The Big Easy

 2013 was one of the best years of our lives & it was our first full year as a couple. J & I traveled to so many new places, ate more than two people should ever consume and grew so much as individuals. We saw so many bands that we love, J started No Waves Radio & I began writing for CollegeFashionista. Heck, this was even the year that we re-launched our baby, Stellar Piece. It was one for the books.

If you're ever wondering where I developed my lust for planning, meet my mom. She's constantly planning events & trips for the family. As my brother & I were going to be in the States for Christmas, my mom decided that we should all drive up to New Orleans in the family RV, which she lovingly named Darvee. As soon as she uttered the words "New Orleans", the city began popping up everywhere in my & J's lives. We randomly started reading a novel called Hotel based in New Orleans & Jake's brother was accepted to Loyola University (Go Max!). On December 26, we packed up the RV and headed north. 

Along the way, we stopped overnight in Pensacola at Blackwater River State Park and again in Mobile, Alabama where we saw Christmas lights at Bellingrath. These stops reminded us of the fun adventures that we've had at Fort De Soto & Hillsborough River State Park. On the 28th, we rolled into New Orleans & we were ready to explore. Although it was wet and freezing when we arrived, we braved the cold (literally) by getting onto the Hop On Hop Off open air bus. This is not a recommended activity if it happens to be rainy and 45° when you visit, especially if you have rice paper-thin skin like J. If you've ever even heard of New Orleans, you know that the first thing that you should do upon arrival is visit Cafe Du Monde, so we did just that. We waited for a cozy table for 8 of us & feverishly tore into some beignets and hot chocolate.

Over the next couple of days, we did everything that you could do in New Orleans. We went on a walking tour of the French Quarter & the Garden District, went on a (LAME) ghost tour and ate Po Boys. We also met John Goodman's dog, heard one too many stories about Nicolas Cage, met Phillip (the most soft-spoken tour guide alive), visited the WWII Museum & ate the yummiest hot dogs ever at a little dive on Magazine St. called Dat Dog (THOSE BUNS OMG). 

One of the highlights of the trip for me was when J & I walked two miles in the cold to get to a sweet little record store called Euclid Records on New Years Eve. On our walk we talked about how scary growing up can be, our life goals & how happy we are that we get share so many experiences together. It's nice to have such a cool best friend // lover // partner in everything. When we got to Euclid, we browsed through records for over an hour. J & I were in heaven. Our final choices consisted of No Age, Descendents, No Doubt, Mean Jeans & Vampire Weekend. We were getting ready to head back when it started to pour. Rain + freezing cold temperatures = :( We popped into a little restaurant called Elizabeth's next door & got hot coffee then hitched a cab ride back to Jackson Square where we rung in 2014 with some fireworks, kisses & the dropping of the Fleur-de-lis. 

We're also pretty proud of the fact that this trip led to the crossing off of two major items from our joint bucket list: "spend the holiday season together" & "be each others New Year's Kiss". I can't wait to knock some more of those out in 2014 (I'm looking at you, ride camels in Egypt.)

Traveling is always fun with J but this trip was even more special because we got to spend time adventuring with my family too. J & I absolutely cannot wait to fill the pages of Stellar Piece with more photos, words & memories this year. We're going to see new places, learn new things, eat more yummy food & grow together. Let's make 2014 the new "best one yet."

Love,

A & J

Almost Roughing It

This past weekend, my family invited J & I along on a camping trip to Little Manatee River State Park. If you've read anything on Stellar Piece before, you can probably tell that neither J nor I are really into pulling up our bootstraps & roughing it. The closest that either of us have come to being 'one with nature' was our 4-day Bonnaroo adventure & by the end of that we had basically swore off camping all together.

But we agreed to go because there are three things that Jake & I will never turn down: family, food & adventures. We arrived at the campsite around 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon & met up with my mom, Aric & Bentley who had been there with the RV since Friday. Mom had prepared her world-famous sandwiches for us & that is when our eating frenzy began. We seriously didn't stop eating for two days straight. Who knew there were so many perks to camping?

The rest of our family met up with us later & we all worked on setting up our tent. We had what could be considered the mansion of all tents. Jake, Ashton, Skylar & I surprisingly got the thing up pretty quickly. J & I put our own aesthetic touches on it with a few strings of lights & a colorful duvet for our blow-up mattress. If we're going to sleep in a tent, we at least have to do it the J & A way.

Camping is not a place for make-up or playing dress-up. It was nice to not worry about what I was wearing but that also meant that no one was in the mood for an extensive photo-shoot, so most of our photos were gracefully taken from behind. 

I learned that J has something in common with all little boys: he is completely fascinated by fire. Watching his face (literally) light up while he was manically spraying lighter fluid everywhere & yielding a big metal stoker stick was surprisingly endearing. Some things are always going to be cool, especially fire.

While Jake was off being a pyromaniac, I was on S'more duty. I taught all the kids how to make perfect s'mores: two graham crackers, two pieces of Hershey chocolate & one perfectly toasted marshmallow. Mmmm.

It got pretty cold in the evening which was fine by me because J & I snuggled close like little bunnies all night. We woke up in the morning feeling surprisingly well-rested, although our tent was a little humid from the rain. Then my mom broke the news to us: we were all going to go on a two-and-a-half hour canoe trip. As a girl who has little-to-no upper body strength, I have to admit that I was not really excited to be stuck in a manually powered metal torpedo. There were times along the river when J & I didn't see eye-to-eye, it may or may not be when I was flying full speed into a thorny bush or when I was nearly decapitated by a log, but it ended up being a growing experience for the both of us. Thanks for not giving up on me, J.

I ended up having the best weekend by just letting go & doing all of the things that I said that I didn't want to do. Sometimes it can be tempting to be stubborn & difficult, but I always end up having more fun when I just chill out & go with the flow. I was with all of my favorite people on the planet. We all just ate, laughed, almost killed each other in canoes & enjoyed each others company. That's what it's all about because at the end of the day life is just an adventure.

Love,

A 

Watch a short film that we made using footage from our little trip below. A & I are extremely proud of how it turned out. :)