Friday, March 20, 2015

Spring Break 2k15: The Final Days

I was enjoying myself too much to have any time to post the last few days of my trip so here is me reminiscing about them the best I can:

Wednesday:

On Wednesday we started our day off hanging out by the pool at the resort.  It was slightly overcast in the morning but I still managed to get sunburned.  We pretty much spent the whole day hanging around the resort.  In the afternoon we got dressed and headed off to see the London Bridge.  We walked acrossed it and took some pictures as the sun was setting.  For dinner we were going to go to a Mexican restaurant but were very unsuccessful in finding one so we went to Chili's instead.  As we were about to leave our waiter, who we had hardly heard from the whole night, kept trying to entice us to buy shots.  Frankly, I think we were all just to exhausted from sitting in the sun for two days and because of the two hour time change (at least that's why I was exhausted!)  We headed back to our room, drank some wine, watched some Bravo, and went to bed.








Thursday:

We left the resort around 7AM as we had a long drive ahead of us.  I didn't actually think the drive was too bad and we only stopped three times or so, twice for food.  It also happened to be one of only 66 non-sunny days in Arizona.  It mainly stayed cloudy but rained for the last few hours.  We stopped in Santa Rose, New Mexico and had the worst McDonald's experience ever.  First, we tried to go through the drive thru but no one answered us.  Then, we went inside and it took at least ten minutes to place our order (that was only me and Sophie, Darcy had to wait another five minutes after us).  As we waited for our food, (and Darcy waited to order), another lady came up to show the cashier that her cheeseburger had no burger! Only the toppings! And the bathroom was a disaster..everything was broken and it looked like it had not been cleaned in quite some time.  We finally made it back to Darcy's before 10 and got to meet the rest of her family.



Friday:

We spent Friday in Amarillo, Texas.  We went back to Sharky's Burrito place for lunch which was so delicious and then rented Divergent to watch before we went and saw Insurgent in theaters that night. After the movie we went to an Italian place for dinner where Darcy and I had delicious drinks! Hers was called Chocolate Covered Strawberry and mine was Banana Split.  It was a fairly early night to bed as my flight was at 6AM on Saturday.



Saturday:

We got to the airport by five but I still barely made it on the plane.  The check-in ladies were so slow and apparently some guy had a similar name to someone else so they couldn't check him in and had to make all these phone calls.  I'm not entirely sure what was happening. But eventually I made it and had an assigned seat on both flights.  My allergies were really bad down south, but by the time I hit MN I was fine.  I had a horrible migraine though and was so tired.  Carl picked me up from the airport around 11:30 and I had to have left his place by 12:30 but I still didn't make it home until at least 3:30 I had to stop so many times because I felt so miserable.  Anyway, it was a fun spring break trip and it was great to see my friends again!

You can find all travel posts from Hey Dreamer Blog here.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Spring Break 2K15: Lake Havasu Day 1

By 10AM the temperature was already 75 degrees so we got ready and headed off to Lake Havasu State Park and the white sand beach. We were the first ones there when we arrived which was great as we had our choice of places to sit. 


The beach was very pretty. It had a lighthouse on it and you could see the mountains the in distance. People were flying hanggliders, boating, paddle boating, jetskiing, everything! We mainly just laid around in the sun, walked around the beach, and I collected shells.


We left the beach a little after two to go get lunch. I was so excited to see In and Out Burger so we went there and had cheeseburgers, fries, and chocolate shakes. 


After lunch we headed back to our room and watched a little Real Housewives as we let our bodies cool off from the sun, then we went out to the pool. I didn't stay out long as I discovered I did not adequately cover myself in sunscreen and was slightly burned. 

We watched more TV and then headed out. First we went to the London Bridge which was lit up in the dark. While there, two guys came and talked to us, one of which kissed us all on the cheek before we left.


 Then we wandered down to the party. As soon as we got there the cops showed up and everyone quickly left so we went to grab dinner-our favorite, Papa John's pizza and cookie pizza! We brought it back to our room and popped open a bottle of wine. Realizing we would need more wine, we all put our glasses in the fridge and ran to Darcy's car to drive to the Safeway. We spent the rest of our night drinking wine and watching Bravo.


You can find all travel posts from Hey Dreamer Blog here.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Spring Break 2k15: Arizona Bound!

March 16, 2015 

I woke up this morning at quarter to six and couldn't sleep any longer so I ended up reading until the girls got up. We were all showered, ready, and out the door by about 9:30.


The drive to Lake Havasu City, Arizona was a little over 500 miles, about an 8 hour drive.  It was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a Taco Bell for lunch and the time changed so many times we lost track but eventually we made it.


It's like a little paradise in the middle of the mountains and desert. And it was 98 degrees when we arrived! We checked into our resort and then drove around town looking around and planning what we would spend the week doing. Lake Havasu is one of the top spring break destinations in the states and we definitely found the party! It will be interesting to see how chaotic it is tomorrow for St. Patty's day.


We stopped at the grocery store and picked up supplies to make spaghetti for dinner and then went back to our place. After eating, we hung out in the hot tub for awhile and are currently watching a movie before we head to bed.


You can find all travel posts from Hey Dreamer Blog here.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Spring Break 2k15: TX --> NM

Sunday, March 15, 2015

We were lazy bums and slept in until like 9:30 or ten or something. Well, I was awake by 8 or 8:30 but I did not remove myself from bed until later to shower and get ready. Despite our bout of morning laziness, we were on the road before our goal time of noon. Our plan was to make the 4 hour drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I would just like to say that road trips with your friends are awesome. We stopped at a rest stop (still in TX) and checked out the free car/Elvis museum inside and picked up caffeinated beverages. 


Then we drove a bit more until we reached the New Mexico border. Shortly into New Mexico we stopped in Tucumcari for lunch where Sophie has Subway and Darce and I had Sonic. 


On the drive we saw a sign for a dinosaur museum but it was closed so we are hoping to stop by on the drive back at the end of the week. I also saw some tumbleweeds! And we found ten more states to add to our license plate list. Only missing 14 now!

We made it to Albuquerque about 5 hours later at 4 PM (p.s we went back in time because of the time change). We checked into the Holiday Inn Express then went for a drive around Albuquerque where we checked out some of the Breaking Bad filming locations (including Walter's house, Jesse's house, and Los Pollos Hemanos), and the University of New Mexico.


After that we got gas, hit up Chili's for dinner, and stopped by Walmart. Once back to our hotel, we dropped off our purchases and walked next door to Applebee's to get triple chocolate meltdowns for dessert to eat as we skyped David.

Driving all day took a lot out of  us so we were in bed by 10 looking to get a good nights rest before our 8 hour drive the next morning!

You can find all travel posts from Hey Dreamer Blog here.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Spring Break 2k15: MN --> TX

March 14, 2015

I woke up bright and early at the ungodly hour of 3AM and Carl had me to the airport by 4. I quickly got my boarding passes and made it to my gate before 4:30. My plane didn't begin boarding until 5:30 so I joined the line for the not yet open Caribou where I got a white peach mango smoothie and a piece of banana bread. After breakfast I went to check in at the counter of my gate because I did not have a seat listed. The cranky lady told me to wait so I did only to find out that they bumped me up to first class. As I waited for everyone else to board I admired how much extra room I had for my not so long legs and that my seat was big enough to curl into a ball in.  

I felt a little underdressed in first class in my yoga pants and Adidas zip up but I felt important anyway, especially when the rest of the spring breakers boarded the plane and murmured their jealousy to each other.

Anyways, when the first airline attendant came by offering drinks I just had a water, it was 6AM after all, however when the second attendant came by later, the guy in front of me was already on his second glass of Miller Lite, so I didn't feel so bad ordering a glass of wine. I know it was 6:30 AM but it was free and who knows when I will ever fly first class again?! The attendant came back with a glass of wine and a piece of pound cake...I was in heaven.


When we took off the sun was just beginning to rise over Minneapolis, it was so beautiful.



From there on out my landing in Chicago, nor my flight to Tulsa was overly eventful. 

I was so excited when Sophie picked me up at the airport though!! It was so good to see her in real life! 


The roads out of Tulsa were real sketch and I couldn't believe the toll was 4 whole dollars (TG we don't have tolls in MN...) but eventually we began the 272 mile route along the same road to Amarillo. It was probably the boringest drive either of us had ever been on. The vegetation was so dead and non-existent that we joked about it being the grounds of the apocalypse. We played the license plate game and found 26 states and 2 Canadian provinces by the time we reached Amarillo. We thought it was funny because we saw a MN and an AL plate before we saw TX or KS. Slightly in to our 5.5 hour drive we stopped at the Waffle House in Yukon, OK, home of Garth Brooks. I had hash browns with cheese and mushrooms and a bacon egg and cheese sandwich.


We saw a lot of interesting thing on our drive, such as random signs that said "Meth," and a water tower that was leaned to the side to half of it's feet weren't even in the ground.



We made it to Darcy's around 5:30 and went out to a build your own burrito restaurant with some of her family. It was delicious! Darcy gave us a tour of Amarillo, And then we spent the night packing and hanging out before going to bed.





Monday, January 19, 2015

This book is my life...or what I wish my life was.

I just finished reading a book that my dear best friend recommended to me.  After judging a book by its cover and all, I knew exactly why.  The book is called "What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: a Memoir," by TV sitcom writer Kristin Newman and on the cover is a photo of the view out of an airplane window.  In a 50 words or less description, it is a true story about this woman who said "hell no" to the norms of society and lived essentially exactly how I would love to live my life.  She worked her sitcom writing job nine months of the year and traveled during the other three. (uh..hello? Teacher life..I have three months "off"! Now if only I had the salary she had...)  She did not feel the need to settle down and get married and have children in her third decade (cough cough me cough cough) but took that time to travel, with friends, but also by herself (no one understands why I want to do this...READ THIS BOOK!!)  Anyways, I just wanted to record a few (okay, maybe a few more than a few) of my favorite quotes/moments from this book because as a writer, she is SO much better and putting into words the thoughts that have been swirling around in my head for as long as I can remember.

"I always loved to do the thing you're supposed to do in the place you're supposed to do it." (page 4)

"One of my dad's best pieces of parenting advice had been very simple: wait.  He didn't tell me to abstain from sex and drugs forever, which I'm sure would have made me try everything immediately.  He just told me to take a beat, watch my friends try things out, learn what to do and what not to do based on their mistakes and triumphs, and then try out what I was going to try." (page 16)

"Getting married young is gambling on a game you don't know how to play.  You don't know who either of you is going to become.  If you get married before you are fully cooked, you have no idea if you are marrying someone who will ultimately become compatible with you." (page 27)

"Marriage is a limiter.  It limits your freedom, and it limits your capacity to follow your dreams.  If you do make the mistake of growing while married, your marriage will end." (page 27)

"You say yes because it is the only way to really experience another place, and let it change you." (page 61)

"...something deep within me was screaming that I wasn't ready to be half of a whole.  I was about to be having too much fun." (page 75)

"We sat over the river and talked about how the river had become something unique and amazing just by cruising along on its path.  How even if your life seemed quiet and typical, you never knew if around the next bend you were about to become something spectacular." (page 94)

"But let's be honest: if you don't ever lose yourself, it means you're not entirely in the game." (page 206)

"And if you can somehow remember that all of life, and every relationship, is going to end, man, every moment becomes sweet." (page 284)

I had a hard time finishing this book.  By hard time, I mean I saw that there was one chapter left and had to put it down because I wasn't ready for it to be over.  It's one of those books that makes you feel like you're actually on an adventure to all of the places it talks about (Israel, Russia, New Zealand, Argentina, etc, etc, etc.)  I just wanted to buy a plane ticket to pretty much anywhere and set out to explore.  Unfortunately my massive debt that calls itself "student loans" and the fact that I am still waiting impatiently for my "grown up job" prevents this from happening at the current moment. So for now I am just being thankful for my two month excursion in Costa Rica this past fall and making a mental list of everywhere else I have yet to see.