European Adventure 2009-Part 1 - London

Friday, July 24 2009 - 0 comments

My Mom and I started planning our annual cruise in January. We were up for doing something different, so instead of looking into the usual Caribbean/Bahamas/Bermuda thing we decided to extend our reach to Europe. Over the next few days, I’ll share some favorites from our adventure. We flew out of Newark, New Jersey on Virgin Atlantic – this was my first time flying with this airline (more about that later) – to London Heathrow . We flew in a day and a half before our cruise departed Southampton to give us a chance to recover from the jetlag and see the sites of London. I was amazed that we were able to pack so much into basically one day. I’m sure that’s because we decided to take a tour. We went with Big Bus Tours which threw in a river cruise for free. Despite the off and on cloudy/rainy weather, we had a fabulous time.              Next up….Cherbourg, France!

Boston: a recap in words & pictures

Wednesday, June 25 2008 - 1 comments

Friday For our two-year anniversary trip this year, Peter had the idea to go to Boston. Last year, I had picked the place (Savannah), so we decided that this year he would decide. He had heard on one of his gaming podcasts about an amazing chocolate bar at a beautiful historic hotel and he knew that would be right up my alley. Friday afternoon, we took an Amtrak train up to Boston from Wilmington. We took Amtrak for two reasons: #1 - it was cheap and #2 - we had always talked about taking a longer train ride to see what it was like (our longest so far had been to either Washington D.C. or to New York City). The train ride up was uncomfortable to say the least. We were stuck with awful seats (you know the four facing each other at the ends of each car? the seats where unless you know and like the people you are sitting with, it's just plain weird because your feet are too close to theirs?), until past upstate New York when we got those four seats for just the two of us. And it was freezing. The A/C was totally jacked up. But dinner was tasty - a cute little cheeseburger and Cokes with a bag of pretzels split between us. That's so me, a totally horrible transportation experience brightened up by tasty food. We arrived in Boston late - just before midnight. Walking outside the train station we fully expected to see at least a few taxi cabs waiting (as the hotel concierge indicated they would be), but instead we saw rather strangely unmarked cars, vans, and dark sedans. We were approached several times but suspicious looking characters with unmarked vehicles who claimed they were taxi cab operators, but we declined. We eventually found a more legit looking van (i.e. marked with their license number and rates on the outside) and took off for the hotel. Driving to the hotel was fortunately uneventful and fast - under 5 minutes. After checking in, we collapsed in our room for the night. I do have to say that our hotel room was beautiful - my hubby picked a great place! Nice comfy bed, big room, with nice freebie hair and body products (yes, I love the freebie products. so much so that when we are staying some where for multiple nights I make sure to toss the ones I don't use in a bag so that housekeeping will keep bringing more. And then I bring them home.) Saturday When we finally woke up and got moving Saturday, it was a bit after 10. Despite knowing we had the Chocolate Bar at noon, we decided we needed some breakfast, and we were not going to eat at the hotel ($24 for an eggs and toast? seriously? you could buy a loaf of bread, butter, jelly, and a carton of eggs for like $7 - I just don't get the economics here). So we found the nearest Dunkin Donuts and satisfied our hunger with yummy breakfast sandwhiches and iced coffees. After breakfast, we headed out for a bit of sightseeing along the water. The weather was absolutely beautiful - warm but not to hot - with a great breeze. There were some awesome looking boats in the harbor with great architecture. Here are a few of my finds... While we were out walking, we stumbled upon a movie that was being shot - we didn't realize it at first, because the crew didn't block off the street or anything, but we knew something was up when we saw these dead bodies AKA big dolls on the street next to banged up cars. I caught this pic before being told "no pictures!" We headed back to the hotel for my favorite part of the day - the Chocolate Bar! Words can not express how amazing this experience was, so I'll let my pictures talk for me. photo taken by my awesome hubby! Now can you see how amazing all this chocolate yumminess was? Oh my gosh, I was in heaven. And I ate way too much. So I went to the gym today. But anyways... After the Chocolate Bar, we ended up going to Fenway Park where we managed to score tickets to the game! Our first major league game! We're not really sports fans, but it was a cool experience. We had some funny fans sitting around us who really got into their cheering! It was a riot. Sunday This was a lazy day for us - we were pretty tired out from all the touring Saturday. I was starting to not feel very well, so we decided to do a little walking about but rested most of the afternoon. We did see a movie though - The Happening . It was really good - much better than the other Shyamalan movies in my opinion. We had an AMAZING dinner. We wanted to go to some place special for dinner to celebrate our anniversary, even though it wasn't until the 24th. Peter found a restaurant called B & G Oysters Ltd. I called and made reservations, and from the moment we arrived we had fantastic service. I had mentioned that we were celebrating our anniversary and we were greeted with well wishes and glasses of champagne! We were treated to some sort of special oyster by the Chef - not really sure what that was but it was tasty, and then had fried Oysters for an appetizer (since neither of us goes for raw fish). Peter had some sort of pasta with lobster for his main dish. Now my main dish was totally over the top and fantastic. But I rarely eat like this when we go out so I figured what the heck? I had an entire stuffed lobster with truffle mac'n'cheese. And I put away most of that lobster all by myself. But I figured it balanced out in the end, because I gave Peter most of the mac'n'cheese. At least that's what I'm telling myself. We absolutely loved this restaurant - I'm sure if we're ever in Boston again that we'll be back. Monday Pretty uneventful traveling back home day. Amtrak was better this time - we were able to get normal seats in the quiet car (yea!!!) and they had a lot of leg room. I was feeling pretty miserable health wise at this point - a really terrible cold - but managed to read a new book while Peter finished his book. It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary!

Boston: in pictures

Tuesday, June 24 2008 - 0 comments

So Peter says to me this afternoon "I found a cool website for you to check out - I think you could use it with your students and your business". He's always on the look out for cool gadgets, software, sites, anything techie/geeky cool. And he often finds things that he thinks I will like. And he's usually right. Today was no exception. The website he found was definitely cool. Super cool. It's called Animoto . I'll describe our travels to Boston in more detail tomorrow, but for now, check out Boston in pictures:

Headed to Boston

Friday, June 20 2008 - 0 comments

The hubby and I are headed to Boston for the next few days to celebrate our two-year wedding anniversary!! Planning highlights include a yummy Chocolate Bar and a baseball game at Fenway Park ! I'll be back to regular posting on Tuesday with tons of pictures to share!