If you’re visiting Seattle and looking for a natural escape, a day trip to Snoqualmie Falls is something you simply must do. Just a short drive from the city, this majestic 268-foot waterfall is an incredibly beautiful wonder to experience.

Nearly 10 years after my first visit to the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, I revisit to see their centralized collection of over 30,000 works spanning 5,000 years of history. I will always love to see the work of Mark Rothko anywhere and more recently Georgia O'Keefe, but I also love to see local artists featured in their hometown museum and of course the ever-provocative work of Black artists.

When you’re in a city for two weeks, of course you have to eat, so why not choose great food? Before my family and I arrived in Seattle, we heard from various people that seafood and Asian cuisine were the way to go, so we found plenty of restaurants that offered both, but we also discovered restaurants that offered other cuisines that were just as tasty.

Seattle is brimming with locally made goods and internationally sourced items. Pike Place Market is the most ideal place for tourists to shop for artisan items, but you will also find shops all over the city and surrounding islands like Bainbridge that sell stunning, one of a kind pieces.

Luray Caverns, a natural wonder and one of Virginia’s great treasures, features incredible stalactites and stalagmites formed over millions of years. Highlights include the Great Stalacpipe Organ, which produces music by tapping on natural formations, and the Dream Lake, a mirror-like pool that so perfectly reflects the formations above. To me, the caverns are a reminder that you don’t have to travel far to experience something extraordinary.

In 2018, on my second-ever solo trip, I found myself at Candlefish in Atlanta for a candle making class. Although this location has since closed, Candlefish still welcomes crafters in Charleston and Boston to create something meaningful with your their two hands. For $60, you'll spend an hour and a half with experienced chandlers who will walk you through the process of fragrance blending.

Each year, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) transforms into a breathtaking display of fine art and vibrant blooms during the Fine Arts and Flowers Biennial. This unique event, which began in 1987, invites floral artists to create stunning arrangements inspired by the museum’s permanent art collection. The result? A treasure hunt of bursting colors.

When it comes to the best fried chicken wings and fries in Richmond, my go-to spot is Manchu, a New Orleans original that recently opened its second location right here in Virginia’s capital, more specifically the Northside neighborhood.

I know many good spots in my city, but I’ll be the first to say I don’t know them all. I was introduced to Birdie’s over the summer and had been hearing great things about it. Looking for Christmas-y things to do, I was surprised to find that Birdie’s creates an annual pop-up called The Evergreen that transforms the space into a winter wonderland with extravagant decorations that are sure to bring you holiday cheer.

One of Miami Beach’s most iconic and Instagram-worthy attractions is its collection of colorful lifeguard towers. On my recent trip, I set out to walk the length of Miami Beach to see as many of these artistic structures as I could. I managed to visit nine of them, but with 36 of them scattered along the shoreline, there’s plenty left to explore.

Miami is an ideal vacation for escapism without having to leave the country. The combination of bold colors, warm sun, and being by the water is truly undefeated.

For a week, I walked around absorbing as much of this kind of energy as I could, hoping to bottle a bit of it to return to Virginia with me. I look at the photos I captured and they feel like a whispered memory from an old friend, vibrant and alive, yet just out of reach until next time.

When I first saw that Pharrell Williams was collaborating with David Grutman to open the Goodtime Hotel in 2021, I immediately added it to the list of places I wanted to stay—partly because Pharrell is a fellow Virginia native and partly because I fell in love with the aesthetic. It just seemed like, well, a good time.

After spending a week there, I thought I would clue you in—is it really the ultimate "good time" as the name suggests? Here's what I loved and then a few things that caught me off guard.

Something I never really considered about seeing art across the country is how much culture and geographic location can influence the collection of work shown at a museum. At Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), I was introduced to the work of several Latinx artists, a group whom I’ve not had the privilege of seeing much in museums before now.

Nestled in a relatively quiet area of downtown Miami, lies a quaint Vietnamese restaurant called Tâm Tâm. I had never knowingly had Vietnamese food, but one look at the menu and I knew it was a place I needed to be. If you could measure a restaurant's worth by entry, the line outside suggests an upcoming acclaimed experience. Modest in size, Tâm Tâm is the definition of a local treasure and the kind of place I prefer to find myself when it comes to food.

Chicago is full of food gems, and each time I visit the city, I make it a point to try new restaurants, preferably black-owned. Chicago is a city in which you’ll find many Southern restaurants because The Great Migration brought the food I’m so accustomed to in Virginia up north and then across the country. Dining at these restaurants always feels familiar in that way, but I also have come to expect and enjoy the surprises that evolution and a geographical change can bring to such classic and time-honored dishes.

Big Jones in Chicago was mentioned on one of my favorite Netflix series High on the Hog, so you know I had to add it to my list. If you can find any type of cuisine in Chicago, it’s Southern food, thanks to the great migration, and Big Jones beautifully marries tradition with a fresh approach to Southern cuisine.

Eating a black-owned restaurants whenever I travel feels particularly important to me, because it’s an experience that makes me feel at home and reminds me of my culture. We may all be in different places, but food connects us by the continuation of traditions that define Southern cooking, and I’ll always be grateful to places like Virtue for that.

Chicago is really a vibe and somewhere you can go many times and never have the same experience. Like every city, there are just some things you absolutely must do while visiting. Here are the top seven I recommend based on what I enjoyed most.

One of the best things to happen in terms of entry, is the mandate for clear, security-approved stadium bags. They are not my first fashion choice when it comes to bags, but they are practical and affordable for the occasion. Let me show you how I pack my festival bag.

As you well know from this blog, when I travel, I am all in for excursions, walking tours, beach days and whatever else keeps me out and about and moving. Effective sweat and odor protection is mandatory because I must smell good at all times. SheaMoisture has introduced its first-ever antiperspirant deodorant collection specifically designed for rich melanin skin, ensuring you stay fresh all day, every day.