New York

Went to New York earlier this month. We stayed in Brooklyn which ended up being our favorite borough.

Myra and Roxanna's first time flying!

Had to figure out the subway system.

Brooklyn

Museum of Modern Art

New York Bagel 

Yankees game! 

Costa Rica Travel Tips

Excursion recommendations:

• Nicaragua tour- highly recommend 
• Mega Combo tour- great value! I only paid $90 for horseback riding, zip lining, water slide, local organic lunch, mud bath, and hot springs
• Palo Verde Boat Tour- fun, but not worth $90 

Other travel tips:

• Carry an empty water bottle through security and refill it after you pass security.
• Pre-book a car rental. We booked from the resort and paid $80 for one day. I met a couple that booked the rental online prior to arriving and they paid about $8 a day. 
• Book excursions at the resort. Our resort had two different travel agencies and we were able to shop at both and negotiate a better deal.
• If you book an excursion with a travel agent, ask if you need a "voucher." We didn't get a voucher when booking the excursion but almost every tour guide asked us for it. 
• Toiletries/ first aid kit: include Wet Ones singles, small hand sanitizer, travel toilet tissue, sting relief wipe, lots of Advil.
• It is better to bring two travel sized sunscreens than one regular sized bottle. You will use a lot of sunscreen, but you probably don't want to lug around a giant bottle on all of your excursions. 
• I wouldn't bring a lap top. The wi-fi at our resort is slow, our hotel room didn't have a free safe, I didn't need the lap top once, and leaving it at home would be one less thing to worry about. 
• Don't bother bringing a hair dryer or straightener. It's too hot.
• Bring small bills. Costa Rica accepts USD, but usually gives change in colones. Next time, I'm just going to bring all of my money in ones, fives, and tens. 
• The cheapest place to buy souvenirs is in Nicaragua. Ignore the shopping "tour guides" because they're annoying and they're just trying to get a tip. 
• Bring small easy to carry snacks like almonds or trail mix because excursion days are long days and you're basically on the tour guide's time. Especially important if you're a picky eater!

Roadtrip with the grandparents

Last week I took my grandparents to San Jose for my little cousin's 8th grade graduation. Traveling with old people is... challenging. I imagine it's a lot like traveling with children. When I'm driving by myself to San Jose, I prefer to stop only once or twice with each stop lasting less than 10 minutes. With my grandparents, we made 4 stops on the way to San Jose. One stop was about 45 minutes for lunch! If they had their way we probably would have stopped at every mission along the way. 

There is, however, one perk to traveling with oldies... handicap parking! 

vip parking

I had fun while in San Jose. We spent most of our time eating. If we weren't eating, we were thinking about eating or planning our next food stop. 

the foodies

On my last day in nor-cal, I was able to sneak away and spend some time in SF with Sarah, Willie, and Connie. Connie selected a restaurant for us to try that just happened to be the number one restaurant I've been dying to try for like two years! We took public transportation (yay!) to the Mission District of SF. I finally got to experience Gracias Madre  and their 100% organic vegan Mexican food. Yumm. 

chilaquiles from Gracias Madre

It was a fun three days with the cousins. Congrats to Connor! The youngest cousin is now in high school! That makes me feel oooold! Pretty soon I'll be needing that handicap parking ;)

the grad and me

Wanderlust

Today, I celebrated Earth Day by gardening and thrift store shopping. One of my coolest finds at the thrift store was a bag of random stationery. I wasn't able to open the bag until after I purchased it. I took a chance and bought the bag. It was full of the coolest post cards! My favorite ones were these from Wanderlust: 30 Postcards For Insatiable Travelers. Here are a few of my favorite post cards from that collection:

Vegetarian Camp Food

This past weekend, JR and I went camping at Lake Casitas to celebrate his 25th birthday! This was my first time going camping as vegetarian. Normally, I bring cheeseburgers for one night and chicken breast for the second night. This time I had to get a little bit creative. I wanted something easy (I only bring foil, a pan, and a spatula), budget friendly, savory, and filling (because JR is a meat eater). So, I bought a 10 lb bag of potatoes.

The first night we had baked potatoes. I poked little holes in the potatoes, wrapped them in foil and threw them on the grill! Talk about cheap, easy, and filling! We topped our potatoes with cheese, salsa, sour cream, green onions and butter. Yumm.

We saved one potato for breakfast. We chopped it up, and mixed it with soy chorizo and eggs. We turned this into breakfast burritos using the salsa, cheese, and sour cream. I highly recommend soy chorizo from Trader Joes.

My sister met up with us for the day. For lunch, we had sandwiches. Since JR and Kelsey are meat-eaters, I really wanted to prove that giving up meat doesn't mean you're stuck eating flat and boring grilled cheese sandwiches all the time. Eating like a vegetarian is delicious! I wanted our sandwiches to be special. I wanted the ingredients to be piled high. I bought some cheese rolls and croissants for the bread. Inside, we put spicy hummus, tomatoes, onions, spinach, lettuce, mushrooms, cheese and tons of avocado. Avocado is important because it really turns the sandwich into something special.

The second night we feasted on sauteed veggies. They came out delicious and definitely filling. We had zucchini, squash, red onions, white onions, green onions, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, and one slice of jalapeno. I had sliced and seasoned (salt and pepper) everything before we went camping so all we had to do was dump the veggies into the pan with butter and mix it around.

For dessert, we had s'mores made with Reese's.

Overall, I found that planning a vegetarian menu while camping makes my life a thousand times easier. For one, I don't have to worry about food contamination (did the chicken juices leak onto other foods while in the ice chest?). Also, I didn't have to worry about keeping the ice chest super super cold. One bag of ice lasted the entire weekend because I didn't have to worry about keeping meats cold. And finally, vegetables are cheap. I bought all my food for under $45.

Do you have any other ideas on simple vegetarian meals that I could make while camping?

Flagstaff 2011- Day Three- Part Two

Ok, time for me to sit down and finally finish writing about my trip.

So we met the guys for lunch at Galaxy Diner, a cute little 50s themed diner with yummy fries.



And after lunch, we had about an hour to kill before I had to be at the airport. Someone suggested that we go to a lookout point so off we went! What an amazing view!




Some man offered to take a group shot of us :)





After we took a few pictures, it was time for me to go :(

Rob drove us all to the airport. I thought it was really nice of them to not only drop me off (that would have been nice enough!) but they actually parked and walked in and waited with me. We sat at the bar for a few minutes, but then it was time for me to go through security. :(



I flew on that tiny little plane from Flagstaff to Phoenix. It was 80 degrees in Phoenix which was such a big difference from the Flagstaff weather. I waited in Phoenix for a couple hours. While I waited, I uploaded pics on Facebook. Thank goodness for Facebook! It can entertain me for hours!

Then I flew from Phoenix to SLO. The guy sitting next to me took up more than his fair share of space. Also, he could have benefited from taking a shower. I finished my book just as we started to land. (Hilarious book and a fast read! Perfect for my needs this weekend!)

Flying at night always reminds me of my first nighttime flying experience when I was in the 8th grade and we flew into Washington D.C. It's so cool to look down and see all those orange and white clusters of light.



To be honest, arriving at SLO was kind of depressing. I think arriving at an airport with no one to pick you up is one of the saddest experiences. I lugged my own luggage through the thick fog into the dark and dusty parking lot and drove myself home. I felt a heaviness in my stomach, and I just felt sort of bummed to be back.

But I don't want to end my story on a depressing note! When I got home, my brother was still awake. We immediately started playing our newest Wii game, Just Dance 3. I mean, I had that Wii controller in my hand before I even set down my purse! At first I sucked, but that's because Myles had all day to practice. Ahahaha. :)

Flagstaff 2011- Day Three

We were really slow to wake up on Sunday. We really didn't have much planned for the day other than a late lunch with Justin and friends.

Christine and I went to another super cute coffee shop downtown called Late for the Train. I got a Coconino Mocha and Christine got some sort of latte.



We sat outside and enjoyed our drinks in the sunshine.



Here's a pic of us that you won't find on Facebook. Most of the pics I have of myself from this weekend are unacceptable for Facebook because my bangs make it look like I have a mullet! But since only, like, two people read this blog I'll go ahead and post a pic here. Hahahaha.



After coffee, we just walked around Target (our fav store!) and Jo-anns to kill some time before we had our late lunch.

Then, we went back to Christine's so I could pack my stuff and say goodbye to her roomie.

I'll post more later... lunch break is almost over :)

Weekend Road Trip 9/16/11

Right after work Friday, I drove down to Camarillo for another weekend getaway. My sister's apartment is turning into the weekend party place and I love it!

As soon as I arrived, Kelsey and her roomie, Lindsey, were ready to go to dinner. We drove back up to Oxnard and met my mom and nino who came separately. Our wait was almost 1.5 hours just to get seated! BJs is the place to be on a Friday night! While we waited for a table, we took some pictures...

When our food finally came, we were disappointed to find out that they made my sister's order wrong. They took her pizza back and offered to buy us dessert! Of course we got pizookie!

I love my sister's roommate. When the desserts came out (we decided on sharing two pizookies) Lindsey was like, "I always feel like it's a competition when you're sharing a dessert." Hahahaha... Judging by the photo above, Kelsey was in it to win it!

Kelsey drove us back to Camarillo and we had another fun photo shoot/dance party in the car.

Back at the apartment, we just relaxed and had a fun little slumber party!

____

By the time I woke up the next morning, my sister had cooked us all a delicious breakfast! Such a little Martha Stewart! We all took our time getting ready. By 10:30 I was back on the road with my favorite little travel buddy. <3

I drove down to Torrance to meet up with my friend, Michael. He just moved back to California after attending grad school in Virginia. Yay!

We ate at El Torito Grill. It was so nice to just catch up on each other's lives. Mike actually drove back to California from Virginia and turned it into a road trip. It was a baseball theme road trip where he and his friend stopped at various baseball stadiums along the way! Sooo cool!

I thought the tortilla looked kinda funny...

After lunch, we were soooo stuffed! Mike suggested that we go shopping! We drove to a nearby shopping mall which was half indoor and half outdoor. As I was walking around, I started recognizing some of the places. I realized that I had actually been to this mall before!

They had this cool used book/CDs/video game store. I bought a Sheryl Crow CD for $5.

We tried to take a picture of ourselves to send to Sarah, but it was really difficult because Mike is like a foot taller than me. We eventually took a good pic that included most of both of us.

Then, some man offered to take a real picture of us. :)

Hanging out with Mike made me really miss my college life. I'm so glad he's back in California, but it's kinda depressing because now Sarah has left the state :(

Anyways, I had to leave so that I could drive to Culver City to drop off my Auntie Julie's cane (she left it at our house during Labor Day weekend). When I got to her house, we chatted for a bit. I was disappointed to find out that I had just missed my cousin, Miki. She left for work right before I showed up. I told my Auntie that I would have liked to visit Miki at work, but I didn't have a GPS and I didn't want to get lost. Auntie Julie was so cute, she was like, "Want me to show you how to get there?!" So we hopped in the car and drove to the grocery store Miki works at.

One cool thing was that my Auntie had a handicap parking thingy so I got to park right in front! We said hi to Miki, but she was super busy so we just walked around the huge store. Auntie Julie pointed out the Jamba Juice, Starbucks, bank, pharmacy, florist, bakery etc. (the store was huge).

After that, I dropped Auntie Julie off at her house and was back on the road again.

I drove to Krispy Kreme where I bought 3 dozen doughnuts. Yum!

Then, I drove to Camarillo to drop off doughnuts with Kelsey and Lindsey. Lindsey was at the gym, so I just waited around for her to come back so I could say hi. I left about a half hour later.

On the drive back home, I blasted my new Sheryl Crow CD and I just felt happy. I love making little road trips. I love getting away. I love visiting old friends. I love spending time with my family. And I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. <3

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day One, Part Two

We got to Santa Cruz at about lunch time. Luckily, the hotel let us check in early! I love staying at (clean) hotels!

!



We rested for a few minutes and then got back in the car and drove to UC Santa Cruz! I have been on the campus twice before. It's hard to believe that the first time I was here was like 8 years ago and the last time I was here was like 5 years ago! It makes me feel old!

The campus is really beautiful with lots of trees, hills, and roads perfect for skating!



Since nothing was open on campus, we drove downtown and had lunch at a little cafe. We were super excited that they served breakfast all day, but in the end, none of us ordered any breakfast items.



We walked around and shopped downtown for a couple hours, but no one bought anything. I saw a pink Santa Cruz skateboard that I considered buying but ended up not. But I'm still thinking about buying it... hmmmm...

Then, we drove down to the boardwalk. We walked around there for a little while. We were expecting it to be in the mid-70s, but it was much colder! Brrrr.



After that, we drove back to our hotel to freshen up before dinner.

For dinner, we walked across the street to Caffe Lucio.



This restaurant has character! Lucio himself looks over every plate and you can hear him yelling at the servers in his Italian accent. Then, in the middle of our nice dinner, our waitress turns on a disco ball and then all of a sudden it was a party! There were flashing lights, a disco ball, and Black Eyed Peas blasting on the stereo!

I really like Santa Cruz! I enjoy the hippie-ness! The best thing is that it has been super easy to find good vegetarian food at every place we've been to!

Tomorrow, we're driving down to SJ to do some shopping and visit with cousins <3

Labor Day Weekend Road Trip- Day One

We wanted to get out of town for the long weekend, so we decided to take a trip to Santa Cruz!

Sachsenhausen