L.A.

Only one more country left to post about from our big European summer adventure! In the meantime, I jetted off to L.A. with my Mom a few weeks back to visit my uncle, enjoy some sunshine and PLAY. I enjoyed L.A. far more than I thought! Obviously, it was great to get some sun and see my wonderful Uncle, but the food scene in L.A. is fantastic and shopping fabulous. Some many great vintage, mid-century, and curio shops. We had a blast!

These are entirely from my Instagram feed! Feel free to find me there
@dreaelise or @juniperandryekitchen!

 All the mint chairs. 

Lunch at home.  

And then we died and went to Mid Century furniture heaven. 

Gallery wall goals.  

This is Luna our resident bulldog and my new best friend. I am tried to bring her home with me, but I don't think she wanted to leave this spot. She wiggles, snorts, hugs and kisses with abandon and I bet if she could talk she would tell you she loves flamingos.

Like sister, like brother! David showed up to pick us up and he was wearing the same shirt as my Mom. This made my day and maybe my week. They were both paranoid about matching the rest of the week. 

Seriously, some of the best food of the trip! I can't stop dreaming about it!

We ordered two with a side of pickles, fries and cream soda.  

A truly magnificent collection of modern art at the Broad in downtown L.A. 

Clearly, I shouldn't be allowed anywhere near fabric stores.  

Tender Greens needs to come to Seattle A.S.A.P.  

Chef doll! 

And the family!

My #1 request was Korean food. It did not disappoint.  

Of course I found the pie place in our neighborhood. 

Keep on believing!

Play nice kids!

Amsterdam

I asked Peter a few weeks back, was there any part of our trip that stuck with him or he thought about more than others? Not necessarily our favorite place but a place that you just couldn't stop thinking about? For him it was Scotland (close second for me!). For me, it was Amsterdam. Amsterdam wasn't super high on my priority list for our trip but we ended up going to meet up with Peter's parents, Eric & Sherry and godparents, Steve & Karen, who were starting a Rhine River cruise to Switzerland. After traveling for 6+ weeks on our own, it was so refreshing and fun to see family!

Fyn, Denmark

How does one end up in Fyn (pronounced "foon" as far as we could tell)? Well, you search on AirBnB for a super out of the way place that has a wicked cute cottage and views of the sea. That's exactly what we found and we couldn't have been happier. At this point in the trip, we were pretty tired. Traveling and touring takes a lot of energy. Navigating new locations, new languages, food to eat, transportation, etc. It gets to you! And we needed a break and we found it in Fyn. This place just filled my heart with so much peace. It was the perfection of Hygge. Our hosts had literally thought of everything we could possibly need. From candles, to soft light, cozy blankets, herbs in the garden, bikes, heated floors, everything.

For most of our 1 week stay in Fyn, we barely left the house. We read, walked to the beach, watched movies, and cooked. Oh to cook! We had an oven, a stove and a fully equipped kitchen (pots, pans, baking supplies etc.). It was such a pleasure to have the space to bake and cook. I'm pretty sure I made biscuits and scones multiple times. We used herbs from the garden to make tea in the evening and watch the sunset. Glorious. I think we took a bike ride, once. On a wicked windy day. Beautiful, but kind of crazy we didn't get blown over by the wind.

The one day we did anything in particular, we took a day trip out to another small island (Denmark is basically all islands. Fyn is on one of the larger ones) where Peter's family is from. We'd had stormy weather most of the week but the weather cleared for a gorgeous sunny day for our drive. This part of Denmark is especially pastoral and green. We passed farms stands throughout every village. Rhubarb grows basically wild on the side of the road.

Just outside of Sondenbro, where Peter's family is from, there was a U.S. military installation (or former?). We arrived just before closing so we didn't walk through, but there was some fantastic graffiti art on the exterior of the building. 

I'll leave you with this view from our last night in Fyn and in Denmark. We left rested and our hearts full. Off to Amsterdam to see family!