Zero Sleeps to Disney

27 07 2010

It seems crazy to think that it’s been twenty years since I went to Disneyland.  How am I that old?

Regardless of how old I am the magic of Disneyland is still alive and well.  Staying at the Hilton that overlooks the park, seeing everyone come back with their mickey ears and stuffed animals, and watching the fireworks every night at 9:30pm sharp, would get anyone in the Disney mood.  So, when the day finally came, when we walked through that park entryway and the path opened up into the perfectly manicured Main Street, needless to say it all came flooding back.  As soon as we walked into the park I saw Goofy. Oh my gosh – now I remember.  I need to get an autograph – I need to chase all of the characters and get a photo taken with them after they sign my autograph book.

Whoa, slow down there.  We’re not 6 anymore.  I will admit that I was tempted when I saw Winnie the Pooh, and I actually went over to get a photo with Eeyore (but he had to get ready for the parade…)

The excitement of everything lasted until the reality of the “Disney line ups” sank in.  We’d been in the park for an hour and a half and succeeded in picking up a fastpass for Space Mountain, watching the Captain EO 3D show and standing in line for the park train ride.  We haven’t done anything!

After a 90 minute wait for the Indiana Jones Ride (which hadn’t been there when I was little) things picked up and we knocked off the Winnie the Pooh Ride, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and Pinnochio’s Daring Ride.  Okay, so they’re not exactly the hot ticket rides, but they were still fun.  I got to show off my crazy driving skills off in Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.   We did take on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was my favourite then and it may be my favourite now.   And now let’s talk about the Matterhorn.  I may have blocked out that childhood memory entirely but now that I’m grown I think I may be a little too big for the ride.  It was a struggle to keep from knocking my knees into the seat in front of me and whipping my head back to hit Nathan in the face and this ride was fast.

I was sad to hear that there was no longer a light parade, but they do have a light show and of course, the nightly fireworks.  We took advantage of everyone’s distraction by running through the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Space Mountain.

And with a final look at the Magic Kingdom we started the trek out of the park.

But, wait a minute.  What’s a trip to Disneyland if you don’t get lost.  Dodging through the crowds of tired families and strollers, I managed to dodge so well I got myself lost.  All of my childhood “what to do if you get lost” skills came back.  Stop. Move to the Side.  Scan the Crowd.  Stand in the highest elevation with the most light.  That didn’t work though, so as I let the crowd move me toward the final gates, I peered through the fence, hesitant to leave the park area, until I heard my name.  I’m Found!





California’s Bread Basket

24 07 2010

Driving through all of the windy roads (away from the coast) in California really opened my eyes up to the different terrain in sunny California.  Here I thought it was all palm trees, sandy beaches and celebrity sightings.   Turns out there’s not much of anything shiny and sparkly away from the water.

But, I do have to admit, I spent a good amount of time with my nose pressed up to the window looking at the scenery.  I’m thinking back to one particular time when a truck with 2 trailers of lemons passed by.  Only in California.  That was the first of many trucks full of lemons, garlic, and onions.  And then there were the trucks full of some sort of red produce.  We watched as truck after truck passed by us.  First we thought cherries. Then strawberries.  Then red onion.  We finally decided that they were ‘not yet ripe tomatoes’.  That’s our final answer.

Then there was the time I was looking at the farm animals:  bulls, cows, horses, mini horses…or baby horses….or ponies, and then all of a sudden, GOOOOOAAAAAATTTTT.  Don’t ask me why I was so excited.  I don’t even think I was, it just came out in this mournful, longing tone.

I was pretty impressed with the variety of scenery.  We saw the infamous California Sand Dunes – it was a quick stop though since it was 112 degrees outside.

And then on our drive through the California breadbasket we saw all of the crops, fruit trees, grape vines, etc.  And all of a sudden it started smelling very savoury, like it was dinner time.  I opened the window and the smell of garlic hit me in the face.  We were in the midst of the garlic fields and the home of Gilroy Garlic.

And where there are fruit trees there are fruit stands.  We just so happened to stop at the most elaborate one there – Casa de Fruta it’s seriously a little village now:  complete with restaurant, winery and deli, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nut and chocolate stand.

Yes.  Those are chocolates that look like martini green olives.

And…..there was an area to pan for gold!  Did I mention I used to have a rock collection?  Let’s just say I could have stayed there for a lot longer if someone hadn’t pulled me away.  I did find a little crystal point and what I swear is a gold flake.

So although there were no celebrity sightings, it was still a pretty sight to see.





Check Chicago off the List

17 07 2010

Have you ever seen someone get attacked by a bird….for no good reason?  Now, I’m not saying it happened to me, but who would have thought that the little black birds would divebomb someone and peck at their head.

Really, it didn’t happen to me, and I didn’t actually even see it (although I WISH that I had, because how ridiculous would that have looked).  But, it did happen to Nathan.  (Cue hysterical laughter).  Now picture it in your head, Nathan minding his own business, looking up at the ferris wheel at Navy Pier in Chicago, trying to take some cool early morning photos, and WHAM.  Pecked in the head.  (Cue more hysterical laughter).

At least he got some good photos.

We headed out to Chicago for a Tourist Weekend.  This was the first time that I had been in Chicago for pleasure, rather than business, and we definitely took advantage of our weekend there.  Up early, we were in the streets before 7am, which was the perfect time to take some photos of the city (without all of those pesky tourists).

My favourite – the infamous Bean.  It’s just so cool.  It seems like it’s made of one seamless piece of material.  And the reflections it gives off are amazing.

It was the last weekend of Taste of Chicago and we wanted to experience this big outdoor food fair.  I don’t know what we were expecting but it turned into a hot mess of battling crowds of hot, sticky people who were running from booth to booth trying to eat as much as they could.  Because you purchase your food with pre-paid tickets, it doesn’t really feel like you’re spending money.  We went around and tried the polish sausage, a slice of pizza, fire-grilled steak tacos, and mango rice pudding before we had had enough and decided to create our own ‘Taste of Chicago’.

After leaving the craziness of the festival crowds, our eating tour started at Flatwater, a cute little bistro on the river, where we had calamari and salads (mixed greens for Nathan, apple and jicama for me).  For dinner we stumbled upon a steak, seafood and pasta place called Phil Stefani’s 437 Rush. So good.  I’ve never had octopus outside of a sushi restaurant, but we ordered a grilled baby octopus appetizer, and it was so tender and delicious.  For entrees, gnocchi with scallops for me, and chilean seabass for Nathan.  On to dessert at The Melting Pot with ying and yang dark chocolate and white chocolate fondue. (you can find the restaurant info on www.eating4sport.wordpress.com)

Sunday morning we found ourselves eating at a little breakfast nook Vines, just down the street from the Garrett Popcorn Shop, which was filling the air with toffee and caramel popcorn scents.   We ended up wandering around the streets until we got to the John Hancock Building.  Instead of paying to go up to the observation deck, we ended up on the 96th floor, drinking bloody mary’s and looking at Chicago from a different angle.

We finished up our Tourist Weekend at Wrigley Field for a Cubs game.  It was a pretty cool experience – sold out game, kettle corn, stadium beer….unfortunately…the Cubs lost…..horribly.

After the game we headed back to Detroit with full bellies and the feeling that we had conquered another city and made the most out of our 48 hours in Chicago.





Little Italy Meets Chinatown

13 06 2010

We finally made our way out to Little Italy the last time we were in NYC.  Unfortunately we had to choose the hottest, most humid day ever to make the trip.

Even though it was great to walk through the pedestrian streets with the “Welcome to Little Italy” signs, the decorative flowers, the sidewalk patios and little markets with fresh mozzarella and prosciutto, we really made the trip to visit the infamous pizzeria, Lombardi’s.  Which boasts itself as the ‘birthplace of new york style pizza’ with a coal-fired oven.

Very good pizza.  Although, I’m not going to lie, I think I might like Patsy’s better…

On to Chinatown, which pretty much looked like any other Chinatown in any other city.  Lots of sidewalk seafood displays.  Lots of fresh fruit markets (it just happened to be lychee season so I finally got to show Nathan what Lychee look like).

The one thing that stood out.  The chubby ginger cat that sits below the fish display, looking pleasantly full.  And I got a testimonial from a local that this cat eats some crazy stuff!





Ladies Who Lunch

1 06 2010

You spend so much time going to school and growing up and thinking “what do I want to do when I grow up?” and then all of a sudden it’s here – you’re grown up and you think, ‘how did that happen?’

It’s official.  I’m a grown up.  And it’s not because I’ve graduated from university or because I moved out of the family home (that happened at 17), or because I move from city to city and country to country just because I want to or even because somehow I have a 401k and a stock portfolio.  I am a grown up with grown up friends because we have somehow gotten to the point where we can plan a long weekend vacation, fly across the country and CHOOSE to be ridiculous, frivolous teenage girls.  But even BETTER than that – we can be “Ladies who Lunch” with martinis, wine and cocktails and while sitting amongst the actual teenage girls, realize that we are in fact grown ups – and laugh at how ridiculous that is!

Erin and I joined forces in LA as the “Ladies who Lunch”, drinking ‘Martoonies on Tuesday’, as our friend Kyle would say.  With the realization that we’re grown ups and can do whatever we want to do we had to force ourselves to get moving and leave the hotel.  Not because we didn’t want to go out and explore the city, but because when you haven’t seen one of your best friends in 3 months, you have a lot to talk about and 4 days could easily be spent chatting it up poolside.

But the Santa Monica Pier is so much better!   Drinking wine and eating antipasta on a heated patio, nothing wrong with that!

Taking the drive along Malibu as the sun sets and ending our night at Duke’s for cocktails and the ‘can’t leave without it’ piece of Hula Pie.

Walking around like VIP’s with our “Front of the Line” passes at Universal Studios and after pressuring Erin to take the Jurassic Park ride with me, laughing hysterically at the look of terror on Erin’s face in the photo they took as we flew down the final crest (unfortunately I have no record of this photo).

Realizing that Hollywood is actually pretty dirty, but feeling compelled to tour the Hollywood Stars and hand and foot prints.

And, the real reason why we hopped on flights from opposite sides of the country.  The Glee Concert. Where we joined the thousands of screaming girls (and the two guys that just so happened to be sitting in front of us).

Let me just say…It was AMAZING.  So much fun!  And it put us in such a good mood that we went on a spending spree – buying flip flops of every colour, random T-shirts, movie posters, CD’s from local up and comers, and all of the Pink Berry and Yogurtland we could eat!  The state of California thanks us.  Really, we got a thank you note.

I think the only thing that I haven’t mentioned that has to happen on every trip to LA is…yes, you guessed it. A celebrity sighting!  Well, wait no more.  Let me tell you about that heart-stopping moment when I set my eyes on him.  The double take.  The elbow to Erin’s side and the whispered words from the side of my mouth, “Is that James Marsden?” Now, if you’re not a girl who loves her romantic comedies and remembers when the unsuccessful series, “Second Noah” came on TV, you may not know who this guy is.  But I do, and for a split second (well, maybe 1o seconds) I thought about jumping right back into the elevator and heading back up, even though we were on our way out.

I spent a solid 10 minutes sitting in the lobby glowing. Erin can confirm, I was speechless.  Although not enough to prevent me from calling and texting people.  And while I was on the phone, all of a sudden I get a kick in the leg and Erin gives me wide eyes and says, “he’s right behind you”.  Now this probably did not look subtle at all since Erin tells me that she accidentally made eye contact with him and then he watched as she kicked me.  But let’s just say, we were the ultimate of cool, as I watched him roll his two suitcases to his car.  I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t think about taking a photo for posterity until after his tail lights were long gone.  The only memory I have is the fading bruise on my leg from Erin kicking me.

Alas, no photo, but there are witnesses to this celebrity sighting, so we can call our “Ladies who Lunch” GROWN UP trip to LA a SUCCESS!





Taking a Bite out of the Big Apple

8 11 2009

On our most recent trip to New York City Nathan and I decided to be real tourists.  We felt like it was time to take that Grey Line tourbus, sit on the upper deck and listen to the rehearsed stories of the tourbus operator, take photos of all of the New York sights, bond with other tourists and talk about how much trash there is in the city! 

This was the plan, that is until we realized that it would cost us $90 a person to see many of the same sights that we had already seen and listen to the tour operator tell us stories of the city that may or may not be true (we know that Jay Z doesn’t really live in that building….)

So, instead we decided to take an “EATING TOUR OF NYC”.  And if you think about it, is there any better tour to be taking?? 

We unofficially started our tour at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse (www.wolfgangssteakhouse.com) in Tribeca having dinner with friends.  The best appetizer that I’ve ever had is their specialty of thick-sliced Canadian Bacon.  It’s like a bacon steak!  After this savoury appetizer we also indulged in a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad (Caprese Salad), Rib Eye steaks to share with German Potatoes and Creamed Spinach as sides.  And, to make this an authentic New York local dinner, in the city that never sleeps, this ‘dinner’ took place at about 9:00 at night and was accompanied with glass after glass of complimentary red wine.

The next day we decided to get really serious about our eating tour.  After listening to a live version of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, we knew we had found our first stop – Patsy’s Pizzeria (www.patsyspizzeriany.com)Frank Sinatra mentioned this pizzeria in his song, and after some research we found out that this place was the founder of the New York Style thin crust pizza.  After walking from the Port Authority to 60th St & 3rd Ave, our stomachs were growling and we were not disappointed when we walked into the rustic, family-style pizzeria with the coal-burning oven.  One large original Margherita pizza coming up!  When it arrived, the crust was thin and crispy, but chewy at the same time; the sauce was hot and the fresh mozzarella was melting off of the pie.  The flavours were infused with a few basil leaves.  Possibly THE best pizza I’ve ever had. 

After taking a walk through Central Park to walk off the pizza and prepare for our next eating destination, we went back to 60th street to try out the famous Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity (www.serendipity3.com), a restaurant that was featured in the movie Serendipity with Kate Beckinsale and John Kusack, and a beverage that has been featured on Oprah Winfrey’s Favourite Things list.   As New York City’s first coffee house boutique, with Tiffany lamps,  pink walls, old fashioned chandeliers, cake top decorations, etc, the interior of this place is the definition of “kitsch”.  The infamous Frozen Hot Chocolate is created with a mixture of 7 different chocolates and blended with ice, cream and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. 

frozen hot chocolate

As we made our way back through the city streets, we took a detour to Crumbs (www.crumbs.com), a bakery specializing in designer cupcakes.  Of course we had to pick up a couple of cupcakes to go.  You just can’t leave red velvet cupcakes behind!

Our final stop for the day was our local sushi restaurant in Times Square, Aoki (www.aokinyc.com) that, despite the constant traffic of tourists and locals, knows us when we stop by. 

sushi dinner

The next few days of our visit we were in Brooklyn, but this didn’t stop us from continuing on our eating tour.  Lenny’s Clam Bar (www.lennysclambar.com)A small, family-owned restaurant, specializing in all things shellfish and pasta, among other things.  We loved it so much that we went there 2 days in a row and enjoyed the house specialty of Baked Littleneck Clams, Seafood Salad, which was chock-full of scungilli (conch), calamari, and shrimp and traditional pastas.  

We also had the opportunity to explore downtown Brooklyn with an old friend and went to a quaint French Bistro called Le Petit March (www.bkbistro.com) where we met the owner and enjoyed fresh mussles and crunchy oysters.   And for dessert, we were taken to Cake Man Raven (www.cakemanraven.com), a place famous for its Red Velvet Cake. 

For our last day in the city we had an opportunity to meet up with a friend for brunch and a broadway musical, In the Heights.  For brunch we continued our eating tour and enjoyed pumpkin bread and lobster eggs benedict at Blue Fin (www.brguestrestaurants.com), a restaurant located at the W Hotel in Times Square.  After brunch and the musical, we decided to bookend our eating tour by returning to Patsy’s Pizzeria and Crumbs Bakery to repeat our initial visits.

Finally, after 6 days and 9 restaurants, our eating tour is DONE!

 

 

 





One Year Older

15 09 2009

One year older and many adventures wiser.  True to form as nomad travelers, Nathan and I spent our birthdays with two very different adventures during our coast to coast travels.

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AUGUST 21ST: DALLAS, TX

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you……” and with an extra ‘cha cha cha’, my birthday festivities began.  A leisurely morning spent with family and chick-fil-a specials, and an afternoon of pampering was topped off with an evening in downtown Dallas.   To mark the occasion we traveled 560 ft into the sky to experience Dallas at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, five-sixty, Dallas’ only rotating restaurant.  We took up prime real estate at the bar, right where all of the action was near the entrance, and much to our surprise, when we looked back we were no longer by the entrance, but looking into the kitchen.   Very cool way to experience Dallas, with the skyline constantly changing.

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After a walk on the observation deck, the museum of the Dallas skyline’s history and watching a spraypaint artist create an intergallactic masterpiece, it was off to bed, another year older.

SEPTEMBER 5TH: MOAB, UT

During our travels we often come across hidden gourmet treasures, and this time would be no exception.  Walking along the streets of Moab, Utah passing jeep after jeep ready for a day of off-roading, kayaks and white water rafting equipment, and lots of European tourists ready to battle with nature, we were very suprised to come across a little restaurant in an old ranch house called The Desert Bistro. Even more surprising, we were able to eat on a candlelit patio (with the resident cat I tried to befriend) and enjoy a meal of seared ahi tuna, braised antelope, poached duck and a blackberry napolean.  With the views of the towering canyons and a full moon, it was a great night.

The next morning, on Nathan’s actual birthday, we woke up bright and early and experienced what Moab is really all about with a 5 hour Jet Boat tour of the Colorado River, looking at ancient petroglyphs and pictographs etched into the cliffs, petrified trees, and using our imagination to turn the oddly shaped stones into plump french chefs named Gaston.

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A great birthday adventure before hitting the road to drive through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and finally end our day admist the cornfields of Iowa…





Land of the Sun God

27 05 2009

Built on a bluff facing the rising sun and crashing waves, is a spectacular Mayan city built in the honor of the Sun God, named Tulum.  It is one of the very few walled cities that ancient Mayans ever built, and we were lucky enough to get an up close and personal tour during our trip.

After an hour and a half trip out to the ancient sites we were introduced to Tulum by our tour guide, Victor, who took us through every single building, ruin and stone.  He even found us some pieces of old Mayan glass and pottery from the site.

entrance

It is amazing that after thousands of years, these structures are still standing in mostly full form (with the exception of all of the stones that were stolen through the years to built other people’s homes) and that you can still see hand prints on the buildings.

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We traveled through these ancients paths, along with many many iguanas, and learned the significance of all of the different temples and the importance of the placement of all of the buildings in relation to the position of the sun.  Each building had a small window on the top, which was the foundation of their calendar, since they were able to determine what time of year it was by the position of the sun in these different windows.

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Our guide took us to this one spot that was bare, really just a small incline covered in gravel.  It was nothing spectacular to see, and most of the other people there were passing it by.  It turns out that this spot was the most important spot in this ancient Mayan city.  This was the reference point for all of the other buildings.  From this point, you had a view of all of the temples in the city.  From this point, you were able to determine the position of the sun in relation to the buildings to keep track of the yearly calendar.

tulum

One of the interesting things our guide mentioned, was that the first calendar was found here and that it ended on December 21, 2012.  There are a lot of spectulations as to what this means, and some say that this date is the end of the current cycle and that the world is meant to restart and begin its next cycle (the dark (black) cycle) at this time.

After these puzzling thoughts, it was time to head to the beach that ran along the cliffs of this Mayan city.  The water was clear and turquoise, the waves nearly knocked me off my feet, and it was all a beautiful sight!

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Water Baby?

26 05 2009

Now, I wouldn’t say I’m the most comfortable in the water.  I’m definitely not a ‘water baby’, and my preference is never to be in water where I can’t touch the ground.  So it’s safe to say that I frolick in the water and I have a mean doggy paddle.  So with this being said, it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense that I would be off in Mexico snorkeling, kayaking, sailing and scuba diving.

But, that is exactly what happened.  We went out snorkeling twice and saw some amazing parrot fish and coral.  We were able to snorkel 5 minutes away from our resort at the 2nd largest coral reef in the world.  We saw a young sea turtle swimming along by itself, live conch shells, moray eels, baracudas and held baby star fish in our hands.

We were lucky enough to enjoy all of these water excursions by ourselves with just our guide.  Our snorkeling guide was Jaime (pronounced Hi-May) and all week he kept asking us if we wanted to go scuba diving.  Finally on our last day there, he said, “Traci, just admit it, you’re just scared.  You’re fine, so I’m going to bring the equipment to the pool and you can practice with all of the gear”.  So, Nathan went off to drink, and I frolicked in the pool with my flippers, my mask and my tank and respirator.  Let’s just say, I looked pretty cool.  So cool that I had a crowd of little mexican children swimming around me as if they were little fish trying to get in my way.

The pool practice worked and within the hour we were back in the boat and on our way to 25 feet under the water.

nathan on boattraci on the boat

It’s a good thing that we had another private excursion, because I definitely needed some one on one attention.  It appears that my body is very bouyant.  I had all of my gear and an 8 lbs weight belt on me, and no matter what I did I kept floating to the top.  I was following the lessons, breathe in to float up, breathe out to sink.  I got rid of all the air in my lungs….and nothing.  At one point we were maneuvering in between coral reef beds and with Jaime leading the way we followed.  Jaime looked back at us and looked past Nathan and all of a sudden zoomed over Nathan’s head, arms stretched out as if trying to catch a runaway balloon.  That balloon, would be me….  So he dragged me back down and pushed me forward.  Little did I know that he was adding weights to the back of my tank.  All of a sudden I started descending.  I didn’t know there were more weights on my tank so I started filling my lungs to give myself some lift.  I couldn’t get any more air inside me, and I was still sinking.  I had to exhale, and then I hit the sea floor with a not so graceful thud.  And that was it.  I couldn’t get myself going again and I was lying spread eagle on the bottom of the sea floor.

We spent 50 minutes 25 ft under water and it felt like 10.  We saw a huge lobster, crabs, trumpet fish, baby starfish, and unwittingly I pretended to be an injured fish to attract the attention of a 5 ft barracuda (I thought it was just another hand signal….apparently not).

I apologize that we don’t have any photos of our underwater sights, but here’s a video from one of our kayak trips to give you an idea of our surroundings.





Oh Mexico, How I miss you

22 05 2009

Let me set the scene:

White sand, turquoise water, bright blue sky, ocean breeze and no people. 

Cancun1 063 Bright blue pool, poolside bar, Bali beds, and no people

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We woke up at 3:30am to get to the airport for our 6am flight.  Almost got trampled by a bridezilla and her family (all wearing matching outfits) at the airport, and went through a health check to ensure we weren’t arriving to Cancun with any flu-like symptoms.  But, as you can see from the photos, it was all worth it. 

When we arrived at the resort, “Hurricane Influenza” had struck and we were two of 20 guests staying at the resort.  If you’ve ever gone to an all-inclusive Mexican resort, you know this is unusual.  I had expected to see row upon row of sunscreened bodies baking in the sun by the pool, and even more on the beach. I expected to hear the infamous Activities staff on the PA system speaking in spanish/english about water polo, dance lessons, pool tournaments, etc.  I had expected to hear the screaming of kids splashing in the pool, a bunch of college guys and girls heckling each other and yelling ‘dos cervasas por favor!’  Instead….it was quiet.  Serene.  Empty.

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Who knew we had actually bought our own resort for the week…