Alright. So, I think I can officially claim myself an overall lucky person. I mean, I really can't complain. I've got it good. But sometimes... just sometimes... things go even better than just good. Sometimes things go perfectly well, in an almost creepy way.
Perfect Thing #1: The ticket
We were at a friend's beer tasting, when I happened to look up tickets to Miami over Thanksgiving. Hey, I was bracing myself for the cold of Cincinnati winter and wanted an alternative now that I was almost "retired" and would have more time. Holy crap. $260 direct roundtrip? "Who wants to go with me?" And that's how Ryan and I bought impromptu tickets to Miami for a week.
Perfect Thing #2: The car
We had gotten an uber awesome deal (part of perfect thing #2) for a rental car for $120 for 6 days. When we get dropped off at the rental place, we saw a Fiat 500 in the lot. "Wouldn't it be cool if we got that?" We did. Sweet little car.
Perfect Thing #3: The host in Miami
We couchsurfed for our first and last night in Miami. Our host? An awesome lady who lived in a highrise fancy condo building on the water in Downtown Miami with a view of the water and Miami beach with an extra parking space in her garage (which was filled with uber fancy cars...). And she owned a bunny that hopped all around. Yeah. Ryan even saw 2 dolphins in the morning. Good morning, Miami.
Perfect Thing #4: The perfect pit stop
On our way to the scenic drive to the Keys, signs for the Everglades. Hey, why not. For a little detour, we got to see alligators and lots of birds. Sadly, no Florida Panther (I think that would have been a Perfect Thing all on its own).
Perfect Thing #5: An awesome "Thanksgiving" meal
Thank you, Yelp. Because of Yelp, I experienced some of the most amazing meals I've ever had. Including a delicious Cuban sandwich with fresh mango juice in the Keys.
Perfect Thing #6: The hotel booking in Marathon
We decided to book a hotel for the first night half way down the Keys and I had booked the cheapest hotel I could find online for $90. When we got there to check in, I empathized with the check-in guy how he was working on Thanksgiving day. "It's ok, you're my last check in for the day... I get to go home now!" "That means you'll hook us up with the best room, right?" "Let me see what I can do..." We got a recently renovated suite with 2 queen sized beds... for $60 total.
Perfect Thing #7: The sunset in time
After checking in, we checked out more of the immediate surrounding islands, but wanted to make it back to the recommended Sunset Bar & Grill for the sunset at 5:40. As we got there at 5:35, the place was packed and the cars were parked all the way out for a distance. We found a parking spot right in the front and made it in time to watch the beautiful sunset. And then enjoyed some drinks at the tiki bar.
Perfect Thing #8: The Bond marathon
Ok, so some of you may know that I have a recent obsession with Bond movies after I attended the Cincinnati Orchestra's "Bond & Beyond" concert. I made it a personal mission to watch all 23 Bond movies and have been checking out whichever Bond movies are available at the library at the time. We got back to our hotel and a Bond MARATHON is on the Syfy channel. Hell yes. I watched a total of 1.5 Bond movies before passing out.
Perfect Thing #9: Beach day at Bahia Honda
Bahia Honda State Park has the longest stretch of sand beaches in the Keys. My friend Aaron had also highly recommended it and said it was a little piece of paradise. True. Beautiful beaches and not crowded. We spent a day there soaking it all up (Ryan a little more so since he resulted in a sunburn just on the right side of his stomach...)
Perfect Thing #10: CS meet up in Key West
After Bahia Honda, we made it down to Key West. Before meeting up with some couchsurfers, I had another one of the best meals of my life: Puerco Asado with yellow rice, plantains, and beans... topped off with Flan and Key Lime Pie (Perfect Thing #9.5). Oh and we checked out Hemingway's house and found free parking wherever we went (Perfect Thing #9.75?) The CSers were great and since we didn't have a place to stay at yet that night, one of them told us about this secluded place by the shore that we could pitch our tent up for free. After a night of roaming Duval st and drinks, we pitched our tents next to each other.
Perfect Thing #11: Private island beach day
Another thing the CSer had told us about, was that if we went to the Westin hotel, told them we wanted breakfast on their private island, we could get a free ferry ride to the island (which Oprah celebrated her birthday on this year), and sneak off to the private pristine beaches. So we did. We were expecting ridiculous prices for the restaurant, but my Eggs Benedict were about $10 and our table on the patio overlooked the beautiful beaches. Not bad. We then passed out on the chaisse lounges on the beach and wondered how the hell we lived such a lifestyle...
IMperfect Thing #1: No hot water
Ok, so I feel like I need to throw in the ONLY thing that WASN'T perfect on this trip just to balance it out a little. After Key West, we headed back to the northern Keys since we had scuba diving and snorkeling the next day in Key Largo. The hotel I booked (again the cheapest) was comfortable and all... but had no hot water. What. the. hell. Especially after all the perfect things I'd been experiencing, this was just a SHOCK to me ;)
Perfect Thing #12: Scuba diving & snorkeling
I had 2 dives left to get my scuba diving certification. This place, Ocean Divers, had been recommended to me by the Cincinnati Diving Center where I had taken my classes. Awesome awesome people. The best. So much fun on the boat and Ryan was allowed to tag along for some snorkeling. While on the boat, the crew kept commenting on how they had never seen the water SO clear! Of course. We're there. That's why. Everything's perfect. I saw a stingray, a baracuda, and lots and lots of colorful fish. And completed my certification :)
Perfect Thing #13: Free campsite?
We had booked a campsite at John Pennekamp State Park for that night, but didn't realize the park closed after 5pm. After a scrumptious dinner with our umpteenth key lime pie, we got there and the gates were down... So we lifted the bar and drove underneath (yay small car). Campsite was comfortable and they had HOT WATER SHOWERS!
Perfect Thing #14: Getting my interviews in
So, I got interviews to one of the schools I applied to, but... they didn't have any alumni to interview me in Ohio, Kentucky, OR Indiana. I mentioned I was going to be in Florida over Thanksgiving so was able to take care of the 2 interviews while I was there. And they just so happened to be across the street from each other!
Perfect Thing #15: Gelato on the boulevard
We had some time to kill and were driving around Miami Beach when we decided to stroll along the boulevard. "You know what'd be great right now? Gelato." Bam. We pass a gelato shop. It's like someone heard me.
Perfect Thing #15: South Beach day
We had told one of the CSers we met in Key West about the amazing host we had in Miami who we were returning to, so she ended up staying with her our last night there too! Our last day we spent on South Beach enjoying the constantly beautiful weather (we'd had on the whole trip) and finishing it off with another AMAZING meal at El Bolivar with some fantastic Yelp deals -- $20 for $40 worth of food (lunch specials were $10, sangria and beers were $2.99), and a free glass of wine. Nom nom nom.
Perfect Thing #16: Finishing it off with a mojito
We got to the airport with a little over an hour to spare til boarding time, but security line took foreeeverrrr. Instead of missing our flight, our flight was conveniently delayed 15 min when we got to our gate, so Ryan treated me to a mojito to top off all the perfectness of the trip.
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...
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...
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.
Perfect Thing #3: The host in Miami
Perfect Thing #6: The hotel booking in Marathon
Perfect Thing #7: The sunset in time
After Bahia Honda, we made it down to Key West. Before meeting up with some couchsurfers, I had another one of the best meals of my life: Puerco Asado with yellow rice, plantains, and beans... topped off with Flan and Key Lime Pie (Perfect Thing #9.5). Oh and we checked out Hemingway's house and found free parking wherever we went (Perfect Thing #9.75?) The CSers were great and since we didn't have a place to stay at yet that night, one of them told us about this secluded place by the shore that we could pitch our tent up for free. After a night of roaming Duval st and drinks, we pitched our tents next to each other.
Perfect Thing #15: Gelato on the boulevard
