San Francisco, Here We Come!

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There is nothing like the anticipation of vacation. The scouring of TripAdvisor for hidden gems, looking up blogs from locals, and booking an apartment on Airbnb. The daydreaming and planning and counting down until a few delightful days off in a row.

When we found out I was pregnant, I immediately started panicking about all the travel we would miss out on after the arrival of a little one. I have great friends who have assured me that travel can and will still happen, but realistically with two jobs less than a year old, we know that our vacation time and funds will be limited for a little while. So we're squeezing in short trips wherever we can between now and September.

After exploring a few options, we decided to spend my birthday weekend in a city I can't believe I  haven't visited yet - San Francisco!

The things we are most interested in doing — besides a few of the tourist attractions like a night-tour of Alcatraz and a city bike tour — are local food (but nothing too fancy), amazing coffee (I'm drinking every drop of my allotted 12 oz a day), and history of arts/culture.

So give me your suggestions! Where should we eat, drink, and walk that is off the beaten path (but not outside the city)? Anything I should I read to prepare for the trip?

Instagram dump: The Netherlands and Belgium

We're back! And we had an awesome trip. I feel like every time E and I vacation together we get better at traveling in general and traveling with each other. There are so many stressers during out-of-country vacations that things can sometimes get tense and very un-vacationlike, but this trip went really smoothly and was so fun.

I"m going to do a series of posts on what we did and saw, but in the meantime, here's a little instagram recap from the trip (more than half of these photos are E's! he's much more talented than I) :-)

     
     
    
    
      
                  

We're off to The Netherlands and Belgium!

Last July E and I decided to start researching where to use my hard-earned airline miles for another big trip to Europe. We had to book nine months in advance in order to get seats on reward flights, so we went for it!

But then nine months went by really, really fast. April seemed SO far away that we suddenly panicked last month and got to planning. Traveling to Europe is a lot of work! But now we're off tomorrow to The Netherlands and Belgium, with a long weekend trip to see our dear friends in Milan, Italy on the way. My youngest sister and her husband are meeting us in Amsterdam halfway through the trip and we can't wait to see them and show them around Europe on their first trip out of the country.


Bruges, Belgium

I've been so down after our house robbery, but the past three days have been packed with good news after good news and now we're leaving on this trip! (and with our good friends are house-sitting, so I'm much less anxious to the leave the house.)

We would love to hear any suggestions on restaurants or sites off-the-beaten-path in the Netherlands or Belgium (Bruges and Brussels) if you have them.
 (And we just found out we'll be in Amsterdam on Queen's Day!)

Style on the Road: Planning and Packing

I've traveled more often than I stayed at home in September and October, and I have to admit I'm not very good at trying to balance my normal life with flying all over the country. Two friends' weddings, one trip to see family, three work trips and it feels so good to be home!



While on the road I try to travel light and in style, and I've gotten a few questions about it, so I thought I'd share some of my packing tips and tricks.

 

On the plane
Some guidelines for what to wear when you're flying.

• Classy, in case of a first class upgrade (!)
• Comfortable, because all of my flights are cross-country and warm, because planes are cold
• Versatile, so I can rewear it, because I pack with only a carry on - even for a ten day trip
• Wrinkle-free, so I can look presentable if I have to meet anyone after 9 hours of travel

[One thing I should note is that I'm a grad school recruiter, so the dress code when I'm on the road can be pretty laid back. I never wear heels on a flight, or a suit.]

My favorite ensemble is:

Travel wear by lattelove featuring slim fit pants

• J.Crew Minnie pants* (thanks for the twitter recs on these pants! I wear them at least once a week. Love)
• button-up shirt*
• blazer* or cardigan
• comfortable flats*
• scarf*

*denotes affiliate link

In my suitcase

1. Shoes. By far the hardest thing to pack is shoes - they're less easy to remix and take up so much space! On my last trip I was gone for ten days and my trip included a wedding, a visit to my family, and work - in places where temps ranged from 40-75. I would have preferred to have about seven pairs with, but I forced myself to bring only four: dressy sandals, black pumps, flat boots and brogues. Always wear boots on the plane, because they're a beast to pack.
2. Clothes that Mix and Match. This seems obvious, but is always harder in practice. The only way to guarantee what I'm bringing will work in several outfits is for me to layout all those outfits on my bed before packing. Every item needs to be worn at least twice - cardigan, blazer and pants should be remixable 3 times on a long trip. The only exception for me was the dress I wore to the wedding.
3. Accessories. The only way I will pack or wear accessories is if I plan them as carefully as I plan my outfits.One of the most frustrating parts of travel for me is when I don't have my arsenal of belts, scarves, necklaces, earrings and barrettes or headbands to choose from each day. I take two belts - a utility and an accent belt, and put my jewelry in a cloth roll I bought on Etsy. I usually wear a scarf on the plane.
4. Folding. I'm a fan of the rolling method, but I don't roll everything. Pants and dresses always get rolled and placed on the bottom, but tops do not. I usually bundle pack tops (see #2 here) where I stack all my tops together and fold them around another item.
5. Packing: Some pro packers like the idea of putting clothing in a large clear ziploc bag so you can compress the air out of as much of your clothes as possible, and compartmentalize. I like this idea for delicate tops and shoes, but I don't pack anything else in plastic bags. I pack rolled items at the bottom with shoes, tops towards the bottom of the suitcase and toiletries go at the top of the suitcase near the zipper for easy access when going through security.
6. Toiletries. Pack light on makeup. I take the smallest toiletries bag I own and typically bring one foundation-type product, mascara, eyeliner, two eye shadows, one blush and three brushes. Other than the foundation it fits in a snack-size ziploc bag. When I'm staying in a hotel or visiting my family I never pack a hair dryer, or shampoo/conditioner/body wash.
7. Outerwear. Most of the time I'm traveling from a temperate climate (San Diego) to a colder climate, and have to pack a coat that I don't want to wear during travel. I travel with the coat thrown over my arm or my tote bag and then after loading in my carry on suitcase, I find a place where I can lay it flat over other items in the overhead bin. (*you should always to try to this after the plane has been boarded, because there may not be room, or you may have your stuff squished when someone tries to squeeze their luggage in too small a space.)
8. Extras. Don't forget the little things! I always use a packing list, even though I know exactly what I'm packing so I don't forget things like: socks, the appropriate underwear, bandaids, feminine products, umbrella, glasses, medications.

Any questions? I feel like there are million resources out there with packing advice (here is one of my favorite collections: http://www.academichic.com/tag/packing/ ), but I hope this was helpful!

Washington DC travel advice needed!

After an amazing weekend in Carpinteria, hanging out with Rainn Wilson, we're off again. ...this time to Washington D.C because E's best friend is getting married!

We are going to have just a day to sight-see so we want to pick 1 or 2 things to see, and one place to eat to keep things manageable.

So, DC area people - what is your favorite thing or two to do in DC? (bonus points if they are close together/easily accessed by public transport) If you had to pick one place to eat, where would it be?
E and I have both been to DC before (years ago) and seen some of the big sights like the Washington Monument, White House, etc, so I'm thinking a Smithsonian? But what do I know.

Also, it turns out, I'm going to be free Friday evening while the guys have their bachelor party shenanigans, so anything you'd recommend I do that evening?

It's always something (Tucson, instagram edition)

Despite all my best intentions to get back here more regularly, life keeps happening. In the latest case - a nasty bout of food poisoning which had me worshiping at the porcelain throne for 10 hours straight getting the best ab workout of my life. And then being paranoid for the next 48 hours to consume anything of substance for fear it would start again. I felt pretty drained last week, but now somewhat back to normal.



For my day of recovery, I started season one of Downtown Abbey, got completely sucked in, and then realized the seasons are only 7 or 8 episodes long! What kind of a cruel joke is that?...

Before all that, E and I had a fun Easter weekend visiting my grandparents who winter in Tucson, AZ. They have a place in a top-rated RV resort and it was just about as nice of a place as any resort I could imagine, minus the poolside drink service.

We spent a day of adventuring, walking through some ghost mining towns, visiting a crazy rattlesnake shop,  and stopping in Bisbee and Tombstone.



The rattlesnake large property with dozens of rows of trash-heap antiques. I was dying over a few of the items, and nothing was for sale! This couple just goes dumpster diving and keeps a collection of every antique pieces you can imagine from farm equipment to cooking supplies, cameras and typewriters.





They make their money selling stones and rattlesnake skin paraphernalia like keychains, headbands, knife sheaths, etc.



Bisbee was a really interesting place that E and I may have enjoyed more on our own. (My grandparents are wonderful, but very different travel companions) It has an old mining history and buildings, a lot of leftover hippy people and stores, and a bunch of artsy boutiques, shops and galleries.

Tombstone is a ghost town turned tourist trap that I enjoyed despite that fact. There were a lot of jewelry and leather shops and E found a really cool belt. We enjoyed strolling through the saloons and watching the horse-drawn carriage tours roll through.




My grandparents love breakfast so we went out a few times. The last morning to a dive called Bobo's, which was memorable, if not recommend-able. The pancakes were twice the size of the plate they served them on, and take it from this non-pancake fan, they were good.



I'm so thankful to have such young and active grandparents, and for the chance to see them in the winters!

Caribbean Cruise

We had an amazing time on our Royal Caribbean cruise. It was the perfect amount of relaxing, eating, sunning, swimming. The only thing that was missing was enough sleep. We were on a conference cruise, and got to meet a bunch of new people and stayed up waaay too late every single night talking, dancing, and sipping cocktails. 

And then E and I did crazy things like wake up at 6:30am to watch the sun rise. (you might want to turn down your volume as the wind in the video is kind of annoying.)

I can easily see why people who cruise get addicted to it - we'll definitely try it again! (We'd love to go on a Disney Cruise, and maybe one that is closer to home.)

The ports we stopped in were Falmouth, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti. All of your comments and the site http://cruisecritic.com were really helpful. We ended up not booking any excursions to save some money, but it was perfect for us. We spent our time on the ship - mostly at the pool or the sports deck (that rock climbing wall was crazy high!), or on the beach.

I read the Hunger Games and it wasn't as good I had expected, so maybe a review will be forthcoming. That said, I am excited for the movies, because I think the story will translate well into film.

The food on the cruise ship was better than expected. I didn't have anything I didn't really like, and I got to try things I wouldn't normally eat, like escargot. We loved being able to eat at all hours of the day, basically anything we wanted, and we had a midnight pizza run every. single. night. (I miss it!)

It was amazing vacation, despite the craziness that awaited us at home. We felt rested and relaxed and ready for E's last semester of school (ever?!) and my busy season at work. Thanks again for all your advice!