EUROPE ADVENTURES PART II

Image Leave a comment July 14, 2022 mmdeidra

Hi All,

I’m finally back to talk about my favorite part of my Euro trip which was my 3 day hike on the Camino de Santiago. For those not familiar with the Camino de Santiago, click here to learn more and perhaps book your own trip to this amazing place. If you’ve been following along for awhile, then you know Charles and I love to hike. It’s a great way for us to stay active and now that we have a kiddo, we often take her hiking with us so she can experience the great outdoors as well. She didn’t hike the Camino with us, but we did have some talk about bringing her with us one day.

We met so many amazing people on this hike. The gentlemen next to me in the pic above is one of them. His name is Luigi and he was from Italy. We ran into him quite a few times on this 40 mile trek and we became pretty good friends despite there being a language barrier. Proof that sometimes words aren’t needed to connect with others. In any case, I’m doing a big photo dump of our hike from Pamplona, Spain to Logrono, Spain. It was such an amazing experience and we will definitely be back.

One thing you’ll learn about the Camino is that you’ll meet people from all walks of life on this trail and everyone is there for their own personal reasons, but somehow you’re connected with them because you’re on this walk too. It’s hard to really explain what I mean by this. I can only say you have to hike the Camino to better understand and feel the connection and oneness you feel with people you meet on the trail. One thing I will say is that it’s the only time in my life where I felt like my race, my age, my gender, or anything for that matter, actually mattered. We were just people, hiking a trail, seeking understanding, clearing our heads, walking for clarity, walking into the unknown. I met people on this trail who worked their whole lives for this hike, waited until retirement, left the US and never came back. I met people on this trail who were recently divorced and were seeking wisdom and understanding as to what was next for them. I met a lady who had a loved one who died recently and they said they felt drawn to hike the Camino and did so. I met a mom and daughter from France who were trying to reconnect with one another and decided the Camino was the perfect place to do it. All this to say that despite our differences, the Camino has the effect of bringing people together. Despite all the madness going on in the world, the Camino was an escape from it all and a place where people could just be without having to be weighed down with the stressors of everyday life.

Anyway, I guess that’s all I have to say. Perhaps my photo dump will provide some clarity to all these jumbled thoughts I’ve just shared. I hope you enjoy the images.

Till next time.

Sincerely,

Deidra Marie

EUROPE ADVENTURES PART 1: OUR 3 COUNTRIES TOUR

Image Leave a comment May 18, 2022 mmdeidra

Finally had a chance to process my very first visit to Europe and now I’m excited to share a bit about it with you all. For those who follow along on Instagram and watch my Instagram stories, you may have seen all of our videos documenting our visit to Barcelona, Spain, France, Rome, Italy, Andorra and our 40 mile walk on the Camino de Santiago. Yes, I said it, we hiked for 3 days straight clocking in a whopping 40 miles from Pamplona, Spain to Logrono, Spain.

So, why were we in Europe? Good question! I worked as a communications specialist for a graduate program in my former position and I was a part of their study abroad planning committee. I was tasked with collecting marketing content that could be used to market the course. When COVID hit, our trip was put on hold until 2022, but by that time I had transitioned to a new position at the university I work at. I was asked to finish up this project and was given the invitation to go to Europe to document the trip for marketing. I’m so grateful to work in the university setting. It has taken me places I never thought I’d ever see. Education has taken me places I never thought in my wildest dreams I could ever see. It’s amazing! I always knew I’d be in education, and for a long time I thought it would be as a teacher, but that plan fell through and I’m grateful for that. I’ll be sharing more about what I actually do in the education world in another post, but for now, without further ado, I present to you pics from our 3 countries tour.

Yup, Charles booked us a 3 country tour and yup, we visited 3 countries in one day! We got a chance to bop around Spain, France and Andorra with our tour guide Rod. Rod was amazing and took us to a few tiny towns in France for some yummy food and we got our passports stamped in the cold mountains of Andorra. It was a full day of fun meeting some really cool solo travelers and hanging out with the locals. Keep scrolling for pics….

They had the yummiest cod and curry rice dish.

Charles posted up outside the food spot thinking he’s cool

So, after a fun time in France, we headed up the mountain to Andorra to get our passports stamped and freeze our tushies off in the mountains. Yes it was SOOOOO cold, but so worth it to see the beautiful mountain views and snap a few pics. Is this view not amazing ya’ll? I never in a million years would have wanted to visit a cold place for vacation, but here I was, freezing cold, but so happy. Look ya’ll, I left Massachusetts for a reason. The cold winters weren’t fun and having to shovel my way out of the snow to walk to school sucked. Thinking about those cold days as a kiddo makes me shiver on the inside, LOL. In fact, I vowed to myself that I’d never use my vacation time to travel somewhere cold and here I was in France on the mountain doing the exact opposite, LOL. Let me tell you, THE VIEW WAS WORTH IT! I take back everything I said about cold vacation destinations. Ha ha. I visit these mountains any day for this amazing view! Keep scrolling…..

So, that’s all I got from our 3 countries tour. I hope you enjoyed the images. This was a definitely a trip for the books. I’ll be back one day. Who knows, maybe I’ll ski. I’ve never done that before. There is a first for everything right.

Stay tuned for another post on my time in Spain and the amazing helicopter ride we took for a birds eye view of Barcelona!

Till next time.

Sincerely,

Deidra Marie

TRAVELING IN STYLE WITH SAPAHN

Image Leave a comment May 2, 2021 mmdeidra

Hi Friends,

Just coming back from an amazing much needed vacay in the beautiful city of Cancun, Mexico. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a vacation, but we finally decided it was time to get away from it all and just take a break for awhile. Packing has always been the most stressful part about going on vacay, I always pack way too much and can never decide what bags to bring. However, with this trip, that wasn’t the case. I brought along the most amazing bags by Sapahn and I basically used them everyday on my short trip. Before I share all the deets on them, I wanted to share a bit about the story behind the brand.

Sapahn is an artisan-friendly and artisan-driven company with a focus on humans rights. Sapahn aims to foster strong relationships with artisans in rural Thailand to bring their products and business to the forefront. They focus on bridging the gap by partnering with artisans in Thailand and aim to empower them to make the choice on how they do business. With human rights at the forefront of everything they do, their is a special focus on ensuring their artisan partners are empowered, treated with respect and paid fairly. To learn more about how Sapahn is putting human rights at the forefront of their business, click here. To learn how it all began click here.

Functionality, style, versatility, and lightweight were all the things I needed for my trip to Mexico and the two Sapahn bags I packed met all my needs. I knew we would be doing a lot of walking, so it was important to me that the bags I carried didn’t weigh me down and were easy to pack.

Keep scrolling to see the 3 ways I styled my Grace Crossbody.

I’m the kind of woman who loves options and my Grace Crossbody provided all of that and then some; not to mention the bright yellow color is perfect for spring and summer looks. I was able to carry my cellphone, money, identification info, lip balm and few other on-the-go knick knacks in this purse and each day I wore it and aside from the adjustable straps I love that I could wear it on my waist, across my chest and on my shoulder so it was functional with every outfit and it was super easy to adjust the straps and change up on the go.

The latter part of my trip I used my Sapahn Rin Crossbody. This bag is very versatile. While it’s definitely simple to the look, it is super functional has a back zip, top zip and side zip pocket which was perfect for travel and holding all my little knick knacks (passport, keys, sunglasses, hand lotion, masks, hand sanitizer etc…).

Keep Scrolling for a closer look at the different zip pocket openings and don’t forget to check out the darling Rose Coin Purse as well.

I love the quality and clean look of these purses so much. Both purses are 100% leather with cotton lining on the inside and can be styled in so many different ways with a variety of looks, and as if you didn’t already know, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colors of both. For those wondering about the colors I’m styling in these shots, I have the Grace Crossbody in Illuminating Yellow Oil Leather the Rin Cross Body in Raspberry Raw Leather and the Rose Coin Purse in Smoke Oil Leather.

Loving these bags as much as I do, use code: Deidra15 for 15% of your Sapahn order. Looking forward to sharing a few more ways I’ve styled these purses in the future.

Till next time.

Sincerely,

Deidra Marie