tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10853609644105615562024-03-12T19:30:34.628-04:00Floating Along...tales of our life adventuresLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.comBlogger217125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-45956009115263274002014-09-28T16:31:00.000-04:002014-09-28T16:31:00.128-04:00Costa Rica | Our 5th Wedding AnniversaryAbout a year ago, we decided to go on a low-key beach vacation to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Oddly enough, we've really never gone on a true beach trip - yes we are usually in the sun but it's typically in between lots of activity and adventure. We originally were looking into Caribbean destinations, but when Marriott announced its affiliation to a new Autograph Collection hotel (our favorites) in Costa Rica it was a done deal for us. We booked our stay at <a href="http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lirak-hotel-punta-islita-autograph-collection/" target="_blank">Hotel Punta Islita</a> immediately!<br />
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We flew into Liberia and rented a car for the 2.5 hour drive to our hotel. I am forever grateful to the Hertz agent who upgraded us to an SUV with 4 wheel drive, as we never would have made it in the tiny car we reserved. The first half of the trek was just fine on a paved road, but the second half was horrendous. The dirt roads were a mess since it was the middle of the rainy season, so we had to drive through a few mini-rivers and up and down the mountains. By the time we got to the hotel I was ready for a drink. I assume everyone else feels the same way upon arrival, as check-in is at the bar and they serve you free guaro sours. Congratulations on surviving the drive, now forget about it! :)<br />
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In hindsight this is one place where I do not recommend a rental car
since it would have cost about the same to pay for transportation
between the resort and the airport, and then we wouldn't have had to
deal with driving on the roads. Live and learn.<br />
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We were surprised to find out this wasn't your typical hotel, since everyone is in a bungalow! Again they spoiled us with an upgrade to a suite with our own private jacuzzi and a view of the beach. It was incredible. We <i>always</i> stay at Marriotts and they are generally all the same, but their Autograph Collection is a little more unique and boutique-y and this one takes the cake by a long shot! (So far, anyway...we still have many more to visit on our must-go list!)<br />
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Our first full day there was our anniversary. We spent most of the day hanging out at the infinity pool and bar area. Could not have asked for a more beautiful day to start our trip! <br />
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The one thing we did book in advance was a couples massage for that afternoon. We sure wish that could also be a more regular thing.<br />
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That evening we made reservations for a private dinner on the beach. All of the food at the resort was amazing and this was probably the best meal we had of the trip, especially since it wasn't on the regular menu. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Special Dinner Guest!</td></tr>
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Since our main goal of this vacation was to get some serious R&R, this was also the
first trip we went on without doing any research and with no planned
agenda. I will admit I was a little nervous about getting bored and
needing something to do, but just in case, our hotel had several awesome excursions we could
sign up for.<br />
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Turns
out we didn't even need all of the excursions, as we are surprisingly quite
good at doing nothing and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Even though we both grew up in Florida, we hardly ever go to the beach. And Bo never really wants to just lay by the pool for hours. So much to our amazement we found that both are much more enjoyable when the chairs are already setup with towels, someone brings you food and drinks all day long, and there is plenty of shade to escape from the sun. We are almost always on the go whether we are
traveling or not, and this forced relaxation was just what we needed. So
much so that we are hoping to make this a more regular thing.<br />
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The first big decision we had to make every day was whether we should
go to the main infinity pool, the other pool, the beach, or hang out in our
jacuzzi and hammock. And the second big decision was which fruity drink to have for
the day. Stressful stuff, I tell ya.<br />
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After logging several hours at each of the pool bars we made friends with most of the people staying there, especially Melissa and Nathan, fellow Marriott loyal world travelers. We got along really well with them and traded travel recommendations, so we are thankful for all their suggestions for future trips! Hopefully our paths will cross again one day :)<br />
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By about day four, we decided to finally move past the resort property and put our rental car to use. We really didn't go very far since technically we could have walked to the nearby town. The one restaurant in town was closed that day, so we stopped in a few of the local shops, and then...back to the resort we went. We waited until low tide and walked along the beach out to the point, which was probably the furthest away from the resort we ever got.<br />
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On our last night, we decided to go zip-lining. Neither of us had ever been, and several people told us that Costa Rica was one of the best places to do it, so we figured what better time or place to check it off the bucket list. We ended up being the only ones who signed up for the twilight session, so we got a private tour which is normally double the cost of what we paid. Sweet! It was pretty cool, though I'd recommend a GoPro over the iPhone for pictures :)<br />
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We loved Costa Rica. Among other firsts, it was also our first time visiting Central America. Everyone was extremely friendly and happy, we had great food and drinks (that were very reasonably priced, especially at a resort), and it was just beautiful. We definitely hope to go back some day!!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com3Punta Islita, Costa Rica9.8566109000000015 -85.39885799.840966400000001 -85.419027899999989 9.872255400000002 -85.3786879tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-20592801996005644512014-08-28T07:49:00.001-04:002014-08-28T07:49:29.100-04:00San Francisco & Sonoma | Reunion TripFour days after we got home from <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/london-2014.html" target="_blank">London</a> and <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/brussels.html" target="_blank">Brussels</a>, we got on yet
another plane headed the opposite direction across the planet, to San
Francisco! Sonya and Brandt were married in Carmel a few years ago and
we spent a few days in San Francisco and Napa before their wedding. Soon
after, they moved to SF and had been inviting us out there to visit
ever since. We finally had (what we thought was going to be) a pretty
free summer, so we started vacation planning purely revolving around
eating and drinking since we'd already done the typical touristy stuff.
In the meantime, <a href="http://leopardandlillies.com/" target="_blank">Amy</a>
and John (and baby Jack) also moved to SF, and when some of our friends
caught wind that we were planning a trip they decided to join us and so
we made it a big reunion trip. <br />
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We
flew in late on a Thursday night with Adrienne, and Kelly & Matt
got in the day before us, so we all spent Friday together while our
hosts were at work. We had lunch in Sausalito, a really cute town just
north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks Alisha for the recommendation!<br />
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From there, we went to Muir Woods for an afternoon of hiking. Travel tip: Make sure you have enough fuel, as there aren't many gas stations along
the way and there is no cell phone service so you can't rely on Google
Maps to tell you that you were <i>almost</i> there before you turned around and then came all the way back just to go 0.1 miles further. <i>Lesson learned.</i><br />
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Once we finally got there, it was packed and we had to park <i>really</i>
far away, but we were determined to go at this point. And after all
that, we were pretty disappointed with the "trail" - it was a completely
flat, wide wooden-plank path and only about a half mile long. There
were a few small trails at the end, so we went on one of those to get an
actual hike in for the day. The trees were huge and beautiful, and it
was a pretty easy hike.<br />
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By
the time we got back, everyone was home from work and Alisha got in
town soon after. We all went out to dinner and caught up over a few
drinks - we had to keep it a low key night since we had a long day ahead
of us on Saturday!<br />
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<span style="color: #1eb281;">●●●●●</span> <br />
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<br />
We
spent the next day in Sonoma! We rented a limo to take us out to wine
country and back, which was definitely the way to go with such a large
party. Compared to Napa, we thought Sonoma was much more laid back, the
wineries were just as beautiful, not as crowded, and not as far apart,
and it was generally more affordable. We all did a wine tasting of 4-6
wines at each winery we visited. The tastings were all about $10, and
they waived your tasting fee if you bought a bottle of wine. Such a
great deal! Bring on the wine.<br />
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We went to four wineries: <a href="http://www.larsonfamilywinery.com/" target="_blank">Larson Family</a>, <a href="http://www.robledofamilywinery.com/" target="_blank">Robledo</a>, <a href="http://www.imagerywinery.com/" target="_blank">Imagery Estate</a>, and <a href="http://www.kunde.com/" target="_blank">Kunde Family</a>.
I think the majority of us liked each winery better than the last (or
maybe that was all the wine talking?). It was such a gorgeous day
(perfect picnic weather, don't mind if we do!). We had such an
awesome day.<br />
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<br />
Baby
Jack was an absolute trooper the whole day. He did SO well, and we all
loved being able to love on him :) Bo is still not so sure about
babies, but Jack made quite the impression on him. Baby steps...<br />
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<span style="color: #1eb281;">●●●●●</span> <br />
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<br />
Since
the theme for Saturday was wine, Sunday was all about food. Sonya and
Brandt took us on a walking tour of their neighborhood and we went to so
many cute and tasty places. We started with brunch at <a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/6/89841/restaurant/Haight/Reverie-Coffee-Cafe-San-Francisco" target="_blank">The Reverie Cafe</a> - super cute, great patio, and delicious food - cash only! Then we picked up some macaroons from <a href="http://www.laboulangebakery.com/" target="_blank">La Boulange</a> - I saved these for later, perhaps too much later since they didn't quite compare to the ones we had in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Paris" target="_blank">Paris</a>, but still good. We continued walking down the street to <a href="http://www.saycheesesf.com/" target="_blank">Say Cheese</a>,
aka a small slice of heaven. This place had an overwhelming selection
of meats and cheeses, and after much deliberation we finally narrowed it
down to a select few. It's probably a good thing we don't have
something like this in walking distance to our home in Atlanta, since it
was dangerously amazing. By then we of course needed dessert, so a
little further down the street we stopped into <a href="http://www.theicecreambarsf.com/" target="_blank">The Ice Cream Bar</a>,
an old fashioned ice cream shop and we loved it! I'd say we had earned
it after walking up and down all the hills in that area ;) Our
final stop of our food excursion was <a href="http://www.baconbaconsf.com/the-truck" target="_blank">Bacon Bacon</a>, which as I'm sure you can guess, has quite the selection of bacon. We got a to-go order because we just <i>had</i> to try it but we were so full at this point!<br />
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<br />
We
went back to Sonya & Brandt's to recover from our food
coma. They have such a great view of the city from their place! The
rooftop was super windy but I couldn't resist the photo opp.<br />
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<br />
Later that afternoon, we met up with the other half of our group at <a href="http://offthegridsf.com/markets/PICNIC#about" target="_blank">Off the Grid Picnic at the Presidio</a>
- an outdoor picnic with food trucks, just south of the Golden Gate
Bridge. We brought all the wine we purchased in Sonoma and several
snacks we picked up on our food excursion earlier that day and just
relaxed at the park for a few hours. Once again it was a beautiful day! I love California.<br />
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<span style="color: #1eb281;">●●●●●</span> <br />
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Our
last day in San Francisco we took it pretty easy. Alisha flew home the
night before and the locals were back to work, so we slept in and started packing up to go home (boo). We met up with Kelly & Matt at <a href="http://www.blowfishsushi.com/" target="_blank">Blowfish</a> for Bo's required sushi of the trip. From there, we all walked to the <a href="http://www.anchorbrewing.com/" target="_blank">Anchor Steam Brewery</a>.
After all the wine we had that weekend, it was time for some beer :) A
word of warning if you plan to go here, make your reservations early! We got the last few spots of our tour when we called two
months in advance. It's worth it though since the tour and tasting are
both free! We tried most of the beers they make and we found a few new
ones that we hadn't had before.<br />
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<br />
Adrienne left that afternoon and we were down to the final four. Bo and I had dinner with the Forrests at <a href="http://www.slanteddoor.com/" target="_blank">The Slanted Door</a>, which is a modern Vietnamese restaurant that had just won the <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/eat-drink-play/ci_25702468/slanted-door-wins-top-james-beard-award-outstanding" target="_blank">James Beard Award for Most Outstanding Restaurant in America</a>. It was incredible, and is located in the Ferry Building so we had a gorgeous view of the sunset that evening. <br />
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<br />
And just like that our trip was over. We all said our goodbyes, and Bo & I took the red-eye home that night. We had such a fantastic time with everyone.
Sonya did all the legwork in finding wineries and restaurants and making
reservations for the whole weekend, which really made everything go as
smooth as we possibly could have imagined for such a large group. We
cannot thank you enough for such a great weekend!! If only we didn't all
live so far away and could do this more often :) Until next time...<br />
<br />
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<img class="centered" src="http://i36.tinypic.com/4g5205.png" />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2San Francisco, CA, USA37.7749295 -122.4194155000000137.373502 -123.06486250000002 38.176356999999996 -121.77396850000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-13865102541983099152014-08-06T22:46:00.000-04:002014-08-06T22:53:47.140-04:00BrusselsSince we were already <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/london-2014.html" target="_blank">across the pond</a> but we didn't have any extra vacation days to use on this trip (wah! #firstworldproblems), we decided to go somewhere in Europe just for a weekend. It was a pretty easy decision because we were limited to Delta flight options and Marriott hotel locations. From there, we narrowed it down based on other locations we either hadn't been to yet and eliminating those where we wanted to spend any longer than a few days. All signs pointed to Belgium, and on top of that I love Belgian beer, so Brussels quickly became the winner!<br />
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Once I finished up the work week, we took a train through the chunnel. This was definitely a one-and-done item off our life list. Extremely underwhelming however very efficient and so much better than a plane. Plus, free wine!<br />
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We had quite a few bar suggestions from friends and that was the extent of our planning, so we wasted no time. We mapped out a little bar crawl for ourselves, and <a href="http://deliriumcafe.be/" target="_blank">Delirium Cafe</a> was by far our favorite. In 2004, they set the Guinness World Record for the most variety of beers commercially available (longest list of beers). We made a valiant effort to try them all but we didn't quite make it ;)<br />
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Delirium has three floors of never ending beer. Our first day there, we only knew about the main floor which we enjoyed enough on its own. They serve mostly draught beers and we were wondering where was all the world record variety?! And then we discovered the bottom floor, a beer drinker's heaven. We spent most of our second day here. Every beer is served with a matching glass, which reminded us of <a href="http://www.brickstorepub.com/intro" target="_blank">Brickstore</a>, a local Atlanta favorite in Decatur. We also went upstairs to check out the top floor but it was pretty tame and only had a few beers on tap. <br />
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Bo and I aren't big on shopping for many souvenirs, so we collect random things...mainly, beer bottle caps. We had so many new caps from this trip to add to our collection. We get the strangest reactions when we ask for them. Usually we have to repeat ourselves several times (and have attempted this in several languages now!), and waiters will often bring us the bottle and then take the cap off in front of us, like it's a bottle of wine. No...we just want to keep the cap. Really, it's pretty simple. Our favorite bartender at Delirium Cafe thought it was a fun collection, so he suggested beers to us purely based on the bottle cap - almost all of them were pretty tasty as well. Win, win.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RuPqSmHkNCA/U-GcWWi-IPI/AAAAAAAALaA/BX4qjgHIzaY/s1600/Draught+Beers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RuPqSmHkNCA/U-GcWWi-IPI/AAAAAAAALaA/BX4qjgHIzaY/s1600/Draught+Beers.jpg" height="640" width="512" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We weren't too partial though, had to get some draft beers as well! </td></tr>
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By total coincidence, our hotel was right across the street from the Brussels Stock Exchange, which at the time was owned by the company I work for, but has since been spun off. Seems I can never get away from work!!<br />
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We walked around Grand Place (the main square) that night where we found a cute little restaurant for dinner to watch the full moon. It was stunning!<br />
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We did watch a little of the World Cup, although Belgium
didn't play until the following Tuesday. So just like in London, once
again we barely missed watching a team while visiting their country. <br />
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Another common recommendation we received was <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g188644-d815263-Reviews-Floris_Bar-Brussels.html" target="_blank">Floris-Bar</a>,
which is an absinthe bar conveniently located right across the street
from Delirium. This was my first time trying absinthe, and I did not
like it at all. Bo says it's an acquired taste - no thanks. It was also
quite a process to watch them prepare it, so it wasn't even worth all
the anticipation. Back to beer for me, please.<br />
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A few of our favorite food items in Brussels:<br />
<ul>
<li>Delirium beer cheese. No brainer.</li>
<li>Mussels. When in Brussels...!</li>
<li>Chocolate. Always on obvious choice.</li>
<li>French Fries. Supposedly invented in Belgium, <i>not</i> France.</li>
<li>And of course, a Belgian waffle. Surprisingly incredible, even at a 1-Euro tourist stand.</li>
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We didn't do any sightseeing since there isn't really much to see, although we had to stop by the Manneken Pis. Which literally means peeing boy. It is a tiny little two-foot statue of a boy peeing into a water fountain. And it is the symbol on just about every souvenir you will find in the entire city, and more. Ridiculous.<br />
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Overall we really enjoyed Brussels. We have no real desire to go back, but it was a great place to go for about 36 hours - any longer is really unnecessary. The people were extremely attractive and friendly, prices were very reasonable, and everyone spoke English and at least two or three other languages. Most importantly we thought the food and drinks were amazing as that was the whole purpose of our weekend. Mission accomplished.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2Brussels, Belgium50.8503396 4.351710300000036150.6899556 4.0289868000000357 51.0107236 4.6744338000000365tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-60792857304657153882014-07-27T15:41:00.002-04:002014-07-27T15:41:34.281-04:00London 2014When I got back from my last trip to <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/new-york-new-york.html" target="_blank">New York</a>, I unpacked and repacked my suitcase in between many loads of laundry, and the very next day I got on another plane to head across the pond. I go to London one week every year (also for work) and this time Bo tagged along (for fun). He went to London a few times when he was younger so we've both done most of the touristy stuff, so it was nice to just enjoy the city, especially since it was our first time there together.<br />
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We took a red-eye flight and got into London on a Sunday morning. Took the train to our hotel, changed our clothes, and went straight to <a href="http://www.polointheparklondon.com/" target="_blank">Hurlingham Park</a> to go to our very first polo match. So posh, we are. <br />
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There were several matches throughout the day, though we never really picked up on the sport. Polo is basically a big, fancy tailgate. Everyone gets really dressed up and really drunk and sometimes watches a little polo. We started our day off with a pitcher of Pimm's, which was a terrific idea after a red-eye, no?<br />
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Regardless of how little we actually know about polo, it was always easy to know when they scored...<br />
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During halftime, they let all the fans go out on the field and replace the divots, which is called "treading in". It was kinda cool, but a little underwhelming - if only Richard Gere had been there it would be been a little more exciting ;)<br />
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The rest of the week was much less interesting. Lots of work meetings for me, and lots of relaxation for Bo. We stayed at the <a href="http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/longh-grosvenor-house-a-jw-marriott-hotel/" target="_blank">Grosvenor House</a>, right across
the street from Hyde Park. It was a great location for morning runs in the park, and it took me about 15 minutes on the tube to
get to my office, so much better than my normal daily commute in Atlanta
traffic. It was also a convenient location for Bo since he did a little
sightseeing and mostly spent time reading in the park and enjoying the
beautiful weather. I've really lucked out - in the four times I've been
to London it's really only rained for a total of one hour. Blue skies
and mid-60s, really just perfect. <br />
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Throughout the week we enjoyed some very scenic meals...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1qke9Loa1Zk/U9B4Hy25XHI/AAAAAAAALYM/8q_750d3hew/s1600/IMG_3486.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1qke9Loa1Zk/U9B4Hy25XHI/AAAAAAAALYM/8q_750d3hew/s1600/IMG_3486.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset dinner over the River Thames near Putney Bridge</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o9LQtr4xiT0/U9B4GUY5NII/AAAAAAAALX8/swAFc85Ouc4/s1600/photo2+-+Duck+&+Waffle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o9LQtr4xiT0/U9B4GUY5NII/AAAAAAAALX8/swAFc85Ouc4/s1600/photo2+-+Duck+&+Waffle.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lunch with a view from <a href="http://duckandwaffle.com/" target="_blank">Duck & Waffle</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WBlDosacclU/U9B4Gy5ujfI/AAAAAAAALYE/Q_CHgonfY-c/s1600/photo8+-+Smith+of+Smithsfield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WBlDosacclU/U9B4Gy5ujfI/AAAAAAAALYE/Q_CHgonfY-c/s1600/photo8+-+Smith+of+Smithsfield.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner with a view from <a href="http://www.smithsofsmithfield.co.uk/" target="_blank">Smiths of Smithfield</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #20be89;"><span style="color: #1eb281;">●●●●●</span></span><br />
<br />
Thursday of that week was the opening night of the World Cup. Neither of us really like soccer (as they call it, football or "footie"), but we ventured out to the local pubs to enjoy a few pints and be a part of the excitement. England wasn't playing for another few days (we just missed them!), but the pubs were crowded and everyone was really into it. I almost cared :) <br />
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That pretty much wraps up our time in London and kicks off our weekend...once my work week was over, we headed to Brussels for the weekend! <br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com3London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-40596635444702805472014-07-20T21:26:00.002-04:002014-07-20T21:26:37.627-04:00New York, New YorkI don't really talk about work here on the blog because I'm fairly certain it would bore you all to tears. But apparently this has led a lot of you to think that all we do is travel the world and never go to work. Ha! I wish :) Unfortunately we still have not won the lottery and we are not aware of any trust funds (dare to dream!), so we most definitely have to work to be able to vacation the way we do! And we actually do quite a bit of traveling for work as well - which is how we are able to earn all the Delta Skymiles and Marriott points we need to be able to go on said vacations. Bo is still steadily traveling for his clients, and my work travel has especially picked up over the past six months since the company I work for recently bought the New York Stock Exchange (it still sounds crazy to say that!). I've gone up to New York City several times now and have certainly made the most of it.<br />
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My favorite part of being in the big apple was getting to see these ladies!!<br />
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When it was finally warm enough outside, Megan and I went for a run on a trail near my hotel that goes right along the Hudson and up to her neighborhood. It's now my regular route whenever I'm up there.<br />
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After our run, Megan took me through her neighborhood and we stopped by her apartment. West Village is such a cute area, and of course we had to stop by <a href="http://www.magnoliabakery.com/" target="_blank">Magnolia Bakery</a> and get a little dessert before dinner!<br />
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Thankfully I also have some really great co-workers to hang out with when we travel, so we did some exploring of our own. The Yankees were in town one week so the auditors took us all to a game one night - it sure is nice to be on the other side of that now! :) And I will admit we accidentally caught ourselves cheering for the Yankees when one guy hit a homerun. Oops, sorry Braves. The new stadium was pretty nice, though I never went to the old one. Hoping to make it to a Mets game during a future trip, I've heard their stadium is even nicer.<br />
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Another night we had dinner at <a href="http://www.bobbyvans.com/Wall-Street.html" target="_blank">Bobby Van's</a>,
which is in the old JP Morgan antique bank vaults. The dining room is
lined with bronze deposit boxes and we even got to open up the big vault
which was so massive and heavy that it took 2-3 of us just to open the door.<br />
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Bobby Van's is right across the street from our office, and it is so pretty all lit up at night!<br />
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The office is actually a really old building and we're working on some major renovations - with the exception of the executive floor. The board room is enormous! I was in complete awe. The ceiling is stained glass, all the trim is real gold, and the clock behind me in the picture below is over 200 years old. I've never seen another board room that comes close in comparison.<br />
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A few times I've been able to go down to the trading floor to watch
the opening bell. There is a lot of energy on the floor - especially watching Cramer live -
though I'm sure it's nothing like it was back in the day, since so much
is electronic now. The most exciting day I've seen so far was when the owners and
jockey for California Chrome rang the bell in honor of the Belmont
Stakes the following weekend. They were all so excited! Sadly they ended up losing the Belmont, so no triple crown - better luck next year.<br />
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It sounds a lot more glamorous than it really is, but working on NYSE has definitely been one of the more exciting (and challenging) projects at work lately. I'll be going back next month so those of you in New York City, let me know if you want to hang out!! :)<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2New York, NY, USA40.7127837 -74.00594130000001840.3275957 -74.651388300000022 41.0979717 -73.360494300000013tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-58092458775616832412014-07-17T22:09:00.001-04:002014-07-17T23:09:02.766-04:00Puppy PartiesOver the past few months, we've had quite a few celebrations for our pups. They are exactly two years and two weeks apart, and since we got them when they were both at exactly the same age of 10 weeks old, their birthdays and "gotcha days" become a bit of a blur. We were out of town for a few of these days this year, but did our best to make it up to them when we were here :)<br>
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Every year on Molly's birthday, I've made her a dog cake using Kristin's <a href="http://ourlifebeyondthegame.blogspot.com/2009/09/peanut-butter-delight-dog-birthday-cake.html?zx=ee6e5b2cec2cd34a" target="_blank">recipe</a>. It seemed a bit excessive to make two separate cakes for both Molly and Abby in such a short time frame...especially given Molly's historical weight issues. So I just made one cake for them to share this year. And since Molly has been doing well with her weight lately, I frosted it with peanut butter instead of cottage cheese and decorated it with dog treats instead of vegetables. I have to say, it was SO much better looking - and I would imagine better tasting as well. And it kept pretty well for an entire week since they only got one small slice each night with dinner.<br>
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Molly knew exactly what it was and that it was for her. Well, maybe not..she thinks all food is for her. Regardless, she was very excited and never left the kitchen until cake time.<br>
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Abby, meanwhile, was clueless.<br>
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She quickly figured it out :) No crumbs left behind!<br>
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For their "gotcha" days - which we call "present" days - we took them to the dog park. We had several weekends in a row with gorgeous weather so it became somewhat of a regular thing which was good for all of us. The dogs are usually wiped out after an hour and will sleep for days afterward. Tired puppies are happy puppies... makes for very happy puppy parents!<br>
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And just for fun, comparison shots to the day we brought each of them home. They were such little puppies!!<br>
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We love these girls so much! <br>
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<a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/mpd.html" target="_blank"><i>Molly Present Day 2012</i></a><br>
<a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/mpd2.html" target="_blank"><i>Molly Present Day 2013 </i></a><br>
<a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/abby.html" target="_blank"><i>Abby Present Day 2013</i></a><br>
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<br>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com1Atlanta, GA, USA33.7489954 -84.387982433.3266004 -85.0334294 34.1713904 -83.7425354tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-47740008445739191072014-06-29T14:56:00.000-04:002014-06-29T14:56:37.204-04:00Spring ThingsFor the first time in many years, we didn't have any spring weddings so we were in town almost all of spring and it was pretty awesome. We took advantage of it and spent most of our time just hanging out at home or with friends, and we also finally got to check off a few things that have been on our Atlanta bucket list for far too long.<br />
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Soon after we got back from <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Vietnam" target="_blank">Vietnam</a>, we celebrated our 14 year dating anniversary at 4th & Swift. Delicious food and a great cocktail menu!<br />
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Bo's parents took us to the <a href="http://www.masters.com/index.html" target="_blank">Masters</a>, which was my very first golf tournament. Their friends gave us all member guest passes so we got the full treatment. I actually don't even like golf at all, but I have to say I loved this tournament and I'm glad I finally went. It's much more interesting in person and getting to walk around enjoying the sunshine, especially with cheap beer and pimento cheese sandwiches. Bo has been several times before when Augusta National used to be his client and he even got to play the course a few years ago which is a pretty big deal. Unfortunately no phones or cameras are allowed during the tournament, so we might have to go back next year for a practice round so I can take some pictures :)<br />
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Kim's boyfriend Evan recently moved to Atlanta (yay!) and we all went out to <a href="http://www.churchillgrounds.com/" target="_blank">Churchill Grounds</a>, a local jazz club that we've been wanting to go to for a while. Front row seats and great company made for a wonderful double date night :)<br />
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Every year since we moved here, Shawn has invited us to <a href="http://www.atlantasteeplechase.org/" target="_blank">Atlanta Steeplechase</a> and we've been out of town for a wedding every single year. Of course the year we are here, he was out of town - his parents still gave us tickets so we went with a few other friends. Another first for me, having never been to a horse race. <br />
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We celebrated Easter twice this year, since most of our friends were with their families on Easter Sunday they all came over the following weekend. So for the first time ever, Bo and I had Easter on our own. I also finally made my mom's bunny cake for our friends and it was a total hit. Pretty cute and tasty if I do say so myself.<br />
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Before our travels picked up again, we celebrated Shara & Chris' engagement party. It was probably the best we've ever been to, even topping our own (which was pretty kick-ass). Looking forward to the wedding next year!<br />
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We didn't stay put for too long though - the past six weeks have been a complete whirlwind and we've been all over the place! More to come on that.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com1Atlanta, GA, USA33.7489954 -84.387982433.3266004 -85.0334294 34.1713904 -83.7425354tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-40274999537037930492014-05-11T08:00:00.000-04:002014-05-11T08:00:03.613-04:00Hanoi {the end}Bo and I stayed in Hanoi for three more days after our tour ended. It was probably a day or two more than necessary, though totally worth it since coming home on a Tuesday was a hellofa lot cheaper in skymiles and it was nice to really unwind for a few final days before returning to reality. As much as we thoroughly enjoyed our tour and the amazing group of friends we made, we were definitely ready to be on our own agenda again.<br />
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We walked all over the city to do quite a bit of sightseeing. First up, the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d311075-Reviews-One_Pillar_Pagoda_Chua_Mot_Cot-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">One Pillar Pagoda</a>, a Buddhist temple built to resemble a lotus flower for its purity.<br />
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We didn't stay there too long since we were really just killing time until the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d311066-Reviews-Ho_Chi_Minh_Museum-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Ho Chi Minh Museum</a> opened. The museum was okay. Almost everything on the first floor was in Vietnamese so I cannot confirm with certainty but it appeared to be the background life story before he took over as President. Mostly historical letters and quotations, and a lot of informational displays that we couldn't even begin to attempt to understand. The very little amount that was in English was mostly propaganda, so we just did a quick lap and then continued on upstairs. Thankfully the rest of the museum was in both English and Vietnamese. There were some really cool artistic displays of Ho's favorite things. One of my favorite displays was a war uniform worn by Ho Chi Minh - I couldn't believe how small he was, just over five feet tall.<br />
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Since we didn't spend very much time in the museum, we had some extra free time and decided to walk over to Huu Tiep Lake. The map in our guide book was <i style="font-weight: bold;">extremely</i> off-scale so what we thought was right around the corner turned into a 2-3 mile walk through some back alleys. It made for a fun adventure.<br />
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Right in the middle of the neighborhood is a small lake where an American B-52 was shot down during the war and the wreckage remains there today. It was one thing to visit the war museum and the cu chi tunnels and to be out in the jungle where most of the fighting was, but to see this in the middle of everyday ordinary life put it in another perspective. <br />
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At this point we were on the opposite side of town so we took a long walk back to our hotel and stopped for a few beers along the way and enjoyed the people watching.<br />
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Second to Hue, we thought Hanoi had the next best food. So far I've really only shared the crazy exotic foods we've tried, but for the most part we actually ate really normal food. Lots of fried rice, pho, and various other relatively plain dishes. Most of the local restaurants we went to were teeny tiny and they sure know how to make the most of their limited space.<br />
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Cha Ca La Vong is a popular restaurant that has been around for over a hundred years and only serves fried fish, cooked right at your table. It was very good but we didn't really see what all the hype was about. It wasn't until later that we realized there are many other knock-offs, and from all the google searching we've done, we're pretty certain we didn't go to the original one. Ohhh well<br />
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We did have one last animal to check off our list before heading home. I'm sure a lot of you will cringe, and it might be hard to believe....but we ate dog. I know, I know. We love our puppies - how could we do this?! A few of our new friends from the tour group were also still in town and between the five of us we split one order, which came with several dishes of dog cooked a few different ways. It was way too much food since we all really just wanted a bite or two to try it. Thankfully, it was all really awful and we hated it and have no desire to try it ever again. So at least we can cross this one off our bucket list forever. Supposedly, they have certain breeds of dogs that are for eating and others for pets, and I am going to choose to believe that. They only serve it in the second half of the lunar month for good luck, so lucky for us it was available when we were there! ;) We also wanted to try cat, but the "cat district" was outside the city and we would have had to take a taxi - totally not worth it even if the ride would have only been a dollar. At last the "dog district" was within walking distance. Needless to say, we left very hungry and went to another restaurant for a real (normal) dinner.<br />
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We ended up at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293924-d1800795-Reviews-Green_Mango-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Green Mango</a>, which was so fantastic we actually broke our own rule and ate there again the following evening. The salmon wontons were incredible - I could have eaten an entire meal of them!<br />
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The night markets were up every night we were there, so we walked through a few times. All kinds of stuff for sale, and there were people everywhere - it was completely packed all night long. It was fun to browse but we only bought a few small souvenirs. <br />
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One evening we went to the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d455018-Reviews-Thang_Long_Water_Puppet_Theater-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Water Puppet Theater</a> to see a traditional show. It was interesting and pretty cool, never seen anything like it before. They operate the puppets from behind the stage while standing in water, and operating the puppets underwater. It was about an hour long show with traditional Vietnamese music and singing. Definitely something different. I'm sure this will sound weird considering how many pictures I take of everything, but Bo and I were both supremely annoyed that photography was allowed during the show. It was so distracting and sometimes hard to see with all the cameras (and ipads!) blocking our view. Sometimes it's better to just sit back and enjoy, though I am guilty of snapping a few photos of my own.<br />
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On our last day there, we went to the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d311069-Reviews-Hoa_Lo_Prison-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Hoa Lo Prison Museum</a> - which the American POW's sarcastically referred to as the "Hanoi Hilton". This is the prison where John McCain was kept and they have his flight suit on display as well as several pictures throughout the exhibit. The propaganda here was just as bad as the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh. The prison was originally built by the French when the Vietnamese were fighting for their own independence, and was later used by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War to house mostly American pilots. Most of the museum goes on and on about how poorly they were treated there by the French, and even though the <i>exact same</i> torture chambers were used against the Americans, there of course was no mention of this. They made it seem like the Americans were at summer camp - they only showed pictures of them smiling, playing basketball, and decorating Christmas trees. There were also several quotes from POW's saying how well they were treated, which were essentially forced out of them after extreme and brutal torture. Overall very disturbing.<br />
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Our final tourist stop was a visit to <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d311074-Reviews-Ngoc_Son_Temple-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Ngoc Son Temple</a>, which is on an island in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake. Similar to churches, at this point they all generally seemed the same to us - of course with the exception of the amazing views of the lake.<br />
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Legend has it that many centuries ago, an emperor was given a sword by the Turtle God, and one day when he was boating in the lake, the turtle came up and took the sword back from him. The turtle and the sword were never found, and the lake was then named Hoan Kiem Lake (the Lake of the Returned Sword). <br />
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There was a cafe right along the lake, so we grabbed a few drinks and some ice cream to hang out for a while. The weather was hit or miss in Hanoi so we had to take advantage of a non-rainy day. We leisurely walked around the city and came up with our own pub crawl. Again all the beers we had were very good and so darn cheap - the way beer should be!<br />
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Cheers, Vietnam! Such an amazing trip! The end.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-84526672397045179292014-05-03T18:49:00.001-04:002014-05-03T18:49:53.514-04:00Hanoi {part 1}Our tour ended in Hanoi, and afterward we spent a few extra days there on our own. Of all the cities we visited, we spent the most time in Hanoi and it was one of our favorites, and again different from all the previous stops. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and is a pretty big city, though it didn't really have a "big city" feel to it, which we liked.<br />
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We actually stayed in Hanoi for a night before we went to Ha Long Bay, and did a little sightseeing that day with our tour group. We walked by the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d311064-Reviews-Ho_Chi_Minh_Mausoleum-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum</a> for a photo, but it was closed that day so we didn't get to go in. Not that we missed out on much - we thought about going a few days later, but no disrespect, we just really had no desire to wait in a really long line to see a dead guy.<br />
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From there, we went to the Confucian <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293924-d311083-Reviews-Temple_of_Literature_National_University-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Temple of Literature</a>. We walked around for a little while - it was pretty but nothing memorable of note.<br />
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The picture below is also the scene displayed on their 100,000 dollar bill (equivalent to about $5 USD). I felt so rich over there! :) Although their money is called Vietnamese "dong", which was always awkward...<br />
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Quick stop for some pho in a random alley...delicious!<br />
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We walked around the Hoan Kiem Lake, which is right in the city center and also called lover's lane. Such a nice evening stroll.<br />
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Within the city there are several districts, and within each district every street is specialized. For example in the shopping district there is shoe street, dress street, purse street, hat street, pajama street, party street...and on and on. We all went shopping on pajama street for absurd pajamas (which we wore on the junk boat in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/ha-long-bay.html" target="_blank">Ha Long Bay</a> the next night). A few of us who are the <strike>more</strike> extremely adventurous eaters went to <a href="http://www.highway4.com/" target="_blank">Highway 4</a> for dinner where we ate a lot of weird food. To those of you who thought it was crazy/gross that we had rat and snake wine in the <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-mekong-delta.html" target="_blank">Mekong Delta</a>...that will now seem like basic chicken. You've been warned.<br />
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There were six of us at dinner and we ordered 11 dishes to share for a total of 12 different animals in one meal. In the photo above, left to right, top to bottom:<br />
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<li>Scorpion. It was terrible. Really dry and crunchy. Like when you are grilling chicken and a tiny piece gets completely chargrilled - sort of like that. But worse.</li>
<li>Gecko. Not great. There were a lot of bones still in it.</li>
<li>Ants with beef. Actually pretty good, we dipped the beef in a small bowl of ants.</li>
<li>Fried shrimp. A normal, delicious item.</li>
<li>Crickets with pork. Also surprisingly good. It was served with crackers/chips so we ate it like a dip.</li>
<li>Escargot. Usually we love it, but we didn't think they were cooked properly so did not enjoy this.</li>
<li>Pigeon. We've had squab before so this was "normal" to us. The disturbing part was that they served it on the plate like you would serve a whole chicken, and for whatever reason it's head was just sitting in the middle. Totally not necessary.</li>
<li>Grilled Frog. My favorite! It was a little spicy (though I am a spice wuss) and had a great flavor.</li>
<li>Fried frog. Also very good. </li>
<li>Ostrich steak. Second favorite. </li>
<li>Chicken fried rice. Because what's a meal in Vietnam without fried rice??</li>
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The next morning we drove to <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/ha-long-bay.html" target="_blank">Ha Long Bay</a> where spent the next day and a half. We came back to Hanoi for one last night with the group, and our tour manager took us all to our final dinner together at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293924-d4049252-Reviews-Little_Hanoi-Hanoi.html" target="_blank">Little Hanoi</a>. We all went to a bar afterward and out of nowhere it closed and everyone had to leave. Apparently this happens often - there is no official closing time for bars, just whenever the police decide to shut everything down.<br />
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That night was also Sophie's birthday so we had all the more reason to celebrate together.<br />
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Our tour manager was on his last tour of a six month stint, so by then he knew all the locals who escorted us to an underground rave party. It was just on the outside of the city, right along the water, and absolutely awesome - such a great way to end our time with all of our new friends!<br />
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The bahn mi lady outside made the absolute best that we had the entire trip. She put a lot of different things in it like sausage, steak, eggs and sauces along with the normal vegetables.<br />
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Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2Hanoi, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, Vietnam21.0333333 105.8500000000000220.974046299999998 105.76931900000002 21.0926203 105.93068100000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-88595326950393339812014-04-30T21:49:00.000-04:002014-04-30T21:49:10.859-04:00Ha Long BayHa Long Bay was our most anticipated destination of the trip and was definitely the highlight. Fun fact: Bo's original inspiration for wanting to go to Vietnam came from watching <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071807/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">The Man with the Golden Gun</a>, a James Bond movie filmed in Ha Long Bay (which Bo made me watch a few days before we left). The bay has thousands of tall limestone rock islands and was unlike anything we've ever seen anywhere else. It was beautiful, though very foggy when we were there so the pictures don't quite do it justice. We were just glad the rain held off and didn't ruin our trip!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">our room with a view</td></tr>
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We took a ferry boat from port, and boarded a private junk boat where we stayed overnight. There were several boats on the bay doing similar overnight cruises whereas others were there for a week or longer. We had lunch on the boat and cruised around the bay for a while just taking in the scenery. It was such a relaxing day.<br />
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We passed several floating villages where many families have lived for their entire lives. I love the water but I don't know how they do that. Pretty much zero socialization, and you sure better not be allergic to seafood! Our guide mentioned that they have a hard time adjusting to life on land if they try. Very fascinating lifestyle.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the "Kissing Cocks"</td></tr>
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We anchored in the bay, and tendered to shore to visit one of the many limestone caves, <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293923-d456290-Reviews-Sung_Sot_Cave-Halong_Bay_Quang_Ninh_Province.html" target="_blank">Hang Sung Sot</a>. It was really cool inside, and when we climbed to the top we had a fantastic view of the bay from above.<br />
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Soon after we got back to our junk boat, we went on a kayaking excursion to one of the nearby islands, and saw monkeys! Just hanging out, eating bananas, and swinging from tree to tree. It was incredible just watching them.<br />
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Dinner on the boat that evening was another delicious seafood meal, and then we had a pajama party! The previous day, we all bought ridiculous pajamas just for the occasion. Lexi won best outfit with her custom Batman onesie she had made in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/hoi-day-1.html" target="_blank">Hoi An</a> - it was amazing.<br />
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Up next is our last stop in Hanoi! <br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam20.8026368 107.2193578000000120.5651998 106.89663430000002 21.0400738 107.5420813tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-39634729543372806512014-04-23T06:00:00.000-04:002014-04-23T06:00:03.849-04:00HueThe next city we visited was Hue (pronounced whey, emphasis on the "h" - the way Stewie from Family Guy would say it). It was a long, beautiful, but miserable bus ride from <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/hoi-day-2.html" target="_blank">Hoi An</a>. Let me remind you, we had stayed up until 4am for St. Patty's Day festivities the previous night, and after only a few hours of sleep had to wake up to pack our bags and get on the road.<br />
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We (finally) arrived in Hue about four hours later, and went on a rickshaw tour of the city. We've done a few of these in other cities and they are so fun.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">again with the crazy driving...eeek</td></tr>
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Our rickshaw city tour ended at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293926-d317599-Reviews-Hue_Imperial_City_The_Citadel-Hue_Thua_Thien_Hue_Province.html" target="_blank">Hue Imperial City</a> (the Citadel), where our local guide took us on a walking tour. It's an old fort surrounded by a moat, built by the French during their occupation and is now a tourist attraction.<br />
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After our tour of the Citadel, we went to the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293926-d451126-Reviews-Thien_Mu_Pagoda-Hue_Thua_Thien_Hue_Province.html" target="_blank">Thein Mu Pagoda</a>, which is still a working temple today and the seven-story pagoda is the tallest in Vietnam.<br />
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Inside one of the buildings on the grounds is the car driven by a Buddhist monk who set himself on fire during protests against the anti-Buddhist government in place at the time in South Vietnam. It's hard to tell in the picture below, but the photograph on the wall behind the car was taken of this event. <br />
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The pagoda was right along the Perfume River and we had a gorgeous view of the sunset as we were leaving.<br />
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That evening, Bo and I had dinner on our own. His restaurant research paid off and we had one of the best meals of the entire trip at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293926-d3393752-Reviews-Xuan_Trang-Hue_Thua_Thien_Hue_Province.html" target="_blank">Xuan Trang</a>. Nothing outrageous, just really delicious and classic Vietnamese dishes. Each city in Vietnam has their own version of pho and fried rice, and we both just loved the food in Hue. Their local beer, Huda, was also Bo's favorite of all the beers we tried in Vietnam. After this amazing meal we called it an early night and caught up on some sleep before heading out again the next morning.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com1Hue, Thua Thien-Hue, Vietnam16.463461 107.584702-9.9869785000000029 66.276108 42.9139005 148.893296tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-6040339149565320172014-04-14T18:00:00.000-04:002014-04-14T20:15:02.042-04:00Hoi An {day 2}The next morning we took an hour bus ride to the Hindu temple ruins of the Champa Empire at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298085-d317894-Reviews-My_Son_Sanctuary-Da_Nang_Quang_Nam_Province.html" target="_blank">My Son</a>. It was absolutely beautiful and we had a wonderful guide who was a translator for the Americans during the war, so he had some great stories.<br />
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We came back in town for lunch and one last afternoon bike ride. We found a cute bar right along the river so we hung out there for a while enjoying a few cocktails.<br />
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For dinner that evening, we went to <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g298082-d4479883-Reviews-The_Market_Restaurant_Cooking_School-Hoi_An_Quang_Nam_Province.html" target="_blank">The Market Restaurant & Cooking School</a>, where we got to make our own Vietnamese meal. We were a bit disappointed as it wasn't really a cooking class. Most everything was at least partially pre-cooked, which made it more of an assembly class. We each seasoned our own chicken but then they grilled it for us. So there wasn't very much actual cooking. We still thought it was a good meal, but we didn't really get anything out of the class part of it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">all of our ingredients</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">our creations: seasoned chicken, fresh spring roll, and a crispy pancake which went into another spring roll</td></tr>
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This was also St. Patrick's Day, so our whole group went out to celebrate together that night. Shockingly, there weren't any Irish bars in this tiny Vietnamese town. We all wore green and got many weird looks throughout the evening. We spent the majority of the night at Backpackers Bar, and we were very surprised to find that Vietnamese love to smoke hookah/shisha (flavored tobacco only...) and were oddly available at most of the bars we went to throughout the rest of the country. Of course we had to partake - we tried strawberry, mint, apple, and grape. <br />
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It was a very long, crazy night and a ton of fun. We were out until almost 4am, which was probably not the best idea having to get up a few hours later for a four hour bus ride the next morning. But it was totally worth it. As we were walking back to the hotel, we passed the locals who were setting up for market the next morning. It worked out really well for us, since we picked up some freshly made bread from a banh mi lady to eat on our way home. And with that...good night!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2Hội An, Quang Nam province, Vietnam15.8800584 108.338046915.6357444 108.0153234 16.1243724 108.66077039999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-38027056879896902842014-04-13T22:02:00.000-04:002014-04-13T22:51:32.752-04:00Hoi An {day 1}Our Vietnam vacation continued with another short morning flight, to the pretty little town of Hoi An. After checking into our hotel, we went across the street to drop off some laundry and rent bicycles for the next two days. It seemed like an odd combination but there were several places that offered both laundry and bike rentals.<br />
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We spent most of the day just riding through the town along the riverside. I couldn't remember the last time I had ridden a bike but it was a great way to get around. Usually when we travel we either walk or rent a car, and I think we may have to do more bike rentals in the future because we enjoyed it so much.<br />
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We stopped at a few of the street vendors for lunch - don't worry, nothing crazy this time. Just pork and chicken on a stick.<br />
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We visited the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298082-d454961-Reviews-Old_House_of_Tan_Ky-Hoi_An_Quang_Nam_Province.html" target="_blank">Old House of Tan Ky</a>, where several generations of the same family have lived for over 200 years. It has survived many floods, and they have markings on the wall to show how high each flood was - some of them nearly washing out the entire ground floor.<br />
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One thing we had not planned on doing was going to one of the many 24-hour tailors. We typically don't do any shopping on vacations with the exception of a few small souvenirs. At the recommendation of our tour manager, we stopped in <a href="http://www.yalycouture.com/index.php?lang=en" target="_blank">Yaly</a> just for fun and ended up having a few things made. Ideally you show them pictures of what you want or have them replicate clothes you already own. They take all of your measurements, and your order is ready for final fittings, adjustments, and pickup the following day. Incredible! I wasn't prepared to have a dress or anything complicated made, so I had them make the outfit I was wearing, just in different colors. Bo had a sport coat made that should be perfect for Easter Sunday. Everything we got was about a quarter of the price back at home, and it was tailored to fit us perfectly. It was a fun experience. They keep our measurements on file for six years, so if we wanted to we could order more to have shipped to us - probably still cheaper than shopping here! We'll see :)<br />
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We went back to the hotel for a few hours to hang out by the pool and have a few beverages. This was one of the nicer hotels we stayed at so we wanted to take advantage of it.<br />
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That evening we rode back into town for another group dinner. Our servers brought a ton of food to the table and made fresh spring rolls for us at the table based on whatever you wanted in them. My favorite was when they put a friend spring roll inside the fresh spring roll. Ridiculous. Seriously, so. many. spring rolls.<br />
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We rode around on our bikes for a while that evening, it was just so pretty all lit up at night!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com4Hội An, Quang Nam province, Vietnam15.8800584 108.338046915.6357444 108.0153234 16.1243724 108.66077039999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-70068555627600790232014-04-12T06:00:00.000-04:002014-04-13T10:39:56.092-04:00Nha TrangThe next city we visited was Nha Trang, which was just a short flight from Ho Chi Minh. During the war, the Americans setup a naval base in Nha Trang, and after the war the Vietnamese leased it to the Russians. Ever since then, Nha Trang has become a very popular resort town destination for Russian tourists. I'm pretty sure we saw more Russians than Vietnamese. Nha Trang is also known for its party scene, so this stop was extremely different from our first few days in Vietnam.<br />
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We quickly stopped at the hotel to check in and change into our bathing suits, and headed to the mud baths. This was optional but everyone in our group signed up for it. We all got pretty close with each other pretty quickly! We lucked out with an awesome tour group - 14 in total. Bo and I were the oldest, and the only married couple. There was one other couple, two sets of sisters, two friends, and four solo travelers. We had one other American, two Irish, and everyone else on the tour was from Australia. It was a great mix and we made fast friends with everyone. Also, thanks to everyone else for posting their group pics on facebook, many of which I've borrowed here :)<br />
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First, we took a mineral shower to rinse off before getting in the mud bath. This was not at all what we expected. It didn't really feel like mud at all, it was more like sitting in warm chocolate milk. It was a little gritty and made our skin super soft.<br />
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We took another mineral shower to rinse off all the mud and then got in the hot tub, which I enjoyed a lot more than the actual mud bath. Our tour manager was friends with the people who worked at the mud baths, and they brought us all beers from the store across the street. They taught us to say one, two, three, cheers! (Mot, hai, ba, yo!) and kindly took pictures for us. Yo!<br />
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We were having so much fun, that the random group in the hot tub next to us asked if they could join...so we obliged. They were from China and very excited to meet all of us, until Bo and I said we were American and they all groaned. Not sure what that was all about, but at least they liked our new Aussie friends.<br />
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That evening we had a group dinner on the beach at <a href="http://www.sailingclubvietnam.com/" target="_blank">The Sailing Club</a>. Their claim to fame is the jam jar - basically just a really large liquor drink. We had a few too many of these and hung out on the beach for a while before making our way to the dance floor.<br />
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We spent the whole next day on a private boat cruise in the South China Sea. This was one of our favorite days, and again reminded us a lot of the Bahamas. While waiting on our boat, we all bought ridiculous floaties which were totally worth the three bucks.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">floating village</td></tr>
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We tied up next to a few other boats around lunchtime. Our crew cooked lunch for us on the boat and turned all the seating into a banquet table. After we ate, we went over to the boat next to ours, where they put on a little performance for us. The boat captains/cooks are also a boy-band who play covers for popular songs from each of our native countries. Quite the multi-talented crew.<br />
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One of the boat captains/cooks/boy band members was also the bartender, and he served us all shots of something for happy hour from his buoy bar. Cheers to a great day out on the water!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-88259433391968142162014-04-10T06:00:00.000-04:002014-04-10T13:46:03.203-04:00The Cu Chi TunnelsWe woke up in the jungle for an early breakfast before heading out for the day. The tide was too shallow at the docks where we were dropped off the day before, so we had to walk quite a ways to a different spot to be picked up.<br />
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It was a long hot walk, and we were glad to get back on the boat to catch a breeze and cool off. One thing I thought was funny - all the boats have tires on the front of the bow, and usually along the sides, and as they dock they just play bumper boats to get a spot.<br />
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We rode around the delta for a while and they dropped us off at Vinh Long, where a van driver was waiting to pick us up for the day.<br />
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From Vinh Long, we drove a few hours to the Cu Chi Tunnels, in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City, about an hour northwest of Saigon. It was a really pretty drive along rice paddy fields. Families keep the same land from generation to generation, and they consider the land sacred, so many family members wish to be buried on their land. They build beautiful shrines over the burial plots which are scattered across the fields. It was really hard to capture these while sitting in a bumpy van ride, but hopefully you get the idea.<br />
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The Cu Chi Tunnels were really fascinating. They were first built by the Viet Cong during their war against the French and greatly expanded during the American war (as they refer to it). I just thought it was incredible that they were able to not only create this tunnel system but to live in these conditions for such a long time. Most people spent a majority of their waking hours for the better part of the three decades of war they faced between the French and Americans, except for when they came up for air circulation, to propagate the North's cause, and to fight the war.<br />
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Some of the tunnels have been enlarged for visitors to go in, but they were still so very small. I went down in one of the tunnel entrances and just barely fit. I was actually a little nervous about whether I'd be able to get back out. Good thing about being tall, is that when I stood in the tunnel, I was only about waist-deep. Once I stood in the hole, I picked up the covering and had to hold it above my head so that my shoulders would fit through. I squatted down and put the cover back on - after about three seconds I was ready to come back up for air. It was so hot and pitch-black inside. Kinda scary!<br />
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The original tunnels were even smaller, but they are closed off now and tourists aren't allowed to go in them anymore. Seriously, those people are so tiny!<br />
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They had several exhibits showing the various booby traps used during the war - mostly using bamboo spikes and shrapnel from American bombs. Ouch.<br />
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There were also several exhibits with weapons and bombs used during the war, and we saw several bomb craters throughout the site.<br />
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Another exhibit showed the sandal shoes they made out of tires during the war. They were actually fitted to go on their feet backward, so that when they left trails, it looked like they were heading the opposite direction. Tricky.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8jP3Y-h8XBw/U0YaUQFcxdI/AAAAAAAAKow/oJKEmmEYG0Q/s1600/IMG_2584.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8jP3Y-h8XBw/U0YaUQFcxdI/AAAAAAAAKow/oJKEmmEYG0Q/s1600/IMG_2584.JPG" height="640" width="425" /></a></div>
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Towards the end of our visit, Bo and I both got to go down and walk in the tunnels. They set it up so that the visitor tunnel is 100 meters long, with exits every 20 meters to go back up. It is also enlarged when you first go down, but every 20 meters it gets smaller and smaller back to original size. A guide went ahead of us with a flash light to lead the way so we could see where we were going. The first 20 meters weren't so bad, so when he asked if we wanted to keep going, we said of course! We'll go all the way to the end. Well... the next 20 meters were a LOT more difficult. Since the tunnel was so small, being tall was a definite disadvantage. We were pretty much doing squat-walks - talk about a serious workout! We had to stop a few times because we kept hitting the ceiling and it was just generally difficult to move in such a cramped space. Plus it was super hot and kinda hard to breathe. So we only made it 40 meters and then we came back up. I cannot emphasize enough how completely blown away I was that people lived in these tunnels for years. Crazy.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ox2uWN-4oP8/U0YfDTZvm5I/AAAAAAAAKpQ/hjLNA8qGlAA/s1600/PicMonkey+Collage+-+Tunnel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ox2uWN-4oP8/U0YfDTZvm5I/AAAAAAAAKpQ/hjLNA8qGlAA/s1600/PicMonkey+Collage+-+Tunnel.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></div>
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And that concludes our overnight trip. After the tunnel visit, we drove back to Ho Chi Minh City to meet the rest of our tour group that evening and spend the next morning in Saigon, which I previously posted about <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/ho-chi-minh-city-saigon.html" target="_blank">here</a>. We then took a quick flight to Nha Trang where we spent the next two days - coming up next!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-69138005029048649912014-04-08T06:00:00.000-04:002014-04-08T11:25:42.946-04:00The Mekong Delta<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After a night in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/ho-chi-minh-city-saigon.html" target="_blank">Ho Chi Minh</a>, we took an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta. The rest of our tour group hadn't arrived yet, so at this point it was just me and Bo, our tour manager, a local tour guide, and a driver. Having a private tour was pretty cool but it was also a little awkward at times since we were outnumbered. Good thing we really liked our guides!<br />
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We drove about three hours away, and once we arrived, our van driver dropped us off at the docks where a boat captain was waiting to pick us up. Everything was so well organized. We spent the majority of the day in a little sampan (Vietnamese-style wooden river boat), making our way through the delta with a few stops along the way.<br />
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We rode through the floating markets and stopped at one of the boats selling local fruits. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but each boat had a long pole sticking out at the top of the boat, with whatever they were selling attached to the top, so you could tell what they had available for sale as you rode by.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bananas, tangerines, lychees, jack fruit, milk apple, and durian</td></tr>
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We rode a little further and got back on land to tour a small rice factory. We watched them make rice from scratch and turn it into rice paper, rice wine, and popped rice treats. They are so quick, and make a ridiculous amount of rice products at this one shop in a single day. It was very impressive.<br />
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They also gave us a complimentary tasting flight consisting of:<br />
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<li>Pure rice "wine" (this was gross, it was more like straight vodka since it was over 40%),</li>
<li>Rice wine flavored with burnt crushed up bananas (actually pretty good), and </li>
<li>Rice wine flavored with snake (meaning, infused with dead snakes for over a month - gah. Bo drank it and really liked it but I just couldn't do it!).</li>
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We got back in the boat and headed to lunch, which was hosted by a local family at Mr. Kiet's Historic House, a traditional home stay.<br />
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They showed us how to roll our own fresh spring rolls (first of so. many. spring rolls) and served us elephant ear fish... on a stand. It was interesting to eat the way it was presented, but was delicious - a very tasty, thick, white-fleshed fish.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PL1HoJAnwdQ/U0NImikSPeI/AAAAAAAAKjI/8unUGwn-zhY/s1600/IMG_2523+-+Elephant+Ear+Fish.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PL1HoJAnwdQ/U0NImikSPeI/AAAAAAAAKjI/8unUGwn-zhY/s1600/IMG_2523+-+Elephant+Ear+Fish.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Then we got back on the boat for a while...<br />
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Our next stop was at another local house for an afternoon tea with fruit, accompanied with traditional Vietnamese singing and dancing. It was a great performance, but definitely the most awkward part of being on a private tour since we were the only ones in attendance... in their living room. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JQltKsmEhwQ/U0NL-3MbMJI/AAAAAAAAKkE/VgnojYFylEM/s1600/IMG_2531+-+Performance.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JQltKsmEhwQ/U0NL-3MbMJI/AAAAAAAAKkE/VgnojYFylEM/s1600/IMG_2531+-+Performance.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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While we were inside, our boat captain moved our stuff onto a much smaller sampan. There was only enough room for two of us, so our guides rode in a different boat. Once we got situated in our little boat, they gave us bamboo hats to wear for the ride! As you can see, Bo was not nearly as excited about the bamboo hats as I was.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZpEp3LHxr4o/U0NjegyCmVI/AAAAAAAAKlw/Rhxfk-mdyqo/s1600/IMG_4563a+-+Bamboo+Hats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZpEp3LHxr4o/U0NjegyCmVI/AAAAAAAAKlw/Rhxfk-mdyqo/s1600/IMG_4563a+-+Bamboo+Hats.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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This part of the boat ride was through a very narrow, shallow river. It was in the heart of the jungle and so very pretty, but at the same time, after our visit to the museum the previous day, I just couldn't fathom being sent there to fight a war.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Our tour guides up ahead.. at this point we were extremely outnumbered, but we thoroughly enjoyed it :)</span></td></tr>
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That evening, we stayed at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g469421-d5321757-Reviews-Bay_Thoi_Homestay-Vinh_Long_Vinh_Long_Province_Mekong_Delta.html" target="_blank">Bay Thoi Homestay</a>, which was actually owned by our local tour guide's family. Vietnamese law requires a local guide for all tours and official site visits, so we had a few different guides throughout the rest of our trip. They were all really informative and helpful, and it was nice to have their perspective on everything. Our tour manager, Adam, was from Australia and was with us the entire trip. He basically coordinated all logistics, lodging, group meals, etc. and made sure we all had a good time. Mission accomplished.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bV7fciTpFAM/U0NSyYD2_4I/AAAAAAAAKkg/qr2jAPSU_nI/s1600/IMG_2548+-+Bay+Thoi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bV7fciTpFAM/U0NSyYD2_4I/AAAAAAAAKkg/qr2jAPSU_nI/s1600/IMG_2548+-+Bay+Thoi.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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We really enjoyed our stay there. It was by far the most rustic of all the places we stayed, and reminded us a lot of the outer islands of the Bahamas, but without the fishing - a mix between Spanish Cay and Fox Town for those of you who have been. It was just really low-key, very relaxing, and had lots of bugs (this was our first time ever sleeping with mosquito netting). Bo and I stayed in a separate building that had a few bedrooms and a shared bathroom. A definite perk of being by ourselves was not having to share! <br />
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Our guide and her family cooked us dinner that evening. It was a traditional Vietnamese meal, and the specialty feature was <b>rat</b>, which we chose over snake. I regretfully do not have a photo (though maybe some of you are grateful for that?) but it looked like quail legs, and actually tasted pretty good - somewhat similar to chicken but tangier. Aside from dinner, we spent most of our time there reading in hammocks. Take me back, please.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com8Mekong Delta10.1844631 106.13725568.1840306 103.5554686 12.1848956 108.71904260000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-58096209984424754872014-04-07T06:00:00.000-04:002014-04-13T15:10:04.070-04:00Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">Xin Chào! (Hello! in Vietnamese)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I hope yo</span>u all enjoyed my first <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/guest-post-peachtree-roadies_2.html" target="_blank">guest post</a> from <a href="http://peachtreeroadies.com/" target="_blank">Peachtree Roadies</a>! Now that my assistant/husband is back in town from a work trip I'm hoping to get through all of our vacation recap posts soon, so thanks again to Kelly for keeping my blog alive in the meantime. :) If you haven’t already, be sure to check out her and Meg's blog. Kelly and Brian also just got back from vacation - they took an amazing trip to <a href="http://peachtreeroadies.com/2014/04/01/adultspringbreak-adventures-in-puerto-rico-part-i/" target="_blank">Puerto Rico</a> and <a href="http://peachtreeroadies.com/2014/04/04/adultspringbreak-part-2-sun-and-fun-in-st-croix/" target="_blank">St. Croix</a>, both of which are on our never-ending list of places to visit.<br />
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As most of you know by now, our big trip for 2014 was to Vietnam! Most people ask us why we picked this destination. As Kelly mentioned in her post, travel is all about compromise, and I couldn't agree more as that is exactly how we ended up in Vietnam. We have a map of the world with a pin in every country we’ve visited, and our pins are largely clustered in the US and Europe – so we wanted to venture out to a new continent. Bo especially is obsessed with all things Asian and has been wanting to go for years. We originally had a southeast Asia trip on our agenda for 2013, but we postponed it when <a href="http://leopardandlillies.com/" target="_blank">Amy</a> and John announced they were moving back to America, which meant that was our last chance to visit them in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Dubai" target="_blank">Dubai</a> and we didn’t want to pass that up! So I promised Bo we'd go to Asia in 2014. As for me, I really wanted to do a <a href="http://www.contiki.com/" target="_blank">Contiki</a> tour (an Australian tour company for 18-35 year olds) and we figured Asia was the best place to do it, for logistics and language barrier purposes. Bo went on one of their tours with Dudley when she graduated from college, and he really liked it. Ever since then, I've been wanting to go on one and I only have a few years left before I age out of it. Once we agreed on a Contiki tour to Asia, it was just a matter of deciding on a final destination based on their tour locations. Our top two contenders were trips to Thailand/Cambodia/Laos or Vietnam. Regardless, we decided March was the best time of year to go because it was in between monsoon seasons, and it wasn't <i>too</i> hot or cold in any of the locations we'd be visiting. We were actually leaning towards the Thailand trip, until one day during my flight search stalking, the price to Vietnam had dropped significantly (almost half the amount of skymiles). The Contiki tour to Vietnam was also a little cheaper, so we went for it, and booked our trip that day! Asia here we come.<br />
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Overall, our trip was incredible and far exceeded our expectations. We were both really excited going into it, mostly just to see a totally different part of the planet. Vietnam is not exactly considered a glamorous/popular tourist destination, but honestly that was part of the appeal to us. I am usually in charge of all of our logistics so I was somewhat skeptical of letting go of control and trusting someone else to do it all for us. We were also a little concerned about whether or not we’d like the people on our tour group since that could make or break a trip. All for naught – everything went really smoothly, we loved our group, and had an absolutely amazing time. And since we were with other world travelers we re-prioritized our vacation list and added about 10 more places we need to go. If only we had unlimited time and money. Dare to dream.<br />
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It took a LONG time to get there. Our first flight was 14.5 hours direct from Atlanta to Seoul, South Korea. We had about an hour layover, then another 4 hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. We got to our hotel late in the evening, and crashed immediately. We were exhausted but the good thing is that we slept well and adjusted to the time difference immediately. The next morning we took a 2 hour flight to Ho Chi Minh City, where our trip officially begins. The main city center area was formerly known as Saigon and is still often called that today.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So excited to finally be in Vietnam! And on my first backpacking trip. </td></tr>
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We finally got in to Saigon around noon and had the day to ourselves. We walked around for a bit to get our bearings and a better feel for the city. We didn't go too far because the streets were crazy! A word of warning, there is no such thing as “look both ways before you cross the street”. Everyone is moving everywhere in all different directions at all times – cars, scooters, bicyclers, and pedestrians. Total organized chaos. It took a few brave crossings before we realized most people aren’t going that fast so it’s best to keep a steady pace and just keep walking. It was scary though! Especially with everyone texting and driving…I just don’t understand how they aren't killing each other by the second. Eeek.<br />
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We got our first (of many) banh mis at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d4550719-Reviews-BB_Banh_Mi_Cafe-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">BB Banh Mi & Cafe</a>. This was definitely a touristy spot since it's featured in tour books and on Trip Advisor, which is how we found it. A banh mi is pretty simple, just a french baguette with your choice of fresh vegetables and meats. Delicious and so cheap (about $1 USD). We had so many of these over the next two weeks.<br />
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Afterward, we hung out at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d3136166-Reviews-Allez_Boo-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">Allez Boo</a> for a while to try some of the local beers, all of which were really good, (a nice surprise!) and usually less than a dollar, which brought us back to our college days. We also walked through 23/9 Park which was across the street from our <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293925-d456985-Reviews-Vien_Dong_Hotel-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">hotel</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ba Ba Ba - my favorite of all the local beers</td></tr>
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Our first bowls of pho were at <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g293925-d2492572-Reviews-Pho_Quynh-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">Pho Quynh</a> and were the best we had of the entire trip. Back home in Atlanta, pho is one of Bo's favorite take-out dinners, but in Vietnam it's actually considered more of a breakfast food. We went there for breakfast our first morning and since I don't usually have a big breakfast, I didn't even need lunch that day.<br />
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The evening our tour started, we got a note at our hotel saying our tour manager wasn’t going to be there until the next day, but a local person would be downstairs to provide dinner suggestions if needed. We almost didn’t go, since Bo is a superb restaurant researcher and had several places in mind already. We decided to head down just to meet the rest of the group and then head off on our own. Turns out, we were the only two people who had signed up for our specific tour! There was a 12-day tour and a 10-day tour, which overlap starting on day 3 of our trip. So we were on our own for the first two days until everyone from the 10-day trip joined us a few days later. Private tour, sweet!<br />
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We spent the next two days on an overnight trip to <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-mekong-delta.html" target="_blank">the Mekong Delta</a> and <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-cu-chi-tunnels.html" target="_blank">the Cu Chi Tunnels</a>, which I’ve posted about separately. Once we returned to Ho Chi Minh, the rest of our group joined the tour that night and we all went to a group dinner at <a href="http://www.barbecuegarden.com/" target="_blank">Barbecue Garden</a>. We cooked our own food on the grills at our table - Bo and I had shrimp and deer, which were pretty good. The Saigon Special beer wasn't bad but it was my least favorite of all the local beers we tried.<br />
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The next morning we had a few more hours to explore Saigon. Our first stop was the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293925-d317890-Reviews-Reunification_Palace-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">Reunification Palace</a>. We were a little disappointed this was only a photo opp, and we didn't have time to go in. Had we known that we would have visited on our own before the tour started. Guess we'll have to go back...<br />
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Our next stop was the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293925-d317896-Reviews-Notre_Dame_Cathedral-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">Notre Dame Cathedral</a>, definitely not nearly as impressive as the one in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/paris-valentines-day.html" target="_blank">Paris</a> that we visited last year but pretty nonetheless.<br />
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Directly behind where I took this photo, is the building where the last US helicopter took evacuees during the fall of Saigon in the Vietnam War. The original photograph (below) is taken from the other side of the building that is now blocked by a modern office building.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293925-d311089-Reviews-Central_Post_Office-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">Central Post Office</a> was right across the street, so I bought a postcard and mailed it to my sister in lieu of a birthday card. Happy Belated Birthday, Leslie! :)<br />
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From there, we took a short bus ride to the <a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g293925-d311103-Reviews-War_Remnants_Museum-Ho_Chi_Minh_City.html" target="_blank">War Remnants Museum</a>. It was definitely pretty disturbing for various reasons. The use of agent orange and chemical warfare was awful and definitely wrong. They had an entire floor of the museum filled with pictures of the victims, and they were really gruesome. However the other disturbing aspect of this museum was their <i>very different</i> perspective on the war. They referred to it as the “US War of Aggression” or the “US Invasion” of Vietnam as a whole, ignoring the fact that they were two separate countries and the US was there supporting the South against the Viet Cong and Communism in the North. They also completely ignored the two year period from 1973 when we pulled out of Vietnam through 1975 when the war actually ended and we weren't even there. Bo loves history and has read several books about the war and Vietnam's history. Most recently prior to our trip he read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/379374.Our_Vietnam" target="_blank">Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975</a> and therefore he is much more knowledgeable than me about the war. Obviously each country has their own take on how they see it and they have the home field advantage, but he was pretty angered by the presentation of everything in this museum and now refers to it as "the world's most bullshit museum". It was a rather sobering way to end our time in Saigon.<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com5Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam10.8230989 106.62966389.8248079 105.33877030000001 11.8213899 107.9205573tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-85627096041149661612014-04-02T23:16:00.000-04:002014-04-03T22:32:32.343-04:00Guest Post: Peachtree Roadies<i>Today is a very special day here at Floating Along... not only is this my 200th post on the blog (!), but more importantly this is
also my very first guest post! Meg and Kelly are two of my good friends
here in Atlanta, and they just started their very own blog at <a href="http://peachtreeroadies.com/" target="_blank">Peachtree Roadies</a>. It's a new favorite must-read of mine and I hope you will enjoy their blog as much as I do. They share my love for strong drinks, great friends, and nearest and dearest to my heart: traveling. Bo and I just returned from a
two and a half week trip to Vietnam, and as usual, it will take me a while to sort through the 800+ pictures I took. So until I can put together a few posts of my own, Kelly is here today to share her passion for traveling the world, its significance to her friendships and marriage, and the importance of compromise. </i><br />
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Glasses at Home</span></u></b></div>
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<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out
whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” – Mark Twain</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I couldn’t agree more! We're all about travel here on Peachtree
Roadies - I mean it's in our </span><a href="http://peachtreeroadies.com/about/" target="_blank" title="About Us"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tagline</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, so we must be serious.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Growing up, I traveled a good bit with my family. We took whole
family beach trips with our cousins, and my grandparents took us to places like
Savannah, Maine and Canada to give my parents a break. To keep my sister and me
out of trouble over high school and college spring breaks, my parents twisted
our arms with trips to St. Croix and Aruba. However, it wasn’t until right
after my senior year of college when I first traveled to Europe to visit my
bestie (and NYC fragrance maven) Stephanie as she was wrapping up her study
abroad trip in France. We traveled for about two weeks together, and despite
one missed flight, a dreadful overnight train ride, and a few moments of
wanting to kill each other, we are still friends to this day and will forever
be connected by that trip.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/99_524988262200_7933_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/99_524988262200_7933_n.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Throwback to Notre Dame in Paris</td></tr>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/99_524988222280_5671_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/99_524988222280_5671_n.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Throwback to Munich - I have NO idea why we are drinking margs instead of beer!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It was after that trip that I realized that you REALLY get to
know people when you travel together, whether you are just traveling for a
quick weekend trip or weeks at a time. When you travel, you're basically living
with the person or people, sometimes in cramped quarters, and sometimes in a
foreign place, which can lead to awkward and often uncomfortable situations if
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Luckily, Brian and I started traveling together pretty early
into our relationship - I needed to know early on if he was "travel
companion material." We took our first trip to Hilton Head for about 3
nights/4 days and we drove. No less than a couple hours into the trip, I fell
asleep in the car. I can't help it, driving in the car on long trips just puts
me to sleep, which is awesome when you don't have to help navigate, but no good
when your new BF expects you to talk to him to whole trip. He has since gotten
over it and I've since done my best not to zonk out the entire time we are on
road trips.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Throwback to HHI circa 2009</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After nearly 2 years of dating, we took a BIG trip to Hawaii,
which is also where we got engaged, so it goes down in the books as one of our
best.trips.ever. That trip included a LONG cross-country flight and major time
changes. Again, what do I like to do on planes? Sleep! The second we take off,
I am out (no medication required). My fiancee-to-be was super nervous the whole
flight because he had the ring in his carry-on laptop bag (which I <i>never</i>
could have guessed based on how protective he was being over it....so sneaky
;)), and of course wanted to talk the whole flight. Now, when we take long
distance flights, I try to warn him if I'm going to try to sleep or not, and he
tends to watch movies or play on his computer.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image-1.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Throwback to the night we got engaged in Hawaii</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What I am trying to get at is that travel is ALL about
compromises (not sure if I've really documented the best examples here, but I'm
sure you get it). This may seem obvious, but I have come to find that
compromise is a HUGE part of marriage (whether when traveling or at home). When
planning a trip, you have to figure out a lot of things with your travel
partner upfront - <i>where are you going to go? how are you going to get there?
how are you going to get around once you get there? what activities are you going
to prioritize while you're there? how many bags are you going to bring? what
kind of clothes are you going to pack? can we drink the water? who is going to
watch our beloved Louie? - </i>and the list goes on and on once you actually
get to where you're going. Plus, many decisions made while traveling are on the
spot (unless you're on one of those pre-organized tours, I suppose), and if you
can't be flexible and compromise with your travel partner, you are in for a
rocky trip.</span></span></div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://peachtreeroadies.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/image-3.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On our honeymoon in Santorini</td></tr>
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<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One decision that we tend to make when planning trips is renting
a car (even on our honeymoon). We love to be able to drive around, take little
detours, and generally travel at our own pace as much as possible. On the other
hand, driving in foreign countries can also be extremely STRESSFUL, especially
when your husband is attempting to go 100s of kilometers over the speed limit
on the autobahn in a shaky rental car. Or, when we're driving around windy
mountain roads in the middle-of-nowhere Greece and a tour bur almost knocks us
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The bottom line for me about travel is that it can be great for
your marriage if you are 60% on the same page about how to spend the trip, and
you're BOTH able to compromise the other 40%. I am happy to lie on the beach
for hours on end, Brian wants to be in the water 24/7. Brian likes to drive,
and I like to sleep :) We both LOVE to try the local food and beverage. And of
course, we both absolutely LOVE any excuse to get away to a new place. Some
people don't like the stress of the unknown, and that's okay. Travel isn't for
everyone, but it is definitely for us, and I hope it always will be. Seeing new
places and things will never get old for me, and Brian and I are definitely on
the same page there when it comes to that.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">--Kelly</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-33725051670563299522014-03-05T23:22:00.000-05:002014-03-05T23:55:31.516-05:00The Big 3-0I'm thirty!<br>
<br>
Holy crap. How did that happen?!<br>
<br>
In all seriousness, 30 has been pretty great so far. For my actual birthday, Bo and I went to dinner at <a href="http://www.urestaurants.net/" target="_blank">Sotto Sotto</a>, an Italian restaurant right down the street from us that had been on our must-go-to list for far too long. It exceeded all our expectations which is saying a lot since we had it pretty hyped up. And to top it off, they offered a complimentary birthday dessert - the way to my heart.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6vftCed5nhY/UxfiRFqUdxI/AAAAAAAAKdI/xors8ez6J7c/s1600/PicMonkey+Collage+-+Sotto+Sotto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6vftCed5nhY/UxfiRFqUdxI/AAAAAAAAKdI/xors8ez6J7c/s1600/PicMonkey+Collage+-+Sotto+Sotto.jpg" height="640" width="640"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A few of my favorite things: wine, meats & cheeses, tuna, seafood risotto, duck ragu, and veal chop. Delicious!</td></tr>
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It's no secret, I love birthdays. Mine, yours, anyone's. And really any excuse for any kind of celebration. My twenties were filled with mostly keg parties and big group dinners with girlfriends and fancy dinners with Bo to celebrate my birthday. I've spent almost every birthday of the past decade (plus a few more) with Adrienne, my birthday buddy. We are exactly one week apart so we've had many joint birthday parties over the years. Last year, we closed out our twenties on her golden birthday when I visited her in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/birthday-weekend-in-chicago.html" target="_blank">Chicago</a>. Lucky for me she moved to Atlanta a few months ago so this time neither of us had to travel. And as much as we would have loved another big birthday blow-out to ring in our thirties, we instead decided to have a small family-style weekend. <i>How mature. We must be thirty after all. </i><br>
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The <a href="http://atlantawinterbeerfest.com/" target="_blank">Atlanta Winter Beerfest</a> at the <a href="http://www.masqueradeatlanta.com/" target="_blank">Masquerade</a> was over the weekend in between our birthdays, which we clearly took as a sign that we must attend. It is not to be confused with the <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/winter-beer-carnival.html" target="_blank">Winter Beer </a><i><a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/winter-beer-carnival.html" target="_blank">Carnival</a> </i>where
we nearly died of frostbite two years ago, since it was held outside (they finally wised up and moved that one to the springtime this year). I
promised Leslie this one was different and that it would be better, so I crossed my fingers and it turned out to be pretty awesome. They had a
great setup in all the different rooms inside, with tented/heated areas outside, plenty of beer for everyone,
and live music. It was such a fun day.<br>
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Adrienne's cousins flew in for the weekend, as well as my siblings and their significant others. I didn't realize it until later but it was actually the first time Leslie, Mike, Paul, Sarah, Bo and I were all in Atlanta together. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday crew! (Leslie took the only group photo of us so I'll add that in later otherwise I'll never get around to posting this! hint, hint, darling sister, last minute notice I know, pleaseandthankyou)<br>
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Leslie has visited me in Atlanta every year around my birthday, and almost every year it happens to be the <b>coldest weekend of the entire year</b>.
I'm not sure why she keeps coming back, but I'm glad that she
does. Thankfully this year it was a pretty mild weekend before all
the snowstorms came through (that would have been epically disastrous
for these Floridians...). And hopefully by next year she will once again
forget that it's winter in January.<br>
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We also ran into a bunch of Chi O girlfriends from college, and as the birthday song goes "may you drink a hundred beers..." Obviously. No coincidence that we always seem to reunite at these beer festivals. Cheers, ladies!<br>
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After the beerfest, we came home and ordered pizza before heading out to <a href="http://www.nightcapfoodandspirits.com/highlandtapmain.html" target="_blank">Highland Tap</a>. They make great martinis and it was definitely a "thirties" bar as compared to our regular spots here in town. It was a welcome change. <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shots! Ummm sorry kids, I'm not 21 anymore... haha</td></tr>
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Our last stop of the night was to the <a href="http://clermontlounge.net/" target="_blank">Clermont Lounge</a> , a classy landmark establishment in Atlanta. No pictures are allowed, which is unfortunate because we had a celebrity sighting! Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth were also there that night (clearly to wish us a happy birthday! kidding). But it's probably a good thing we have no pictures from this point on. *Some* of us may have had a few too many beverages...and some others didn't quite make it the entire night... I won't name any
names, but in the end we all survived. :) And it was glaringly obvious to me that I am definitely the oldest in the family. Seeing as I am the only one to have learned my limits over
the years, I made sure to have a water in between each drink, and was the
least hungover the next day. Dear 30, I am ready for you!<br>
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Every other year people wish a generic happy birthday. This year, most people wished me a happy <b>thirtieth</b> birthday and seemed to have something to say about it - opinions, stories, advice, etc. The funniest thing to me was that generally, everyone under 30 told me I was getting old and asked if I was sad to no longer be in my twenties, and everyone who was 30+ told me how my thirties will be even better than my twenties. I have a feeling the best is yet to come :)<br>
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<br>Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-82574488799231101892014-02-22T16:48:00.000-05:002014-02-22T16:58:55.506-05:00Happy HolidaysRewinding to a few months ago - our 2013 holiday season!<br />
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<b>Carolina Christmas</b> <br />
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We spent Christmas with Bo's family this year up in North Carolina. Lucky for me, I also got to spend it with my brother, Paul. He lives about 20 minutes away from Bo's sister Charlotte (who lives in Charlotte, so convenient!) and her family, who were hosting Christmas. We stayed with Paul, his girlfriend Sarah, their two roommates and their FOUR dogs. Lot of people and dogs and total chaos, which is just our style and we loved it. Thankfully they have a huge yard and everyone got along great.<br />
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A few days before Christmas, we saw the <a href="http://www.ncdance.org/nutcracker.asp" target="_blank">Nutcracker</a> with Bo's mom and sister Dudley at the <a href="http://www.blumenthalarts.org/" target="_blank">Belk Theater</a> in Uptown Charlotte. It had probably been 20 years since either of us had seen it, and we thoroughly enjoyed it though were reminded that we are just not fans of ballet. So it might be another 20 years before go again ;)<br />
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Aside from the ballet and a few family dinners, we rarely left the house. We spent days in our pajamas just watching Christmas movies...<br />
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and <a href="http://ourfrontdoor.us/notepad/2011/12/14/painting-cookies.html" target="_blank">painting Christmas cookies</a>, definitely one of our favorite (newer) traditions...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">mine are on the top row, Bo's are on the bottom. Obviously.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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and watching all the dogs play together (or sunbathe)...<br />
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and logging many hours on the couch with the dogs...<br />
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Charlotte and her husband Doug hosted an absolutely wonderful Christmas. This was actually my first Christmas with them, ever! They always spend Christmas with Doug's side of the family, who I finally got to meet this year. Their Christmas traditions reminded me so much of my own family's, so it was comforting to have a feeling of home. We went to Christmas mass, where our nephew Stuart was a shepard in the nativity scene, followed by a big family dinner at their home with presents and music and great company. Major fail - never took a family photo!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">how fun is their Santa spread?! I <i>need </i>this.</td></tr>
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Christmas morning was also very similar to my family's - stockings, Santa gifts, opening presents one by one in our pajamas. Charlotte made a breakfast feast for us, and afterward my brother Paul came over and we FaceTimed with the rest of our family. Leslie's in-laws get along with my parents SO well and were nice enough to invite them up to Daytona so they didn't have to spend Christmas without any their children, for the first time in 30 years.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">return of the Christmas pajamas!</td></tr>
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And Bo's family kindly invited Paul to spend the day with us, as Sarah is a nurse and had to work; otherwise it would have been Paul's first Christmas alone, <i>ever</i>. So we all got to be with a new mixed family which turned out to be pretty awesome. After our family phone call, we drove up to Blowing Rock to spend the evening with Bo's parents and enjoyed a long day of cooking, drinking, and eating. Overall, a pretty fantastic Christmas.<br />
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<b>6th Engagement Anniversary</b><br />
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Every year we have a steak dinner on December 30th to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement. (I posted our engagement story <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/our-5th-engagement-anniversary.html" target="_blank">here</a>.) This year we went to <a href="http://www.krsteakbar.com/" target="_blank">KR SteakBar</a>, which was a phenomenal meal, served Italian-style with several small courses. Coincidentally, it is right across the street from our old apartment where Bo proposed six years ago. Such great memories.<br />
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<b>New Years Eve</b><br />
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We had a very, very low-key night at home to ring in the new year for once. It was actually a really nice change from our nights on the town the past several years. Dudley came over with her pup, Madison, and we all enjoyed lots of good food and champagne, a few movies, and we watched the ball drop on TV. Happy 2014!!<br />
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Hope you all enjoyed the holidays as well! :)<br />
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<i>Ghosts of Christmas Past:</i><br />
<i><a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-vacation.html" target="_blank">Christmas 2011</a> </i><br />
<i><a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/christmas-vacation.html" target="_blank">Christmas 2012</a></i> <br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-75787135573721805412014-01-07T06:45:00.000-05:002014-01-07T06:45:00.371-05:00Chapel HillWe kicked off our Christmas vacation by taking a day trip to Chapel Hill to go to the UNC-Davidson basketball game with Dani and Mark. This was my first visit and I had been wanting to go for a long time, so I jumped at the opportunity when they mentioned it. Mark went to Davidson so we all had a friendly rivalry for the day, since Bo and I consider ourselves loose affiliates of UNC (Bo's dad and his sister Charlotte and her husband Doug all went to school there)<br />
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We met at <a href="http://thetopofthehill.com/" target="_blank">Top of the Hill</a> for lunch, which was a really awesome rooftop restaurant and brewery. It was on the far end of campus, so we walked through most of campus to get to Dean Dome. I have to say it was the prettiest campus I've ever visited, even in the dead of winter. I can only imagine how pretty it is during spring or fall! Bo has been there several times when he was younger, and we would love to go back again. <br />
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It was such a great game, close the entire time, and UNC won 97-85 in overtime. Go heels! <br />
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Big thank you to Dani and Mark for planning such a fun day! Hope to visit you guys again soon :)<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-77647255061620030782014-01-02T20:33:00.000-05:002014-01-02T20:33:00.435-05:00O Christmas TreeDecorating our Christmas tree is by far the highlight of my holiday decorations. It goes up as soon as possible after Thanksgiving Day, and doesn't come down until after the New Year. Which I cannot believe is already here, but I started taking it down today and am already sad to see it go. I went a little Christmas crazy last year, so <strike>Bo forced me</strike> I toned it down a little and the only additions we have to our holiday decorations are a few new ornaments - an absolute must!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our annual crystal ornament</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Annual ornament from my mom</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NaK8Zcv82R8/UsYHvkheq9I/AAAAAAAAKU8/RnB4wFKcZEY/s1600/IMG_2437.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NaK8Zcv82R8/UsYHvkheq9I/AAAAAAAAKU8/RnB4wFKcZEY/s640/IMG_2437.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A belated Christmas 2012 ornament from Bo's mom </td></tr>
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I confess that I've been on the hunt for a good dog ornament ever since Molly was a puppy. I finally found these custom hand-painted ornaments on Etsy (<a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtdogOrnaments" target="_blank">Artdog Ornaments shop</a>) for only $16...how could I not get them?! Aren't they the cutest!! Bo thought I was ridiculous for ordering them (possibly true...) but even he admitted they turned out awesome. Purchase justified ;) I <i>love</i> them.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vgPjysw5xEg/UsYHq__XqhI/AAAAAAAAKUU/ugRzYuTZbMw/s1600/IMG_2286.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vgPjysw5xEg/UsYHq__XqhI/AAAAAAAAKUU/ugRzYuTZbMw/s640/IMG_2286.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Molly</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jC2C3GHqiuw/UsYHtlzZEUI/AAAAAAAAKUk/MywNj5krnKU/s1600/IMG_2291.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jC2C3GHqiuw/UsYHtlzZEUI/AAAAAAAAKUk/MywNj5krnKU/s640/IMG_2291.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abby</td></tr>
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The rest of our new ornaments this year were all from our travels this year:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Totally random find during our <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/staycation.html" target="_blank">Staycation</a> in January</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ahTJZiz0CNI/UsYHoZOrVnI/AAAAAAAAKUA/PnvfUocNmVw/s1600/IMG_2281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ahTJZiz0CNI/UsYHoZOrVnI/AAAAAAAAKUA/PnvfUocNmVw/s640/IMG_2281.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birthday gift from Adrienne when I visited her in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/birthday-weekend-in-chicago.html" target="_blank">Chicago</a> - so sweet! And perfect since I couldn't find one during my trip :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">classic <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Paris" target="_blank">Parisian</a> ornament from our trip in February</td></tr>
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Since Dubai does not have any Christmas ornaments, I bought these next two figurines and crafted them into ornaments when we got home. Turned out pretty well and we love them! <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WsdSFyr54CI/UsYHuWVLkpI/AAAAAAAAKUo/30pgnixMqfA/s1600/IMG_2295.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WsdSFyr54CI/UsYHuWVLkpI/AAAAAAAAKUo/30pgnixMqfA/s640/IMG_2295.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from our <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/dubai-desert-safari.html" target="_blank">Desert Safari</a> in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Dubai" target="_blank">Dubai</a> in February</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hTGhZ3UlW6M/UsYHpa6zQHI/AAAAAAAAKUM/LH6lpGE9xRQ/s1600/IMG_2274.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hTGhZ3UlW6M/UsYHpa6zQHI/AAAAAAAAKUM/LH6lpGE9xRQ/s640/IMG_2274.JPG" width="426" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from the top of the Burj Khalifa, also in <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Dubai" target="_blank">Dubai</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bjUZyhTA8lM/UsYHnmDY9BI/AAAAAAAAKT8/si37gvMWWcU/s1600/IMG_2267.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bjUZyhTA8lM/UsYHnmDY9BI/AAAAAAAAKT8/si37gvMWWcU/s640/IMG_2267.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">and last but not least (and certainly not classiest!) - a mini barrel from the <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/kentucky-bourbon-trail.html" target="_blank">Kentucky Bourbon Trail</a> in September</td></tr>
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And here is our tree all decorated! I love that it is full of so many wonderful memories.<br />
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It was a pretty good tree, though not my favorite. I missed going to the tree farm in North Carolina so we might bring back that tradition when we switch holidays again next year. And this tree was a little small for my taste, at only 8 feet tall. If you know my dad, you know his obsession with huge Christmas trees which I have entirely inherited. As has my brother Paul, we all found out this year when he got his first tree. Like father, like son (and daughter!). Apparently we are all related to Clark Griswold ;)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mom & Dad's tree on the left; Paul & Sarah's on the right !!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<i> A stroll down Christmas Tree memory lane... </i><i><a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/tis-season.html" target="_blank"><i>2012</i></a> and <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/deck-halls.html" target="_blank">2011</a></i><br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-8353750101373972792013-12-25T12:20:00.000-05:002013-12-25T12:20:00.402-05:00Merry Christmas!<div style="text-align: center;">
From our family to yours...wishing you a very very Merry Christmas!</div>
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(...and Bo, Molly, & Abby!)Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-12746818781188191582013-12-24T13:17:00.001-05:002013-12-24T13:17:22.929-05:00The Most Wonderful Time of the YearChristmas is definitely my favorite holiday. It always has been, although my reasoning has certainly changed over the years. I used to countdown until Christmas day, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Santa and his load of presents. It felt like the longest month of the year. As I've grown older, my Christmas list and shopping list have both shrunk in size considerably and are practically non-existent, as I now anticipate simply seeing the people I love most and spending time with them. December is now <i>by far</i> the shortest (and most fun) month of the year!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWpmOiSDLk4/Urm4i_dYU_I/AAAAAAAAKQw/gieX3RxFt5k/s1600/2013-12-07+00.21.11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWpmOiSDLk4/Urm4i_dYU_I/AAAAAAAAKQw/gieX3RxFt5k/s640/2013-12-07+00.21.11.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bo's work Christmas party at the <a href="http://www.clubcorp.com/Clubs/Buckhead-Club" target="_blank">Buckhead Club</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelly & Brian's housewarming/holiday party</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas Carol at the <a href="http://www.shakespearetavern.com/" target="_blank">Shakespeare Tavern</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jsYJFfoqszc/Urm4ji4ngQI/AAAAAAAAKQ4/MR1u2fubw5w/s1600/2013-12-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jsYJFfoqszc/Urm4ji4ngQI/AAAAAAAAKQ4/MR1u2fubw5w/s640/2013-12-13.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.buckheadbettyonabudget.com/" target="_blank">Katherine's</a> annual cookie exchange</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My work Christmas party at the <a href="http://www.high.org/" target="_blank">High Museum</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Josh's tacky Christmas party</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OjyCBJfZZ1E/UrnAslwHDjI/AAAAAAAAKSY/j-DHSpRK5L4/s1600/PicMonkey+Collage+-+White+Elephant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="584" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OjyCBJfZZ1E/UrnAslwHDjI/AAAAAAAAKSY/j-DHSpRK5L4/s640/PicMonkey+Collage+-+White+Elephant.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White Elephant gift exchange at work - very fitting that I ended up with a key finder, since Abby destroyed my car key a few weeks ago, and I hope to never lose my spare key since a replacement is $420..!!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">our annual friends feast</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-39vCu7_toGA/UrnFMgYFSzI/AAAAAAAAKSk/7uI-mWJhmzo/s1600/IMG_2245%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-39vCu7_toGA/UrnFMgYFSzI/AAAAAAAAKSk/7uI-mWJhmzo/s640/IMG_2245%5B1%5D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I promise there were more than just the 5 of us who consumed all the wine....</td></tr>
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Whew! We survived the whirlwind :) We are now up in North Carolina for the week just relaxing with family and puppies and logging many hours on the couch with said family members and puppies... Merry Christmas Eve!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085360964410561556.post-4481269173731635012013-12-23T13:09:00.001-05:002013-12-23T13:09:08.779-05:00Under 30, Before 30For the past year and a half or so, I've been running one race a month. My main objective was to simply stay in shape and to challenge myself to improve on both distance and speed. I ran three longer races in the past year - the <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/131.html" target="_blank">St. Pete Women's Half Marathon</a>, the Peachtree Road Race (10k), and the Atlanta Marathon 10 Miler. The rest of my races have been 5k's, so about a year ago (after the half marathon), I set some goals for myself to get faster - first to get back to a 10-minute-mile pace, and then to run a 5k in under 30 minutes, before I turn 30 (which is exactly 30 days from today!).<br />
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I have a good group of friends here in Atlanta who have been running with me on and off during that time. It has been a great way to hold each other accountable, which is extremely motivating on days when I really don't want to run. It has also made it much more social and enjoyable when we have a delicious brunch planned after each race. We all run at a different pace, so even though we start together, we run by ourselves and meet up at the finish line.<br />
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That is, until a few months ago when Adrienne, one of my old college running buddies, moved to Atlanta. She and I started running together regularly again and I was back to my old pace pretty quickly. After our 10 miler where we nailed exactly a 10 minute mile, I knew if I trained a little bit harder I could reach my second goal. Adrienne unfortunately had really bad shin splints so I was back to
running by myself. I mainly worked on speed, with interval training. I only found one race in Atlanta that fit my schedule, but it's not until January which was cutting it pretty close to my 30th birthday. So I convinced my mom and Leslie to run a Turkey Trot with me on <a href="http://floatingalongblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/happy-thanksgiving.html" target="_blank">Thanksgiving Day</a> and I'm proud to say I achieved my goal - under 30, before 30! I officially finished the race in <a href="http://cache.trustedpartner.com/docs/library/TownOfPalmBeachUnitedWay2009/2013%20Turkey%20Trot/PB%20TT%20Overall%20Results%20web%20v2.pdf" target="_blank">26:32</a> which is drastically faster than my usual time. It was a great race and I was so excited!<br />
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It was freezing cold that morning, Leslie and I were a weeee bit
hungover, and I was pretty sure she and my mom were going to kill me for
making them run this race. But in the end it was probably the best race
I ever could have picked to meet my goal, and we all really enjoyed it.
So much so that we might make it a new tradition whenever we are in
town for Thanksgiving.<br />
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Now there are a few caveats - I've been training in Atlanta's humidity and hills, so it played in my favor BIG time to run a race in Florida in late November when there was a lovely ocean breeze, no humidity, and <b>definitely</b> no hills ;) After the incredibly hilly 10 miler I ran the month before, it was a nice relief when a spectator warned me about the "hill" up ahead, which was a meager speed bump :) The other caveat is that it was only a 3 mile race, so it wasn't <i>technically</i> a 5k. But I am totally counting it. So thank you to all of my running buddies for helping me get there!! Looking forward to another year of racing ahead of us!<br />
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<br />Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13942184140824055969noreply@blogger.com2