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On the Road: Our Adventure on The Great River Road, Part III

August 28, 2015

Much like the rest of our trip along the Great River Road (read Part 1 here and Part 2 here), we were very open to where we stopped and when on the way to our last destination in Dubuque, Iowa. We did have one stop planned along the way during the final leg – Potosi Brewing Company – but this ...

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Posted by Aly Hess
Filed Under: Aly + Jeremy, Midwest, Travel Tagged: adventure, road trip, wanderlust

On the Road: Our Adventure on The Great River Road, Part II

August 27, 2015

After leaving the winery in Alma country, we ventured back onto Great River Road and drove south towards our next stop: Lansing, Iowa. Initially, we were going to spend the night in La Crosse, Wisconsin. However, hotels and inns there were a bit out of our price range, and the more we read about ...

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Posted by Aly Hess
Filed Under: Aly + Jeremy, Midwest, Travel Tagged: adventure, explore, road trip, wanderlust

On the Road: Our Adventure on The Great River Road, Part I

August 26, 2015

Following our Eaux Claires experience, Jeremy and I decided to take the scenic route home. We planned a rather loose, three day itinerary that took us south along Great River Road – which runs alongside the Mississippi River – through the “driftless area” of Wisconsin and a bit of Iowa before ...

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Posted by Aly Hess
Filed Under: Midwest, Travel Tagged: adventure, explore, on the road, review, road trip, travel, wanderlust

Our Eaux Claires Experience: Tips + Tricks for Surviving a Music Festival

August 25, 2015

Eaux Claires was our first experience at a music festival (you can read more about it here.) It was also the inaugural year for Eaux Claires. So, naturally, we learned a lot - and I'm sure the Eaux Claires folks did, too. ...

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Posted by Aly Hess
Filed Under: Arts + Entertainment, Living, Travel Tagged: adventure, explore, festival, music, on the road, review, road trip, tips + tricks, travel, wanderlust, wisconsin

Our Eaux Claires Experience: A Review of the 2015 Festival

August 24, 2015

I've been in love with Bon Iver for years. It's kind of at that obsessive, "fangirl," impressive-yet-a-wee-bit-sad level. I was able to see the head of the band, and my biggest man crush, Justin Vernon, perform with Volcano Choir (one of his many other creative projects) in Broad Ripple a few years ...

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Posted by Aly Hess
Filed Under: Arts + Entertainment, Living, Travel Tagged: festival, music, review, travel, wanderlust, wisconsin

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Welcome!

Hi! We’re Aly & Jeremy, a wife and husband based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We use this space to share about our adventures at home, around the world, and in life.

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Life Lately

alyhess

I never could’ve imagined the kind of duality 20 I never could’ve imagined the kind of duality 2025 would hold. The highest highs braided in tightly with the deepest lows.

A year of celebrating friendships old and new, engagements and weddings, pregnancies and births, and quiet personal wins—while also learning how to carry the still-fresh grief of my dad’s death, mourning a friend lost to suicide, navigating major shifts at work, and relentlessly advocating for long-unanswered health questions.

I juggled new side projects and passions while spending countless hours closing an estate. In April, I took a whirlwind trip to Waco to see family and rerouted to Vegas instead of home at the last minute for a work conference. And in August, found myself alone in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains (except for the night a bear came knocking).

Hosted a few gatherings. Baked many cakes. Took tons of photos. Got back into reading. Grew a garden. Gave extra snuggles to a newly, nearly-toothless Rosie. Learned how to stop taking myself so seriously. Forgot how to sleep.

I’ve never cried more. Never laughed more. Never been so social, yet so isolated.

It was a year of progress and growth—and also of bone-deep exhaustion. A year that tested my limits in every direction.

But we made it.

And I’m endlessly grateful for the friends and family who met me with patience, kindness, and unwavering love along the way. As someone who tends to disappear to rebuild and recover, the time spent with you was just as healing, and what got me through.

Every favorite memory from 2025 lives here—rooted in the people I love—and I can’t wait to make even more with y’all in 2026. 🫶🏼
Happy Christmas Eve, friends! As I spent the last Happy Christmas Eve, friends!

As I spent the last couple days baking holiday treats with only my thoughts as a soundtrack, I reflected a lot on how lucky I am to be surrounded by so many incredible people in my life—and how grateful I am to have been invited into so many meaningful moments in yours.

This year was full in the very best way: engagements and weddings, babies and promotions, anniversaries and sweet sixteens, graduations, big moves, bold leaps, new beginnings. Being trusted to bake the treats, capture the photos, and help plan the celebrations for these chapters is something I never take lightly. It’s an honor beyond words, and I’m endlessly grateful for it.

And if your greatest accomplishment this year was simply making it through—please know I see you, and I’m celebrating you, too. Some of the most life-changing seasons are the quiet ones. The heavy ones. The years that stretch us, soften us, and ask us to begin again. I’m always here for those chapters, too… whether that’s sitting with a listening ear or in shared silence, or supporting you from afar.

Wishing you all a gentle, joyful holiday season and a year ahead filled with exactly what you need. Thanks for being here. 🤍
December’s been a blur—as has the entirety of December’s been a blur—as has the entirety of 2025. Slowing down a bit to soak up what’s left of the holiday season and reflect on the past year. I hope you’re able to do some of the same, friends. 🕯️ 

#cottagechristmas #holidaydecor #christmasathome #dachshund #rosiepoesy
“In this autumn town where the leaves can fall O “In this autumn town where the leaves can fall
On either side of the garden wall
We laugh all night to keep the embers blowing

Some are leaping free from their moving cars
Stacking stones ‘round their broken hearts
Waving down any wind that might come blowing

Mice move out when the field is cut
Serpents curl when the sun comes up
Songbirds only end up where they’re going

Some get rain and some get snow
Some want love and some want gold
I just want to see you in the morning” 🍂

#ironandwine #november #wanderfolk #peoplescreatives #indiana
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Who is behind Beard & Bloom? Hello! We're Aly Hess and Jeremy Weiks, a wife and husband living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with our sweet miniature dachshund, Rosie.

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