Surviving Halloween

Happy Dios De Los Muertos!  As I type this, I'm sitting in my kitchen having just scarfed down two breakfast tacos from Taco Joint and am making my way through my second cup of coffee.  I was a zombie yesterday.  And I'm a zombie this morning (which I guess is appropriate for DDLM).  But with no less makeup on my face/neck/arms/legs.  I'm still rocking dark circles under my eyes.  Oh Halloween, you're a harsh mistress. 

If you're strapped for cash and don't want to spend $40 on a Halloween costume, the zombie look is for you.  Just run over some old clothes with your car and slap some cheap white/black/gray makeup on your face and you're ready to go!

Yesterday started innocently enough: at work.  Buuuut there just happened to be a Bloody Mary and mimosa bar in an empty cubicle.  And Jell-O shots.  Lots of Jell-O shots.  I was proud of myself: I only had a Solo cup of champagne (filled up about a quarter of the way) and one Jell-O shot.  I should explain... The company I work for is big on celebrations and Halloween is the biggest.  Which is pretty awesome, albeit exhausting. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, right?  Mine was full of chores and a quick stop by a friend's Cinco de Mayo party.  I am done!  Allow me to give you a little glimpse of what wore me over the past few days.  I started gearing up on Friday by juicing before work and hitting the gym/watching Real Housewives reruns after work.

This was followed by a friend's lovely birthday dinner at a local pizza place, then it was early to bed to prepare for Saturday's shenanigans....

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Top o' the morning to ya!  Today my boyfriend and I are drinking these...

Playa Del Carmen

My girls' weekend in Mexico started with Mexican Customs taking away my homemade egg salad in Cancun International Airport.  Who knew you couldn't take egg salad across the boarder?  Not this girl.  Once it was gone, I decided to give up trying to diet through the weekend (they also took my apples and bananas!) and headed straight for the nearest margarita and queso stand.  I never found one.  Perhaps it's an untapped niche market?  Fortunately there were plenty of beer vendors outside of the airport while we waited for the ADO bus.  (Insider tip: Purchase your tickets online in advance to ensure a seat.  At $14 USD it's a comfortable, economical way to get from the airport to downtown Playa in less than an hour.)

DARTing Around

For a Southern city, Dallas has decent public transportation.  It's not nearly as expansive as the systems of Chicago, San Francisco, or New York City, but it's slowly growing (since its most recent expansion, we have seventy-two miles of light rail service) and it's better than nothing!  As a resident who would like to see more of it, I should do more to support our Dallas Area Rapid Transit, aka "The DART".

This weekend I stepped up my game and participated in my friend's second annual DART Rail Pub Crawl.  Atendees purchased a $4 day pass and could join the fun at any one of the nine stops along the way.  I posted our agenda below in case any of my DFW-are friends want to recreate this epic pub crawl while supporting our public transportation infastructure.  (I like to consider it "crawling for a cause"!)  DARTing is a nice break from driving and the hassles that come with it (I'm talking about you, parallel parking!).



My posse and I joined the group downtown at City Tavern.

Frankfurt, Germany

Greetings from Johannesburg, South Africa!  It took almost two days, but I'm finally here and enjoying their winter weather in August.  On the way, I had a long layover in Frankfurt.  I've never been to Germany before, so I was excited to explore!  (Travel tip: If you're traveling with carry-on bags and you don't want to haul them around during a layover, some airports- like Frankfurt- offer bag drop service for a nominal fee.)



Frankfurt has an excellent public transportation system which I would have used if I was staying longer.  You can get on the S-Bahn at the airport and it will take you to the city center in minutes.  I hailed a taxi at the airport because I didn't want to waste time potentailly getting lost.  My driver was very helpful and told me about the best ways to get around and what to see.

Chicago

Chicago  is a special place to me.  The first time I ever purchased my own plane ticket, it was for a trip to the Windy City to visit my bestie who went to the University of Chicago.  (Smarty pants.)  When I started my stint in the travel industry five years ago, I took advantage of my stand-by airline benefits to visit her often.  She has since moved to London, but now work brings me back a couple of times a year, and it's always a treat!

New Orleans

Summer trip no. 1…  New Orleans.  Laissez les bon temps rouler!

The first trip my guy and I took together was to New Orleans in the summer of 2010.  I had been a handful of times but he was a Big Easy virgin (haha).  One of my favorite things to do is play “tour guide,” and I loved showing him some of my favorite places in the city.  We had such a great time we decided to make it an (at least) annual trip.

When we landed in New Orleans in July for annual trip no. 2, we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hotel in the Vieux Carre.  (Insider tip: This taxi ride is usually about $60 each way, so if you go for a day trip as I’ve done a couple of times, you’ll come out ahead if you rent a car.  If you’re staying in the French Quarter for a night or two, you can easily walk to where you want to go or take a streetcar for $1.25 per ride.  Plus, parking at a hotel might cost you $20 per night, so I think a taxi makes things easier.)

Girls Weekend in SF

Happy Earth Day 2011!  What a lovely coincidence that my post today is about my latest trip to San Fransisco, one of America's greenest cities!

San Francisco is my favorite city in the US.  It has everything – from world-class wine, savory seafood, shameless shopping, amazing architecture, easy public transportation, temperate weather, and plenty to do outdoors within the city and just outside its borders.

Big D Tour

A friend who lives in London had a twelve hour layover in Dallas this weekend on her way home from Chile.  Julie is a travel professional (check out her fabulous blog) and has been all over the world, but this was her first visit to Texas.  (Technically, it was her second.  She had a similar layover situation on her way to Chile and used public transportation- yes, it is possible to do here!- to get from DFW to the Uptown area of Dallas.)  I absolutely love living in Dallas, so I was excited to share some of the fun things the city has to offer.

Public transportation options are limited on Sundays because the Trinity Railway Express, the train that connects the airport to Dallas or Fort Worth, doesn’t run so I made the quick trip to DFW to pick her up.  My immediate concern was eating, so we joined some friends for brunch at State and Allen Lounge in Uptown.

Photo from www.buywithme.com/dallas/deals/1621-state-and-allen-lounge

Vancouver Vaca

After my worcation in Seattle (which was more work than cation), my boyfriend and I took the Amtrak Cascade to Vancouver for a full-on weekend vaca.  I’ve only had one other experience on Amtrak (you can read about it here) so train travel is relatively new to me.  This was my first time to cross our northern border, but my boyfriend had visited Vancouver before, so it was nice that he was somewhat familiar with the city.

Photo from www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/cascades

Seattle Worcation

Last week work took me to Seattle so to make the most out of my time I added on a day of vacation [(work + vacation) x travel = worcation].  I’d been looking forward to this trip because it involved a lot of firsts:

1. It was my first time to visit the Pacific Northwest (prior to this I hadn’t ventured north of San Fran).
2. It was my first time to meet with our corporate accounts on my own (I’ve always shadowed a manager).
3. My boyfriend was able to take off work and it’s the first time we’ve taken a trip alone together.

We arrived in Seattle late Tuesday night and took a cab to our hotel downtown.  The Warwick is in a prime spot.  It’s an easy walk to great shopping and dining and Pike Place Market.  The hotel’s building is old and the interior isn’t as pristine as it appears on the Warwick’s website.  Fortunately, management is renovating all of the rooms from the top down.  My boyfriend and I snagged one of the newly upgraded Executive rooms on the 15^th floor.  As soon as we got off the elevator we were hit with the smell of new carpet in the hall (almost as good as new car smell).  One side of the room was outfitted with a long desk (great for work), another corner had a small seating area, and the majority of the space was taken up by a comfy king size bed.  The best part of the room was the view of the Space Needle from the balcony.

Nomad Life: One Month Down!

Yesterday I celebrated one month of living a nomadic lifestyle.  When I think back to how I was living a couple of months ago, it’s dramatically different!  My house, roommate, her dog, and all possessions are gone!  So far I love the freedom- staying at different places, no chores, no bills!  The month of November brought some travel opportunities with it which has made the transition a bit easier.  Luckily, my first official night of homelessness was spent in the beautiful Hotel Rex in San Francisco!