New York: The Sights!

Admittedly, I had a very ambitious list of things I wanted to see while in New York last month. While I didn't manage to do EVERYTHING, I think I covered a good amount of stuff, plus some extras that were unexpected! 

I was in New York for 5 days - Thursday through Monday. The first two days, I spent the majority of in my office, then meeting up with M when she finished work. We went sightseeing at night - it was a really cool perspective of the city.

New York City - What To Do & See?

I leave for New York in a week! I can't believe that I'm FINALLY going to be able to scratch NYC off of my "must see" list... But now that it's almost here, I'm having a really tough time pinning down what I want to see and do while we're there. A couple friends have been helping me refine this list, and here's what we've come up with so far!

Central Park
There are about a thousand things I want to see in Central Park. Fortunately for me, Central Park has an awesome, comprehensive website, full of things to see and do, activities, and even a list of the trees and flowers you'll see there. Maybe I'll rent a bike so I can see more of the awesome things the park has to offer. Some of the things on my list? Belvedere Castle, the Azalea Pond, the Blockhouse, the Lake and the Loch and the Gill and the Pool Grotto, Harlem Meer, the Charles B. Stover "whisper" bench, Nutter's Battery Site, the Mall and Literary Walk, Strawberry Fields, and the Turtle Pond. And that's not even getting started on the bridges: the Oak Bridge, the Bow Bridge, the Gapstow Bridge, and the Balcony Bridge! Whew! Yeah, pretty sure I'm going to need an entire day to dedicate to the park.

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?

#SOPASTRIKE

I couldn't figure out how to black out this website (also I don't have the time to learn right now), but I felt that I needed to post something in support of the protests going on today.

PLEASE take a moment if you haven't already to educate yourself about these bills. The way they're currently written would essentially end the Internet as we know (and love) it.

Here's a video that gives a fairly clear explanation of PIPA & SOPA:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Read about why Wikipedia went black today, check out Reddit.com, go to this site to see what you can do to help, and be sure to click on the top image (or just go here) and sign the petition for our Congress members!

I try really hard to make sure to give credit when I use something on this site - I link photos to the websites I got them from, I link information, I link quotes and videos. But, see all those sites I just linked to? If SOPA were in effect, my site could be "blacklisted" from the Internet if any of the sites linked above had a link on them that infringed copyrights! Please take action if you find that as outrageous as I do!

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!

A weekend wedding in Las Vegas

Back in October 2011, BF & I went to Las Vegas for one of my best friends' wedding.

It was a quick, but memorable, trip - BF had never been, and it had been over 7 years for me. Neither of us are huge fans of the desert. We don't really gamble, we don't drink all that much, and neither of us are keen on crowds. But SdlTC (gosh, even her initials are a mouthful!) was getting married there, so there we would be!

Awesome view of the strip from a club at the Palms!

In the end, the wedding and surrounding events were awesome and fantastic, but our stay in Vegas wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Oh, Canada! (Or, My Toronto Trip!)

Last October, I went to Toronto on somewhat of a whim. See, M's company was sending her there for work, and she asked if I wanted to go. I had always wanted to see Toronto (especially since they shoot a couple of my favorite TV shows there), and thought - why not??

So off to Toronto we went!

View of the city skyline from the waterfront.

Ireland & Italy: The Hotels

Over the course of our 14 day, 13 night trip to Europe last summer, we stayed in six different hotels and one villa. That's a lot of hotels!

I spent a lot of time on TripAdvisor prior to booking to research where we would stay as much as possible, and 6/7 of the places we stayed were great.

Since we were trying to keep to a pretty low budget, and our flights went about $500 over what we were expecting, we decided that we wanted to keep our total hotel budget under $1,000 per person, or around $150/room/night. With the exchange rate, this meant compromising on location or amenities in a few places.

Here's a run down of our hotels.

Florence, Italy

As I've mentioned before, Florence holds a special place in my heart. So you can imagine that I was a little bit disappointed that our time there didn't quite go as planned.

Our first challenge: We were exhausted. We had been rush rush rushing for 10 days by the time we got to Florence, and we just hit the wall when we got there.

Our second challenge: The weather was still ridiculously hot and humid!

We still managed to see what we wanted to in Florence, and I wouldn't have skipped it for the world. But I didn't get to show off the city in the way I had wanted to.

Florence's Duomo - the photos never really do it justice!

San Gimignano, Pisa & Cinque Terre, Italy

After the stunning Tuscan wedding, there were only a few short days left of our trip, but boy were we determined to make the best of them!

SAN GIMIGNANO
The first stop was San Gimignano, which I was SO excited to share with SAY, M and Shorty. See, I'd been talking about this town since I'd first been in 2003 (on the trip where I met BF), and we were all really looking forward to it, and to having a night in a small little town where SAY and Dr G could decompress after the craziness that is planning and executing a destination wedding in Italy!

A Big Fat Tuscan Wedding

I've been to quite a few weddings in the last few years. And while all of them had special, beautiful, memorable moments, none were quite as magical as SAY & Dr G's wedding at Tenuta di Corsano in Tuscany.

It could have been the build up: a stunning evening of delicious food in Siena, fireworks and fireflies...

Siena & Corsano, Italy

After a hot and crowded Rome, the breezy Tuscan countryside was just perfect. The weather was still HOT but there was much less humidity, making it a pleasant change!

We arrived in Siena in the early evening, and took a cab from the train station to our hotel. The train station in Siena is at the bottom of the hill the city is situated on, so cabs are a good way to get to the main areas.

Rome, Italy

Rome.

Rome was the exact opposite of Ireland. Where Ireland was cool, clean and refreshing, Rome was hot, dirty, and humid. But even though we wilted the moment we left an air conditioned environment, Rome was beautiful. Crowded and expensive, but beautiful.

Our time in Rome was split - a full day and a half at the beginning of the trip, and another almost full day at the end of it.

St. Peter's Basilica is one of the most gorgeous spots in Rome. You can go into the basilica without touring the Vatican, but of course, there's a line to get in.

Derry, Northern Ireland & Dublin, Ireland

While the girls were having a blast exploring Dublin, BF and I decided to drive up to Derry, Northern Ireland for a day trip. BF had wanted to go to Belfast when we were in Ireland in 2009, but it didn't work out because we had such limited time, so this time, Northern Ireland was on the top of his list. I was not quite as eager. Not because I didn't want to go, but because of all of the unrest and "The Troubles," which, though "officially" over are still somewhat ongoing. There were riots going on in Belfast (not uncommon, but still), and we had no idea what Derry was going to be like.

But we went anyway, and I am SO glad that we did.

Derry is one of the only remaining European cities with fully intact city walls. Our tour had us walking the walls!

Travel Photo Tuesday: Central CA

I took this photo on a road trip to San Francisco. It reminds me of what Central CA drives can mean: lots of open space and greenery, and me feeling happy.