Being a Michigan native, I’ve vacationed in Traverse City many times over the years. Located along the beautiful sandy shores of Lake Michigan, Traverse City is a popular summer destination for residents from downstate. It offers pristine beaches and boating, more than 100 wineries and breweries, and scenic drives past rolling cherry and apple orchards. Summer is peak travel season, but Traverse City also draws tourists with cherry blossoms in the spring, autumn colors in the fall, and skiing and snowmobiling in the winter ..read more

The lake life aesthetic is synonymous with summertime in Michigan: a cabin on the lake, camping in the woods, and cruising on the pontoon. But it’s also a sunset sail on Grand Traverse Bay, shopping at art galleries and boutiques in charming lake towns like Charlevoix, and doing wine tastings along the Leelanau Peninsula. Lake life is a celebration of summertime, our beautiful state, and our beloved Great Lakes. Always one to dress on-theme, I love planning lake life outfits for our summer outings and trips up north to Traverse City ..read more

Welcome to my San Juan Island Travel Guide! The Pacific Northwest is a popular destination among campers, hikers, and kayakers. But you don’t have to be outdoorsy to revel in the moody majesty of the Pacific Northwest. A long weekend in the San Juan Islands off Washington state will give you a rich sampling of the PNW’s beauty and best: whale watching and sightseeing charters, forests of cedar and fir, Seattle coffee and fresh-caught shellfish, and rolling vineyards and farms ..read more

Welcome to my Grand Rapids Travel Guide! Grand Rapids is Michigan’s second largest city and is known to beer lovers far and wide as Beer City USA. With more than 40 craft breweries within a 15 mile radius, Grand Rapids is a popular destination for traveling foodies and beer aficionados. Grand Rapids also offers great museums and public art, the renowned Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and its proximity to Lake Michigan beaches just 35 miles away ..read more

Living in Metro Detroit, Canada is just an hours drive away by tunnel or by bridge, and beyond the border sits a little slice of Europe right in the heart of Ontario. Just three hours drive and yet a world away, Stratford is one of my favorite weekend getaway destinations. Picture beautiful old buildings nestled along a scenic river, art galleries and artisan shoppes, and a thriving restaurant scene fed by the local chefs school ..read more

Kyle and I love to travel, and our new puppies Finn and Pippin have us excited to seek out pet-friendly destinations as a family of four. We’ve traveled with dogs in the past, but they were dog-aggressive and anxious in new situations. We couldn’t walk them on busy streets or bring them into crowded areas, so they were mostly confined to our Airbnbs when we traveled. We also have a boarder that we love and trust and take our dogs to ..read more

Earlier this month, Kyle and I booked a week-long trip to Savannah, Georgia. We try to visit once each year, usually during the spring. Check out my Savannah Travel Guide and Savannah Style Guide posts for more. I’d been looking forward to this trip for months and bought a new summer wardrobe to wear on our vacation and all summer long. This year I’ve limited my wardrobe budget to what I make in sales from my Poshmark closet ..read more

One of my favorite Mother’s Day memories was our mother-daughter trip to Stratford, Ontario. The city of Stratford is just 3-4 hours drive from Metro Detroit. Downtown is super walkable, has amazing boutique shopping, and offers lots in the way of neat restaurants and local artisan galleries. All of this makes Stratford the perfect mother-daughter destination, Mother’s Day or not! It was actually my mom who first took me to Stratford way back when I was a teenager ..read more

The Holland, Michigan Tulip Time Festival is right around the corner! The festival starts on Saturday, May 4th and runs through Sunday, May 12th. Tulip Time is a spring must-do here in Michigan. The city bursts into bloom with over six million tulips spread across several different gardens and attractions (see where you can spot the tulips here). In the past, Kyle and I have visited either Windmill Gardens or Veldheer Tulip Farm (I have pictures from both in the full post ..read more

Our two week trip to South Africa was the longest vacation I’ve ever packed for. Because we hopped from a health care conference, to a bush safari, to sightseeing in the city, the trip demanded quite a varied wardrobe too. I built my South Africa capsule wardrobe around two key things. First, going on safari mandated casual mix-and-match separates in shades of olive green and khaki. And second, I knew I’d want to couple those casual pieces with effortless dresses I could remix a variety of ways ..read more