Two Things You Need Before Your Next Travel Trip

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Master Lock. All opinions are 100% mine.

Last year I was able to travel to a couple different amazing places: upstate New York for the Wine Bloggers Conference, and Burbank, California for the New Entertainment Media Network Conference. I was also able to fly up to Seattle overnight and spend many day trips exploring Portland and other Oregon towns. 

Traveling to me is exhilarating and exciting. I love finding new adventures and places that I can share with you. Since I’m so new to this traveling and writing thing there is still a lot of little things that I need to learn, like different travel hacks and what I really need to pack to survive a few days away from home. 

A Trip to the Timberline Lodge

Last month for Emma’s birthday she decided to have an overnight trip to the mountain with family instead of a birthday party. She had always wanted to go up into the snow so this year I made it happen and we drove the two hour drive to Mt. Hood and stayed at the historic Timberline Lodge.

If you are from Oregon I’m sure you’ve heard of the lodge, which was declared a historic landmark in 1977 and has nearly 2 million visitors a year. Timberline is also the hotel that was filmed in Stephen King’s movie The Shining.

Zip-lining For the First Time

Have you ever zip lined before? Honestly it wasn’t something that I had given too much thought to until last September. I had heard of people doing it and enjoying it, but it had never been something that was presented as an opportunity for me, and I never went out seeking for it.

While I was touring the KOA in Ventura County though, we were offered the opportunity to check out two of their 3 zip lines - and I couldn’t refuse. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, and there was definitely mixed levels of bloggers, from experienced to novices like myself.

The KOA Ventura Ranch

Last fall while I was in California for a blogging conference (that one time I spent a day in Hollywood) we were lucky enough to venture out to Ventura County, California and spent the day at the Ventura KOA Ranch.

A Weekend in Hollywood

A couple of months ago I went on a quick adventure down to southern California for a blogging conference. It was my first time in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area and I must say, the flight down there was so much easier than my flight to the Wine Blogger’s Conference this past summer.

The conference was a pretty small one and I was lucky enough too had been given a ticket. I made some new connections which were fabulous, got to have a private screening of a couple shows, and got to (very quickly!) explore the area a bit.

The Wine Bloggers Conference: Day 4

Oh my goodness, how has it been nearly two months since this fabulous adventure? Today I'm sharing my final day at the Wine Bloggers Conference that was held in Corning, NY. To read about my first three days, check out my initial post here.

Sunday morning’s sessions began with a lively blogging panel which included Madeline from WineFolly.com, and Jana from MerlotMommy.com Their wittiness and sense of blunt humor made for a very entertaining hour, where they discussed questions from the audience. After one last panel, we all headed outside for the final lunch, and I learned a new food: spiedies. Here in Oregon I had never heard of them before, but they are chicken prepared on a skewer, then you take the chicken off of the skewer and place it on a bun, then from what I heard you scoop up more sauce on the bun.

The Wine Bloggers Conference: Day 3

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've hopped on here and said 'hello'! I'm finally getting back into a routine after nearly a month of traveling back and forth - I have so many adventures to talk about! Today I wanted to share day #3 of my trip to the Wine Bloggers Conference in Corning, NY last month. If you need to catch up you can find day #1's post here, and day #2 here. Be on the lookout - the final day #4 will be on here soon! :)

Saturday morning I drug my sleepy self out of bed to more sessions at 9:30 am, and after the sessions we were greeted with yet another tasty lunch. More sessions were held after lunch, including the second speed tasting. Saturday evening we all headed over to the Corning Museum of Glass, where we attended a live hot glass demo. It always amazes me how glass artists can create such beautiful masterpieces!

The Wine Bloggers Conference: Day 2

(See day one HERE)

You know you are at the Wine Blogger’s Conference when you begin tasting at 10 am with as much champagne being poured and consumed as coffee! The opening notes began promptly at 9:30 am the next day and we had a variety of topics, from our key note speaker Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible, to the Finger Lakes Country Tourism Board, who gave us a brief history on how the Finger Lakes happened, as well as the topography of the area. Lunch was presented by the Finger Lakes Country Tourism Board and we all sat outside eating salad and sipping wines of our choice from a variety of vendors at an expo held concurrent with lunch.

The Top Road Trip Snacks Kids Want

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I feel like we’ve been traveling a lot lately and for our family I guess we have. We began the month with a 5 day road trip to see family in southern Oregon, then I jetted off to New York for another 5 days, and this week we are planning to drive down to the beach and spend three nights camping in a yurt.

The Wine Bloggers Conference: Day 1

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know that I believe in making lasting memories and celebrating life whenever possible. Life shouldn’t be wasted sitting around wondering “if you should”, or “if you can”; life should be a wild ride full of experiences with your loved ones – and sometimes by yourself.

I’ve not done too much traveling in the past; I had only rode on a plane a handful of times, partly due to finances, partly due to my responsibilities of being a mom. However, when the stars align and things just fall into place for an adventure, of course I’m going to jump on it!