travel « Sunshine+Design

Easter getaway to Chincoteague, VA

April 9, 2012 at 4:01 pm | Posted in baby, life, photography, travel | Leave a comment
Tags: baby boy, beach, bunny ears, chincotegue, east coast, easter bunny, getaway, mr. whippy, soft serve ice cream, virginia

Look at my little Peter Cotton Tail!!! How adorable is heeee? :)

For Easter, we decided to get out-of-town before Daryle’s DJ season really ramps up and headed to Chincoteague island in Virginia for a four-day getaway. Since we had such a limited amount of time, we didn’t want to go anywhere too far. We love going to Ocracoke in the Outter Banks but that was way too long of a drive. We decided on Chincoteague, which is just south of Assateague where the wild ponies are. Chincotegue has some wild ponies too (which we saw) but just not as many. It’s not the cutest beach town, but it was a perfect spot because it wasn’t crowded, it’s only a 3.5 hour drive, and the house sublets were so reasonably priced; I’ll definitely go back.

Family

My mom and Jack, the first grandson on my side of the family.

I know I really overdid it with the bunny ears. In fact, I don’t think I got a single photo of Jack without the ears on. I’m sure he’ll grow up and hate the fact that I did this to him, but I figured I could make him a precious bunny once in his life. His all-white outfit with navy stripes is from Ralph Lauren.

We had one day at the beach despite the chill and wind. My parents love to go camping and are the kind of people who have everything. They whipped out this cool half-tent/umbrella thing that blocked the wind but allowed the sun in. It was perfect so Jack was safe from getting sand in his eyes as we felt the rays of the sun.

Baby boy.

Daryle and my step-dad, Steve surf fished as my mom and I caught up on our suntans.

After the beach we stopped in to Mr. Whippy for some soft-serve ice cream.

Hope you had a nice Easter or Passover weekend!

Jack visits Florida

March 21, 2012 at 9:23 am | Posted in architecture, baby, life, motherhood, travel | 1 Comment
Tags: baby on the beach, gainsville, horse farm, lawn ornaments, ocala, old horse, orman beach, ranch house, retirement community central florida, travel to florida

Daryle and I brought Jack to visit my home state, Florida. My dad and Daryle’s parents both live in Central Florida about two hours from one another. It had been at least four years since I’d been down to the sunshine state. Why it has taken so long is beyond me because we had the best time being reintroduced to the tropical climate and palm trees galore.

We stayed outside Ocala at Daryle’s parent’s house. Lots of fun things to do in their community: pool, jacuzzi that holds like 30 people, golf, nature and non-stop sun. Love it.

Jack did so well traveling. The flight was easy, only two hours. I nursed him on the way up and he slept on the way down without a peep. Daryle’s mom was thrilled to have us stay at her house. Our trip inspired the rest of the Maciochas to make their way down from Buffalo and Washington State to see us and meet Jack; turning the visit into a well-deserved family reunion.

This is my dad having a moment with Jack with Daryle’s father looking on.

The day we arrived was Daryle’s dad’s birthday. What a way to celebrate with his two brothers and sister and his two kids and grandkids. Neapolitan ice cream was served with that cake and let me tell you — it was good.

We were literally in the middle of the middle of the state meaning — no beach. But, there are swamps with alligators! We went on a hike through Silver Spring, a tropical forest. Though hiking in Florida is more like taking a stroll through a treelined area. The land is so flat that it’s a breeze to explore.

Daryle’s sis and two out of her three kiddos (we missed you Paige!).

Teens and adult (ha) looking cool on our hike.

Ooh, dragonfly.

The new little family. I love this backdrop. Jack is sucking on the Moby wrap.

Even though weren’t staying near the beach, that didn’t stop us from driving there. On the way east, way we drove past the most silly and amazing shop that sold lawn ornaments.

I have no idea who would buy something this large, but what a sight! There was probably an acre of land packed full of tin animals, far as the eye could see.

I almost forgot about the Florida lizards. Our nephew, Jake found a green one!

Jack just woke up from a nap.

Back in the car, crossing the intracoastal …

As soon as we reached the sand at Orman Beach (near Daytona), Daryle’s sister and her kids took off sprinting towards the water and dove in. It was a 75 degree day which meant the water was way too cold for this Florida orange. Jack and I enjoyed the ocean breeze.

Our last day in Florida was a special one for me. We visited my Great Aunt Georgie who lives near Gainsville on a horse farm. I have the best memories of my sister and me visiting there when we were very young. I remember exploring every room in my aunt’s spacious ranch house and then would run around in the yard looking at the pet goats No-No and Never (their names) and ride her horses. One unfortunate ride, a young buck went a little wild and galloped, quickly dragging my sister through a low hanging tree. (She was more than fine, just shook up.)

Walking into the house brought back so many memories. It was like a time capsule — everything was exactly as I remembered — except the house felt smaller now that I’m grown. There were even the same family photographs displayed — all aged with time.

The house is just fantastic. A modern designed ranch home with a conversation pit.

Jack saying hi to Aunt Georgie.

That’s Raffi, the horse that took my sister for a ride. He’s 39 years old. I didn’t know horses could live that long. He’s well cared for by my aunt and has a ton of land to roam.

It was the most gorgeous day. What I’ve always remembered from this part of Florida is the moss hanging from trees. It’s so picturesque and it’s nice to see trees with leaves on it during the winter.

My dad and his companion, Suzy.

We had such a good getaway. I don’t want to let too much time go before we visit again. There’s just too many special family members there to not go back on a regular basis.

Dream mid-century home in Portland

September 25, 2011 at 6:43 pm | Posted in dreams, gardening, homeownership, life, One of the most amazing things I've ever seen, travel | 1 Comment
Tags: house for sale, midcentury, portland

I’ve been in DC for eight years now and easily get wanderlust about a lot of places that I travel to. My poor husband has to listen to me go on and on about how much better the [fill in the blank] town is than DC and how it would be so perfect to live there. But as I mentioned before, Portland was the one place that we both were awestruck by. So what do I do? I am a whiz at researching cost of living, crime statistics, public schools, and even local creative jobs. I’ll go as far as looking up houses for sale in various neighborhoods. You could say it’s a hobby. :) I was really excited to find a website entirely dedicated to mid-century real-estate in Portland. It couldn’t be more perfectly our taste! Gah! And wow, what do ya know, this house pops up. The most dreamy, glass house with backyard zen garden and amazing views—just six miles outside the downtown area. I’ll take it!

I thought I had all of the Portland posts out of my system, but had to include just one more. I hope I never have Portland out of my system. With love.

Crater Lake and the last days of Oregon

September 20, 2011 at 9:32 am | Posted in photography, travel | Leave a comment
Tags: big pimping, crater lake, mount hood, mt. multmulah, oregon, phantom ship, photo bomb, portland

Crater Lake is probably one of the most remote places I’ve ever been. To get there, you have to drive to the middle of the state of Oregon, along a really long road until you reach the forest to begin your climb up 5,000 feet in order to see the lake.

Spectacular, isn’t it?

I love this photo.

As we drove through the mountains, we were shocked to see a snow capped peak. Apparently it is not uncommon for the snow to last all year at that elevation.

And then we saw it, the whole reason why we drove such distance. Crater Lake is 2,000 feet deep—the deepest in the United States. The water is so pure because how remote it is. The clarity of blue is incredible as the sky reflects on the water. That little rock formation in the lake is known as the “phantom ship” because it resembles and large ship at sea.

Me, having a moment. I love it here!

Can you spot the chipmonk?

We hiked on several trails within Crater Lake forest. This easy trail was full or wildflowers.

I always complain that Daryle gets in the way of all my photos. So this is a picture of him “photo bombing” (as we call it) my shot. :)

And in case you were wondering how I got around the beautiful state of Oregon—I drove this gas guzzling SUV. Every time I got in it I hummed Jay Z.’s song “Big pimping spending cheese” just because I thought it was appropriate. BTW, I loved driving it!

Coming to on the end of our trip, from Crater Lake, we needed to drive back to Portland where would fly out of. We found this lodge style hotel in Mount Hood that was nice enough.

I loved the plaid bedspreads, but the hotel room smelled like my college freshman year dorm which wasn’t a pleasant scent.

Before going back into the city, we stopped at a nature preserve to see one of the tallest waterfalls in the country at Mt. Multmulah.

I thought this photo was so adorable. It looks like a bunch of students were lined up by height for a class picture. Isn’t that so cute?

Enjoying our last moments before we need to be on our way. The coffee was in a compostable cup, of course.

Never want to leave.

Road trip down the Oregon coast

September 16, 2011 at 5:25 pm | Posted in design, photography, travel | 2 Comments
Tags: cannon beach, florence, local ocean, mo's, newport, oregon coast, sea lion cave, the hay stack

There’s a reason why the Oregon coast is called the coast and not the beach—it’s very foggy and chilly all year long—summer included. We were in Oregon for the last week of August and I layered on my cardigans and a all-weather jacket and scarf for this trip.

With the chill there is a mood in the air. I imagined it being home to poets and artists. Despite the clouds and fog, the majesty of the mountains and evergreens were nothing like I had ever experienced. There is no comparison to what we have on the east coast. My God, it was beautiful.
It was our anniversary and we had an apartment booked in Cannon Beach. Just like the beginning of the trip in Portland, we really didn’t know what to expect. As we were driving along the coast—as you do on the coast of Oregon—we spotted the most grandiose rock that was jutting out from the ocean.

We jumped out of the car and climbed down a windy path to the sand as the fog gathered around the sea. We could barely see in front of us.

But we stayed and peered out to the ocean … and little by little the fog cleared. That gigantic rock formation is called “The Haystack”

As it cleared even more, we spotted puffins on top of the rock. Those little birds had formed a whole colony up there.

Our perfect little lodgey apartment.

That evening, after the sunset, we hiked back to the beach in total darkness to have a beach bonfire (no pictures unfortunately). The air was full of mist and we really struggled to get the fire going. The air was even colder but we eventually got the fire going strong. We sat there for a long while and became hypnotized by the dancing flames. We held hands and listened to the waves.

The next day, we continued our journey south and stopped intermittently when we saw beautiful nature preserves. Words cannot describe the beauty of the evergreens. They were so lush and tall.

This tree is thought to be over 800 years old.

Our goal was to make it to Newport Beach before sundown. We didn’t have a place in mind to stay—we felt so lucky that we happened upon this adorable beach motel that was literally on the sand. They had one room left—the “antique” room. It looked like something out of your grandma’s house. Frilly doilies, prints of Renoir paintings and a hanging chandelier.

The best part about the room of course was the picture window that looked out to the ocean. Even though it was mostly too foggy to see, we slept with the windows open and heard the sound of the waves all through the night.
A faux fireplace really did keep the room toasty.

Daryle: looking out at sea with binoculars supplied in the room. Me: trying to take a picture of us.

Walking around on our private beach. The tide would come in and form little wave pools on the beach. I bet thunderstorms are incredible to watch from inside. Piles and piles of driftwood.

We carried on exploring the sites of Newport.

And had the best dinner at a restaurant called Local Ocean. Originally we were planning on going to the famous restaurant called Mo’s but the innkeeper advised us to try something a little less commercial with the freshest seafood possible. One of the best meals we had while we were there.

Us.

We drove to Florence, and spotted the Sea Lions Caves—a total tourist trap, but stopped anyway.

Those sea lions are really loud and rough with one another.

A sea lion skeleton.

Looking in from the cave.

Daytime in Portland – I’m seriously moving here

September 14, 2011 at 10:49 am | Posted in architecture, classic, design, gardening, photography, travel | 1 Comment
Tags: fuel injection logo, hand churned ice cream, marion barry, marionberry, mississippi avenue, oregon, pistils nursery, portland, psu farmers market, public domain coffee, vintage car show portland

We started off the day with coffee and a muffin at a sleek and modern coffee shop called Public Domain.

Wow, check out Portland’s “subway” system—more like a monorail.

We found the most amazing farmers market at Portland State University. I have never seen a market so big. All of the sellers were super friendly encouraging passersby to try a sample.

We discovered a berry called a marionberry. What?!?! That’s the same name as DC’s infamous, crack smoking mayor, Marion Barry! It turns out a marionberry is a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry and it tastes so sweet.

This guy was rocking out. I’m not sure what that horn/pipe thing is called, but he had a few of the instrument, each a different size and tone.

Spectacular, aren’t they?

I noticed many of the shoppers had their very own unique basket. I’ve seen these baskets in Sunset magazine and Organic Gardening magazine’s shopping guide. It certainly adds to the quantness of shopping at the market.

–

From the market, we stumbled upon a vintage, custom-made car show.

That’s my hot ride.

The Fuel Injection logo never gets old.

—

My very favorite part of Portland was the Mississippi Avenue area. A street packed with the greatest little microbrew bars, a hand churned ice cream shop, a few vintage stores, a few more knickknack/fantastic gift stores, one of the city’s best vinyl shops, an amazing architectural salvage store, a handmade modern furniture store, and so much more.

This was by far the best little garden/nursery I’ve ever been in. It is called Pistils Nursery and it’s packed with the most beautiful terrariums, interesting succulents and indoor plants.

I loved this hanging plant inside a wire bowl.

The backyard of the nursery housed loads of sustainably grown plants and vegatables for sale.

And chickens of course.

—

We just could not get enough of Portland. Everyone was super friendly, and it was interesting to be in an environment that was so dedicated to being eco-friendly. That mindset is deeply engrained in everyone. You can’t buy something without it being placed in a compostable bag. We bought lemonade from a little girl at a lemonade stand who served us the refreshing drink in a compostable cup, complete with farmers market blueberries! There are recycling trash bins all over the city. Why can’t DC adapt that attitude? It really made us want to live differently. We loved the sense of community and the respect for art and design. Every single restaurant and shop had a unique style, each with the best signage. There were tons of vegetable gardens—even in people’s front yards. I could so be that person. I noticed that most people drive a Prius, or a really old little tiny car, or a VW bus. There is respect for preservation and interest in being true to yourself rather than keeping up with the Joneses. —Which is sometimes hard to get away from here on the east.

An evening in Portland (wish I was still there).

September 13, 2011 at 12:52 pm | Posted in design, photography, travel | Leave a comment
Tags: dancing, david hume kennerly, downtown portland, hotel lucia, oregon, portland, tango, volkswagon buss

We stayed two lights at Hotel Lucia, a swanky, modern hotel in Downtown, Portland.

The hotel had the best black and white photos by David Hume Kennerly—mostly presidents and political figures in Washington, DC. How great is that photo of Hillary?

Bush, Reagan, and the likes. Boy, I leave DC for a week and still can’t get away from politics. :)

I was surprised by how tall the buildings were in downtown. Really tall! Portland is a real city. Why did I think it was a small, hippie town?

We went for a walk in search of a restaurant. I lost count of how many cool old cars and original Volkswagon Buses I saw. No lie.

We stumbled upon a live tango session in a public square. There must have been five accordion players. I just love the romantic sound of an accordion. I said to Daryle that I felt like we were in a Woody Allen movie. He captures those emotional moments so sweetly with the perfect music in the background. If only I could always live like this.

We ate dinner outside across the street so we could hear the music. When the sun went down, the music was still going strong, and the dancers were even more intense.

—-

to be continued…

Exploring the West: Hello Portland

September 12, 2011 at 11:05 am | Posted in design, fashion, travel | Leave a comment
Tags: duchess, oregon, portland, portland bridges, west coast

Almost right after Daryle and I got married last year, he received a call from a potential wedding client wondering if he would be available to fly to Portland, Oregon to DJ a wedding. The only catch was, it was the same weekend as what would be our wedding anniversary. When Daryle asked how I would feel about going to the West for a wedding gig over our anniversary, I exclaimed “of course!” Up until this past week, we had only been to California a few times. We long to be in the west, love the terrain, and oh, what an adventure we could have.
We honestly knew very little about Portland. Back in the day when I lived in the Dupont Circle area of DC all five of my roommates (we lived in a really big, really old [crappy] house) were from Oregon except me. We jokingly referred to house as the Embassy of Oregon and dreamed that we should hang an Oregon state flag outside the house. I knew that Portland was a liberal city with a lot of bicyclists, but that was about it. Upon our arrival, I had (and still am) been so so busy at work that I didn’t have a spare moment to research things to do or the areas to hang out in. We quickly learned that the city of Portland (a.k.a. PDX) is divided by a river with four bridges connecting the east from the west making it easy to get to either side of the city relatively quickly.

One thing we did know about however was the ever cool custom suit shop called Duchess. Daryle had read about the shop and knew they designed suits for the likes of Nick Cave and DC’s most famous musician (and personal friend of ours :)) Ian Svenonius who rocks his suits all over this city. For our wedding, Daryle had wanted to get his suit from Duchess, but we thought it would be a lot of ask all of his groomsmen to have custom suits made to match his. Before we even arrived, Daryle had made an appointment to get his measurements taken to have a suit made to speck. We were so excited to see the hundreds of different colors and textures of fabric available to choose. Daryle settled on a Rat-Pack, slim cut, three-piece suit with a thin lapel in a light weight black wool. The most fun part was picking the inside lining of the coat. You can really get fancy and flamboyant if you want to. He picked a gorgeous brown and baby blue pattern. Fabulous.

The suit on the left in black is similar in style to the jacket and vest Daryle picked.
Here’s the seamstress in action.

The suit should arrive in three months. Somebody is going to be looking snazzy at Thanksgiving dinner.

—

to be continued…

Weekend trip to Historic Culpeper, VA

May 31, 2011 at 1:00 pm | Posted in life, travel | Leave a comment
Tags: bull run, civil ware fence, culpeper, dj d-mac, foti's restaurant, getaway to culpeper, manassas, reston town center, sperryville, va, washington dc wedding dj, wedding dj

Over the weekend, Daryle DJ’d a wedding in Sperryville, VA which is a good 70 miles outside of DC. I don’t generally ~~crash~~ attend the weddings he DJs, but when they’re out of town, I like to tag along for the ride. I will take myself out to dinner, get my nails done and lay about in the hotel’s king size bed! This weekend, my two besties Dylan (also Daryle’s roadie) and Erin (Dylan’s GF and my bridesmaid!) came along too.

The closest hotel to Sperryville was in Culpeper. Before our arrival, I envisioned Culpeper being a really boring Anytown, USA setting, but was impressed to find a darling authentic historic area.

Erin and I walked about the town peering in windows. We stopped into an antique shop run by welcoming old ladies. It smelled like a candle shop.

This is a really cool consignment shop with a ton of Radio Flyers.

As we continued on, we found a fantastic French cooking shop that was having a wine tasting too! Lucky for us, we chatted up the owners who recommended we hop around to a bunch of restaurants for appetizers to get a feel for the local vibe.

After trying a seafood place for calamari and chowder, we found our way to Foti’s, a dark and cozy restaurant with an eclectic American menu. I loved the atmosphere with hanging chandeliers and rich oil paintings and prints throughout.

The coffee was strong and French pressed—just my style.

The following day, on our way back to DC we drove through Manassas, VA. Route 29 is lined with the Civil War fences near Bull Run.

Daryle had yet another wedding to play. These holiday weekends can be really tiring. I love them for the extra day off, but Daryle really takes a beating with the back-to-back late nights. Of course he rocks the party which makes it all worth it in the end. :)

Erin and I continued on with our fun. We stopped in Reston, VA (of all places!) to check out the Reston Town Center. I crack myself up sometimes because as much as I love being a city-bird—I also love going to the ‘burbs to shop. You can park anywhere you like, all the stores are spacious with huge selections that aren’t picked over, and all the salespeople are friendly and attentive. It goes a long way for me.

No matter how many Anthropologie’s I’ve been to in the past month (there are two in DC) plus shopping online, I couldn’t hesitate trying on this yummy white shirt from their sale rack.

…and this is just because: he’s cute.

Hope everyone had a fun long weekend!

Summer is really here isn’t it? It’s hot and muggy and you know what? I love it!

Our summer wedding in Upstate NY

April 28, 2011 at 10:43 am | Posted in design, One of the most amazing things I've ever seen, photography, travel, Washington, wedding | 3 Comments
Tags: anne barge wedding dress, brandon lata, buffalo ny wedding, chevy chase bridal wedding dress, fellici studios, katie and daryle's wedding, saturn club, upstate new york wedding

Daryle and I were married Saturday, August 21, 2010 in Buffalo, New York. It’s hard to believe eight months has passed since the big day. As I look back, I recall that never in my day was a the kind of girl who dreamed about her white dress and all the details in between. But in the end, I got what pretty much every girl dreams, a magnificently fun wedding weekend, rain and all, sharing our most momentous occasion with our family and closest friends. We wanted people to eat, drink, dance, celebrate and explore upstate NY which has become a second home to me; and that they did. Without further ado …