‘The Crazier, the Better’

A love that began at Temple University Beasley School of Law has now taken Ally Ewing and Brandon Herling to some of the most remote and adventurous places in the world.

The two first met as part of the same law school section, and quickly became close friends until one day during 2L when they decided to take the leap. They kept it quiet up to the day after graduation, when they posted their engagement online. “The overwhelming reaction from people in law school was, ‘Wait, is this for real?’” Herling says.

Now, Ewing focuses on complex commercial and business litigation at Richards, Layton & Finger in Wilmington, and Herling leads the workers’ compensation practice for Weber Gallagher’s Delaware office. The two frequently bounce ideas off each other, and enjoy having a partner who understands the demands of the job. “It’s also been really great being young lawyers together in Delaware because it is such a great overall community,” Ewing says. 

And perhaps most importantly, their schedules line up. “Which has enabled her to drag me all over the world,” Herling says.

He had a passport, but hadn’t traveled much. Ewing, meanwhile, was an experienced traveler. And she had a bucket list. 

She was hesitant to tackle it at first, picking trips where she could stay plugged in for work. But two mentors at her firm encouraged her. “They were like, ‘Just go, take that crazy trip, and everybody will hear that you’re in X, Y or Z, and they’ll be like, “That sounds awesome. I’ll email you next week or two weeks from now.” The crazier the better,’” she says. 

So out came the bucket list. Their first trips were to Costa Rica and Panama, where Ewing learned Herling was far more fluent in Spanish than she expected. Their guide took such amazing photos that Ewing was inspired to buy her own camera. 

The next trip was to South Africa for a safari at the Greater Kruger National Park. “We fell in love with South Africa, the people,” Herling says. So much so that the two went back the next year for a longer trip, visiting more game reserves and an elephant sanctuary, where they now fund the care of an elephant. “We saw amazing things. We saw an albino elephant. We were able to get video of a cheetah actively on the hunt and making a kill,” he says. 

“A hippo came to the watering hole and interrupted our Christmas dinner,” Ewing adds. 

On that first trip, Ewing put her new camera to work. “I got jealous,” says Herling, “so she got another camera and then passed [the first one] down.” 

Both are now travel photographers, capturing the animals on their safaris, the various backdrops of nature, and of course, each other. 

Things aren’t always smooth sailing. One night the two were woken up in their safari resort room by the sound of fluttering.

“‘Oh God, it’s a bat,’” Herling remembers saying while Ewing ran into the bathroom. 

Their guide came to the rescue. “He’s a 6-foot 3-inch, strapping, superhero guy, walks into our room and goes, ‘Oh yeah, it’s a bat,’ and snatches it out of the air with his hand,” Herling says. “And then he holds it up, goes, ‘It’s a fruit bat. You’re fine.’ Throws it out the window.”

Their most recent trip was to Easter Island, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, where they experienced the unique culture, wild horses and, of course, the statues. “Everybody had their own take, all the different theories about how the heads got there,” Ewing says. 

The trips get them out of their own heads. “Realizing the world is so big is really freeing and makes you think beyond your immediate day-to-day,” Ewing says.

Though he was initially dragged along, Herling now has the travel bug, too. “The first time we traveled together,” he says to her, “I experienced and saw things that I had never seen before and made these incredible memories, and realized that these are the most fantastic memories of my life. And you were a part of every single one of them. As much as I do enjoy traveling, and I do, I would not do it the way that we do it without you.” 

As for their next trip? They opted for the Amazon this August. 

“I never feel like we can just be like, ‘Oh let’s go to the beach,’” Ewing says. “Full steam ahead.”