Traveling... Traveling...

I’ve been very fortunate this year. In January I went to the Bay Area to celebrate my niece’s 10^th birthday and spend time with my sister.

In April I went on a short weekend trip with my husband up the California Coast to celebrate our 1^st Wedding Anniversary.

In August my husband and I will be heading to Las Vegas (because of one of those lame time share offer things) for a few days.

In October my husband and I will be going to a Rascal Flatt’s Concert with his parents and then to Scottsdale, Arizona to spend a week at the Four Seasons there. I’ve never been to a four seasons, but my husband tells me that it will be worth being in the dessert for 6 or 7 days.

And then in December I will be going to my sisters’ house again to celebrate Christmas with her family and enjoy her fantabulous cooking!

At the end of this month I will be heading to Maryland and to Washington DC for almost a week. My husband travels for work and has some work to do in Maryland at the beginning of July, so we figured we should take advantage of the hotel his work is paying and get me out there with him so I can tour D.C.

I’ve bene to DC before, but it was exactly 20 years ago when I culminated 5^th grade. It was our end of the year field trip. I was only 10 at the time, so while I do remember some parts of it, most of it is lost to the pictures I took (really BAD pictures, that is).

This time I get to plan where I go and what I do. I already got tickets to tour the Capital through the office of my Congressman (but since it is sort of a last minute trip it’s too late to get into the White House – although I DID get to do that in 1995). I am also planning on doing a walking tour of the area (FREE!) and maybe, possibly a hop-on, hop-off tour – but I haven’t decided that part yet.

I know I definitely want to go to the Arlington National Cemetery and see the Grave of the Unknown and the changing of the guards (there is a great documentary about this on Netflix) and see the Kennedy graves. I want to check out all the monuments and take pictures on the mall.

If you have any suggestions as to where to go, what to see, or which restaurants I really should check out – PLEASE let me know! I love recommendations!

Nikki's Graduation + Six Flags Magic Mountain!

I was there on the day of her birth. I helped my sister-in-law deliver her (well, I held her leg, that’s helping, right?).

I spent the next 9 ½ years of her life with her on a daily basis. Taking her to birthday parties, to the park, swimming, to amusement parks, reading to her, doing homework with her… she slept with me every Friday night and we watched cartoons or other shows. We played games and went on vacation together.

She is more than “just my niece”. She is a big part of my life.

This is Nikki starting Kindergarten and finishing 5th Grade!

On June 3^rd she finished 5^th grade. How is it possible that this much time has gone by?

She was so excited leading up to this day. She volunteered to speak and introduce a slide show (stupid me didn’t catch the beginning on video – stupid!). (Just like her aunt) she won the Presidential Education Award of Excellence from Barack Obama (mine was from Clinton).  I am so proud of my little girl!

After graduation we had a quick lunch and then, along with her parents and brother, headed to Six Flags Magic Mountain (for those of you who don’t know, this is a theme/amusement park). I worked there once when I was 15 (because it was the only place that hired 15 year olds back then) but I hadn’t been back in many years. In the time since I had last been there they added a handful of new big roller coasters.

I LOVE roller coasters (although not waiting in line for them). Since we went on a weekday and not all schools were out yet, the lines were relatively short so we got to go on all the big rides I wanted to enjoy.

My brother and his family have season passes and so I was able to get in for free with them – hopefully I’ll get that chance again because I REALLY enjoyed it!

My 1st Anniversary Trip! (picture heavy)

I was completely unsure of what to do for our anniversary. We went back and forth. Initially I wanted to do a week-long trip up the California coast. Thomas was not fond of this idea. Neither was he fond of the idea of going to Europe – for financial reasons.

I asked for help from the ever so trusty Facebook and Hearst Castle was suggested. I had been there years and years ago and the same was true for Thomas. It’s a 3 or so hour drive from our home so it was a good choice. We left on Saturday morning and headed directly to the Castle. (You can read about the Castle here). I had pre-purchased a tour ($25 for each, so not too cheap) and we waited around and did some gift shop shopping before watching a movie that told the history of the Castle. Finally we headed into the Castle in the afternoon.

A couple of miles up the coast from the castle is a place where Elephant Seals congregate. These things are HUGE! We enjoyed seeing those as well as little chipmunks that were climbing up another guys’ pant legs!

After that we drove back down the coast to Morro Bay. I had never been there, I hadn’t even heard of it.

It’s a quaint little town in the Central Coast, with incredible ocean views and a huge rock which used to be a volcano! We stayed at the Masterpiece Hotel only a few blocks from the beach/waterfront. The first night we had a nice room and they gave us a bottle of sparkling apple cider and card for our anniversary. The next day we asked if they had any of their Jacuzzi rooms available which I had read about online.

Because the lady working the front counter has a daughter who is planning a wedding she was in the giving mood for a couple on their first anniversary and for barely a little bit more she upgraded us to their suite. The room was GORGEOUS! Words can’t do it justice, so I’ll let the pictures do the job:

On Sunday we decided to walk down their waterfront and just figure out what to do. I really wanted to go kayaking and had been looking forward to it, but (un)fortunately SoCal has had a pretty cool Spring (does that mean our summer is going to be more of a scorcher than usual?) and it was windy so we decided to skip out on the kayaking. Instead we did a nice tour of the area by boat. Nice part? They served alcohol on the boat! Woo!

There was also a kite festival so we walked over to that and enjoyed some viewing of the event. We were impressed by the size of many of the kites.

We relaxed in the hotel before heading out to dinner at Window on the Water – a beautiful restaurant that was recommended to me by a friend as well as by amazing reviews. They gave us a nice window seat and we watched the sunset. The food was DELICIOUS!!

Monday was time to head back. We checked out of the hotel and headed down the coast. As we drove down we decided to take a side trip to Solvang – a little Danish town. I had been to it many times before with my family but this was the first time we went as a couple. Unfortunately Thomas had to be on his phone for most of the time for a work call, but it was still nice to walk around. We had lunch at a popular pizza place and enjoyed a tour by horse drawn carriage. We then finished it off with some delicious ice cream.

This is a classic picture of me... we have one from every time I've gone to Solvang.

On our way back to the freeway we stopped at an Ostrich Farm! I had never seen this before and am so happy that we spotted it! We got to go in for a few dollars and feed the ostriches and emus! They are strong peckers for their food! They had baby ones as well which I did go ahead and pet – they were super soft!