About Me

Hi, I'm Maria. The blog was a direct result of my wanting some way to chronicle everything we do as we do it. I used to update this very frequently when we lived in DC, but really fell off the wagon upon moving to Ohio. It's a lot of personal "what we did on our travels" notes and hopefully it's still useful to someone out there (aside from myself looking up things about our trips :) ).

We currently live in Indiana. We've also lived in Ohio, lots of other places in Indiana, Maryland/DC, North Carolina, and California. We also spent a year being nomads.

Contact
Find me Instagram at milyushas
Email me at milyusha+etc@gmail.com


Fun Lists
US States Visited (47 + DC): Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

US States Left to Go (3): Alaska, Idaho, Oregon

Other Countries Visited (10): Austria, the Bahamas, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Russia, Scotland

Countries I'd Really Love to Visit: Switzerland, France, Belgium, Wales, Italy, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Iceland

Sports Teams I Root For: Indianapolis Colts, Cincinnati Reds, Indiana Hoosiers, DePauw Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats, Indiana Pacers, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Tar Heels, Butler Bulldogs

Sports I Watch: Baseball, college basketball, pro football, college football, some pro soccer, some pro basketball, Olympics when available, World Darts Championship, World Cup soccer

Other Interests Besides Sports: Lighthouses, craft beer, photography, the ocean and beach, data, teaching, reading, antiques, crafting, cooking, decorating, old-fashioned soda fountains, chocolate, being outside, taking walks, singing, clocks, trains

Things With Which I Have Been Interested in the Past & May Be Again in the Future: studying languages, knitting, sewing, theater, singing for real, computer programming, web design, playing musical instruments

State Capitols Toured

Basketball Stadiums Visited
Football Stadiums Visited
Baseball Stadiums Visited



My Gear
I'm always curious about what other people use to get around, take photos, that kind of thing. Please note that these links are Amazon referral links. They are what I actually use or have used in the past (I'll let you know when things get updated).

Cameras & Accessories
I have several cameras and would have even more if I could get away with it. Here's what I currently use - you can find pictures taken with all of these somewhere on the blog:
- Olympus OM-D E M5 Mark iii with 14-150mm lens - bought in November 2019 as an upgrade to the Olypmus OM-D E M10 Mark ii with 14-150mm lens that I used from 2015-2019.
- Canon Digital Rebel XT DSLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Lens (Black) - Used from 2006-2015. I used the kit 18-55mm lens as well as the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III Telephoto Zoom Lens.

- Casio High Speed Exilim Ex-ZR400 Digital Camera Silver EX-ZR400SR - Bought in 2014 - This is the point and shoot I (technically) bought for Eric for his birthday :); he had an older version of this camera that he really liked that got eaten in some sand in Michigan. It takes nice photos for sure but can be a little bit slow to focus at times. It's very light and easy to carry around!

- GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition - Bought in 2014 - Bought this before the Hero4 came out on a great deal and it takes really nice photos and video. I like all the various accessories (that was the main decider between this and a normal just waterproof camera, although this one can't zoom; still great since it's tiny and virtually indestructible): a pole is great to have since I'm so short (SP Gadgets POV Pole GoPro-Edition (36 inch, Black)), something to make it float since we use it in the water quite a bit (Waterproof Camera Float (2-pack) Floating Camera Strap), fog inserts for said water but I don't always use them (GoPro Anti-Fog Inserts), and extra batteries are a must since they only last ~2 hours (Wasabi Power Battery (2-Pack) and New Charger).

- Other accessories: I clean with Giottos Rocket Air Blaster and LensPen NLP-1 and store things on memory cards like SanDisk Ultra 32GB MicroSDHC Class 10 UHS Memory Card.

Road Tripping

- My stomach and cars don't get along (unless I'm the one driving). In 2015 I discovered chewable Nauzene tablets for upset stomachs and I will never go on another road trip or to an amusement park without them.