Third time’s the charm is the adage that perfectly sums up my spring 2025 travel to Canada. For having been around the world a few times, I somewhat surprisingly had never crossed the northern border of the U.S. to visit our good-natured neighbors, even though it’s closer than other regular road trips I take with…
Tag: travel photography
Book Review: So Long as It’s Wild
Ever since the book So Long as It’s Wild: Standing Strong After My Famous Walk Across America (2023)by Barbara Jenkins was announced, I’ve been highly anticipating reading it. A few years ago, I read (and loved) To Shake the Sleeping Self, written by one of her sons, Jedidiah Jenkins. From following both Jedidiah and Barbara…
Paris, France | 2021-22
In the middle of the pandemic, when travel restrictions were fairly light, my parents took an international trip to the Caribbean. During a post-trip debrief over pizza, we collectively wondered aloud “what if we took a family trip over the Christmas holiday?” Mind you, this was mid-November. So, that didn’t leave us much time to…
Asheville, North Carolina | 2023
In July 2023, very shortly after traveling for 8 weeks on the International Business Institute, I took my first-ever girls group vacation to Asheville, North Carolina. Why Asheville? None of the six of us had ever been there, it was within a one-day driving distance, and seemed to offer quite a bit of variety in…
Rotterdam & Amsterdam, The Netherlands | 2023
Paris will always be a very tough act to follow—but I think my perfect days in my favorite city put me in a state of bliss. I probably couldn’t have cared less where our final stop was or if it was a terrible experience. Fortunately, The Netherlands proved to be a great final destination for…
Paris, France | 2023
Our entrance into Paris was somewhat less triumphant than we would have liked as one of our students was left behind in Germany—unfortunate moment as a group leader involving an unexpected change in train platforms, some AirPods and an incorrect assumption that everyone made the mad dash across the station. Fortunately, everything worked out as…
Heidelberg, Germany | 2023
After what felt like the longest stop in Prague, we finally moved on to Heidelberg, Germany. Unlike Innsbruck and Prague, which I had apparently barely experienced on my first IBI experience, I had many great memories from my time in Heidelberg, and I was excited to return. Overall, my experience there this time felt more…
Dubai | 2023
We entered Dubai somewhat unconventionally by driving across the Al Hajar mountain range that separates Oman from the United Arab Emirates. The drive was long—16 of us in a 17-passenger van plus some of our luggage that didn’t fit in the trailer that we were pulling for six hours—and included an inconveniently-long delay in passport…
Oman | 2023
Before traveling to Oman, I knew little more than the country’s general location on the Arabian Peninsula, and the few travel blogs I found mostly focused on outdoor activities (visiting the famous wadis) and on proper attire. Definitely worth noting: Oman is a Muslim nation and women are expected to cover themselves from neck to…
L.M.Beatty 