Hey, hunnies, this week we take a trip down the East Coast , enjoy!

Week 19: 400 miles

We arrived in Philadelphia on Saturday, September 28th. Brian’s friend Brendan and his fiancé Mark were our amazing hosts! We visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which not only has a fantastic art selection but sits atop the Rocky Balboa steps.

Philadelphia is such a walkable city, we took ourselves on a mini history tour through the Old City. We were able to check off the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Ben Franklin’s grave.

We celebrated Brian’s official birthday on the 30th by subbing into Mark and Brendan’s intramural volleyball game. Followed by beers and Skee-Ball, it wasn’t too bad for a Monday night!

On our last night, we all went out to dinner at a delicious Asian-Mexican fusion restaurant and continued the birthday celebration before heading out.

On Wednesday morning, we headed out from Philadelphia. We drove south to Baltimore to stay with another one of Brian’s friends - Kavi!

On our first night, Brian was walking back to the house from the grocery store and ran into Gabe, a player from the current season of Survivor! Gabe invited us to join him at a local bar for an episode-watch party he was hosting for friends and family, so of course, we had to join!!

Overall, we really enjoyed Baltimore and loved exploring the different parts of the city. Thanks for being our awesome tour guide, Kavi!

Week 20: 350 miles

After a lovely walk along the water in Baltimore, we headed out of town and drove south towards Shenandoah National Park. We spent the night just outside the park, and on Sunday morning, headed off for a day in the mountains. We hiked among the yellow, orange, and red trees, stopping at overlooks along the way. This was Grace’s first fall on the East Coast, so it was a special experience surrounded by all the gorgeous and multicolored foliage. We had a quick trip, but both truly enjoyed Shenandoah and can’t wait to return!

We continued further south into the Blue Ridge Mountains to check into our Airbnb in Wintergreen, VA. This is a small ski resort town with tons of condos and walking trails. Our Airbnb had a spectacular view of the sunrise over the mountains (right). It was an extremely cozy Airbnb and was the perfect way to get into the fall spirit. We spent our here days making soup (shout out to Lauren for the recipes), walking in the woods, and watching Abbot Elementary - along with working, of course. It was lovely to hide in the woods and escape the hustle and bustle for a few days.

Later that week, we drove further south to Roanoke, VA. We spent a few days here exploring the city. Roanoke was a very cute mountain town with lots of mountain biking, trail running, and charming coffee shops. One morning, we stopped downtown for some local cider and cider donuts, which were delicious!

Grace introduced Brian to the Twilight movie for the first time (based in Forks, WA, which we visited earlier in the roadtrip!), a fantastic Halloween/fall movie!

(If you don’t remember that part of our road trip, read about it here - We’re Off: Moving Out and Driving Up)

Week 21: 170 miles

On Saturday, we packed up the car and prepared to leave Roanoke. On the way out, we stopped at an apple orchard to continue the fall festivities and pick some apples. The orchard had over 200 varieties, along with a petting zoo and a giant statue of Johnny Appleseed. We picked half a peck of gorgeous red and green apples and headed to Durham, NC!

Durham was a super cute city with lots to do for young people as it’s a college town. We had a delicious meal and drinks our first night there and enjoyed watching the second movie of the Twilight series. During the work week, we spent lots of time walking around the neighborhood and enjoyed cooking in our Airbnb’s spacious kitchen. We booked tickets to see the band Jungle in Raleigh, which was a super fun way to explore the city and feel a part of the community. They rocked!

The main reason we went to North Carolina was because Grace had a work conference to attend later in the week (nerd!), so on Thursday, we moved from our Airbnb to a hotel in Chapel Hill for her work event. Grace attended the conference and met up with a few co-workers. On Friday night, we had dinner and drinks with Grace’s friend from grad school (Dr. Liz Boxer!), so overall, it was a great stop in Chapel Hill.

Week 22: 210 miles

Saturday morning, we left the great state of North Carolina and headed for its beautiful neighbor, South Carolina! We had booked an Airbnb on the coast 30 minutes south of Myrtle Beach and only one block away from the amazing beach. On our first full day we explored the local botanical gardens and state park. We saw gorgeous plants, birds, and even some alligators! We finished this lovely day with a delicious meal of she-crab soup (a South Carolina specialty), freshly caught fish, and hushpuppies! The restaurant literally served us complimentary hushpuppies before we even had a chance to look at the menu. The rest of the week was primarily spent working, walking along, and sitting on the beach - not too shabby. It felt like we had traveled back in time because the weather was so warm - fall was over, and we were back in summer! Grace’s mom also mailed us our ballots so we could cast our votes despite being on the road. Thanks, Roxanne!

Week 23: 500 miles

After receiving our ballots Saturday morning, we headed south for Charleston, SC. We quickly realized it was the weekend before Halloween and there were tons of college students dressed up and ready to go to the bars. Charleston is quite the college town! We didn’t have any costumes, so instead, we spent the evening walking around the historic district and eating a tasty dinner. Charleston is extremely beautiful and we both enjoyed seeing the old architecture and city planning. Later that night, we met up for drinks with one of Brian’s friends who he used to sail with during summers on the Cape. He’s now a Charleston local! It was fun catching up with him, hearing about his life in South Carolina, and filling him in on all our crazy travels.

The next morning, we continued exploring Charleston through copious food and walking. We easily hit our 10,000-step goal here by 12 pm…Once we had both exhausted our walking destinations and our legs, we decided it was time to continue to our next Airbnb in Hilton Head Island, SC.

We booked a condo close to the beach and rented bicycles for a few days, which were really fun. Hilton Head had less development than other coastal areas of South Carolina, so it felt like Cape Cod in some ways. The “snowbirds” were in full swing with tons of license plates from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, etc. - quite the vacation destination! It felt like Disneyland in some ways, with everything being a little too curated, but nonetheless, the nature was beautiful, and we had a great week. We also saw an armadillo on our last day, which was super surprising and cool!! Sadly, we also noticed quite a few armadillos as road kill in South Carolina :(

After working and playing in Hilton Head for a week, we packed up again and prepared for a longer drive south to Central Florida to visit Grace’s grandmother for a week. However, before making it to Florida, we had to stop in Savannah, GA, and see what all the hype was about! The hype was real! It was a vibrant and gorgeous city with tons of food, art, and interesting people. We had a delicious brunch at a restaurant inside the largest park in Savannah, walked through a huge craft fair with local vendors, and even spotted a celebrity, Kathryn Hahn, on the street!

We want to come back to Savannah another time since we only spent an afternoon in the city, but it was a nice taste of the city! We continued onwards to Grace’s grandma’s house in The Villages, FL, where we would be spending election week. More on that later…