I love this Sunshine suitcase from Radley. The cure floral print makes it easily recognizable, and the design helps keep your stuff organized. It comes with a padded laptop compartment; a zippered area for cables and electronic equipment; several mesh compartment for unmentionables, sunglasses, and accessories; two shoe storage bags; and a laundry bag. It also has wheels and a collapsible, soft-grip handle. It’s on the pricey side ($315), but I think the extra cost it worth it for good luggage.

Like pretty much everyone, I love to travel. I want to see the world, especially since my husband’s grandma lives in France and my dad works in Singapore. These opportunities are too good to pass up. But one vacation I’ve been dreaming about for years is a trip up the Pacific Northwest Coast. Ideally, I’d like to visit Napa, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle (I used to live there!) and Vancouver. But if I only had the chance to see one of these cities, I’d choose Portland.

I’ve never been there, but I just get a certain vibe about it. It seems like a big city with a small town mentality. Very green, with lots of buses and biking, fabulous gardens, a great arts scene, tons of outdoor activities…it just seems cool.

Travel Portland has a lot of great information about the town, including lodging info, the shopping scoop, and details about the arts scene. Portland is also home to four amazing gardens: the Portland Classical Chinese Garden, The Oregon Garden, the Portland Japanese Garden, and the International Rose Test Garden.

The site also breaks down the various arts neighborhoods, has dining suggestions, and even offers multicultural and gay/lesbian information. I know that I’m going to love living in Austin, but I hope that once I’m all done with school I get to live in Portland for awhile. In the meantime, I’ll be saving up for a vacation!

Photos courtesy of Flickr:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleeker/126738485/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericappel/289854997/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/cassidy/8583635

Tra-la-la-la-la!

Some of you (if, in fact, there’s anyone out there reading this) might have noticed the rather weird pattern of my blogging. I got going, disappeared for awhile, and then resurfaced with a vengeance. The reason for this is that I was off traveling.

My first trip was an unexpected emergency. I had to go to Louisiana (which entailed driving through Alabama twice in one day, ugh) to visit my grandfather, who was extremely ill and in the hospital. He seems to be improving, which is fantastic, but one of my cousins is now very sick, so I’m just hoping my family will get well, already.

My other trip was a vacation back home to Florida (check Flickr for the pics). Hubbers and I went to visit my parents for a few days and had a great time. There were pedicures, shopping, jet skiing, putt-putt, two(!) meals at Peg Leg’s… I also had the chance to attend Nancy LaNasa’s jivamukti yoga class at the Avery Center. It was the first time in 4 years that I had the opportunity to go, and it was amazing! Even though I’m still feeling it 3 days later, it was totally worth it, and I wholeheartedly recommend going if you get the chance.

I think I even returned home a little invigorated, which is good, since I have a lot of projects going on. We are redoing our office, which has thrown the entire house into chaos, plus I have a heavy workload right now (summer is busy at the library!). Things will only be getting busier-in July, my in-laws are coming to visit! (No sweat, we’ll have a great time.)