festival of lights — Hannah Elise Schultz

Adventures in
Serendipity

— Hannah Schultz (biographical name): a Kentuckian, traveler, PhD student, hiker, environmentalist, and Great Pyrenees enthusiast

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things

Travel With Me: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Day One)

For Ryan’s 30th birthday, I offered to plan a surprise trip for him. He had some general options to choose from (beach, hiking, city, cold/hot climate), but the rest would be revealed only when we were in the airport on our way there. As a huge Christmas fan, something that Ryan has always talked about has been going to the European Christmas markets, and since his birthday is mid-December, this felt like the perfect opportunity for this trip. He ended up blindly choosing from one of my Christmas market itineraries (among the choices he didn’t pick were Munich & Salzburg, Vienna & Budapest, Vienna & Prague, and Switzerland & Strasbourg). Right after passing my first qualifying exam for my PhD, we were off to experience the Christmas season in two new (to us) European destinations: Amsterdam and Brussels!

TravelHannah SchultzJuly 15, 2023travel, travel with me, International travel, amsterdam, netherlands, kattenkabinet, christmas market, ice village, canal cruise, festival of lightsComment

Dec 31, 2023

Photography and Video, Life

A Year in Pictures: 2023

It was a year of travel to new and old places, the year I started my dissertation, the year I hiked eight miles and up volcanic sands while pregnant, the year we bought a wagon to take Argos on adventures again, and most importantly, the year that I become a mom.

Oct 21, 2023

Travel With Me: Maui & Big Island, Hawai'i (Days Eight, Nine, & Ten)

Our final day on Maui was much more relaxed (at least for me) than the previous. While Ryan went on a scuba diving excursion to the Lahaina Cathedrals (which was one of his favorite parts of the whole trip), I got a prenatal massage at the spa at the neighboring hotel to ours and read a book on the balcony. We then spent the rest of the day lounging in the pool and enjoying some farmer’s market soursop (a fruit I’ve only ever had in Hawai’i and am obsessed with).

Maui, Hawai'i (Day Seven): Road to Hana & Wai’anapanapa State Park

Oct 14, 2023

Nature, Travel

Maui, Hawai'i (Day Seven): Road to Hana & Wai’anapanapa State Park

By far one of the most famous activities to do on Maui is to drive the Road to Hana, a 64-mile stretch of highway along the coast, connecting Kahului to Hana. While the drive technically only takes three hours, what’s special about it is the number of roadside stops to see waterfalls, buy fresh banana bread, and take dips in the ocean. so plan on spending much more than a few hours on this excursion. While ideally you would stay the night in Hana to maximize your time for pit stops, it is possible to hit some of the highlights in a single day.

Adventures inSerendipity

— Hannah Schultz (biographical name): a Kentuckian, traveler, PhD student, hiker, environmentalist, and Great Pyrenees enthusiast

Adventures in
Serendipity