Well, if you haven't been able to tell from my instagram feed above, the trip to Tahoe was photographically successful! Hooray! I was so pleased with how everything worked out weather-wise and timing-wise in each location. I'm just used to seeing more snow there in the winter; there was hardly any due to the drought this past year, I would assume. Booooo.
But wait, there's more!
My mom finally got to check off three of the major stressers off of her to-do list. 1.) Divorce! Sounds terrible, but it's really not! This process has been going on for 2.5 years and it's finally over and the relief is visible. 2.) Our old home on sale has gotten an offer (two, actually!) the same week we put it back on the market after our fixing it up some more. We did good, sirs, yes, we did. 3.) Ben is moving in tomorrow, and we finally figured out the logistics. Phew. I was wondering how we were going to pull it off.
On the drive back from Tahoe, there were many discussions about what to do for my birthday in two weeks. Originally we wanted to go to San Francisco to one of the restaurants participating in Restaurant Week, but we would want to do something else in SF besides just eating dinner, BUT that means we either couldn't bring my brother along to do something funziez OR not do anything funziez at all. He can't walk around anywhere, really. It's very restrictive and makes us sad about doing fun things when he can't join us. Anyway, the other option we were discussing was a flight down to San Diego for the weekend, but that also seemed silly. I don't know what we'll do.
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
January 16, 2015
August 26, 2014
London
July 2014
I was apparently becoming a traitorous American on my way to London from Paris, as my stay overlapped Independence Day. Woops. But as soon as we got off at Charing Cross station and made our way towards the Underground, we were relieved to hear English speakers again, as well as find out just how cheery and helpful Londoners seem to be. A complete stranger noticed us looking puzzled at the Underground map and offered to guide us to the correct platform. He happened to be going the same way until he exited an earlier stop, but had us join him and offered to help us with our bags up the stairs (we said no). There were multiple instances in London where locals would elect to offer us help without any provocation to do so. Only ONE crabby person happened upon us on our entire 1 week stay: an Underground employee at the exit gates who decided to vehemently ignore us when we needed help passing through the gates with dysfunctional tickets.
After dropping our luggage off at the hotel (worth the number of stars it boasted, as opposed to the Paris hotel we stayed in), we sat around being lazy until it was time to visit Her Majesty's Theater for the long standing production of The Phantom of the Opera. I've seen the Broadway version before in the U.S. (and blubbered like a baby at the end) but it only seemed fitting to see it again in London. I'm proud to say that this time around, I wasn't sobbing hysterically, but merely tearing up a bit. The Phantom's voice was beaaauuuuutiful, but I didn't care for their Christine.
We wanted to save as much money as we could for food, so a lot of the times we picked up something small from places like Pret A Manger or Starbucks (they had Mocha Coconut Frappuccinos there, I was so excited because I haven't seen them in California for a couple years). Otherwise, we did visit some local restaurants to chow down on some bolognese (only kind of meh), pizza (I don't know why it was so good, but it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had), or barbecue ribs with rosemary fries (delicioso). At Wildwood, my mom was let down that a creme brulee cheesecake she was dying to get her hands on was out of stock, so the restaurant deducted the cost of my sundae as well as prepared us free limoncello shots.
One of the first places we visited in London was the Cutty Sark, a trading clipper that was used primarily for importing tea from India, as well as the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The observatory houses a large, stationary telescope whose exact location was used designate the Prime Meridian. And yeah, I stood on that line, straddling the two halves of the world!
The oldest place we visited was the Tower of London, built and expanded upon in the 11th-14th centuries. There were so many interesting, old artifacts, including armor worn by past kings. VERY cool. Also within the Tower of London are the royal jewels, though I didn't bother peeking my head in there. There were some royal guards hanging about, and one in particular was there just for posing with. He didn't mind talking either. I was trying to get a photo with him for over three minutes when families would jump in before me over and over again and finally he helped defend me: when someone else said they've been waiting a long time, he pointed to me, "She has, too."
On a particularly overcast/showery day we had scheduled a ride on the London Eye that was meant to coincide with the arrival of the Tour de France cyclists on the other side of the River Thames (England is apparently part of France, now). For some reason, I had expected us to have great views and I could take epic photos with my zoom lens, but lo and behold, the capsules we were in were oval and distorted the images, and the street below where the cyclists would pass were tree-lined and therefore invisible to us. Luckily, the cyclists were late, or we were too early. We made our way on top of on of the bridges passing over the street they'd ride down and wouldn't move despite "police" asking us to (there was a large crowd congregating with the same idea we had). Getting there early enough granted us front row passes and a victorious photo shoot for a once in a lifetime experience.
I really enjoyed walking through St James Park, which held a pond full of wildlife including a huge array of birds like heron's and the Queen's swans. Yes, the swans are the Queen's swans. It is apparently considered treason to kill one. There were so many museums nearby, I didn't quite go to all of them, but there was so much history in the National Gallery and the Queen's Gallery that we were kind of "art"-ed out for the rest of the week.
Before our trip, we pre-booked a bicycle tour to Windsor Castle (essentially one of the homes of the Queen of England and her guests), about a 40 minute Overground ride west of London. We rode on some dirt and gravel roads for eight miles, passing Eton College (an elite, prestigious university for men that requires a qualifying examination at age 12 to be considered for admission), the home of Elton John on the other side of the river, a property that is often used in high budget film making, as well as one of the oldest churches in England.
We propped our bikes up in the town of Eton and passed a bridge over the Thames into Windsor where we stopped for lunch before touring the visitors section of Windsor Castle. It was truly immaculate: the grounds, the decor, the chapel, the art and artifacts, including love letters between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I've noticed English royalty have much more refined tastes than the gaudy French royals. After our tour, we revisited our lunch destination for their famous hot chocolate. They melt chocolate pieces in milk, and have so many different varieties of flavors that I could probably feel just fine about living there indefinitely: Windsor Chocolate Theatre Cafe. Go there now.
Another pre-booked day was dedicated to the expansive journey via train to Leavesden Warner Brothers Studios where they filmed Harry Potter and showcase many of the props, sets, and costumes used in filming. I'm pretty sure I fangirled the most in two situations: staring at the box of horcruxes, and standing on the Harry Potter bridge. I also kind of felt like a huge dork, because there were mostly kids present, as opposed to grown ass adults like me. I had to repeat to myself, "It's okay. I belong here. I am the real Harry Potter generation."
London was a blast, and definitely one of my favorite cities to travel in. It seems distinctly designed for tourism: excellent public transportation (everybody uses it, including affluent folk and celebrities), street maps everywhere that include landmarks and walking distance/time, very friendly and helpful people, and rich culture and history. I intend to visit again at some point, because I didn't see everything, and I would want to do more day trips out of the city to small, picturesque villages.
I was apparently becoming a traitorous American on my way to London from Paris, as my stay overlapped Independence Day. Woops. But as soon as we got off at Charing Cross station and made our way towards the Underground, we were relieved to hear English speakers again, as well as find out just how cheery and helpful Londoners seem to be. A complete stranger noticed us looking puzzled at the Underground map and offered to guide us to the correct platform. He happened to be going the same way until he exited an earlier stop, but had us join him and offered to help us with our bags up the stairs (we said no). There were multiple instances in London where locals would elect to offer us help without any provocation to do so. Only ONE crabby person happened upon us on our entire 1 week stay: an Underground employee at the exit gates who decided to vehemently ignore us when we needed help passing through the gates with dysfunctional tickets.
After dropping our luggage off at the hotel (worth the number of stars it boasted, as opposed to the Paris hotel we stayed in), we sat around being lazy until it was time to visit Her Majesty's Theater for the long standing production of The Phantom of the Opera. I've seen the Broadway version before in the U.S. (and blubbered like a baby at the end) but it only seemed fitting to see it again in London. I'm proud to say that this time around, I wasn't sobbing hysterically, but merely tearing up a bit. The Phantom's voice was beaaauuuuutiful, but I didn't care for their Christine.
We wanted to save as much money as we could for food, so a lot of the times we picked up something small from places like Pret A Manger or Starbucks (they had Mocha Coconut Frappuccinos there, I was so excited because I haven't seen them in California for a couple years). Otherwise, we did visit some local restaurants to chow down on some bolognese (only kind of meh), pizza (I don't know why it was so good, but it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had), or barbecue ribs with rosemary fries (delicioso). At Wildwood, my mom was let down that a creme brulee cheesecake she was dying to get her hands on was out of stock, so the restaurant deducted the cost of my sundae as well as prepared us free limoncello shots.
One of the first places we visited in London was the Cutty Sark, a trading clipper that was used primarily for importing tea from India, as well as the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The observatory houses a large, stationary telescope whose exact location was used designate the Prime Meridian. And yeah, I stood on that line, straddling the two halves of the world!
The oldest place we visited was the Tower of London, built and expanded upon in the 11th-14th centuries. There were so many interesting, old artifacts, including armor worn by past kings. VERY cool. Also within the Tower of London are the royal jewels, though I didn't bother peeking my head in there. There were some royal guards hanging about, and one in particular was there just for posing with. He didn't mind talking either. I was trying to get a photo with him for over three minutes when families would jump in before me over and over again and finally he helped defend me: when someone else said they've been waiting a long time, he pointed to me, "She has, too."
On a particularly overcast/showery day we had scheduled a ride on the London Eye that was meant to coincide with the arrival of the Tour de France cyclists on the other side of the River Thames (England is apparently part of France, now). For some reason, I had expected us to have great views and I could take epic photos with my zoom lens, but lo and behold, the capsules we were in were oval and distorted the images, and the street below where the cyclists would pass were tree-lined and therefore invisible to us. Luckily, the cyclists were late, or we were too early. We made our way on top of on of the bridges passing over the street they'd ride down and wouldn't move despite "police" asking us to (there was a large crowd congregating with the same idea we had). Getting there early enough granted us front row passes and a victorious photo shoot for a once in a lifetime experience.
I really enjoyed walking through St James Park, which held a pond full of wildlife including a huge array of birds like heron's and the Queen's swans. Yes, the swans are the Queen's swans. It is apparently considered treason to kill one. There were so many museums nearby, I didn't quite go to all of them, but there was so much history in the National Gallery and the Queen's Gallery that we were kind of "art"-ed out for the rest of the week.
Before our trip, we pre-booked a bicycle tour to Windsor Castle (essentially one of the homes of the Queen of England and her guests), about a 40 minute Overground ride west of London. We rode on some dirt and gravel roads for eight miles, passing Eton College (an elite, prestigious university for men that requires a qualifying examination at age 12 to be considered for admission), the home of Elton John on the other side of the river, a property that is often used in high budget film making, as well as one of the oldest churches in England.
We propped our bikes up in the town of Eton and passed a bridge over the Thames into Windsor where we stopped for lunch before touring the visitors section of Windsor Castle. It was truly immaculate: the grounds, the decor, the chapel, the art and artifacts, including love letters between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I've noticed English royalty have much more refined tastes than the gaudy French royals. After our tour, we revisited our lunch destination for their famous hot chocolate. They melt chocolate pieces in milk, and have so many different varieties of flavors that I could probably feel just fine about living there indefinitely: Windsor Chocolate Theatre Cafe. Go there now.
Another pre-booked day was dedicated to the expansive journey via train to Leavesden Warner Brothers Studios where they filmed Harry Potter and showcase many of the props, sets, and costumes used in filming. I'm pretty sure I fangirled the most in two situations: staring at the box of horcruxes, and standing on the Harry Potter bridge. I also kind of felt like a huge dork, because there were mostly kids present, as opposed to grown ass adults like me. I had to repeat to myself, "It's okay. I belong here. I am the real Harry Potter generation."
London was a blast, and definitely one of my favorite cities to travel in. It seems distinctly designed for tourism: excellent public transportation (everybody uses it, including affluent folk and celebrities), street maps everywhere that include landmarks and walking distance/time, very friendly and helpful people, and rich culture and history. I intend to visit again at some point, because I didn't see everything, and I would want to do more day trips out of the city to small, picturesque villages.
June 18, 2014
People
On my way to work, there was a woman waiting to cross the street at a crosswalk on a street without a stop sign. I did my duty and stopped for her (which, by the way, is what you are supposed to do), but the oncoming traffic was still plowing through and then two cars behind me decided I was in the way and drove around me to pass. What the hecks, dudes? Are people really that blind or inconsiderate/dangerous? Yes, I did honk at these cars and get upset about it. No, it did not matter.
I went to see The Fault in Our Stars by myself last weekend. Yes, there were tears. Unfortunately, a stranger sat right next to me with a chatty group of friends, so it was kind of hard to focus on the movie or react properly to it, ie. crying with no regard.
I went to see The Fault in Our Stars by myself last weekend. Yes, there were tears. Unfortunately, a stranger sat right next to me with a chatty group of friends, so it was kind of hard to focus on the movie or react properly to it, ie. crying with no regard.
One more week until Paris! My mom is already packing up toiletries, and looking at the weather reports, we decided we won't be needing to pack any shorts for hot weather. 65-80 degrees, presumably! I'm going to pick up my brother this weekend, and he will be staying at our house taking care of our kitties and drive us to and from the airport. Meanwhile, after my first excursion to the dentist in three years, I needed a lot of work done, and so with a new temporary crown I am forbidden to eat sticky or hard things until I get my permanent crown when I get back from vacation. Consequentially, I am limited by what I can consume in Paris and London. Sad face. However, good things on the horizon: I am going to be getting Invisalign! Pretty excited about that, although I think that will be a while. I haven't taken the special x-rays to send to Invisalign yet, and won't until I get my permanent crown in.
It seems like a lot of people at work are leaving this month for one reason or another. One is moving away and four are graduating. For the one that is moving away, we intend to go out for Chinese at lunch time as a farewell meal together. I don't usually go out to places with coworkers, but I figured I probably should in this case. For the other four, cake and ice cream will be served just after we get back from lunch. One of the people leaving this week is Dr Perfect--this is a mixed blessing. I probably won't manage to get it, but I want a picture of him before he goes, because I'm a total creeper.
May 28, 2014
Counting Down
The Paris/London trip is officially just one month away! I'm getting a little anxious now for the Paris portion because none of the plans in that city are set in stone, especially since our arrival date may or may not consist of us sleeping all day from jet lag. My mom and I will be leaving the United States in the afternoon of Wednesday and arrive in France in the morning of Thursday after 11 hours stuffed in an economy class seat with no leg room. We would like to be able to sleep during the flight to help out with the time change, but I've never been successful at sleeping on a plane in all my years. I will be taking precautions though: hardly sleeping at all the night before, possibly waking up at 2:00 am, and taking sleep aids just before the flight. Hopefully all of that will be enough.
The London portion of the trip is a little more solidified. We have some experiences booked, including tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera and a ride on the London Eye timed for when the Tour de France cyclists should approximately pass by just across the river. I'll have my zoom lens out for sure. I'm also planning on heading up to Leavesden, north of London and home to Warner Brothers Studios' The Making of Harry Potter, where I will walk through a replica of the Great Hall among other things. I'll even try their butterbeer despite negative reviews! Although, I suppose I could wait to try butterbeer when I visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida next year to accompany one of my business trips. Yes, I certainly could.
Also, I updated my INFJ post to include some new tidbits and insights in case anyone was interested. Boop.
The London portion of the trip is a little more solidified. We have some experiences booked, including tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera and a ride on the London Eye timed for when the Tour de France cyclists should approximately pass by just across the river. I'll have my zoom lens out for sure. I'm also planning on heading up to Leavesden, north of London and home to Warner Brothers Studios' The Making of Harry Potter, where I will walk through a replica of the Great Hall among other things. I'll even try their butterbeer despite negative reviews! Although, I suppose I could wait to try butterbeer when I visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida next year to accompany one of my business trips. Yes, I certainly could.
Also, I updated my INFJ post to include some new tidbits and insights in case anyone was interested. Boop.
April 10, 2014
Seattle
April 2014
Day One - Saturday
We arrived in Seattle on a showery afternoon, but had already made plans to visit the Seattle Waterfront and Aquarium immediately after our departure from the airport in our rental car. I made the mistake of parking too soon in fear of not finding a parking garage later on (I'm used to hard-to-find parking downtown in my hometown), because there were garages and lots pretty much everywhere. Downtown Seattle is super hilly and reminiscent of what you might find in San Francisco, but it is still very walkable because everything worth seeing downtown is very close together.
The aquarium seems really small until you notice that it leads outside the pier enclosure for some bird, otter, and seal exhibits. I'm not sure the aquarium was really worth $22 a head, it needs some updating and is still fairly small, but the river and sea otters are worth visiting. There are a lot of deals to take advantage of that we didn't this time, like combination tickets with a harbor cruise tour or the great wheel, so the opportunity to save some money is there and make the trip more budget friendly.
Afterwards, we made our way to our hotel to wait for another friend to join us so we could eat out for dinner. We ended up walking to Black Bottle, a hip and trendy restaurant that serves food in a family style manner so that it's shared with your friends. They warned us about the "large plates" and people are often surprised by how "large" they are when they come out, but they really aren't. I guess I'm just used to Cheesecake Factory portions as "large". But I'd probably recommend ordering about 2 plates per person for sharing to feel full. Next, we made our way to Bathtub Gin & Co. for a drink before resting our eyes back at the hotel.
Day Two - Sunday
We woke up groggily to eat some breakfast at the hotel and drive to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. The park itself was very pretty, but the conservatory was cute and quaint with a glass enclosure over five different climate zones including tropical, moderate, and dry. There were a lot of cool plants with interesting colors and foliage, and the room with tulips made for great backdrops for portraits. The gift shop was adorable, too, and I ended up buying a necklace with a hand painted pendant of two koy fish.
We had a Savor Seattle food tour scheduled later that afternoon in Pike Place Market, so we decided to head that way early to explore on our own first. I shared a panini special at Sister's European Snacks to tie us over until the tour, bought some chocolate covered cherries from Chukar Cherries, waited for one of my friends to order a frappuccino from the "Original" Starbucks, and tried my very first European drinking chocolate from The Confectional, an amazing experience for chocolate lovers. Speaking of the "Original" Starbucks, it was explained to us that this was not in fact the very first Starbucks. The first Starbucks no longer exists. This Starbucks is the FOURTH Starbucks to exist, but is considered the second location of the first. I feel cheated.
Soon it was time to meet up at the Gum Wall for the start of our food tour. The gum wall was pretty gross! Apparently it started out a bit more sightly where people would use gum to stick coins up, like for wishes? But someone came by and grabbed all the coins so all that was left was gum and even with efforts to clean the wall, people kept putting gum there and so the city turned it into a gross tourist attraction and an accumulation of 30 years of used gum. Do you see our smiles? They are delicate smiles of disgust.
Our food tour was lead by a very informative, hilariously pun-filled, and charismatic guide named Santino whom we decided to call instead Sassy Santino after he alliterated all of our own names as well. Here we visited a number of locations for small bites that some might consider adding up to a meal, but over the course of two hours you don't really feel full.
- Daily Dozen Doughnuts for freshly made cinnamon sugar doughnut holes.
- Market Spice for its Market Spice tea, orange & cinnamon flavor that is surprisingly sweet on its own.
- Pike Place Fish for three types of smoked salmon and a fun fish toss in which one of our own got to participate.
- Pike Place Chowder for lobster bisque and award-winning clam chowder.
- Choice Produce for fresh, sweet grapes and apples.
- BB Ranch for charcuterie and stories inside their walk-in refridgerator.
- Beecher's Handmade Cheese for aged white cheddar on a cracker as well as mac & cheese famously praised by Oprah Winfrey.
- Pear Delicatessen & Shoppe for a small deli sandwich and time to purchase anything else from the store.
- Etta's for delicious crabcakes.
Feeling oh so satisfied, we walked over to the Seattle Great Wheel and enjoyed three rotations around the ferris wheel in enclosed capsules. The views offered up were picturesque and granted us decent backgrounds for selfies.
It was about time I needed to charge my phone, so we tried to find a Starbucks in order to do so. We found one right next to Showbox, the venue featuring Young the Giant later that night. Unfortunately, the Starbucks here in Seattle apparently cover their outlets because they're either stingily rude or environmentally friendly. Meanwhile there was a huge line wrapping around the block to get in to Showbox before doors opening, but knowing that my friend is a seasoned concert goer who knows how to get close to the stage, we saved our feet by hanging out in the Starbucks for an extra hour until the opening band would show.
Day Three - Monday
I woke up slowly and groggily from the sleep aid I used (I didn't sleep well without it the night before), as well as sore as shit from all the walking we've done. One of our friends was leaving town this day, so we had to sneak in a trip up the Space Needle before he went. There were hardly any lines, probably because it was a Monday morning, and we were blessed with good fortune in the form of sunshine and a clear view of Mount Rainier to the south and the Olympic Mountains to the northwest.
We had originally intended to eat at the restaurant within the Space Needle, as I have heard that it is supposedly superb, but at our entry before 11am the restaurant was not yet open. We settled on the cafe there instead and I consumed the only hot dog we ever managed to get our hands on before leaving the city. On the way to the airport, our friend leaving us wanted to take an emergency detour to a souvenir shop. While we were trying to guide him back to the car over the phone, he asked us to describe our surroundings. This is when we saw an old man running shirtless down the street with a Jamaican flag cape tied around his neck, and it was legit, the funniest thing that had ever happened on the entire trip.
Next thing on our list of things to do was take a harbor cruise with Argosy Harbor Cruise Tours. By the time we arrived at the counter, we were an hour late for the one we had initially planned on attending, so we settled for one two hours later and walked around downtown a bit more. Feeling in the mood for something cold and sweet, we worked our way up four blocks of steep sidewalks to Gelatiamo. I ordered four flavors: lemon sorbet, blackberry sorbet, peanut butter cup gelato, and chocolate hazelnut gelato. The gelato is the most delicious gelato I've ever had. Other "gelato" I've tried have been reminiscent of ice cream, but this here, THIS, was unquestionably gelato. I was in heaven.After failing to find a hot dog stand anywhere, we begrudgingly made our way back to the Seattle Waterfront. Upon discovering a small arcade, I whooped some ass playing air hockey. A ten year old boy boasting lightening reflexes challenged me to a duel, and I felt bad about beating him so I gave him all of the tickets I won. All 36 of them.
Lining up for our Locks Tour Harbor Cruise, my friend started making a fuss pointing at someone she claimed to be SAMEER GADHIA departing his own cruise tour. Remember that guy? The guy we saw belting on stage the night before? Yeah, I wasn't sure it was him for a while, because he was tying his shoe and all I could see was his butt. Which was fine. He was wearing sunglasses when he stood up, but his look and style lead me to agree that she was right and it was indeed the lead singer of Young the Giant before my eyes, walking off down the street away from us. And I had just taken off my Young the Giant sweatshirt. And we could have been on the same boat as him. I almost died inside.
As for our harbor cruise tour, it was really fun and relaxing. I'm glad we took the longer tour because our feet were killing us. The trip was commentated over the intercom with history and facts about Seattle and Puget Sound. We got some pretty great views of the skyline and that made me and my iPhone camera very happy.
This particular tour took us up and over Seattle through a locks canal and Lake Union. It was really neat seeing the locks in action. They're meant to separate the higher freshwater levels from the lower seawater levels. There were a lot of cool ships and houseboats along the way. Supposedly, we passed the houseboat used in the movie Sleepless In Seattle, as well as the ship used in the show The Deadliest Catch, but none of us saw what the commentator saw. He may have been lying.
Once we docked in Lake Union, a bus took us back to our original location and it was about time we headed towards Kerry Park for some iconic sunset shots of the Seattle skyline.
Our last day in Seattle happened to be the start of Restaurant Week, when even upscale restaurants have affordable 3 course menus. We took the chance to fine dine at Dahlia Lounge where we enjoyed the most delicious bites of food yet. Can't you tell by our empty plates?
It was then declared as a toast that we would continue to discover new cities together every year! ...And hopefully during Restuarant Weeks.
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