Fall Travels 4 of 8: New Orleans

We arrived at 11 am and took a cab to our hotel in the French Quarter; our hotel was a little French place called Place D’Ames Hotel. Seriously… I felt like we were in Europe. All of the buildings in the French quarter have open aired hallways and court yards, as did our hotel.

We went to lunch at Bubba Gumps and the waiters were way friendly and chatty. They even pulled up a chair to talk with us and quiz us on our Forest Gump trivia (which isn’t much). We took a bus tour of the city. It went all over the place. We some Katrina damage, went to an above the ground cementery, went to the city park which is really old and has these trees that grow crazy things on them and I recognized a bridge in the movie Benjamin Button, drove by lots of cool New Orleans homes, saw Tulane, Xavier and some other schools… it was a really great tour. We were a bit nervous and felt out of place and didn’t know where to start so the tour was perfect to get a good over view of everything. We got to see a lot of the city and we learned a lot too. You know how back in the day family fortunes and businesses were passed onto the oldest son, well in the Creole culture of New Orleans the family fortune and businesses are passed onto the child that shows the most intelligence and promise. Well, girls usually develop and mature before boys so a lot of the fortunes were passed onto women in the past. Weird uh?

We even drove down a street where they hold the mardi gras parade and there are STILL beads in the trees. After the tour we rode ferry across the Mississippi River… it was free! And then we just rode it back.

We then walked down Bourbon Street. Umm… that was an experience. I’m glad to check that off the list of things to do in life, but I’m ok if I never do again. There were a lot of people approaching you to eat or shop or give them tips for whatever talent they are featuring. There were several clubs of unsavory nature, but apparently we didn’t fit the clientele and I’m ok with that. We did get stopped by one man dressed as a policeman and he gave us a ticket for being too cute, not partying hard enough and for guys watching us.

After that we took off to find some dinner. We had heard that Frechman Street had a lot of cool live jazz clubs that served dinner. It was getting dark and we were getting a little creeped out by the streets (a lot of homeless people, drunk people, dark alleys, etc) and we couldn’t find a club that we liked… luckily we made our way back to the French Quarter and ate a little pizza place. While we ate dinner we googled pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina’s house and went and found it (or at least like to think we did)! Then we went to the famous Café Du Mode (café of the world) where they sale beignets (ben-yays) and got them for dessert! The café is open 24/7 and the beignets are these delicious scones with about a half cup of powdered sugar in the bag with them. Yummo! The dangerous thing… the café was only a block from the hotel… we knew where we were going to stop on a frequent basis.

The next morning we ate breakfast in the sunroom of the hotel! We then took the old historic trolley to the garden district where all the really nice houses are. (History on Garden District: this wealthy plantation owner once owned the garden district but then he cheated on his wife… several times. So in the divorce the judge said that the husband had to give his wife half of his riches but the husband didn’t have any money, just land, so the judge made him give his best land to his wife. Well she took it and then sold it in pieces and ended up being worth 3x her husband) We did some more celeb-estalking (celebrity real-estate stalking) and found Sandra Bullock’s house. We walked on Magazine Street and nearly perished in the heat! We walked Royal Street (a more sophisticated street in the French Quarter) and I found this awesome designer hat shop! I wanted to buy all of the hats! We tried gumbo and jambalaya for lunch… tasty but not something I would crave.

We walked around Jackson square and there was an awesome band playing in the square. People were playing jazz music all over New Orleans but this bad was legit.

We explored the French market and flee market and then went back to our courtyard to take a break. We met some old people from Florida and we now have an invitation to stay at Hammock Island in St. Augustine Florida. Bob with a B invited us to their home.

(Pictures of the courtyard at our hotel)

We ate dinner at the Market Grill and the jazz band took a break and came and sat by us. The saxophonist has a daughter in Pocatello and he chatted a bit about Mormons. Nice guy. He told us to be careful twice when we left. We walked around some more, went through an art gallery, peeked again at Bourbon Street at night and remembered why it was a bit too much. And then we ended the night back in our delightful courtyard feeling the warmth and humidity that symbolizes the meaning of vacation. Next morning we flew home!

Fall Travels 3 of 8: Maine

The Saturday Lisa and I were in Boston we drove up the coast to Maine! On our way we stopped at little port towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. In one port town we found this huge store in a barn and it was like a vintage garage sale; lots of random funny stuff. In another port town we got to watch a drawbridge go up and then down… very cool.

We took a detour to go see Philip Exeter Academy… the number one boarding school in the U.S. It’s where all the yuppies send their kids. And oh my goodness, it was amazing! It looks like a college campus… except for kids! We then went to another port town and ate at a seafood place on a peninsula right next to a lighthouse; I had crab… probably for the first and last time.

We then arrived at our final stop; Kennebunkport! The Bush family owns a peninsula there and it’s known as the Bush Compound. It has this huge house on it and then a guest house, tennis courts and putting greens. When we stopped to look at it two boats, one black, the other one white, pulled up to the dock and… BUSH Sr got out of the white boat and went up to the house and then the black boat (secret service) took off. It was really cool. There was the lady standing by us and she started talking about the secret service and pointed out a man standing by the group of people with us that was secret service but then she started getting really paranoid and pointing out all these other people as secret service; this one girl even went jogging by and the lady whispered to us, “secret service for sure… I mean, you never know!”

The rest of the night Lisa and I kept joking around and pointing out random people in the town and saying… they’ve got to be secret service. We drove around Kennebunkport looking at all the beautiful coastal homes and even found a rode that we kept going back to because it had our favorite houses.

That night we ate at a seafood bar/restaurant and there was a football game playing and all these people were gathered there to watch it… so we joined in the fun while we ate. Probably one of my favorite restaurants of the trip, just a fun atmosphere and the food was good too. After that we drove all the back home… no stops.

Fall Travels 2 of 8: Boston

My next trip was with my boss but actually my friend from USU (she also bought the All You Can Jet Pass) which was a blast. This trip will actually be three blog posts because it was Boston-Maine-and-New Orleans!

Boston was AMAZING! I loved it! I could move there!

The first day we arrived we rented a car and as we were leaving the airport we were a little nervous about driving in a big city and we didn’t entirely trust our gps. The next thing we knew the rode turned into a tunnel which went under water and we lost our satellite connection with the gps and there were all these turn offs in the tunnels, we were laughing only to hide our terror of being underwater and not knowing where to go. Story a little bit shorter… we made it out!

We visited Harvard… which I LOVED! What a beautiful campus. Oh my gosh; and they have“houses,” like in Harry Potter! All new freshmen are assigned to an actual house and alumni and professors are over the houses. It’s a place for the freshmen to go hang out and do homework but they also have dinners in the fancy dinning rooms. It’s amazing! “Ten points from Gryffindor!” Except not really. We ate at John Harvard’s Brewery, a common college student hang out, that day for lunch... very classy-cool.

We walked the Freedom Trail: a literal red line trail around Boston that leads to historical places and buildings… I literally walked on history! I didn’t throw tea in the water though. While walking the Freedom Trail we saw a guy at a church dressed like an actual friar, like on Robin Hood! But it wasn’t a costume. We had dessert that night at a chocolate café in Harvard Square; it was the richest hot chocolate I have ever had… in fact, we were saying that if we were still in college, we would go there with our roommates and dare eachother to chug the hot chocolate because it was so rich. That night we drove around in neighboring towns Lexington and Concord. The houses were AMAZING. The east is so sophisticated and quaint.

The next day we walked around BostonCommons and the Public Gardens. They are these huge parks right in the city; so gorgeous and lush. We stopped by Cheers but we weren’t hungry for lunch so we didn’t stay to eat… sadly nobody knew my name. We went to the first public library in the U.S. with my cousin's wife, Chrissie, that was way cool. And the library had a special display of vintage travel posters, which I loved and wanted to steal some away to decorate with. We walked around Fenway Park, the team was out of town that week we went so I plan to go back to Boston when there is a RedSox game.



We witness a manscream like a girl… story: So we’re waiting to cross a street and then we seethis girl turn a corner but instead of turning wide enough that she is still in therode, she pulls into a lane of parked cars and she ends up right behind aparked car. Well the flow of traffic behind her, followed suit and were stuck.(girl drivers… disgusting ;) ) Well, the car right behind the girl is a man inan Audi. Well he rolls down his window and starts barking at her (not a literalbark, just deep angry yelling) while honking his horn. Well the intelligent girl, ahem, puts her car in reverse and it jumps backwards. The barking man’s voice then jumps to a high pitch squeal! It was the funniest thing.

That night we went back to Harvard to eat at Barkley’s Burger Joint (recommended by Chrissie; it’s a restaurant that names all of its burgers after celebrities and it’s a hopping place where you sit where ever they put you and it may even be sharing a table with other people.) We lucked out and ate at the bar so we chatted with our toothless waiter while we ate. I had the Shawn Bradley burger. He was very delicious.

On Sunday we went to the MIT singles ward! Pretty much found the man of my dreams there! He was good looking, dressed well (ok, everyone in Boston dresses well), out going, obviously smart if he is going to MIT, church attendee, charismatic… aaaaand he’s in Boston and I’m in Utah. After church we explored MIT and then finished exploring Harvard as well. I got to see where they row crew. We crossed the river to go to the Harvard School of Business Campus to have dinner with cousin Brady and Chrissie. I’m so jealous, they live on such a beautiful campus. Chrissie made us this amazing salmon dinner and twiced baked potatoes and for dessert she made us an apple pie with apples she had picked herself on an apple picking outing. It was really so much fun to see my cousin and to spend time with his sweet wife. Thanks again you two!

Dorms on MIT's Campus... very cool and creative.

The Crew House at Harvard

The Lampoon House at Harvard

(The Lampoons: Basically started by a group of guys making fun of the Greek System (Frats and Sororities). Basically to be a Lampoon you have to be funny/ good at practicle jokes/ etc. Writers on Saturday Night Live have come from the Lampoon house, Connon O'Brian and B.J. Novak were Lampoons. The Lampoons even have a comedy newsletter and magazine. I loved it!)

After dinner we went to the famous Mike’s Pastries in Little Italy and bought some pastries to take home. After that we walked around Beacon Hill, the richest real estate in America and then we walked in a big triangle because we thought our car was down farther than it really was. It was getting dark so we were able to look into windows like creepers. Lots of spiral staircases and some cool houses! After that we said goodbye to Boston and headed back to our hotel.

(P.S. I took all of these pictures! (except for the ones I'm in... obvi) Cool eh?!)

All You Can Jet 2010

In August of 2010 I bought an All You Can Jet pass from JetBlue. Basically this pass was an unlimited plane ticket for the month of September. I bought the pass for the amazing one flat rate of $500 and I could book as many flights as I would like during September 7 to October 7. It made perfect sense to buy this pass: (1) I love to travel (2) I was graduated from college (3) I was finishing up my job at USU and hadn't started the job hunt so I could easily take the time... perfect sense :)
Finally getting to the point: When buying this pass I promised a lot of people I would blog about my adventures... well... one might say I'm a bit behind... BUT HEY! Why not tell about these adventures a year later... like an anniversary type of thing: married people eat the top of their cake... I'll tell my stories. So! I'm going to be writing blog posts this month about my 2010 Fall travels (I'm going to throw in a few other trips I took along with the All You Can Jet trips)
1 of 8: Vegas
Exactly one year ago today I flew to Vegas for the day to go shopping... haha because I could! Basically I got on the plane that morning with my purse, jacket and a book. To add to the ridiculousness of this... I had a layover in Long Beach but I didn't care. Once I got to Vegas, I took the airport shuttle bus ($8) to the Planet Hollywood where the Mile Long Shops were and I headed straight to H&M. If I'm going to fly somewhere to go shopping; might as well go where I can't go at home. Once I was done with my shopping adventures at the mall, I ran over to the Belgio where I purchased some gelato and then went outside to watch the fountains (one of my favorite things in Vegas). It was lovely: chocolate gelato, warm sun, mystical fountains, shopping bags filled with cute clothes :)
After that I caught a taxi back to the airport (again, I felt very cool all by myself in a taxi with my shopping bags) in perfect timing to board the plane right away. On the flight home I ended up in the very first row of the plane (very spacious), sitting next to a man named Michael Scott. No joke. He was a talker; so we talked the entire flight home. He was from Vegas, used to be a "criminal man" but changed his life around and now volunteers at a catholic school coaching the football team. He also asked if I was Mormon, I said yes, he said, "Hmm, I like Mormons. They're good people. My nephew went to school in Colorado and dated a Mormon girl and she really turned him into a good boy. I couldn't do it though... but... yeah.... I like Mormons."


Still to come:
Boston
Maine
New Orleans
San Diego
Lake Powell
Washington DC
Cancun

Overheard at Work...

So I currently work in a Harry Potter closet... well not that bad but it is an abandoned file room. Because of this I am a bit removed from the people who work out in the rest of my floor BUT I can still hear their conversations... well here are some things I have overheard while working:

Let's get some iliterate guys who can actually play ball, then maybe the UofU would start winning again.

That's right! I'm wearing two different types of earrings... I wish it were a fashion statement.

Anything you say can and WILL be held against you.

Umm... who decided on the baby poop green color?

I'm good at offending people.

We should rid the world of all hard cookies.

It only takes one person to make a situation awkward.


What are some funny things you have overheard at work?

If I die...

Me at work the other day:

So umm… without thinking (and seriously! Why wasn’t I thinking) I just ate a crumb off my desk. Ew! I know! Welp then I just thought of the elevendy-billion germs that could be on a desk… so I may die. If so… just know I love ya

Midnight (almost) Gardening

So umm... it's almost midnight. I need to get to bed because I will be getting up in 6 hours to go running. I look over my day's to-do list and cross off the things I did (LOVE IT!) and then look at tomorrow's list.

Run 4 miles
Work
Journal Ragnar (something that keeps getting bumped)
Look into GRE prep courses
Plant flower seeds

Hmm... flower seeds... that's quick, I'll just do it right now! So I take the packet of flower seeds sitting on my dresser and head down stairs.

Supplies needed:

Flower pot (Found in my mom's messy room... where else.. haha)
Rocks (Gathered from around the deck outside)
Soil (Put my galoshes on, went into the garage, found the soil bag and used the cute garden shovel to scoop the dirt into the pot)
Water (Kitchen sink... so simple)
SEEDS! (Opened the wedding favor and sprinkled the seeds onto the dirt)
Fork (Raked the seeds into the dirt with the fork... so resourceful... I know!)

Yup... nothing funny, I just love that I decided to plant my flower seeds right before brushing my teeth, saying my prayers and going to bed.

G'Night!

(If they don't die I will be sure to post a picture of the seeds all grown up)