Travel

California Dreaming: San Francisco

/ azlotnik / Leave a comment

I was born a Valley Girl. I lived in LA (Northridge) until I was nearly six and my family moved to Atlanta. I have spent over 30 years in the South but I don’t consider myself a Southerner. I’ve been back to California many times since the big move, mainly to LA. I have an aunt and Uncle who live in San Francisco and I’ve visited them many times since I was a kid. Recently my husband and I took our son to see them and the Bay Area. We had many fun experiences during our San Francisco vacation (and a few setbacks) but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 

From touring the city to an amusement park, a county fair, a national park, and a sailboat ride, we packed it all in during our stay. It took a full day’s travel there and back, so we had five days of sightseeing and activities in the Bay Area. (and a sixth unplanned day, which I will cover later)

Day 1: Sonoma-Marin Fair
We had a great time at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma. It was my second visit to this fair. I went when I was thirteen years old and visited my family over the summer. Now, I got to experience the fair with my husband and son. We enjoyed the rides. My son and I loved going on the Ferris Wheel. My husband would not get on a Ferris wheel, so he watched us from the ground. My son rode on a pony, rode his first little roller coaster, and rode all day. There were livestock shows, rabbits to look at (raised by kids in the local 4H club), artwork, and farm animals. It was a wonderful day.

Day 2: Train Town
My son LOVES trains. He plays with toy trains and runs model trains. He could talk about trains all day. He knows the names of all the parts and how they work together. He loves Thomas and Friends and The Polar Express. On the second day of our trip, we went to Train Town, a train amusement park. He was in heaven. We rode a small train that went throughout the park. It was a wooded area with waterfalls and a small town similar to those used in model railroad displays. We got off the train and went to all the shops, the fire stations, the school, etc. It was so neat to look at everything. We fed llamas and goats at the petting zoo. 

Train Town also has amusement park rides. We went on the scrambler and that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. We all loved it. We then rode the roller coaster. The coaster was much bigger than my son rode the day before at the fair. He was so brave. I went on it with him the first time. It had been so long since I’d been on a roller coaster, and even though it was a kid’s ride, I still felt a rush of adrenaline, and it was a little scary for me. My husband and son went on it next and then my son rode it all by himself. He was so brave and had so much fun. Train Town has a few old caboose and train cars that have been renovated and restored. My son had a blast walking through and climbing on these cars playing a pretend game riding the train. We stopped for lunch and then returned to the park, closing it down. He still talks about going back.

Day 3: The City. San Francisco
There is so much to see in San Francisco, you can’t possibly do it all in one day. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was foggy, so not a great view. We started our city day by driving down Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. It’s neat to look down from the top and see the winding road. We stopped at the bottom to take pictures and headed to our next stop, Fisherman’s Wharf. We played vintage arcade games at Musee Mecanique. This was my first time there and we all loved it. The arcade is one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of coin-operated mechanical musical instruments and antique arcade games. You can play any of their 300-plus machines in original working condition. Most games are between 25 cents to a dollar. We played some of the musical instruments. My son especially enjoyed the self-playing mechanical pianos and wack a mole. I liked the fortune teller and the mechanical carnival. They also had pinball machines and some more modern games from the 1980s. Many of the arcade games are from the early 1900s. 

We then had lunch on the Wharf at Boudin Bakery. Their calm chowder in a sourdough bread bowl is the best. Afterward, we went to Ghiradelli Square and got huge ice cream sundaes. I still can’t believe we at the whole thing! Delicious! We ended our day with a cable car ride, my son’s favorite thing of the day. He sat in the front on the outside of the car and loved every second of the ride. San Francisco cable cars are the only man-operated cable car systems operating today. 

Day 4: Muir Woods
We enjoyed being in nature at Muir Woods National Monument, where you can walk among beautiful, huge redwood trees. It was very serene and incredible to be among the giant trees. We walked the trails and then drove up Mount Tamalpais, the mountain in which Muir Woods is located. We saw the beautiful scenery of the Bay Area. You could barely see the Bay Bridge beneath the fog. We had lunch at In N Out Burger, one of our favorite burger places on the West Coast that we don’t have at home in Atlanta. 

Day 5: Sailboat Cruise on the Bay. Pier 39
My husband booked us on a sailboat cruise on the Bay, and it was wonderful! We boarded the boat on Pier 39, a touristy place with shops and restaurants. The famous seals relax on the docks at the pier, but there were not as many seals as usual that day. We boarded the boat and were very excited to set sail. Then, a camp group boarded with about 15 kids and two counselors. We were less than thrilled about all the children on the boat, but they were very well behaved and my son made friends with a little boy from the camp. They played pirates and my son tried to give this little boy he’d never see again our address, which was very cute. 

The boat was a bit rocky on the bow. You could ride on the very front of the sailboat in the open air and see the beautiful views. We passed Alcatraz Island, the prison, and saw dolphins riding behind the sailboat. The boat passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, which you could only see clearly for about a minute beneath the fog. The ride was one of the most enjoyable highlights of our trip. 

Baggage Issues and Flight Delays:
We had 3 major bag issues on the trip. Three! When we arrived at the airport in Atlanta, we checked in our bags and decided to go on the Plane Train. We didn’t even need to go on it because we were departing from T gates, but we wanted Nathan to experience the ride. Ryan was in charge of my carry-on bag. We got off the plane train and stood by the exit to decide what to do next. We wanted to let Nathan ride on the moving sidewalk. Then, I got a phone call. An airport worker told us he had our bag and tried to return it to us. What?! We didn’t even know it was missing! Ryan left the bag on the plane train! The guy was very nice and returned the bag. We were very thankful.

Our bag struggles had just begun. We landed in San Francisco and it was time to get off the plane. I got off first, thinking Ryan would grab the carry-on bag and come behind me with our son. Well, I got off and waited for them. They didn’t come. I called Ryan and he asked if I had the bag. I said no. He told me it wasn’t in the overhead compartment. Someone must have taken our bag off the plane by mistake! He stayed on the plane and talked with the flight attendants about the problem. He told me to go to baggage claim and see if I could spot someone with our bag. I was a little intimidated about confronting the person who took our bag. I didn’t see anyone with the bag. I also got my checked bag off the baggage carousel and my son’s bag. 

Ryan called me and said that one bag was left on the plane. It must belong to the person who took our bag. The flight attendant told him to take it, call the number on the luggage tag, and see about swapping bags. They said if it didn’t work out take it to bag services. We crossed our fingers that it would work. Ryan called the number on the bag tag. No answer. He texted them. No answer. Finally, they picked up the phone and said they would return to the airport to exchange the bags.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s bag did not come off the baggage carousel. It was lost luggage! What was happening to us? We have the worst luck with bags! Ryan went to claim his lost luggage. We looked at the bag tag the agent had given us when we dropped off the bag in Atlanta. It said “Greg Storm, McAllen, Texas.” What?! They had marked the wrong bag and it went to Texas instead of San Francisco.

While Ryan was handling his bag situation at bag services, I exchanged the carry-on bag with the strangers. They had left the airport and returned to meet us outside the baggage claim for the swap. I recognized our bag and we swapped. They were very apologetic. We have the bag back! I still couldn’t believe that this was happening. 

My aunt and uncle took us back to their house without Ryan’s bag. It was supposed to arrive in 24 to 48 hours. We put our son to bed and then went shopping for some clothes and necessities for Ryan. We were planning to go to the city the next day and all he had were the clothes on his back. He needed something warm and we did not find anything warm for him at Target. We pushed back the city trip and bought him shorts, T-shirts, and toiletries to get him by. The bag finally arrived the next evening at 10 pm, almost 28 hours later. Whew! What an ordeal! 

Unplanned Day 6:
The morning we were leaving San Francisco, we got an email saying our flight was delayed and we would miss our connecting flight. Therefore, they changed our itineraries. Since we booked the flights separately, they put us on different flights! They had Ryan going to Miami, and then to Atlanta, arriving the following morning. They had my son and me flying to Dallas and then staying overnight to arrive in Atlanta the next day. What?! Just our luck… Ryan called the airline and got us all on a reasonable flight, but we would have to stay an extra day in San Francisco. Luckily, we were staying with family so we did not need to get a hotel. We were ready to come home but made the best of it by taking our son to the local park and out for lunch. 

Finally, we flew home and arrived in Atlanta late that evening. Our son fell asleep on the ride home. He had the worst time recovering from jet lag. He couldn’t fall asleep until very late and struggled with it. His sleep was interrupted for nearly 10 days. It was a struggle. Kids and time change do not mix!

Overall, we had a wonderful family vacation. We experienced fun and exciting things and look forward to our next adventure.

Lake Life

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Sometimes your loved one’s traditions become your own. My husband grew up going to his Great Uncle Johnny’s lake house in Tennessee. Uncle Johnny and Aunt Mary (whom I never had the pleasure to meet) would always invite Ryan up to his lake house on the Emory River for a week in the summer over the Fourth of July. The property was near the Kingston Steam Power Plant. He started going once his grandfather, Johnny’s brother, passed away when my husband was ten years old. Uncle Johnny wanted to include Ryan in the family get-togethers and treated him like he was his grandson. Uncle Johnny never did have any kids or grand kids of his own. 

Other family members would join in the week at the lake including his distant cousin Ron (Ronny), Ronny’s parents Roger and Sis, and his brother Mike and sister-in-law Tammy. They would go for rides in Roger’s boat, water-ski, tubing, and also take spins on Ronny’s jet-ski. Often, Ryan and Uncle Johnny would just drive around and do nothing, a term they liked to call “piddling.” Ronny and Ryan would often take a late-night trip to get a slushy at Sonic, get gas for the boats, and get items from the grocery store that they wanted. Aunt Mary passed away when Ryan was in high school and Uncle Johnny later remarried to Lena. 

When my husband and I started dating in college, I was invited to go to the lake too. On the fourth of July in 2006, Ryan and I drove the four hours to Tennessee and four hours back in one day just to be there for the holiday. Ronny was the only guest there that day and we rode on his jetski and saw the boat races at the annual Smokin the Water Festival in Kingston. It was a wonderful day and got a glimpse at what Ryan was so fond of about lake life in Tennesee. 

My first trip to the lake house with Ryan in 2006.

The next year, we spent a whole weekend at the lake with Ronny. We would spend our days out on the water. Uncle Johnny and his wife Lena were so kind to us. We had so much fun tubing on the lake and riding on the jetski all weekend. Ronny was always so fun to be around. He was a kind man who was always up for a good laugh. He and Ryan grew very close over the years. A few months after our weekend visit, Ronny visited Ryan and we all went to see the Charlie Daniels band at the Freedom Concert. Ronny and Ryan talked and kept up with each other over the years, and we always meant to visit more often. Then, something very unexpected happened to the lake.

Top Left: Johnny and Lena at the lake house. Middle: Jet-ski time 2007. Top Right: Ronny and me
Bottom Left: Ronny and Ryan. Bottom Right: Uncle Johnny and Aunt Mary

On December 22, 2008, an ash spill at Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Roane County flooded the water at Uncle Johnny’s lake house. It was the largest coal ash spill in U.S. history. His lake property was ruined with ash sludge. Ryan’s dad owned the lot across the street from Johnny’s but had not put a house on it yet. His lake lot was also deemed unfit for use due to the ash spill. To learn more about the ash spill in Swan Pond click here.

The TVA bought out about 100 landowners near Lakeview Drive on the Emory River including Uncle Johnny and Ryan’s Dad. Uncle Johnny did not relocate to lake property, rather he bought a modular home in Rockwood, Tennessee with Lena. 

Ryan’s dad looked all over for comparable lake property and ended up buying a lake lot on a different part of the river in Spring City, Tennessee. It is a small town that has one stoplight and doesn’t have a standalone McDonalds. (It’s attached to a gas station). The local grocery store is a small Piggly Wiggly and you have to drive 20 miles to reach a Wal-Mart. Spring City has grown on us. We now have a deep appreciation for the small town and what it has to offer. 

In the fall of 2011, we found out that Ronny had passed away at the age of 43. He was taken from us much too soon. Maybe if the ash spill never happened, we would have gotten to get together with Ronny at Uncle Johnny’s one last time. We were busy with our jobs and life got in the way. Ronny will always have a special place in our hearts. 

Ryan and I got married in 2013. A few years later, Uncle Johnny passed away. When our son Nathan was born in 2018, we decided to honor Johnny by naming him after Ryan’s Great Uncle. Nathan’s middle name is John after Uncle Johnny.

While I was pregnant with Nathan, Ryan’s Dad began construction on the lake house in Spring City. It was finally complete around the time Nathan was 10 months old. In April 2019, we stayed over at the lakehouse for the first weekend. The first of many weekend lake trips. 

Nathan learned how to crawl during that first lake vacation. Must have been all the soft carpet in the living room! During another weekend trip, we took Nathan to meet late Uncle Johnny’s wife Lena. She loved meeting him and he loved exploring her home. 

Every few months, we go to the lake house and make family memories. We love going there and now love sharing the love of swimming in the water with Nathan. We started a new tradition of taking porch pictures of the lake house. It was so neat to see how much Nathan grew from each visit to the lake house to the next. The last time we went to the lake house over this past Fourth of July, Nathan wanted nothing to do with the porch pictures. At age two, he is more interested in exploring than being held by mommy and daddy for a photo. He didn’t smile, but we finally got a decent shot or two on the porch. 

Pictured are Porch Photos, Nathan with Gran, Pop and Lena, and Smokin the Water festival over the Fourth of July.

Last year, we went again to Smokin the Water in Kingston. They no longer had boat racing but it was still a fun festival. This year, the festival was canceled due to COVID-19. We still had fun shooting off fireworks in the cul-de-sac and watching the neighbor’s fireworks from the porch. 

We are going up to the lake house again in a week with our friends who have a boat and we will all go riding and tubing on the lake. I love making memories with my family at the lake house and in the water in Tennessee. Nathan loves going to the lake house and asks to go there almost daily. I hope he will always have a love of going to the lake. I’m excited to see what the future may bring for our family and to have him grow up visiting the lake just like his Daddy did when he was a kid.

Our most recent trip to the lake. Enjoying the water/beach and a porch picture.

DIY: Cork Board Map Of United States

/ azlotnik / 2 Comments

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My husband and I like to travel and we thought it would be neat to document our trips with photos on a map of the United States. This project evolved as it went on and we had thought about it for a while. We saw numerous different ways to do this, including purchasing them outright for a considerable price. Since we are relatively crafty, we decided to make it ourselves and thought it would be a good project to do together.

It has been several months since we did this project, but I wanted to blog about how to make it in case anyone was interested in making a corkboard map of their own. In this blog post I will explain the tools you need and give step-by-step instructions of how to make it. We documented our project with pictures and have included those for you as well.

Here are all of the things you will need:

  • 3/8 inch cork sheet (We used a 1/2 inch thick by 24 x 36 inch sheet ordered off Amazon)
  • 1/4 inch thick piece of plywood minimum 24 X 36 inches from your local home improvement store (We used MDF, because it’s what we had at the house)
  • Printed map of the outline of the United States big enough to fit within 24 X 36 inches
  • Small push pins (We purchased these off Amazon)
  • Scissors
  • Pencil
  • Jig Saw (We had access to a band saw, so we used that)
  • Dremel tool with sanding bit
  • 1 quart of Contact Cement/adhesive from your local home improvement store
  • Paint Brush
  • Box Cutter with new blade
  • 2- Picture hanging kits rated for 30 pounds
  • Drill and drill bit for attaching picture hanging kit
  • Screwdriver
  • Hammer
  • Wallet sized photos of your choice from around the country

* If you want to include Hawaii, like we did, you’ll need blue spray paint as well.

Here’s how to make it:

We went online and bought the cork and push pins. The rest of the items, we either had or purchased at Home Depot. Our printed map was printed by a friend, but you can purchase your own on Amazon, or print it at FedEx Office Center. We ended up getting 1/2 inch cork and we determined that was a little too thick. That’s why we recommend getting 3/8 inch thickness if it’s available.

To start off the project, we cut out the outline of the map with scissors. We then traced the map onto the plywood with a pencil.

The next step is to cut out the map on the plywood, following the traced lines with the jig saw or band saw (if available). Make sure not to touch the lines.

When coming to tight curves, use relief cuts as shown.

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Take your Dremel tool and sanding bit, and sand the edges to smooth and fine tune the map edges. Sand down to the pencil marks.

Place the plywood map face down on the cork. Roughly mark with your pencil where the map is on the cork. Give yourself one inch of room around the map just in case.

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Now, apply contact cement/adhesive to the face up side of the plywood map following the instructions on the container.

Apply the cement adhesive to the marked area on the cork.

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Once dry, place two glued surfaces together. Press firmly following the adhesive container’s instructions.

Use a new box cutter blade, and trim excess cork from around the plywood map.

Now, use the Dremel took with sanding bit to flush up the cork to the plywood.

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The map of the contiguous United States is now complete. Now, it’s time to add your desired wall hanging fixtures.20161222_142127We used a wire picture frame hanging kit. We used the appropriate drill bit to make a pilot hole. Make sure to not go completely through your project with the drill bit. We then used screwdriver to install the kit per the instructions on the frame kit.

 

To Make Hawaii:

We used a cut off piece of the plywood and cut it into a rectangle that is 9 inches wide by 7 inches tall. We spray painted the rectangle blue. While waiting for the paint to dry, we then used our paper map to cut out the islands of Hawaii and then transferred those onto some of the leftover cork. We cut the islands out of the cork with a box cutter then sanded the edges of the cork islands with the Dremel tool. Once the blue paint was dry, we then used the contact cement (or you could use super glue) to glue the islands to the blue rectangle. We then attached a mounting loop to the back for hanging on the wall.

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Final Steps:

Figure out where you would like to put the map and Hawaii on the wall and attach necessary hardware to the wall with a hammer. Now you have an idea of what your map will look like on the wall. The only thing left is to add photos! It’s probably best to take the map off the wall while you add your photos, securing them in place with push pins. Place the map back on the wall and admire your work!

* NOTE: We would have included Alaska in our map, but we have never been there!

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Cousin Vacation: Asheville, North Carolina

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I haven’t been on vacation in a while because we are trying to live on a budget. But, this past weekend I was able to get away for a short period of time. I went to Asheville, North Carolina with my husband, cousin and my cousin’s boyfriend.

We had been talking about going on this trip since last November, when we met my cousin’s boyfriend while on a family trip to California for our grandma’s 100th birthday. My husband and my cousin’s boyfriend really hit it off and we thought it would be fun to meet halfway between Atlanta and D.C. (where they live). Asheville is not really halfway, it’s a lot closer for us than it was for them. But, we decided it would be a good meeting point and we all wanted to visit there. After a few months of planning, it was time for the trip.

The drive wasn’t bad for my husband and me. It ended up being about three and a half hours. We live on the north side of Metro Atlanta so that helped shorten the drive some. We chose to go through backroads in the mountains to save some time and avoid morning Atlanta traffic. It was a neat drive and we ended up in Asheville around noon. My cousin had started the trip the night before and stayed over at the halfway mark in Virginia.

We had made a plan to meet at Tupelo Honey Café in downtown Asheville for lunch. This chain is in both Atlanta and D.C. (along with many other cities) but this one is the original location. I had eaten brunch at Tupelo Honey in Chattanooga, Tennessee once, and wanted to try it for lunch. Parking in Asheville is no easy task, especially around lunchtime on a Friday. We drove around for 30 minutes and then found a lot. Turned out the sign was deceiving and public parking was not available in that lot until 5 p.m. A little discouraged, we drove around for quite a while and after passing two full parking decks, finally found street parking relatively close to the restaurant. We put our name in and waited for my cousin and her boyfriend. My cousin was dropped off and waited with us outside the restaurant while her boyfriend found parking. It was so good to catch up with them over the entire weekend.

Lunch at Tupelo Honey was amazing. In fact, everywhere we ate on the trip was delicious. I guess I pick good restaurants! After lunch, we walked around the shops in Downtown Asheville. We then went back to the AriBnB to check it out and drop off our luggage. We stayed at a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in West Asheville. It was time to go out again and we decided to not deal with parking and took Uber.

Our next stop was Urban Orchard Cidery, which is a family-owned hard cider production company and tasting room in West Asheville. It is one of only a handful of “True Cider Bars” in the nation, where you can order house made, craft hard apple cider. Asheville is known for its breweries, but my husband and I prefer cider over beer and luckily my cousin and her boyfriend enjoy cider as well. We ordered flights of cider and enjoyed trying all the different kinds. You could even mix some of them for a different flavor.

Our next stop was for dinner at the Jerusalem Garden Café in Downtown Asheville. We enjoyed delicious Mediterranean food while watching a talented belly dancer and live music. One of the belly dancer’s moves was to balance a sword on different areas of her body and that really made me nervous! Luckily she was very talented and had good control of the sword. The restaurant also had the option of sitting on the floor on pillows, but we decided to be comfortable and sit on regular chairs. After dinner, we watched the Friday night drum circle in the middle of downtown. It was really neat to see all the musicians play the drums while the crowd danced along to the beat. We walked around downtown some more, admiring the architecture and shopping in the neat and eclectic stores. We had an early morning the next morning going to the Biltmore estate, so we Ubered back to the Airbnb and called it a night.

Friday night Drum Circle
The crowd grew even larger than this

The Biltmore Estate was such an awesome experience. I had been once before when I was about 10 years old, but going back as an adult was much more fascinating. We arrived a little early so we took a lot of pictures of the outside of the estate. The Biltmore is an enormous and mesmerizing sight. Once it was time for our tour, we headed inside from room to room, up the stairs and down throughout the estate.

The Biltmore estate, a 250-room French Renaissance chateau, was the former home of George Vanderbilt. In 1898, He brought his 25-year-old bride, Edith, home to the estate for the first time after their honeymoon. Vanderbilt is known for his family’s shipping and Railroad Empire and his love for literature. The Vanderbilts were once the wealthiest family in America (mainly speaking of George’s father and grandfather).  I found the history of the Vanderbilt’s very interesting. Georgie Vanderbilt lived in the estate until 1914 when he passed away due to complications from an appendectomy, leaving his wife Edith to run the household and raise their daughter. In 1930, the estate was opened to the public to increase tourism in the Asheville area. The estate is still run by Vanderbilt’s great-grandson and great-granddaughter.

I would have to say my favorite part of the tour, besides the décor was the “Designed for Drama” exhibition that was on display.  Inspired by George Vanderbilt’s love of literature, Designed for Drama showcases many award-winning movie costumes from films based on favorite books in his collection. The movie costumes from films such as Jane Heir and Sherlock Holmes really felt like they belonged there in the massive home, as if they were from the era. I took a lot of pictures of the costumes and the rooms of the Biltmore. My favorite room was Mrs. Vanderbilt’s quarters. It was an oval shaped room that was the essence of femininity. I also enjoyed seeing the bowling alley and swimming pool. There are 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms and 65 fireplaces in the Biltmore estate. At the time it was built, in the 1890’s, most homes didn’t even have indoor plumbing or central heating, and the Biltmore had both.

Mrs. Vanderbilt’s room
I love her bedding!
Bowling Alley
Swimming Pool
Banquet Hall

After touring the massive home, we walked through some of the Biltmore gardens. The gardens are home to some beautiful plants and flowers. My phone quickly filled up with pictures of beautiful roses, orchids, cacti and many other plants and flowers. After our walk through the gardens, we took a bus back to the car. The bus driver told us about some of the history of the estate as well as one of the many good restaurants, a buffet called Deerpark Restaurant. It seemed like great food for a good price, so we decided to give it a try. At Deerpark Restaurant you can experience “a taste of the South.” We enjoyed salads, dips, southern comforts, a carving station, decadent desserts and more. It was one of the best meals we had on our trip.

After lunch, we headed toward Antler Hill Village and Winery. We enjoyed a complimentary wine tasting and tried over 10 wines. After choosing our favorites, we bought some bottles in the wine store. Antler Hill Village has many other things to do, such as shopping, various restaurants, a petting zoo and farm, and more. We watched a fascinating glass blowing demonstration outside of one of the shops. We put on these special glasses so that you could really see into the flame as the glass was being blown into ornaments.

Wine Tasting at the Biltmore

My cousin and I really enjoyed a display at Antler Hill Village called: the Biltmore legacy, which was an exhibition of the Vanderbilt family weddings. It highlighted the details of the weddings, including the fashion. On display is the Lee family veil, which was worn by Mary Lee Ryan in 1957 at her wedding to William A.V. Cecil, George Vanderbilt’s grandson.  It was also worn her cousin, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953 when she married John F. Kennedy. It was really neat to see all the famous wedding dresses, veils and shoes.

Later that evening, we went to New Belgium Brewing, a cool brewery with a lively outdoor area. We also ate delicious tacos for dinner at the White Duck Taco Shop in the River Arts District. My cousin and her boyfriend had to leave early the next morning because of their long trip home. My husband and I decided to stay a little longer that day and go out to breakfast in West Asheville near the WNC Farmer’s Market at a spot called Moose Café. It’s a farm-to-table southern cooking restaurant. Stuffed, we decided to walk around the River Arts district after our meal. Since it was Sunday, many galleries were closed, but we still got to see quite a few galleries and many pieces of art on display. We watched in on a one-on-one glass blowing lesson for a bit and saw many paintings, pottery, woodworking pieces, jewelry and other one-of-a-kind art.

It was time to head home and we drove about 3 and a half hours home to Kennesaw on the same route we took on the way there through the mountains. We truly enjoyed our time in Asheville and will have to go back someday. Asheville is a great southern town to visit, and I highly recommend it.

Israel with My Love

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This past summer, my husband and I had an amazing opportunity to go on Honeymoon Israel. On a Honeymoon Israel (HMI) trip, you can “spend nine exhilarating, romantic and memorable days exploring Israel with your partner, while building friendship and community with other couples from your city.” The experience was like nothing else we had ever done. We bonded, explored, and made friends with couples like us who are now like family. Over six months has gone by since we got back from Israel, and we still get together with the other couples and enjoy the community. HMI welcomes couples with at least one Jewish partner early in their committed relationship. On our trip, almost every couple was interfaith, so we really had a lot in common. My husband and I were part of the first Atlanta trip to go on HMI.

During the trip, they encouraged us to take notes and journal about our experiences. Almost every night I would write down what we did that day and what I thought about it. I had planned to write a story about it and hopefully getting it published in the Atlanta Jewish Times, since I’m a freelance writer for that newspaper. After we returned home, I started writing a bulleted list of everything we did while referring to my HMI program we were given. It ended up being nine pages long. I used that to write my story and spent months working on it. I edited it down and then pitched the idea to my editor at the Atlanta Jewish Times. He decided to publish it and it went to print late December of 2016. My story was called “Honeymoon Israel: 9 Days to Last a Lifetime.” Click here to read the four-page spread in the travel section of the AJT (pages 62-65). Click here to read the online article.

There were so many things we did that I did not have room to share in my article, so I will share more of what we did in this list below.

Jerusalem:

  • When we first arrived, we had a welcome dinner with the New York Group. We heard from Avraham Infeld that evening as well as the next morning. Avraham Infeld is the President Emeritus of Hillel – the Foundation for Jewish Campus life. He talked about the five-legged table idea and that we are all family, the Jews. He touched on Jewish identity as well. “My vision for the Jewish People is to find a way to be unified without being uniform. We can achieve this vision by constructing a “five-legged table” which allows each person to choose at least three of the following legs to express their Jewish identity: memory, family, covenant, Israel and Hebrew.”
    – Avraham Infeld
  • We joined our friends at a bar on Ben Yihuda Street. We walked down through the shook (market) and it was very interesting seeing all the bars and the people. During the day, the shook is an actual market where they sell fruits, veggies, spices, etc. It looks completely different I hear. I didn’t get a chance to go during the day.

Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

  • Touring this museum was very emotional for me, but I learned a lot.
  • The Avenue of the Righteous is dedicated to righteous gentiles who helped save/hide Jews during the Holocaust. There are trees dedicated to them throughout the complex and throughout Israel.
  • The Children’s Memorial: when you walk through it, it is like you are walking a night sky and see the stars. There is an audio recording that constantly plays the name of the children who died in the Holocaust along with where they were from. It is a very emotional piece of the museum.

Sea of Galilee:

  • We stayed at a hotel on a Kibbutz called Kibbutz Ginosar. We learned about the history of Kibbutz life and what it is like now. We learned about the women’s revolution regarding the children. It was interesting to know that children in a Kibbutz used to be raised by everyone. All money and goods were shared with everyone. It was very socialist. Now, about one third of Kibbutzim in Israel are still socialist.
  • We went to Mt. Bental and saw a panoramic view of the Golan Heights and looked from afar into Syria and Lebanon. The next day, we were told there was bombing in Syria that would have been visible from the Golan Heights.
  • We also went rafting down the Jordan River. There weren’t very many rapids, but it was still fun. We got stuck on rocks/ran into the shore and trees. It was very shallow water due to not enough rain. (I saw a picture of the Jordan River recently and it is much deeper now due to winter rains).

Tel Aviv:

  • On the way to Tel Aviv, we stopped and overlooked the ocean and went to Ceasarea, one of the land of Israel’s most important cities in the Roman period.
  • In Ceasarea, we saw the Herodian Theater, which is still in use today. The acoustics are awesome. Then, we saw the new excavations along the Mediterranean shore. It was so pretty to be right by the water. We put our toes in the sand and you could even see the tiled mosaic floors of the what was once the King’s quarters that lead to the sea. We also saw the arena where they raced horses. Our tour guide told us the history and made it feel like we were actually there in Roman times watching a horse race.
  • We did a beach cleanup project with the Zalul environmental organization. Zalul (“clear” in Hebrew) is one of Israel’s leading environmental NGOs. They are dedicated to protecting the seas and rivers in Israel.
  • We picked up trash on the beach. The sand was so hot, we had to bury our feet in the sand so they would not burn. Unfortunately, we got so much tar on our feet from the beach that we had to scrub it off at the hotel. I feel sorry for the maid who had to clean the tar residue from our bathtub!
  • While shopping in the Carmel market, we saw a woman in a shop down the street made a commotion. We think she was trying to steal. My husband saw a man kick the woman and then she caused a fight. We were very uncomfortable and left the shop as soon as we paid. We don’t know what they were yelling about because it was all in Hebrew.
  • The evening we flew out of Israel, we ate at a Georgian-Jewish restaurant called Racha for a late farewell dinner. It was in a historic building in Neve Zedek. It was so ornately and originally decorated with fine china dishes. They gave us dish after dish after dish. There was a lot of meat. I thought it was funny that they said “Chicken is not meat, its salad!” It was a ton of food and probably wasn’t the best meal to have right before a long plane ride. But, we enjoyed it and they had good hospitality.

We had such an amazing tour guide for our trip, Koren Eisner. He was very knowledgeable and taught us so many things. Even his voice was soothing to hear. While I was writing my story for the AJT, I asked around for quotes from various HMI staff and from Koren. He sent me a quote as a recording, and it was great to hear his voice. I couldn’t use it in my story because it was on a subject that I didn’t write about, but I thought I’d end this blog post with his quote. I asked Koren, how does the HMI tour differ from other tours that you usually do?

He said, “In my of my tour groups that I get, people are not just sightseeing, but are searching for something spiritually, religiously, culturally, historically, through a Jewish perspective, through a Christian perspective, through a Muslim perspective, etc. So, that is pretty much a motif. But, with the Honeymoon Israel groups, there is a certain sense of urgency because of the unique stage that the participants are in — getting married, having their first kids. These issues are on the table and need to be addressed. This sense of urgency creates lots of creativity. People come to these tours needing to work, needing to participate, to really have their own spiritual quest as individuals and as couples, and to the community. That is a very powerful thing, the productivity.

Another aspect is the way that people seek one another. You see the friendships, the bonding between people that happen in such a short time but go very deep because of the many things that participants share with one another. I guess it is the need to be a part of the greater community. That’s really inspiring to see. I’m truly grateful that I can play a role in such an amazing project.”

Don’t Mess with Texas!

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metroscenes.com_dallas_texas_31

In November, I flew to Dallas/Ft. Worth to visit my parents. They are living in Texas temporarily for my Dad’s job, and it was really nice to see them. This wasn’t my first visit to the area. I went to Ft. Worth last year with my husband, brother and sister-in-law for a visit and was overall impressed with the Ft. Worth area. My parents live in a nice apartment and there are a lot of things to do there.  This time, my husband and I went just us two and we really had an eventful long weekend with my Mom and Dad.

The first thing we did when we arrived was to go to the Gas Monkey Garage. You might be familiar with the show Fast and Loud about car restorations. They are located in Dallas, and although we couldn’t see anything because they were filming, it was still cool to be there. We visited the gift shop (which was quite expensive, in my opinion) and my husband bought some merchandise. Then, we headed over to the Gas Monkey Bar and Grill for lunch. Yes, they have a restaurant too.  It’s only about a five minute drive from the garage itself and the food was really good. We decided to spend the whole day in Dallas since we were already there and then went on to our next activity.

qdc-tdat-dfw-map-4-13.jpg

If you ever get the chance to go to the George W. Bush Presidential Library, you should. We went there next and it was very interesting.  When we arrived, we bought tickets and walked into the exhibit. As we were handing in our tickets, we saw Laura Bush herself, and she said hi to us! At first, I didn’t really realize it was her and then my parents told me. I think it’s great that she comes there regularly. I know former President George W. Bush was just there a few days before that for Veteran’s Day. The library was very cool and modern. It talked about everything from his life growing up in Texas, to his campaign, to his presidency, etc. There were a lot of short videos, and plenty of things to read on the walls and tables. They have a tribute to 9/11 and it was very moving. It actually made me cry and think back on that dreadful day in history. I composed myself and moved on to the next display. As part of the library, they have an exact replica of the oval office and it looked just as it did when Bush was in office. You could even sit at the desk and have your picture taken if you wanted. It was cool to see their outfits to state dinners and the gifts the Bush family was given during his term. Every gift a US president is given belongs to the American people. So, many of the gifts were on display in the library and outside in the lobby. I will have to visit more Presidential libraries in the future. Since this was the newest one, it must be the most modern and the nicest. What a great way to spend an afternoon in Dallas.

After the library, we met up with my cousin who I have not seen for 9 years! My parents have seen him quite often since they moved to Texas, but it had been a very long time since I had seen him. We went out for Mexican food and got a chance to catch up with him.

Dinner with my cousin

Dinner with my cousin

The next day, we enjoyed brunch at my parents and went for a walk on the trail by a river. That afternoon, we went to a store that specializes in cowboy boots called Cavender’s. I actually found a pair of cute cowboy boots that were comfortable and affordable. I am now the proud owner of some great cowboy boots!

Me and my Cowboy boots!

Me and my Cowboy boots!

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Close up of my boots

In the evening, we went to a Greek Festival put on by a local Greek Orthodox Church in Ft. Worth.  The gyros, Greek fries and spanakopita were very tasty. After we ate dinner, we enjoyed some traditional Greek dancing. Everyone was in costume and they put on a good show. Later on, we went to the Ft. Worth Stockyards for a rodeo. This was my first rodeo experience, and it was quite a sight. The show itself was a little long — 2 ½ hours, but it was really exciting. I didn’t know there were that many types of events in a rodeo. It was cool to see the guys ride the bulls and horses. I kind of felt bad for the calves when they had to lasso, tie, and rope them. It was all harmless though. There were also events for women in the rodeo as well.

At the Greek Festival

At the Greek Festival

During our time in Texas, we met some friends of my parents, went to the movies, a cool grocery store called Central Market, and ate some really good food. In Ft. Worth, they have some of my favorite restaurants that they don’t have in Georgia. We made sure to take advantage of visiting some of them. We had sandwiches at Potbelly and burgers, fries and a milkshake at In-N-Out Burger. Before we knew it, it was time to come home. Our long weekend trip with my parents was over. I will see my parents this month though when they come for the holiday break. We may go back to Texas sometime next year, but soon enough, my parents will move back to Atlanta and we will be moved out of their house and into a home of our own.

Me and my mom
Cow roping
Happy Birthday Dad!
A bull at the rodeo
Celebrating my Dads birthday early
Greek Dancing

Our Vegas Experience Part 2

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I had so much to say about our Vegas vacation that it was too much for one blog post. Here are more of our experiences in Sin City.

A Show:
The one show we saw in Vegas was the Blue Man Group. Going into it, I didn’t know what to expect. I guessed that it would be out of the box and musical. It was awesome! The Blue Man group really captures their audience and has the audience participate as much as possible. They used music, paint, technology and more to put on a spectacular show. They are, of course, covered in blue paint. I was surprised that The Blue Man Group did not talk the entire time. They communicate through gestures, facial expressions and props. It was certainly worth the money. We got tickets from the Tix4Tonight discount booth. We would have loved to go to the Circe de Soleil Beatles show called Love, but even the Tix4tonight booth wanted too much money for the tickets. Oh well, another reason to come back to Vegas and see it one day.

The Blue Man Group

The Blue Man Group

Restaurants:
As I mentioned in my last post, it felt like all we did in Vegas was eat. The restaurants were SO expensive! We spent way more money than we thought we would in Vegas, because we spent so much on food. We didn’t realize the food would be that pricy. Drinks were especially expensive, $4 for a soda, $10.50 for a mixed drink and $7 for a mocha coffee.

We ate at a lot of places, but these were our favorites:

At the Wicked Spoon

At the Wicked Spoon

Buffets:
Wicked Spoon: Cosmopolitan Hotel. This was the best buffet we have ever eaten at. The food was fabulous, the presentation was outstanding, and a wide variety was offered for brunch. My favorite things about the food presentation were the mini Chinese food containers for the fried rice and the mini fry baskets for the fried chicken. The pancakes, asparagus risotto, sushi, and the eggs Benedict were the best. I wish I could have eaten more food there, but I got full and had to leave a lot of food uneaten. The desserts were great too. I would love to go back to the Wicked Spoon one day.

Bellagio buffet: We went to the breakfast buffet at the Bellagio a few days before we went to Wicked Spoon. It was not as good as Wicked Spoon, but it sure was tasty and had a wide range of breakfast/brunch items. I really enjoyed the French toast, eggs, baked apples and the yogurt parfait. It was a ton a food and, once again, I was stuffed when I left.

Gordon Ramsay Burgr: Planet Hollywood. The first time we attempted to go here, the line was too long and we gave up. We then decided to go another day right when they opened for lunch to ensure we would get a seat right away. The food was a bit pricy for burgers and fries, but it was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. I got the euro burger and loved it. The Truffle fries were very good as well. It was definitely worth it. Anything with Gordon Ramsay’s name has to be good!

Gordon Ramsay Burgr

Gordon Ramsay Burgr

Shopping:
Toward the end of our stay, we were running out of things to do. We decided to go shopping and found out there was a Garrett Popcorn shop at the Miracle Mile shops at Planet Hollywood. Since I love the Chicago popcorn, we went and bought a bag of the Chicago mix (which is cheddar and caramel popcorn mixed together).  It was quite delicious! We also happened to see an art gallery of one of our favorite artists, Michael Godard, called Oh My Godard. We would love to own a painting of his one day. The next day, we caught the free shuttle bus from Bally’s to the Rio so that we could go to another Michael Godard art gallery. This one had a lot more paintings and the art dealer was super nice. One day, when we decide to buy a piece, we’ll call him up in Vegas and order from him. The art dealer at the Rio informed us that Michael Godard himself would be in town and at the gallery the day we flew home. To our dismay, we missed meeting him by only a few hours. It would have been so cool to meet him!

Oh My Godard

Oh My Godard

Gambling and the Old Strip:
One day, we took the bus and went all over the south portion of the strip. We also went to the Las Vegas sign and later that evening to downtown Las Vegas. Downtown is where the old strip is located. We gambled a bit at the El Cortez. My husband played blackjack and I played at the slot machines. The El Cortez is an old casino that takes you back to the good-old Vegas casino days. It still has actual coin-operated slots. The old strip is known for the Freemont Street Experience. Most of Freemont Street is blocked off for traffic and turned into a pedestrian walkway surrounded by casinos, stores and restaurants. In the evening, the whole canopy is transformed into a neat light show, which reminded me of a music video. It was pretty cool, but I was a bit disappointed because I had heard so much hype about the light show. I guess it didn’t live up to my expectations.

The Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas

The Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas

Like I mentioned in my last post, we felt most comfortable gambling at the Bally’s. I lost a small sum of money at the slot machines. I preferred the penny slots to the 25 cent slots because you got to play longer and typically won more often. My husband played roulette at Bally’s and I watched him play. We had only played roulette once on a cruise ship and didn’t win a thing that time. Our luck changed tremendously in Vegas. My husband bet about 8 dollars’ worth of chips in between two of the sections of the roulette board. After the wheel was spun, the dealer was gathering a lot of chips that were our color. I thought she was organizing them. Much to our surprise, the dealer pushed a mountain of chips towards us. She said, “It only takes hitting once.” We couldn’t believe that we won! We thought we lost. We ended up winning about $150 in chips. We played a few more hands and then cashed out. Turns out, we came out ahead while gambling in Vegas. I’ll take it!

Overall, we enjoyed our stay, but we won’t be coming back to Vegas for a while. Maybe we’ll come back one day with friends. Next time we’ll stay for a shorter amount of time.

What was your trip to Las Vegas like? Leave me a comment.

Vegas Vic, Downtown Las Vegas

Vegas Vic, Downtown Las Vegas

Our Vegas Experience

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View of the strip from the top of the Eiffel Tower

View of the strip from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Vegas definitely was a cool experience. What really stood out to me about our trip are three things: seeing each casino/hotel for the first time, the amazing views of the Grand Canyon, and how much walking we did.

While we did have a lot of fun on our trip, one thing we found out was: we’re not Vegas people. We don’t go out all night and drink a lot. Well, I was feeling sick during the beginning of our vacation, so I tried to stick to water. We’re not party people, so we mainly did touristy things and sightseeing. It was a cool experience but we did stay a bit too long. Five days would have been ideal to spend in Vegas, instead of the seven days we were there.

Le Cafe Ile St. Louis

Le Cafe Ile St. Louis

Here are some highlights of our vacation:

Walking Through the Hotels:
My favorite hotels were the Paris, the Venetian, the Bellagio and New York, New York. Caesar’s Palace and the Wynn were pretty cool too. I remember walking thought the Paris for the first time and loving how it seemed like you were walking through the streets in Paris, France. Even the bathroom seemed fancy and French. We ate at a café one night called Le Café Ile St. Louis. The patio of the restaurant was overlooking the casino floor, but it was decorated to seem like you were in a Parisian café. Le Café Ile St. Louis had a really great ambiance.  I am a big fan of the Paris. Even the bar stools in the casino are beautiful. The chairs are laced up to look like a corset.

Corset Barstools

Corset Barstools

One night, we rode up the elevator to go to the observation deck on the top of the Eiffel Tower. The tower is half the size of the one in Paris, France, but it was still very tall. We had a really great view! We took a lot of pictures and stayed up a while to see the Bellagio water show. We really didn’t dress for the experience. It was freezing cold on the observation deck and we were in shorts and T-Shirts! We wish we would have thought to bring a jacket. Another great thing about going to the top of the Eiffel Tower was that we got a two for one discount because we were staying at Bally’s. I highly recommend going to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas.

Bellagio Water Show from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Bellagio Water Show from the top of the Eiffel Tower

Other than Bally’s, we spent most of our time in the Paris than any other hotel. It was connected to Bally’s and had better restaurants. We did, however, prefer the Bally’s casino when we were gambling. It seemed so familiar, easily navigable, and comfortable for us. That’s probably because we were staying there. We noticed that the different slot machines had labeled signs for each section such as penny slots and 25 cent slots. We found that the other casinos did not have these handy signs.

The "streets" of the New York, New York

The “streets” of the New York, New York

I also loved walking through the New York, New York Hotel because it is like you are walking through the streets of Manhattan. One day, we went to get a quick bite to eat at one of the restaurants and sat down at one of the nearby tables. We saw a street sign that said Greenwich and Broadway. It really felt as if we were eating in Manhattan surrounded by apartment buildings and restaurants. Some of the other hotels have the ceiling painted with blue sky and puffy white clouds to appear that you are outside. In New York, New York, it gave the illusion that it was evening and you could see the city skyline.

Inside the Venetian

Inside the Venetian

The Venetian and the Bellagio were also unforgettable. I loved the indoor and outdoor canals in the Venetian. Although we didn’t ride in a gondola, it was a neat sight to see. The ceilings were painted like the Sistine Chapel, and the architecture inside the hotel was beautiful. Two things struck me while visiting the Bellagio: the Conservatory and Botanical Garden and the lobby. They are both beautiful, and when you go into the lobby, be sure to look up at the ceiling to see the glass sculpture made by Dale Chihuly. The glass is made by the same artist as a museum in Seattle called Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Grand Canyon:
It was as amazing as I dreamed it would be. The steep cliffs and majestic beauty were truly unforgettable.  We went on Pink Jeep Tour’s Grand Canyon West Rim experience. Our very knowledgeable tour guide, John, picked us up at our hotel early in the morning. We drove to the Hoover Dam and took pictures while learning about the history of it from our tour guide. Next, we drove two and a half hours to the Grand Canyon. The West Rim portion is located in a Native American Reservation, which they have dedicated to tourism. It is the home of the Hualapai Nation. We got off the Jeep and went on a bus to the different locations within the tribal land to see the views of the canyon, go on the skywalk and have lunch. There is no guard rail, so you have to be very careful. We took pictures and then went on the Skywalk, which was really neat. It is clear glass and you can see all the way down. Some people were scared to death on it. It wasn’t bad for me once I got over the initial shock of it.  I noticed that the Colorado River, which runs through the canyon, looked really small. Then my husband reminded me that it is actually a pretty wide river. It just looks so small because you are 4,000 feet above ground level! When we had lunch, we sat down with another couple who were very glad to see fellow Americans. There were a lot of foreign tourists at the Grand Canyon and really all over Vegas. While in Las Vegas, we also saw a lot of people in scooters, and they traveled in twos or threes.

The Majestic Grand Canyon

The Majestic Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon and Colorado River

The Grand Canyon and Colorado River

Lots of Walking Around:
While driving, everything on the strip seems so close. When you walk, it’s really a lot farther away than you think. We didn’t rent a car, so when we didn’t use public transportation, we were walking. You will learn very quickly that comfortable shoes are key for walking around in Vegas. 

If you choose not to ride the bus or take a taxi, take advantage of the free trams that go between two or three hotels. They could cut down your walking time from faraway places on the strip tremendously. Sometimes it felt like all we did in Vegas was eat, eat, eat, but at least we walked a lot to make up for it.

Read more about our Vegas vacation in the next installment coming soon.

On a bridge overlooking the Paris.

On a bridge overlooking the Paris.

Viva Las Vegas: Pre-Trip Post

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SFU-Las-Vegas2It’s time for our next vacation! I always get inspired to write posts about vacations, but hey, going to new places is what makes life interesting! After much contemplation, we decided to go to Las Vegas this spring for our next big vacation. I’ll get to cross another destination on my Travel Bucket List. See that blog post here. My husband and I like to go on a big trip at least once a year. We had originally planned on going to London. We have always wanted to go to Europe and had wanted to do the London trip for years. But, we found out how much it was going to cost, which was a lot higher than our budget. A London trip may not be in our near future, especially since we may plan to have kids in the next several years, but we WILL go one day! My husband accrued thousands of American Airline miles for our London trip to pay for the flight, but we will keep on saving them for our next great adventure.

A few months ago, my husband and I were talking about what vacation we would like to do next, since London was out of the question. New York and Chicago came to mind. We talked about it for about an hour in the car (not sure where we were going but it was somewhere pretty far away) and it took us that long to think of going to Las Vegas. We said, “How did it take that long for us to think of a Vegas vacation!?” Some time went by, and then a few weeks ago, we seriously considered going to Vegas in June. We looked up flights and hotels and priced things out. Then, we realized Vegas in June can be over 100 degrees. So, a sooner date was picked. We looked at hotel prices for the last week in April and they were a bit high. Then we looked at the week before and the hotel prices dropped dramatically. So, we booked our trip for mid-April. We used Delta miles for our flights and somehow were able to purchase them with fewer miles than anticipated and no surcharges. The flight was totally free! We decided to stay at Bally’s because they are a nice, centrally located hotel with good prices.

Bally's

Bally’s

This is my pre-trip post and I will be posting a trip after our Vegas vacation too of course. Despite what others told us, we decided to go to Vegas for a week. We already had the time off work, and we don’t think we’ll get bored since we are not big partyers.

We will also be going on a few day trips during our time in Vegas. We plan to go on the Pink Jeep Tours trip to the Grand Canyon. It is an all day tour that will pick us up at our hotel at 6 a.m. The Grand Canyon is a few hours away from Vegas. That is something we have always wanted to see. They have a skywalk where you can see great views of the canyon. If we decide we are tired of the strip, we may rent a car for a day and go on the Hoover Dam tour as well as explore the areas surrounding Las Vegas.

I plan on relaxing on a lawn chair by the pool while in Vegas. April is the start of pool season and I heard Bally’s has a really nice pool. I purchased a new bathing suit and cover ups for the trip. I really need to get my body in shape so that I am swim suit ready. My husband and I are doing a weight loss program together with the My Fitness Pal app. So far, we’ve been sticking to it and it’s going very well. So far, I lost about a pound and he lost 5 ½ pounds! Men always loose more. So unfair!

While in Vegas, we of course have to go to a show. We definitely plan to go see the Blue Man Group and have heard very good things about that show. I have also heard good things about the Beatles tribute Circe de Soleil show called Love. We may go see that show as well if we can get discounted tickets the day of at the Tix4Tonight booth. I’ve heard there are a lot of free shows in Vegas such as the fountain show at the Bellagio and the volcano show at the Mirage. We plan on doing all the free shows while we are there. You can’t beat free!

hero_explv_lvCasinos

Here are some other things we are going to try to do while in Vegas:

  • Eat well: Straying from a diet for vacation makes it all worth it. Besides, if you’re on vacation it doesn’t count, right? We’re not sure where we will go out to eat yet. I know I want to do a breakfast or brunch buffet. I’ve been dying to go to In–N-Out Burger since we were in California last September. I saw there was one in Vegas, so we’re going! We also got a few restaurant recommendations from family and friends. We are going to Gordon Ramsay Burgr because we’ve always wanted to eat at one of his restaurants. I plan to read up in my Fodor’s Las Vegas 2015 Guide Book about good places to eat in Sin City.
  • Walk thorough all the hotels: From the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the canals at the Venetian, we’re excited to see it all. I’ve heard each hotel is incredibly unique and different from the rest.
  • Downtown: We were told to go downtown and see the strip in old Las Vegas where the original casinos are and where it all started. We plan to gamble a bit at the Golden Nugget or the 4 Queens. The gambling is cheaper at the old strip. So are the hotels. We also plan to see the Freemont Street Experience, which is a cool show under an arched canopy with tons of lights, cool music, and dancers.
  • Shopping: My guide book told me to check these places out- Grand Canal Shoppes (stores near St. Mark’s Square at the Venetian).  The Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood and The Shoppes at Mandalay Place, which is, of course, located at Mandalay Bay.
  • Bally’s Gym and Spa: It will be good to have a nice gym in our hotel, especially a Bally’s gym. Use of the fitness center is included in the resort fee of the hotel (which we were required to pay).
  • Ride the tram/bus/monorail to get around: We will have to use public transportation since we don’t plan on renting a car for the majority of the trip. We may take a few taxis, like to and from the airport, but I’ve heard the bus/tram/monorail is the way to go. And the trams are free!

    paris-las-vegas-14.4

    Paris

    New York- New York

    New York New York

There’s less than a month to go before we leave! I’m ready for a vacation where there’s no schedule. No more road trips! (See my post called Pacific Northwest Road Trip about our first wedding anniversary vacation). We are going to see all the sights in Vegas but not make a schedule. As I have explained, we have a few things planned out, but we plan to just enjoy ourselves and not be burdened by the clock.

The lights, the sights, the casinos, the people — it can all be overwhelming and over stimulating, but that is what makes Vegas unique. I’ve even heard that walking down the strip makes you feel like you’re on acid. I wouldn’t know about that!

I am so excited for the Vegas trip! What’s your favorite thing to do in Vegas? If you don’t want to tell me, I understand. After all, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Venetian

The Venetian

Luxor

Luxor

 

Pacific Northwest Road Trip

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My husband and I had high hopes for our anniversary vacation. We were already going to my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah in San Francisco, so after the family weekend, we planned to extend our trip and take a road trip up the coast all the way to Vancouver, Canada. (See my post called Planning the Ultimate Vacation.) During this trip, we drove a total of 2,300 + miles, traveled through three states and spent our first time in Canada. The road trip portion was all done in a mere five days (Nine days total for the vacation). Don’t get me wrong, we had fun on our vacation — but there were definitely times we regretted this road trip decision. It clearly wasn’t enough time to do all that we had planned. We sort of knew this from the start, but we planned on going anyways. We didn’t really realize how MUCH driving it was and how little we got to see of each destination until we actually experienced being on the road trip. Others had told us, well maybe just go to Portland and Seattle and skip Vancouver. Or, just drive to Vancouver and fly home from Seattle instead of driving all the way back to San Francisco. But, we really wanted to do it all and had our minds set on this vacation, so the original plan stayed intact. We had considered driving back to Seattle and flying back to Atlanta from there, but the rental car company would have charged us by the mile instead of having unlimited miles. Being on a budget, we determined that spending $300 + on miles was not such a good idea.

The Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge

We really enjoyed most parts of our trip, but there were definitely some flaws to our anniversary vacation. Here is a quick outline of our trip for you to get an idea of our schedule:

Days 1 – 3: Family Bar Mitzvah weekend including a dinner, 2 services, a luncheon, the big party and a brunch.

Also on Day 3: The Start of our road trip. We went to a Napa winery, the Redwood Forrest, and Drive thru Tree Park. We stayed over in Eureka, California.

Day 4: Eureka to Portland. Took Highway 101 instead of I-5 for a more scenic route, and because our GPS led us that way. It took 10 hours instead of the planned 7 and we arrived in Portland at night in the dark.

Day 5: Portland to Seattle. We never really saw Portland, but we spend the majority of the day in Seattle.

Day 6: Seattle to Vancouver. No problem crossing the border, but arrived a little late for the activities we had planned.

Day 7: Vancouver to Portland. We had a big long wait crossing the border which caused us to miss seeing Portland again in the daylight.

Day 8: Portland to Marin County. Marin is outside of San Francisco where my family lives. It was a long drive home but bearable. I actually started writing this post on a notepad in the car during the last few hours. It was nice to spend time with my family before heading home.

Day 9: Fly from San Francisco to Atlanta. We enjoyed a Belgian waffle breakfast with Canadian maple syrup that we got for my family in Vancouver and then packed up, returned the rental car and headed home.

One day to rest and then the next day was our one year wedding anniversary. That day was very special. We got each other traditional paper gifts for the first year. Mine was a personalized notepad and his was a picture of our first dance at our wedding with the lyrics of the song around it all in a frame. And we got some other goodies as well. We dined at a nice restaurant and it was a great meal.

Highlights and “lowlights” of our trip by Destination:

Napa Valley and The Redwood Forrest:

Artesa Winery

Artesa Winery

Oregon Coast

Oregon Coast

We loved visiting wine country and the redwoods. It was all highlights and no “lowlights” on this day. Our road trip started off in Napa. We went to Artesa Winery because I had been there before and wanted to show my husband how beautiful it was. The first time I went, it was fall and leaves were changing. It was truly breathtaking. This time, it was still on the tail end of summer and since it had been so dry the rolling hills were not very green, but it was still a very pretty sight. We shared a tasting and bought a bottle of Merlot that had been my favorite.

Driving through the redwoods was an amazing experience. They were some of the largest most majestic trees I had ever seen. The roads were windy, the trees were massive, and the drive was awesome. We also went to this cool tourist attraction called Drive Thru Tree Park in Leggett, California where, you guessed it; you can drive through an actual Redwood tree. We drove through although our rental car (a Ford Fusion hybrid) was a bit tight and we had to pull in the side mirror! They had really large cut up trees that you could take pictures with and a cute gift shop that even had boxes and other items made of redwood. It was quite an adventure. We also drive up Highway 101 on the Northern California coast and the Oregon Coast before we cut through and went to Portland. It was a very beautiful and scenic drive that we will never forget. We stopped along the way several times and took pictures of the coast.

Chandelier Tree

Chandelier Tree

Me and a big Redwood Tree

Me and a big Redwood Tree

Portland:

Lowlights:

The problem was we never really saw Portland in the daytime. Since our drive took a lot longer than we thought, we missed out on a lot of the city. Poor planning and unexpected traffic were the main culprits. Arriving in a big city that you’ve never been to at night and trying to navigate both by car and by foot is a bit daunting. We really wanted to eat at a food truck but were parked really far away from them so we ate at a neat burger place called Little Big Burger.

There were a lot of things we did not get to see in Portland, one of them being the Columbia River Gorge. It’s actually outside of Portland and is a beautiful park with majestic waterfalls. It would have been a great opportunity to take some good photographs. We also missed out on another pretty place to take pictures: The Japanese Garden. We really did not get to do a lot of the things we had wanted since we were there such a short time.

Highlights:

One of the few things we actually got to do in Portland was visit the International Rose Test Garden. I have never seen so many pretty flowers in my life. There are rows and rows of roses in all different colors. It truly was beautiful. And a plus, it’s free! I highly recommend going to the Rose Garden if you’re ever in Portland. Plus, they have a really cute gift shop!

Rose Garden

Rose Garden

Rose Garden Fountain

Rose Garden Fountain

We really enjoyed Powell’s City of Books. Being an avid reader, I thought it was a really cool place. They sell new and used books and are the largest independent book store in the world. It takes up a whole city block. They even have a machine that will print and bind books so that you can re-print a rare book or publish your own manuscript.

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Bollywood Theater

On the way back from Canada, we stopped in Portland again, in the dark. We set out to have dinner at this popular Vietnamese place called Pok Pok. Well, they had a 45 minute wait and we were starving, so we chose another place. We ended up eating at an Indian Restaurant called Bollywood Theater and we’re so glad we did. They had quick service considering the line was out the door and also delicious food. You order at the counter and then they bring it to you. The place was nicely decorated and they even had ingredients for Indian dishes that they sold so you could cook them at home if you wanted. It was a very good restaurant and we had a wonderful time.

Seattle:

Lowlights:

We always seemed to get caught in traffic on our trip, and we found that Seattle was one of the worst places for traffic. Parking was also an issue. Finding it and paying high dollar amounts for it. We parked in the Target parking deck near Pike Place and didn’t want to pay again to park later in the day, so we only saw a small portion of the city. When we left Pike Place, we were stuck in rush hour traffic at 5 p.m. so that pretty much kept us from exploring the city further.

After we left the city, we went to see the Olympic Peninsula. Rather I should say attempted to see the Olympic Peninsula. The traffic ended up being so bad that we would have never made it before dark. And you have to be there in the daylight to really see anything. We ended up driving about an hour to get there just to turn around and sit in even more traffic. We were a bit bummed and so glad to finally make it to our hotel room.

Highlights:

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Pike Place Market

Pike Place is the place to be. Known for the fish throwing and being a wonderful marketplace, we loved it there. We walked in right as two seafood workers were in the act of throwing the fish. Pike Place has an assortment of goods from fish, to flowers, to fruit, to seafood restaurants, to crafts, souvenirs and boutiques. It was a very busy and happening place with multiple levels. We ate delicious seafood at a small place called Market Grill and later in the day we had ice cream in giant waffle cones at one of the candy shops in Pike Place. It is also the home of the very first Starbucks Coffee, which surprisingly didn’t have as long of a line as we expected.

Olympic Sculpture Park was neat. We walked from the Market to the Pier to the Sculpture Park. We saw some abstract artwork (sculptures) and even got a good view of the Space Needle. It was very unique and cool and definitely worth the walk.

My husband on the pier

My husband on the pier

The Space Needle

The Space Needle

Vancouver, Canada:

Lowlights:

I had picked a hotel to stay at because it was close to the Capilano Suspension Bridge and it because it was a good deal. Before we crossed the border, I checked on Google to find out what time the Suspension Bridge closed and it said 8 p.m. So we went to Stanley Park first and then around 5 p.m. we pulled into the suspension bridge parking lot. The first thing we saw was a sign that said “New hours, closing at 6.” It was rather expensive to enter the park and we didn’t think it would be worth it to stay for only an hour. I was mad beyond belief. So, then we decided to head to Grouse Mountain only to find out that it was too cloudy to be worth the trip on the Skyride. The activities in Vancouver were kind of a bust, but we ended up having a good time driving around the city and eating at a nice Italian place that the hotel concierge recommended.

20140924_134508My husband and I walked into a grocery store in Vancouver. The employees suggested we got to Wal-Mart or the Dollar store to buy souvenirs because they didn’t have any at the market. To our dismay, neither Wal-Mart nor the Dollar store had souvenirs either.  We ended up going to the duty free store right before crossing the American Border and getting shirts and other souvenirs there, but we were a bit mad about the time wasted.  It was a lot easier crossing the border to Canada than it was to re-enter the United States. We got asked more questions on the way into Canada than the way out. The line of cars was incredibly long. It took about an hour and a half. And of course our line was the slow line. The line did not move much so people turned off their cars since British Columbia is an “idle free” province. Each car is X-rayed before you cross the border and we did not know this. We did not declare our unopened bottle of wine because we got it in Napa. Apparently alcohol loses its citizenship when leaving the country and you need to declare it. Who knew?

Highlights:

While on our road trip, we forgot to exchange some US dollars for Canadian dollars. So, during our adventure for souvenirs at the grocery store, my husband asked the clerk, “Do y’all take credit cards?” She knew we weren’t from around there and gave us the tourist discount when we checked out. They were especially helpful. When the clerk suggested we go to Wal-Mart to find souvenirs, I said, “I didn’t know that you had Wal-Mart.” The guy behind us in line sarcastically said, “We have everything here!” Haha. Guess we sounded like stereotypical Americans.

Stanley Park

Stanley Park

Stanley Park was very beautiful. Even just driving through the park is worth it. The views of the city were pretty awesome and it was really neat to see the totem poles. I wish we could have stayed there longer.

Overall, we are glad we did the trip and saw a lot of places we had never been before. We covered a lot of ground in a short period of time. We had good experiences and some bad, but we did it. We completed our road trip, all 2,300 miles, and we now know what to see when we come back to the Pacific Northwest.

What’s your favorite place in the Pacific Northwest? Leave me a comment.