Hamilton Perkins Collection || Duffle Bag Review
As you all have seen, I've been traveling quite a bit for the month of June. Before taking off, I was approached by Hamilton Perkins to try out their duffle bag.
As you all have seen, I've been traveling quite a bit for the month of June. Before taking off, I was approached by Hamilton Perkins to try out their duffle bag.
I was interested to try out the bag for a few reasons: 1) I'm always interested in sustainable products, Hamilton Perkins' duffle is made out of recycled materials (plastic bottles and billboards). 2) They're a black owned business based in my family's home state of Virginia!
I received the bag in the mail the day before taking off for Miami, check out the video below to see my complete review of the bag along with a discount code if you're interested in purchasing ;)
Also, because I'm extra I did a little impromptu photoshoot with the bag...
Let me know what you think!
06.19.2017 || We Took The Stairs
While visiting the Wolfsonian-FIU in South Beach Miami, Florida. We took the stairs to get to each of their 3 current exhibits.
While visiting the Wolfsonian-FIU in South Beach Miami, Florida. We took the stairs to get to each of their 3 current exhibits. My husband is afraid of heights so I wanted to take a photo to try and capture how that feels when looking down -- continuous, and cold.
06.16.2017 - Purple Square
The goal for this photo was to try and get the window of the lifeguard tower directly in the center of the frame. Ideally, if I had an absurd amount of height (and time) I would also try to raise the camera high enough so the horizon line went directly through the center as well.
Weekend Getaway || McKinney Falls State Park
If you’re a novice camper like myself, I think McKinney is a great first step, it’s close proximity to Austin and available amenities make it a great location. Check out the video to see our full experience.
I’m going to be honest, I never quite understood the allure of camping. Being only one generation removed from poverty and very much aware of my middle-class upbringing when visiting extended family, when I discussed camping among friends (usually of the beige variety) I would respond with a simple “For why?”
To me, camping was synonymous with “let’s go pretend to be broke for a while”. Having experienced hot humid summers with no AC in Virginia, sleeping in your underwear with no sheets and every window open. Having also experienced washing and maintaining clothes with nothing but a barrel of water and soap. Having grandparents that still see children as “free labor” and spending summers waking up before the sun rises to help maintain their small home, including but not limited to cutting grass, tending/harvesting/prepping vegetables in their garden for that evening’s meal, helping with wood work, and whatever else.
Again I would ask, "for why?"
I love hiking, I love nature trails. I love going out and categorizing plants by their latin names (seriously, I took a biology botany class in college that literally consisted of going to different parks and memorizing the latin names of native Texas plants — I aced that ho). I also love my iComfort mattress and air conditioning. I love coming inside after a long day in the sun and cooking in the comfort of my home. I’m grateful for the privileges I have.
Slowly but surely, Mr. Hallease has consistently pushed camping into our mix of travel activities.
It has been met with resistance, but because I love him...I have conceded.
Our good friends in Austin invited us to McKinney Falls for the weekend. I have frequented this state park many times (again, botany class in college and like I said, I love a good walk amongst the trees as much as the next person). When they initially invited us I was actually excited, because of the recent rain I knew the Falls would be beautiful right now.
We packed up my 15-year-old CRV and headed out to the park. What’s really awesome about McKinney is its relatively close proximity to Austin proper, so if you realize that camping isn’t your thing a quick 15-minute drive will bring you to Downtown Austin.
As part of your camp site rental McKinney offers well maintained bathrooms with showers, firewood for purchase, water access, and waste dumping for RVs as well. They have 81 camp sites available for rent, but plan your trip a month or two in advance, the busy season is from March through November. I recommend coming in the fall, that’s hopefully when we’ve had enough rain and the falls are actually…falls. Also native Texas plants tend to be prettier during that time of year, more things are berrying and blooming.
If you’re not into having only a thinly veiled sheet protecting you at night from the outside but still want to experience nature, they also offer cabins for rent now too!
Each campsite comes with a fire pit/grill and a wood bench sitting on concrete. They also offer square patches for you to pitch your tents. It’s noted that they prefer tents to be pitched on the designated patches.
We arrived Friday night and pitched our tent. Mr. Hallease had purchased it from Academy a few months back, and for $50 it’s a good investment. More than enough room for the two of us, our bags and any other items we may want to keep inside the tent with us. (Remember, you’re in the woods — Texas woods at that. Raccoons are a serious thing here. Lock up your food or they WILL find it.)
It was already agreed that we were in charge of breakfast the following morning. Mr. Hallease is gluten-free so before we left we stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up some ingredients. He’d been craving pancakes for a while so we decided to try their gluten-free pancake mix. We also bought 2 dozen eggs for scrambling and breakfast sausage patties.
As far as gluten-free mixes go, Trader Joe’s is a stronger contender. My only problem with the batter (as with many GF batters) is the thickness. It doesn’t spread like traditional pancake batters so the pancakes came out more like true pan-fried cakes. Very dense.
After cooking the sausage we drained some of the fat and used that as a base for the eggs. Being that Mr. Hallease is of the latino variety we’ve always invested heavy in cast iron, we have a 10in cast iron pan and a comal. Within our first year or two of marriage he insisted that we have a comal for tortillas etc and seriously that was the best investment. I use the comal at least once a week to quickly reheat leftovers, toast bread, quickly blacken a jalapeño. It’s a staple. Plus it makes a great pancake cooker, don’t waste money on a grittle.
Breakfast was a success!
After eating we hiked to the lower and upper falls. McKinney offers quite a few different hiking trails most around 2 or so miles long. Depending on where your camp site is in relation to your desired trail I recommend driving to it. Especially because it can get confusing where the trails begin and end. Also, McKinney is really good about having ample parking spots at each of the different entrances to the trails.
We hiked for about 2 1/2 hours across a few different trails so I’m guessing we did 3 - 4 miles. We got back to the campsite and relaxed for a few hours while Diego, who was in charge of dinner started grilling.
Unfortunately, it is the rain season here in Texas right now and because of McKinney’s location it’s prone to flooding. If you’re local to Austin for the past few years then you’re very much aware of Onion Creek, which floods — yearly.
Onion Creek feeds through McKinney, as we were wrapping up eating the deluge began. At first we thought it would be a quick pass through and hunkered down, but we soon realized that even if it passed we’d still have to deal with the flood water that was quickly beginning to rise.
We had to cut the trip short. Mother nature proved the victor and I ain’t even mad about. As a Texan I will never complain about rain. (Also, low-key I love the rain.)
If you’re a novice camper like myself, I think McKinney is a great first step, it’s close proximity to Austin and available amenities make it a great location. Check out the video to see our full experience.
Weekend Getaway || South Padre, Texas
Because our trip was so short, we kept things pretty simple. We spent most of our time on the beach boogie boarding and relaxing. While there we did attempt to fish on their main pier back in Port Isabella (the last city before you cross the bridge into Padre), but alas we came home empty handed (although I do count the Pokemon I caught as a solid win).
Beach. Relaxation.
The sound of waves as I laid out on the sand, moving only to cool off in the salt of the ocean. This was my first experience in South Padre and frankly, I'm upset it took me this long to make it down. As a Texan by birth -- it's unacceptable. Truth be told, I had very low expectations for South Padre. I had been warned many times about the gulf being...well...a not so great beach (and that's putting it mildly).
However, Padre was a pleasant surprise. It reminded me a lot of an American Cancun. A lot of people walking around soaking up the sun. A lot of seafood, and of course a lot of Spanish. Mr. Hallease and I took the trip with my in-laws. When Mr. Hallease was a boy they used to make the trip down to South Padre often during the summer from Laredo, Texas his hometown.
From San Antonio, the drive is about 4 hours -- which to me, is just on the cusp of being too long of a drive for a weekend getaway. Still, definitely worth it.
My advice is to definitely AirBnB it up if you can. This was Mr. Hallease's parents first AirBnB experience and for a traditional Hispanic family, it was perfect. His mother and father are big on cooking and having fruit and snacks handy. They also prefer to grill. Things you just can't do in a traditional hotel.
The home we stayed in was a 3bd/3bth house literally a 3-minute walk from the beach. There are a lot of great condos, lofts, and homes right near the beach so definitely check AirBnB out.
Because our trip was so short, we kept things pretty simple. We spent most of our time on the beach boogie boarding and relaxing. While there we did attempt to fish on their main pier back in Port Isabella (the last city before you cross the bridge into Padre), but alas we came home empty handed (although I do count the Pokemon I caught as a solid win).
My Trip To London
2015 has given me a lot of opportunities to travel not only across this country but internationally as well. I hope 2016 brings more of the same!
What a whirlwind the end of the year has been! If you follow me on social media then you know for the first week and a half I was in London for HPE's Discover Conference. I spent the first week of December at the ExCeL Center in the Docklands interviewing different companies about their HPE products.
Me holding the new HPE logo
Recently HP (Hewlett Packard) split into two new companies HP Inc and HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise). For the second half of 2015 I spent much of my time co-producing content with Big Picture Lab for this conference.
Once the work was done, I stayed a few extra days in London to take in the sites!
Trying some Butter Beer at the Harry Potter Studio Tour
Mr. Hallease came to join me for 3 days in London, and we tried to jam in a lot of the major sites into the visit. We ended our stay by doing The Making of Harry Potter Warner Brother's Studio Tour! As a producer, it was so much fun seeing the attention to detail and the creativity behind all the different sets and various props. I, of course, took my camera and documented a little bit of our experience while in London, but to be honest, I didn't record as much as I usually do. I really just wanted to soak everything in, and enjoy the fruits of my hard earned labor this last quarter.
I broke up our adventures into two videos. The first catalogs my time spent at the Natural History Museum. The second video focuses on all the different things Mr. Hallease and I did once he joined me.
2015 has been a great year for me in regards to Travel. I've left the country 3 times, twice for vacation and once for work, and have gotten the opportunity to see parts of the US that I would not visit otherwise. I hope in 2016 it's more of the same!
- Hallease
#FollowMeTo || Cancun
About two weeks ago my husband and I decided to take a little vacation to celebrate our 4th anniversary together. When we first got married we made a deal to take vacations instead of buying each other anniversary gifts.
This year we went to Cancun, Mexico and had an amazing time. In true producer fashion, I brought along my Sony NEX - 5T to shoot and had the great idea of incorporating a #FollowMeTo approach to filming our adventure. Luckily, Mr. Hallease is always willing to indulge my shenanigans.
About two weeks ago my husband and I decided to take a little vacation to celebrate our 4th anniversary together. When we first got married we made a deal to take vacations instead of buying each other anniversary gifts.
This year we went to Cancun, Mexico and had an amazing time. In true producer fashion, I brought along my Sony NEX - 5T to shoot and had the great idea of incorporating a #FollowMeTo approach to filming our adventure. Luckily, Mr. Hallease is always willing to indulge my shenanigans.
Let me know what you think!
#Travel | Miami
I'm currently in the middle of co-producing a huge project with Big Picture Lab for HP, and because of that we have been consistently traveling all over to gather interview and b-roll footage of various HP campuses.
Last week I went to Miami, Florida to talk with HP's channel partners. While there I worked with Daniel Deloach to gather b-roll with HP devices.
The final morning we woke up at 5:30a to get the sun rising over the beach.
#MyPhotography | Miami Beach, Florida
After that we drove around trying to find the best views of the city for Danny to fly his drone and get good aerial shots. We ended up at a little bluff that gave a really great view.
Check out the montage video I created and let me know what you think!
#Travel | Wisconsin & Back in 48 Hours
Hey everyone, I recently went to Wisconsin to interview executives with Big Picture Lab. The trip was really quick. I arrived in Wisconsin on a Monday and left out the following day. Before leaving I decided it would be fun to bring my Sony NEX - 5T and catch some video documenting the trip.
When I returned I threw it all together into a quick montage to showcase some of the highlights of the trip. I've never been to the Midwest before so I wanted to document the experience. We had a lot of cheese!
Hope you enjoy the video!
Ireland | Great Value Vacations
For spring break my husband and I went to Ireland for 7 days. It was an amazing trip! I had already been to the country before but this was his first time leaving America. We booked the entire trip through Great Value Vacations. We did their castles of Ireland tour, which allows you to stay in 4 different castles along the northern coast of the republic. While on the trip, I documented the experience, including the hotel accommodations and local attractions.
I love to travel, and using Great Value Vacations made it a lot more affordable. I liked this package because it was more of an independent tour. GVV handles the international flight and all hotel accommodations, once you're in the country everything is fair game, you're not stuck with a tour guide or a large group of other people.
After coming back, I also made a video giving tips and advice as an American about visiting another country, including different social cues and customs to consider.