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...
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
