Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacation. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2010
a photo to hold you over...
I plan on writing up a whole blog about the time I had in Richmond, but haven't had time at this point (just finished up the photos from my session with Nevin and fam, my faves from that session to follow). When I was gone I figured out that I actually did break my SLR camera when I dropped it at Target Field. It will focus on things close up, but any further than 8 feet away, it can't/won't focus.... I was bummed when I figured that out in the Luray Caverns. Even so, I was able to get some good photos... I wanted to share one with you... It was my favorite part of the caverns... this area is called Dream Lake... the bottom is a reflection of the ceiling.... so beautiful!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
This and That
Since it straight up sucks to be a fan of MN sports right now....Twins season comes to an early end...and even though we got the Super Freak back on the Vikings, we still can't pull off a prime time win. Since firing the coach of the MN Wild 2 years ago, that's nothing to look forward to, and the Wolves? Well, the Wolves have been nothing since getting rid of Kevin Garnett... So, I'm turning my focus on my upcoming vacation to visit Dan. I'm super excited only 43 days to go (but who is counting?:). Dan's always telling me "I wish you were here so we could do this together" and "I wish you were here so we could go do that together" With my flight purchased and time off approved, we've got our chance to do this and that together. So I must ask Dan, what should we do when I get to town? This always goes over well.. I think he should come up with something to do b/c he's always talking about this and that... and he wants me to come up with something since I'm in town, and he wants to bring me to places I want to go....
The nice thing about having friends spread across our country is that when I want to take a trip somewhere, I've got places to go, and personal tour guides to their cities. I usually leave it up to them to make a plan, because I'm pretty much down for anything... and if I do the planning, we'd probably end up in some tourist trap...They know where the cool stuff is, they know where the good food is. After all, they live there and I don't. I can tell you the best place for a juicy lucy in MN... I suspect if someone went looking online, they'd find a bunch of places that have them, but I know the place that has the best juicy lucys... You see where I'm going here?!
Anyway... Last spring we talked about going to the Natural Bridge when I was in town. We didn't end up going there, just sticking around the Richmond area since it was raining in the mountains... So I revisited that idea... It's something I found when googling what to do in VA.
Dan went camping in the mountains over the weekend, and had lots of time to think...think about what we could do in VA. Something he's done, something he hasn't... Anyway, he talked with his buddies he was camping with to see what they thought...where we should go. Just as I figured, the Natural Bridge is a tourist trap (see...that's why I don't want to do the planning). He got a few ideas.... and now he wants me to decide where to go from there.... and they couldn't be two ideas that were more different, or two ideas that where anywhere near each other in the state of VA.
The first is a place called Luray Caverns. I checked out the website, it looks pretty cool. I'm not too thrilled with the website, I can't tell if these caverns are all in one area, or if we have to drive from one cavern to the next... And I couldn't find any map that shows you where these are compared to one another.
Luray is in the mountains. That's one thing Dan and I have yet to do while I visit. If we were to do this we'd find little cottages or a bed and breakfast to stay in. I loved the Garden and Sea Inn b&b we stayed at last year...
Last year when I visited Dan over Thanksgiving went to Virginia's Eastern Shore, at Chincoteague Island. This was fun, but since it was November, it's totally the off season, so there wasn't many people around, nor much to do. But, what it was though, was on the ocean. I love the ocean.
The ocean is the other option Dan mentioned... Virginia Beach. Again, it's off season, but it's the ocean. Did I mention I love the ocean? Sidebar: the more I write ocean, the more it looks wrong... I know it's right, but it looks wrong. Anyway, from what I'm looking at there, it does not look like anything special, just a city on the ocean.... However, that means awesome seafood, and you know we don't get much of that here in MN... If we were to go to VA Beach, we'd try to find a cheap hotel to stay at since it's the off season...
So the debate is on... the mountains or the ocean........
The nice thing about having friends spread across our country is that when I want to take a trip somewhere, I've got places to go, and personal tour guides to their cities. I usually leave it up to them to make a plan, because I'm pretty much down for anything... and if I do the planning, we'd probably end up in some tourist trap...They know where the cool stuff is, they know where the good food is. After all, they live there and I don't. I can tell you the best place for a juicy lucy in MN... I suspect if someone went looking online, they'd find a bunch of places that have them, but I know the place that has the best juicy lucys... You see where I'm going here?!
Anyway... Last spring we talked about going to the Natural Bridge when I was in town. We didn't end up going there, just sticking around the Richmond area since it was raining in the mountains... So I revisited that idea... It's something I found when googling what to do in VA.
Dan went camping in the mountains over the weekend, and had lots of time to think...think about what we could do in VA. Something he's done, something he hasn't... Anyway, he talked with his buddies he was camping with to see what they thought...where we should go. Just as I figured, the Natural Bridge is a tourist trap (see...that's why I don't want to do the planning). He got a few ideas.... and now he wants me to decide where to go from there.... and they couldn't be two ideas that were more different, or two ideas that where anywhere near each other in the state of VA.
The first is a place called Luray Caverns. I checked out the website, it looks pretty cool. I'm not too thrilled with the website, I can't tell if these caverns are all in one area, or if we have to drive from one cavern to the next... And I couldn't find any map that shows you where these are compared to one another.
Luray is in the mountains. That's one thing Dan and I have yet to do while I visit. If we were to do this we'd find little cottages or a bed and breakfast to stay in. I loved the Garden and Sea Inn b&b we stayed at last year...
Last year when I visited Dan over Thanksgiving went to Virginia's Eastern Shore, at Chincoteague Island. This was fun, but since it was November, it's totally the off season, so there wasn't many people around, nor much to do. But, what it was though, was on the ocean. I love the ocean.
The ocean is the other option Dan mentioned... Virginia Beach. Again, it's off season, but it's the ocean. Did I mention I love the ocean? Sidebar: the more I write ocean, the more it looks wrong... I know it's right, but it looks wrong. Anyway, from what I'm looking at there, it does not look like anything special, just a city on the ocean.... However, that means awesome seafood, and you know we don't get much of that here in MN... If we were to go to VA Beach, we'd try to find a cheap hotel to stay at since it's the off season...
So the debate is on... the mountains or the ocean........
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Balt-i-more
Okay i'm gonna get this D O N E! Baltimore was a beautiful city. okay we were only in the downtown area, but what we saw of Baltimore was amazing. I would love to live downtown Baltimore. they have some really cool condos overlooking the harbor. they are million dollar condos, but that does not make me want them any less!! okay...here we go
I arrived in Richmond on time, thank you AirTran... Dan was there waiting for me... Jumped in his car and we headed up to Baltimore, MD. It was a pretty quick ride if you ask me. I guess it must have been 2 hours or something, but it went by fast being in the same car with Dan :)
We stopped in the outter Baltimore area to leave his car at a light rail station... we took the train in to downtown Baltimore, we were just two blocks from our hotel, the Sharedon. It was a beautiful hotel. We got there at 10... so we didn't do much that night, ordered some room service, and headed to bed.
Thursday we got up and headed to the Inner Harbor. We had lunch at Phillips Seafood. It was pretty good. The view was better than the food if you ask me. After, we got our tickets to the water taxi which would take us down to Fort Mc Henry. It was a fun way to get down there, going thru the harbor, rather than taking a taxi cab! Dan entertained folks on the water taxi by asking ridiculous questions about pirates and if we could take over Fort Mc Henry... Anyway, the fort was beautiful.. we walked around the park for an hour or two, taking photos and just enjoying the view. Fort Mc Henry is the site where the National Anthem was inspired and written. Here are some photos I took at the fort:
I arrived in Richmond on time, thank you AirTran... Dan was there waiting for me... Jumped in his car and we headed up to Baltimore, MD. It was a pretty quick ride if you ask me. I guess it must have been 2 hours or something, but it went by fast being in the same car with Dan :)
We stopped in the outter Baltimore area to leave his car at a light rail station... we took the train in to downtown Baltimore, we were just two blocks from our hotel, the Sharedon. It was a beautiful hotel. We got there at 10... so we didn't do much that night, ordered some room service, and headed to bed.
Thursday we got up and headed to the Inner Harbor. We had lunch at Phillips Seafood. It was pretty good. The view was better than the food if you ask me. After, we got our tickets to the water taxi which would take us down to Fort Mc Henry. It was a fun way to get down there, going thru the harbor, rather than taking a taxi cab! Dan entertained folks on the water taxi by asking ridiculous questions about pirates and if we could take over Fort Mc Henry... Anyway, the fort was beautiful.. we walked around the park for an hour or two, taking photos and just enjoying the view. Fort Mc Henry is the site where the National Anthem was inspired and written. Here are some photos I took at the fort:
We even bought Jaw Harps at the fort gift shop. I haven't seen one of these since 4th grade, when our whole class had them for playing 'chicken in the hay' i think that's what its called... anyway.. after visiting the fort, we walked around downtown Baltimore a bit more before heading over to Camden Yards for the Oriole/Yankee game. We had a group of people ask us how to get to the Inner Harbor, we explained it to them, then asked if they'd take our photo in front of the ballpark:
After walking around the ballpark, it was time to go in and check out our seats.. great view! wish it wasn't the friggin yankees that were in town. It was rather strange that at least half the fans in the stands were Yankee fans. I over heard people saying if the tickets to the yankees stadium weren't so expensive, they'd be going to games there... but it's cheap to fly to Baltimore and catch a game there!
I'm glad I started this tradition... I buy a hat for the home team of every ball park I have visited. this is stadium number nine for me (Dome, Miller Park, Turner Field, Cominski, Wrigley field, National's Stadium, the Jake, Target Field, and Camden Yards!) It's nice to have something from each park I've seen. what better than a hat collection :)
This is stadium number FOUR for Dan and me!
The Yankees won (surprise surprise) 4-1. After the game we went back to the Inner Harbor to take some photos. There was a full moon, and it was beautiful over the harbor!
This is my favorite of the photos I took that night:
We found this cool water fountain/sculpture that you could walk thru and around... it was pretty darn cool :) More photos a little later on that i took during the day!
Friday we got up and checked out of the hotel. They were able to check our bags so that we could walk around a few hours. We decided we headed up to Federal Hill. see the photo below. It wasn't a fun walk up! it was totally worth it though, beautiful views of the city!
We walked down the hill and had lunch at the RS. I dont remember the name of this place, as i always called it the Rusty Scrotum. it obviously wasn't the name...but since i continued calling it that, i can't remember the real name! it was delicious! i had a crabcake sammy. mmmm..
We continued to just walk around the inner harbor for a while longer before heading out of town.
Here is a photo of the water fountain/sculpture thingy we found thrusday night. The metal sculpture on the left hand side is called Ecstasy of Love. beautiful!
That was our time in Baltimore.. This whole going to every MLB park is really awesome...I never sat down and thought "oh Baltimore, that's a city i'd like to go to" same thing with Cleveland... But i LOVED both cities! I'm super excited to see more ballparks and new cities :)
Sunday, May 9, 2010
my vacation...Richmond
Well, this blog thing wont let me add anymore photos, sooo....I'm starting backwards at Richmond. then Baltimore will be next!
We left Baltimore at about 3pm... should have taken about 2 hours to get home, but driving in rush hour traffic thru Washington DC was a challange... it took us 5 hours to get home, minus an hour to eat dinner. We stopped in Fredericksburg to have dinner. On our way back to the car we walked past St George's church and it's cemetery. I said to Dan "I'm gonna take a photo and see if I can get any ghosts in it" sure enough, i get a big ol orb in the first photo i take!!
We woke up early on Saturday morning to head over to the racetrack. We first made a stop at great clips where dan got a mullet. as you can see in this photo of us tailgating! It was a warm and toasty day in Richmond... not sure how hot it was, but it was HOT... we had lots of beer and vodka... but i only had one bloody mary.. two beers, then i drank water the rest of the time, had to stay hydrated so i didn't have a head ache for the race :) you can see in this photo i am smiling... my allergies had not kicked in just yet... I had a horrible allergy attack, my eyes wouldn't stop watering and then the sneezing started! dan's friend Krista came and gave me a clariten, so that helped a little.. but it was not until we got into the racetrack that it really stopped.
And here is some photos from the race... After the National Anthem, they had some fireworks going off in the distance.
and Kyle Busch takes the win... not too many Kyle fans in the house, that is for sure.
Sunday we got up and headed over to the Diamond of Richmond... This is where the Richmond Flying Squirrels play baseball. It's the squirrels inaugural year.... they used to be the Braves. This was me and Dan's 5th stadium we've been to together!
This is Nutzy, the Flying Squirrels mascot. The kids loved Nutzy... "Nutzy Nutzy look here!! Nutzy LOOK UP NUTZY!!!!"
The Bowie Baysox lost to the Flying Squirrels with a score of 4 to 1.
Here we are in front of the Diamond.
After the game and a discussion on weather we should go to the Natural Bridge, or stay in town... we decided to stay in Richmond... There were still many things I wanted to see, and didn't feel like sitting in the car two hours there and two hours back... so instead we headed down town. We walked across the footbridge to Belle Isle. Last year Dan would tell me about going down here to read books, and I always wanted to go check it out... and what a great day to do that! Look how beautiful it was!
We sat and talked... and watched the sun go down. It was gorgeous. I sat here thinking what a beautiful city Richmond was... how I would love to come down on these rocks and spend the day, picnicking and relaxing. I never wanted to leave.
When we got back to the car and got our feet cleaned off. check out the temp at dusk!
We went out to eat in Cary Town. A small Italian diner.... which was just about to close. But we got in 15 min before close. I'm glad too because it was a delish meal! We weren't quite ready to go home after dinner, so down to Legend Brewing Co to have a beer on a patio overlooking Richmond.
Monday morning we got up and headed out to WAFFLE HOUSE!! gotta have the Waffle House when I am in town... and it was my last day... so here's my Waffle House photo. mmmm. funny too, I ordered toast and the waitress said "are you from minnesota" haha. just by the way I said toast.
After eating we went to Richmond's Holocaust museum. Last year Dan and I went to the Holocaust museum that was in DC... The museum in Richmond far exceeded the museum in DC.
Then we headed to the James River Cellars, a winery. We tried out their red and white wines.... then picked out our favorite and sat out on their patio and drank the bottle of wine.
What a great vacation we had... so much fun, lots of laughs and great memories to boot :) Dan's my best friend and I would not have had the wonderful time i did without him!
We left Baltimore at about 3pm... should have taken about 2 hours to get home, but driving in rush hour traffic thru Washington DC was a challange... it took us 5 hours to get home, minus an hour to eat dinner. We stopped in Fredericksburg to have dinner. On our way back to the car we walked past St George's church and it's cemetery. I said to Dan "I'm gonna take a photo and see if I can get any ghosts in it" sure enough, i get a big ol orb in the first photo i take!!
We woke up early on Saturday morning to head over to the racetrack. We first made a stop at great clips where dan got a mullet. as you can see in this photo of us tailgating! It was a warm and toasty day in Richmond... not sure how hot it was, but it was HOT... we had lots of beer and vodka... but i only had one bloody mary.. two beers, then i drank water the rest of the time, had to stay hydrated so i didn't have a head ache for the race :) you can see in this photo i am smiling... my allergies had not kicked in just yet... I had a horrible allergy attack, my eyes wouldn't stop watering and then the sneezing started! dan's friend Krista came and gave me a clariten, so that helped a little.. but it was not until we got into the racetrack that it really stopped.
And here is some photos from the race... After the National Anthem, they had some fireworks going off in the distance.
and Kyle Busch takes the win... not too many Kyle fans in the house, that is for sure.
Sunday we got up and headed over to the Diamond of Richmond... This is where the Richmond Flying Squirrels play baseball. It's the squirrels inaugural year.... they used to be the Braves. This was me and Dan's 5th stadium we've been to together!
This is Nutzy, the Flying Squirrels mascot. The kids loved Nutzy... "Nutzy Nutzy look here!! Nutzy LOOK UP NUTZY!!!!"
The Bowie Baysox lost to the Flying Squirrels with a score of 4 to 1. 
Here we are in front of the Diamond.
After the game and a discussion on weather we should go to the Natural Bridge, or stay in town... we decided to stay in Richmond... There were still many things I wanted to see, and didn't feel like sitting in the car two hours there and two hours back... so instead we headed down town. We walked across the footbridge to Belle Isle. Last year Dan would tell me about going down here to read books, and I always wanted to go check it out... and what a great day to do that! Look how beautiful it was!
We sat and talked... and watched the sun go down. It was gorgeous. I sat here thinking what a beautiful city Richmond was... how I would love to come down on these rocks and spend the day, picnicking and relaxing. I never wanted to leave.
When we got back to the car and got our feet cleaned off. check out the temp at dusk!
We went out to eat in Cary Town. A small Italian diner.... which was just about to close. But we got in 15 min before close. I'm glad too because it was a delish meal! We weren't quite ready to go home after dinner, so down to Legend Brewing Co to have a beer on a patio overlooking Richmond.
Monday morning we got up and headed out to WAFFLE HOUSE!! gotta have the Waffle House when I am in town... and it was my last day... so here's my Waffle House photo. mmmm. funny too, I ordered toast and the waitress said "are you from minnesota" haha. just by the way I said toast.
After eating we went to Richmond's Holocaust museum. Last year Dan and I went to the Holocaust museum that was in DC... The museum in Richmond far exceeded the museum in DC.
Then we headed to the James River Cellars, a winery. We tried out their red and white wines.... then picked out our favorite and sat out on their patio and drank the bottle of wine.
What a great vacation we had... so much fun, lots of laughs and great memories to boot :) Dan's my best friend and I would not have had the wonderful time i did without him!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
farewell DC & Arlington..
we are just about to head out of Arlington... i am in the lobby waiting for Dan to get our vhl from the parking garage... and hes getting me an auntie anne's pretzel! yummy! we are on our way to king's dominion... i hear its raining there and will be all day... bummer... we will see what happens, i guess. Dan bought the tickets on wednesday, hoping the weather would be good... he got $20 off by doing that... but stinks when there is rain!
The fireworks were AMAZING last night. you think you have seen them all, but daaang these were HUGE, we were both blown away by them. what a view too, they were going off over the top of the washington monument. you can feel them going off, they pounded in your chest! it was sooo crowded, but we managed, glad we had a blanket. we did a lot of time laying on that blanket! saw a bunch of monuments, the world war II monument, washington, lincoln, korean, vietnam... i think that was it... anyway, once i get home and have more time i will add photos to these blogs. as you can guess i have taken many photos!
friday we saw the braves play at the nationals.. what an interesting time.. i spent an inning and a half in line, which was at least 45 min, i was ticked. i have never waited in a line that long before! anyway, what a beautiful stadium they have in DC! it makes me soooo excited for our new park! lots of braves fans around us, which made it even more fun with the win! 9 to 8! goooo braves! i missed a good 4 to 5 runs while in line! ugh!
alright ... dan will be pulling up any minute... hopefully no rain at KDs today!
The fireworks were AMAZING last night. you think you have seen them all, but daaang these were HUGE, we were both blown away by them. what a view too, they were going off over the top of the washington monument. you can feel them going off, they pounded in your chest! it was sooo crowded, but we managed, glad we had a blanket. we did a lot of time laying on that blanket! saw a bunch of monuments, the world war II monument, washington, lincoln, korean, vietnam... i think that was it... anyway, once i get home and have more time i will add photos to these blogs. as you can guess i have taken many photos!
friday we saw the braves play at the nationals.. what an interesting time.. i spent an inning and a half in line, which was at least 45 min, i was ticked. i have never waited in a line that long before! anyway, what a beautiful stadium they have in DC! it makes me soooo excited for our new park! lots of braves fans around us, which made it even more fun with the win! 9 to 8! goooo braves! i missed a good 4 to 5 runs while in line! ugh!
alright ... dan will be pulling up any minute... hopefully no rain at KDs today!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Vacation!
HELLO! well i am here. well, i am at starbucks in our hotel in arlington, but here none the less. Wednesday was a boring day of travel... 2 and a half hour flight to Atl, then a 3 hour layover... then the flight from there to Richmond, that was about an hour, not too bad... got my bags, and met Dan outside... we then headed up to DC, so another 100 miles of travel, this time by car! As we landed in Richmond i noticed a big ol lightning bold from the sky... i was like well, hope we dont have to drive in that... but, alas, we drove right thru that thunderstorm... it was raining cats and dogs!! crazy, just plain crazy. funny too, in VA when people slow down to drive thru rain, they pop on their flashers! i have never seen anything like it. We stopped at Waffle House, half way to DC. I had hash browns and grilled cheese.. YUMMY! its been like 4 years since i had Waffle house! soooo yummy. gonna have to stop there again, this time for breakfast. The rest of the ride to DC was smooth sailing.
Yesterday, we first went to the International Spy Museum... it was... interesting... long... crowded... i thought we were never going to come to the end of the museum! i was happy to get out of there. I had no idea how much stuff they'd have there! After that, we went to a pizza place, i believe it was called Ella's. i had a fire stone pizza, margarita. delish! When we were done, we walked down to Ford's theater where Lincoln was shot, the line was like a block long, so we passed on that and went to Hard Rock Cafe for a beer instead. Then, we walked by the FBI building, on our way to the mall. We went to one of the Smithsonian museums... i forget which one... i think American History, or something like that. We saw Kirmet, and Oscar! what up!
We jumped on the Metro, headed back to the hotel. Dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. MMMMM! i had the most delish Bison bacon cheeseburger i have ever had. okay, it was the first bison burger i have ever had, but daaang, it was GOOOD! After dinner, back to the hotel for some hot tub and pool action. What a great day!
Today we are going to the Holocaust museum, go up the Washington monument... got the nationals/braves baseball game and also checking out the Jefferson memorial. Looking forward to it. Its sooo crazy full of people here, its gonna be a crazy fourth of july!
Yesterday, we first went to the International Spy Museum... it was... interesting... long... crowded... i thought we were never going to come to the end of the museum! i was happy to get out of there. I had no idea how much stuff they'd have there! After that, we went to a pizza place, i believe it was called Ella's. i had a fire stone pizza, margarita. delish! When we were done, we walked down to Ford's theater where Lincoln was shot, the line was like a block long, so we passed on that and went to Hard Rock Cafe for a beer instead. Then, we walked by the FBI building, on our way to the mall. We went to one of the Smithsonian museums... i forget which one... i think American History, or something like that. We saw Kirmet, and Oscar! what up!
We jumped on the Metro, headed back to the hotel. Dinner at Ted's Montana Grill. MMMMM! i had the most delish Bison bacon cheeseburger i have ever had. okay, it was the first bison burger i have ever had, but daaang, it was GOOOD! After dinner, back to the hotel for some hot tub and pool action. What a great day!
Today we are going to the Holocaust museum, go up the Washington monument... got the nationals/braves baseball game and also checking out the Jefferson memorial. Looking forward to it. Its sooo crazy full of people here, its gonna be a crazy fourth of july!
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