1st anniversary weekend

to celebrate our first wedding anniversary, jared and i decided to take a trip to san diego.  we chose san diego for several reasons.  #1) we had $300 american airlines vouchers from when we gave up our seats for our honeymoon last year, and the only direct flight for <$300 from denver on american airlines was to los angeles.  #2) we wanted to go somewhere warm and we have good friends in san diego.

it was a good decision.  however, it turns out that jared and i cannot travel anywhere without scores of drama related to the trip.  like when we went to napa for a friends wedding and experienced the following:
*a flat tire
*a broken GPS which resulted in calling the hotel for directions from san francisco and trying to get there in rush hour
*a fall that led to a *very* swollen and sprained ankle
*a cell phone left in the rental car on the way home

although so many things went wrong, that trip to napa was very fun and we had a blast!

this trip was similar.
it started out thursday night.  our flight was at 7:30.  jared got home from work and we left to take the dogs to our friends around 4:45.  then we had to drop off jareds homework assignment and we headed to the airport around 5:30.  we hit very heavy traffic and when we got to the parking lot, we were in a hurry to get on the shuttle.  i left my phone in the car and they had to send another shuttle to bring it to me.  by the time i get my phone, we had about 1 hour until our flight left.  we head to security, but that security checkpoint is closed.  we have to go to the one clear on the other side of the airport, which of course has a long line.  it takes us 35 minutes to get through security.  we rush to the gate and have a few minutes to spare before they start boarding.  phew.

right before take off, i turn to jared and ask "you locked the door, right?".  he couldn't answer me.. normally, i would have just assumed that everything was fine, but for SOME REASON i decided to text my friend stacey who lives close to us and have her go double check.  we were taking off, but i had this urge to text her right then and not when we got to LA.   once we landed, i had a text from her "call me when you land, it's important".

i called her and found out that our front door was WIDE OPEN.  apparently, in the rush to get out of the house and round the dogs up into the car, jared had forgotten to go back and SHUT THE DOOR.  i had a pit in my stomach as i asked her if everything had looked ok.  to my relief, she said that it didn't look like we had been robbed and she turned on a light and deadbolted the door for us.  thank god for friends like her.

after landing in LA and going through a seemingly endless amount of shuttles, we finally get to the rental car place.   then after missing a turn and driving through south central LA, we finally get to our hotel, which was paid for with hotel points.  it was nice and we crashed.

the next day was fairly uneventful, disaster wise.  we enjoyed a nice drive down the pacific coast highway, chilled on a beach for an hour or so, and finally made it down to our friends house in san diego.

saturday, our friends took us sightseeing in la jolla.  we were at the la jolla cove, walking on the rocks and looking at the tide pools.   my first mistake was that i was wearing my chucks, which don't have a lot of traction, so even though i was being super careful, i stepped on a slimy patch on the rock and lost my balance.  everything went into slow motion.  my butt hit the rock and i thought i was safe.. but then i slowly slid backwards into the tide pool.  i knew it was coming and there was nothing i could do except moan "nooooooooo!" as i was going in.    this was quite entertaining for jared and my friends, as you can imagine.  i got up, soaking wet, and had no choice but to see the humor in the situation and laugh with everyone else.

saturday night we checked into our super fancy hotel (our splurge because the rest of the trip was so cheap).  it didn't disappoint.  if you are ever in san diego and want to drop $300 a night on a hotel, i highly recommend the Hotel Solamar in the gaslamp district. we got one of the spa rooms and it was amazing.  for dinner we decided that we wanted to take advantage of being near the water and nothing sounded better than a big bucket of crab legs.   the hotel clerk recommend this place called the crab hut, about 6 blocks from our hotel.  while walking there, my sandals that i hadn't properly broken in yet for the summer, start cutting me so bad that i can barely walk.  i had to stop in the cvs and buy the only pair of flip flops that didn't rub on the cuts - and they were men's.  we get to the crab hut, but we can't get in, because there has been a shooting next door at the marriot and everything is taped off with crime scene tape. 

so we get directions to another seafood place, which is about 8 blocks in the opposite direction.  this place turns out to be more of a fast food fish place where everything is fried.  not really our idea of a nice romantic anniversary dinner.  we then remember that jared's mom suggested a place called "Anthony's Fish Grotto", which is right on the water.  she raved about it and said it was the best seafood she's ever had.  we look it up on google and it has a good rating, so we decide to check it out.  we should have paid more attention to the look the hotel front desk clerk gave us when we mentioned it. 

we drive to anthony's and walk inside. the whole way there i was reading some of the reviews on yelp and it sounded like the atmosphere was not going to be quite what we were looking for.  it was going to be another blue parrot*.  when we're going to our table, jared was focused on the great view of the water from the restaurant.  i was focused on the crowded, noisy dining room filled with tourists, families, and fried food - and the decor that hasn't been updated since 1984.  we sit down, and look at the menu.  NOTHING looks good and the prices seem pretty expensive for atmosphere and type of food.  we order water and look at the menu some more.  i look up at jared with pleading eyes.. and i ask him if we can leave.  we hightail it out of there, even though by this time it's 8pm and we are starving and tired.

we head back to our hotel and walk to this place we had noticed earlier.  it was called lou & mickey's and it was a steakhouse/seafood place with a great atmosphere and prices similar to what we would have paid at anthony's.   this ends up to be a very good decision.  we have a private table and are able to enjoy a very nice meal and good conversation, which is how a 1st anniversary dinner should be.

it is now sunday and i'm typing this while jared is still sleeping.  today is our last day - our flight is at 8:30 tonight.  we plan to spend the rest of the morning in san diego and then drive up to LA and check out hollywood and some tourist things before we leave.  hopefully it will be fun, but uneventful.. although knowing us, i'm sure something funny will happen that will give us another good story.. which is pretty much the way things always go with our relationship and marriage.  and i don't think i'd have it any other way. 


*when jared and i first started dating, he would RAVE about this italian restaurant called the blue parrot.  he took me there on a date, and i was less than impressed.  the atmosphere was like a cafeteria in a nursing home and the food wasn't that good (although it wasn't horrible).  it was then when jared started understanding the importance of ambiance and atmosphere when dining out for a special occasion. 

honeymoon part one

there have been a lot of things i've wanted to blog about over the past few weeks, but i am paranoid that the people i would be blogging about would somehow stumble across this and make things messier than they already are.  so i'm going to refrain from it until i can think of some way to make the issues more vague.

there are also several personal struggles that i am going though right now, but i'm not sure how to blog about them appropriately.  i'm sure they'll come out in time.

so in the interest of avoiding another 12 month span between blog posts, i will tell you the story of how i thought i ruined our honeymoon.

when we started planning the honeymoon, i had a very specific idea in my head of what i wanted it to be, as i'm sure most brides do.  i knew i wanted to go somewhere exotic and unusual.  no hawaii or mexico for me -um.. WAY too common.  this is what i wanted:
 

 so i started researching the greek isles (and telling everyone that's where we were planning to go) and i bargained with myself that if we stayed in a more budget hotel and not the $500 per night private villas it wouldn't really matter because HELLO! we were in the GREEK ISLES!  then that stupid volcano in iceland erupted and we decided that maybe going near europe wasn't such a good idea.

so my next choice was something like this:

 
it turns out that a private tahitian hut in the ocean with a glass bottomed hot tub is so far out of our price range that it would have cost more than our actual wedding.  so that idea was scratched.

then i thought that perhaps something in the caribbean would be better suited to our price range and schedule.  it was too overwhelming to pick the best island to visit, so i called a travel agent who specialized in honeymoons.  i told her that we wanted to go to the caribbean but under no circumstances did i want to stay in a cheesy sandals resort in jamaica. that's when she suggested barbados.

i started looking at hotels in barbados and found some amazing hotels (including the one where tiger woods was married).  i picked out 3 hotels that seemed pretty luxurious, but not too outrageous, and sat down with j to make a decision.  j pointed out that since we were on a very fixed budget, we could afford these hotels, but we couldn't afford much else besides food.. and wouldn't we want to do a bunch of activities while we were there?   we hopped onto expedia to see what the price range of hotels was in barbados and HOLY CRAP HERE'S ONE THAT IS $2000 CHEAPER THAN WHAT WE PICKED OUT!!!!!!

i didn't book it right away, because i am very anal prudent about getting past the marketing bull and finding out what a place is really like, so i had to spend 2 days googling and reading all 500 reviews on every single travel review website that i could find. overall,  the coconut court beach hotel got very favorable reviews from fellow travelers.  the gist of the reviews were that yes, the hotel was old and a little outdated (no 1000 thread count sheets here!), but the staff was superb, the location was outstanding, and the beach was the most perfect spot of beach on the whole island.

we decided to book.  because REALLY, how much time will we *actually* spend in the room, even thought it *is* our honeymoon?  the beach and location are WAY more important, right? and $2000 is a lot of island tours and yummy meals and alcohol and snorkeling trips and shopping, right??

we are practical people.

so we booked the resort, sent in the deposit, and looked forward to our first major vacation together and jared's first time out of the country.

to be continued... 

bummer on the range

so i'm in casper, wy right now. i used to have to come up here about 4 times a year when i worked for ERM. it's kind of weird being up here and not having to go take samples from a hidden water well in a railyard.

the last time i was up here, i found one of the best secret shopping meccas ever. the gap clearance store. this wasn't just an outlet, this was where all the clearance merchandise from gap, banana republic, and old navy came to die. it was awesome. and has now been replaced by a ross.

sigh. i really needed some cheap khakis and tank tops for mexico and baby gifts.

life's a beach

h'allo from the cayman islands!

yes, i am writing a blog entry while on vacation. see, i left my ipod charger at work and didn't realize it until the night before we left. the only other way i have to charge my ipod is through my laptop, so i brought it along. i turned on my computer to charge my ipod and low and behold, realized i had a wifi connection!

and seeing as though i've spent the last week crisping up on the beach, i decided to stay inside in the a/c for awhile, since that's also something i can't do at home.

anyhow, here's what i step outside to every morning.

nice, innit?
our condo is right on seven mile beach. we're lucky enough to have some great snorkeling right outside the door, so i bought some flippers and a mask and have been exploring. today we went to the turtle farm where we got to hold some sea turtles.

they were also breeding baby turtles - so cute!

then we went to hell...


we're only half way through our two week trip, although i'm starting to get worried about returning to real life! we are planning to do some organized snorkeling trips and visit stingray city. si also wants to try scuba - i would too, but i'm under doctors orders not to.. at least until my allergy crap clears up.

i think i could easily live on an island.. now i only have to figure out how to becoming independently wealthy...

oh canada

i just got back from a college friends wedding. she's canadian, eh, and the wedding was in kananaskis village, just west of calgary. living in colorado, i sometimes get a little jaded about the beauty of mountains.. but let me tell you, the canadian rockies are breathtakingly gorgeous! they're like the colorado rockies on steroids.

anyhow, the whole weekend was going perfectly until i had to get home. i had flown up there and si drove, so we had my car. we left kananaskis a little late on monday morning and had to haul ass so i could make my 1:30 flight from calgary to edmonton, where i would continue to denver. so i get to the airport at 1:00, and since canada isn't as uptight as the states, the airline lady checked me in and told me that i better hurry. i made it to my flight with a couple minutes to spare and was extremely relieved. i called si and told him he could head home, since i made the flight.

i arrive at edmonton at 2:15, an hour before my 3:15 flight. then i'm informed that because of bad weather in chicago*, my flight has been not delayed, but CANCELLED. ok, not a problem, it's only 2:30, i think to myself, i have plenty of time to get back to denver tonight. so i stand behind about 8 people at the united counter to wait to be rebooked. an hour passes, there are still 6 people in front of me. so i suck it up and call the airline from my cell phone, using the $0.50/minute international rate, and end up talking to perhaps the most unhelpful woman ever. out of frusturation, i hang up on her. by that time, there are only 3 people ahead of me. so i wait ANOTHER 30 minutes before i finally get to rebook. i'm finally told that there are no flights to the united states for that day, and they'll have to send me back to calgary and i can take the 6:50 am flight the next day. WTF? i had a hard time believing that there wasn't a SINGLE flight to the states leaving for the rest of the day.

but i sucked it up, called si, let him know what was going on, and remained completely irritated that instead of spending my extra day in banff with si, i had to spend it flying back and forth between calgary and edmonton!

luckily, my friend and her family and some friends were still in calgary, so i was able to stay the night with them and catch a ride with them to the airport, but still. of course, i didn't have any luggage because i had sent it with si - so i had to sleep in my clothes and borrow a toothbrush. then wake up at 4:30 to go to the airport, get back into town, take a cab home, and head into work ~11am. that makes for a LONG day.

the funny thing is, had i actually missed my first flight, i would have probably gotten on the 3:00 direct flight from calgary to denver!

*bad weather my ass.. whenever there's a flight problem they tell you this so that they don't have to give you hotel/food vouchers.