Sleeping Bear Dunes

In 2012, when I went on an Out West road trip with my husband and friends, we took the long way back home to Metro-Detroit - via Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and snaking down through some "can't miss" spots in the northern Lower Peninsula as well.

Here are some of my favorite photographs of the Sleeping Bear Dunes area, which I took on that trip. The Sleeping Bear Dunes was recently named the most beautiful vacation spot in America, and it's certainly true that there are some gorgeous views. For those who don't know it's location, it's on the north-western part of Michigan's Lower Peninsula (the one that looks like a mitten). It boasts gigantic sand dunes overlooking Lake Michigan.

The Greek Island of Santorini (Part 2)

Here are the rest of my favorite photos from my trip to Santorini in 2011. As with all of my photos, I take these pictures, catalog them on my computer, and keep them so that I can use them as inspiration for future artworks. (Some of them I've already used! See if any look familiar to you...)

The Greek Island of Santorini

For our 2011 honeymoon, my husband and I went to the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini. Santorini is famous for its caldera - the "crater" created by an ancient volcanic explosion which has since filled with water. As a result, there are many breathtaking views of buildings along the cliffside, overlooking the caldera (and what is left of the still active volcano in the center of it).

Here are some of my favorite photos from Santorini. (I'll post more photos in tomorrow's post as well - there were just too many good ones for one post!)

The Greek Island of Delos

Next to the Greek island of Mykonos there is a little island Delos, the mythological birthplace of twin gods Apollo and Athena. While visiting Mykonos for our honeymoon in 2011, my husband and I took a quick day trip over to Delos to see the ancient ruins (and cacti!).

Here are some of my favorite photos from Delos:

The Greek Island of Mykonos

After visiting Greece (the mainland and Crete) as part of my study abroad trip in 2008, I knew I wanted to go back to see some of Greece's other islands some other time. Thankfully, the opportunity arose in 2011, when my husband and I were planning our honeymoon. We spent a week in Greece - a few days on the island of Mykonos and a few days on the island of Santorini.

Today I'll be showing my favorite photographs from Mykonos. As with all of my source photos, I plan to use these in the future for artwork inspiration.

Montpellier, France

The first time I traveled abroad was in 2005, the summer before my senior year of high school. I went with a trip through the school that had us spending 3 weeks with a French family in southern France (in or near Montpellier) and then 4 days in Paris before returning home.

The photo quality isn't great for many of these images. Not only was camera technology much more primitive back then (eleven years ago!!), but I also had only one 256 MB SD card with me on which to store my photos, so I was very limited on space. Nonetheless, these are some of my favorite photos from Montpellier.

Fanciest McDonald's Ever.

My first time seeing the Mediterranean Sea!
At a beach near Montpellier

The backyard of my host family was *gorgeous* and had an adorable pool

My host family also had a table set up under some grapevines. We ate outside nearly every night, because the weather in southern France is pretty much perfect. (Mosquitos notwithstanding.)

The ruins of an ancient Roman bridge we visited near Montpellier

A French candy shop!

More delicious candy and cookies!

I was lucky enough to return to Montpellier again in 2010. After the Mediterranean Cruise my husband's family took (which started and ended its voyage in Barcelona, Spain), my husband and I extended our vacation for a few more days so that we could take a train to Montpellier to see my French family again, and then see Paris (which I had seen on my 2005 trip, but my husband had never visited before).

Unfortunately, the train we took was delayed - apparently someone fatally jumped on the tracks ahead of us, causing our train to sit for a few extra hours before arriving at its destination. So we didn't get to Montpellier until after dark, and then had to catch our train to Paris the next day. Our sightseeing time in Montpellier was limited (hence the lack of pictures from 2010 in this Montpellier collection), but we did get to visit with my French family again, which was undeniably cool.