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
[Estes Park / Rocky Mountain National Park, Jul 30, 2022] Finally, the day this entire trip was centered around arrived. It was time to run 13.1 miles in Estes Park, just outside Rocky Mountain National Park. The only problem? We were all tired from all the hiking, and severely undertrained! And with the course being at altitude with significant amount of elevation gain for 3 miles straight, we were in for a… Read More
[Rocky Mountain National Park, Jul 29, 2022] The crappy weather the day before turned our hiking plans around quite a bit. We did not intend to hike a strenuous 10.5-mile hike the day before our half marathon, but we didn’t have much of a choice. The hike to Sky Pond is one of the most popular ones in the park. Sky Pond is the ultimate destination but there are three more lakes… Read More
[Rocky Mountain National Park, Jul 28, 2022] After a leisurely morning in our little cabin, I finally got the gals out the door around 9 am. We stopped by the visitor center to get souvenirs and passport stamps, then headed to our trailhead. On the agenda for the day was a 3.6-mile hike to Emerald Lake, with two other lakes along the way. The weather was cloudy but warm and we hoped… Read More
[Vail, CO, Jul 27, 2022] Unlike Aspen, Vail is modeled after European ski villages, which appealed to me much more. It is a much bigger mountain than Aspen and so it has 2 gondolas. I was pretty sure that there must be a way to go up one, do a hike and end up at the top of the other so you can take that one down. And that’s exactly what we… Read More
[Aspen, CO \ Vail, CO, Jul 26, 2022] I woke up with a hangover, which I was confused about… until I realized that I had 5 drinks yesterday. Those drinks at Catch Steak packed a punch! Luckily, some coffee and breakfast made me feel better. To start our day, we took the Silver Queen Gondola to top of Aspen mountain at over 11,000 ft. We enjoyed the magnificent views from the sundeck… Read More