Balabanova All Over
#TakeYourTimeOff
About Nadya
Hi there! I am so glad you found me! My mission is to empower you to #TakeYourTimeOff and explore the world. I started this blog as a way to keep family and friends in the loop when I went on a 3-week trip to Asia in 2011. Although I’ve always enjoyed traveling, it wasn’t until a trip to Peru in 2012 that I started to think about ways to make travel a… Read More
Follow me on Instagram!
Top Posts
[Haleakala National Park / Makawao, HI, Nov 21, 2022] Unfortunately, not only did the bad weather at the Haleakala summit hold, it got worse. At dinner last night, as I was refreshing the web cam yet again, I noticed a wind advisory for the summit pop up. 30 to 40 mile-per-hour winds with wind gusts up to 50 mph! Yikes! It didn’t look good, but I decided to rely on the live… Read More
[Haleakala National Park / Kula, HI / Paia, HI, Nov 20, 2022] My first full day on Maui began with one of the most quintessential experiences on the island – watching sunrise at Haleakala National Park. I had made my reservation for the park 2 months in advance, as is required for anyone entering the park between 3 am and 7 am every day of the year. Sunrise was supposed to happen… Read More
[Maui, Hawaii, Nov 19, 2022] Thanks to remote work, the time around Thanksgiving was the perfect opportunity to do a slightly longer trip. I was eyeing Hawaii, which I hadn’t been to since 2018. Maui was home to Haleakala National Park, which I hadn’t been to before, and Oahu, which was home to my friends Vanya and Deyan. They had just returned to Hawaii that summer after a couple of years on… Read More
Often called the mini-Yellowstone, Lassen Volcanic is home to steaming fumaroles, clear mountain lakes and volcanic peaks. Lassen Peak, the park’s namesake, is the largest plug dome volcano in the world and the southernmost volcano of the Cascade range. Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate national monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907: Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument. Between 1914 and 1917, a series of… Read More
[Bend / Crater Lake National Park, Sep 17-18, 2022] I hadn’t been to Crater Lake since 2019. When my friend suggested we pop over for a weekend from Portland, I couldn’t say no. I was sure I was going to find something new to see! We drove to Crater Lake on a Saturday morning and made a beeline for the park. Sadly, the east part of Rim Drive was closed for the… Read More