Califoooorniaaa, Here We Coooome

Surely I wasn't the only one who was obsessed with The O.C. and then of course consequently that theme song? I've been singing it since the day I landed in sunny Cali!

So California is another state I was lucky enough to cross off my list this semester! I spent the first few days at AFLV West, which while I had a lovely time, is not what I'll report on since I didn't hardly get to leave the hotel. I was however lucky enough to spend two extra days in California with the other half of the Monmouth Duo (was the nickname for the college bestie and I, she was the Panhellenic President and a Kappa, I, the VP Recruitment and  Pi Phi. It just fit!) She has been in the Air Force since we left school and she and her husband have been stationed outside of Lompoc, CA for the past few years. They are getting ready to move, so I am happy I got to sneak up and see them.

I started my trip by making a 4 hour drive along the Pacific Coast Highway. It was by far the most beautiful drive I have ever made! I was trying to be a safe driver so I didn't take pics, but below is an example of my view. Mountains on one side, coast on another. It was breathtaking.

 

 (Picture Courtesy of http://www.roadstothefuture.com/Pacific_Coast_Hwy.html)

After arriving in Lompoc, we decided to spend the day wine tasting. While we went a few places, my favorite was the Wine Ghetto. Located next to a Home Depot, it is old storage units, turned small storefronts for various local winemakers! Seriously, this is a concept that has got to take off nationwide. It was awesome! My favorite was Ampelos and I made sure to bring home a bottle of the Viognier. We also went to Firestone, which as a Bachelor fan of course made me happy. The views were amazing, but it was actually my least favorite wine. You win some, you lose some :) If you ever get a chance to experience the Wine Ghetto however, I suggest you do!

My second day, Erin and I wandered around some of the neighboring towns. We did a little outlet shopping, checked out San Luis Obispo, and then went and had lunch at a place called The Custom House at Avila Beach. It was beautiful enough to sit outside, so this was our view for lunch.

Because of how early I had to get up, we called in an early evening on night two. Erin got me hooked on The Hunger Games while I was there, so we might have also been nerdy BFF's and spent an hour on the couch reading. I'm sad that my trip wasn't longer, I spent yesterday driving back to Costa Mesa and then flying across country. It was so beautiful and such an amazing experience. I am already plotting how to get myself back there.

State Hopping and Some New Goals!

So its been a busy winter in general for me with work travel, but I finished up last week with some state hopping for extension presentations. Megan and I began the week in Geneseo, NY. Neither of us went into this trip with high expectations, because mostly neither of us had any clue what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised and I think Megan was ready to jump ship and move to possibly the cutest town I'd ever been to.

We took these pictures during a walk we took before the presentation. Seriously, adorable! I should mention that it was ridiculously hot for New York in March and I spent most of the day sweating and trying to still look professional, but wish I could've spent more time for sure!

I then got the pleasure of spending the remainder of the week in Minnesota, my second home. Visited friends, Mankato, and spent a day at Gustavus for work. It was weird and overcast, so no good pictures on this trip, but I'm heading back soon, so I'll work on it.

With some downtime and vacation days this week, I've also set some new goals for myself for the next month/few months. Will and I have found a new place and are moving in May, but with that comes a financial burden for me since my lease isn't up until June. So starting 2 days ago, I'm no longer eating out until my Hawaii trip at the end of May. Even in 3 days I've noticed how little money I spend when I don't eat out. I know it will challenge me a lot, but I know I can do it. My budget needs an overhaul and this is the place I can do it! I've also joined Run to the Finish's 30 day Challenge for April, which is to inject fun into our every day! I've got a calendar all ready to go and will post how that is going too!

Overall, life is pretty fantastic right now. Finally in a place where I can actually enjoy and be grateful for what I'm blessed with and hope to keep that up!

Soaking up Life!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has felt like they miss too much of life. I often feel like the summer is over, year is over, experience is over and I didn't truly take time to enjoy it. Have been having some conversations with my people the past few days about my life in that way. How when I tell people what I do for a living, or that I get to travel, the response is always "how cool!" or "you must get to go to some neat places". My response is always "I usually just see a lot of airports and college campuses". In reality though, I have some amazing opportunities in my life and DO get to do things. So in an effort this weekend to be better about the experience, I played tourist!

My sister lives in Columbus, OH which I've been to about a bajillion times (we are kinda inseparable after all). With my nieces 2nd birthday this weekend, I drove over with manfriend to celebrate. It really was a fantastic weekend! We were blessed with some amazing weather and a sassy 2 year old to get us through, but we took the time to really soak it all in.

We went over Friday night and mostly just hung out and watched some basketball as a place down the street called Rooster's. Nothing fancy, but we did watch Lehigh beat Duke which was actually pretty awesome. Saturday Will and I woke up and decided to head out to North Market. I've been there before, and it is actually where I was introduced to my beloved Jeni's ice cream, (Seriously, BEST ICE CREAM EVER!)  but Will had never been. North Market is like a city market with dining options, bakeries, etc. I always describe is as much more eclectic and delicious than Indy's City Market though. The two of us wandered around trying samples and checking things out before settling on some barbecue for lunch. We sat outside and ate while listening to some outdoor musicians and soaking up the sun. It was really just wonderful! We then decided to go back in so I could buy some of my favorite popcorn from Pam's popcorn (the best cheese popcorn you'll ever eat, no lie) and then so Will could test out all the Jeni's flavors he wanted. He settled on finally a scoop of the dark chocolate and a scoop of cherry tres leches, I ended up with lemon frozen yogurt and mango kiwi special cake. I strayed away from my norm and was pleasantly surprised. Here are our cones below:

Once we got home Will, my sister, myself, Ela, and Maxwell the dog went for a walk around the neighborhood. Ela had a great time walking Maxwell all by herself!

Then it was time for the birthday! As Ela would say we had Elmo Abby cake and presents, and here is her best rendition of a cake monster (she's been big on Monster's Inc lately)

Today Will and I headed home so I could do some packing before I travel this week. We decided to play tourist one more time and stop by the Warm Glow Candle Company. This place is off of I-70 just outside of Richmond, IN. I have passed it more times than I can count, but in an effort to do more, we stopped. Lots of fun candles, and Will and I came out with lots of new votives for our new place.

About to eat some fresh pasta and tomato cream sauce for dinner, courtesy of North Market, and hoping to watch Lehigh win again tonight before I head out of town tomorrow. Hopefully some more posts from the road as I continue to try to play tourist and enjoy those little moments!

One Big Ole Cliche'

So Justina and I are on our last day in Buffalo together (she stays put, but I leave tomorrow. Woohoo!) We decided since Canada didn't pan out last weekend, we'd try to do something not work related today.

As the post title implies, its been one big old girly cliche' today. We started the day with bid day to round out the end of recruitment. We still have some work to do here in the long run, but we definitely ended on a high! Because of the snow we decided today wasn't the best day for a Canada do-over, so instead we made an indoor girly day. The two of us went and got bubble tea, which was a first for me. It was delicious and in the cutest little shop. The tapioca pearls are definitely interesting to get used to, but you do eventually. I've now been scoping out places in Indy. Justina got the milk based one, I got a fruit one. I actually preferred Justina's almond milk, lesson learned!

So after our tea adventures, we decided a movie date was in order. The obvious choice? The Vow. A. it has two of my favorite people in it. B. Why sit at home when you can cry it out in a movie with a friend? While not the best movie ever made, it served its purpose and we got a good cry in. Finally we ended our day at Fowler's Chocolates . They have the usual delicious truffles, caramels, and treats, but also have lots of buffalo shaped chocolates. I bought some Truffalo's to bring back to the staff, but really wanted the Buffaloreo's too :)

 Because I've got to do some packing tonight, we finished up with pizza for dinner and are looking forward to SNL tonight. Sorority bid day, tea, chocolates, pizza, girly movies....seriously could we be any more of a walking girl cliche' today?

Buffa-Lovin It

So I suppose you never know where life is going to take you, and my life has taken me to Buffalo, NY for the past 2 weeks! I've still got a few more days here, but thought I'd get this blog moving again with some of my Buffalo adventures.

I'm here for work and have spent a whole lot of time planning and preparing for recruitment for two of our chapters up here, but Justina and I have managed to squeeze in some fun. J took me to Niagara Falls which was really cool! Unfortunately, after hounding me for weeks about bringing my passport, she forgot hers. We only saw the Buffalo side but it was great nonetheless. Another sad moment is that on the Buffalo side you can apparently get really close, but due to winter and ice issues they close off the stairways. Here are some pics of the trip!

While I hate wings which of course Buffalo is known for, it hasn't stopped the two of us from visiting the local wing places. We hit up Anchor Bar and tonight made it to Duff's. Justina and I like to go local, so we also researched and bought some delicious ice cream from Lake Effect . I bought Cinnamon Toast, no complaints :)

The trip has definitely been exhausting and I have no desire to travel for 2.5 weeks again, but we've had some fun too. Its nice to actually have someone here and to not be traveling alone for once. That has allowed for a whole lot of laughs, some venting, and some major car singing/jam sessions. Looking forward to being home, but I won't spend as much time hating on Buffalo anymore. I'll be spreading the Buffa-love!

Kentucky Beauty

So I was blessed to spend a long last weekend at the cutest little lake cottage in Taylorsville, KY. The manfriend and I discovered it on a Living Social deal while we were contemplating vacation and it was a perfect fit for what we were looking for. The scenery was perfect in late October and I got to spend a few days relaxing. Here is the top 5 best of the weekend!

5. I finally watched The Godfather. We had some rain on our trip so we watched it on his computer. Oddly enough I had a hard time watching the movie, the suspense was killing me, I just knew more people were going to keep dying. But glad I can say I've seen it.

4. Polishing off some good books. I read The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and finally finished Water for Elephants. I'm a reading machine and could have holed up all weekend with a book and a blankie that we like to call Big Red :)

3. We cooked some great meals together. I made us a homemade barbeque chicken pizza pictured below and we had some great pork loin and potatoes another night. So nice to have the time and energy to cook a delicious meal together.

2. The Makers Mark Tour! We took one of our days and ventured out and our first stop was Makers Mark. It helped that the day was gorgeous, but the grounds were beautiful, the tour informative, and we dipped our own bottles of bourbon. Just a great day spent with the one I love!

1. The view from our hot tub! We did spend a lot of time in this hot tub as it was perfect crisp and fall outside with a lovely view!

Manfriend was having some back issues or we would have done some hiking too. If anyone is looking for a super relaxing long weekend. I highly recommend Edgewater Resort !