Hello sweet friends!  If you follow me on Instagram (which is my most favorite social media ever, and I am always over there!), you know that this summer we took a big old trip to Europe.  It was amazing.  We traveled to several countries and saw amazing things and had an amazing time together.  But this is not about that (coming soon though - so many pictures to sort through!).
You see, these pictures were not taken in Tuscany, which was my dream.  To frolic through a field of sunflowers in Tuscany. And of course, I arrived there on a bike with the cutest dress on.  However, when we were in Tuscany, all of the sunflowers were dead.
So sad.
These pictures were taken about 30 minutes from our home in the good ol' "Garden State" of New Jersey.
I interrupt this story about sunflowers to remind you that we are still running a sale in our shop until Monday at 11pm, EST!  I just wanted to make sure you didn't miss out in case you need maple syrup, lovelies for your home or gifts!
Okay, back to sunflowers!
As amazing and beautiful as our trip was, I came back with a renewed sense of love for the good 'ol US of A.   Seeing so many beautiful places in Europe made me want to see all the amazing places in the US I have never seen.  We live in a beautiful country and I am so very thankful for that.
So, imagine my delight that two days after we returned, I was driving to a family event and I found an endless field full of sunflowers.
And although I was not riding a bike, my dress was pretty cute!
Traveling the world is an amazing thing to do and I hope we never stop doing it. I think we planted a seed with our older daughter, she will be back.  She loved London.  She was smitten in Paris.    She will want to see the world.
I still want to see so many places all around our globe.
But I am going to start right here in the beautiful state of New York.  And the whole Northeast is on my target.  And to all my beautiful friends in the south, what do I need to see there?  I have never seen any of the Midwest and I only saw the West Coast in a blip of trip when I was 12.
So. Much. To. See.
Our trip to Europe was a dream come true.  We saved for years for it.  We used every single travel point possible that Dana earned while traveling all of those years.   The chances of a trip like that happening on that scale again are small.
But, for now, I am okay with that.  I will always dream of the Almafi coast and I will continue to watch Under the Tuscan Sun over and over again (best movie ever!).  I will dream of seeing the countryside of French like a local and riding a bike through the cobble stone streets.
Le Sigh.
It gets me even right now.  So much beauty.
In the meantime, I am going to learn more about where I live and see more of what is right in my own backyard.  I want to start googling my area like a tourist and seeing what they see.  Right over the border in Pennsylvania, there are the most beautiful waterfalls you can imagine.  I have been once in the fifteen years since we have lived here.
This is the start of changing that.
There is this once road in our area, that when you hit the peak of the hill, you see our whole valley in all of its glory.  I will capture that picture someday, but in the meantime, I will always drive that way to make sure to take it all in.  I will sigh at all of the beauty right where we live.
I live an hour from NYC and hardly go there.  People travel from all of the world.   We are going to change that.
What about you?  What are you missing right in your own backyard?
