After an incredible time in New York (I didn’t want to leave!) we hired a car and headed down the east coast stopping for a day or two along the way in Philadelphia, Annapolis and eventually Washington D.C. where we spent five days. It was great to explore smaller towns and neighbourhoods on the journey, especially the cute little sailing village of Annapolis! We were becoming pretty overwhelmed with the heat and humidity by now. When it gets hot in NZ there’s nothing better then heading to the beach and I was aching for a swim in the ocean! With a few misadventures along the way we eventually found an underwhelming but refreshing spot to swim. I think as kiwi’s we are ruined for the rest of the world, we’re so blessed our beaches are actually what paradise is made of! Washington was full of amazing history, monuments and museums. The home-made pop tarts from Ted’s Bulletin are pretty special too! I loved exploring all these places and I hope you enjoy a peek of the journey. Mountains, lakes and Californian coastline to come next time xx 

-Images are a mix of photos from my Canon 5D Mark III + iPhone 6-

Philadelphia- 

The Franklin Fountain provided some incredible old-school, ice-cream in Philly. The long line out the door was worth it, so yummy! This is Atlantic City… we actually stopped here (for about half an hour!) on our journey south. We were a bit naive and in our hunt for an ocean to dive into we thought we were heading to a beautiful sprawling beach. What we found was a tad disappointing and actually a little depressing. It was a ghost town with only an empty boardwalk and seedy casinos in sight. Maybe it was just not the right time to visit but the Atlantic ocean sure has nothing on the Pacific! Annapolis! We met up with my sisters friend and lovely, talented photographer Natalie Franke here in her cute town for a crab-cake filled lunch, mmmm.  We stayed a couple of days and finally found this little beach to swim at which we had to pay $6 each to go to! But the cool water was worth it.   Washington D.C.- Beautiful Botanic gardens! Lincoln Memorial- The White House!We stayed in another super-cute little neighbourhood. We went to Ted’s Bulletin for coffee and pop-tarts, their breakfasts had us envious too, such a sweet, authentic place, definitely worth having a meal there in you’re in D.C. The Zoo is free in D.C. so Esther and I went and saw some cutie animals! So many amazing galleries and museums!