Joe and I spent New Year’s in Whistler with his parents. It was my first trip and I was excited about seeing the area. Okay, and shopping. I also decided to give skiing a second try and all I’ll say on that subject is I can ski just fine but stopping eludes me. Also, ski boots are horrible awful torture devices. Highlights for me include my first pair of sweatpants as an adult, a ham and cheese crepe from Crepe…
Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada. Aside from Salt Lake City, I had never been to any of these places before and the Southwest has been on my travel list for a long time. We had planned to car camp but discovered that most of the top destinations are at a higher elevation than someone who had never been to this part of the country would think and it ended up being too cold except in eastern New Mexico by…
Last November we took a day trip to Whidbey Island. It was a rainy day but since we spent most of it driving it didn’t bother us too much, plus rain seemed to stop for us when we did happen to leave the car for a quick walk somewhere. We took the ferry at Mukilto (right by where we got married) and drove north, stopping at Fort Casey, Christopher’s on Whidbey, Deception Pass State Park, and the Deception Pass Bridge….
Like the rest of New England, Boston really surprised me. It is such a beautiful, clean, walkable city. We only had one day there but I feel like we really did as much as we possibly could. I barely made it back to the apartment because we had walked so much. Highlights include: dinner at Mamma Maria, walking the Freedom Trail, the Granary Burying Ground, visiting the USS Constitution, and walking along Newbury Street. Thankfully Joe likes Boston and New…
Oh, New England! I had no idea of the charms and wonders that were waiting for me here. It’s a lot like the South but… nicer? Okay okay, I didn’t see nearly as much of New England as I’ve seen of the South. If it weren’t for those awful winters I’d be sending Joe job listings. It was unseasonably warm (I’m not complaining, for once) so there wasn’t the flood of fall leaf colors we were thinking we’d see.Food highlights…
New York City is unlike any place I’ve ever been. Leading up to the trip, Joe kept telling me how surreal it would be to see it in person after seeing it in movies and on t.v. my whole life and I didn’t really get what he meant until I was there. Sure, I’ve been to Paris several times and I get that heart-stopping feeling every time I see the Eiffel Tower, but that feels like a part of me…
Oakland Cemetery is a beautiful deathstination (thank you Caitlin Doughty for that word). Not only are there unique headstones and beautiful landscaping on a lot of ground, but there is a gift shop. Why don’t all cemeteries have gift shops? Do they not know how much money I would spend at each and every one? This time I purchased Ghost Cats of the South (the only thing that would scream “me” more would have to be Cooking with Ghost Parisian Cats…
In September two friends and I went to NOLA Storycon in, well, New Orleans. They live in Atlanta so I flew there and we drove to New Orleans, enabling me to check a new state off my list: Alabama. Since these are my travel and shopping buddies, of course we had to stop at the outlet mall outside of Birmingham. It was a great success, as well as the lunch pit stop at Yo Mama’s in Birmingham. I’d move there…
Despite it being horrifically cold, we really did get to see and do some very awesome things. We took a bike tour where we got to see ancient Roman ruins and explore a new-to-us neighborhood, St-Germain. We did a walking food tour of Montmartre with Clotilde Dusoulier (my main bday present aside from actually going to Paris). We got to see and touch the most beautiful Iron Lady. We went to Musee d’Orsay and see beautiful paintings. I got to see…
Before planning for this trip, I didn’t even realize you could go up into the Sacre Coeur. After having a light lunch of soup around the corner, we went up the millions of steps to the top. We were rewarded with darling gargoyles and spectacular views. The weather was pretty gross for most of the trip but cleared up for a little while while we were up there. It was neat to learn that sixteen nuns live in one of…