Before we found home in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, we almost moved to Barcelona. As you look through our captures from our adventures through the city, you'll see why. The city is so warm and so alive. Out of all the European cities I've traveled with the love of my life, it holds the biggest piece of my heart. Click on the photo below to view the full Barcelona gallery.

We made so many memories and looking back through our photos feels like a dream. We booked a beautiful flat from the 1850s via Airbnb in the Gràcia district and it immediately felt like home. It has a charming patio to enjoy your coffee in the morning and the most gorgeous tile throughout.

My brother flew in from Michigan with his wife Angel, my cousin/best friend Jenna flew in from England with her husband Ben, and a couple of our Rhodes Wedding Co. clients Emily and Tom flew in from England as well. It made for quite the memorable trip to get all of us together.

Tom proposed to Emily in the Parc de la Ciutadella with an incredible rose gold engagement ring that we hand carved with a Tsavorite Garnet. It was so special to be part of this intimate moment. I was in tears. We also surprised my cousin Jenna with a hand carved ring with the most gorgeous green amethyst. Her husband Ben got down on one knee for the surprise. We loved capturing their smiles.

While we were in Barcelona, Gregory Alan Isakov, my favorite artist of all time was playing at Razzmatazz. I was dying to go, but the show was sold out. I was contacting all my old music industry peeps to try and get ahold of tickets. And in my desperation I reached out to Gregory personally. I didn't know him and he probably wouldn't respond, but hey it was worth a shot. Sure enough, he responded that he put me on the list +2. WHAT?! I was overwhelmed by gratitude. His kindness and generosity blew me away. Here's a quick clip from the show of my favorite song of his, Master & A Hound. Try not to cry.

After the show he texted to see if we wanted to meet up the following day for coffee. Um, yes. The next morning we met in the darling district of La Barceloneta and sipped coffee at a seaside cafe and talked traveling, music, and about his farm life in Colorado. He's a photographer as well so after our coffees we wandered around the amazing city chasing light. He is the most genuine and most talented human I've ever met. Since then we've spent time at his beautiful farm in Colorado and have seen him play more times than I can count. What is this life?

A dream.

On top of being able to spend time with one of the artists who have inspired me down to the core of my soul, I got to stroll the city streets with my brother. A lot has changed from growing up in a meth house in the barren California desert, from eating ice cream for breakfast because all we had in the house was sugar, from watching horror movies until 3am because our parents weren't around to tell us not to, from creating an imaginary world in the dust — we are now in control of our own life. A life where we can leave the dust behind and explore one of the most beautiful cities in the world, where we sip coffee seaside with our heroes, where we can make memories that we will cherish forever. I love you, Brandon. Thank you for braving our wild childhood and for adventuring through this crazy life with me.

the city streets of barcelona