Travel Tuesday: Hearst Castle, California

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! There is no suggested prompt today; simply link up with any travel post you wish! I'll be sharing photos from my recent trip to Hearst Castle, a State Historical Monument on the central coast of California. Hearst Castle was built for newspaper mogul William Hearst in the early to mid-1900s. I had been to the castle once before, in middle school, and gone on the typical "Grand Rooms" tour. This time, we elected to go on a specialized tour to see the private suites in the top floors of the main house, or "Casa Grande."

Travel Tuesday: Solo vs. companion(s)?

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! Today's suggested prompt is about your companion preferences while traveling: Who is your favorite travel partner? Do you prefer to travel in large groups, small groups or alone? As always, don't feel obligated to follow the prompt. All travel-related posts are welcome!

At the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. This is about as big as I like my travel groups to get!

That time I fell off a ski lift in Switzerland.

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! Today I'm sharing a pretty hilarious story about that time I fell off a ski lift in Switzerland, like I promised to do back on Christmas Eve. Whoops! But I'm here now! And I hope you enjoy. :)

Note the helmet! This is key.

Looks like a perfectly pleasurable day on the slopes, right? Wrong! This photo was taken before my brother and I managed to fall off a ski lift, hike all the way up to the top of the mountain, and fall off another lift before we could get back to the car. Sheesh! Here's how it went down....

Cityscape on Camera: Budapest, Hungary

So Christmas Eve probably isn't the best time to bring back Travel Tuesdays, but my Timehop feed has been full of pictures and tweets from my trip to Budapest last Christmas, and I realized I never blogged about it! This post will be short and sweet so you can get back to the holidays with your family. Enjoy more pictures after the jump!

Cityscape on Camera: Granada & Ronda, Spain

Next stop(s) on my European Extravaganza recap: Granada and Ronda, two beautiful towns in the Andalusian region of southern Spain. Seville, which I recapped two weeks ago, is the capital of this region.

Granada is most famous for being the home of the Alhambra (which is where all but a few of the photos below were taken). We also shared a memorable night with Jose, a local gentleman who insisted on showing us the local bar scene. Before you jump to any conclusions, let's just say Jose told me he was sixty ... and then laughed. Because he was definitely older than that. Also, he spoke zero English, so my siblings and I got really good at our conversational Spanish that evening. (Or at least we felt like we were really good from all the vodka-tonics he kept feeding us.) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that night (just videos haha), but I had to share that story. Meeting locals is definitely the best way to party!

Cityscape on Camera: Seville, Spain

I planned to share photos from my time in Seville, Granada and Ronda today, but there were just way too many photos. So today your get a special dose of Seville, and the other two Andalusian cities will be showcased on September 24. Next week is another topic-based week (see bottom of this post for the prompt).

Photo via @mcstroup on Instagram

Countryscape on Camera: Greece

I've decided to combine all my Greece recaps together into one post so we can have a themed Travel Tuesday link-up next week! This means I'll take a little break from my European Extravaganza posts and ask you all a question to answer for the link-up, like the old days of Travel Tuesday. :) Be sure to check the bottom of the post for next week's topic!

Image via Instagram

Countryscape on Camera: Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, Switzerland

Note: If this post is too long for you, at least skip to the bottom half to see my special announcement! :)

After a week traveling through Amsterdam, Prague and Berlin, we headed to my mom's condo in Switzerland for the weekend. She moved to Switzerland a few years ago when she received a promotion, so this was the second time I'd gotten to visit her new home. I had also been to Switzerland once before, in high school, when she took my brother and me along on a business trip.

This weekend was the perfect little break, especially for Jonathan and me. My sister and brother had been able to fly to my mom's first with big suitcases and then pack in smaller backpacks for specific trips, but Jonathan and I had had to bring everything we needed for the six weeks in just backpacks. Because the cities we were visiting ranged in climate from Amsterdam (rain jackets and boots) to Sevilla (shorts and tank tops), it was pretty challenging. After our first week, though, we got to leave most of our warmer clothes at my mom's, which made our backpacks so much lighter. :)

Enough of the logistics: I know you only come for the pictures! ;) Below are views of Lake Geneva from my bedroom at the condo and the deck, a photograph of the marina we walk by any time we go into town for dinner, and some French Harry Potter books I found at the farmer's market in Montreux.

Cityscape on Camera: Berlin, Germany

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday and the third installment of my European extravaganza recap! Today I'm giving you a photo tour of the 48 hours we spent in Berlin, Germany. As always, you are welcome to link up any travel-related post you've written this week or even further in the past. All I ask is that you include the button at the bottom of this post and link back to my blog. :) I can't wait to hear your travel stories! Continue reading after the jump for more pictures of Berlin.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe via Instagram

Cityscape on Camera: Prague, Czech Republic

It's time for round two of my six-week European vacation post series, which I have affectionately dubbed my "European extravaganza." (You can even search #europeanextravaganza on Twitter and Instagram to see my posts from the trip, though I know I'm not the only person on social media who has thought of that alliteration haha.) This post is also part of my Travel Tuesday series, so feel free to link up with any travel-related posts you've written in the past week at the bottom of this post. :)

We spent less than two days in Prague, which was easily the most beautiful city we visited during the trip, but we were still able to see just about everything by taking advantage of a free walking tour (which we were then sure to make a habit of during the rest of the trip). Below is one of my favorite pictures from our short time in the Czech capital, then continue after the jump to read and see more:

Cityscape on Camera: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Welcome back to Travel Tuesday! As I mentioned last week, the next few months of Travel Tuesday will be occupied with recaps of my recent six-week trip to Europe. Today, I'm sharing photos from the three days I spent in Amsterdam. My last day as a traveling consultant for my sorority was May 10, so I flew from my sorority's headquarters in Atlanta to Amsterdam with my boyfriend to meet up with my sister, her boyfriend and my brother. My sister and brother had already enjoyed some time in Switzerland and Italy together, but Amsterdam would mark the beginning of our trip as a fivesome. I'll start this post with my absolute favorite picture I took in Amsterdam during our stay:

A bicycle, tulips and a canal: How more quintessential Amsterdam can you get?! Continue reading after the jump to see more pictures of this beautiful city.

Cityscape on Camera: Vienna, Austria

Over winter break, I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Vienna, Austria, and I wanted to share some photos with y'all. If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen these first four photos, but there were plenty more waiting on my iPhone to be uploaded. :)

Clockwise from top left: The Christmas market near our hotel; tiny mocha drinks; the gorgeous interior of St. Stephen's Cathedral; and Hofburg Palace.

Vienna City Hall, the backdrop for the Christmas market.

Thankful Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been meaning to join this link-up with the sweet Meghan of Shine On for weeks, and what better week to finally join than Thanksgiving itself?

First, I am mostly thankful for the friends and family I get to see this holiday:

InstaTuesday: NorCal Edition

I have been sorely failing to update you on my adventures as a Leadership Consultant, but I think I just found the perfect link-up to help me share my travels thus far. I ended up sending my camera home pretty early on in my travels. Now that I have an iPhone, it just seems silly to carry around another cord and another charger for my camera, especially because I don't do anything with my photos anyway. Therefore, Instagram has become my main form of communication, so what better way to share my adventures than with some Instagram photos through Taingamala's InstaTuesday Link-Up?

During my days off this past weekend, I traveled to Sonoma, California, to spend some quality time with my mother, brother and sister. These weekends are usually full of wine and sunrises, but this weekend we decided to venture outside the wineries and do some family-friendly activities. Enjoy!

Driving out of the city to wine country on Friday night.

Nothing quite beats waking up to this gorgeous view every morning.

Happy Mother's Day!

This post is dedicated to my beautiful, intelligent, cosmopolitan mother. She passed down many of her wonderful genes to me, and she has also taught me a lot of valuable lessons, but the two biggest things she gave me are my passion for exploration and knowledge. Growing up, my mother always said she would not let school get in the way of her children's education, hence her willingness to pull us out of school to go on some pretty fabulous trips. She can also often be heard saying, "Good enough is never good enough," which has instilled in me an insatiable quest for knowledge and a curiosity about the world. Of course, my love of reading also comes from my mother. So thanks for everything, Mom! I love you!

Just for fun, here are a few pictures of us on those fabulous trips I mentioned. Unfortunately, I only have pictures from the last few years on my computer, or there would be a lot more!

Hiking in Kauai (January 2010). I know, I know: What a flattering picture of us. :)

At my first NHL game: the Chicago Blackhawks (December 2009).

Hiking in Yosemite, too many times to count (but I think this was summer 2010).

Mom supporting me at the Mizzou '39 banquet in Columbia (February 2011).

On Alcatraz Island during spring break (April 2011).

Mom met me in Kigali, Rwanda, at the end of my study abroad program (July 2011).

And then we traveled to Amboseli National Park, Kenya, for a safari (July 2011).

Here we are with some Maasai dancers at the safari lodge (July 2011).

And finally, these are all her kiddies in Sonoma (December 2010). Happy Mother's Day from all of us, Mom!

P.S. — Don't forget to check back in an hour for the second Semi-Charmed Summer Book Challenge check-in! Yes, my mom is participating. :)

Travel Tuesday: Week 11

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Travel Tuesday! This week's topic is traveling with kids. How do you feel about it? If you're a parent, how do you decide what trips your kids get to go on? If you're not yet a parent, at what age do you think you'll start taking your kids on vacation with you? As always, you are free to write about anything travel-related; don't feel obligated to answer my prompt. And, of course, don't forget to link up below!

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I'll be honest, I don't have much of value to write this week. Like I said last week, traveling with small children is just something I've always wondered about. I am aware that I am not a parent, so any observations made during this post are purely hypothetical. Perhaps when I have children of my own, I will feel differently, but I do have some pretty basic views on traveling with children.

Travel Tuesday: Week 1

Welcome to a new series I'm starting on my blog: Travel Tuesdays! As you might have garnered from my last Friday's Fancies post, I'm suffering from a bout of unfulfilled wanderlust. I haven't been on a plane since January 8, and that is just not normal in my world. When I started this blog, I had hoped one of my major themes would be travel. I finally realized: Just because I'm not traveling right this second, does that mean I can't blog about travel? No! So today, I'm going to share with you one of my old travel experiences:

Bulldog traditions: University of Georgia.

My brother and I on the UGA campus.

"You yell 'Go Bulldogs,' and then you bark," my brother told us.

"Like, really bark?" I asked. "Ruff ruff or ark ark?"

"Megan, you sound like a seal." (This from my sister.)

We were trying to learn the University of Georgia student chants and cheers before the football game on Saturday, and all Michael could tell us was that we had to bark like bulldogs. Well, let me tell you, during Georgia's 19-10 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats, we perfected that bark. And it was more of an "hoo hoo hoo," but in a deep canine-like voice, if that makes any sense.

After learning to be a Georgia football fan, of course I wanted to learn about the other traditions and/or superstitions around campus. When we returned to Athens after Thanksgiving to drop Michael back off at school, we took another tour of the campus.

First, Michael showed me this arch, which is rumored to be cursed. If you walk under the arch, you won't graduate in four years. Well, I was arrogant enough to walk under it because I'm not graduating in four years, so ha! I beat that system. Michael says he hasn't walked under it yet.

After the arch, we visited the bell tower. After the game the previous Saturday, there had been a huge line, so I figured I would just wait until our return trip to participate in this particular campus tradition. Unfortunately (as you can see in the below picture), the rope was tied up so I couldn't ring it. :( But I did get to read about the history of the tower on a nearby plaque, which is included in the below caption.

Originally used to call students to classes, chapel services, and special events, the University of Georgia chapel bell was cast by George Holbrook of Medway, Massachusetts in 1835. The bell's arrival on campus is shrouded in mystery, but it is believed to have replaced an earlier bell between 1903 and 1911. Now primarily used to toll Georgia football victories, the chapel bell has weathered stolen clappers, rivalries, and a brief career as a World War II air raid "siren." The bell has been housed in its present location since circa 1913. The tower and bell restoration were completed in August 2008.

Note: I have recently added a new goal to my "bucket list": to visit 100 college campuses (#21). It's fun stories like these that make me so interested in visiting universities, so I hope I am able to share many more posts like this in the future as I complete this new item on my list!

Back to the South.

Every year at Thanksgiving, I am fortunate to be able to visit my grandparents in North Carolina. This year, that tradition was preceded by a quick trip to Athens to visit my baby brother at school.

We left Athens on Sunday morning the day after the Georgia-Kentucky game for the five-hour drive to my grandparents' mountain house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I used to call it cabin, but apparently this doesn't qualify as a "cabin" for some people (including my grandparents):

So ... I guess this isn't a cabin?

Our time at the mountain house was filled with card games, board games and four Redbox movies. It was a relaxing few days with a gorgeous view!

The siblings! The river is only a short walk from the house, with a cute

little gazebo near the bank.

My first SEC game.

As you might know, the University of Missouri recently moved to the Southeastern Conference. This means beginning in 2012, my school will be playing my brother's school, the University of Georgia, in the SEC East. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend my first Georgia game, which is also the second-to-last football game during which Georgia can be my favorite SEC team (because of course, beginning next season I'll have to root for my Tigers).

My sister, dad and I all flew into Atlanta on Friday night and drove out to Athens to start our Thanksgiving Break. (The school is much further from Atlanta than I had previously thought - almost 80 miles instead of a mere 45 minutes.) We picked my brother up bright and early the next day (bright and early for a college freshman, that is) and headed to Waffle House for breakfast. Kickoff was scheduled for 12:20, and we made it into the stadium only a few minutes late.

My brother, Michael, headed off to the student section while Abby, Dad and I headed up to our seats in the nosebleed section ... on level 600. I had heard Missouri would have to do a $40 million renovation to our stadium to be in the SEC, but I wasn't sure what that would entail. Now I'm wondering, maybe that entails building our stadium a few levels higher? These seats were insanely high. The stadium also seats well over 92,000 people, so I'm sure the seats have to built that high just to fit around the field. When my dad sent his girlfriend a picture of the field from our seats and joked about how awesome our view was, she texted back:

"Yeah, you and the Goodyear blimp."

As you can see from our view, my dad's girlfriend was pretty accurate.

I loved the pretty autumn colors outside the stadium.

I'm happy to say Georgia won, 19-10, despite the few obnoxious Kentucky fans that were heckling the crowd in our section and periodically announcing the score of the Kentucky basketball game, in which the Wildcats were faring a little better (wrong sport!). The game ended just in time for me to follow the Missouri vs. Texas Tech game on my phone while we went to dinner (more about that later), and I was able to watch our victorious end back at the hotel! We also watched Oregon lose to USC, so those few games combined with Oklahoma State's loss the night before made for one heck of a college football weekend and a great start to Thanksgiving break!

Unfortunately, we didn't quite leave ourselves enough time in the morning to attend an actual tailgate outside the stadium, so I can't cross that off my list yet. But, I can cross attending an SEC football game off #20. Whoop!