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2025 Travels: USA & Guatemala
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  • Rachael Zielske

2025 Travels: USA & Guatemala

An open-ended adventure by Rachael Read more
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  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    I’ll never walk cornelia street again

    June 1 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    Today we are walking the streets Taylor has walked on! We went to Cornelia street to see her old place. We got to watch them making a commercial while there which was cool and led to some good New York esk photos. Very interesting to see the behind the scenes because it’s so casual and slow moving so it would be cool to see the end product. We then walked to Electric Lady studios and by matching photos of Taylor leaving we found the exact area of side walk she’s been on! We went to the park and had hot dogs and listened to buskers. Then of course more bagels which were so fresh it was amazing! Then off to our matinee of stranger things! So freaking good! The acting was out of this world! I was actually scared for the kid because he seemed possessed and the young versions of hopper and Joyce seemed like they were the tv actors. Ending the day with dumplings from china town, more pizza and some more subway rides. That was the end of a great trip! Definitely brought back my love of NYC!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Manhattan roof top cult

    May 31 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    Exhausted does not stop us though! We are heading out at about 9:30 for dinner and drinks at a rooftop bar. We are going to 230 Fifth St rooftop. When we got up there it was very strange as we walk out on a whole red robe cladded group of people. I thought we were walking in on something we didn’t want to know about. It was also super busy and we definitely didn’t want to stand after the day we had so luckily after a little we found a table. We also realized the red robes were for the cold which was very important as it was about 50 degrees. Very glad to join the clut to stay warm. We ordered food and fun drinks! Mine was a piña colada in a bag with a little rubber ducky inside! Very fabulous views and I liked the sign about being the “city that sleeps” because I was very ready for sleep. I saw some random guy from Gustavus who remembered me a lot more than I remembered him and I really had to wrack my brain to remember we had gone on one date way back when. How random! It was a fun way to end a good day.Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Brooooklyn!!

    May 31 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    Off we go to Brooooklyyyyn! We are meeting Chloe near where she lives and at a brunch spot she recommends. We get a coffee first as we wait for our table and then I have a big gooey French toast. She gave us a tour around Brooklyn first to the library and then to Prospect park. We watched some very cute swans eating in the pond and then continued on to see Chloe’s place. Cool to see the classic tiny New York apartment lifestyle. We continued our tour in dumbo and seeing the classic manhattan bridge view! I had no idea we were near by that view and it was exciting to just come around the corner and see such an iconic place. We had more pizza of course, this one less New York style but still very very good! We took the ferry back to our apartment and got those perfect skyline views. It was a classic over 10 mile walking in New York kinda day so we are exhausted!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Welcome to New York!

    May 30 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    Very excited for this early birthday weekend for Flan! It’s been so long since we were in New York I can’t remember what it’s like. Immediately when walking around with our giant backpacks on and walking through manhattan I’m feeling like how do people live here?! It’s so crazy busy and packed with stuff and people it’s like how does anything get done? But as we eat our amazing bagels (Nutella peanut butter cream cheese anyone?!) and get some coffee and AC back in our life I start to enjoy the vibes. We walked all the way to Central Park and hung out there for a bit to enjoy the sun and watch the birds. We got some live music and to eat some fruit. Later that night it’s show number one and first pizza of the trip! We went to Joe’s which is the famous place for pizza, lots of celebrities have been there and were pictured on the walls. We then rushed over to watch the show. It was a good one! Despite the story not being our fav it was such a fun one to watch and felt really like they were going magic in real life. I don’t know how they did some of those effects! Never end the night without a donut on the subway that’s the Times Square rule.Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Happy first cabin weekend!

    May 24 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    It’s always the best when it comes to the cabin time of year! It was a beautiful memorial weekend and I was so happy to finally be able to go up. It was a small group up there but we all got to chill, read, get some sun and so many beautiful sunsets. The water is still unbelievably cold, felt like an ice bath! But I was really just so happy to be swimming that I was having a blast anyway! We went to the chocolate ox by boat which is always fun and having all the doggies around was so cute!! Pebbles and Willow are having a difficult time calming down around each other but it’s so nice to get waken up by a puppy in the morning!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Perfect place

    May 24 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    I just can’t handle how awesome this weekend was! Couldn’t resist posting all these pictures. I mean how precious that pebbles cuddled me and Chris in the morning! Give me more of that.

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Sunshine and waves

    May 3 in the United States

    Yay we get to have a beach day officially! We headed to a food truck for smoothie bowls which were so freaking good! Wish I could have another one right now. Then we went to the beach and really didn’t move or leave for the rest of the day. It’s already our last day so we aren’t wasting time leaving to eat. It’s weird for us to not just eat all day but the sun is more important right now. Once the UV was down enough we started a bit of a bar and food crawl. First drinks and food at a hotel bar that was supposed to have muscles but was out?! So sad! Destin is much more fish forward than seafood interestingly. Then outside for a pina colada on the beach, then over to a little stand with beignets, and lastly to another restaurant to finally get muscles. We met some people from Alabama and talked most of the evening as we had our snack and drink. It was actually a bit chilly and they didn’t believe us that it was the same temp if not warmer in MN at that moment.Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Lets eat!

    May 3 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    How dare it rain on one of our only full days but we are going to make the most of it by eating all day. First up brunch at Bistrology. We did have to wait outside for over an hour and a half but wow the people watching there was good! A tiny parking lot with lots of people milling around waiting made for some dumb driving decisions that were very fun to watch. We also saw so many poor bachelorettes swing by just to find out it’s a 2 hour wait and having to leave again. The food was sooo worth the wait! The sun was shining as we went to the pier so we sat outside with a piña colada of course. We tried the pool after that but of course it rains again! We then waited for another 2 hours for dinner at Boshamps. Not quite as worth the wait but we got to drink and watch the storm as we waited. What else were we gonna do in the rain?Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Take me to florida!!

    May 2 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    It’s time for the annual Florida trip with Mike and Lane! We are quite sad for our hotel from last year who can’t open yet due to hurricanes but it’ll be fun to try a new spot. We are going to the pan handle! Destin! Feeling the Taylor swift vibes already. It’s a nice tiny airport which sped along the rental car situation, we changed clothes in the parking lot and headed to brunch! Pancakes for the table and mimosas is the way to start! Then we went to the beach, it’s a niiice white sand beach so off to a good start! As we do we head from the beach back to eating. The restaurant had buckets of drinks so of course we are doing that! And I tried scallops for the first time and a really good white fish with yummy sauce! Would go back!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Final days

    January 19 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 7 °F

    I was not the best at taking pictures on this trip overall so all I have to show for the non-skiing fun are these pics when we went out to eat. We had Thai food, so good! We also went to the brewery and played scategories. We watched all three psych movies and I read my book at night. The first night I read in a slowing deflating eating me alive air mattress. I definitely was on the floor and surrounded by plastic when I woke up. But other than that I slept well in Anna’s ice box of a house haha! We also went to a Zumba type workout class, made dinner, played with the cat. What a good and long weekend. (I will not be mentioning the tragedy (aka he who must not be named) that was Jan 20. we are pretending that didn’t happen!)Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Ski day number 2!

    January 18 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 7 °F

    Back to hitting the slopes! Today Isaiah gets to come with us officially. So we are trying some different runs since he knows so much of the mountain’s layout. It’s also a sunny day so I get to have the full views that make coming to Colorado so worth it! Going twice in a row made me extra confident, so I’m really glad I got the opportunity to go for a longer weekend this time. I pretty much just dove head first into any run they wanted to go on and we mostly were in blues today. I still have to go pretty slow but I’m not falling over and even though it’s about zero degrees and Anna and Isaiah are freezing I’m sweating from all my tight turns and pizzaing. Isaiah and I went to the counter to get lunch and the guy gave us half for free but I don’t even think that was on purpose! I have no idea what distracted him but we got a lot of corndogs and definitely didn’t pay resort price for all of them! We went out a little longer after lunch but gondolas were closing and we are tired! So glad I got to prove myself as a skier again and I felt really good about it! So much fun!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Ski day number 1!

    January 18 in the United States

    Today me and Anna are getting up early and heading out to ski. As usual when I haven’t skied for awhile I am nervous but I’m also excited and just have to remind myself that I could do it last time. Isaiah tasked us with bringing food up the mountain so we had to stop at the grocery store and mornings aren’t really either of our things so it’s not actually much of an early morning. Once we got to the mountain, I was actually feeling pretty confident right away. But I was still not sure where the line was for how good I really am. We had passed along our food haul to a ski patroller who was going to deliver the food while we skied but once it was lunch time we headed way up top where Isaiah and his work team have a tent to hang in while waiting for anyone to need help. However, the girl we passed the brats along to wasn’t even there yet! I guess we should have kept the goods. Eventually we were able to get the brats going on the grill and eat before heading out again. Isaiah brought us down to a doable run in the snow mobile! That was really fun! Makes me wanna ride one again soon! The rest of the day I gained confidence skiing and we did a few runs multiple times and that gave me the chance to relax and enjoy the ride since I knew no extra steep parts where coming!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    Late night naked spa

    January 17 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 18 °F

    The main event this evening was to hit up strawberry park hot springs. We got a reservation awhile back so we would for sure get in as it’s a pretty private place ran by the guy who owns the property. The whole thing was really magical and peaceful. It was hot hot so we stayed in the coolest pool and even jumped into the unheated flowing river nearby. Cold plunges are my new thing after the other hot spring last night. They feel especially good here where it’s all natural and the vibes are just so good. Anna and I (and even Isaiah) took off our swimsuits. It’s so dark it hardly matters. Getting out of the water was really the struggle but we put our swimsuits back on and ran over the snow in our bare feet to dry off. My hair was not having it! According to Anna it’s one of the coldest weekends they have had. Perfect for me as this MN winter has prepared me for negative temperatures for sure!Read more

  • Rachael Zielske2025 Travels: USA & GuatemalaTraveler

    First trip of 2025!

    January 15 in the United States

    Off I go on another trip to visit Anna in Steamboat Springs, CO!! I’m a bit squished into my airplane seat since I only have a backpack but have to bring all my winter gear. But the flight went smooth, was on time and at least for this leg of the trip there was no running through the airport. When I arrived I got to see where her and Isaiah live, and drive around town a bit. We also went on a walk with her roommate and saw a natural hot springs just casually on the side of the road. We also visited the gym which has a hot springs (I really wish my gym had a hot springs) and we went from the hot natural pool to the cold plunge and back. That was exciting and actually not as painful as I thought it would be. The next day I had to work from home for a bit while Anna went to her babysitting job. Working with a cat nearby is making up a little bit for working while on vacation!Read more

    Trip start
    January 15, 2025
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