17 Mile Drive & Carmel, California

I was fortunate enough to travel out to Palo Alto for work and knowing that I was so close to California's beautiful, northern coastline and one of my dearest friends in the world, Katie Rye, I decided to extend my stay through the weekend! I woke up in Palo Alto on Saturday morning to 80 degree weather and sunshine. By the time we made it to the coast it was barely 60 degrees and very gray and cloudy. It was still beautiful out though and the cool temperature didn't prevent us from getting out and exploring the beach and surround landscapes.

For those of you who haven't taken the 17 Mile Drive, I highly recommend it. It's a stretch of road from Monterrey down to Carmel that is private - so you'll have to pay the $9 entrance fee to experience it - but it's well worth the price tag. You get to stop by any one of the three Pebble Beach golf courses - we stopped at the Inn at Spanish Bay to watch the last and final USA World Cup match. We had cocktails and enjoyed the biggest helping of onion straws (basically thin onion rings) that I have ever seen - all while enjoying the view of the bay. For those of you who enjoy a rockier beachscape - full of interesting, oddly shaped trees - with beautiful mansions perched along the hillside - you will definitely enjoy it!

~Katie and I: Self portrait at the Inn at Spanish Bay~

~You have to get out and climb some of the massive rocks along the drive~

~Curvy trees everywhere you look!~

~Katie catching some sweet air ~

~the bright yellow flowers really popped because it was such a gray day - I love gray and yellow!~

~More bendy trees~

~And a trip along 17 Mile Drive would not be complete without the infamous photograph of the Pebble Beach tree that they always show off during the U.S. Open (when it's at Pebble Beach). Interestingly enough, the Open took place at Pebble Beach the weekend before our visit, so we just missed Tiger :(~

After spending a couple of hours of parking our car and hopping out to enjoy the numerous view points, we departed the 17 Mile Drive and headed up through Carmel to our hotel for the evening, the Highland Inn. During the work week I had heard about the Highland Inn from one of the Naval Postgraduate professors. This is a gorgeous hotel that is very natural and blends in to it's surroundings with ease and elegance. The hotel is a dark wood material that fits in well with the dark colors on the cliff side that it is nestled into - and it overlooks Carmel Bay! This was my first visit to Carmel and I must say that it is one of my new favorite beach towns in the U.S.! It's so charming, with small little cottages where the retailers and art dealers sell their odds and ends, flowers, pine trees, and a nice sandy beach at the bottom of the hill. It has a very quaint feeling and I really enjoyed our time there.

They have a candy store there called the Cottage of Sweets which I highly recommend - what's more fun than picking up some salt water taffy, fudge, or sour belts as you meander around the beach? Plus, if you check out the link you will notice that the candy store is situated in a mini Snow White cottage - it looks like something straight out of Disneyland! And for all of you ladies who get excited whenever you see a Coach outlet - there is one of those as well!

~Views of Carmel Bay from the Highlands Inn~

That evening we decided to hang out at the hotel and enjoy dinner and the view from the Highlands Inn. We had a great evening - complete with pool, hot tub, and champagne time! Such a great trip! I love you Katie - hope we get to do that again really soon!

~Lovely Katie~

Our Honeymoon - From London to Spain V.

Santorini.
A small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the Southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km southeast from Greece's mainland.

~our view of Santorini from the ship's anchor spot in the bay~

Santorini was one of two stops on our honeymoon that seemed more surreal than the rest. One of the first perks upon arriving in Santorini was that we anchored in the bay and had a spectacular view first thing in the morning as we sat out on the balcony for breakfast. You are instantly drawn into this world full of rich, royal blue hues contrasted by the bright, white washed, stone structures that line the cliff side of this modern day, Greek wonder. Once the local taxi boat brings you into the shore you realize that there are only three options to getting to Fira, the town on top: via Gondola, via donkey (surprising!), or via walking - the path happens to be the same trail the donkey takes. To get a jump start on exploring the island, we opted for the gondola route and were surprised by how many people rode the donkeys. For me...donkeys and Santorini just do not mix. I mean Santorini is so beautiful and pristine - why would you want to sit on one of the dirtiest, smelliest animals first thing in the day?

Once at the top, we headed out to rent scooters. I was really looking forward to driving around the island, sun on my face, wind in my hair. However, as we were about to rent our scooters we realized that we hadn't brought our ID's. So Adam had to take the gondola back down, taxi out to the boat, pick up our ID's and turn around and come back. I have to include this little anecdote because it's the kind of small, annoying thing that always happens to the two of us on trips...I think we forget things more often than anyone else. And these little slip ups/annoyances really make us grumpy. While I waited for my hubby to save the day, I wandered around taking pictures of the city. The truth is, you can't be grumpy for too long in a magical place like Santorini.

~If you look closely, you can see a few of the donkeys ready to ride up to the top (left). We definitely took the gondola (right)~

Due to strange insurance requirements, it's apparently safer to rent a 4 wheeler than it is a scooter. Here's a little tip for folks considering a trip to Santorini - try and get the scooter and pay for the additional coverage. The 4 wheelers are SO slow and you wind up getting passed and honked at, etc. We still had fun...even though we were only able to go 2 mph up hill. I'm sure it must have been funny to watch us - two extremely tall people, squishing together, sitting on the world's slowest bike.
We hopped on the 4 wheeler (with me in the driver's seat - DUH!) and slowly plodded along from Fira to Oia - the northern tip of the crescent shaped island - this took us about 30 minutes. Upon arriving in Oia, we walked around and looked inside the shops and admired the art work. When I'm looking for a keep sake to bring home from a trip - I'm looking for something that stands out from the rest of the touristy rift-raft out there. Based on the number of purchases Adam and I made on our honeymoon - you can easily conclude that we ate and drank more than we bought things. In fact, we only purchased three things - two of those three things were Starbucks mugs from England and Spain. The mugs don't really fit into the meaningful, extraordinary items category that I mentioned above - but, I did start a collection upon moving to DC - so I figured, what the heck. All that to say, there is an artist in Oia that took my breath away - they have these over sized, mixed medium (that include stone, wood, and other natural pieces) paintings that were so alive and beautiful, but out of the budget (especially after paying for some of the wedding and honeymoon). Anyhow, the artists' website is really bad and doesn't do the artwork justice...in fact, it makes it look kind of cheesy. Trust me on this, in real life, these are incredible.

Now, here comes one of the most amazing parts of the day...we ate lunch on the rooftop of a restaurant that overlooked Oia and the bay. The food was so fresh, I had the best Greek salad with tomatoes, feta - that makes you want to import the cheese from Greece, olive oil, local wine...and the only faux pas I committed was when I scooted all of the olives to the side of the plate, creating a little wall of olives. You see, I was too scared to ask for the Greek salad without olives in Greece...I thought they might laugh at me. They probably noticed the wall of olives once they collected my plate, but I was gone by then - and avoided the shame of looking at the waiters face while I rejected what is probably the people of Greece's favorite thing to eat.


After lunch, we walked around Oia a bit more, enjoyed the views and took the quintessential Santorini pictures:

~I had to include this picture of me because I loved this JCREW beach embossed dress and I now refer to it as the Santorini dress, don't you think the color of the dress fits in perfectly? ~

After a nice afternoon in Oia, we decided to hop back on the 4 wheeler and hit the beach. Since it was already late in the afternoon, we decided to look for a beach closer to Fira and our ship. We found one that was okay - it was a rocky beach - with the hottest black rocks I have ever stepped on! You had to sprint to the water before your feet blistered. I guess this could be helpful if you are the kind of person who is always hesitant to get in the water...the hot stones will force you to get right in and cool off! We had a tricky time getting the 4 wheeler back to the rental place - there are several one way streets in Fira which were not obviously marked and I believe we broke the law several times before getting the 4 wheeler back to it's rightful owner. At this point we are completely out of money - well, I think we are litterally like 50 cents shy of a gondola ticket and we only had Adam's credit card on us which consistently rejected ATMs throughout our trip. This forced us to just walk down the donkey path - which was the WORST. The entire path is covered in donkey dung that has been sanded over, but you still step in it and it's so smelly, and slippery! I almost fell in it several times on our walk down. I don't recommend this route. It doesn't really fit in with the rest of Santorini and I think the donkeys should be shipped out :)

Here are a bunch of pictures that I took throughout the day:

Here's to the South - May their skills in the kitchen keep us coming back for more!

A couple of weeks ago - just after my weekend in NYC, I went down to Charleston for work. Luckily, it wasn't all work and no play since as many of you know, Charleston is one of my favorite cities in the US! Instead, it was work all day and go out in the evening for some delicious food and delightful conversation with my Marms and Jordyn who met up with me there for a girls week! I'm such a food tourist and tend to spend a lot of time trying out delicious food while exploring a new place. This visit to Charleston was no exception - here's some of my favorite pictures along with new restaurant recommendations:

Dinner the first night was at The Library: The decor in The Library reminded me of a charming English garden with soft pastel colors, stripes, portraiture's, and chandeliers...interestingly, I did not find one book in this restaurant. I suppose that it would be a bit cliche to actually have an assortment of books in a restaurant called the Library? I highly recommend having dessert there - I can't remember the name of what we chose and the website has unfortunately, not updated their online menu which makes it tough to do research. We chose a delightful dessert (to which my Marms can attest) a small stack of cocoa crepes filled with banana creme and soft, sweet dollop of whipping creme.

The next evening the ladies took me to have the best fried chicken I have ever tasted. No really, I'm not even exaggerating. AMAZING! If you ever visit Charleston, you must have dinner at a restaurant called Magnolias. Also noteworthy, Magnolia's is one of two restaurants from Charleston that are featured in the popular book, 1000 Places To See Before You Die. Here's the story with the chicken dinner - they serve it with corn, mashed potatoes, collard greens, biscuits and gravy. Even though you might be tempted to order a side of macaroni and cheese - resist the temptation! I ate so much, I made myself sick - I went straight to bed afterward and didn't even have room for chocolate cake, which coincidentally, was the best cake my travel buddies had ever had. Sigh.

Before and After shot

I can't neglect to mention a cute cafe that we visited daily called The East Bay Meeting House - just a block from Magnolias. It was the first stop in our evenings of food tourism - with a lovely happy hour special that we couldn't resist - $4 glass of champagne. Great deal, right?! We went there so often that the owner said, "see you tomorrow" to my Marms on our last day. She didn't have the heart to break the news to him.

On our last full day in Charleston I was able to wrap up work a bit early and we decided to drive down to Savannah. Jordyn had never been before and it's only about an hour and forty-five minutes to drive there. Savannah and Charleston couldn't be more different in my opinion. They are both absolutely lovely - and I think I mentioned this in my last blog post...maybe not...but Charleston is very grand, while Savannah feels more authentic and whimsical. Jordyn likeend Charleston to the Disneyland of the South. I think you feel like a little kid in a candy store as you walk down the streets, exploring the grandeur. While in Savannah, I'm surrounded by large trees with Spanish moss, parks and squares everywhere, an artistic vibrancy, both grand and rustic homes...

Anyhow, ever since my first trip to Savannah I've been reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book is an exciting non-fiction novel about the people of Savannah and a particular event that happened there. You can't help but feel drawn to the mysteries and curious nature of the city after reading the book. Because I am a big cheese, I required that my travel buddies stop by Bonaventure Cemetery - a place that I had read a lot about both in the novel and online. I'm actually considering buying a burial plot after our visit - I can't believe how lovely and peaceful a cemetery can be:

Is that not the loveliest cemetery you have ever seen? After wandering around Bonaventure, we decided to wander over to the Mercer-Williams house for a tour - this is where the murder in the book took place, followed by fried food (fried green tomatoes, fried macaroni, and fried something else...and of course, some She Crab soup!) at the Olde Pink House restaurant, followed more wandering, some more delicious chocolate cake and eventually, rolling into our car for the drive back to Charleston.

The Davenport House - handsomest example of Georgian architecture in Savannah.

The birthplace of Juliet Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of America

Another beautiful, historical home surrounded by great trees and azaleas.

I'd like to thank both my Marms and Jordyn for meeting me in Charleston and making my ordinary work trip, extraordinary. And especially for scouting out these fabulous dining spots ahead of time and establishing a game plan for us in the evenings when my brain was shot - you two took such great care of me, I felt spoiled! With that said, Here's to the South: May we travel to Charleston together for many more girls trips!

A Quick, New York City Weekend

Some of you might be wondering, what happened to that tri-city hockey arrangement you set up with Adam and his friends from college, the Arnetts and Cahills? Well, due to a few schedule conflicts in our original plans (i.e., Superbowl, and other big events) we had to do some reconfiguring with the schedule and ended up not being able to watch hockey games in both NYC and Washington DC. So, for this past weekend, we came up with another plan which included, but was not limited to: a 4.5 hour bus ride via DC2NY, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, two massive slices of pizza upon arrival, missing keys, a breakfast sandwich and coffee to match - both the size of my face, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park while enjoying a Missile Pop and some break dancing/roller skate dancing for viewing entertainment, Jamba Juice, followed by the purchase of an extra layer for warmth, a Bellini followed by dinner and wine at Serafina and a sighting of House Whip (R), Eric Cantor (boo), then a Broadway show "Promises, Promises" featuring Kristin Chenoweth "Cheno", and Sean Hayes , with dessert to follow from somewhere that was not Serendipity! Sunday was definitely a little more chillaxed...late wake up time, bloody mary and brunch, the purchase of a delicious cupcake from a local cupcakerie (always a must), a Nintendo Wii fit tutorial (I enjoyed the skiing bit), lots of begging and then finally a yes from me to go play touch football out in Brooklyn, a new pair of shoes as my reward, a car ride out to Brooklyn, a couple of touchdowns by Charlie-Nana - our superstar friend who came from DC with us, farewells, NY2DC bus ride, Up in the Air, and a couple of burgers from 5 guys to welcome us home... and all of the above activities accomplished in a New York minute. What a great city. *note...I tried to add links to nearly everything in this post...just for fun.

Here are some pics from my iPhone:

van Gogh self portrait

loved the lighting and mixture of sculptures, lighting, and stained glass - in this room

eyes closed...sigh. anyway, here I am in the famous 'when harry met sally' room.


Charlie-Nana (Jake), Adam, and David Arnett


Promises, Promises - Broadway @ 53rd


A beautiful afternoon in Central Park - no one wanted to go out in a row boat with me :(