You look Dominican

Aiiiight... soooo it's been a while. Me a culpa. I got distracted by life (and rightfully so! ;)).

Over Labor Day weekend I had gone to the Dominican Republic! Cheap flight, cheap resort, and couchsurfing. This is how I afford my life of luxury <3 font="font" size="3">.

We flew into Santo Domingo on Thursday. Sort of last-minute, our couch-host told us he wouldn't be able to host us since he was still in Haiti and his girlfriend was busy, so we sent out an urgent last minute request. And thank the CS gods, the most amazing people respond when you're in need :) After realizing we had gotten ripped off by the airport taxi (equivalent to $40 when it should have been like $20), we got to Alexei's place in the middle of the city. And by "middle", I mean MIDDLE -- right next to the highway with 24/7 traffic. Alexei grew up in this apartment... so he had gotten used to the constant honking throughout the night. It might have been a little rougher to get used to for us (such spoiled suburban kids we are). 

 Alexei. A local celebrity. Every corner we took, he ran into someone he knew. He's a real man of culture in Santo Domingo, a local poet. We followed him on his errands on which he stopped by a paintball store to pick up paint for a live art act he would be performing in a couple of days, perused by Columbus's abode and historical buildings and churches, took us to a bookstore with one of his books on shelf, met up with friends at an art gallery bar type thing, and ended the night at the Spanish Cultural Center with free wine and great conversation (turns out one of his friends is friends with our original CS host's girlfriend! Small world.) Hello culture.

The next day we hopped on a bus to Puerto Plata. 3.5 hr ride through beautiful lush countryside. And it was air conditioned. Who can complain? The bus stops even had free wifi ;) We get to Puerto Plata and take a cab to our resort, Riu Bachata. 
 
Our resort. For $45 a night, gave us this: unlimited food with buffets that differed each evening and different cuisine restaurants, beautiful beach front with free beach lounges, excellent customer service, breathtaking views and sunsets, unlimited local alchohol, and a 4-bottle alcohol dispenser in our bedroom. Yeah. That's right. Lux.ury. Pretty much didn't want to leave.


Although I had read on forums that it was "dangerous" to leave the resort and take local transportation.... pish posh. One day we headed to the "27 waterfalls". Um, awesome. While there were large tourist groups of like 30, we got our own tourguide for the 2 of us. And he was amaaaazing. Even chunked a rock at a mango tree to get us some ripe mango for us to eat, found us some local nuts to try, and  shared his knowledge on the flora we passed and let me smear some clay on my face for health benefits. Oh and we either jumped or slid down 27 waterfalls (well, like 23... I think a few were dried up). For anyone going to DR, deeefinitely super recommendable. 

We then made our way to the city and walked around Puerto Plata for a bit. Won't lie... getting constantly haggled was annoying. But either way, had an authentic DR meal (Beef tripe, fried plantains, chicken, rice, pineapple juice, and El Presidente...) by the beach while a taxi driver told us his life story on how he machete'd a guy for raping his daughter... :-X

We then took a local taxi van (not called a "taxi"... I forget the name, but it's the vans/taxis packed with people that are way cheaper than the TAXI taxis [only a buck or so in comparison]) to Sosua beach.  I'd heard that Sosua was a tranquil nice beach and not so touristy. Granted, it was in comparison to our resort beach with tourists, but yes, definitely a more local spot. After a dip, we decided to catch a van back to the resort before it got too dark.

Our last full day at the resort, I went scuba divingggg!!! I had taken classes in Cincinnati and just had to  complete my certification with 4 open water dives. I did 2 of them there. For the first dive, we boated out to a coral reef -- super cool! My instructor was amazing and pointed out the things I wouldn't have caught with my naive amateur eye. The second dive was a ship wreck... a little less exciting because there wasn't much sea life there, but still neat :) I had previously been anti-scuba diving because there's something claustrophobic and terrifying about being under water. But my managers at work had actually convinced me to try it, and I'm glad I did. New fan.

Our second to last day we headed back to Santo Domingo so we could catch our flight in time the next day. Turns out, I had told our couch-host Chris (the original guy I had contacted who was in Haiti) that we'd be there a day later... silly vacations and not realizing what dates are what. Thankfully, he was home and was still able to host us :) Nice relaxing evening to wind down the end of the trip...  

 

Sun makes you forget...

Whoopsie... the main reason I keep this blog is to help me remember my travels. Literally. My memory is awful. Now with San Diego and Las Vegas being almost 3 months ago, it's gunna be hard to recount it all, but here it goes...

End June. Erin & Cullen's wedding in Grand Rapids, MI. Kelly, Sally, and I roadtripped up there, hit up some breweries (yup, don't remember the names already), and rode bikes (THAT'S RIGHT! First time in... a long time for me. AND I DIDN'T FALL!). And I remember Grand Rapids being CLEAN. So clean. and bike friendly. Great wedding, good times with friends, lots of beer. That was the gist of it :).

Ender of June. Fly to San Diego to meet up with Lynn at her 'rents place. This was heaven. Constantly Filipino food was being cooked. Constantly being spoiled. We rode more bikes! Along Oceanside boulevard... just imagine how idyllic that is and yes, that's how it was. And then I went ahead and ruined the moment by getting a flat. Good job, Nadia. 

Met up with many of Lynn's wonderful friends, and some of those friends taught us how to surf! And by "surf", I mean... stand up on a board for a good 1.5 seconds before falling off. It counts. Naw, but really, I was proud of all 4 of us. We each had at least a couple of good standing moments :) Granted, our teachers did most of the work by hauling us out there. Boy, surfing is exhausting!

Took advantage of some more beach time ~soaksoaksoak~, did the Carlsbad crawl, learned embarrassing stories about Lynn, and last day she took us to Long Beach before our flight to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas. Gosh. There really is a cap on how long I can be there for. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but by day 3, you can stick a fork in me (because I'm done). We got an awesome deal at Planet Hollywood and the whole time lived the VIP life (due to hook ups from "a guy we know" and certain Dan Vans) -- yummy fancy food, VIP lists, and the alcohol was a-flowin'. Girls trip, so naturally we took a show in at the Chippendales... sliiiightly disappointed... maybe because we sat too far in the back and I couldn't sling shot dollar bills with my bra far enough to hit them. Jk. Spent 4th of July there, but surprisingly, no fireworks in the city of lights...

Took the red eye back to Cincy and tried to be coherent for my meetings the next morning...   

I want to be CaNADIAn

So, you might not know this about me, but I'm stubborn (*I'm expecting an overwhelming "WHAAATTT??!!"*). Yes. It's true. So when I decided a month ago that we should make good use of our 3 day Memorial Day weekend by having a girls trip to Toronto, I was bent on going. Then after all 3 of the girls backed out of the trip, I stuck to my stubborness and said: "well, WHATEVER. I'm STILL going. ALONE!" even though I knew I would hate a 9 hour drive EACH WAY all by myself absolute hell. But that's what stubborn people have to deal with. They have to stick with their game plan no matter what. So I finally convinced Kelly to re-consider her dessertion of the plan and come with me on the following principles:
1. I would be on my best behavior
2. We can do anything SHE wants
3. ...I forget what the 3rd one was, but probably another thing that made me completely submissive to her wills of the trip.

So she agreed. (I win. ha.)

We left Friday afternoon (still loving my half day Fridays) and started our trek up. We took my car since we've taken hers for like the past bajillion girls trips, so it was my time to pony up car time. Downside? My car's a manual, so Kelly couldn't drive. And has no cruise control. My right foot got some good foot exercise during this trip.

We make a pit stop in Detroit for dinner. Detroit's known for its chili (like Cincinnati, and also "Greek-based" chili with the odd ingredients of nutmeg, cinnamon, cocoa, and whatnotelse) and has 2 famed diners that have existed since the 40's and are RIGHT next to each other. Challenge on: we get a coney dog from each place and determine the winner. First up: Lafayette Coney Island -- definitely a dive diner focused on food, not atmosphere, basic, simple, but yummy. Next: American Coney Island to the left of it -- it's got that 50s American diner feel, red-and-white checkered tables, the waiters wearing those paper hats (they gave us some too), more focused on starting conversation with you and making you feel at home. Consensus: Slightly biased by the welcoming atmosphere from American, but as for the food itself, liked the bun and onions more from Lafayette, and the dog and sauce more from American. They should really just combine their recipes ;)

We peruse Detroit a little more by car, experience 7 seconds of DEMF (Detroit Electronic Music Festival), point at pretty buildings, then make our way to the tunnel to Canada. I don't know why, but border control ALWAYS makes me nervous for no good reason. The lady asks me how I know Rhu (my friend we're staying with in Toronto) and I stutter, say "umm" a couple of times, before Kelly blurts out "through Couchsurfing". What am I so afraid of? Whatever. I wonder if border control gets trained on different variances of nervousness and which are the types of nervous to watch out for b/c they're hiding crack in the trunk and which are just silly girls getting nervous for no reason, except that they have the power to just deny you entry into the country.

Then we realize, oh crap, our smart phones are roaming. TURN OFF TURN OFF! AIRPLANE MODE! AH! $15/MB? ARE YOU SERIOUS? So whoops. We don't have a GPS or map to get us to Rhu's place. Last thing I ask border control: "um, which way to Toronto?" Oh the days before smart phones...

We get into Toronto around 11, an hour after we should have because we drove past it for 50 miles... silly Toronto not having better signs stating "DOWNTOWN TORONTO! Stupid tourists exit HERE since you don't realize what these other street signs are!" Anyway. We get there after finding that out and getting free wi-fi from some McDonald's. Meet Rhu and Thuy at his place in Koreatown, which is an uber sweet pad, and get some late night drinks and food at a Korean place (duh).  There's so many restaurants here, it's almost overwhelming, and the fatty inside of me had a heart attack.


 Next day was Rhu's birthday. Funny enough, he couchsurfed with me last year during my birthday. And got me cupcakes. So it was payback time :). Went to High Park for a picnic with his friends. So legit. When *my* friends do picnics in parks, we bring beer, burgers, and chips. Rhu's friends? They BBQ Bugolgi, bring home made dumplings, and make cake from scratch. Yeah, wow. We ate, we played badminton, and we digested. Then, Kelly and I headed off to be tourists and find Toronto Island.We took the streetcar back into town, and when we got off to ask for how far down it was to the harbor, the nice girl at the ATM machine said "only like 6 blocks -- if it wasn't like a bajillion degrees right now (it was 72 degrees), I'd say you could walk it, but you should take the steetcar." Oh Canadians. It's all relative, I suppose. We walked it. And survived. 

Took the Ferry to Ward's Island. Super cute place. Idyllic houses that felt like they belonged in fairy tales or JRR Tolkien books. Got rolo and smarties flavored ice cream from the ice cream shop and wandered around. Found a BEACH! Who knew I was getting my beach time in on this trip? So we lounged around there for an hour, eavesdropped on some funny conversations, got hit by frisbies and balls a few time, and listened to Kelly's "summer mix" playlist from a few years back. ("Is that Incubus? Aren't they from, like, the 90s?") Then walked around the island some more (24,000 steps that day according to the pedometer! Ohhh yeahhhh!) and headed back for some Nicaraguan food then headed to the bar where Rhu's friends DJed the night away to an epic dance party.


Sunday was a late start... first things first: brunch in Chinatown. Got some bubble tea then headed to House of Dumplings for the most amazing dumplings I've ever had... steamed and then pan-fried on the bottom for a crunchy bite. Nom. It was "Doors Open Toronto" weekend, which meant 300 of the historical architectural buildings of Toronto had free tours, so we scoped out a couple of them (not the CN tower... $26 to go up to the top? No way.) Walked some more. Ate some more. Ate. more. Headed back for Indian food for dinner (yes, we ate more), then went to the Comedy Bar for Sunday Night Live. A lot funnier than I expected :P Good times, ending a good night with good conversation and some funny memories ("hi, will you sign my yearbook?" and *kitten paws at Kelly*). We escaped and drove around to satisfy our last hour before last call and ended up getting pizza in the gay district :)

Monday morning, we grab some breakfast with Rhu -- while at the breakfast place, Rhu sees my car getting ticketed and we run over. "Oh no! Am I too late? Is there any way..." "You don't have to pay. You have out of state license plates so the system won't recognize it." Suhweeettt! Note to Canadians: get US license plates.

Two hours later we're in Niagara Falls. We didn't wanna do a big pit stop, so instead we literally did a drive by. Giganto waterfalls? Pshh, easily seen from the bridge back to the US. Getting out of your car to take pictures is overrated. We cross the border (yay data service!).
 

Next up: pit stop Cleveland. Originally we were thinking of doing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but we were running late, plus a little tourist-overwhelmed so we booked tours of the Great Lakes Brewery instead! We get there... and they're closed. Wtf. With our super pouty faces, we cross the street to a winery where they tell us about another brewery around the corner that we should try instead. Still with our pouty faces we get to Market Garden Brewery and ask if they do any tours of their brewery. No... but the manager felt so bad for us with our pouty faces ("we came AL the way from Toronto to go to the brewery and we're on our way home to Cincinnati...") that he gave us an impromptu brewery tour complete with a free flight of beers. Market Garden Brewery, you are awesome. We stayed for some good dinner and dessert to give them our support too (and told the manager about Christian Moerlein for when he'd visit Cincinnati in a month).  

4 hours later we're back home in Cincinnati. Loved Toronto and all that (food) it had to offer. I'd be a fatty if I lived there.

There are horses here? Derby 2012

In honor of this post being dedicated to the Derby, the ultimate sh*t show (at least if you're in the in field), my post is going to reflect that vibe...

Friday - infinity wine tastings - best crab cakes - $6 bottle to cover everything - lunges to 4th st - dude threatening to pee in a bottle - making it to the VIP section for the last OAR song - "where's circle bar?" - shots and chasers to fix a fight - dashing past to not pay cover - dancing with twins - "that was a dueling piano bar??" - getting in what I thought was a cab, but wasn't - making the guys get in it instead - rain - forgotten burrito - Saturday - fancy dresses with sombreros - pulled pork sandwich cures hangover - a malt probably wasn't the best idea - pregaming in parking lot with other Ohioans - bottle of vanilla vodka - I'm sorry, Jesus praisers, probably not the most receptive crowd - sneaking in beer cans in chip bags - "sombreeeeroooo!" working twice - not knowing how to bet: "uh... 15 on the house... 14 on... the run...?" - finding friends in dance crowd - losing Sally - losing Kelly - "where did this mint julep come from?" - disoriented - Kelly finds us somehow - cat nap...somewhere - waking in time for the derby race - eating other people's chips and invading their tent - seeing horses for a whole 2 seconds - someone yelling "15" and me getting excited. I didn't win. - if I'd read the horses names I would have won ("I'll Have Another") - beer cans everywhere - throwing glasses, me not catching them - reunion - bar food for dinner - hydration - slapping Chad's sunburn - lost my favorite Yelp glasses - hearing Bieber on the guitar - crashing - Sunday - kids' channel mystery show - french toast and bacon for breakfast - drive home - beautiful day - Fountain Square and Neon's.

I'm marking the Derby off of my bucket list. ...whether I would go again...tbd.
Oh and my friends made it on the centerfold of the Sunday papers as the prime example of what the In Field experience is. *proud*

Asheville aka Chocolate Haven

Chocolate, art, nature, good food, hippies... my recipe for a perfect little town. Good Friday weekend Peter, Jackie, Mattan, dog, and I headed to Asheville (it was nice and cozy in the backseat). 

The boys had made sexist statements about us girls not being able to be ready by 8am to head out, so there was no doubt in my mind that I would prove them wrong. Until I made some poor life decisions the night before and woke up at 7:25am with my head spinning. In 15 minutes, I did the following (in no particular order, some overlapping, some multiple times because I'd forget something): packed clothes (an overstatement), got dressed, packed food (also an overstatement... when I later looked into what I had packed, it consisted of spinach leaves, mayo & ketchup, tortillas, prosciutto, nutella, and alcohol), brushed my teeth (I think), and headed out. Got to Peter & Jackie's at 7:58am. Bam. I then passed out in their car.

(I woke up to a text message of Robbie being back in town! Best news ever :)) We made a pit stop at Cumberland Falls in KY, famous for its moonbeam which only occurs at full moons on 2 places on Earth (here and in Korea somewhere). Of course it wasn't night, so no moonbeam, but there WAS a double rainbow! Also... the place was kinda a tourist trap and overrated, all fenced in.

 Another pit stop in Jellico, TN -- home of the best t-shirts in the world. Picked up 5 requested shirts for friends back in the Cincy and on we went again.

We get to our cabin around 4 (the same one my CS friends have stayed in multiple times!) and search Yelp for a good local eatery... White Duck Tacos. Holy mother of tacos... these were spectacular! Very eclectic delicious combinations of ingredients. I had the Bangkok Shrimp taco and BBQ pulled pork taco. If you're ever in Asheville, def go here.

It happened to be Asheville's Art Walk Friday, so we headed downtown and perused a buncha galleries that all offered alcohol and cheeses. My favorite was Za-Pow, a comic book shop-like gallery that also offered free beer. 

During our art walk is where I discovered that Asheville is all about chocolate and will therefore, be one of my favorite places on Earth. I literally found 4 chocolate shops in just the downtown area (and, duh, yeah I got chocolate in all of them...). I bet there were more. Another cool find? A coffee shop in a double decker bus! We also helped "birth" 2 guys through a wall... long story.

After an excellent breakfast at Sunny Point Cafe (french toast chala bread with chocolate, berries, and maple scented whipped cream), went hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains day. Yes. I said hiking. Friends, for those of you who know me well (or at all, really), know that I'm not quite the active type ("why walk when you can drive?"), but I will let you know that I really enjoyed hiking. Who knew? And not even that winded *high five me*! 2 miles up to the highest peak east of the Mississippi river, 2 miles down. 

After Pete's adventures of longboarding down the mountain (and us following him in the car), we got some good ol' bbq at Ruby's (with like SEVEN different types of bbq sauce!), hit up a toy store (Mattan's got some hula hoop hip action), then met up with Mariel and her friend! Ate spicy chocolate ice cream at Hop's, got drinks at the Universal Junction, and ended up playing the alphabet game back at home.

  

So before we headed out on Sunday, I decided to capture the quirky essence of our cabin. See, little tidbit on our cabin: def has the cabin-feel, big garden, and is decorated with... lotsa oddities. I'm not sure who decorated this place, but I kinda want to meet them. Checked out the arts district before leaving Asheville... and of course made the obligatory stop at Sonic for a chocolate malt on the way home...

2 Weddings and a SXSW

So you know when you're at that age where all your friends are getting married? Yeah. I'm right there. Thankfully, a few of my friends from Texas decided to get married the same weekend (different days) and when SXSW was happening just to accommodate my travels. Or so I'd like to believe ;)

Flew into Houston Friday right after a presentation at work, got picked up by my high school besties Kristy and Clare, in time to make it to the rehearsal of our wonderful friend Emily and Max in Galveston. This church was built in the 1840's (that's OLD for TEXAS) and is actually considered a "museum" now. Very neat place, with rickety old stairs that I foresaw my possible plummet to death on. After the rehearsal, to the best Mexican place in Galveston for dinner!

Kristy, Clare, and I stayed at the Springhill Marriott Suites, which, to our hopes, had a hot tub! Travel tip: always, ALWAYS, pack your swimsuit no matter where you go. The night ended with hot tub, wine, running into some of the groom's party, and good conversation (wine always leads to good conversation, doesn't it?). 

Saturday was the big day. We were treated to a brunch, then off to the Manor to get the bride and her party ready! Again, another beautiful old place. Emily and a few others got styled by this new age hippie stylist woman, the rest of us had the luxury of Rizzy knowing her way with our hair. Oh! Forgot to mention, this was a SCOTTISH themed wedding, so groomsmen in kilts and us ladies got some authentic Texas tartan sashes! While I know you're thinking "in 20 years you're going to look back to these pictures and realize how ridiculous you looked", this was actually neat! Aaaand I will bet it'll still be awesome 20 years from now.

I couldn't have been happier to see these 2 get married. Everything was beautiful with a very tongue-in-cheek twist to it (the whole Scottish theme complete with bagpiper, Beatles vows, the "museum", etc.) Exactly what fits these 2. The reception was a hoot too -- Texas BBQ, open bar, galore of "guncles" and other fun fun people. 

After the reception, us bridal party peeps drunkenly decorated the honeymoon car. And then ended up back in the hot tub. With more wine. Until we got kicked out. So we took it to the hotel room and played Cards Against Humanity (best game EVER!).

Sunday we drove back to Austin in time for me to make it to Wedding #2: Sean and Elia. More awesome people getting married. While it had been pouring the last few days, it cleared up to blue skies and perfect weather just for them (and good thing too, since the wedding was outside). More beautifulness. Followed by another funtastic reception with so much dancing. And good friends. Great to see them again :) And a margarita machine! Sigh.

Weddings, check. Now on to SXSW. For the first time, I experienced the "free SXSW method". Granted, takes a lot of waiting in lines for wristbands, but it's all sooo worth it. Free music, free food, free drink. And all day every day. Oh and I saw my friend's band The Pinstripes from Cincinnati! More friends, more catching up. This was my schedule from Monday to Wednesday.

Thursday was my flight and I "worked from home" during the day. Getting up at 7am? Tough. Very tough. Got to get lunch with my mom before heading to the airport. Getting home at midnight and work the next day? Also very tough. In fact, the moment I got on the plane, I felt like absolute crap. My body had the shakes, but my face was red hot. I left work early the next day and spent 8 hours on my couch before transferring to my bed. Then I got these weird bumps on my fingers... they spread to the rest of my hand. Then on my feet! Then to the rest of my body...

...So apparently my body was going through alcohol withdrawal. How. sad. is. that. I realized I pretty much drank straight from Friday to Wednesday... apparently that's how fast dependency can happen? Wow. Which led to my body being dehydrated and developing a heat rash. Needless to say, I took good care of my body that weekend and spent all of it recovering. Moral of the story? Take good care of your body, children.

#2 Mardi Gras feast in the USA

....iiiiiis St. Louis, Missouri! Who knew? I def didn't... until I visited there last year -- so a mission to come back for Mardi Gras was in cahoots.

Kelly and I left Cincy around 5, hit some traffic, but finally made it into Soulard (the prime spot for Mardi Gras shenanigans) close to midnight. We stayed with fantastic couchsurfers (as always!), Nate and Kim, who graciously let us crash with them even though they invited friends from out of town too and held their own MG party the next day. They just moved to St Louis so this was their first Mardi Gras there... they weren't quite sure what to expect but were prepared fo' sho'.

Prepared? 175-jello-shots-and-a-keg prepared! We pretty much lucked the hell out and stayed with the best hosts in St Louis that weekend :) Super fun people and great friends. So the day started at 9am... with shots. and then beer. and then jello shots. and then beer. and more beer. There was a parade in there somewhere too that we saw, but nothing all too memorable except for the Back to the Future float. There were beads everywhere (surprisingly, not many boobs... I saw one side boob). Streets were filled with beer vendors and the masses. Bars closed at 10pm b/c they knew what was good for them. Dance parties with awesome laser lights back at the house. 15 hours of drinking, people. I'm not sure if my liver had ever met its match at that level...

...but thankfully it forgave me the next morning. No hangover (what WHAT! "Liquor before beer..."). Grabbed brunch at Sqwires with our amazing hosts and then parted our ways. Headed to the Arch, which Kelly had not been to yet, took the 60's capsule ride to the top of it and got our touristyness in at the museum. Kelly had seen a St Louis episode of Man vs Food of this delish ice cream place that makes shakes and malts. Made it our mission to be the last stop, but fate was they closed doors right in front of us... :( Next time. As reconciliation, we got Wendy's Frosties on the drive home... same thing, right?

 Another fun weekend trip. I'm a fan of these. Let's do more! (Asheville for Easter weekend???)


OH! And I finally gave in to the pressures of the 21st century and got myself a smartphone, whiiiiich of course has an awesome camera in it. So my posts will hopefully become more colorful(/interesting) again :) ...I'm not allowed to lose this one though...