Cross-Country Drive - San Antonio to the Big Easy

I am fast approaching my three year anniversary in the DC Metro area. It seems as good a time as any to look back on how I got here. Taking a cross-country road trip is something that I think everyone should do once in their life and if possible take a leisurely drive.

My drive "across the country" wound up being neither across the country nor leisurely. The week before I was to leave the West Coast, I found out that I needed to work on July 1st in order to get my annual bonus that I had worked all year for and was no small amount of money. We had originally planned to leave on June 30th, so that meant I would have to work two extra days. After weighing our options, we decided that I should stay the extra two days. Raisin Bread would begin the drive as planned on June 30th, and on July 1st after work, I would fly to San Antonio to meet up with him. Poor Raisin Bread had to make the drive all the way to San Antonio by himself in two days, which were the roughest two days of the schedule!

As you can see from our route map, I wound up missing half of the country.

I also learned that giving yourself seven days to drive across the country doesn't allow for much besides driving, eating, sleeping and driving. 

From San Antonio, our plan for the next day was to drive 544 miles to New Orleans. Our day started off with breakfast at our hotel, with Texas-shaped waffles and biscuits and gravy. 

We made a pit stop in Houston three hours in to have lunch with my former co-worker and former roommate Christine at Goode Company Texas BBQ.



Sliced brisket sandwich for me!

The weather turned from bad to worse after we finished lunch. It was pouring down rain, which caused us to fall behind on our timeline. Can't see. 

Considering the rain delay, we continued on to New Orleans without stopping except to grab a Texas-sized drink.  

We checked into our bed and breakfast located in Faubourg Marigny and then headed out for a lovely dinner at Elizabeth's. The restaurant in tiny but we lucked out and were seated right away.

The food was also amazing. In my opinion, it was the best meal of our trip. I was introduced to the most divine creation: praline bacon. So delicious. My entree, duck with cherry sauce, was also wonderful.

After that drive all day, we were ready to hit the hay. We planned on staying in NOLA for two nights so we had a full day of exploring the city ahead of us. 

Week in Review (May 6 to 12, 2013)

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you probably know that I have been taking advantage of my new found freedom from academic life.

On Wednesday after work, I headed to the headquarters of LivingSocial to make a terrarium. They are super easy to make and sound easy to care for, but I'm really bad at keeping plants alive. They are also so pretty to look at so I am hoping mine stays around for a while.



Then on Thursday, I visited the Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theatre for the first time at the Natural History Museum. My friend invited me to a staff viewing of the 3D film Flight of the Butterflies. The film follows the migratory journey of the monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico. It is visually beautiful!

Image: Source

On Saturday, Raisin Bread and I tried out a new-to-us Japanese place in Falls Church called Maneki Neko. I ordered the vegetable tempura appetizer and shoyu ramen. Definitely the best green tea and ramen I have had in the DC Metro so far!

Yesterday, I decided to take a different running route and ventured to Theodore Roosevelt Island. This was my first time going to the Island and I loved it. The trails were still pretty muddy from the rains we have been having, but it was a perfect day to try something new in the glorious weather. I would like to go there again and do some hiking or some more trail running.

My Sunday run also took me past Artisphere's Yarn Bomb public art project. How can this not make you smile? 

I signed up for a free 60-day trial of Daily Burn this week and have done two of their yoga classes so far. I am trying to get myself to try some of their other workouts but have not gotten myself to yet. I'm planning to do a more in-depth review of Daily Burn after I have used it some more. For now, here is what my workouts looked like this week:

Monday: Daily Burn - Yoga 1 (35 minutes)
Tuesday: Ran/walked 2.4 miles
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: Ran/walked 3.1 miles
Friday: rest
Saturday: 4 hours of spring cleaning
Sunday: ran 3.39 miles + Daily Burn - Yoga 2 (40 minutes)

Total yoga this week: 2 times
Total mileage this week: 8.89 miles
Total mileage this year: 134.99 miles

My entire family will be traveling to visit me this week for my graduation on Friday so my workouts this week and weekend might be on the lighter side. It will be the first time that we have all been together since November, and for that, I am excited!

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Art Deco South Beach

The next morning marked the final day of our road trip. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. The weather was gorgeous and the music was already pumping at some of the neighboring hotels. It was spring break after all.

Once we were done with breakfast, we had to check out of our room and store our luggage. Then we took a long walk to the Art Deco Welcome Center on Ocean Drive. I love the Art Deco period, and it makes me so happy that Miami  Beach was and is still today a city that believes in historic preservation. We took the self-guided audio tour and got to see and learn about just a sampling of South Beach's wealth of Art Deco architecture. A great number of the buildings remain small boutique hotels.

In addition to the many Art Deco buildings, Ocean Drive is also home to Amsterdam Palace aka Versace Mansion, which was the location of a seriously sad event in fashion history. 

We pretty much had all day to complete the audio tour so we took a break for lunch in the middle of our walk. Like many of the restaurants on the Lincoln Road Mall, The Cafe at Books and Books has a huge outdoor seating area. The weather was perfect for dining al fresco. I ordered "The South Beach" sandwich, which had turkey, brie, pear, watercress and mango chutney butter.

We continued on our tour and were led to a beautiful old Post Office. They sure don't make them like they used to.

We saw many more preserved Art Deco buildings. The Tiffany may have been my favorite. 

We made our way back towards our starting point, but not before seeing this cool antique car and spotting a Space Invader mosaic. There are many more around the city, but that was the only one my not-so-eagle eyes saw. 

At the end of our tour, we took a stroll through the famous Lummus Park.

Along the way, we caught of glimpse of a shirtless man skateboarding through the park with a very large snake! There were some odd glances but no one seemed to think twice about it. 

The walk led us back towards our hotel and as you can see, it was a beautiful day to be at the beach.

Our last few hours in South Beach were spent hanging by the pool. A perfect way to spend the afternoon.

The time came for us to start heading towards the airport, but we first needed to grab some food at Joe's Takeaway. We enjoyed a few crab claws from this Miami institution. 

But wait, there's more. Key lime pie served as our last taste of Florida.

And we drove to the airport with this sunset bidding us farewell. Until we meet again, Florida!

To see more photos from Florida, visit my Flickr page.

Week in Review (April 29 to May 5, 2013)

Done with business school after 33 long months!! Now, I can get my life back. I can't tell you how good it feels to not have schoolwork.

My left foot has been feeling strange since the middle of last week and I was afraid that I had aggravated it more by running and doing that difficult yoga class over the weekend. I had an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday, so I decided to hold off on doing more workouts until I got the okay from her.

It turns out that I have a nerve contusion. Contusion is a fancy word for bruise so it will eventually go back to feeling normal without me having to do anything. My doc also gave me the okay to continue my workouts.



Monday: rest
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: rest
Friday: 1 hour yoga class
Saturday: ran 3.15 miles
Sunday: 45 minutes Pilates chair at-home

Total mileage this week: 3.15 miles
Total mileage this year: 126.1 miles

Before business school, I had a pretty decent yoga practice that completely disappeared once school started. I started practicing yoga on a casual basis almost ten years ago. It always made me feel so good and strong. One of my goals now that I am done with school is to build up a consistent practice again. For now, that means once a week.

*Images: Source*

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Welcome to Miami

After our night in Homestead, we made our way to Miami proper, the final stop in our travels around Florida and coincidentally the same place we started. Our first destination was Little Havana's La Camaronera Seafood Joint and Fish Market for lunch. I was starving because our hotel apparently starts clearing the breakfast area 15 minutes before breakfast ends. No fair.

I ordered fried fish roe for a starter, just because I was really curious to try them. It turned out to be a huge portion and not exactly to my taste. But I was super happy with my lobster sandwich. Soft bread, tons of onions and some special sauce. Oh yeah, and the lobster was good too.

We walked around Little Havana for a few hours afterwards, taking in the sights and sounds. Raisin Bread picked up a cool Cuban fedora and we watched the guys playing dominoes in Maximo Gomez Park.

We still had a few hours to kill before we could check into our hotel so we ventured over to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the former home of industrialist James Deering. It is now owned by the county and can host all of your wedding or quinceanera needs. We weren't able to take photos inside, but the exterior gives you a good idea of how lavish the interior is.

Wouldn't I love to have this as my swimming pool!

What had to be my favorite area of the grounds though was the stone barge. So beautiful. 

The gardens were also stunning. Throughout our time wandering the gardens, we saw couples awkwardly taking engagement photos and little girls in big girl dresses posing for their quinceanera pictures. To be fair, I'm sure they wound up with amazing photos at Villa Vizcaya.

We were able to check in at our hotel a little while later. We stayed at the South Seas Hotel, right on Collins Avenue in South Beach. We were right in the thick of things and I felt like we needed to be in order to really have the SoBe experience.

For dinner, we walked to Espanola Way and had some light French fare at A La Folie Cafe. I had the French onion soup and a salade nicoise.

We spent the remainder of the evening watching the craziness of South Beach by taking a long walk along the Lincoln Road Mall and Ocean Drive.

South Beach is quite an eyefull. I also discovered something that I have never seen before in my life. Apparently, this is called a Bulldog Margarita. It looks like it definitely serves a purpose...for evil. Just kidding, not judgments here. But I, for one, did not partake. 

Source

We finally settled on ending the night by consuming more food at La Sandwicherie. I wish I had one of these in my neighborhood. They have a ridiculously fast sandwich maker in their employ and make terrific, tasty and customizable sandwiches for your late night pleasure.

With our bellies stuffed and our tootsies tired out, these old fogies hit the hay soon after. Young'uns, go on without us!

To see more photos of Miami, visit my Flickr set

How I Spent My Spring Break (or the Great Florida Road Trip): Winter Homes and Alligators

After our amazing manatee snorkel trip, we drove south. We planned to end our day at a hotel in Naples. On the way, we decided to make a stop at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers. We arrived with just enough time to see the property, but unfortunately, were not able to spend much time in the museum.

Thomas Edison purchased this winter retreat in the late 1890s and his friend, Henry Ford, eventually bought the property next door in the 1910s. Edison's property had beautiful furnishings and was dotted with many of his inventions.

The properties sit on the Caloosahatchee River and the grounds host acres and acres of botanic gardens. 

The Moonlight Garden was my favorite space on the property. I can imagine what a beautiful place it would be to be at night.

The gardens are composed of thousands of varieties of plants, trees and flowers, including huge banyan trees, orchids and the biggest bougainvillea bush I've ever seen. 

Another cool part of the property is Edison's botanic research laboratory. Even after he found great success with his inventions, he never stopped working. 

After a night in the worst hotel of our entire trip, we drove to Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge's Marsh Trail, where we were able to view the landscape from an observation tower. 

While we didn't see any alligators, we did see herons and plenty of fish. 

Next we found ourselves walking along the Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in Big Cypress National Preserve. Again, no gators here but there was some lovely foliage. 

We made our lunch stop at Joanie's Blue Crab Cafe. Apparently, the paper ran an article on them a day or two before because they could not stop moaning about how slammed they were and how unprepared they were for the crowds and it showed.

I tried to order the soft-shell crab sandwich, which they didn't have. Instead, I got the crab cake sandwich. My bun was burned and partly inedible, but the crab cake and fries were outstanding.

After lunch, we finally found ourselves in gator land. Just driving along 41, you can see tons and tons of alligators, swimming, sunning and just hanging around. It was really really cool to see them in nature, doing what alligators do. 

We tried to make it all the way to the Shark Valley Visitor Center, but we had booked ourselves on to an afternoon airboat tour, which we had to get to. This is something we would soon regret.

I hated our airboat tour! If you want to go zooming around through mangrove swamp at high speeds on a loud, eco-unfriendly machine with animal harassing guides, go for it, but I really wished we hadn't done this. Raisin Bread thought at one point I was going to start yelling at our guide. Instead of being there, I would have much rather been continuing to drive along the dirt roads, looking for alligators. By the way, the only animal we saw on the airboat tour was a single gator.

Here we are trying to pretend like we're having fun. Again, if I didn't make it clear, I do not recommend you go on an airboat tour.

We wound down the day with another two and a half hour drive to Homestead, Florida for the night.

To see more photos of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, click here
To see more photos of the alligators, click here