I recently got to spend a really nice weekend with friends up in Traverse City and the nearby Lake Leelenau. It's an idyllic location for Michigan summer weekend, complete with cool natural lakes and upscale eateries.

Our cottage was right on Lake Leelenau, with a small path going right down to the water. We had a pontoon boat and two jet skis (which I hadn't ridden before), and we spent a few exhilarating hours crashing around the choppy waves. Just the view from the back porch at sunset was worth the three-and-a-half hour drive.

During the day we went downtown to Traverse City, a cool town with a distinctive feeling for tourism. Between the locally-made wines and candies, foodie-influenced restaurants, and breweries serving up local food and drinks, there was plenty to do - and I racked up about a hundred points on foursquare, thank you very much.

We took a short tour around to the local wineries where we sampled some more of the local fare. Shady Lane Winery had a lot of rosé wines - which aren't always my favorite - but the servers at the tasting bar were engaging with stories about the farm and their own experiences living "up north" in the winter.

Black Star Farms provided an additional treat with their locally-made Raclette cheese, which packs a nutty cheddar punch that pairs well with both white and red varietals. They also had some interesting dessert wines that I'm sure contributed to my 6:00pm hangover.

All in all it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back!

During my recent trip to Denver, we spent an afternoon hiking in the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs. It was probably the farthest southwest in the United States that I have been, and it was interesting to see the red rock formations.

Since that part of Colorado is about a mile higher in elevation than where I live, I got pretty winded climbing around on the rocks!

I recently returned from an amazing vacation to the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i. Commonly referred to as the "main" island, O'ahu holds Honolulu and Pearl Harbor.

There were so many things to do and see in Hawaii! My roommate and I stayed with our friend who lives as a teacher and, lucky for us, has an apartment right on the beach. In fact, we spent every evening watching the sun set over the pacific ocean from the apartment balcony.

The landscape was, of course, beautiful. There were volcanic mountains all across the island, and they often surrounded some of the most amazing beaches in the world. We went hiking up one of the volcanic mountains which was pretty intense - there were a few vertical climbs on our trip to the top! We also spent a lot of time on the beach swimming, snorkeling, and tanning in the sun.

All the beaches we went to had different wildlife. The beach by my friend's apartment had tiny sand crabs digging little holes in the sand and while snorkeling we saw many of Hawaii's native fish: humu­humu­nuku­nuku­āpuaʻa.

We also went to Hanauma Bay, which is a popular tourist destination for snorkeling. It's basically a coral reef that comes right up to the shore, so in some places I was floating in the salty water with barely a foot between myself and a world of plants, rocks, and marine life.

We spent one wild night in Waikiki, another popular tourist area that's popular for both its beaches and its nightlife. There are a ton of bars, clubs, and restaurants to go to and when we walked back to our hotel at 4:00 in the morning there were still a bunch of people out on the street.