Day trip to New York City

A friend & I went up to New York City on Saturday just for a day. Originally, the plan had been to go up to see a Broadway show but from the time those plans were made and when we actually went, no one wanted to spend the money to see a Broadway show so we were just going up to do some shopping and holiday sightseeing. Then, two friends bailed so it was down to just two of us. I really wanted to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (which is what is in the picture) so we did that, plus we saw some department store window displays. We also hit up the holiday shops at Bryant Park and Columbus Circle. Perhaps most exciting for me was that I took my first steps in Central Perk and also rode the subway for the first time. Overall, it was a nice short trip. We were there for about 6 hours total.

Fort Lauderdale: Day Two

I don't think I mentioned yesterday how hot it is here. Yes, that's no surprise that southern Florida is hot in the summer but I guess I had gotten used to DC being a little cooler lately so I was somehow kind of expecting the same here. Duh.

Today I slept in late and finished watching a movie that I started last night. I finally went out when I realized I desperately needed food. I headed towards the part of the city I'd been in last night with the restaurants and souvenir shops but next thing I knew, I was walking down Las Olas Blvd, where supposedly there is shopping and restaurants. There definitely are shops and restaurants but I didn't really realize it was about 2 miles from my hotel. So it was a very long walk in the crazy heat when I was starving. I guess I didn't even get halfway to the end but I needed to eat (and drink) something. I ended up stopping at a place called Mango's where I got this amazing grilled chicken sandwich with a mango mayonnaise on it. So yummy, it was a great choice. Luckily, instead of having to walk all the way back (which would have been tough since I had started to get a blister!), I left the restaurant and ran smack into a trolley that runs for only 50 cents and took me back to the beach - in about 5 minutes. Next time I'll have to take the trolley both ways.

I got back to the beach and went directly to lay out on the beach for a couple hours. So nice. It wasn't even too crowded down in front of my hotel. Then I went to the hotel pool, which was fine but inundated with dragonflies (they have some sort of infestation down here - luckily the things seem to avoid humans), not in the sun and pretty small. I guess it's not so bad that the pool is situated in the shadow of the building so it gets no sun but I was hoping to get some sort of suntan.

Back to the room I went and took a shower and then got ready to get some dinner. But first I got sidetracked by the Internet. It hadn't been working at all this morning and I even called but they said the entire hotel was without due to a down server. Pain in the ass. Eventually I headed out and walked south a bit this time and felt relieved that I booked the hotel I did and not another one that I was looking at that had not a great location. I couldn't decide where to eat but there was a lot going on because Fort Lauderdale has this "Saturday Night Alive" thing every Saturday night in the summer. It brings in musicians and street vendors and offers some drink specials at various spots. It was fine but very crowded. It also was odd because there was someone singing and then you'd walk about ten steps and someone else would be performing. As you might guess, yes, you could still here the one that you had just passed. I decided to just go back to my room and order room service. My hotel is hooked up with the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. to get delivery to my room so that's what I did. It took forever, though. When I ordered, I was told 25-30 minutes and after an hour, the food still hadn't come. i called and they said that the weather had been awful with heavy rains and winds... umm what? I opened my curtains and realized it was pouring rain. So much for Saturday Night Alive, I guess.

Anyway, my food eventually came and it was good. I watched a movie and am now exhausted, ready for bed. Two more days in Florida!

Fort Lauderdale: Day One

I've been pretty absent from my blog lately. I'm not really sure why; however, I will blog my vacation!

I was desperately desiring a vacation, especially after not being allowed to take a day off for all of June and most of July while the girl who works for me was off on maternity leave. I couldn't decide where to go, but I knew it needed to be the beach. I investigated Virginia Beach, Ocean City MD, Nag's Head NC, Myrtle Beach SC, the Jersey Shore and Fort Lauderdale. I figured it would be more affordable to go to a spot I could drive to but I ended up finding a really great price for Fort Lauderdale that included airfare so last week I booked it and here I am! I'd been thinking of the trip for awhile but it was all kind of last minute. Who knew I would pick the only location where I was actually going to be able to go to? All those other spots have been evacuated due to Hurricane Irene. I totally lucked out! That's a first in terms of a vacation. I've had to deal with hurricanes and bad weather on several vacations.

I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to get out of DC before the storm hit but I left yesterday morning with no problems. We had to change our flight path a bit and it took longer, but the weather today was gorgeous. My hotel room is pretty decent too. It's just an average hotel room but it seems to have a great location and I lucked out in getting a corner room that actually gives me a view of the ocean. I really wanted to be oceanfront wherever I went but when it came time to paying for an oceanfront room, I decided it wasn't worth the extra price. Well, I guess I got the best of both worlds.

The water here is such a beautiful turquoise blue. I've never seen anything like it, even when I was in Miami and the Caribbean, I don't think. I got to my hotel and checked in and unpacked by about 3 or 3:30. Then, I realized I was starving so I went for a walk to try to find a place to eat. There are bars and restaurants and souvenir shops for several blocks past my hotel, so I think I'm in a great spot. I ended up eating at a place called Da Big Kahuna and hit up a CVS to buy some food for my room and the beach. There's a mini fridge in my room. After eating, I came back to the hotel, checked out the pool area, the gym and the restaurants and then decided to hit the beach. It was like 6:30ish when I went down there so I figured I had about an hour before it got dark and it was great. The beach was empty and the water was great. There are a million shells around and once you hit the water, you only have shallow water for about 3 steps before there is a significant dropoff. That takes some getting used to... but overall, it's been an amazing first day of my trip.

Catching up

Look ma, I updated my blog! It's been a long time coming but I'm done traveling for the time being and had a fantastic four-day holiday weekend where I purposely made few plans so it's one major project I got out of the way. There will probably be more tweaks but I like what I've done so far, should have done this a long time ago.

With all the traveling (5 trips in about 6 weeks), this was my first full weekend home since mid-August, minus one weekend in September when I luckily had no trips scheduled but had a very bad cold. Three of the five trips were work trips so that typically means 15-hour workdays. Exhausting! Anyway, now it's all over, I'm rested, and my next trip will probably not be until Thanksgiving or more likely Christmas. And I'm okay with that.

Pictures from Ottawa

Here are some pictures (and one video, I think) from my trip to Ottawa in August. Nothing's captioned yet but the majority of the pictures are of Parliament. And the changing of the guard ceremony.

Ottawa

Four trips in four weeks

Sorry I haven't written in like a month. I've been very busy at work, where I've basically had to do the job of two people because the girl who works for me quit. Although, let's be honest. I was basically doing the work of two people for the last three years since this person who quit was basically useless. I'm really thrilled to have someone new come in but before I could find someone, I had to work hard and spend a lot of time looking for the right candidate. The new person starts September 7th. I can't wait to train someone new.

In the month going forward, I might not write a lot either because I have four trips planned, three of them for work. I'll be in Ottawa for three days next week, Philadelphia for one day the following week, back home in Cleveland over Labor Day weekend to attend my high school reunion, and finally in Orlando for work in mid-September. I am extending my trip to Ottawa an extra day and am really looking forward to exploring a new city a little. And, I'm going to extend my trip to Orlando also. Why not? It will be a great way to finish up my summer of overworking.

My First YouTube Upload

I know I haven't been online for a few weeks but I had my birthday, a librarian conference, and then a trip home for 5 days that kept me very busy. My trip home was okay. Perhaps the highlight was the Indians game I went to with my dad on Saturday night, where they had post-game fireworks that were completely awesome. I daresay they were one of the best fireworks displays I've ever seen. And, yes, I've seen those in our nation's capital a few times now. Anyway, I got the urge to record five minutes or so of the fireworks on my digital camera and then uploaded it onto YouTube. Voila! I know it's better to watch fireworks in person but it's my treat to you for my absence.

Passport!

I just realized I hadn't checked my mailbox in a couple days (I so rarely get mail) and my passport has arrived!! That was fast. My birth certificate was returned, too. Phew. Just in time for my birthday.

I'm excited to become a world traveler, even if I got it just to go to Canada again. The world is now my oyster - is that how that saying goes?

Happy New Year! Back in DC

Today was my first full day back in Washington, DC. I got back last night about 11pm. It was a relatively easy drive, although it was scary for about an hour in the middle of the hills of Pennsylvania where it was blizzarding a bit. Luckily, it passed over... or I passed through it.

It's been so windy here and my apartment is freezing. The sliding glass door to the balcony in my bedroom basically lets the wind pass right through and although I have had my heater going most of the day, it only gets as warm as about 62 degrees. Brr. That's way too cold for the inside of a house. I can't wait to move next week!

Oh so I knew I was going to forget something at my parents' house, what with making sure I brought everything back that I had brought plus the new stuff I bought and the new Christmas presents, plus the belongings that my parents had been storing that I didn't have room for in the apartment I'm leaving. Anyway, about halfway through my trip, I realized I forgot my new Nintendo Wii console. Oops. That was only by far the biggest present I'd gotten and I forgot it! So now we have to figure out how to get it to me, either by mail or by me buying one and sending the receipt to my parents to return the one there.

Snow Day!

I just got a call from my boss that the office is closed tomorrow!! Yay! In case you haven't heard, the nation's capitol was hit with a major snowstorm this weekend. It started Friday night around 9pm and pretty much snowed for like 18 straight hours, I guess. The total accumulation in my neighborhood seems to be about 12-14 inches, I'd guess. Today was bright and sunny but since DC isn't used to this type of weather, the road clearing has taken a long time. The major highways and roads were cleared quickly but my street was finally cleared at about 3pm today. And the driveway into my garage still hasn't been cleared, and neither has the side street I can see out my window.

On top of the uncleared streets, public transportation is nearly non-existent. They are only running the Metro underground, so that eliminates maybe about 40% of all stops. Only a few buses were running today.

Anyway, I'm excited to not have to work, but I did have a lot of things I wanted to get done before I left and now I'm not sure how my Tuesday is going to look. I'm heading home on Tuesday and wanted to work just a few hours. Now it seems like it might be more like 4-6 hours. I also have some errands that I have to run tomorrow so I'll hit the roads, but it's great to be able to have all day to do it.

On the Bus, Gus

I'm sitting on the bus heading back to Washington, DC, after spending a little over 24 hours in New York City. Gotta love free bus wifi! We left at 6:30 and were supposed to arrive at 10:45 but didn't get to the tunnel out of Manhattan until 7:22 so I'm guessing we are quite a bit behind schedule. Then, a little bit ago, the bus driver announced that we were going to have to detour because of some tractor trailer problem. It was hard to hear what she said but I heard something about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge so if we are going over that, it has to add a lot of time to our trip, I would imagine. I wish I had some idea where we were... but I'm in the back of the bus and it's so dark out. Anyway, I'm fine for now. I can imagine I might get a little stir crazy if we are hours late but I'm good with my reading material, movies and free Internet.

I went to New York to watch the Cavs play the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, which was pretty cool. I'll write a separate post about that and post some pictures later. Today, then, I just decided to walk around, do some shopping, etc... I basically walked for 6 straight hours so I'm happy to be on my butt. I went to the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park, toured the New York Public Library, and then basically just walked all around the Broadway/Times Square area, checking out different shops and the various Broadway theaters. Oh yeah, and I went to the big flagship Macy's, where I actually bought a bunch of stuff. It was a pretty nice and full day actually.

Now, we're literally driving through suburban Delaware, stopping at traffic lights and such, so it makes it a lot easier to find landmarks. Middletown, Delaware. From what I can tell on Google Maps (on our increasingly slow Internet), we're about two hours away from home. 60-90 minutes behind schedule.

Traveling, traveling

I do enjoy traveling but I feel like I've been away from home forever. A month ago today, I got back from a family vacation in South Carolina (so I was gone a whole week before that) and in that month, I went to New York City for four days for a wedding, made a road trip to rural Virginia with some friends, and went to Chicago twice for work. Plus, my brother and his family came to visit for 4 days so I spent a few days touring DC with them so even though I was home, it still felt like I was playing tourist for that weekend, too. All my trips were pretty fun. It pretty much rained the entire time in Hilton Head, SC, but at least it was really relaxing. New York City was amazing - the first time I'd been there. Even Chicago turned out okay. This last trip I got to hang out with my college roommate for a few hours. I took a ton of pictures that I may link to eventually but I'm really looking forward to having a few weekends of relaxation and staying at home and getting things back to normal! My next trip is three weeks from today - I'll be heading back to Cleveland for 5 days.

Pet Airways

So now there is an airline solely for pets. Interesting. It seems remarkable that there is a service for this but I suppose people need to transport their pets across the country and don't want to ride with them in the car. Right now, it looks like only cats and dogs are eligible but soon reptiles, birds, and even pigs will be welcome! But judging from the content on the site, the pets are taken care of very well.

Some of the pictures on the site are really funny and it seems like they have sort of a tongue-in-cheek approach, so good for them, but the constant use of "pawsengers" is a little annoying.(via)

Happy April!

I really don't post much on my blog anymore, do I? Well here's three recent happenings...

#1 - I got my laptop! Yes, in fact, I'm using it right now. It came early, last Tuesday. However, it wasn't without some drama. I checked the tracking info and it said "Item delivered!" Except, no it wasn't delivered. I checked all over the office and it was nowhere. So I called FedEx and the woman seriously said, "It was supposed to go to 4350 and it went to 4250; is that the same place?" Umm, no, no it's not. But luckily the FedEx guy corrected his mistake before the day was over and I walked home with my brand new, shiny, pretty laptop. I've been using it and enjoying it, especially because...

#2 - I've been sick. Yeah, yuck. Just major congestion, making breathing difficult and giving me an awful, awful headache. Allergies are very very common here so everyone asks me if I was sure that it was a cold and not allergies but I'm pretty sure it's just a cold. I mean, I could possibly develop allergies but I've never had them before and here we are like 72 hours after I started feeling sick and I'm already feeling better. I don't think allergies go away that quickly do they? Anyway I did miss two full days of work (in an already short week!) but feel much better as I type here. Thank God for Mucinex D.

#3 - Work has been pretty busy but in a manageable way. They sent me to Chicago last week for two days so it's always fun to get out of the office (although I won't deny that the traveling probably contributed to me getting sick). Even though we really only hung out by O'Hare, a coworker & I stayed an extra night to head downtown. We were going to see Second City but things didn't work out so instead we hit a nice restaurant next door and then walked around Rush Street.

Back from Vacation

Not that I'm sure anyone missed me but I am back from my family vacation now! We (Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister-in-Law, Niece, Nephew) spent a week in Hilton Head sharing a home and living together like one large extended family. I will say that it went better than I expected. My niece seems to be a sweet, smiley, well-behaved baby. She seems to be teething but, even with that discomfort, really didn't cry too much. She's really adorable too. My nephew, on the other hand, is 3 1/2 and spoiled rotten and gets to do pretty much anything he wants but he was mostly bearable. But, also shrill.

It was pretty cold in Hilton Head, like low to mid 50s every day. Coupled with the wind, it was downright chilly, probably close to 40. And, of course, colder at night. There was one really nice day where it might have even hit 70. I mostly spent my time just vegging with the family and reading. We did go shopping a couple times, of course, and I happily got a few really cute tops for a good price. And I watched a few movies, including some kids' ones that my nephew insists on watching during dinner. But, as a result, I got to see a genre of movies that I don't typically see!

Although I flew down there and landed in Charleston, where my parents picked me up on their drive down, I rode home with my parents. The drive wasn't too bad at all. We got home Saturday evening at about 11pm, but I think that was pretty good time considering we really didn't leave Hilton Head until 12:30pm, plus we then stopped for lunch, went to an outlet mall, and then stopped again for dinner. But I'm glad I didn't drive the 10-11 hours by myself. My parents stayed in DC for Sunday so I hung out with them and they finally went back to Cleveland yesterday while I went back to work.

Surprisingly, things didn't get too backed up at work while I was gone. I think that it was a good week to be gone. Anyway, just wanted to fill you in on the basics and let you know that I'm back and might possibly post more often. And I might upload some pictures from the trip.

Back in NoVa

I'm back in northern Virginia after a 4-day trip back home to Cleveland. In Cleveland, I did a little shopping with my mom (of course), visited with my brother & his family (including newborn power sleeper Mia), caught up with some old friends, saw the Browns beat the defending Super Bowl champs, finished my book club book, and worked my way around the mess that is my parents' kitchen while they remodel it.

Back in Arlington, I came home to:
1.) a kitchen light that has all of its fluorescent bulbs burned out. Thanks roommate!
2.) a book club that has been postponed for two weeks - to a date that I can't make. Thanks for making me read a book I didn't enjoy for nothing!
3.) the girl I manage back to her old ways of doing absolutely nothing. She was gone for about two weeks dealing with the death of her father and had a really productive first day and a half. Now she's returned to her useless ways.

Web site with potential

I read about TripIt today and it sounds interesting. When you travel, you send all your confirmation emails, itineraries, etc... to it and it organizes them and creates one big itinerary for you, which you can then access from anywhere in whichever format you prefer. You can then share itineraries with friends to see where your schedules overlap. Web 2.0 for travel, I guess. It might be worth checking out next time you travel! (via)

Shopping, Taxes and my life

This weekend was a pretty quiet weekend for me, which is good because I was really busy for about two weeks straight, including lots of dinner plans (including here, here & here), a book club meeting, friends in town, trip to Philadelphia for work, and a day at a library conference. While I really enjoy seeing my friends, I also really like quiet time too!

Yesterday, I started my taxes and even though I'm not quite finished yet (hey, I still have one day!) it looks like I'm getting a good chunk of change back for a refund. Which will be nice, but also probably indicates I should change what's getting taken out of my paycheck.

Today, instead of finishing my taxes like I should have done (hey, I still have one day!), I went shopping. I haven't been shopping in awhile and it's really soothing to me sometimes to just walk around a mall and try to find some bargains. I went to Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, then Kohl's, and finally Wegman's. I got some great deals at the mall. H&M gave you $10 off if you spent $50 so I bought some jewelry (2 rings and a necklace), 2 lightweight sweaters and a hoodie for $46. I think that's an awesome deal! And I also got a cute little change purse at The Limited for $3! At Kohl's, I bought some more jewelry (again, 2 rings and a necklace), another little purse and 2 pairs of shoes. I spent like $85 on all that but that's not bad considering that half of that total was one pair of running shoes, which I really think I needed. Hmm, and I bought a lot of groceries at Wegman's but hey, who can help themselves there?

BoltBus

I've heard you can ride buses from Washington DC to New York City pretty cheaply, but how about $1? BoltBus offers some tickets for only $1! And even their most expensive trips seem to be about $20. It all depends on when you want to go and how early you book. Pretty sweet! (via)

Hilton Head Kite Flying

I took some pictures of my family flying kites at the beach last week when we were in Hilton Head. Here is the link to the pictures in the album.

Hilton Head Kite Flying