Providence, Rhode Island, December 2007

After visiting Katie I took the train up to Providence, Rhode Island to visit Allie at Brown University for a couple of days. I didn't realize when booking this ticket that Allie would be in the middle of finals week. As such, College Hill was pretty quiet, apparently it is pretty lively every other time of the year. I got into Providence about 3pm to snow flurries, on top of the 2 feet of snow they had received the day before. The problem was, it froze that night, so all the sidewalks were extremely slick, I must've slipped like ten times walking up Thayer Street. Turns out Uggs have zero traction - who would've thought? We ended up going out to her favorite pizza joint for dinner and then caught the late showing of Polar Express at the IMAX theater in downtown Providence, part of our festive countdown to Christmas.

The next day Allie gave me a tour of the campus, we slipped and slid along the pathways through the campus. We took some pictures in the main green, Brown's version of a quad, which is a rectangle of gorgeous old buildings, and was covered in a white blanket of snow. We walked through the Greek Row, and by the famous Brown gate, where all the freshman ceremoniously walk through at convocation, and then all graduates exit out of.

We walked up to the gym and I got to see Allie's locker room - which was covered in fiesta decorations; streamers, sombreros, and cactus's, apparently freshman decorate for certain games. After Allie did some studying and I did some shopping we took the trolley up to Federal Hill, known for its famous Italian restaurant row for dinner. After dinner we waited in the freezing cold for the trolley to return. I was jumping and dancing in place trying to keep warm, much to Allie's chagrin. She claims to now be used to the cold weather...I don't think that is something I could get used to. Even when you finally get inside, it takes at least 10 minutes to defrost!

Allie had yet another night of studying, but we grabbed Starbucks and made a quick stop at the bookstore for some Brown University duds and in the morning before I took the train to Boston for my flight back to the west Coast. A quick, mellow side trip, but it was great to see a slice of her college experience.

New York City, December 2007

I flew out to New York City the day after my last class. I just beat the blizzard and arrived in the FREEZING city to a fresh coat of snow. Katie has been living in Manhattan since late August, and I stayed with her at her cute and cozy apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood. With Katie working Thursday and Friday, I was left to explore the city solo, and meet up with her after work. However, Thursday came with additional snow flurries, and even though I was able to make it to a few Christmas-y sights (Rockafeller Center, Palace Hotel Christmas tree, Lord & Taylor, and Macy's window displays)...my feet were soaked and freezing by mid-afternoon, so I hiked back to the West Side and warmed up at her apartment watching Project Runway and Top Model reruns. We met up later at Alta - a tapas restaurant/bar Katie had read about, in the West Village, and dined on some awesome fare: bacon-wrapped almond stuffed dates, tomato crostinis, and fried goat cheese balls (Katie thought any food with 'balls' in the name was worth ordering for a laugh, ha ha ha).

Friday night - I continued my solo venture by day - mostly cruising the Upper West Side, though I took a detour to check out the "Block Beautiful" in Gramercy Park, a street of picture perfect New York brownstones. At night we ate at Bread - famous for what else, different kinds of bread! After dinner and some wine, we walked around the Meat Packing District and then took a cab we met up with our high school friends Lauren and Jeff, at a fun bar in the East Village.

Saturday was our day of walking and shopping, we did brunch at Bubby's in TriBeCa, got a few token pics in front of the firehouse, prowled the flea market in Hell's Kitchen, and basically shopped all day. We spent most of our time in the West Village, which is probably my favorite neighborhood in New York. All the storefronts, shops, and residences are so picturesque, its the perfect blend of old and new. Most of the buildings are old and historic looking, but have been restored and prettied up to become scenic hot-spots. And because of it's chic street appeal, many designers have taken up residence, Marc Jacobs, Coach, and more. We did also stumble upon a Santa and elf pub crawl which was a sight to see!

As it started to get dark and cold, we headed back to Katie's apartment to change and met up with Jeff, Lauren, and Brett at a Chinese restaurant for dinner, before going back to Brett's apartment to watch SuperBad. Afterwards we walked to Rudy's - hands down one of the most random bars I have ever been to, but such a fun time! They served $7 pitchers, and gave out free hot dogs - you can't go wrong! After we were a couple pitchers deep we decided to play flip cup at our booth, acquiring plastic cups from the bar back. All in all - it ended up being a pretty good time, lots of drinking, laughs, and good times to go around. We ended up changing locations at about 1:30, taking full advantage of the fact that bars don't close until 4am in New York City! We ended up at an Irish pub around the corner, and befriended the DJ to play our favorite 80's and 90's songs, and danced around, laughing and being silly until 3:30, when we finally retired. It was a blast!

Paris, France (June 2004)

Katie and I arrive in Paris to torrential downpours. Seriously. It was not quite the Paris I had imagined - the City of Light overcome by enormous curbside puddles and blustery winds that would turn your umbrella inside out every 100 yards. However, we decided to make the best of it, and explored as much as our soaked feet would allow us. We stayed in a cozy B&B in Montmartre, literally in the shadow of the amazing basilica Sacre Couer. We were a two minute walk from the Place du Tertre - the artists quarter, where you can walk through and around easels of Paris's scenic sights. There was a creperie on the corridor from Sacre Couer to the Place du Tertre, which had delicious crepes, both sweet and savory. My favorite was the crepe de pommes (apple) and nutella banana (hazelnut and chocolate spread + sliced bananas). Katie and I tried a savory crepe, it had something like egg, cheese, ham, and spinach in it. Definitely prefer the sweet ones, the savory kind reminded me of a not-so-great breakfast burrito. As we continued to explore the city, we found arrondisements we liked more than others. While the Champs Elysees is a must-see, the surrounding area is one giant tourist trap, food and souvenirs are double the price, if not more. We liked the 8th, the area around the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides, there are a lot of great patisseries and coffee shops with character, especially on Rue Cler. Also worthwhile is San Germain, across the River Seine from the Louvre. There are an array of famous coffee shops to choose from, many of which once entertained the likes of Hemingway, Victor Hugo, and Voltaire. My favorite was Deux Magots - which has a long standing rivalry with its neighbor Cafe Flore (also good).

We also hit up a lot of the usual tourist attractions: the Louvre, Moulin Rouge, Notre Dame, one church I would highly recommend also on the Ile de la Cite is Sainte Chapelle. This church is a famous reliquary as well, home to the Crown of Thorns. The building itself is supported by a delicate framework, built so that you are hardly aware of the beams, making it feel as though you are completely surrounded in stained glass. It is definitely a very peaceful and spiritual space, well worth the 12 euro. So there you have it - even in the rain you can have a fabulous time, it's simply Paris!

Las Vegas, December 2007

This was the Vegas trip of shows! Typically my Vegas trips are wild weekends with the girls - lounging by the pool during the day, and going out clubbing at night. However, this December, our trip down to Sin City was prompted by the reunion tour of none other than the Spice Girls! I kid you not... Ashley entered the ticket lottery and received a code for the Las Vegas show - not only did we get tickets but at the best location! Four plane tickets later, and we were on our way... We arrived in Las Vegas late Thursday night, and spent the majority of Friday cruising the strip, shopping, showing off the city to our Vegas newbie Carrie. My dad called us around 3 and said, he had been given 5 tickets to Celine Dion from her theatre's manager! We weren't planning on going to 2 concerts that weekend...but hey, why not? We got dressed up, drove down to Caesar's Palace and met up with my dad. Our seats turned out to be AMAZING, we were in the 6th row, center, on the floor. It felt as though she was singing directly to us, and she looked absolutely stunning, her outfits are exquisite! Our show was one of her last performances, wrapping up her 5 year "A New Day Has Come" tour. She was somewhat emotional during the performance, saying that the people in her show have become a family, and these 6 final shows are exciting but heartbreaking at the same time. Overall we had an amazing time, and left the theatre belting out her songs as we walked through the casino. Then for the much anticipated concert: Spice Girls! Unfortunately we weren't sitting quite as close as we had been in Celine, but nonetheless, an AWESOME concert, it was all I hoped it would be! The Spice Girls started out with (what else) "Spice Up Your Life!" And as you can imagine, the crowd was mostly twenty something girls - like ourselves - dancing and singing along to every word. There were a lot of special effects, and wardrobe changes, they opened in their new Roberto Cavalli designed outfits, but even hearkened back to updated versions of their former alter-ego's: Posh, Scary, Baby, Sporty, and Ginger. They played from about 9:15 - 11:00 covering all the greatest hits, the singles from their solo albums, and a few candid songs from their movie. The finale was AMAZING, glitter rained down as they sang "Wannabe" and then finished with a rousing chorus of "Spice Up Your Life." It was picture perfect, I couldn't have asked for anything more!

Victoria, British Columbia (January 2006)

Chris surprised me with a weekend getaway to Victoria, B.C. for our 1-year anniversary. We took the Victoria Clipper ferry there and back, a 2-hour boat ride that goes by surprisingly fast. As part of our vacation package they gave us a basket of muffins, fresh fruit, and champagne which we nibbled on as we filled out crossword puzzles to pass the time. I had been to Victoria once before, but I was like 10 years old and traveling with my grandparents. Needless to say, this was a slightly different experience.

We checked into the grand Empress hotel, which is stunning both in facade and decor. We dropped off our luggage, bundled up for the chilly weather, and went exploring. Victoria is very pedestrian friendly and we walked all around, checking various boutiques and souvenir shops. I had a lot of shopping success and bought a purse, party top, a black jacket, and a tweed winter coat which were all marked at clearance prices (apparently in Canada sales only come twice a year in July and mid-January) - perfect timing! We stopped into a great tapas restaurant for lunch and dined on blue cheese stuffed figs and bacon wrapped dates...along with some excellent sangria, to gave us a nice buzz for the rest of our afternoon. As we were heading back to the hotel we came across a street musician dressed as Darth Vador playing the violin - pretty weird!

We got dressed up and walked outside our hotel to see the Victoria Parliament buildings silhouetted in beautiful lights - a perfect photo op. Out on the town - we had dinner and drinks at a steakhouse (the name now escapes me...) and hung out at a nearby bar/club for a while until my darling but uncomfortable high heels began to hurt more than I could bear. When we returned to the room I was surprised to find chilled champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries waiting for us-what a sweet surprise! We spent the rest of the weekend doing much of the same; sleeping in, checking out the Victoria food scene, and exploring new corners of the city. It was a fantastic weekend getaway!

Florence, Italy (second trip, July 2005)

Florence is definitely one of my favorite cities in Italy. You can pretty much walk everywhere you'd need to go, there is awesome food and shopping, and if you feel the inkling for open space, the reaches of Tuscany are at your fingertips. This time around we passed on the 4 hour Uffizi Gallery line and 2 hour Galerie d'Academia line (home to Michelangelo's "David") and ventured outside Florence proper. We had heard about a Tuscany bike tour from some tourists on the train, and decided to look into it. I think we ended up going through the company I Bike Italy which ended up being about 50 Euro for a 4 hour bike tour, free bike and helmet rental, our lovely Hungarian guide, and lunch at a Tuscan restaurant en route. We paid our money and were off, eager to get some real exercise, as opposed to just walking everywhere for 3 weeks! After all the brochure promised a "leisurely ride." Not a chance! The 2 hours there was basically all uphill, and we're not talking leisurely hills, these were switchback slopes up and out of Florence. Our saving grace was some incredible views at some of our short lived pit-stops. Our guide must have been a marathoner or something, because he was hauling! After having to walk our bikes up some steep grades, we finally plateaued in a little village outside Firesole. We parked our bikes and found we were eating at a restaurant across from Galileo's childhood home (fun fact). Well, sweaty as we were, this meal was completely worth it - probably the best, most authentic Italian food I have eaten in my life! We drank local Chianti, a selection of antipasti meats and cheeses, amazing pastas and soups - it was like one gourmet dish after another. Satiated from our meal, we were beginning to feel like this bike ride was worth it, and were thrilled to hear that the majority of our ride would be downhill! Hooray, especially since by then my legs felt of jello. We cruised down the hill, overlooking old Medici villas that had been converted into mansions, and countless olive orchards. Our guide gave us a 3 minute schpeal about how many olives are required to make 1 bottle of olive oil. We continued past some gorgeous Tuscan villas with stunning views of the region. Finally we made our descent back into Florence, peeled ourselves off the bikes, and remained achy and sore for the next 2 or 3 days. But overall it was worth it, I'd recommend it to my fellow travelers - just keep in mind leisurely activity it is not!