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

Snow Day

Greetings from a winter wonderland! I'm currently sitting in an airport waiting to see if my flight, which has been delayed multiple times, will be canceled. Who knew we'd wake up to six inches of snow in North Texas?



If all goes well, I'll be in Phoenix soon where the high is sixty degrees. Keeping my fingers crossed!  Hope everyone is staying safe and warm today!

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.

Annual Marketing Meeting

Every January, my department kicks off the year with the infamous “Annual Marketing Meeting,” commonly referred to as “Annual.”  We celebrate our accomplishments from the previous year and hear from our leaders (including our CEO) on what they expect from the new year regarding goals and strategies.  This year’s destination was St. Louis, Missouri.  In January.  In the snow.  To say the least, it was cold.

St. Louis, aka “The Gateway to the West”, is rich in aviation history.  Charles Lindbergh and The Spirit of St. Louis, TWA, McDonnell Douglas, etc, put this industrial city on the map as an aviation maverick.  (My airline-geek friends could expound on this better than me!)   My employer has had a strong presence in the area since 1985 and St. Louis continues to move its way up the charts as one of our focus markets.

Tired of the Nomadness

Maybe it's the chilly weather and lack of sunlight bringing on my annual winter blues, but going into my third month as a nomad, it's beginning to wear me down.  The novelty and some of the excitement are gone.  The cold makes accessing the items in my car annoying.  I’m tired of thinking about what I’m going to wear days in advance.  (My previously chic nomad look has become repetitious as I’m getting lazy about digging through my rolling rack of clothes, still in my boyfriend’s garage.)

There are a lot of things I really miss about having my own place, like recording trashy reality TV shows and watching them with my old roommate on lazy Saturday mornings.  I miss leaving messy art projects on my dining room table.  I miss hosting house parties.  I miss my old house!  I miss my old routines!  (Gasp!)

Of course I’ve contemplated returning to my former, more conventional lifestyle, but I have too many solid reasons to keep on truckin, such as:

1.  I haven’t saved as much money as I should have.  (Oops!)  I’ve managed to stay out of credit card debt; does that count for anything.
2.  Life in general feels “temporary” right now for several reasons, so my gut tells me not to settle down in one spot for the time being.
3.  I have a unique opportunity to continue, and it could possibly be the only time in my life when I can, so I should suck it up and do it while the tools are at my fingertips.

LAX to PHX

I had another work trip this week, taking me back to the West Coast.  On Tuesday I flew to Los Angeles.  Every time I fly into LAX, I forget how massive it is!  When I landed, I walked outside of baggage claim to the hotel shuttle pick-up line to catch a ride to the Four Points Sheraton.  45 minutes later, I was checking in at the hotel and yes, it is adjacent to the airport!