Our Honeymoon

We’ve returned from our honeymoon to Costa Rica and had an amazing time. First, we stayed at the Riu in Guanacoste. It was your typical all inclusive resort with very average (at best) food and drinks. We did discover that they hide the good liquor unless you ask for it, so once we discovered that it made a difference in the caliber of the drinks. While there we:

– Took a sunset boat ride in the Pacific Ocean, just the two of us along the coast and stopped at an undeveloped beach/island where the only footprints were our own.
– Took a night stroll down to the beach where we saw a Sea Turtle that had come in to lay her eggs. It took about an hour and a half and was sooo neat to see her dig the nest and get back into the ocean.

After 4 nights at the Riu, we rented a car and drove from Liberia airport to La Fortuna, where we stayed at Nayara with an amazing view of the Arenal volcano. As the bird flies, it’s probably no more than an hour trip, but it takes over 3 hours to drive. You have to drive along Lake Arenal and you turn more than you drive straight. It is the windiest road I have ever seen, no exaggeration. Here we:
– Saw a Coati (pronounced Cō-ah-tee) on the side of the road. These are like a Costa Rican raccoon, but they aren’t nocturnal and they have a long skinny snout and a bushy tail.
– Went “canyoning” where we hiked through a river and repelled down 4 waterfalls. 2 were small and two were really high – one was 155 ft and one was 230 ft.
– Went zip lining down a mountain by Lake Arenal. Total, I think there were 8 different zip lines. The company we went with have the highest, fastest and longest zip lines in the country. The highest is 630 ft, the longest is half a mile (took 40 seconds to get across) and the fastest you go 40-50 miles an hour. One of them went right through the trees in the forrest, kind of the way you do on a ski lift, but the trees were much taller.
– Rode horses through a private farm (for an hour) to a waterfall that was unbelievably gorgeous (and secluded).
– Went to a natural hot spring, heated by Arenal (the volcano)
– Got volcanic mud massages/facials

At Nayara, on the property, they had an Amazon parrot and three Macaws (two blue and one red). On our last day, the hubs got the Amazon parrot on his arm for a photo opp. It started nipping at him and, of course, the hubs freaked out. Instead of trying to put him down, he started spinning in circles like a crazy person. Of course, the bird only clamped on harder and got more agitated, so the hubs continued to spin around like a crazy person. After a minute, one of the guys who works at the hotel came and took the bird. I’m still laughing about it. I wish I had a video. They also had a few bunnies running around the property. One day when we were walking by the front office to the restaurant, one of the men who works at the hotel had a baby bunny cornered. It was adorable. Probably the size of both of my fists and gray. The man was trying to catch the bunny for whatever reason and it just kept running away from him. This man was literally running in circles chasing the bunny. It provided us with about 5 minutes of I-can-barely-breathe laughter. Finally, the bunny ran into the nearby plants and the man gave up.

We had a great time, but I do have to say the food was rather disappointing on this trip. I can’t help but wonder if living in New York has spoiled me when it comes to food. Nayara was amazing and I would definitely recommend staying there to anyone who is going to Costa Rica and there is SO much to do in that area. Can’t wait for our next trip…maybe Europe? :)

Birthday Trip to San Francisco

For my birthday this year, I decided to forgo the party thing and travel alone instead. I’ve been saying for years that I want to go visit a friend in San Francisco, so that’s just what I did. I went out on Thursday, came back on Tuesday and while I was there I:

Ate Ma Po Tofu at Mission Chinese Food. #1 on the 7×7 2011 Big Eat List.

Visited Pixar

Saw Alcatraz, the Painted Ladies and a beautiful sunset.

Drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Visit Napa

Watched the Superbowl

Saw the Sea Lions, went to Union Square (lame), explored the California Academy of Sciences.

Played Trampoline Dodgeball at the SF House of Air – we need one of those in NY!

On my way home I started a new knitting project. It’s a lace scarf. A 5 hour flight and this how far I got.

Road Trip!

So I was recently talking to a friend who lives in SF about the trip I want to take out there since I’ve never been before. I think I’m going to have to break it up into 2 parts.

Trip 1:
Thurs-Sun exploring all the goodness SF has to offer
Mon-Wed exploring Napa and Sonoma

Trip 2:
Road trip!
I want to fly to SF (and maybe I could just make it a really long trip and tack these trips together), rent a car and road trip up to Redwood Forest, then make my/our way to Portland, and finally, round out the trip in Seattle where we turn in the rental car and fly back to our respective cities. Sound fun? Who’s in??

Sea Island Weekend

About a week ago I received an invite from a vendor I am working with to go to Sea Island, GA. With a guest. Completely on them. It looks beautiful and sounds so amazing. I wish my conscience thought the felt the same way. All I can imagine when I try to think about saying yes, is sitting in my advertising ethics class in college and I just can’t bring myself to RSVP. I wish I felt ok about going, I’m sure the weekend would be so fun!

Reasons I am excited to go to Austin!

-I will get to see Becca (college roommate) for the first time since her wedding (over 2 years ago)
-Tailgating
-Bats!
-To be inside a college football stadium
-To see my two alma maters play each other
-To see my family…and Athena, who’s pretty much included in that
-TRUDY’S
-To walk around downtown
-To run (or maybe more accurately walk) at Townlake
-To go to the dentist – weird, I know
-To send myself things from home that I want
-To see old friends
-To wear my half and half shirt
-For all of the times I will smile over the course of the weekend
-And let’s be honest – to take a break from “the daily grind”

Montauk!

I took the weekend off and tried to get away this weekend. I went out to Montauk with some friends to clear my mind and get away. From everything. It was so nice to just lay on the beach. I did, however, get a bit restless because I’m so used to always being on the go and having things I need to get done. It was nice to bbq and have bon fires on the beach. It was even nice to be able to drink without worrying about whether it would keep me from being productive the following morning. I definitely needed that, but I think I could have stood another 2 or 3 days on the beach.

I still thought about work and other things most of the weekend and could feel my heart rate increase as those things came to mind. Too bad I couldn’t clear my mind completely. Oh well, I tried. I’m definitely so glad I went!

LA Trip

These are some of my favorite pictures from the trip I took to LA last fall. It was my first time out there.

This is right before the fires got really bad in and around LA, so the haze is the smoke from the fires in the valley.

This is probably my favorite picture from the whole trip, or close to it. I love that this bird seemingly got confused.

Some of my favorite pictures I’ve snapped

This was taken in a beautiful August evening in my hometown in Michigan.

This was taken while visiting Austin during the last week of December a couple years ago.

These were taken during a trip to Italy with two great friends. My last spring break trip.





I love that in this last picture no two sets of shutters/windows are the same.

Oprah Visit

Friday, tbf and I went to the Oprah show. His sister works there and got us tickets. It was a show without guests in the studio which was a little weird.

When you get there, you go through a line where you check your coat (anything you take in the studio besides a purse you have to wear – can’t hold – and you can’t take it off). Then you go through a purse check where they go through and basically take out anything electronic and anything you could possible write on or with. They took my book, my DS…everything. They check it and you get it back when you leave the show. Next, you go into a waiting area and sit and talk until they are ready to seat you for the show. They call all the people who are sitting in the floor seats individually and before everyone “else.” The floor seats had a much, much higher concentration of black people/women than the rest of the audience, which the majority of was white.

I think I signed something that says I can’t talk about the show, so I won’t – but I will say all the guests were all “on” via Skype. (I think it’s really amusing that Skype is so big as of late – I learned about it fall of 2005.) The guest also had pretty depressing stories. There wasn’t much that was “inspiring” or “uplifting” about the show. At one point during a “commercial break,” she turned to the audience and said something to the effect of, “I’m so glad the world is so screwed up or I wouldn’t have a job.”

Afterward, Oprah was very talkative. There was some woman who was like worshiping her and kept telling her how she [Oprah] has made it ok for her [the woman] to be a black woman in society and be strong. She kept saying, “Like, you’re Oprah,” and “Don’t you know who you are?” These people worshiped her – very weird. Then there was a girl who stood up and was telling Oprah that she wanted to be her. Oprah said, “but you can’t be me, cause I am. You should be the best you.” She went on to ask her what she wanted to do with her life (she was 23) and the girl told her broadcasting. So Oprah asked what she was doing now and the girl said she was working in engineering. From there, Oprah sort of picked on her about the whole career thing and how she doesn’t think the girl actually wants to be in broadcasting or she would be doing everything she could to be there. She was like picking on her, but at the same time, clearly trying to get her to open her eyes and really figure things out. She then took pictures with the two woman and it was over. Back out to get the contents of my purse and my coat.

All in all it was a really cool experience to get to see how it’s all done and see what all the show entails. I enjoyed myself and would definitely go again. I’m sure that the experience is totally different with a guest physically on the show as well.

Oh, one thing I forgot: At some point during the taping, Oprah said she thinks Michelle Obama is the most qualified person to be the first lady, ever. Really Oprah, ever? Wouldn’t that really have been Martha Washington?

My birthday weekend

So this weekend we (tbf, his sister and her husband) went up to CT to go skiing. We went night skiing again this year, like we did last year. Very fun. I’d have to say I think I did pretty well.

On Saturday afternoon we saw He’s Just Not That Into You. I really liked it. I was surprised that neither Drew Barrymore or Jennifer Aniston had very big parts in the movie. Come to think of it, neither did Ben Affleck. I really liked Justin Long in the movie. He ends up with this girl Gigi, who originally went on a date with his good friend. She was sort of stalking him and ended up talking to Justin Long’s character about it. Then, throughout the movie she would call him for advice on guys. At the beginning of the movie after talking to him she is telling her gf’s about it and tells them that all these girls they know who have a friend who (insert sweet story here) are just the exception and that she (and her immediate friends) are not the exception, they are the rule. At the end of the movie when Justin Long’s character kisses her she says, “I’m not the rule, I’m the exception.” to which he answers, “You’re my exception.” It is really sweet.

I have this theory that all guys are able to become the sweet, caring guy that every girl is looking for, he just has to find the right girl. I’ve always thought this. All guys will stop partying and being ridiculous for the right girl. When I started dating tbf he was not looking for a gf and didn’t want to date anyone. Here we are over a year later and he is the guy I thought didn’t exist. I am his exception. There are no real exceptions, but everyone has their match. Everyone will find that person who is just too good to let go and they will change. I really, really liked that line of the movie because I think it is so relatable and there is so much truth behind it.

The rest of the weekend was nice and relaxing. I knit another project, but I don’t have pictures of it yet. I will try to take some in the next couple of days to post.