Hawaii: Part 8 (Our First Day in Oahu)

Before planning our trip to Hawaii I had always assumed that you could easily hope between the different islands via a ferry.  But as it turns out, that is not the case.  Really the only way to get from one island to another is to fly, which I was initially bummed about.  But in the end it wasn't bad at all.  We got tickets for about $70 each and it was the shortest and prettiest flight ever!

Once we landed in Honolulu the first thing on our list, after getting our rental car, was to grab some lunch at Hank's Haute Dogs (a Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives spot).

Their food truck that was parked in the parking lot next door.

The crazy mural beside the parking lot!

We each got a dog (I got the chili dog and Antoine got the fat boy) and then we shared some onion rings and fries.  Sorry I didn't get a photo of the actual hot dogs...I might have been a little hungry.  Everything was tasty, but my favorite things were the garlic aioli and the furikake ranch dipping sauces!  They were amazing!

Also, while we were eating we were being stalked by this guy!

And after a while his friends joined him...it felt a little like The Birds (except instead of smoking cigarettes we were eating hot dogs).

After lunch we made our way to Kailua where we stayed all four nights we were on Oahu...and I'm so glad we did.  Neither of us really cared for Honolulu or Waikiki.  It was too congested and felt far less authentic to us.  But Kailua was a nice alternative to staying in the capital, since it was only about 30-40 minutes away and still had plenty of places to stay, eat, shop, and go to the beach.  For our first two night we stayed in this adorable little micro-house, which was great!  It was quiet and comfortable and within walking distance of a lot of great food options.  After we checked in a got settled we hoped in the car and headed down the coast to explore for a bit.

I think this is from the Wawamalu Beach Park.

I think this is at the Halona Blow Hole...maybe?

Awesome little swimming area that was teeming with sea turtles.

And I have no idea where this photos are from...it was just a small beach park that we decided to stop at and dip our feet in the water for a bit.

And then we say a rainbow, which is always cool (and apparently very common in Hawaii...since it's on their license plates).

Isn't it crazy that it's already Wednesday?!  I totally meant to have a post for you on Monday, but the last couple day/week have been rough.  Apparently, my fall the first day of our trip did a little more than just bruise my tailbone...it apparently left me with an inflamed disk in my back that has been causing me a bunch of grief over the last couple weeks.  But I'm on the mend and back to posting, so yay!

Texas Recap: Fort Worth

Well, it's Monday again.  How was your beautiful, autumnal weekend?  Mine was pretty good.  My sister and I went up to visit my parents and grandparents, which was nice.  And I got a chance to see my HLP, Amanda, and her boyfriend which is always nice.  Amanda surprised me with a card and revealed that yesterday was her and my 10 year friend-iversary!  How awesome is that?!  On November 3rd, 2003 we hung out together for the first time outside of class, I was a freshman and she was a second year transfer to Xavier.  We both went to a Mermaid Tavern meeting (an English group), with my crazy roommate at the time.  Mermaid Tavern ended up being incredibly boring, but after that Amanda and I started to hangout and study together.  And once my crazy roommate went full-on nuts, Amanda and I decided to get an apartment together the following year in the building she was living in.  That was the beginning of what has been the best and most fulfilling friendship of my life.  We've been study-buddies, roommates, proof-readers, traveling companions, relationship counselors, and heterosexual life partners.  Love you bunches, Amanda!  Here's to 10 more years of awesomeness!

Alright, enough sappy friend-love (just kidding!), back to Texas.  After our relaxing night in San Antonio, we really weren't looking forward to the 4+ hour drive to Dallas, most of which was under construction.  But I had planned it so that we didn't go straight to Dallas, instead we were planning a little detour to Fort Worth because we wanted to see the cattle drive, which happens every day at 11:30am and 4pm.  So, we had a schedule to keep if we wanted to see the 4pm cattle drive, which is a good thing for us since it keeps us on track and motivated.  Luckily we made it to Fort Worth with time to spare, so we decided to check out the Fort Worth Water Gardens really quick before heading over to the Stock Yards.

I wasn't wearing the best footwear, so we didn't go to the bottom of the water gardens, but it was still cool to see.

After the water gardens we headed over to Exchange Ave to find a parking spot and check out the herd of longhorns.  Nowadays, the twice-daily cattle drive is all for show.  These guys don't have to worry about becoming anyone supper anytime soon.  I know it's kind of touristy, but it's still fun.  And coming from Ohio, where longhorns aren't a common sight, it's pretty cool to see them up close!

We visited their holding pen before the cattle drive and got to see the cowboys get them up off their butts and lead them to Exchange Ave.  (This basically just involved some whooping and once the main longhorn with the bell around his neck got up they all started getting up like old pros.)

See the black and white one with the bell, who's name is Duramax, I guess he's the ringleader of the group.

I couldn't resist a couple of black and white shots.  The longhorns are just so big and majestic and I loved the contrast of their spots and the shadows their giant horns cast on the street.

It was a fun experience and I'm totally glad we went.  I'm not sure if we'd do it again if we went back, once might be enough, but I'd definitely want to check out the Botanic Gardens if we found ourselves in Forth Worth again.  I've still got photos from the Texas State Fair to share, so please stay tuned!

Park Love (on film)

This will likely be my last post for the week, what with me having a bug the last couple days (bleh!), tonight being the first night of the Midpoint Music Festival, Amanda and Aaron coming in to stay with us for Midpoint, and then Antoine and I gearing up for our trip to Texas.  I don't think I've mentioned our Texas trip on here yet, but we'll be leaving shortly for our multi-city, seven day road trip around Texas.  Antoine is from Texas, but I've never been...even though I have some family there.  We're starting off in Austin for the Austin City Limits Festival, then heading down to San Antonio for a day just to relax, and then finishing up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before we head back home.  Since we've got so many people to see and so much good music to listen to and good food to eat, it should be equal parts exhausting and fun!  Here's my Texas Pinterest board, in case you want to check it out and recommend something that I definitely need to check out that isn't on there.  I always love some travel tips and must-see recommendations!

In the mean time I'll leave you with my other roll of film that I recently got back.  This one is from about three and a half weeks ago when Antoine and I decided to get some take out and head to the park for a picnic, but instead we ended up going to three different parks!  While we were waiting for our Indian food, we headed up to Bellevue Park to check out the view... 

It was a little humid and hazy that day, but still beautiful.

With our delicious Indian food in hand we made our way to Alms Park to have our picnic and snap some pictures.  I've already expressed my new-found love for Alms park and my digital photos here, but here are some film ones I took.  [Again, I'm so lucky to have Antoine who's willing to lug around my extra camera for me and wait for me to take all these silly pictures I take!]

 Then we headed of to Ault Park for a leisure walk (and so I could geek out over all the flowers still in bloom and the beautiful light making its way out of the park).

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  I'll be enjoying a bunch of awesome music with some of my most favorite people, what could be better than that?!

Holmes with a View (B&B Review)

Antoine and I aren't normally bed and breakfast people.  We've been to a couple and never had a bad experience, in fact, we've only had positive ones.  And don't get me wrong, I love the idea of an included homemade breakfast!  But bed and breakfasts tend to have a social element built into them, and that's just not our thing.  Mainly, it's not my thing.  Talking to strangers while I'm on vacation terrifies me and doesn't sound at all appealing.  Luckily, all of the bed and breakfast experiences we've had have been stress-free and involved little to no socializing.  Holmes with a View*, where we stayed for a night while we were in Amish Country, was the epitome of a stress-free, private bed and breakfast.  Combine that with a really cool design and one heck of a view and you've got one awesome bed and breakfast!

  Unlike most B&Bs where all the guests stay in one house, Holmes with a View's suites are completely separated from the proprietors home.  After checking in (at the proprietors home), you drive a couple hundred feet down the road to three circular buildings.  Each building is two stories high and each contain two suites, one on the top floor and one on the bottom.  Each suite has it's own private entrance and separate parking.  One of the buildings is larger than the other two because its suites have two bedrooms instead of one.  We obviously stayed in a one bedroom suite, and chose a top level one.

Look at that view! Isn't it incredible?

Now, it's definitely pricier than we'd normally spend, but in the end we agreed that it was totally worth it!  In fact, we were both blown away by this place and will definitely return in the future.  If you're looking for a quiet, private, and romantic getaway in Amish Country, I'd definitely suggest this place.  I mean, just look at it!

A full kitchen complete with all the necessities, nearly 360 degree windows to enjoy that spectacular view, an adorable little seating area for two, a jacuzzi tub, dish tv (as well as a collection of movies and board games),  a full bath with shower and a bedroom with a view.  Oh, and if that's not enough...continental breakfast waiting for you in your room.

After you check-in and get the keys to your suite and then you oooh and ahhh over it for a couple minutes you realized that your included continental breakfast is already there in your room, waiting for you to enjoy it the following morning.  You don't even have to get out of your pajamas to enjoy your breakfast...icing on the cake!  Delicious cinnamon rolls, a loaf of Amish bread, homemade strawberry jam, an assortment of juices, coffee, tea, popcorn (for a late-night snack) and a Keurig...all in your room waiting for you!  Doesn't get much better than that!  Oh wait, a britta in the fridge full of ice cold water to cool you off after all your sightseeing?  Check!  (This made Antoine and I very happy!  We are very picky about water and we like it ice cold, so yay!)

Picture this, you wake up after a day of shopping/eating cheese samples/feasting on the ultimate comfort food/relaxing in a bubble bath, etc. and you warm up a cinnamon roll, make some coffee and enjoy it on the balcony while looking out on this.  That's just awesome!  Makes it totally worth the price tag.

And the peacefulness of this place is crazy!  It's up on a hill away from any traffic, so you're surrounded by fields and flowers and all you hear are birds chirping and the occasional cluck of a chicken.  It's wonderful.

Oh, and in the morning, there might be horses in your backyard, which is pretty cool!

We had the best time!  It was so relaxing and perfect, we can't wait to go back.  If you're planning a trip to Amish Country, I would definitely recommend this place.  Also, you could make it a little more affordable by splitting the two-bedroom suite with four people, say for a girls weekend or two couples.

* (Holmes = Holmes County, the heart of Amish Country) 

Holmes with a View has no idea I'm writing this post and has not given me any incentive to do so, we just really loved it and I wanted to share it with everyone!

A Trifle Excited

Antoine and I are heading to Amish Country (aka Holmes county Ohio) for the weekend to celebrate his birthday, and I'm just a tad excited about it.  I grew up about an hour from "Amish Country", so we went there often while I was growing up.  But this will be Antoine's first time going (and yes, I did make a Pinterest board just for this little weekend excursion, because I'm crazy)!  Amish Country in general is a bit of a novelty, especially when you grew up on a farm surrounded by humble Amish farmers and played with Amish kids in the summertime like I did.  For me Amish Country is all about memories.  Eating at certain restaurants, going to certain stores...it makes me think of my childhood.  Plus, the food is rad!  No, seriously, I've been daydreaming about peanut butter cream pie from Amish Door nonstop, all week!  I can't get it out of my head.  My diet is so going down the drain tomorrow because I am going to shove so much peanut butter pie in my face.  Mmm, pie!  It will be glorious!

Speaking of sweet things...I made a trifle (my very first) this week to take over to my sis' house and I knew I had to share it.  Antoine, Cheese and I headed over to my sis and bro-in-law's house for a cookout/furry creature playdate, so I thought I'd make a trifle and use up the rest of the blueberry filling I had leftover, stored safely in the freezer, from the cake I made two weeks ago. 

Not the prettiest thing in the world, but damn did it taste good!  I used angel food cake, to make it a bit lighter, and whipped up this awesome microwave lemon curd (so easy and SO good, especially if you throw some lime juice into the mix) and this tasty coconut whipped cream.  I started with cubes of angel food cake, then a layer of curd with strawberries on top, followed by coconut whipped cream, then more cake, blueberry filling, coconut whipped cream and repeated the bottom layer one more time. 

I topped it with more whipped cream, blueberries and the last of the lemon curd (minus a spoonful that went straight into my mouth).

I thought it was really tasty, light yet very flavorful.  The coconut whipped cream and fresh fruit made it very refreshing.  It would make a great picnic item, though the coconut whipped cream might get a little melty on you if it's not kept cold...but it'll still taste great!

So how about you, any fun weekend plans in the works?  Whatever you do, stay cool...it's been hot enough outside to melt your face off!  Okay, not really.  But kind of!  Anyway, happy Friday/almost the weekend!

Okay, now I'm going to go think about peanut butter pie...

Using Pinterest to Plan Trips

Let's face it, Pinterest is just plain addictive!  Everyone warns you before you get on it, but really they can never properly prepare you for how much it'll suck you in.  I think what makes it so appealing is that it can be used in so many different ways.  There are those who pin every silly DIY and/or crazy shortcut post that ever existed.  Then there are those who create endless fashion and outfit boards (my cousin).  Then there are those like me, who love to find new recipes or pin old favorites.  Besides for recipes and crochet patterns, I love to use Pinterest as my own personal trip planner.

When it comes to planning travel there are generally two types of people, those that leave it to the experts (aka travel agents) and those that enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip itself.  I, of course, fall into the latter category.  I contribute 50% of this to my love of making lists and 50% to my sister, who is a phenomenal travel agent.  My sis took me on several trips in my teens, most notably a stellar 10 day trip to the UK.  It was so beautifully planned and organized.  We flew into Edinburgh, rented a car and drove down to the mid-lands where we visited friends, went to Liverpool and Stratford-Upon-Avon, and then we took a train to London where we spent the last couple nights.  It was an outstanding trip, and it showed me what good travel is all about.  To this day, I almost always run my trip ideas past my sister, you know, since she does it for a living and she's been almost everywhere.  But once I get the thumbs-up from my sis, then I begin researching.

My research is generally just Google-based.  Usually I'll check tripadvisor to see if there's anything I've missed, but generally the top "things to do" on their list aren't usually activities or sights that interest me.  Plus, the ratings and reviews are so subjective.  Though, sometimes tripadvisor will surprise me!  I constantly turn to Google maps to map out and route the trip, especially near the end of planning when I'm deciding on a specific day-by-day agenda.  For our last couple trips and our next one coming up (Vancouver, Montreal, and Seattle, respectively) I used Pinterest to compile ideas, from places to stay, things to see, restaurants to check out and little helpful tidbits that I've discovered and don't want to risk losing.   

This is my board for our next trip Olympic National Park and Seattle, which is coming up in May. [Click to see the full board]

I'll make notes in the pin description, mainly how much it costs, what it is close to and when it might fit best into the trip.  Then I can constantly share the board with Antoine (and my sister) to get feedback and bounce around ideas.  Plus, just looking at the board makes excited for the trip, which can be kind of torturous...especially if it's months and months away, like Seattle!  Another advantage to using Pinterest inn this way is since I have it on my phone, if I need an address, directions or hours while we're on our trip I can just go to my board instead of spending time searching for it online. It's all-around awesome and now I can't imagine planning a trip without it.  I encourage you to try using Pinterest the next time you plan a trip!

Now if Pinterest could only make it so that you could rearrange your pins within a board I would be in seventh heaven!