Nature at it’s finest, at the Sakura Matsai cherry blossom festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden this weekend. Gorgeousness everywhere I pointed my camera—it was nearly impossible to take a bad picture. Photobomb, flowerbowb, cherry bomb!

Back in January, when I was in Hawaii, we were planning to go horseback riding.

Turns out we should have done the planning-part a little better, because all the rides were full.

Instead, we found this gorgeous path behind the horse ranch, where we made some new horse buddies.

At the end of the path was our reward: a pretty secluded beach.

/// chambray shirt, H&M / old tank, Marshalls / shorts, Roxy / backpack, Fjällräven Kånken / flipflops, Havaianas, from The Standard Spa in Miami ///

Aquariums are wonderlands to me.

Getting to see these amazing creatures is their (somewhat) natural habitats is an amazing thing.

There were all kinds of fishes.

Snakes.

And a giant whale skeleton.

My favorite was this amazing red octopus, but you weren’t allowed to take photos of him, because he’s very sensitive to light. The sharks were also amazing, but they swam too fast (I only have blurry photos).

I spent the latter part of this week in Baltimore, new territory for me. One cold and overcast afternoon I went to explore the Fells Point neighborhood.

Like much I saw of the city there were piers, boats and great old hand painted signage on brick buildings.

Amazingly rich visual texture everywhere you look.

In an attempt to brighten things up underneath the colorless sky I wore my favorite orange coat (which is actually bright orange), bought in Toronto two years ago.

We could have traveled to Fells Point by Water Taxi, but the New Yorker in me enjoys her walks too much.

Even though I am not a big fan of seagulls, they undeniably add a certain ambiance to it all. There were no other people around… perfect picturesque serenity.

On our last morning in Palm Springs, we decided to get up early and go to a horse ranch. It’s been at least a decade since I was last on a horse. My Frye boots were perfect for the occasion (wouldn’t want to go riding in flip flops or heels, the only other shoes I had brought). Smiled to myself when thinking about how my Stella McCartney jeans would probably be seriously frowned upon by real cowgirls.

It was 7:45am and there was still a chill in the air.

I love the smell of horses, it reminds me of going to the stables every week for riding school when I was little.

We were going to ride up there, into the canyons, eventually reaching a real desert oasis.

The ranch workers (cowboys?) took the horses out and gave each of us one. Mine was named Jack and liked to walk really close to the horse in front of him (“don’t worry if he trails close, he’s just like that”).

At a leisurely pace we made our way up the mountain. (See mom, I wore a helmet.) Immediately comfortable in the saddle I wondered to myself why I don’t do this more often.

Happy and dusty, we came back to the ranch two hours later. It was warm now, but only 10am—perfect time for brunch. Such a good morning.

The second night at Malaekahana we parked our VW right by the beach. This is how good it felt to wake up there.

Upon waking up, the first thing  I saw was this, to my right.

Then, this, looking down and straight ahead.

When living in a van, one becomes very good at crouching.

We had a classic Hawaiian breakfast of papaya with lemon.

Then, we left our camp to embark on the day’s adventures.

The people at the campground recommended that we go to this place called Hukilau Café for an early lunch. The place is famous locally beacause scenes from the movie 50 First Dates were shot there.

It was on a street called Wahinepee, which was funny because Wahine means Girl in Hawaiian. I had a decent salad for $1.50, probably the cheapest meal I had all trip.

After falling asleep by the fire at our little grass shack in Malaekahana, it was nice to wake up and be right there on the beach. Who needs beach chairs when you have awesome trees like this to lay on?

We took a morning walk and quickly realized we were the only ones on the beach—that’s what I call luxury.

We were surrounded by amazing nature…

…every which way we turned.

I sat down on a huge piece of driftwood to just admire it, while digging my toes into the soft sand. Paradise.

One of the main reasons that we opted to spend a night in one of the grass shacks at Malaekahana was that it came with a fire pit.

You called a guy who, a half hour later, showed up with a small truckload of firewood and made a big beautiful fire.

The shaka sign is widely used by Hawaiian locals. It’s pretty universal and can mean anything from “cool” to “thank you.” This is me doing, trying to look tough, throwing up a double(!) shaka.

We had wine, sake and ice cream (given to us by the very nice people in the neighboring shack) by the fire, pretty much the perfect camping “dinner.”

The fire guy came back several times to dump giant logs onto our glorious blaze, it kept burning long after we had fallen asleep, lulled by the sound of the crackling fire and the waves crashing on the beach. Pretty much a perfect night.

Bumming around Oahu in our ’78 Westfalia, we stayed at a few different campground. Our favorite, though, was Friends of Malaekahana, on the Windward side, near the North Shore.

The first night, we decided to stay in a grass shack on the beach instead of our camper van, this was our view straight ahead…

…and to the left.

Number 6—our little grass shack. I could totally live in one of these, if there was clothing storage and a bit more padding to sleep on.

It was so peaceful to sit in there, listening to the sound of waves crashing in the beach. We had no cups and I was totally busted chugging wine straight from the bottle (thank god for screwtops), while reading a book.

There are quite a few of these little shacks on the premises, as well as more “upscale” digs for those who are not into roughing it. The land is owned by the state and run by a non-profit, which makes staying here very affordable (something you don’t find a lot in Hawaii).

This, my friends, is my idea of happiness—ocean view, peaceful surroundings, a good book, a glass (well, bottle) of wine and, most importantly, good company.

Cold and sunny is a good combination.

Like gray and brown, up and down, warm and fuzzy, or light and shade…