Looking Back: November

I always hate to be the person to say, “Wow, can you believe it’s Insert Month Here?” But really, seriously, wow, can you believe it’s November? Because I most definitely can’t. I feel like it was February five seconds ago—February 2010 five minutes ago—and now, here we are, one month left of the year.

  

In November last year, John and I were hanging out on a beach in Punta Cana. Over those five days, I read two books (this and I can’t remember the other one), swam with stingrays, went snorkeling, ate coconuts on the beach and learned Prince William and Kate were getting married.

We did this excursion. 

While I haven’t had that need-to-be-in-the-warm-weather RIGHT NOW feeling yet,  I’ve already started turning the heat up when John’s not looking and yesterday I broke out the winter jacket.

But can you blame me? This is what the trees looked like in Punta Cana: 

And these were the trees outside our apartment on Saturday: 

(And that just made this post basically the same as this one. But that was March! It’s too soon for snow!)  

So what were you doing last November? And what are you looking forward to this year? 

Summer in Spain

It’s only a few hours into fall, but I’m still wearing flip flops (albeit in the rain…) and though I’m as excited as the next girl for pumpkin spice lattes, I’m not totally ready to give up on the fact that summer is, in fact, over. So, to keep that feeling going, I thought I’d (finally) share a few pics from our July honeymoon in Spain.

I’m in the midst of creating a photo book on Shutterfly—thank you, Groupon—and have been picking out some of my faves. Here are a few:

After a bumpy ride to Malaga, in southern Spain, we picked up our lovely blue rental car, and drove to Marbella to start our 13-day trip.

We had a gift certificate to the spa and a bottle of Cava waiting for us (thanks Carmine, Chris and Karen!). And with a view of the ocean, it gave those first four days a decidedly “honeymoon-ish” feel.

After lots of beaching and pooling and mid-day napping, we made the two-hour drive to Sevilla—my favorite of all the cities, actually. (This photo was actually from the Granada leg of the trip, but we made a similar stop at some randomly packed roadside restaurant on the Sevilla side.)

Road trip food!

I don’t know if it was because it felt like a small town in Italy (although that could have just been the ridiculous amount of tourists) or that the little streets lend themselves perfectly to fun walks, but from our hotel, which used to be a palace, (picture below on the left) to the gardens of the Reales Alcazar to the awesome restaurants we found courtesy of an English language Lonely Planet we picked up, it was seriously amazing.

From Sevilla, we made our way to Granada, where this photo below was the view from the hotel café. We got up early to wait in line for Alhambra tickets, wanted to try all the tea in town and put our blue car to good use driving up the mountains of the Sierra Nevada until we found no guardrails and lots of mountain goats.

After dropping our rental car off with the gas station attendant next to the airport, (who kindly left his post and drove us to our gate.), we boarded our flight to Barcelona. We spent three days walking for hours, dodging people and street performers on Las Ramblas, shopping—oh, how I love you red-ish pants from Zara—stuffing our faces with (even more) tapas and loving all things Gaudi.

Overall, it was amazing, honestly. And I know you’re supposed to say that about your honeymoon and all, but it really was. There were times when we wondered whether we should have gone on a more beachy or exotic trip, but I think this suited us much better—the wine was cheap, the roads were perfect for getting lost and the company couldn’t have been better.

P.S. If you'd like to see some photos from the wedding, click here.

old hangouts and new babies

Before this weekend, I hadn't been to Boston in about two years. There's no real reason why, mostly because the majority of friends have moved away and I've moved on to discovering other cities. But when Joyce mentioned a conference she had to go to this past weekend, and suggested I and whoever else was up for it should tag along, I figured it would be a good a time as any to head back. 

And so mid-afternoon on Friday, after making Joyce wait a good hour while I grabbed some last minute, just-in-case clothes (although I forgot my toothbrush, as usual) and sent some last minute, don't-want-to-look-at-my-computer-for two-days emails, we dumped our weekend bags into the trunk of her Camry and headed east on 84. 

I love car rides where you're so engrossed in conversation that you forget to even turn on the radio. When you don't have to bother pressing Scan in hopes of finding a good song playing somewhere in nowhere Connecticut or settle with "Oh, this must be their version of Z100," and hear Kesha for the 8 millionth time. So thankfully, we amused ourselves with talk of weddings and residencies, future jobs and past boyfriends. 

Four hours later we hit the city, taking note of BU's newest dorm, and confirming that the Student Village will, in fact, be the nicest apartment either of us ever live in. We GPS-ed our way downtown to School St., where we checked into the Omni Parker House Hotel. (We also found out it's where the Boston Cream Pie was first created! Oo, but here's the recipe!) Once we crossed Sunset Cantina off our list of dinner choices, we walked around in the not-as-cold-as-expected night, got shut out by a 2-hour wait at Toro and finally settled into a table by the bar at Masa, where tapas were $1 each. 

On Saturday morning, after an ill-fated 6am wake-up call (proving that Joyce still hasn't learned that she and alarms don't get along very well, no matter the medium or size of pillow being thrown at her face), she headed to the conference while I had a Starbucks and writing session. 

Later that afternoon, I met up with Azalea and her friend Alicia for the prerequisite Anna's visit (they have a new location! in (on?) Beacon Hill! with two floors!). If you went to school, lived or just visit Boston regularly, you're probably familiar with the amazing burritos at Anna's Taqueria - and if you're not, and you're planning a trip there, do yourself a favor and add it to the itinerary. And can I just recommend the $3.99 grilled vegetable burrito? 

The girls went off to study while I wandered up and down Newbury St, in and out of stores, remembering when books from Urban were the ideal birthday present. Later, I made my way through the Commons (in the pic below) to meet up with Joyce, passing a saxophonist playing Disney tunes and a middle-aged couple engaged in a serious make-out session next to him. 

Learning our lesson from the night before, on Saturday we actually picked a restaurant before going out. As we walked down Boylston and into Vlora, I had a feeling I had been here before, although in a completely different context. If you were in Boston circa 2002, let me ask you this: Do you remember Q Vin's? And if so, was there an elevator that took you down to the bar? Because that's what I kept imagining, or that's how my memory preserved it, like some city speakeasy where everyone sang off-key. I remember the karaoke clearly, though, even if everything else is slightly blurry. Even if it's what happened after, through a haze of cold and hands stuffed into too-small pockets that I remember much clearer. 

Joyce and I ended with Finale and a late screening of Dear John, which proved that A. We're not in college anymore and B. I'm a sucker for romances. And Channing Tatum's abs.  

On Sunday morning we left early with Azalea to head to Salem to meet Darius, the darling little boy that our friends Laura and Darryl just had. Tell me he's not the cutest baby ever? Those cheeks are seriously amazing. 

Here's mommy and baby.  Darius turned 1-month old on Sunday and we gave him three Dr. Seuss books to mark the occasion. 

And Azalea with baby - so sweet. The four of us went to high school together and Laura's the first of our group of friends to have a baby.  

After a pizza lunch and a four-hour car ride home, Joyce and I made one last stop to see Melissa and Cheri's new condo, which is super close and makes me quite excited for many dinner parties together. 

The whole weekend was a fun realization that things have changed, but not all that much. That the same people I knew when I left for Boston are the same people that I still see in New York. That people have come and gone along the way. That that's ok. That with new babies and new condos and new experiences, the growing up part doesn't really seem so scary, afterall. 

Why taking Uggs on my honeymoon might be a good idea

So, did you see the recent New York Times article on the 31 Places to Go in 2010? (If you didn’t, then you may or may not have heard about how pissed M.I.A. was that the newspaper named Sri Lanka number one.) But the article had lots of interesting info on places I never really thought about visiting, like Bahia in Brazil. 

But, the part of the article that most caught my attention was number 9, Antarctica. See, awhile back I came up with a list of things I Must Accomplish in Life. The list ranges from the random (grow my own vegetables) to the slightly profound (publish a book, set up a charity). But overall they’re mostly fun things that I want to do at some point like learn to drive stick shift and to play a musical instrument. One of the most fun things on the list is to visit every continent. Because let’s face it, if you’ve heard me hum, you know I have no beat/rhythm or anything else required to play a musical instrument.

And this is where the Times comes in. Denny Lee writes: “This may be the last year that Antarctica is open to mass tourism — not because the ice is melting too fast (though it is), but because of restrictions that would severely curtail travel around the fragile continent.” The restrictions, the article says, are set to take place in two years.

Now, for some reason, in my mind Antarctica was the last continent on the list to visit. The one where I would be oh say, 60 or so, with an overwhelming desire to cruise and an inability to sit still on a beach for too long. But then I started thinking: Two years…2011…wedding. What about ANTARCTICA for a honeymoon?

Imagine telling people you went to Antarctica on your honeymoon? I wonder if you would meet any friends the way you always hear happens at resorts in Jamaica or Hawaii. “Oh, Jane? Yea, she’s the friend I met while soaking in the sub-zero temperatures on the deck of my Antarctic honeymoon cruise.”

To be fair, there are companies that say they'll have ships ready to sail even after the restrictions—the article mentions one of them. But, c'mon, a parka emblazoned with "Bride" on the back? I might be all over it. 

Where did you travel this year?

My lovely friend Danielle (that's her above) just got back from visit to Marrakesh with her boyfriend. Her photos were so pretty that I asked her if I could share some here. It seems like the whole trip was is in shades of blue... 

Whenever I see pictures from other places, my first reaction is to want to get up and get out of here as quickly as possible. I have this habit of consistently saying, "Oh, I want to go here." And, "Oh yea, I want to go there." And, "Ugh, I just want to go everywhere." This then results in me researching how much it will cost to fly to Australia, Moscow and/or Costa Rica, depending on my mood and the weather, only to realize that it will probably take more planning than a quick Kayak search. So, I sign up for another version of one the 10 million travel newsletters I already get, in the hopes that some amazing deal will cross my path.

That being said, what I have been doing the last few December’s is making a list of the places I’ve been that year and the places I’d like to go the following year. In 2009 I visited: 

-       the Bahamas, where I went in March for my friend Melissa’s bachelorette party. 

-       Las Vegas, which was two weeks later, at the end of March, for my friend Laura’s bachelorette party. Needless to say, 2009 was the Year of Weddings. 

-       Italy, in August, in what turned out to be the big trip of the year, and a much needed 10-day break from everything. 

-       Aspen, in October, with John and Miriam, where we (sort of) surprised John’s cousin Paul for his birthday.

I don’t want to be too presumptive about 2010, given that I don’t know where I’ll be on the financial end of things, but if I could dream up anywhere, it would be to go to Iceland and Spain. I’ve wanted to visit both places for years – particularly Iceland – so maybe a 4 or 5-day trip can be squeezed in there somehow.

And you? Where did you go in 2009 and what would be your dream trip(s) for 2010?