It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

Normally, I avoid Summer travel like the plague. It could be because I don't like people and I don't want to travel with swarms of them. Well...no, that really is the main reason. People are horrible and I don't like to be around them. Plus, it's much more expensive to travel in the summer. Normally, I have bigger trips planned during more of the fringe seasons. So I run out of vacation days to use in the summer. This year is not one of those years. I have the days and I am going to use them. Trip #1 - Memorial Day. West Palm Beach, Florida Liz and I have been trying to plan a trip for forever. We discussed Iceland (still in the works), but the good deals weren't available during Memorial Day. And we're both going insane at work, so planning/researching a trip wasn't going to be an option. So we went with the easy vacation. I'm going to visit Liz in West Palm Beach for a weekend of sitting by the pool. Perfection. There was discussion ...

I don't live the lush life. I never have. While I spend my money at times on frivolous things (travel and cupcakes), I can't just walk into a store and shop without thinking. When I go on vacation, I go during off times of the year and shop around for the best possible deal. I don't order room service or raid the mini bar. These things just aren't done, because I don't have the extra money to spend on the frivolous things. So imagine my shock at a weekend where I didn't have to want for anything. I lived the life of the one percent. And I loved every minute of it. The weekend was very much needed. It was a small break in between the insanity-filled weeks of work. I left the office on Thursday night highly stressed out and ready for the pool. I also felt guilty about being gone for one day and not working the now-customary 70 hours a week. But all of the worried melted away after I boarded the plane. Well, for the most part... The flight to Orla...

February 12, 2012 I was told early on that you could either be a Rome Girl or a Paris Girl. After spending time in both cities, I don't know if I'm any closer to knowing which Girl I am. But I do like to compare and contrast, so here we go... Hotel We had little choice in either hotel. It's not a complaint, really. It just is what it is. And neither of the hotels were bad. They just both had their issues. Rome - the room was bigger, the beds were as hard as a rock, the bar/dining area was much bigger and served us some fantastic food and drinks. But Adele was crazy allergic to the room and the hot water was nonexistent for a while in the morning. The hotel was very centrally located to the Metro and the neighborhood was very homey with fantastic restaurants nearby. Paris - the room was smaller, but the beds were very comfortable. The bathroom was teeny-tiny, but the shower was powerful AND hot. I was impressed by the breakfast, even though they just had ...

February 11, 2012 It is official. I've caught Adele's plague. It's not bad today, but I expect tomorrow's flight home to be interesting. We have two DayQuil doses left. I think one before takeoff and one after takeoff might be warranted. And I don't think I've totally hit the wall yet, but collectively, the wall has been hit. Adele's been draggy today. I've been rendered mostly mute and moderately passive. I'm sure neither one of us are a total prize today. But since this is our last full day in Paris, we need to make do and keep moving forward. The breakfast at the hotel has been pretty quiet over the last few days. But this morning...apparently, we weren't the only people who wanted to take it easy. We found a space to sit, barely. And the people coming in behind us had to wait. I'm glad we didn't have to wait. We made our way to the Museum (Musee) D'Orsay. And here, we encountered the one thing we haven't h...

February 10, 2012 It doesn't matter where you are in the world. If you are all cozy in bed on a cold morning, you're going to have a hard time getting up and at 'em. Add the light-blocking curtains and you might hit snooze a few more times. Even if your day includes a visit to Versailles. The news is still heavy with the story of the Deep Freeze in Europe. The snow has mostly stopped (though Italy could get hit again with snow over the weekend), but the cold is completely brutal. CNN is covering stories in Eastern Europe (definitely the Ukraine) and it is really bad. Paris isn't insanely bad, but chunks of ice are forming in the River Seine. And that ultimately affects us. Especially when the majority of a day will be spent outdoors. So when we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, we braced ourselves for the temperature. No matter what you do, you can't totally prepare for the cold. Especially on vacation. You just have to suck it up and deal. We t...

February 9, 2012 It's our first full day in Paris and our expectations are high. We just needed to make it a slower morning. So instead of getting up at the break of dawn, we slowly made our way up when we needed to. Our breakfast is covered by the hotel and we expect to take full advantage of it. Bourdain said we're idiots (or used another more colorful word) if we utilize the hotel breakfast, since there are tons of other fantastic places to eat in the city (he was talking about Rome, but still...). Here's the thing...we don't make Bourdain money. I'd love to find an out of the way place for every meal and not have to worry about the cost of anything, but I just can't. We've been spending a ton of money on food and haven't bought much that's tangible. Any chance I can save a few Euros is alright by me. Our first stop was where the first stop should be. The Eiffel Tower. I'm not sure what to say about the Eiffel Tower that hasn...

February 8, 2012 We knew going in (obviously) that our trip would be cut into two distinct parts. The Rome Part. The Paris Part. When I thought about the trip, I would tend to focus more on one part than the other. Then I would worry that the other city would become the red headed step child and just be ignored, so then I focused more on the first city. Paris was the city that I focused more on originally, then got sad for the lack of attention on Rome. Adele had her list of Paris broken out into three distinct categories - A (must do), B (want to do), C (would like to do). I couldn't mentally get to that point and I basically left on this trip knowing I would see what I could see. I know I won't see it all and don't want to try. Paris will happen more than once. Adele and I talked about Rome last night. It was such a cool place. We saw a lot, but also didn't. The ruins of Ancient Rome - we saw them, but couldn't go inside. Pompeii - we went, but mi...