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
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Top Posts
Oahu made a fantastic WFH location for me the week after Thanksgiving 2022. I had visited the Island before, so I didn’t feel the need to take vacation time to sightsee. What I did, however, was take some time either before or after work to check out some of the shorter hikes on the island. This was not exactly an easy task as a lot of hikes on Oahu are short in… Read More
[Makena, Maui/Honolulu, Oahu Nov 26, 2022] And just like that, it was my last day on Maui! I had a little bit of time before my flight to Oahu, where I was set to spend a week at a friends’ house. I decided to squeeze in one last little hike. La Perouse Bay was just south of my AirBnB in Kihei. To get there, I drove through yet another narrow winding road… Read More
[Haleakala National Park, Nov 25, 2022] Finally, a clear day on Haleakala! I didn’t even bother checking the summit webcam. I hightailed it to the top of the volcano, which was now over an hour away that I was staying down by the beach. Oh, well. Even the best planned trips can encounter hiccups and I was just glad I was going to get my hike in! I was planning on 11.2… Read More
[West Maui, HI, Nov 24, 2022] For my 5th day on Maui, I planned on taking a tour of the west side of the island. The towns of Kaanapali and Lahaina are the most popular and are home to most of the resorts on the island. But I planned on taking the scenic route there, starting with a hike on Waihee Ridge (A on the map below), then continuing on another precarious… Read More
[Hana, Haleakala National Park & Kihei, HI, Nov 23, 2022] I originally planned to go back to central Maui the way I came, through the Road to Hana. I just assumed that the road dead-ended past Hana and it didn’t complete a full loop around east Maui, which would not be all that unusual for Hawaii. But I needed to go past Hana to visit the Kipahulu unit of Haleakala National Park,… Read More