictures of camper vans. Today, I bought one. 😂

Meet the newest member of our already questionable travel plan: a Ram ProMaster 2500, high roof, completely empty.

No bed. No kitchen. No cabinets.

So naturally, we’re going to build it ourselves, and document the good ideas, bad ideas, and decisions we’ll absolutely regret.

3 years of full-time RV life taught us something: the places we love most are usually the places Betty can’t go.

National Forest campgrounds. State parks. Tiny NPS loops. Forest roads that look at a 40-foot travel trailer and say, “absolutely not.”

Betty stays home.
The van gets the weekends. 
Loki is a huge fan! 😂

Two humans. Three dogs. One 40-foot RV. One completely empty van. 

Because apparently one home on wheels wasn’t enough. 

She doesn’t have a name yet.

So…what should we call her? 👀
I lived less than an hour from Salem for 7 years, I lived less than an hour from Salem for 7 years, and every October I watched the same thing: people driving downtown, circling for parking, and spending the day in the Witch Museum line.

A million visitors. One town of 45,000. Halloween on a Saturday and the 400th anniversary this year. It’s going to be a lot.

So I wrote the version I’d hand a friend or tell them over coffee, because that’s what I do here ☕️ 

Two different guides, actually. 

🎃👻 The Salem in October Cheat Sheet is 6 pages you keep on your phone: the train, the ticket release times, the Halloween-night rules, one perfect weekday hour by hour, and the real Hocus Pocus addresses. 

🍁🎃 The Ultimate Salem Guide is the whole thing the shops, the food and cider, the dog version, where to actually sleep, the 1692 history, and the other eleven months.

Comment Witch and I’ll send you links to the Cheat Sheet ($), Ultimate Guide ($), and 10 of my free blog posts about visiting Salem in October! 🎃🍁
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