KMERRITTBLOG

Introducing: My New Travel/Food/Culture Blog

Yesterday I flew into Houston, Texas as the first day of my 30 day All You Can Jet journey! I’ll be documenting most of the trip on my new travel/food/culture blog, Just Visiting. This is my very first experience with jetBlue, and so far I’m extremely satisfied. Upon arriving out at terminal 5 at JFK, the jetBlue crew were giving out free jetBlue All You Can Jet jackets to all AYCJ-ers, along with pins, free donuts and coffee. They had a wall set up for jetters to share their journeys, so I of course used it to promote my blog and share my itinerary. Then I did a short interview on video explaining how I lost my job and decided to take this opportunity to travel the country and launch my travel blog. They even gave out free snacks and drinks on the plane, all while I enjoyed three hours of classic rock videos on VH1 Classic via DirecTV.

If you’re interested in keeping up on some of the photos and adventures, head on over to JustVisitingBlog.com, or follow me on twitter.com/KimJustVisiting. I’ll have limited wifi, so all of my time spent updating will most likely be on the travel site, at least for the next month! Here’s my itinerary:

9/7 NYC to Houston

9/8 Houston to NYC

9/9 NYC to Portland

9/10 in Portland

9/11 in Portland

9/12 driving up to Seattle

9/13 Seattle to Montauk

9/14 in Montauk

9/15 in Montauk

9/16 Montauk to San Diego

9/17 in San Diego

9/18 in San Diego

9/19 Greyhound from San Diego to LA

9/20 in LA

9/21 in LA

9/22 driving the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Francisco

9/23 in San Francisco

9/24 in San Francisco

9/25 Redeye down to Montego Bay, Jamaica

9/26 in Montego Bay

9/27 in Montego Bay

9/28 in Montego Bay

9/29 Montego bay to NYC

9/30 NYC to Naples

10/1 in Naples

10/2 in Naples

10/3 in Naples

10/4 Naples to Salt Lake City

10/5 in Salt Lake City

10/6 Salt Lake City redeye to NYC

Bon Voyage! Happy Fourth from the Midwest!

Gotta love holiday weekends! I’m at work right now, getting ready to fly out to Detroit in a few hours! I’m going back to visit the family until Tuesday morning, and I couldn’t be more excited— I haven’t been back there since December! My parents are picking me up at the airport at 7, then my friend Pat is meeting me at my parents house and we’re going to eat at Tango’s (which is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Toledo because of their amazing pot of flaming cheese). Tomorrow morning I’m getting my hair done (for $270 cheaper than it would cost me to do it in New York) and then having a miniature “pool party” all day at my parent’s house. The rest of the weekend is wide open, but I have to be on a 7am flight back to New York on Tuesday morning.

I hope you all enjoy your Fourth of July holiday weekend, and don’t blow a limb off with those fireworks! This is my first time taking my new camera back to Ohio, so expect many, many pictures.

My Photography Debut: Schmap.com

The other week I got an email from Schmap.com, complementing three photos from my most recent trip to San Francisco. They asked if I’d like to submit these photos for possible publication in their upcoming travel guide, so I said sure, why not? A few weeks later I found out they selected all three photos for inclusion in their eleventh edition of the Schmap San Francisco Guide. It looks like it’s only an online thing, but my name + link to my Flickr page still appears in the photo credits— pretty cool! If you want to see for yourself, check out the following links:

Coit Tower
Chinatown
Filbert Steps

Pitstop in ATL

Delayed in Atlanta. This is the most ginormous airport I’ve ever seen! This reminds me why I never book a flight with a layover.

I’m semi-excited to get home to my apartment. I had a wonderful vacation, but I miss having alone time, walking around my apartment in my underwear. I miss dancing around to horrible music while I get ready to go out. Oh, and I miss New York water the most! Florida water is so horrible! It tastes and smells funky; it makes my hair do weird things after I shower; it’s just bad. Okay, this post just took up 4 minutes of my time. Off to walk around ATL and waste another hour.

Rain Rain, Go Away

So it’s been raining for the past 36 hours. The only tan I got was from a Neutrogena bottle. At least we’re going to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants tonight, then I’m going a bit closer to Tampa for the rest of the weekend!

Clearwater Beach Bound!

Did somebody say bikini time?!

Newark to Tampa

Let the journey begin!

Pictures From My Trip to San Francisco!

“You got it dude!” – Michelle Tanner

I took over 550 photos in San Francisco. I guess that’s what happens when you visit one of your favorite cities with a brand new camera! I cut that down to about 315 for my Flickr account. I started uploading them around midnight last night, and didn’t finish until 9am today. It took 9 hours!!! I had to leave my computer on all night, but I’m so glad that I woke up to 90% finished!

Anyway, I’m still learning how to use my camera, so some of these could be a lot better; but there’s a few good ones in there! Check out my Flickr page, and be sure to leave some comments!

Goodbye, SF! Until next time…

I’m sitting at SFO en route to JFK. Not gonna lie, I’m a little bit sad. The only thing I miss about New York right now is my apartment- not living out of a suitcase, having clean laundry, and walking around in my underwear. Other than that, I’m not really feelin’ the 30 degree, snowy weather and the daily grind. Thankfully I’ve only got about 3 weeks until I head down to Tampa for a few days of beachtime!

I’m really going to miss San Francisco! Every time I visit I love it even more. And this time I finally got to see some extraordinary, breathtaking sites that I’ve wanted to see my whole life- the rocky Pacific coast, giant Redwood trees, and obviously so much of the gorgeous downtown as well. The bay area has everything I have always wanted- mountains, city, ocean. I definitely plan on moving out here in the future…

Pictures to come very soon! I went a little overboard: I took over 550 of them!

The Tanners!

“Everywhere you look, everywhere there’s a heart; a hand to hold on to…”