Tallying Up My Travels

This Thursday, I’m sharing the nitty-gritty details of everything I spent on my travels over the past couple of months. Before I set off on my first trip, I decided that I was going to make an effort to write down everything I spent so that I could keep track of where my money was going, and also not let things get too out of control. I knew that the total after tallying up my travels over the course of 25 days on 3 trips in 2 countries, 2 states, and more than a half-dozen cities, with transport via planes, trains, and automobiles, was going to be significant. But as I’ve shared recently, I really value experiences over the accumulation of stuff and this time after the bar exam before my new job and next phase of my life begin was a wonderful opportunity to see new places with old friends and make memories that will last a lifetime. The monetary value of tallying up my travels ended up totaling roughly $3,685.30. The rest of it? Well, that can’t be measured in dollars and cents.

 

Hiking near Keswick, England

 

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Experiences Versus Stuff

I’ve been thinking for some time now about the value we place on experiences versus stuff. Over the past year, I’ve tried to take an honest look at my life in an attempt to figure out exactly what the parts are that make me happy, and what’s just extra that really doesn’t add much to an otherwise wonderful existence.I suppose it’s a question of experiences versus stuff, and how much value we place on each. I talked about this a little bit when I first started the blog back in December. If there’s anything I’ve learned since leaving home to go to Oxford and coming back again for law school, it’s that the people in my life, both family and friends, and the ability to enjoy things like reading, running, and cooking, are much more important to me than the “stuff” that money buys. My recent trip to England brought me much more clarity than I’ve had in awhile.

 

Hiking and thinking a lot in the Lakes

 

California Here I Come

I can’t believe it’s the first day of September already. As I mentioned yesterday, I am determined to hang on to summer as long as I can. The weather here in New England is complying with my wish. It’s going to be in the mid- to high-80s all week, and pretty humid – so warm that when I head to Southern California on Thursday I may be heading into temperatures just slightly cooler than in Connecticut (although not by much!) I just whipped up a batch of my No Bake Peanut Butter Berry Bars because the oven is not coming on around here for a little while.

 

A bar with some strawberry ice cream to cool off

Eating Gluten Free in England

Hello and happy Wednesday! I returned yesterday from my fortnight-long excursion across the pond, and I hope you all enjoyed following along with me as much as I loved being there. In case you missed anything so far…

My Pond Hopping Trip

Part 1: First Days in London

Part 2: Hiking and Eating in the Lake District

Part 3: More Lakes Adventures and Fun

Part 4: Workouts and Running Hyde Park

10 Tips For Running in London

 

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my further thoughts on the trip as a whole, but since this is the day of the week when lots of us like to showcase our eats, I figured I’d take the opportunity to talk about what it was like to eat gluten free in England, both in London and in the countryside.

 

Pond Hopping Part 3: “Second Degree Fun” in the Lakes

Since it is Thinking Out Loud Thursday and I’m still riding the holiday high here in England, I wanted to share some more of my time in the English Lake District. Both the hiking and eating were spectacular, but the most important thing to know about those five days is that they were jam packed with what my dear friend Elli calls “second degree fun.”

Pond Hopping Part 2: Hiking and Eating in the English Lake District

Happy Wednesday! I just returned from five days of hiking in the English Lake District with Elli, one of my best friends from college. We walked 85 miles in five days and fueled up with many, many eats that I couldn’t wait to share. I’m going to check in again tomorrow with more thoughts on the experience (and next week with more London adventures) but for now, I hope you enjoy this peek at the journey so far!

 

 

Pond Hopping Part 1: London Run and Brunch

Greetings from England! I thought I wasn’t going to post while here, but I have so much I want to jot down so I can remember it for myself that I changed my mind. It’ll be a picture per sentence kind of day since I’m writing on my iPad and have spent all day out and about, but here’s a look at the first three days of my trip across the pond 🙂

 

The Pond Hopper Returns

Good morning! Today is the first day of the return of the Pond Hopper, aka what I used to call myself when I was flying back and forth across the Atlantic 3 times a year for my 3 years of college. The Atlantic Ocean is the “pond” and I am the “hopper” in case you were wondering 🙂 It was also the title of the novel I wrote my senior year of high school, before the actual hopping commenced. Of course, I’m a not-so-teenage Pond Hopper now. More like a twentysomething Pond Hopper. Anyway, I’m headed back for the first time since the end of Oxford and I couldn’t be more excited! I was on a flight leaving NYC around 10pm Tuesday evening, for an arrival at Heathrow this morning.