Newlywed Adventures: Wilkes-Barre + Scranton, PA

Disclosure: I did not receive compensation for this post and am simply sharing because I think this is a wonderful opportunity that could interest some of you that love traveling as much as I do!

My husband has been talking about making a trip up to Wilkes-Barre for almost two weekends now. I was also pretty adamant on not going, primarily because it seemed like too far of a drive to do spontaneously. Yes, although I am all for spontaneous travels, going for a two hour drive at 5:30 to going sightseeing didn’t seem like a good idea when we had to wake up early the next morning to church. I was also just really, really tired last weekend because there were a lot of things going on.

He agreed, and then we agreed that perhaps next weekend we’d make the trip up with the expectation of scouting a local coffee shop and taking a lot of pictures.

So after a sleepy and slow start, I grabbed my camera, we stocked up on some road-tripping tunes and got on the road and head for our mini day-trip to the city that I mispronounced as “BAR” instead of “BARE-EH.”

I’m probably still pronouncing that incorrectly.

I thought I would share some of the highlights from our chilly adventure as well as an amazing (and I mean AUH-MAZ-ING) opportunity with Cotopaxi to travel the country!

Before I get to that, allow me to share with you some our favorite travels from our Saturday spent in PA.

Honestly, once my husband and I got to Wilkes-Barre we realized that because this is a college town, there wasn’t a whole lot to do there. There’s quite a few museums, but by the time we made it up there on Saturday they were closed for the day – with the exception of one that was closed until February. We sought out looking for a local coffee shop to cozy up in only to head to Starbucks, because it was cold and the one of the only local coffee shops in the vicinity was also closed. Bummer.

After finding out that Scranton was just under 30 minutes away, my husband and I decided to head a little further north to the city where The Office was filmed. While Wilkes-Barre was a quaint college town, Scranton is definitely a little more thriving with quite a few things to see and restaurants to eat. We ate at Backyard Ale House a restaurant with delicious food, craft brews, and enough gnomes to make my husband very amused. I did not snap nice pictures inside, but I ordered the trainwreck fries and Han ordered a pork sandwich with fries. My trainwreck fries were garlic-rubbed fries with house-made chili, jalepeno peppers, onions, and a cheese aioli sauce.

I also wore a new sweater dress I purchased from Rue21, that was super comfy, so it was perfect for exploring! I wore these new flats that I got on sale at H&M as well, which I adore because it’s the perfect pop of color for the grey sweater I wore. I think I might have liked it a little too much, because when I looked through the photographs I took, I noticed that I took quite a few photos of with my shoes, blanket scarf, and grey sweater. Oh, and of course a cup of coffee, which came in handy because it was pretty chilly.

I honestly can say that I love traveling with him. I know everyone probably says that about their spouse, but he’s the best travel companion and is so much fun to be around. I love being able to experience different places and different things with him.

Although we love adventuring through and to various parts of the East Coast and the USA, we’d eventually love to travel to different places around the world together, experiencing new territories and places. This is why when I heard about Cotopaxi, the adventurer in me knew that this was an opportunity that some of my fellow adventuring readers had to know about!

Cotopaxi specializes in outerwear and gear that helps you stay warm and prepared as you travel. One of the things that drew me into this company was that it gives some of it’s profits to help those in impoverished countries. This means that with each item you purchase for your future adventures, you’re helping someone else in the world. Out of all the items Cotopaxi sells, their travel backpacks help provide the most relief for the organizations they partner with.

Yay, for staying warm and giving back to someone in need at the same time!

While this is their speciality, they also have an awesome opportunity where you can apply to travel the country! If accepted for the Road Warrior position, you will get an opportunity to travel U.S during the 2017 Questival Tour.

Yes, that means you could potentially travel the world and try all of the coffee or whatever warm drink tickles your fancy. You could also have some totally Instagramable (is that even a word?) moments that would make even in the top influencers on Instagram swoon because of your #photographyskills.
The application is not available yet, but as soon as it is, I will update this post and let you all know ASAP! You can also keep your eyes peeped for this opportunity by clicking this link and periodically checking the available positions. While I personally cannot do this, it’s a wonderful opportunity for those of you who are able to!

If you’re one of the ones that gets accepted, I’d love to hear about it, celebrate with you, and hear about you travels – especially since I’m not too far from the locations in Pennsylvania where the Road Warrior would be visiting and can recommend some places in the area to eat!

Have you ever traveled somewhere spontaneously or on a whim? Where was it and what was your experience like?