Renting A Car & Driving In Portugal

Renting a car in Portugal was easy, and totally worth it. Ok, slight correction - DRIVING in Portugal was easy - the car rental part was a bit of a hassle, but still worth it.

RENTING THE CAR
We started our driving adventure of Portugal in Lisbon. I had researched a few different car rental companies, and had finally settled on a booking with Budget Rental Car, through Expedia's website. Since we were planning on driving pretty extensively throughout the trip, and since RW was going to be traveling with us for half the trip, we ended up with a slightly larger car than we normally would rent in Europe.

Off The Beaten Path in Portugal

One of the things we like the most about exploring a new place is checking out places that are along our journey from one place to another.

Hitting the road - and using an actual map rather than GPS!

Knowing we like to do this, we planned basically an entire day each for the drives between the Algarve and Sintra, and from Sintra to Porto, even though we'd spaced out our overnights so we never had more than about 200 miles to drive each day.

Travel blog fail.

Well, it seems that I've done an absolutely terrible job in the last year and a half with blogging about my travels!

It started with a sort of lackluster trip to London in October 2012, and then I just, well, I don't know, I guess we just got busy with life. In addition to being crazy busy at work, I also got engaged and married! Meaning that from here on, "BF" will now be called "Hubby... :-) 

But! I'm back to make a renewed effort to bring this travel blog up to date.

Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to in the last 20 months or so:

October 2012: Trip to London

February 2013: Monterey weekend
March 2013: Long weekend in New York
April 2013: Work trip to Las Vegas
June 2013: Road trip to Arizona
September 2013: Work trip to Atlanta, paired with an overnight in Savannah thrown in
October 2013: Work trip to Cannes, paired with a week in London, Bruges and Paris

February 2014: Work trip to New York
March 2014: Bachelorette weekend in Palm Springs
April 2014: Work trip to Las Vegas
May 2014: HONEYMOON in the Cook Islands
June 2014: Work trip to Miami, then a quick weekend in Arizona
July 2014: Work trip to New York

Whew! Seems like I've been up to much more travel than I thought! I also have a couple of additional trips coming up this year, which I'm pretty excited about.

August 2014: Quick two night trip to Portland for a baby shower, plus an additional work trip to New York
October 2014: Work trip to Cannes with a few nights in London on the way over
November 2014: Work trip to Atlanta

I'll come back to this post and link some things once I've blogged about them! Here's hoping I can get up to speed soon....

Monterey getaway!

BF's birthday is coming up, and I knew back in December that I wanted to do a quick but awesome getaway with him for it. It's been a while since we've been to Monterey, CA, so I thought that'd be the perfect place! 

*Image from Google Maps*

And now the trip is coming up later this month, and I've finally booked a hotel! We'll be staying at the Best Western Plus Beach Resort Monterey. (Yeah. It's quite the mouthful, right?) A friend of mine stayed there with her hubby and pup over the holidays, and she said it was great. And since it's a Best Western, the prices are some of the most reasonable I've ever seen in the area. It's a little outside of Monterey, but I think we'll survive. I mean, we'll be ON THE BEACH! AND it's dog friendly? I may have found my new favorite hotel! 

I'll be back towards the end of the month with a review of it, but to say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement. Now, to find some dog parks we can stop at on the drive up...

What weekend getaways are you planning for this year?

New Year's Resolution

It's a little late, but I finally came up with a New Year's resolution... drumroll, please...

Make 2013 the year of day/weekend trips!

There are a ton of places that I want to go that are close by or fairly local. And I've been severely neglecting taking advantage of the awesome travel available in the US!

Here's my plan so far:

1) January: Day trip to Santa Barbara and Solvang with X while she was visiting from NY. - DONE!

2) February: Two night getaway to Monterey, CA with BF for his birthday. - BOOKED

3) March: Three night trip to NY with M! (She's going again for work, I'm going again for fun!) - BOOKED
     March: Overnight to Indio for a concert with Shorty and DK. - BOOKED

4) April: Two night trip to Vegas for a work conference. (I'm trying to get BF or M to come with!) - BOOKED

5) May: Potential return to NY for work. - PLANNED

6) June: Overnight in San Diego to visit BF's family.  - PLANNED

And right there, we're halfway through the year! Here's hoping it all works out!  

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Mount Rushmore & Custer National Park

The morning of our last full day of our trip we headed out early so we could see as much as we could of Mount Rushmore and Custer National Parks. And, since we didn't take all of the traditional routes for this leg of the trip, I'm going to talk about the highways we took, too, in case anyone is interested in our route!

We headed south on 385  from Deadwood through Hill City to get to the monument, because my stepdad has family in Hill City, and we wanted to check out the Black Hills Institute museum. We didn't end up making it to the museum, because we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to see everything else, but if I had more time, I'd definitely stop in! And if I had kids, I wouldn't dream of missing it - they have a T-rex skeleton!

 A kid fishing in one of the picturesque lakes along the drive.

Wild Wild (Mid)West: South Dakota and the Black Hills

On day 4 of our trip we got a rather late start, as we'd been up late at the Sheridan WYO Rodeo and Street Dance. But we made it onto the road by 1pm, and drove pretty much straight to South Dakota, with a short detour to see Devil's Tower, WY. 

Devil's Tower from the road. 

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Driving across northern Wyoming

Once we had dismounted our horses, we took our sore rumps to the car for the longest day of driving of the trip - the exit of Yellowstone to almost clear across Wyoming to Sheridan, WY. And we had a schedule - we had a rodeo to go to!

The drive from east Yellowstone to Cody, WY was one of the prettiest parts of our trip. President Teddy Roosevelt called the drive the most scenic in America, and it definitely lived up to the hype. 

On the road to Cody, WY

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Horseback riding at Pahaska Tepee Lodge

One of the best parts of our trip out west was the morning we did a two hour horseback ride through Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. We started out at 9:30am and headed up a trail that took us up to 10,000 feet. The employees at the stables were really nice, even though there had been a miscommunication about what time we were starting the ride. 

Our horses: Weatherby, Bear Claw, Blimpy, and Rapid

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Yellowstone

Visiting Yellowstone was incredible. Pretty much everywhere you looked was amazing! My biggest regret from our trip was that we didn't have more time to spend there... I'll definitely be returning someday, and will spend a lot more time! We got a decent taste of the park, but there were so many hikes and sights we missed!

Nearly there!

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Montana Grizzly Encounter

The Montana Grizzly Encounter was absolutely awesome. After we got lost outside of Bozeman, we didn't have a ton of time, but wanted to do something cool and "Montana-y." And the Grizzly Encounter totally fit the bill!

It was an easy drive outside of Bozeman - only about 10 minutes on 191/90 East. It cost $7/person to get in, and you could spend as much or as little time as you wanted watching the bears. I think we stayed a little over an hour, which was plenty of time to check out the grizzlies! 

The two bears that were in the enclosure were Sheena and Brutus. Sheena is a 26 year old female who was born in captivity and through some random circumstances ended up spending 13 years of her life in a 6'x4' cage until she was rescued by the organization. She only tolerates Brutus, so no other bears are allowed out while she's out. She also doesn't let humans touch her. Brutus, on the other hand, is a 10 year old male who stands at 7'9" tall. He was raised with human interaction, and sometimes works on movie sets!

Sheena meandering to the water and Brutus sniffing some wildflowers.

Wild Wild (Mid)West: Bozeman, Montana

Finally, I'm getting around to writing about our trip to Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota!

We started the day off super early, as the only direct flight from LA to Bozeman the day we flew was at 8am. As per our habit when flying out of LAX, we left early enough to hit Randy's Donuts on the way - it's the best donut place in LA, hands down. Yeah, that's right, I said it. 

 The coconut donuts from Randy's Donuts are the best EVER!

Wild Wild (Mid)West - Montana, Wyoming & South Dakota Road Trip

Even though I technically live west of Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, the upcoming road trip we have planned there reminds me of the "wild wild west."

M and I were taking a drive a few months ago and decided we wanted to take a road trip. But not just any road trip - a road trip to somewhere 1) we'd never been, and 2) that was completely different than California or the East Coast. Then we remembered we'd never seen some of the great "American" sights like Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore (which both scream road trip, no?) and voilà, a trip was born. 

I meant to write about our itinerary ages ago when we actually booked the trip, but stuff (like my real job) got in the way, and now it's right around the corner! SO. Here's a rundown of what we're going to be doing!

DAY 1 – BOZEMAN, MT

 

In the works...

I've been feeling the travel bug lately - like crazy.

And, I'm happy to say that I've got not one but TWO trips in the works now!

The first is a super quick, overnight trip to San Diego for our anniversary next week. We're going to spend to go down, see BF's aunt and uncle, check out the museum where BF's uncle has some items on display, and spend the night in my favorite part of San Diego - the Gaslamp District!

I booked our hotel today, and it was awesome because I used my Hotels.com Welcome Rewards credit towards our hotel - so we'll be paying less than $100 for a night! The Welcome Rewards program is pretty cool - you book 10 nights in a hotel through them, and you get 1 night free (based on the average you spend on the other nights)! We decided to splurge a bit and booked a more "luxury" hotel, so the credit went towards the total, then we paid the balance. Works for me!

The second trip is one I've been daydreaming about for years - New York City! I've been traveling for years, have been to four continents and lord knows how many countries, heck, I've even lived abroad... but I've never been to New York. The closest I've come was our East Coast Road Trip from a few years back when we drove on the outskirts of New York on our way from Boston to Virginia. And now, my opportunity has finally arrived!

M is going to be in New York for work, and I found a round trip flight for $240 (American Airlines, JetBlue and Virgin America ALL had this fare) - so I immediately booked it. I'll be there for 5 nights, and the best part is we won't have to pay for hotels! The first three nights are covered through her work, and then we'll stay with my friend for the last two nights! I can't think of a better way to see NY - a great mix between visiting friends and working.

What trips do you have coming up that you're excited for?

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks

A few weekends ago, BF and I were bumming around the house and randomly decided to drive up to Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

I know, so spontaneous!


It was already 4:30pm on a Saturday, so we hurriedly packed overnight bags, grabbed Emma's bed, and got on the road. We were on the road by 5pm, and on the way up we found & booked a dog friendly motel by the entrance of Sequoia National Park (Buckeye Tree Lodge Trip Advisor review) - and we had such a nice stay!

Rough outline: Ireland

It's been difficult to draft our our time in Ireland because we're still so unsure of what we want to do and see. We know we want to rent a car at the airport when we get there, and we know we want to spend the first few days off the beaten path. So I'm sure this rough outline is going to change, but if I was the only one making decisions on this trip, here's what I'd do!

Sunday:
- Arrive in Dublin, rent car
- Drive to West Coast, taking our time and stopping along the way
- Arrive in Donegal around 4pm and spend the rest of the day in town

East Coast Road Trip: The Recap

I just realized I never got around to posting on this site about my East Coast road trip! We had a fabulous time and saw so much of the East Coast, it was fabulous.

Me at Chatham Manor in Virginia

We really packed in as much as possible!

East Coast 10 Day Road Trip: Photo Recap

I finally got it together and sorted through my thousand photos, and picked one from most of the places we visited! Without further ado, our East Coast adventure!

Here's a recap of our itinerary:

Day 1: Arrive in Boston, Freedom Trail tour, Sam Adams Brewery tour
Day 2: Boston, half day trip by train to Salem
Day 3: Boston, pick up rental car, drive to Providence RI, then to Waterford CT
Day 4: Waterford, CT, more wandering
Day 5: Drive to Philadelphia, by way of Amish country
Day 6: Philadelphia, drive to Fredericksburg, VA
Day 7 - 9: Fredericksburg, PA for our friend's wedding!
Day 10: Drive to DC, drop off rental car, explore DC

Boston, MA

East Coast Road Trip: Itinerary

As our East Coast road trip rapidly approaches (we leave a week from tomorrow!!!), I realized that I haven't written about it in a while. We finalized our itinerary a few weeks ago, when we used Priceline to book our hotel in Boston. Since we got such a great deal on our hotel in CT, we decided to spend two nights there instead of one. This unfortunately means that we had to change up our previously planned itinerary, and to cut one night in Boston, plus our proposed trip to P-Town, but is saving us about $150 on the hotel.

We decided to leave most of the trip open ended. We don't want to have too many concrete plans, because we want to explore and see random things. But there are several things we want to hit up for sure, so I'm listing them on here!

Thursday 10/9: Red eye flight from LA to Boston
Friday 10/10: Arrive in Boston, Freedom Trail tour, Sam Adams Brewery tour
Saturday 10/11: Boston, with a possible morning trip to Salem
Sunday 10/12: Boston, pick up rental car, drive to Providence RI, then to Waterford CT
Monday 10/13: Waterford, not sure what else!
Tuesday 10/14: Drive to Philadelphia, by way of Amish country
Wednesday 10/15: Philadelphia, drive to Fredericksburg, VA
Thursday 10/16: Fredericksburg, with a possible jaunt to DC
Friday 10/17: Fredericksburg, help Ashleigh with wedding favors, rehearsal dinner
Saturday 10/18: Fredericksburg, Ashleigh's WEDDING!
Sunday 10/19: Drive to DC, drop off rental car
Monday 10/20: Early morning flight from Dulles to LA

Whew! I'm super excited for this trip, but man. I just realized just how much we're packing in! I think I'm most excited for the wedding, and to see all of the fall foliage. I hope we're there at the right time for some awesome photo ops!

California Road Trip: Monterey Bay & Santa Cruz

Hmmm... where did I leave off? Oh yes, it was still Saturday and we were still driving. We drove for a LONG TIME on Saturday. After Cambria, we drove all through Big Sur on Highway 1, enjoying the spectacular views and the windy roads until we got to Monterey. Our main goal? The Monterey Bay Aquarium! We love the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And Monterey is a super cute place. Too many tourists in spring and summer, but what can you do?

Outer Bay exhibit - do you see the size of that tuna???