Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Mini-Break in San Diego

March 2, 2010 | Travel

We had a fabulous time!

The highlights included:

1. Walking on the beach on Friday. It was so warm and bright, and the Pacific was big and wide and crashy. SB and I took a long walk, our pants rolled up, our feet happliy experiencing the sand, our shoes dangling from our fingertips. There may have been some skipping.

2. The middle rainy day. One of the best things about a rainy day is the permission it gives you to do something low key and indoors. There’s no need to feel like you SHOULD be doing something more adventurous, you can’t. You simply MUST curl up and read a book and then go see a movie. If it had been sunny, I’m sure we would’ve had a Big Day Out, and I’m sure it would’ve been great, but reading and movie watching was just splendid. Both are delicious and rare activities at this moment in my life.

3. Dinner at The Red Pearl Kitchen. You guys, this place was sah-WEET. It was super glamorous, with big, dark booths, red walls and flickering lanterns, and beautiful people everywhere. My cocktail was a work of art, my dinner was perfect, and the company was excellent. Incidentally, we all remarked how the service was both superb and performed by ridiculously attractive humans. The remarkable part being that you don’t expect super pretty people to be so nice. Funny, that.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the trip.

Posted by Jenny @ 6:33 pm | 4 Comments

Ho Ho Ho

December 26, 2009 | Bits and Bobs, Travel, We Are Family

Hey Friends! I have a few minutes before Christmas Round Two begins, so I thought I’d pop in here and say howdy. The inlaws are on their way from Eastern Washington as we speak. I am reserving commentary. None of them know about this blog, nor are they web savvy enough to find it, let’s just say that it’s the holiday season and I’m feeling charitable.

Did Santa bring you all nice things? My favorite gifts were photography related, of course. I got this which will allow me to take dreamy looking old timey photos with my camera, and this spy lens, which will allow me to take pictures of people who don’t want to be photographed. HA! I’m actually most excited to use it for taking pictures of strangers on the street.

The main reason I came here today was to ask the advice of the seasoned mothers among you. In 3 days we will be leaving for NEW YORK CITY. Woot! (Long time readers will remember previous New Year’s trips, found here and here) We didn’t go last year because Clark was brand new, but we’re resuming our tradition! The fabulous friends we visit there have a kid now, too, so instead of a glamorous Manhattan New Year’s Eve, we will be celebrating in a rented cabin Upstate. We are so excited! HOWEVER, this little jaunt requares a long ass plane ride with our increasing sqirrelly and screechy 1 year old. So, ladies, bring on the tips and tricks. I’ve been collecting never before seen toys and planning snacks, but anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated. The flight out there is a red eye, which could be awesome or TERRIBLE, but the flight back is an afternoon/evening. Also, what the heck am I supposed to do about the time change? Should I keep his schedule or try to make him conform to the East coast?

I hope everyone had great holidays! I have tons of disgustingly adorable photos of course, but not the time for uploading and editing and whatnot. Gah. I need to shower and plan a menu and get to the store before they get here so I better scram. Please fill my comments with all your tips for surviving travel, and inlaws, too.

Posted by Jenny @ 12:44 pm | 11 Comments

Vegas!

May 29, 2009 | Navel Gazing, Travel

The boys and their Vegas Maystaches. Commentary withheld.

If you follow me on the Twitters, you know SB and I went to Vegas over the weekend with a really fun group of friends. Clark stayed with his grandma. It was a big step for everyone!

I was really worried that Clark would be sad, or that I would be so too sad to have any fun. Or worse, that I WOULDN’T be sad to be away from him.

But everyone had a fabulous time, and I think it was good for all of us. Clark was perfectly fine without us, better probably, because his Grandma puts more effort into entertaining him 24/7 than we do. And it was good for SB and I as a couple to have some time away.

It was also good for us as parents. I didn’t NOT miss Clark as I’d feared. I missed him a ton. I was afraid I might party like crazy and and be all, “WOO HOO! SCREW BABIES! YEAH!” but that didn’t happen. I had a great time in Vegas, did plenty of partying, but I longed to be back home, being a mom, and that made me very happy. This trip reminded me that I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing right now. As much as I dislike this about myself, I can be a “grass is greener”-type sometimes, so this was a lovely reminder to have.

As far as Vegas is concerned, I do not recommend going over a holiday weekend. It was crazy crowded and you had to wait for everything. But of course, we were in good company and the weather was DELICIOUS, so we had a wonderful time. There was much pool sitting and cocktail sipping, and we got to go see Cirque du Soleil, which blew my goddamn mind. Blew. My. Mind. I kept saying, I think I know JUST enough about yoga and pliates to know that what they did was freaking IMPOSSIBLE. When you have to stop and remind yourself that it’s real people and not CGI, you know it’s a good show.

Anyway, we’re back to reality and I’m happy. This morning, I was noisily kissing Clark’s neck and making him giggle, when he grabbed a hunk of my hair with one hand, my tender neck skin with his pointy claws on the other, and used his shockingly sharp teeth to bite my cheek, all at the same time. Yes. It’s good to be home with lovely, and abusive, little boy.

Posted by Jenny @ 1:18 pm | 7 Comments

Wedding, visits, and adventures in DC

October 29, 2008 | Travel

Hello, all! I’m back from what I promise is my last trip, for like, ever. Well, for quite some time, I imagine. A lovely friend from college got married over the weekend in Virginia, and a bunch of fun friends made the trip out. We also visited some other friends we met in Liverpool who have since moved there, and I did a small bit of sightseeing, too. Good times were had by all!

Here are some sights from our adventures…

We stayed in the coolest, cutest, reasonably priced, lovely little place off Dupont Circle called The Tabbard Inn. It was so old time-y and full of character.

The bride and groom. The bride knocked my socks off that day. She is not a very girly-girl but DAMN. Girl looked amazing.

Three of my favorite ladies, bridesmaids, and loyal blog readers:

On Monday, SB had to be all responsible and work, so I did some sightseeing by myself. I decided that since I only had one day, and there was no one around to scoff, I should get on one of those cheesy double decker tourist busses. Dude. I loved it! I’m totally going to take one of these whenever I go to a city that has them in the future. It was a great way to get the lay of the land and see what you want to go back to later, and I love the recorded little history lesson about who built what etc, etc. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty sucky that day.

I stuck it out as long as I could, but then it started sideways raining. My cheesy double decker bus experience would be less cool from the inside part, I decided, what with the steamy windows, and you know, the other tourists, so I got off to find an indoor activity. DC has tons of these, of course, but I was by myself. If I’d gone to the Smithsonian, there would have been too much to see in one afternoon, plus, I would have wanted a partner to say, “Hey! Look at that!” to. So, I decided to go to the Holocaust Museum, since it was right there in front of me.

Why in the world would an emotional pregnant woman want to go there? Well, it’s something everyone should see, SB has already been, it’s an afternoon-sized activity, and one that is perfect for a solitary day. Needless to say, it was quite an experience. It was just so much worse than that unit in highschool and Schindler’s List prepares you for.

We also got to visit some friends we made while SB was getting his masters in Liverpool. We hadn’t seen them in 4 years and it was SO GREAT to get to see them again and cement that friendship. There was decidedly less drinking going on than the last time we all hung out.

And now we’re home. I’m excited to start nesting in earnest, now that all the events are over with. My iGoogle home page would like to remind me that there are only 51 days until the approximate arrival of the child.

Posted by Jenny @ 4:07 pm | 7 Comments

Today at Venice Beach

October 21, 2008 | Travel

We’re going home tomorrow. It was just a wee jaunt. More travel adventures to come later on this week, though!

Posted by Jenny @ 9:37 pm | 8 Comments

A temporary escape

October 20, 2008 | Travel

My apologies to those of you currently experiencing winter, as I hear my dear PNW friends did today, for SB and I are in LA, baby!

He had to come here for work, and since I’m funemployed, I came, too! We left at the ass crack this morning, and by noon, I was sitting by a pool! In a bikini! In this strange land where it is NOT winter!

SB, working, me DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY:

While SB brought home the bacon, I sat in the sun. It was wonderful. Then, later on, we met our friend Carl in Santa Monica for dinner. We ate outside. You know, because it’s like, not raining? Then we walked down and looked at the beach. The pretty pretty beach with palm trees and whatnot.

After that, we walked through this outdoor mall-ish area where I spotted this window dressing sin that I must share with you. Check out how this necklace is lasso-ing a boob:

Such is the danger of long necklaces, right ladies?

Anyway, these meager pictures don’t even begin to capture all the prettiness that is LA. I get why people love it here. Yes, it’s a big, dirty, traffic-y, sprawled out city, but there’s a strange urban beauty to it, and a quality to the smog filtered light that just makes it feel so COOL. Anyway, tomorrow, SB only has work stuff in the morning, so in the afternoon, we’re going to the beach. The beach! You know, sunshine? Warm sand? CRAZY.

Posted by Jenny @ 10:16 pm | 2 Comments

One more Belize post

September 4, 2008 | Travel

I want to talk about the tiny little island we stayed on, Caye Caulker. I LOVED it. It was absolutely perfect. It’s only 5 miles long by 1 mile wide, and that’s rounding UP on both measurements. I thought it was just the right combination of “off the beaten path,” but with plenty of tourist stuff, too. It was exactly how I want my tropical vacations to be, a little rustic, and not all smooth sidewalks and uplit palm trees, you know?

(Before I go further, I must say in all fairness, that SB thought it was too small, too rustic, and too hot. He LIKES uplit plam trees. He thinks they’re PRETTY.)

There are no cars there, just golf carts, and the streets are all sand:

Anyway, we stayed at the Iguana Reef Inn which is the nicest hotel on the whole island, but it still only cost us the off-season rate of $130 a night. There are beach cabanas you can stay in for around $15 a night if that’s what you prefer, but that wasn’t what we were going for, for our last hurrah. Also, if you go in August, I gotta say, A/C is pretty essential. The hotel was small and homey, the pool was lovely (one of only 3 on the island), and the little bar and grounds are beautiful.

I really appreciated how the excursions we went on were all very affordable. The sunset sail we took was only $25 a person for 3 hours on a beautiful sailboat with all the rum punch you could drink. The all day snorkle trip we took with 3 stops, lunch, and more rum punch was only $45 a person. I’m used to places like Mexico where you would pay double and triple for trips like that.

If that doesn’t sell you, listen to this. On one of our last nights there, we went with some vacation friends out for dinner at this cute little place right on the beach. We sat at a plastic table 15 feet from the water’s edge, surrounded by palm trees and hot delicious breezes. Six people had lobsters as big as their heads that came with 4 sides, copious cocktails, and the tip was included because of our large party, and the total came to $100.

Another highlight that was so “tiny island” was the nature tour kayak trip. We heard there was a lady that led them, and were told, “Oh, just go down that street and holler for Allie.” So we did. We went where they told us to go and then I yelled, “Is Allie, the badass kayaking lady around?” And someone yelled back, “Yep, she’ll be right out!” We told her we wanted to go kayaking in the morning and she said, “Cool, meet me on the beach at 9:30″. The next day, she took just me and SB on a 3 hour tour of the mangroves and showed us all kinds of plants and creatures. I LOVE stuff like that. A Discovery Chanel nature show in real life! (And once again, the whole shebang, plus a good tip was $50)

A baby lobster Allie rescued from an old net

Allies’s dog was apparently afraid she was going out to sea forever, and it ran along the shore, following us the whole time. She kept telling it to go home, but it finally just jumped in and swam out to us. It was so cute!

Good, lord, it’s gorgeous there. Check out the sea grass you can see under the water:

So, to sum up, if you are into hot, tropical, cheap, and delicious, I highly recommend Caye Caulker!

Posted by Jenny @ 12:40 pm | 4 Comments

Sunset Sail

August 28, 2008 | Travel

SB and I celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary while in Belize. Yay us! We decided to do something special that night, so after a lovely day of sunning, napping, and delicious relaxing, we went on a sunset sailing trip. It was SO wonderful. We couldn’t stop smiling! The wind was hot, the water was blue and sparkly, and of course the sunset was spectacular. It was definitely a highlight of our trip.

Posing for our album covers:

The pretty water zooming past

The trip lasted until it was pitch dark and the stars were INSANE. You never get to see the stars like that. The milky way was super bright, we could see phosphoresence in the water, and even some far away lightning. It was so Discovery Channel.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner at the island’s best restaurant, called Don Corleone’s which had a Godfather theme. Check out the hillarious picture on the wall of the Don with his kitty. Ha!

Thanks for making me laugh for 8 years, my sweet SB.

Posted by Jenny @ 12:04 pm | 3 Comments

In praise of the cushion day…

August 26, 2008 | Travel

For the first time ever, I took an additional day off before going back to work. I usually try to extend my vacation as long as possible, or I feel guilty for going on vacation in the first place, so I hurry right back. I gotta say, I was so, so foolish.

We got home late last night, and today I got to sleep in! Do laundry! Adjust to crappy weather! I actually feel mentally ready to go back to work tomorrow. I’m never not doing this ever again.

Belize was WONDERFUL. It was hot and tropical and delicious. I’ll probably come up with a post or two detailing specific adventures, but here are a few shots in the meantime.