Europe

Europe was amazing by the way, read all about it on my travel blog here, in the mean time here are some of my favorite shots to entice you to go read up.

The Eiffel Tower

Sagrada Familia 

Beach in Barcelona

Feria de Abril in Seville

Typical scene during Feria in Seville

Europe Bound Again

Tomorrow I leave for Europe with Megan for 15 days! Paris Barcelona and Seville. Check out my travel blog to follow us on our adventure.

SeeUsTravel.blogspot.com

I'm so excited!

NYC At Last

I tried to go to NYC last weekend but the flights were too full. I've been wanting to get out of town, I've been jonesing for an NYC fix and I needed some catch up time with my buddy there so rather than hope Delta would cooperate I took matters in to my own hands and *gasp!* purchased a ticket.

I went out Friday night and flew home Monday early in the morning so I was at work by noon. Sounds a like a quick trip but three nights and two full days was just what I needed. After an hour of catching up on life with my buddy it was like always, like no time had passed since we last hung out. He had all sorts of things planned for us ranging from uber touristy to totally local. I have an art project in mind that requires lots of great shots of architecture and angles so that guided our travels ab it as well.

Saturday we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, visited the newly opened 9/11 memorial, went to the Chelsea Market and had pizza at a new place he's been wanting to try. This is my favorite pic from the trip, taken from this elevated park they've built on an old railway platform.

Sunday we slept in a bit and braved the overcast, chilly day to wander Central Park, hitting some spots I hadn't been to yet, like Strawberry Field, then we went by Lincoln Center and did a little shopping for houseware goods (sounds boring but Bed Bath & Beyond NYC style is interesting!). For dinner Sunday we went to a Ramen place he'd been wanting to try but since they always have a killer long wait he just hadn't made it there yet. After an hour wait we only occupied our chairs for about 30 minutes, the soup was so good we slurped it down in record time. My wassabi veggie broth was so flavorful with these sweet bean curds on top - oh my. Then, as if that weren't enough of a treat for my belly we went to Milk, a place that specializes in wacky flavors of soft serve. I had Fried Apple Pie ice cream with Cornflake sprinkles. I kid you not, it tasted not only like apple pie but like FRIED apple pie. Yummy but bizarre.

It was the perfect blend of playing tourist, relaxing and catching up with a good friend. Paired with last weekend's beach trip I'm feeling quite content and loved :)

All of my photos are posted on Flickr here.

Good Weekend

Had some crazy stuff go down over the past week and just needed to get out of town. Megan was a great friend as usual and cleared her weekend and joined me for a night of girly insanity out at Clearwater Beach.

The traffic was insane, the NBA All Star game is in Orlando this year so traffic along I4 was slow going. Since the trip was so last minute we didn't even have a hotel booked. Once we arrived we drove around a bit, picked the least skeevy looking low budget hotel and pulled in. We got all dolled up and went for a nice dinner at the Beachcomber. The food was amazing and we had a couple of bottles of Kim Crawford wine which was fantastic. The service wasn't so hot but comical so that made up for it. We were sat next to a couple and the quarters were quite tight so we couldn't help but overhear each other's conversations, at one point they had stopped talking and were so clearly listening in on us that I had to really prevent myself from saying something outrageous just to shock them... :) We closed the place down and had a great night, one of those that will not soon be forgotten. :)

To finish off the weekend I went to a costume Oscar Part at John & Laura's. Everyone was asked to dress as a character from a nominated film, I dressed as Celia Foote from The Help. :)

Bowl o' Rum

The cups weren't big enough for 'Chryle' sized rum'n'cokes....

Last Mango in Paris

Last night our friends Kyle and Rachel arrived for our Jimmy Buffett weekend. Last night we enjoyed 4R followed by Kyle's Key Lime Pie and margaritas.

Now we're about half way to Miami. The concert starts at 7pm, tailgating at 5pm. Rachel is trying to get as much studying done as she can since she has to take a big exam on Monday. The rest of us however plan to chill in Miami until Monday afternoon.

I love mini vacations and maybe after tonight I'll love Jimmy too.

DC

I went to DC with my Mom and our friend Daisy. While Mom and I hadn't been to DC in ages and were excited to go, the trip was all about Daisy who rarely travels and was insanely excited to go.

We had a good time and crammed a lot in. To read all about it check out my travel blog here. Pictures will be up soon on my Flickr page.

Dessert Relaxation

It's crazy how much life has changed. It used to be that these families would occasionally manage to sync up long enough to meet for a park day. Now, we're (mostly) grown up with more schedules to coordinate and we still somehow managed to sync up for a whole week! Mom's best friends, Velma and Cindy and their daughters, Mom, me and Laura all went to Indio, California - eight of us total.

Mom works for a timeshare company and got a killer deal, three bedroom suite in the dessert for a week. The resort was amazing, surrounded by lush green landscaping and then the craggly dessert mountains in the distance. The view from our balcony was perfect.

The theme of the trip, for me at least, was a balance between discover and relaxation. I spent a sufficient amount of time floating around the lazy river and lounging by the pool, read a book, listened to a book, read my Mental Floss. But I also went on a drive through the Mojave Dessert, hiked through an oasis, went to an art museum and explored San Diego.

See the Travel Blog for the full scoop and I'm working on getting all pics on Flickr.

Paris Passions

Well, we FINALLY made it to Paris. It was our fourth attempt but gosh was it worth it.

What's funny is that I had no expectations, in fact, if anything I didn't expect to like Paris. I'd heard all about how rude the French could be and how Parisians hate American's. I figured the Eiffel Tower would look just like the mini key chains you see and I've never had French cuisine that I enjoyed.

As usual, starting with low expectations sets you up to be impressed. I had plenty of chances to use the French that I'd practiced and most of the people were nice and helpful. Everything was bigger than I was prepared for. And I even found food that I actually enjoyed. True creme brulee is truly amazing.

We caught the very beginnings of Spring time in Paris. As we

wandered we saw bits of green buds on trees and occasional flowers. When we finally stopped at Notre Dame we got our first real dose of Spring in Paris. There were Cherry Blossoms in full bloom, I spent time watching French children playing in a sandbox under a canopy of blossoms, their cheeks a supernat

ural rosy pink.

The Eiffel Tower wasn't at all what I expected. The base was far larger and the tower much taller than I imagined. I also expected it to be black or green and was surprised to see rusty orange patches. We

approached the tower through the Parc du Champs de Mars and then walked South East, as we left we passed through some gardens that aren't on the map but

which were in bloom and beautiful.

We met our friends, Fabio and Adrian for this trip so I had to be considerate of the boy attention span when it came to our museum trips. My new sis-in-law made us this great little packet tour that

took us through the museum to the highlights and included reasons why the pieces are so critical. I could have spent hours in the Louvre, I mean, the building itself was amazing and it was just so freaky huge! I have to admit, I got goosebumps when we stumbled upon the glass pyramid. Pics of the art we saw together as well as some of my favorites are up on my Flickr here.

I'm such a sucker for a gorgeous cathedral, you'll have to go to our Travel Blog to read about my impressions of Notre Dame.

The Icelandic Volcano put a bit of a twist on our trip. We were supposed to take a cheap(ish) flight on RyanAir and go back to Rome with the boys for a few days, but with all flights grounded we had be flexible. The boys had to get back for a business deal so they were

a tad more stressed than we were. In the end Adrian's brother, Marcello, drove the 15 hours up from Rome to get us and then we all five piled into one car and went South, through the French Alps, stopped for dinner and then straight through Italy and "home" to Rome. The camera battery died before the road trip so there aren't a ton of pics; it was a fast drive but very cool. While it wasn't our preferred method of travel it was one of those memory making twists for sure.

Can I just say that I LOVE Rome. It just feels so...comfortable and

comforting to me. I'm sure it has to do with all of the great memories I have of the city but every time I go back it hits me again. I just really love the city. This visit was shorter than the last, but the least "tourist" by far. We basically hung out with the boys, went to the dealership with them, ran errands, went grocery shopping, ate Adrian's amazing cooking and just relaxed in their condo. Oh, and I finally got to see the Spanish Steps with the Spring Festival flowers out.

It was a great trip. I'm already itching to get back to Paris on my own, to have more of an opportunity to linger at certain spots and more freedom to focus on the people and culture. I think I'm also now interested in exploring other regions of France - and the wine! I know I only tapped into the tip of French wine.

As always, the whole scoop is on our Travel Blog and our pictures from the trip are up on Flickr.

DMB at the Gorge

For Chris's birthday I scored two tickets to the Dave Matthew's Band concert at The Gorge which is a few hours drive East from Seattle. This venue is absolutely amazing and legendary.


The band has four concerts scheduled here over Labor Day weekend and we have tickets to the second night.

When I bought the tickets I purchased an insurance policy on them because I knew that there was a good chance we wouldn't be able to actually make it to the concert. But we just found out we've overcome the first hurtle - Chris actually got the time off to go. Well, actually, scheduling screwed him over yet again, but he went in to the Chief Pilot who was in a good mood and shifted things around for him. So he now has eight days off in row, right over the holiday weekend.

Now we just have to actually get on a flight out there. We haven't decided yet if we'll be finding a hotel or camping out. Either way I think it will be an amazing evening if we can make it out. Since he scored so much time off we might even be able to spend some time catching up with his family.

UPDATE - turns out that our trip to Seattle will coordinate perfectly with my good friend Eddie's wedding reception party in LA. I'll be flying out there next weekend to hang out with him and participate in the festivities. It's especially special since I had to skip the actual wedding in Maine when Chris couldn't get the time off. So yay for visiting Eddie AND DMB concerts!

Back in Town

We all made it back from our trip, though some later than others :) - all the details are on our travel blog here.

I was able to get all of the pictures up on my Flickr, you should check them out. There are also videos on YouTube here.

While there are lots of pictures of the cities and sites, I also enjoy taking candid shots of people while we travel and since kids do the darndest things....here are my favorites:

Private Flight

Are you still there?
He's still at the age where as long as he can't see you, you can't see him.

Dancing in the Rain

Away Message

Hi,

Thanks for visiting my blog, but I'm not posting here right now. I'm on a European vacation, you can learn all about it at my travel blog, here. If you would like to leave a comment you can do so after the beep.

Prague, Czech Repulic

Munich & Hamburg, Germany

Dublin, Ireland

Thanks, and have a great day.

Beep.

European Adventure

I know what you're thinking "what? away again? in europe, again!?". Yes, it's true. We're using Chris's benefits as much as possible. This time we're taking my parents along....it's hard to believe that this time last year we were all in Greece. This year we're going somewhere a lot less tropical, but hopefully equally enjoyable. If all goes as planned we're going to start in Prague, Czech Republic, then we're going to Germany to visit Munich and Hamburg where I have family, finally we'll spend one night in Dublin Ireland before returning home.

Chris just got home from work, he's very excited to be off for the next two weeks. Things have been especially frustrating and stressful for him at work, so this vacation is much needed. We have tomorrow to finish up the last minute stuff, pack etc. then on Friday we're off!

Watch for my away message in the next post, as usual, I'll be checking email while gone if anyone has any photo/souveneir requests, etc.

Overeaction/Heros

I am back, with no interesting thoughts to share that don't relate to travel so instead, my favorite post secrets from this week:

I'll come up with something else cool to post soon. :)

Away Message

You've reached my blog. I'm sorry, but I'm not here right now. I'm in Italy with my Mom - you can find us here. Otherwise you can leave a comment after the beep and I'll get back to you.

Beep.

See Rock City - we did

Chris and I had to drive my green car up to Cinicnnati and decided to make the best of it. We timed it so we stopped for the night in Chattanooga, TN. We enjoyed a great dinner at Rain Thai and then the next day went to Rock City.

You've likely heard of Rocky City but just don't realize it. They advertise on birdhouses and barns. I've been working again so I asked Chris to find something for us to do on our drive, a distraction, and he found Rock City. The history behind it is actually kind of neat.

You know I want to visit all 50 states, but not just pass through or even stay the night. I want to experience them. I'm convinced that every state has something interesting or memorable worth seeing - shoot there's whole websites dedicated to it. Rock City is a perfect example.

The gardens were pretty. The rock formations crazy. I'm pretty sure we didn't actually see all 7 states, but it's a nice idea. The fairytale land was just down right eerie.

Pictures are here.

Traveling Fool

31 States done!

Meg and I are finishing up our trip to New Orleans. Louisiana makes state number 31 for me, woo hoo!

We've been posting pictures and stories as we go on my travel site here. For the most part it is exactly what we expected which has been nice.

Away....

Hi, Thanks for stopping in.

You've reached my blog. Sorry I'm not here right now, I'm off exploring Spain and Italy. If you would like to track my travels, please feel free to do so here. Otherwise leave me a comment after the beep and I'll get back to you just as soon as I can.

Beep.

Sensory Overload

Today was just....it was....I can't even describe it. I'm on sensory overload.

We went through two states, prairies (which were on my bucket list) and mountains, we saw antelope, deer, prairie dogs, buffalo, turkey, mountain goats, hawks and chipmunks - all wild. We saw Scottsbluff, the Oregon trail, Needle Peaks, Mt. Rushmore, Spearfish Falls and the Pigtail Bridges.

I posted a handful of pictures here.

Tonight we're in a pretty spiffy Comfort Suites in Spearfish, South Dakota. Tomorrow is an easy day, we're going to see Devil's Tower in Wyoming and then go to Alzada which is a teeny tiny town in Montana, but it has a saloon and it will get me to Montana. Then we hope to make it to Ruby's for dinner where they have an acutal gun-slinger!

Good night for now.

Nebraska - Check

Mom and I are on a road trip together. Thursday we were able to meet in Salt Lake City (SLC) where we rented a convertible and drove into town to check out Temple Square (shown in my last post). We enjoyed a home-cooked lunch at the Lion's Club and got a tour of the Mormon Conference Center. We got stuck in Salt Lake City for an unexpected night, but we made the most of it by having dinner at the Red Iguana and then slipped onto the AM flight to Rapid City, South Dakota.

You all know how I want to hit all 50 states so from Rapid City we have all sorts of fun plans.

Pictures for now, we can fill in details and links later.

Our goal in Nebraska was Scottsbluff, but on the way we couldn't help but stop at Car Henge - words cannot describe....wait until you see the video!

We did make it to Scottsbluff though, the museum was closed but it was cool to see. It's fairly flat terrain and then this huge rock structre. It's right on the Oregon Trail and it was the way they knew that they had survived the plains and were entering into the mountainous part of the trail.

Chimney Rock was near by and caught our attention too.

The trains in the area are insane! Mom counted 142 cars on one, we have no idea how long a car is but we figure that train was easily more than half a mile long.

We had a very delicious, Mid-West Gourmet meal at the Whiskey Creek Saloon and now we're resting up for tomorrow. Check back tomorrow for more.