Why travel is so important. Oh and YES, you can do it on the cheap.

I have a severe case of Wanderlust...and there is only one cure.

Ever since I was a child I have enjoyed traveling. Going to new places. Going to places I have been before, but finding new hidden treasures. And going full out - WAY outta the way - in an Airstream trailer park in the South of France and sleeping in a jail in Switzerland to seeing the World's Largest Booming Prairie Chicken in Rothsay, Minnesota. Strange? Maybe. Totally awesome hell yes!

I realized I haven't talked much if any of our travels in this blog, so I thought it might be time to change that. Our norm when we travel is cheap and possibly a little wacky, but it has served us well over the past few years so maybe it is time I shared a few of our secrets and a few of our favorite places.

Mark and I have been together for several years now and we are both so glad we found a partner that adores travel as much as the other does! While I was working on getting my Masters Degree in the gorgeous Ithaca, NY and our first international travel was too....wait for it...Niagara Falls! Yep. I grew up in Ohio, but had never been. It is actually incredibly beautiful and if you have never been I suggest it be on your list. 

We mainly stayed on the Canadian side eh, but if you don't have an enhanced drivers license or a passport going to the American side would also allow you to spend some time with this incredible force of nature. We returned multiple times since that first visit and even went back to see the falls almost completely frozen in 2015 (yes it was freaking cold, but it was also an amazing sight to see!).

So for this first travel installment I will keep it short and share some gorgeous freezing cold pics from the frozen Niagara trip.
Travel is important to expand your horizons and your comfort zones. It helps you see the world and other cultures in ways you have never before thought. So go! Go see stuff near and far. Just go!

Lesson 1: You don't have to go far to be a tourist. There are amazing things close to home and are only a day trip away.  Just go!

What are some of your favorite travel tips???

Looking toward the falls from behind them on the Canadian side.

Even though it was sooooo cold the views were beautiful!

More looking at the water flowing toward the falls.

Artsy falls picture.

It was so cold the mist was frozen.

The falls on the American side are pretty close to being frozen.

The mist freezes on the lightposts and railing...

Even with all the water flowing the water at the bottom of the falls was pretty icy.

Yes. We were cold.

Cold and gorgeous!

One more pretty shot once the sun came out...

Something new for breakfast! Cinnamon sugar fried sweet potatoes!

The eternal question: What's for breakfast?
Something new!

I love breakfast. Always have, which is odd because I come from a long line of non breakfast eaters...what is wrong with them?

So in the quest to add something new to the rotation I decided to add sweet potatoes. Yep, for breakfast. But what was I going to do with them? Looking around the kitchen I get inspiration from the left over cinnamon sugar from the previous days Christmas Cookie extravaganza. Okay here goes nothing!

I had purchased some sweet potatoes at Trader Joe's and had yet to use these little beauties so I grabbed two (they were on the smallish side - not the monster sized ones you get at some restaurants) and sliced them like I was going to fry regular potatoes.

I heated up one of my favorite cast iron skillets and tossed the sweet potatoes in. I cooked them until they turned a lovely golden brown (some might have gotten a bit overdone, but I am easily distracted), turning them often to make sure they cooked all the way through. My cast iron is well seasoned so I didn't add much oil, but I did toss in some Earth Balance Vegan Butter (If you haven't tried it, it is quite good) during the cooking. Yes, I am a veg head, but I am doing my best to incorporate more vegan meals into the rotation for personal and environmental reasons.

After they begin to brown I sprinkled them with the cinnamon sugar mixture - making sure to turn them so they get coated evenly-ish.

I served them with some homemade bread that had been toasted and we were good to go. I dressed the sweet potatoes with a bit of maple syrup and poof a delicious twist on breakfast potatoes. They turned out better than I had imagined and these will definitely happen again.

Do you have any happy recipes you have stumbled upon? Happy accidents? I would love to try them...

Why the ocean for a recipe? Because we all need a like ocean in our lives - even if we are currently living in the Midwest.