My mom has been saying for years that she wants to go to New York City. It is one of my favorite places, so we finally got to go in September. Rachel was able to come too and we made it into a girls’ weekend. We had so much fun that we decided we need to make these trips an annual thing.

Mom and I flew to New York from Dayton and Rachel flew in from Indianapolis. We all met at our hotel where we had a few challenges checking in. Thankfully, we were able to work through that and found a place a few blocks away to get dinner. We walked through Times Square on the way to dinner and had to stop for a picture!

After dinner, we needed to find some dessert. Rachel said if the Krispy Kreme light was on, she wanted to go to the location in Times Square. (The light is always on!) We stood in line while we watched donuts get their glaze, ate our fresh donuts and walked back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to go see the Today Show being filmed. While we weren’t able to get onto the plaza, it was fun to see through the windows to the famous desk and studio that we have seen on TV so many mornings.

After Nashville, it was time to fly to Ohio! We arrived on Saturday night and spent a few days together in Springfield. Brennan and I met my mom for lunch at CoHatch (I'm still thinking about that blackberry latte!), saw friends, and enjoyed the end of the summer in Springfield.

Brennan left on August 31 to head to the UK to begin his archaeology trip and I stayed in Springfield. It was the longest we had been away from each other since getting married, but it was good for us both to do our own thing before we met back up in Europe later on in September. 

We flew from Toronto to Nashville to get our car from Bradley and Brett and see them for a few days before heading on a road trip around the southeast. 

We were able to go to dinner with Brett & Gabriel, then hang out with them the evening we got back. It felt strange how quickly we adjusted back to having our car and driving around Nashville.

​On Monday, we went to The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s house. It used to be a large plantation and now has manicured grounds and the historic house you can walk through. I didn’t know a lot about Jackson’s background, but left feeling like we learned a lot. It was very interesting to walk through the house that has been preserved to the time the Jacksons lived there. 

We flew back to North America from Inverness on August 12. We got to the airport early in Inverness and spent some time in the smallest airport lounge I've ever seen! The employees were very friendly, helped with anything we needed, and even put on a little show (unintentionally) by trying to fix the broken coffee machine while we were there. It was lovely.

Our flight routed through Amsterdam and we were the only 2 passengers seated in business class. It was a quick flight and we spent a bit of time in the same lounge we visited on the way to Europe at the end of June. It was surreal to be back after over a month. 

Our flight to Toronto was uneventful, which was great. I read a book, Brennan watched several movies, and we got 2 more Dutch Delft houses! KLM is a great airline and we both said we would fly it again.

Our time in Toronto was pretty short, with 2 nights at the Hyatt Regency (which we would not recommend). I did some research and figured out that we could get to Niagara Falls on a train from central Toronto. It was a long, bumpy train ride, but the view at the falls was beautiful!

We only visited 2 new countries (Spain and Portugal) on this leg of our trip, but we fell in love with both of them! Portugal is beautiful and the Algarve region and beaches are so unique. 

The Algarve is not talked about much in the US, but it is the southern most part of Portugal. It is right on the Atlantic Ocean, but in a protected area between the north of Africa and the southern Iberian peninsula.

We flew from Barcelona through Madrid, to Faro. Our flights were easy and smooth. We had a quick layover in Madrid, just enough time to walk from gate to gate before boarding again!