New York State of Mind

This weekend the bf and I took a little trip to NYC!  There were a lot of things going on there this weekend: the New York City Marathon, the Saints vs. Giants game, and your everyday general revelry.  We had a terrible time finding a reasonably priced hotel room for a Saturday night stay (nothing under $300), and as luck would have it, a friend of a friend needed a dog sitter that night, so we found ourselves in a fabulous Greenwich Village apartment hanging out with the cutest puggle named Levi!

Catching the sun rise on the plane... It was an early Saturday morning flight!

The bf and I have both been to NYC before, so this trip was about enjoying the fall weather and eating delicious food rather than running around to tourist destinations.  We enjoyed Greenwich immensely.  Saturday's highlights included:

A late lunch at Meme...

Land of Enchantment

I absolutely LOVE New Mexico.  My bf and I recently took a weekend trip to the southern part of the state, which I'd never visited before.  Last year my brother moved to Santa Fe to work at an art gallery there, so I advantageously visited him four times.  The food, the art, the breathtaking scenery, the afternoon storms that roll in...  It was heaven to me, but for my brother who was 24 at the time, it was boring, as the average age of a Santa Fe resident is 70.  He had some incredible opportunities to work with local artists such as Forrest Moses.  It's no wonder Santa Fe is  home to so many creatives.  The surroundings are inspiring and I believe there is something otherworldly that draws people to the Land of Enchantment.  Here are somethings I adore about Santa Fe.  Let's starting with the Great Outdoors.  On one visit, my mom, brother, and I hiked the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument...

Exploring OKC

This weekend I made the drive to Oklahoma City to hang out with family and attend my ten hear high school reunion.  (The bf got a pass since he was in conveniently in Denver for a bro weekend.) My high school career was... interesting.  Let's just say I enjoy grown-up life much more.  The reunion was a trip.  I'm in favor for calling it what it is: "Popular kids meet at the bar." 

I met a friend across the street at this dive for a pre-reunion drink.

The night started out just like my first day of high school, with my mom dropping me off and quickly taking a pic of me before anyone driving by could realize what a huge dork I am!

Even though I did not hang with the cool kids in high school, I had a surprisingly good time at the reunion.  Everyone was really nice and this time around I felt confident enough to talk to anyone.  I just asked them about their kids and then they did all the talking.  In my real life, most of my friends are not married and only two friends have kids.  These people have wasted no time making babies!  I was part of the 5% in attendance who were unmarried.  Which explains why a couple of the jocks were hitting on me towards the end of the night.  They were drawn to my unadorned wedding ring finger like moths to a flame.  I didn't take any pictures at the reunion because it's going to be another decade before I see these kids again and if I really need to look at any them there's always Facebook stalking.

New Mexico Get Away

This weekend the bf and I made a quick trip to Southern New Mexico to spend some time outdoors.  (This city girl usually counts brunch on a patio as an outdoor activity.)  We left early Saturday morning and flew to El Paso, Texas, picked up our rental car, and made an hour drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We stopped for breakfast in a cute little cafe called Josefina's Old Gate in the town square of Old Mesilla.  I was so hungry, I didn't even photograph my food.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a pic of the place, courtesy of the interwebs.

With our stomachs full (the "bowl of papas" is divine) we were ready for a hike, so we drove another half hour to Dripping Springs.  I read some good reviews on Trip Advisor about this place, but my boyfriend and I were both blown away by the beauty of it.

Summer Scrapbook

It's Monday and I'm a little sad that the weekend is over... and so is summer.  As the smell of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes fills the air (and pictures of said drink overload my Facebook and Instagram feeds), I start to get reminiscent of the summer that's passed.  Just for fun, here are some highlights of this summer of 2013!

We went to a beautiful wedding in La Jolla...

Followed by a gorgeous wedding in Oklahoma City...

We rode the mustache train to Fort Worth...

A Very Merry Wedding Weekend

It was a very merry (albeit short) wedding weekend in Copper, Colorado this Labor Day weekend.  After a hellacious day of travel on Friday which caused us to miss 50% of the weekend events we were going to attend, the other 50% was fab!  And yeah, it was worth the money spent and stress to see the world's best boss get hitched!  Here are some totally gorgeous pics of the bride and groom that I stole from a co-worker's Instagram account. 

Doesn't the background in the first pic look fake it's so perfect?  That was no green screen, folks!  The bride and everyone else rode a ski lift up into the mountain to get to that picture perfect spot.  It's so much easier to get on and off these things without a stupid snowboard hanging from my foot!

Travel Style

Helloooooo down there!  I'm looking down at some beautiful "flyover states" right now as we head to another wedding.  This one's in a little Colorado mountain town so it's perfect timing.  We're looking forward to trading 100 degree temps for low sixties.  Do I sound like a country bumpkin or a really old person if I say it always blows my mind when I'm connected from 35,000 feet?  Our two hour flight is nearly over, and I've replied to multiple work emails and set up two contracts since I've been on the plane.  Crazy awesome.  (Crawsome?)  I wish I didn't  have any work to do so I could enjoy streaming live TV like my bf over here!  Kidding... he's sitting next to me closing deals too (after he caught an episode of 30 Rock)!

When Good Trips Go Bad

If you travel enough, you know (really, you expect) that every once in a while, a trip is going to go horribly wrong.  There are too many moving parts, too many uncontrollable variables in play, for every trip to go off without a hitch.  Let me tell ya about our journey to the Rockies yesterday...

First, I have the world's best boss.  I need to buy her that coffee mug... So when you get invited to her destination wedding, you go.  Yesterday sucked because basically, we left our house at 10:45am and arrived at our hotel in Copper, Colorado  twelve hours later.  To give you some perspective, the drive takes thirteen hours.  We flew into Denver International Airport (arriving on time), which is a very nice airport, but logistically, it's a beating getting from terminal C to ground transportation.  The rental car lots are all located off-site, so by the time your shuttle picks you up it's a fifteen minute ride to get there.  And on Friday afternoon (4:00pm to be precise) of a holiday weekend, you're gonna stand in a long line to get your car.  By the time we got ours it was close to 5:00pm and traffic was bad, to say the least.  Over four hours later, we completed the 100-mile trip to Copper.

At least the view (beyond the miles of cars) was nice!  The company wasn't bad either.  :)  I practiced taking selfies to pass the time, which I regretted this morning when my camera died.  And of course I didn't pack the charger.  Since our house is a wreck, I wouldn't have been able to find it if I tried.  (I apologize in advance for the crappy cell phone pictures I'm going to post later this week.)  Here's what ya get for now...

Vegas, Baby!

Today I'm allowing my brain a little break from work (as in my job and house work) for a virtual Vegas vacation. I mentioned earlier this summer that 2013 is the year of the wedding.  In fact, we're going to one this weekend.  With weddings come showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, bridal lunches, etc... Basically, there are lots of ways to spend money on celebrate the betrothed couple.  Before one of our couple-friends walked down the aisle in July, I attended the bride's Vegas bachelorette party in May.

I've been to Vegas too many times over the last seven years, and some of my favorite trips there have lasted only twenty-four hours.  IMHO, that is the perfect amount of time for Vegas.  This is not my old age talking.  I've felt this way since I was 22 and made my second trip to Sin City.  Now, there are many different ways to approach a Vegas vacation.  The agenda can be centered around gambling, dinner/shows, partying (day at the pool, night at the club), or general entertainment (indoor sky diving, roller coasters, bungee jumping).  You can keep it classy on the strip, or go ghetto old school in downtown.  I've done Vegas on the cheap, staying at a place called Terrible's Casino (the name says it all), eating at convenience stores and Fat Burger, and playing nickle slots.  This particular bachelorette trip was Vegas done right.  Five girls + one room at The Cosmopolitan + (???) bottles of bubbly = one epic weekend.  I'll break down our trip into the following categories: restaurants, pools, and clubs.

Lovely Lima

One of the many things I love Dallas is its diversity.  On a daily basis I am surrounded by immigrants from other countries.  One of my besties has a delightful new beau, who is straight up Peruvian (he became naturalized about five years ago).  He recently returned from a visit to Lima, his hometown, and I loved seeing pictures from his trip.  About three years ago on a whim, I visited Lima with some co-workers and after chatting with him I felt inspired to go through my photos.  His family lives in the beautiful neighborhood of Mira Flores, which is where I stayed during my visit...

My Midwest Weekend or Debs, Gamers, and Airport Hotels

This weekend the bf and I went to Cincinnati (his home town) for his youngest sister's summer time debutante party.  I mentioned this was a summer time deb party, because there's also a winter party, which I attended as the bf's date in December.  You can read about it here, but all you need to know is it was pretty, pretty fancy.  This is me at the winter deb ball making my fancy face.  This look says, Don't get in my face when it's fancy or you'll get a martini in yours.

I am a total stranger to the world of high society so I have no idea how it works.  All I know is, if you're part of the inner circle you do a lot of hob-nobbing, boozing, and dancing.  I tried my best to participate in all of the above so I wouldn't stand out.  This time that involved dressing the part for the party's Soul Train theme.

GBTA in San Diego

Every year I attend the Global Business Travel Association convention.  This year it was in sunny San Diego.  No complaints here!

The view from my room at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.  This is the only time of year that we get to stay at a fancy hotel because we always stay at the "official convention" hotel.  The rest of my trips are typically at La Quinta, which is fine.  But this is better.  :)

Orange County Weekend

This weekend I went to Orange County to visit one of my favorite people ever!

Monica, my pot luck roommate from college, moved out here a year ago.  I think the Cali lifestyle suites her. :)

Summer Eurotrip- Vienna

From Budapest, we traveled by train to Vienna, Austria.  This would have been a simple nonstop trip under normal circumstances, but the Danube was flooded.  Our quick three hour train ride took the entire day.  I will disclose that we waited in line for over an hour to buy tickets (there was not a kiosk available to purchase tickets and we were unable to buy them online days before) so we missed the 11:00am train and had to take the 1:00pm train.  As for the ride itself, we had to take a short train ride, then a 30-minute shuttle ride (standing room only by the time we got on), followed by another train ride.  But we made it!

Summer Eurotrip- Budapest

It's time to take a breather from all this house talk!  Before we do... we decided to go for it!  We are thrilled, albeit broke (or we will be for a while after we close).  It's expensive to buy a house, even though the seller covers the broker's 3%, with the inspection, closing costs, appraisal, year's worth of home insurance, three months of property taxes, etc...  It's a good thing I already took a summer vacation, because there won't be any fun trips for this blogger for a while!  I'll have to dive into my archives or go through my list of past trips I haven't blogged about yet.  So don't worry, I will not be short on content.  I will be here to help you waste your time while you procrastinate work (just like what I'm doing right now...). 

Without further adieu, about this Eurotrip.  Last month I went with two girlfriends to Budapest and Vienna!

Foreign Currency

The only time I complain about having too much money is on the last day of a trip in a foreign country.  If I have local currency in my wallet, I try to spend it as quickly as possible.  Inevitably, I come home with at least a few coins.  Other world-traveling friends have complained about the same thing (first world problems, I know!).  So the beautiful paper and coins sit at home in boxes and junk drawers collecting dust.  As we continue to travel, it continues to accumulate.  (Disclaimer: At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful brat with money to throw away, let me clarify that the amount brought home from a trip is typically under $20 USD.  Many times it’s under $10 or $5 USD, so barely enough to buy a couple gallons of gas or a latte!)  Like most twenty-something white girls who need advice, I turned to Pinterest for help.  Here's what they told me to do.

 

Turn coins into magnets...

Wedding Season

It's here.  And it's been great!  But I'm excited to spend this weekend at home (at least until Sunday when I go to Oklahoma for Mother's Day like the good daughter I am).  Weddings are high-pressure events for those of us in the wedding party.  I have responsibilities like making sure the bridesmaids' bouquets make it to the reception so they can double as center pieces on the dining tables... This stuff is hard work after a day of hair, nails, makeup, and wedding rehearsal.  We bridesmaids have to perfect our step-together-step-together down the aisle and stand around for all of the pre and post ceremony photos...  It's exhausting!  We are also expected to be the first to start a conga line on the dance floor, and we really should stay for last call.  My boyfriend and I had back-to-back weddings last month, plus a few weekends of showers and bachelorette parties, so you now know where all of my discretionary income is being spent.  With love, of course.

Our first wedding weekend took us to La Jolla.  No complaints there!  We flew into San Diego and rented a car for the short drive north.

Take Me to Tulum

I saved you the best part of my Mexication for last.  On the last full day of our trip we rented a car and drove to Tulum.  The last time I was in Mexico, I drove through Tulum on a rainy day.  This visit was much more pleasant and sunny.  Plus, we had a sweet ride- the most compact Chevy I've ever seen.  The car weighed less than I do so we got great mileage in it!

Cozumel or I'm on a Boat!

On the second day of our Mexication, we got up early and caught a ferry to the island of Cozumel, which is about twelve miles from Playa Del Carmen.  Our activity of the day was a SCUBA and snorkel trip off the coast of the island.  Since I grew up in a land-locked state and am not what one would call aquatically inclined, I always opt to snorkel over SCUBA.  It’s cheaper and seems like much less work.  All you need is a mask, snorkel, and fins and you’re good to go!  No need to worry about air in your tank or pressurizing, and you can fly and drink as much as you want the day before you do it.  To me, that's a much better deal.  Also, fish creep me out and I don’t want to get too close.  I’m perfectly content to admire them from a distance.  They stay on their side of the ocean, I stay on mine and we’re good.

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.)