April 1, 2025 • 42 mins
Meghan, Krissa, and Liz discuss their favorite places to travel and how travel can broaden horizons both in design and life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to boulevard Beat, a podcast we're life and style intersect.
I'm designer Megan Bloom along with my co hosts, editor CHRISA.
Rossbund and gallery owner Liz Legit. This podcast focuses on
the daily highlights instead of the hustle, interviews with taste makers,
and personal conversations on how to highlight achievable style. You
con stroll one street at a time, boulevard Beat proves
(00:29):
the one you should take.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So Meghan and Liz, I know, we all talk about
travel so much and how it inspires us, and as
we've been talking about different topics to cover, we knew
that travel was at the top of our list. So
excited to talk about getting away from where home is.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, I'm so excited. I mean, I feel like travel
is such an important part of my job that even
though it's all for pleasure, I still think it's something
I have to do to be like bringing in new
influences and being inspired and all of those things. So
I try to travel around what I think is going
to help her work too.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
No, I agree, if you can kind of mix pleasure
with play and just find that inspiration in different areas
and just the culture and the food and all the
experiences that go along with trying different things and being
immersed in another life. I think we always learn and
grow as we come back. I get so much inspiration
when I travel as well.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, let's maybe I was trying to figure out what
order we should go in. I think we should start
small and then maybe go big. I sometimes think that
people can be a little intimidated because they hear the
word travel and they automatically think of airline tickets and
destinations far far away and many many hours, and travel
(01:51):
can really be all around you, and I think not
to keep going back to the pandemic. But what that
forced us all to do is to look at travel
through a more localized lens and appreciate, you know, whether
it was a small town. I got to know a
lot of Iowa small towns really well because I just
had to get out of the house and drive. So
(02:12):
there are those local spots too. So do you have
a favorite destination that's maybe not in Des Moines, but
in the surrounds, or maybe within a few hour drive,
that you love to go or that you've found interesting.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I always love, even just like a little being immersed
into nature and going up to even like northern Minnesota
and in the woods, and just days that are a
little more relaxed and getting traveled that way and not
necessarily always in a big city. I think it can
sometimes just allow for self reflection and the beauty of
(02:47):
Mother Nature's canvas and sitting underneath a big tree and
just getting inspiration that way, or the joy of nature.
I think I would say that's one a little bit
more local that I enjoy getting some inspiration from.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So I have been here yet, but I'm very excited
because my husband and I were just chatting about this,
but we're planning a trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. So that's
a six hour drive, but that is the home of
Crystal Bridges the museum. I am very excited about that.
I was disappointed because I got invited to go there
(03:21):
because Jewel, the singer, was opening an art exhibit and
I couldn't go. And I was so bummed because I
loved Pieces of was it Pieces of You? What was
that album that Jewel had that was just enormous, you
know what feels like twenty thirty years ago. Anyway, loved her,
and I was cool to see that she's creating fine
art now and she did something a Betonville. Of course
(03:43):
that's also the home of Walmart. So they've just had
a huge infusion of resources, let's call it that way.
And so the museum is incredible, restaurants are like out
of your mind good. The hotels are so lovely. So
I'm really excited about that because that feels again like
one of those times I'm going to be able to
just get so much inspiration for work and bring it
(04:03):
back here.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Let me know how that goes, because that's on my
list too.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
They bought a frankwood Wright house, disassembled it and brought
it back piece by piece to put it on the
land of the museum. I mean, the things that they
have done that's incredible are just amazing. So I'm really excited.
It's art, it's architecture they've just brought again with all
those resources nice to have, they've really created an amazing space.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
What about you, CHRISA, do you have some local places
that you love.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I love a good old fashioned town square. Oh yes,
a small town just all American. You know, you walk
around the center block and see the courthouse and all
of that. I have a funny little story I was
antiquing at a little small town in Iowa and I
(04:52):
found this pendant necklace and I wore it, and everywhere
I went I received compliments on it. I just returned
from Italy and so so many people. It was in
fact Italian, but everybody said, oh, did you buy that
in Italy? Did you buy that in Italy? And I
said no, And I'd go through the whole story about
(05:13):
bought it a little Iowa small town, and finally I'm like,
you know what, what the heck? Sure it was from Italy.
That's exactly where I got it.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I'm given in.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I'm given in. If that's where you all want it
to be from. And think that I, you know, pilfered
through some wonderful antique shop in Rome, then that's where
it's going to be from.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You got to be careful, though, because you're wandering around
these small town squares and you're gonna get snapped up
like a Hallmark Christmas movie by some guy. I moved
to a small town. You're the big editor from a
big city.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So it is a Hallmark movie in the making. So yeah,
I think that's what I love. I love a small town.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Well, and I have that too, with travel is finding
a little treasure that you find in that cute gift
store or antique store or thing that helps helps remind
you of that destination of where you went and that
special memory to bring back to your home to show
on the shelf and be able to just remember that vacation.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Do you guys look for art or a collectible or
something like that when you're traveling.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I do, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
I love to find a treasure that has a memory.
I've gotten some good pieces of art along the way,
and just little knickknacks here and there too, but nothing consistent,
but just I always like to find something.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I once we went to Strausburg, France to see one
of our artists, Jesse Ralay. We took a group of
women with the gallery and we went to a braconte
in Strausburg, and my husband was with us. And on
the very last day, I had just been thinking about
this little French light, this beautiful frosted glass light. I
(06:51):
looked at him and I was like, Nick, please go
back there. And the cool thing about the Braconti's is
that there's like actually a lot of lights and chandeliers
and they're hanging from like clothing racks. It's just really elegant.
You walk around and you're like, oh, this is so beautiful.
There's so many chandeliers around hanging, And so I made
him go back and then he had to basically keep
(07:12):
it on his lap for you know, so flight all too.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
The year.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, and then we had to rewire it because it
was European wiring and it was just all of these things.
But when I look up and I see that in
my office at home, it brings me a lot of joy.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think, especially when it comes to artwork, travel is
a great guide for that because oftentimes when you're in
your own hometown wherever that is, sometimes it's difficult. Even
if you need art, even if you have that naked
wall that needs something, you're not necessarily going out to
(07:47):
galleries every single weekend to look. It becomes a task
that you have to do when you're on the road.
It takes you to another place anyway, and art has
that wonderful magic of transporting you somewhere else, and so
I think it's a good guide. Well, while we're here,
let's take a look at the art work and bring
(08:08):
something home, because it's something special that hangs on your wall,
or you know, a sculpture that you can look at
and find joy in. I'm like you, Megan, I don't
have a specific, consistent sort of object, but it is
always an antique object.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Okay, I'm with you on the antique because obviously, just
owning a gallery and working with you know, living artists
is what I do, and that's what I gravitate towards
on my own walls. But when I'm traveling, I love
a vintage piece and I love it when it's like
cracked and chippy and it really looks like it lived
(08:44):
a life before me, and I feel like you're just
like taking in its stories. And I think that is
so special when you're traveling that you're like taking a
piece home from France or Italy or wherever you're lucky
enough to go. I love the soul of an item
coming into my home well.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
And the idea of what the story of like where
that peace had lived for all those years, and the
things it's seen, and not just what current day civilization
either orally.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Well, And that's the beauty of an antique is you're
adding to that story. It's like living in a house
that's been owned by somebody else before it's like your
Famili's giving it another chapter. Where are some of your
favorite destinations for inspiration that's not just a place where
you go to relax, per se, but something that moves
(09:33):
each of you deeper.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I told you guys that I just went to Mexico
City and it had everything that I'm looking for in
a city when I'm traveling and I want to be inspired.
It had incredible architecture, it had amazing food, it had
incredible people, The fashion was cool. It just felt like
everything was like in five D and all of my
(09:57):
senses were just electrified. When I go travel, I also
have photo after photo after photo of doors. Chris, do
you do this too, Oh yes, doors, doors. Okay, the
Mexico City doors do not disappoint. I have to tell
you that. But it was just so special that I
felt like really immersed in the culture. It's like picture
(10:19):
a New York City, but it felt even more vibrant
and colorful, and it just felt like you're in an
area that is just exploding with coolness right now, and
so I want to feel so immersed that I'm like,
I'm not in Kansas anymore, Toto, right, Like I just
want to feel so out of my normal day to
(10:40):
day life and it was great.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Well, and I think that's a lot of it too,
is just the energy of being immersed in cities like
that and the energy and that's why you come home
feeling inspired because you were immersed in the architecture, the food,
the fashion, and not the every day that you see.
And why travel has such inspiration that way, And I
think whatever city that is European or around the world,
(11:03):
it's being immersed in those cultures, in the community and
learning how people live differently. And I especially love travel
just even for the color combinations. Just different regions have
different color combinations. You know, more of the desert sort
of a look, and also even just a Scandinavian look
as well too. You can become so inspired and take
that into your designs.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
For me personally, I think you're so smart, Megan about
the color combinations, because different places around the world do
have different palettes and it's funny when you see a
color that you've never seen before, or it imagined in
a way or combined with another color that you've never seen,
that truly, I think is memorable and just.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
That idea of like a color combination of like, oh,
I never think of that, Like how can I incorporate
that into my work?
Speaker 5 (11:51):
And makes you a better designer as well.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I love that you said Mexico City though, Liz too,
because I think that there is that Western culture from
themiliarity that happens, and while you may see different architecture
that's not at home, or while you may eat different
cuisine that's not at home, it's sort of culturally familiar,
where when you go to a culture that's completely different,
(12:18):
you learn so much from people, just the observation of people.
And I always say, you know, the best thing about
travel is you realize very quickly that we're all exactly
the same and we're all exactly different. Both are true,
and I feel like when you get that cultural shift,
that again forces you to open your eyes in a
(12:40):
way that's different. I remember one time years ago, I
was at the flea market in Paris and the French,
you know, the Parisians, they don't maybe always have the
same cordial behavior that we want them to have. But Americans,
I'm trying to be diplomatic here. I don't know if
it's landing so well, but I was about ready to
(13:03):
buy this beautiful piece at this booth, and this woman
and her daughter. They said, no, we do not have
time for you. And they were going to eat lunch
at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Oh they love Everyone loves KFC. Yes, yes,
And so I'm like, are you kidding me? I want
to give you some of my money and I want
to take this home, and you're shutting me down because
(13:26):
you're going to lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. No. So
you know, I think that that happens sometimes when you travel.
Often is the world does seem a bit homogenized. So
when you can truly escape to a destination that is
nothing like your own, that feels a little special.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah. Can you imagine somebody locally telling you, no, I'm
not going to take your money.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But also because I'm going to KFC.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
AFC, that's where I was very insulted. It would have
been different if she were off for Beef tartar or I.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Have been told that Europeans love KFC, and they were
everywhere in Mexico City too.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
America's gift to the world.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yes, all right, this is why Japan is number one
on my list right now. I remember going to Poland
and their language, you know, is cyrillic based and so
it really, you know, a few years of high school French,
like I'm enough to be dangerous that I can kind
of get around and know a few words and commands
(14:27):
and things like that. And when I was in Poland,
I was like, I've got no idea what's happening. I
have no idea what they're saying. And I kind of
loved it. I kind of surrendered to it. It felt
really cool. And then I feel like that would happen
in Japan too, but also the design and the fashion
and so many things that just would I feel like,
really take me out of my comfort zone there. That's
(14:48):
number one on my list right now.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I want to see all of the cherry blossoms there
specificly'd be special, yes, But I get at what you
say with the language thing too, because I feel well again,
as far as outside of the country travel in this country,
Europe is our go to, right It's the easiest, and
so many countries over there do speak English, and that
(15:12):
can make us be a little bit lazy on our end.
But when you don't know the language and they when
they don't speak English, it really forces you to think
about every single word, every single word matters, and when
we're just talking amongst ourselves, every single word maybe doesn't matter.
You know, you just just.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Talk and then like, what are the ways, like the
universal ways that you can get something across? And also,
you know, I'm still in Iowa. Gout like in a
pleasant way, like how nice? Somehow sign this to you
and make it understandable, but also be polite. It's a challenge.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yeah, the smile goes a long way, right.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
It does.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, totally well.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
And I think.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Ultimately people always just want to connect with other people too,
So most genuine people are going to help you out
and let you figure it out too. They want to
know your story just as much as you want to
know theirs.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And they're excited always to tell you about where they live.
You know, I think it's exciting wherever you live when
a visitor comes to town and you can sort of
brag about your own city or state or neighborhood to them.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Okay, but what's high on your guys' list? I want
to know that.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Mine actually and this is I almost feel like I
can't be a designer and that I've never been to
Paris and I haven't.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
So that's actually high on my list.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
We almost went this last year and just timing wise,
couldn't quite make it out.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
But I'm hoping to make it there really soon.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I'm so excited for you because you're just going to
be like an overload of happiness.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
I know. I know I feel that way too.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I spend about five nights of every week right before
I go to bed, this is my ritual. I make
my little cup of tea and I worked on my
bucket list.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah. Sometimes it can be an hour and sometimes it
can be fifteen minutes, depends on how tired I am.
But the reason I do that is I just make
a list of hotels. Not so much restaurants, I would say,
because I'll eat anything, so right, yeah, but hotels, points
of interest places, so when that time comes, I'll be ready.
(17:17):
So I always formulate trips that I want to take
instead of necessity. I mean, yes, they are two specific destinations,
but it's like if I have ten days here, like,
these are the things that I want to hit. These
are the countries that I can if they're smaller countries
that I can hit in that amount of time. Right now,
(17:39):
I have an interest in Vietnam and high Land I
have never been. I've never traveled to either, and that
those places are high on my list. In this country,
I really want to get to Alaska. It's my last state.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And one thing it's incredible it is it's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I look at it everybody's photographs when friends and an
uncle of mine just traveled there last summer, and it's like,
I want to go there so bad. Well, I think
when you travel west in this country, I mean definitely
to Alaska because it's such a large, massive land. I
always think about, oh my gosh, there are places where
(18:20):
no human footstep has ever touched. I don't think of
that so much East because it's more densely populated and
there's a town in a city everywhere, big cities, so
it's like, oh, you know, this has seen footsteps at
one time or another. But you go out west and
it's like, oh my gosh, there are places where no
human has ever touch base with the mountain.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Isn't that such an interesting way to look at that?
And also like in the reverse. I remember the first
time I went to Rome, my dad said, think of
the people who have walked where you were walking, and
I think that that it like historically, just gives me
goosebumps too. It's like kind of the reverse of like
so many incredible people have walked where you're walking right now,
(19:01):
and you're walking their same path, and you are in
some way seeing what they saw, and that is just
mind boggling to me sometimes.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I mean, the world has so many stories to tell.
We have our own individual stories that the world is
larger and bigger than any of us, and it has
stories to tell that. Have you gone back two thousand
years and longer?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
One of my other things as you're talking about Alaska
and you just start imagining how people live, says I
love wherever I am, just to kind of take those
off roads and see what their houses look like. You know,
we talked about the doors, but like just what does
that cottage look like? Or what is that home and
the architecture, but just kind of putting your shoes in
their daily life and their daily walks and walking into
(19:44):
that home and what that looks like too.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Megan, I can relate to you when you said that
you have not been to Parishet my destination like that
that really affected and moved me in A major way
was the Grand Canyon. I have had the good fortune
of traveling to so many places around the world, and
(20:08):
my story to people was always because they would say,
is there anywhere that you haven't been, It's like, I've
never been to the Grand Canyon. I've never been to
the Grand Canyon. Finally, about three years ago, I traveled
to the Grand Canyon, and I have to say, it
just took my breath away.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
It was can't over sew and not over.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
To oversell it. And I had no idea, like I
thought it would be pretty, but I just have too
many Grady Bunch memories from that episode, and I don't
know the Griswolds going there on vacation that was another.
You know, it's like, oh, it's a big giant hole. No,
it's really not talk about palettes and colors and just
(20:46):
it truly is the most beautiful place I've ever seen
from a nature of perspective.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, it is pretty spectacular. I mean when I lived
in La we drove there and we stayed in Williams Arizona,
which is about an hour and a half away, and
it has the Hotel Arizona, which is the oldest hotel
in Arizona, and they say in Williams that a cowboy
dies there every night because they have a fake cowboys
shootout at five pm every funny streets.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh how fun.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
It was so fun. It was like such a little touristy,
lovely town. It was so fun. And it has become
this place where Nick and I go, We're just gonna
run away to Williams where life is sim The cowboys
die at five pm.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Every day, that is hilarious.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
But anyway, but then like you drive another hour or
so and you hit the Grand Canyon and you again
you feel transported. You could be in Mars. What I'm
always so amazed by is how vastly different, even geographically
our country is so different.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Well, I think that's what's cool too about travel.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
You know the natural wonders that Mother Nature makes and
how you experience those and just what they how they
move you. But then even the architectural wonders of the world,
you know, your taj Mahals and different things too, that
just it's you're an off how they were create so
long ago.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
In the design I'm also dying to go see the
restored Notre Dame me too. We were there in Paris
for the Olympics, and it was still being worked on.
And the craftsmen that are still alive and creating that
sort of craft and still have that ability. It's just
amazing how so many resources were brought together and so
(22:24):
many people that are still doing a craft that honestly
could be extinct in some.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Areas, and the enthusiasm and the commitment. You can tell
that this monument, this cathedral, this icon is so important
to people all over the world, and how there was
the commitment in the drive to restore it, and thank
goodness that it wasn't burned even worse than it was.
You know, it obviously is so meaningful to so many people,
(22:51):
and I too, am excited to get back and to
see it. So we you know, we've kind of decided
that I think that collectively that everybody needs to go
see the Grand Canyon, which is an easy one because
that is stateside any other places, but you think is
a must have as far as check mark on your
travel list a place that you thought was really really fun.
(23:15):
I have two. This one is so silly, but I
did the tour of Fenway Park.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Did you love it?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I more than loved it. It was just one of
like the best I don't know what it was about it,
but this goofy little tour and I'm like, this is
the best thing ever. And then the other thing like
that that is a tourist destination, but so important for
reasons that are way deeper than baseball, is the Anne
(23:43):
Frank House in Amsterdam. I went there and there was something,
you know, it was eerie to know that she had
lived there. And I'll never forget going up into the
annex where they lived and seeing no different than a
teenage girl would. Now you tear out pages from magazines
(24:03):
and put them on your wall, tape into their wall.
She and her sister did that too, with high profile.
I don't know they use the word celebrity back then,
but people who are probably in the entertainment business of
some sort. How they had these just from periodicals taped
to the wall like a teenage girl would. But then
(24:24):
as you get to the bottom, and I don't know
if the tour operates the same way, I'm assuming that
it still does, but you get to the end of
the tour and you see the real diary, and that
just moved me so much. It touched me, so, you know,
It's one of those things you should do, and sometimes
those lists can get a little cheesy and hokey. That one,
to me is a must see.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I had the opportunity to go to the White House
for the first time just this fall, and wow, I mean,
the United States doesn't really have castles, right, this is
like our United States castle. And then we even went
in to we had a meeting still within the compound,
but it's the EEO B and it's so beautiful. But
(25:06):
you sit down and they're like, this is where they
signed the treaty to declare World War two, and like,
who am I?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I have no business to be in this room, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
But even walking throughout the White House and seeing the
tour and how spectacular again the craft that has been
put into this building, the China Room, I mean, like
anybody that loves design or history would just absolutely love it.
I've seen cloth walls before, but the way that they
(25:35):
did them in the White House is that actually I've
seen it where it's like padded and then the cloth
goes over it, right, and you can almost kind of
like tuft the wall in some way. But they were
saying that it's stretched over frames, almost like you stretch
a canvas and so there's actually no dry wall behind
the fabric, and just like kind of hearing the different
(25:55):
design decisions that went through everything, the furniture that it's made,
the paintings, the artwork, the portraits like of Abraham Lincoln
or George Washington are like the portrait of George Washington
that I think of, so it was like I was
like opening up my art history books and actually seeing
it in person was so cool.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
I think that's what's so neat too.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Kind of as you were mentioned Kriso with the Anne
Frank like being when you travel and get to see
artifacts or go to museums and see beautiful china from
so long ago. It's that's one of my favorite little
treasures too, is and you do you get moved by
your motions of like what life was like and the
things that you see and just different all the different
(26:36):
things that you can find in a museum or a
historical site and things like that too. I think that's
why the South is so charming too. It's just interesting
to see because it's especially for here in the United States.
It's been around as long from when civilization came over too.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So yes, I this country is very new. Generally speaking,
this country is vast too, so it's it's difficult, I
think sometimes to make the haste to travel abroad. I
think you should see this country too, because it offers
so much and has history that's special to us. Maybe
it's not ingrained in the rest of the world, but
(27:10):
it is to us. And I agree about Washington, d C.
It's easy to be cynical about that place for so
many reasons. Oh yeah, but when you're there, I mean
it sort of does bring a tear to your eye
and you start thinking about all of the patriotic songs
and how this country was built not all that long ago.
(27:30):
So that's really exciting. So Megan, any other places for
you that you think are a must see.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I love my trip to Nantucket. I think it was
just charming, and to be in the little village and
get to see all of the great food and it
just has a charming feel. Just to ride around on
your little bike and have the shoreline and just cute
gifts and boulevards and things like that too.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
As a charming one.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You feel like you're walking in the children's book. Yes,
for sure, story yeah, charm all the way. Yes, So
let's talk about that for a moment. Let's talk about
the east coast or maybe the northeast New England area,
because I mean there's something about that that's so quintessential
America with the church steeples and it's just yes, all
of a sudden, give me a boat, give me some
(28:18):
blue and white stripes and some Nantucket red and lobster
in any form on a roll, dipped in butter. Hot
lobster roll, cold lobster roll. It does. Yeah. They can
put it in ice cream or on top of ice
cream for all I care. Yeah, I can. I can
put down some lobster.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
And just the freshness of it. I'm like, oh, let me.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Go get some like it's out of the water, right,
let me go get some out of the water. Yes.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
If you didn't know we were landlocked in the middle
of my I I really do.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, clearly, clearly we need yes. Yes for listeners, send
us some lobster please. And I think at different times
of year places can look so different. So New England.
I have been to New England many, many times, but
until a year ago, I had never traveled there in
(29:09):
the fall. And that's what it's venous for right foliage.
I had never been there in the fall, and I
had the great pleasure of traveling to Vermont, and oh
it was spectacular. The trees were on fire, you saw yellow, orange, red,
all at the same time, and not one leaf was missed.
It was just spectacular and I want to do it again.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We did a road trip through New England, and so
we went into Vermont to hit it, because we too,
are trying to hit every state right now. I mean,
just like pulling off on these little lakes, freshwater lakes
that you know, have like ten houses around it, and
they the same ten people have lived there and come
there every summer. I love the vibe, I love everything
(29:51):
about it. I just want to spend time there. I
want to be somebody that says, I summer in Vermont.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
We all need to summer someplace so fancy, Liz.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It sounds batleous, it does, But these are so these
sorts of things that we're all talking about are very
idyllic and sophisticated and adult. But I have to say
I on my bucket list, not everything is fancy. Like
I want to see all of the quirky, little cheesy
I want to go to Dollywood. Never been. I want
(30:24):
to go to the Corn Palace in South Dakota.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I've been there too, is good, okay, I mean it's
it's both silly and awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I want to do this silly stuff too.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I want to do it all because have you done
Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yes, okay, so you so we did Corn Palace on
the way to Mount Rushmore. And you know Wall Drug
of course too. But yeah, I totally agree. I mean,
I love it when it's cheap and quirky. I love
a roadside giant. We always look those up for on
our road trips, where it's like a giant teapot or
a giant ear of corn or whatever it is. Love that.
(31:01):
I really want to go do the Car Henge, but
it's in the middle of Nebraska and we have not
figured out what else we would do. But if you've
seen this, its stonehenge made out of cars.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yes, I think so. I think jay Leno go there.
I think jay Leno wait there at this point, because
he's a car collector, feels.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Right for him. But yeah, I love all of that.
I love the things that make America America.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
And that's fun too because it makes your car ride
a little bit more interesting because you can talk about
it and learn about it too.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Any other fun places that are must have us.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
I mean, look, I think the things that we were
talking about earlier, like you cannot go wrong with New
York City. I think every single person should go there.
I lived in LA for a few years. I loved it.
Sometimes you're a New York person, sometimes you're an LA
person making sure everybody goes to the ocean, wherever that
ends up being.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I think that's true because when you live in the
middle of the country like we do, so many people
have never seen the ocean.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
I know, I've met so many people who have never.
I mean talk about like putting things in perspective of
like you are just so small, as like standing next
to the ocean, I'm just always so taken aback by
its fastness. And also it is scary, like what's at
the bottom of the ocean is none of my business.
I have such respect for the ocean, but I want
(32:22):
to tick like three steps in.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
It is definitely a man versus nature that ocean, and
I think that you know, when it's man versus nature,
nature usually wins.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Always yes, but yeah, I just I want I want
people to do those things that maybe feel like quote
unquote cliche, but they become cliche for a reason is
because like everybody should do it.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I think that that's what is somewhat confusing about travel,
because I think that oftentimes people put travel in that
category of a luxury, right it's something that you save
up for or that's special to do. But what I
love about traveling is somebody who has had the opportunity
(33:07):
to travel so many places is if you don't come
home feeling like a different person, then you're missing something
along the way. So Liz, you reference the ocean as
that element that you realize how small you are compared
to how fast that is. I feel that way in cities,
and you have already said you lived in La so
(33:30):
you'll understand. I love to go to the top of Mulhollands.
I love to go on a fald dive, and I'm
terrified to drive up there. So why I go up there?
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Very curvy, very windy, You're going up lots of blind corners.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
People speeding past me in a Lamborghini while I'm in
my rental forward of some sort yep it's not glamorous
on my end whatsoever. But you are up there and
you know, you can see the valley on one side,
you see La on the other, and it just goes
on forever, and you realize, oh my gosh, not only
(34:10):
am I one person among millions the ten million, twelve
million people that are here, there are so many other
cities like that around the world. This isn't the only
big city. There are lots of cities like that around
the world. And that's when you realize in that moment
that you you matter, but you you matter to yourself
(34:33):
and it's not all about you. And I think that
you know when you see other people and you watch
families interact, when you're in this country or outside. I'm
more intrigued when I'm in other countries. And I think
I said this to Megan once before. I have this fascination.
It's sick, I know, but I like watching little kids
(34:54):
get in trouble by their parents and other white coaches
because you realize how similar a we are. It's always
the same reason they want something and the parent says no.
Very simple, right. We were all kids once, we all
had our moms and dads say no. To us for
one reason or another, and you realize so quickly your
(35:15):
problems are just your problems, they're not really anybody else's problems,
and we all have the same problems. So that's always
my thing with travel. If people don't go into it
open minded and are changed by it in some way,
then they wait really wasted.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
The time I think you're so onto something when you're
saying like everybody has the same troubles that we all do.
I always think about, like everybody's got similar hopes and
dreams too. They're just trying to get by in the world,
you know. And it is easy to become really insular
and be in that kind of echo chamber depending on
who you hang out with and who you talk to
(35:53):
and what social media you absorb in all of that.
But getting out there and seeing like, hush, people are
just so similar, so similar really are any ways, and
it has it just it changes me every single time.
I become a more open, loving, forgiving all of the things.
(36:13):
I become a better person every time I travel.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
It creates empathy that you wouldn't you wouldn't think you'd
get from travel. It's like you expect to get these
inspired feelings, but to get empathy is a neat thing too.
And like you said, Chris, that you love to watch
those little kids arguing with their parents. I think it's
just fun just to sit, you know, in Central Park
and just people watch, or anywhere really be in a
(36:36):
coffee shop and just watching that people walk by is interesting,
and seeing where they're going and what they're what they're wearing,
and just what their lives look like to.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
And wonder what they're thinking. Yes, I mean I can
people watch any people watch at the fair every year,
which is for a whole other reason. Oh that's something else,
that'll be a whole other episode, maybe the whole other
type of design. One of my favorite stories. This has
been years ago. I was on a train in Rome,
and I don't speak fluent Italian by any stretch of
(37:06):
the imagination. I can pick up words here and there
in phrases because I know Spanish. But there was a
mother on the train, and it was a little boy
and a little girl, and I'm the daughter was older.
For no reason, he decides to smack his sister, as
brothers and sisters sometimes do. And I don't know Italian,
(37:28):
but the mom grabbed the little kid by the arm
and I don't know what she said, but the words
no video, no video, those came through loud and clear.
It's like some things just transfer all over the world.
No video. I understood those words completely and clearly, sitting
game Boy taken away.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
It's the biggest threat. It's the biggest threat.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I have no video that seems to work. So anyway,
is there I know we're going to wrap up now.
Is there anything that we want to leave our life
listeners with before we end? Maybe if we could all
talk about one destination that has really inspired something specific
to the design world. Let's do that. Since we are
(38:11):
all in that ethos. What is something that you've seen
visually that you've brought back and applied or that's super memorable.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Okay, Well, one of the things that is really tangible
for our home is my husband spent a huge amount
of time growing up in the South, and one of
the things that kind of makes him feel a little
more at home here in Iowa is we painted our
porch ceiling paint blue. And I know that that is
so silly, but that's not something that always happens in
(38:40):
the Midwest. That that is a much more Southern thing.
And I love traveling around the South because the decor
is like what speaks to me. It sings to me
and like actually tangibly like taking the photos of a
great hotel or a beautiful home because there's so many
historic home tours that you can go on and really
(39:01):
like being like, Okay, I'm literally going to take this
back to my space. And every single time it makes
me think of that. So when we go and we
hang it on our porch now and we have a
drink together on the porch swing, we look up and
it's got that haint blue, it just feels so special
that I'm like, I think of all of our Southern trips,
and it makes me think of, you know, where Nick
is from. And I think that design has the ability
(39:22):
to transport you.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
It definitely does, because it can just take you and
bring those memories back. I love that. I love that
they do that in the South, that they paint their
ceilings like that. I'd have to say, for me, one
thing that I still have in my house today that's
a core memory and it's almost been twenty years ago.
But when I studied abroad in Italy Realme specifically, I
took a photography class.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
While I was there, I took.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Some wonderful photos of just different architecture and even of
the coastline down in Sorrento and all the colors and
things like that.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
When I got back, I had them.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Framed in an eight x ten and it has this
beautiful antique gold mirrored frame around. And I've had them
in different parts of my home as just as a
gallery wall, or just right now, I have a single
piece in a bathroom.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
But it just as I look at it, I can
just get.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
The smile, and like you said, Liz, it just it
transports me to that time and I can still see
it vividly clear in my mind and the special memories
that go along with it.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
For me, it's been artwork from a variety of places
only because when I bring that artwork home, it forces
me to rethink how I have my art displayed, the
art that I already own. So not only does it
change me as a person when I travel, but it
changes my house because when I bring those pieces back,
(40:40):
it's like I think we're going to redo, rearrange, reallocate
where something lives permanently or not permanently, until the next
piece is brought back, so I love that about travel.
For me, the best part of travel is coming home
because as much as I like to go everywhere else
in the world, I like to come home more. But
it's not home the way that I knew it before,
(41:02):
because I'm bringing something back and it's changing and it's
changed me.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
What a lovely way to end an episode, CHRISA, thanks job.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Well, thanks ladies. I know that we're going to talk
about travel other times too, but this is sort of
our first stab at it. We're going to talk about
travel must have at some point, and I know that
we will all take other trips that we will discuss
as we pursue this podcast. So thank you all for listening.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Boulevard Beat.
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and leave
a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen
so you never missed an episode, and of course follow
your host on Instagram at Megan bloom Interiors, at CHRISA. Rossbund,
and at Liz Legit. We'll be back next week as
we take a stroll down another boulevard.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Accomm
Welcome to boulevard Beat, a podcast we're life and style intersect.
I'm designer Megan Bloom along with my co hosts, editor CHRISA.
Rossbund and gallery owner Liz Legit. This podcast focuses on
the daily highlights instead of the hustle, interviews with taste makers,
and personal conversations on how to highlight achievable style. You
con stroll one street at a time, boulevard Beat proves
(00:29):
the one you should take.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So Meghan and Liz, I know, we all talk about
travel so much and how it inspires us, and as
we've been talking about different topics to cover, we knew
that travel was at the top of our list. So
excited to talk about getting away from where home is.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Yeah, I'm so excited. I mean, I feel like travel
is such an important part of my job that even
though it's all for pleasure, I still think it's something
I have to do to be like bringing in new
influences and being inspired and all of those things. So
I try to travel around what I think is going
to help her work too.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
No, I agree, if you can kind of mix pleasure
with play and just find that inspiration in different areas
and just the culture and the food and all the
experiences that go along with trying different things and being
immersed in another life. I think we always learn and
grow as we come back. I get so much inspiration
when I travel as well.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, let's maybe I was trying to figure out what
order we should go in. I think we should start
small and then maybe go big. I sometimes think that
people can be a little intimidated because they hear the
word travel and they automatically think of airline tickets and
destinations far far away and many many hours, and travel
(01:51):
can really be all around you, and I think not
to keep going back to the pandemic. But what that
forced us all to do is to look at travel
through a more localized lens and appreciate, you know, whether
it was a small town. I got to know a
lot of Iowa small towns really well because I just
had to get out of the house and drive. So
(02:12):
there are those local spots too. So do you have
a favorite destination that's maybe not in Des Moines, but
in the surrounds, or maybe within a few hour drive,
that you love to go or that you've found interesting.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
I always love, even just like a little being immersed
into nature and going up to even like northern Minnesota
and in the woods, and just days that are a
little more relaxed and getting traveled that way and not
necessarily always in a big city. I think it can
sometimes just allow for self reflection and the beauty of
(02:47):
Mother Nature's canvas and sitting underneath a big tree and
just getting inspiration that way, or the joy of nature.
I think I would say that's one a little bit
more local that I enjoy getting some inspiration from.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
So I have been here yet, but I'm very excited
because my husband and I were just chatting about this,
but we're planning a trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. So that's
a six hour drive, but that is the home of
Crystal Bridges the museum. I am very excited about that.
I was disappointed because I got invited to go there
(03:21):
because Jewel, the singer, was opening an art exhibit and
I couldn't go. And I was so bummed because I
loved Pieces of was it Pieces of You? What was
that album that Jewel had that was just enormous, you
know what feels like twenty thirty years ago. Anyway, loved her,
and I was cool to see that she's creating fine
art now and she did something a Betonville. Of course
(03:43):
that's also the home of Walmart. So they've just had
a huge infusion of resources, let's call it that way.
And so the museum is incredible, restaurants are like out
of your mind good. The hotels are so lovely. So
I'm really excited about that because that feels again like
one of those times I'm going to be able to
just get so much inspiration for work and bring it
(04:03):
back here.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Let me know how that goes, because that's on my
list too.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
They bought a frankwood Wright house, disassembled it and brought
it back piece by piece to put it on the
land of the museum. I mean, the things that they
have done that's incredible are just amazing. So I'm really excited.
It's art, it's architecture they've just brought again with all
those resources nice to have, they've really created an amazing space.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
What about you, CHRISA, do you have some local places
that you love.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I love a good old fashioned town square. Oh yes,
a small town just all American. You know, you walk
around the center block and see the courthouse and all
of that. I have a funny little story I was
antiquing at a little small town in Iowa and I
(04:52):
found this pendant necklace and I wore it, and everywhere
I went I received compliments on it. I just returned
from Italy and so so many people. It was in
fact Italian, but everybody said, oh, did you buy that
in Italy? Did you buy that in Italy? And I
said no, And I'd go through the whole story about
(05:13):
bought it a little Iowa small town, and finally I'm like,
you know what, what the heck? Sure it was from Italy.
That's exactly where I got it.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I'm given in.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I'm given in. If that's where you all want it
to be from. And think that I, you know, pilfered
through some wonderful antique shop in Rome, then that's where
it's going to be from.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
You got to be careful, though, because you're wandering around
these small town squares and you're gonna get snapped up
like a Hallmark Christmas movie by some guy. I moved
to a small town. You're the big editor from a
big city.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
So it is a Hallmark movie in the making. So yeah,
I think that's what I love. I love a small town.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Well, and I have that too, with travel is finding
a little treasure that you find in that cute gift
store or antique store or thing that helps helps remind
you of that destination of where you went and that
special memory to bring back to your home to show
on the shelf and be able to just remember that vacation.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Do you guys look for art or a collectible or
something like that when you're traveling.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I do, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
I love to find a treasure that has a memory.
I've gotten some good pieces of art along the way,
and just little knickknacks here and there too, but nothing consistent,
but just I always like to find something.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I once we went to Strausburg, France to see one
of our artists, Jesse Ralay. We took a group of
women with the gallery and we went to a braconte
in Strausburg, and my husband was with us. And on
the very last day, I had just been thinking about
this little French light, this beautiful frosted glass light. I
(06:51):
looked at him and I was like, Nick, please go
back there. And the cool thing about the Braconti's is
that there's like actually a lot of lights and chandeliers
and they're hanging from like clothing racks. It's just really elegant.
You walk around and you're like, oh, this is so beautiful.
There's so many chandeliers around hanging, And so I made
him go back and then he had to basically keep
(07:12):
it on his lap for you know, so flight all too.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
The year.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, and then we had to rewire it because it
was European wiring and it was just all of these things.
But when I look up and I see that in
my office at home, it brings me a lot of joy.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I think, especially when it comes to artwork, travel is
a great guide for that because oftentimes when you're in
your own hometown wherever that is, sometimes it's difficult. Even
if you need art, even if you have that naked
wall that needs something, you're not necessarily going out to
(07:47):
galleries every single weekend to look. It becomes a task
that you have to do when you're on the road.
It takes you to another place anyway, and art has
that wonderful magic of transporting you somewhere else, and so
I think it's a good guide. Well, while we're here,
let's take a look at the art work and bring
(08:08):
something home, because it's something special that hangs on your wall,
or you know, a sculpture that you can look at
and find joy in. I'm like you, Megan, I don't
have a specific, consistent sort of object, but it is
always an antique object.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Okay, I'm with you on the antique because obviously, just
owning a gallery and working with you know, living artists
is what I do, and that's what I gravitate towards
on my own walls. But when I'm traveling, I love
a vintage piece and I love it when it's like
cracked and chippy and it really looks like it lived
(08:44):
a life before me, and I feel like you're just
like taking in its stories. And I think that is
so special when you're traveling that you're like taking a
piece home from France or Italy or wherever you're lucky
enough to go. I love the soul of an item
coming into my home well.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
And the idea of what the story of like where
that peace had lived for all those years, and the
things it's seen, and not just what current day civilization
either orally.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Well, And that's the beauty of an antique is you're
adding to that story. It's like living in a house
that's been owned by somebody else before it's like your
Famili's giving it another chapter. Where are some of your
favorite destinations for inspiration that's not just a place where
you go to relax, per se, but something that moves
(09:33):
each of you deeper.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
I told you guys that I just went to Mexico
City and it had everything that I'm looking for in
a city when I'm traveling and I want to be inspired.
It had incredible architecture, it had amazing food, it had
incredible people, The fashion was cool. It just felt like
everything was like in five D and all of my
(09:57):
senses were just electrified. When I go travel, I also
have photo after photo after photo of doors. Chris, do
you do this too, Oh yes, doors, doors. Okay, the
Mexico City doors do not disappoint. I have to tell
you that. But it was just so special that I
felt like really immersed in the culture. It's like picture
(10:19):
a New York City, but it felt even more vibrant
and colorful, and it just felt like you're in an
area that is just exploding with coolness right now, and
so I want to feel so immersed that I'm like,
I'm not in Kansas anymore, Toto, right, Like I just
want to feel so out of my normal day to
(10:40):
day life and it was great.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Well, and I think that's a lot of it too,
is just the energy of being immersed in cities like
that and the energy and that's why you come home
feeling inspired because you were immersed in the architecture, the food,
the fashion, and not the every day that you see.
And why travel has such inspiration that way, And I
think whatever city that is European or around the world,
(11:03):
it's being immersed in those cultures, in the community and
learning how people live differently. And I especially love travel
just even for the color combinations. Just different regions have
different color combinations. You know, more of the desert sort
of a look, and also even just a Scandinavian look
as well too. You can become so inspired and take
that into your designs.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
For me personally, I think you're so smart, Megan about
the color combinations, because different places around the world do
have different palettes and it's funny when you see a
color that you've never seen before, or it imagined in
a way or combined with another color that you've never seen,
that truly, I think is memorable and just.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
That idea of like a color combination of like, oh,
I never think of that, Like how can I incorporate
that into my work?
Speaker 5 (11:51):
And makes you a better designer as well.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I love that you said Mexico City though, Liz too,
because I think that there is that Western culture from
themiliarity that happens, and while you may see different architecture
that's not at home, or while you may eat different
cuisine that's not at home, it's sort of culturally familiar,
where when you go to a culture that's completely different,
(12:18):
you learn so much from people, just the observation of people.
And I always say, you know, the best thing about
travel is you realize very quickly that we're all exactly
the same and we're all exactly different. Both are true,
and I feel like when you get that cultural shift,
that again forces you to open your eyes in a
(12:40):
way that's different. I remember one time years ago, I
was at the flea market in Paris and the French,
you know, the Parisians, they don't maybe always have the
same cordial behavior that we want them to have. But Americans,
I'm trying to be diplomatic here. I don't know if
it's landing so well, but I was about ready to
(13:03):
buy this beautiful piece at this booth, and this woman
and her daughter. They said, no, we do not have
time for you. And they were going to eat lunch
at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Oh they love Everyone loves KFC. Yes, yes,
And so I'm like, are you kidding me? I want
to give you some of my money and I want
to take this home, and you're shutting me down because
(13:26):
you're going to lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. No. So
you know, I think that that happens sometimes when you travel.
Often is the world does seem a bit homogenized. So
when you can truly escape to a destination that is
nothing like your own, that feels a little special.
Speaker 5 (13:44):
Yeah. Can you imagine somebody locally telling you, no, I'm
not going to take your money.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
But also because I'm going to KFC.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
AFC, that's where I was very insulted. It would have
been different if she were off for Beef tartar or I.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Have been told that Europeans love KFC, and they were
everywhere in Mexico City too.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
America's gift to the world.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yes, all right, this is why Japan is number one
on my list right now. I remember going to Poland
and their language, you know, is cyrillic based and so
it really, you know, a few years of high school French,
like I'm enough to be dangerous that I can kind
of get around and know a few words and commands
(14:27):
and things like that. And when I was in Poland,
I was like, I've got no idea what's happening. I
have no idea what they're saying. And I kind of
loved it. I kind of surrendered to it. It felt
really cool. And then I feel like that would happen
in Japan too, but also the design and the fashion
and so many things that just would I feel like,
really take me out of my comfort zone there. That's
(14:48):
number one on my list right now.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I want to see all of the cherry blossoms there
specificly'd be special, yes, But I get at what you
say with the language thing too, because I feel well again,
as far as outside of the country travel in this country,
Europe is our go to, right It's the easiest, and
so many countries over there do speak English, and that
(15:12):
can make us be a little bit lazy on our end.
But when you don't know the language and they when
they don't speak English, it really forces you to think
about every single word, every single word matters, and when
we're just talking amongst ourselves, every single word maybe doesn't matter.
You know, you just just.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Talk and then like, what are the ways, like the
universal ways that you can get something across? And also,
you know, I'm still in Iowa. Gout like in a
pleasant way, like how nice? Somehow sign this to you
and make it understandable, but also be polite. It's a challenge.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yeah, the smile goes a long way, right.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
It does.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah, totally well.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
And I think.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Ultimately people always just want to connect with other people too,
So most genuine people are going to help you out
and let you figure it out too. They want to
know your story just as much as you want to
know theirs.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And they're excited always to tell you about where they live.
You know, I think it's exciting wherever you live when
a visitor comes to town and you can sort of
brag about your own city or state or neighborhood to them.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Okay, but what's high on your guys' list? I want
to know that.
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Mine actually and this is I almost feel like I
can't be a designer and that I've never been to
Paris and I haven't.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
So that's actually high on my list.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
We almost went this last year and just timing wise,
couldn't quite make it out.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
But I'm hoping to make it there really soon.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
I'm so excited for you because you're just going to
be like an overload of happiness.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
I know. I know I feel that way too.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I spend about five nights of every week right before
I go to bed, this is my ritual. I make
my little cup of tea and I worked on my
bucket list.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Yeah. Sometimes it can be an hour and sometimes it
can be fifteen minutes, depends on how tired I am.
But the reason I do that is I just make
a list of hotels. Not so much restaurants, I would say,
because I'll eat anything, so right, yeah, but hotels, points
of interest places, so when that time comes, I'll be ready.
(17:17):
So I always formulate trips that I want to take
instead of necessity. I mean, yes, they are two specific destinations,
but it's like if I have ten days here, like,
these are the things that I want to hit. These
are the countries that I can if they're smaller countries
that I can hit in that amount of time. Right now,
(17:39):
I have an interest in Vietnam and high Land I
have never been. I've never traveled to either, and that
those places are high on my list. In this country,
I really want to get to Alaska. It's my last state.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And one thing it's incredible it is it's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I look at it everybody's photographs when friends and an
uncle of mine just traveled there last summer, and it's like,
I want to go there so bad. Well, I think
when you travel west in this country, I mean definitely
to Alaska because it's such a large, massive land. I
always think about, oh my gosh, there are places where
(18:20):
no human footstep has ever touched. I don't think of
that so much East because it's more densely populated and
there's a town in a city everywhere, big cities, so
it's like, oh, you know, this has seen footsteps at
one time or another. But you go out west and
it's like, oh my gosh, there are places where no
human has ever touch base with the mountain.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
Isn't that such an interesting way to look at that?
And also like in the reverse. I remember the first
time I went to Rome, my dad said, think of
the people who have walked where you were walking, and
I think that that it like historically, just gives me
goosebumps too. It's like kind of the reverse of like
so many incredible people have walked where you're walking right now,
(19:01):
and you're walking their same path, and you are in
some way seeing what they saw, and that is just
mind boggling to me sometimes.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I mean, the world has so many stories to tell.
We have our own individual stories that the world is
larger and bigger than any of us, and it has
stories to tell that. Have you gone back two thousand
years and longer?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
One of my other things as you're talking about Alaska
and you just start imagining how people live, says I
love wherever I am, just to kind of take those
off roads and see what their houses look like. You know,
we talked about the doors, but like just what does
that cottage look like? Or what is that home and
the architecture, but just kind of putting your shoes in
their daily life and their daily walks and walking into
(19:44):
that home and what that looks like too.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Megan, I can relate to you when you said that
you have not been to Parishet my destination like that
that really affected and moved me in A major way
was the Grand Canyon. I have had the good fortune
of traveling to so many places around the world, and
(20:08):
my story to people was always because they would say,
is there anywhere that you haven't been, It's like, I've
never been to the Grand Canyon. I've never been to
the Grand Canyon. Finally, about three years ago, I traveled
to the Grand Canyon, and I have to say, it
just took my breath away.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
It was can't over sew and not over.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
To oversell it. And I had no idea, like I
thought it would be pretty, but I just have too
many Grady Bunch memories from that episode, and I don't
know the Griswolds going there on vacation that was another.
You know, it's like, oh, it's a big giant hole. No,
it's really not talk about palettes and colors and just
(20:46):
it truly is the most beautiful place I've ever seen
from a nature of perspective.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, it is pretty spectacular. I mean when I lived
in La we drove there and we stayed in Williams Arizona,
which is about an hour and a half away, and
it has the Hotel Arizona, which is the oldest hotel
in Arizona, and they say in Williams that a cowboy
dies there every night because they have a fake cowboys
shootout at five pm every funny streets.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh how fun.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
It was so fun. It was like such a little touristy,
lovely town. It was so fun. And it has become
this place where Nick and I go, We're just gonna
run away to Williams where life is sim The cowboys
die at five pm.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Every day, that is hilarious.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
But anyway, but then like you drive another hour or
so and you hit the Grand Canyon and you again
you feel transported. You could be in Mars. What I'm
always so amazed by is how vastly different, even geographically
our country is so different.
Speaker 5 (21:43):
Well, I think that's what's cool too about travel.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
You know the natural wonders that Mother Nature makes and
how you experience those and just what they how they
move you. But then even the architectural wonders of the world,
you know, your taj Mahals and different things too, that
just it's you're an off how they were create so
long ago.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
In the design I'm also dying to go see the
restored Notre Dame me too. We were there in Paris
for the Olympics, and it was still being worked on.
And the craftsmen that are still alive and creating that
sort of craft and still have that ability. It's just
amazing how so many resources were brought together and so
(22:24):
many people that are still doing a craft that honestly
could be extinct in some.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Areas, and the enthusiasm and the commitment. You can tell
that this monument, this cathedral, this icon is so important
to people all over the world, and how there was
the commitment in the drive to restore it, and thank
goodness that it wasn't burned even worse than it was.
You know, it obviously is so meaningful to so many people,
(22:51):
and I too, am excited to get back and to
see it. So we you know, we've kind of decided
that I think that collectively that everybody needs to go
see the Grand Canyon, which is an easy one because
that is stateside any other places, but you think is
a must have as far as check mark on your
travel list a place that you thought was really really fun.
(23:15):
I have two. This one is so silly, but I
did the tour of Fenway Park.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Did you love it?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
I more than loved it. It was just one of
like the best I don't know what it was about it,
but this goofy little tour and I'm like, this is
the best thing ever. And then the other thing like
that that is a tourist destination, but so important for
reasons that are way deeper than baseball, is the Anne
(23:43):
Frank House in Amsterdam. I went there and there was something,
you know, it was eerie to know that she had
lived there. And I'll never forget going up into the
annex where they lived and seeing no different than a
teenage girl would. Now you tear out pages from magazines
(24:03):
and put them on your wall, tape into their wall.
She and her sister did that too, with high profile.
I don't know they use the word celebrity back then,
but people who are probably in the entertainment business of
some sort. How they had these just from periodicals taped
to the wall like a teenage girl would. But then
(24:24):
as you get to the bottom, and I don't know
if the tour operates the same way, I'm assuming that
it still does, but you get to the end of
the tour and you see the real diary, and that
just moved me so much. It touched me, so, you know,
It's one of those things you should do, and sometimes
those lists can get a little cheesy and hokey. That one,
to me is a must see.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
I had the opportunity to go to the White House
for the first time just this fall, and wow, I mean,
the United States doesn't really have castles, right, this is
like our United States castle. And then we even went
in to we had a meeting still within the compound,
but it's the EEO B and it's so beautiful. But
(25:06):
you sit down and they're like, this is where they
signed the treaty to declare World War two, and like,
who am I?
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I have no business to be in this room, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
But even walking throughout the White House and seeing the
tour and how spectacular again the craft that has been
put into this building, the China Room, I mean, like
anybody that loves design or history would just absolutely love it.
I've seen cloth walls before, but the way that they
(25:35):
did them in the White House is that actually I've
seen it where it's like padded and then the cloth
goes over it, right, and you can almost kind of
like tuft the wall in some way. But they were
saying that it's stretched over frames, almost like you stretch
a canvas and so there's actually no dry wall behind
the fabric, and just like kind of hearing the different
(25:55):
design decisions that went through everything, the furniture that it's made,
the paintings, the artwork, the portraits like of Abraham Lincoln
or George Washington are like the portrait of George Washington
that I think of, so it was like I was
like opening up my art history books and actually seeing
it in person was so cool.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
I think that's what's so neat too.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Kind of as you were mentioned Kriso with the Anne
Frank like being when you travel and get to see
artifacts or go to museums and see beautiful china from
so long ago. It's that's one of my favorite little
treasures too, is and you do you get moved by
your motions of like what life was like and the
things that you see and just different all the different
(26:36):
things that you can find in a museum or a
historical site and things like that too. I think that's
why the South is so charming too. It's just interesting
to see because it's especially for here in the United States.
It's been around as long from when civilization came over too.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So yes, I this country is very new. Generally speaking,
this country is vast too, so it's it's difficult, I
think sometimes to make the haste to travel abroad. I
think you should see this country too, because it offers
so much and has history that's special to us. Maybe
it's not ingrained in the rest of the world, but
(27:10):
it is to us. And I agree about Washington, d C.
It's easy to be cynical about that place for so
many reasons. Oh yeah, but when you're there, I mean
it sort of does bring a tear to your eye
and you start thinking about all of the patriotic songs
and how this country was built not all that long ago.
(27:30):
So that's really exciting. So Megan, any other places for
you that you think are a must see.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
I love my trip to Nantucket. I think it was
just charming, and to be in the little village and
get to see all of the great food and it
just has a charming feel. Just to ride around on
your little bike and have the shoreline and just cute
gifts and boulevards and things like that too.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
As a charming one.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
You feel like you're walking in the children's book. Yes,
for sure, story yeah, charm all the way. Yes, So
let's talk about that for a moment. Let's talk about
the east coast or maybe the northeast New England area,
because I mean there's something about that that's so quintessential
America with the church steeples and it's just yes, all
of a sudden, give me a boat, give me some
(28:18):
blue and white stripes and some Nantucket red and lobster
in any form on a roll, dipped in butter. Hot
lobster roll, cold lobster roll. It does. Yeah. They can
put it in ice cream or on top of ice
cream for all I care. Yeah, I can. I can
put down some lobster.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
And just the freshness of it. I'm like, oh, let me.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Go get some like it's out of the water, right,
let me go get some out of the water. Yes.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
If you didn't know we were landlocked in the middle
of my I I really do.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah, clearly, clearly we need yes. Yes for listeners, send
us some lobster please. And I think at different times
of year places can look so different. So New England.
I have been to New England many, many times, but
until a year ago, I had never traveled there in
(29:09):
the fall. And that's what it's venous for right foliage.
I had never been there in the fall, and I
had the great pleasure of traveling to Vermont, and oh
it was spectacular. The trees were on fire, you saw yellow, orange, red,
all at the same time, and not one leaf was missed.
It was just spectacular and I want to do it again.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We did a road trip through New England, and so
we went into Vermont to hit it, because we too,
are trying to hit every state right now. I mean,
just like pulling off on these little lakes, freshwater lakes
that you know, have like ten houses around it, and
they the same ten people have lived there and come
there every summer. I love the vibe, I love everything
(29:51):
about it. I just want to spend time there. I
want to be somebody that says, I summer in Vermont.
Speaker 5 (29:59):
We all need to summer someplace so fancy, Liz.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It sounds batleous, it does, But these are so these
sorts of things that we're all talking about are very
idyllic and sophisticated and adult. But I have to say
I on my bucket list, not everything is fancy. Like
I want to see all of the quirky, little cheesy
I want to go to Dollywood. Never been. I want
(30:24):
to go to the Corn Palace in South Dakota.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
I've been there too, is good, okay, I mean it's
it's both silly and awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I want to do this silly stuff too.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I want to do it all because have you done
Mount Rushmore?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yes, okay, so you so we did Corn Palace on
the way to Mount Rushmore. And you know Wall Drug
of course too. But yeah, I totally agree. I mean,
I love it when it's cheap and quirky. I love
a roadside giant. We always look those up for on
our road trips, where it's like a giant teapot or
a giant ear of corn or whatever it is. Love that.
(31:01):
I really want to go do the Car Henge, but
it's in the middle of Nebraska and we have not
figured out what else we would do. But if you've
seen this, its stonehenge made out of cars.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Yes, I think so. I think jay Leno go there.
I think jay Leno wait there at this point, because
he's a car collector, feels.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Right for him. But yeah, I love all of that.
I love the things that make America America.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
And that's fun too because it makes your car ride
a little bit more interesting because you can talk about
it and learn about it too.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Any other fun places that are must have us.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
I mean, look, I think the things that we were
talking about earlier, like you cannot go wrong with New
York City. I think every single person should go there.
I lived in LA for a few years. I loved it.
Sometimes you're a New York person, sometimes you're an LA
person making sure everybody goes to the ocean, wherever that
ends up being.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I think that's true because when you live in the
middle of the country like we do, so many people
have never seen the ocean.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
I know, I've met so many people who have never.
I mean talk about like putting things in perspective of
like you are just so small, as like standing next
to the ocean, I'm just always so taken aback by
its fastness. And also it is scary, like what's at
the bottom of the ocean is none of my business.
I have such respect for the ocean, but I want
(32:22):
to tick like three steps in.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
It is definitely a man versus nature that ocean, and
I think that you know, when it's man versus nature,
nature usually wins.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Always yes, but yeah, I just I want I want
people to do those things that maybe feel like quote
unquote cliche, but they become cliche for a reason is
because like everybody should do it.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I think that that's what is somewhat confusing about travel,
because I think that oftentimes people put travel in that
category of a luxury, right it's something that you save
up for or that's special to do. But what I
love about traveling is somebody who has had the opportunity
(33:07):
to travel so many places is if you don't come
home feeling like a different person, then you're missing something
along the way. So Liz, you reference the ocean as
that element that you realize how small you are compared
to how fast that is. I feel that way in cities,
and you have already said you lived in La so
(33:30):
you'll understand. I love to go to the top of Mulhollands.
I love to go on a fald dive, and I'm
terrified to drive up there. So why I go up there?
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Very curvy, very windy, You're going up lots of blind corners.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
People speeding past me in a Lamborghini while I'm in
my rental forward of some sort yep it's not glamorous
on my end whatsoever. But you are up there and
you know, you can see the valley on one side,
you see La on the other, and it just goes
on forever, and you realize, oh my gosh, not only
(34:10):
am I one person among millions the ten million, twelve
million people that are here, there are so many other
cities like that around the world. This isn't the only
big city. There are lots of cities like that around
the world. And that's when you realize in that moment
that you you matter, but you you matter to yourself
(34:33):
and it's not all about you. And I think that
you know when you see other people and you watch
families interact, when you're in this country or outside. I'm
more intrigued when I'm in other countries. And I think
I said this to Megan once before. I have this fascination.
It's sick, I know, but I like watching little kids
(34:54):
get in trouble by their parents and other white coaches
because you realize how similar a we are. It's always
the same reason they want something and the parent says no.
Very simple, right. We were all kids once, we all
had our moms and dads say no. To us for
one reason or another, and you realize so quickly your
(35:15):
problems are just your problems, they're not really anybody else's problems,
and we all have the same problems. So that's always
my thing with travel. If people don't go into it
open minded and are changed by it in some way,
then they wait really wasted.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
The time I think you're so onto something when you're
saying like everybody has the same troubles that we all do.
I always think about, like everybody's got similar hopes and
dreams too. They're just trying to get by in the world,
you know. And it is easy to become really insular
and be in that kind of echo chamber depending on
who you hang out with and who you talk to
(35:53):
and what social media you absorb in all of that.
But getting out there and seeing like, hush, people are
just so similar, so similar really are any ways, and
it has it just it changes me every single time.
I become a more open, loving, forgiving all of the things.
(36:13):
I become a better person every time I travel.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
It creates empathy that you wouldn't you wouldn't think you'd
get from travel. It's like you expect to get these
inspired feelings, but to get empathy is a neat thing too.
And like you said, Chris, that you love to watch
those little kids arguing with their parents. I think it's
just fun just to sit, you know, in Central Park
and just people watch, or anywhere really be in a
(36:36):
coffee shop and just watching that people walk by is interesting,
and seeing where they're going and what they're what they're wearing,
and just what their lives look like to.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
And wonder what they're thinking. Yes, I mean I can
people watch any people watch at the fair every year,
which is for a whole other reason. Oh that's something else,
that'll be a whole other episode, maybe the whole other
type of design. One of my favorite stories. This has
been years ago. I was on a train in Rome,
and I don't speak fluent Italian by any stretch of
(37:06):
the imagination. I can pick up words here and there
in phrases because I know Spanish. But there was a
mother on the train, and it was a little boy
and a little girl, and I'm the daughter was older.
For no reason, he decides to smack his sister, as
brothers and sisters sometimes do. And I don't know Italian,
(37:28):
but the mom grabbed the little kid by the arm
and I don't know what she said, but the words
no video, no video, those came through loud and clear.
It's like some things just transfer all over the world.
No video. I understood those words completely and clearly, sitting
game Boy taken away.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
It's the biggest threat. It's the biggest threat.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I have no video that seems to work. So anyway,
is there I know we're going to wrap up now.
Is there anything that we want to leave our life
listeners with before we end? Maybe if we could all
talk about one destination that has really inspired something specific
to the design world. Let's do that. Since we are
(38:11):
all in that ethos. What is something that you've seen
visually that you've brought back and applied or that's super memorable.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Okay, Well, one of the things that is really tangible
for our home is my husband spent a huge amount
of time growing up in the South, and one of
the things that kind of makes him feel a little
more at home here in Iowa is we painted our
porch ceiling paint blue. And I know that that is
so silly, but that's not something that always happens in
(38:40):
the Midwest. That that is a much more Southern thing.
And I love traveling around the South because the decor
is like what speaks to me. It sings to me
and like actually tangibly like taking the photos of a
great hotel or a beautiful home because there's so many
historic home tours that you can go on and really
(39:01):
like being like, Okay, I'm literally going to take this
back to my space. And every single time it makes
me think of that. So when we go and we
hang it on our porch now and we have a
drink together on the porch swing, we look up and
it's got that haint blue, it just feels so special
that I'm like, I think of all of our Southern trips,
and it makes me think of, you know, where Nick
is from. And I think that design has the ability
(39:22):
to transport you.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
It definitely does, because it can just take you and
bring those memories back. I love that. I love that
they do that in the South, that they paint their
ceilings like that. I'd have to say, for me, one
thing that I still have in my house today that's
a core memory and it's almost been twenty years ago.
But when I studied abroad in Italy Realme specifically, I
took a photography class.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
While I was there, I took.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Some wonderful photos of just different architecture and even of
the coastline down in Sorrento and all the colors and
things like that.
Speaker 5 (39:53):
When I got back, I had them.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Framed in an eight x ten and it has this
beautiful antique gold mirrored frame around. And I've had them
in different parts of my home as just as a
gallery wall, or just right now, I have a single
piece in a bathroom.
Speaker 5 (40:06):
But it just as I look at it, I can
just get.
Speaker 4 (40:09):
The smile, and like you said, Liz, it just it
transports me to that time and I can still see
it vividly clear in my mind and the special memories
that go along with it.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
For me, it's been artwork from a variety of places
only because when I bring that artwork home, it forces
me to rethink how I have my art displayed, the
art that I already own. So not only does it
change me as a person when I travel, but it
changes my house because when I bring those pieces back,
(40:40):
it's like I think we're going to redo, rearrange, reallocate
where something lives permanently or not permanently, until the next
piece is brought back, so I love that about travel.
For me, the best part of travel is coming home
because as much as I like to go everywhere else
in the world, I like to come home more. But
it's not home the way that I knew it before,
(41:02):
because I'm bringing something back and it's changing and it's
changed me.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
What a lovely way to end an episode, CHRISA, thanks job.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Well, thanks ladies. I know that we're going to talk
about travel other times too, but this is sort of
our first stab at it. We're going to talk about
travel must have at some point, and I know that
we will all take other trips that we will discuss
as we pursue this podcast. So thank you all for listening.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Boulevard Beat.
If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and leave
a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen
so you never missed an episode, and of course follow
your host on Instagram at Megan bloom Interiors, at CHRISA. Rossbund,
and at Liz Legit. We'll be back next week as
we take a stroll down another boulevard.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Accomm
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