Bright Lights Big City

The real thing about “going out” of town when you live in North Pole, is that you get to go back into civilization. You know, places that have Target, a drug store, Starbucks… that stuff. Seriously.

We don’t even have a stand alone Starbucks. We have the weenie, dinky little ones that are in super markets. I do not want to hang out in a super market/Starbucks. It’s just not the same.

So while in Seattle, we used our one night to really hit the town. I Googled some top restaurants in the city and ended up picking High Knee Stocking Co.

Yes that picture is just of the door. Even Yelp.com only supplied this little snippet. This bar/restaurant is classified as a “Speak Easy”. So kick back into the 1920-1930s and think prohibition. Hence the “hidden” look of the bar. You have to ring the door bell to be ushered in.

They have a crazy list of cocktails.. every kind of alcohol and a lovely list of creative drinks. I tried this…

grapes & grains

---

The Moscow Mule
Vodka, lime, and ginger beer. Perhaps the second most deceptive drink ever invented?

and Trevor went with this beverage…

The Stork
Plymouth gin, Orange Curacao, OJ, lime, and
bitters.

We mainly went with appetizers and filled up easily on baked stuffed mushrooms, Knee High tots, and goat cheese empanadas.

We skipped out on dessert though, so that we could be late night tourists.

The Seattle Space Needle! I didn’t rock a fanny pack, nor did I have on dark socks with sandals, but man do I love being a tourist 🙂 I thoroughly enjoy dorking out and getting pictures of the famed landmarks 🙂

Fun fact is that if you want to go to the observation deck you can either pay $18 per person (military discount) oorrr you can go up to the restaurant, and pay a minimum of $35 dollars and then get the observation deck included.

* sorry this picture is dark, I didn’t want to bug the fellow diners 🙂

My preference is to include dessert and wine in any tourist experience, so it seemed like a match made in heaven. The restaurant even rotates (slowly) so that you get a 360 degree view of the Emerald City.

After an amazing molten chocolate cake, we headed up to check out the view. It was really nice to see all the city lights and feel like we were out on an adventure.

But alas, we were still slightly lame and called it a night after the Needle. I had big dreams of going out for a late night of dancing and fun… but what can I say? My pajamas, a bed, and cuddling usually wins.

Sunday we squeezed a little more activity into the few hours we had left by heading to downtown Seattle ASAP. First up was Pike Place Market.

We dined on some donuts, which turned out to be the “wrong” donuts. They were still delicious and packed with the sugary goodness that donuts need, but the renowned ones are actually from Daylight Donuts. Fail. Oh well!

My only souvenir was from Pappardelle. I snagged some Roasted Red Pepper fettuccine, Lemon Garlic Orzo, and Basil Oregano fettuccine. Yummy. Plus they sent us home with their recipes. Bonnnuussss!

Awesome trip, fabulous time exploring, and definitely looking forward to another trip back. They had so many great restaurants, I can only hope to enjoy a few more 🙂

Left My Heart in the Emerald City

Hi friends! Did ya miss me?

Sorry I have been kind of wallowing… didn’t know what to write about, didn’t feel like anything exciting was going on… just in a funk.

So while I meander my way through “the winter is coming” blues, here’s what I’ve been up to!

Last weekend Trevor and I headed down to Seattle to catch the CU vs. Washington game. It was literally the quickest trip I’ve ever had, but I had a wonderful time.

We headed out Friday night and made it through our 3hr 30min flight to Seattle.

Trevor was taking his reading very seriously 🙂

It is a killer long flight. Think about how far you can get in the Lower 48 on a 3.5hr flight. I always have to a bag full of entertainment to make the journey down south. This time I rented “Bridesmaids”, had my book, iPod, and well… I brought Trevor. Bugging him usually provides a handful of entertainment 🙂 (Side Note: didn’t love Bridesmaids, it wasn’t as funny as I wanted it to be, and they tried to mesh crude humor with chick flick… kinda awk)

Upon arrival, we got into football mode.. I told Trevor to make a tough/bad ass face and he did this…

Fear is now instilled in your heart… right?

Since we arrived at 10pm, it was a quick night. We headed down town to The Tap House and had some great happy hour hors d’oeuvres. I love restaurants that have late night food deals. This place had a ridiculous amount of beers on tap, so if you’re looking for a wide selection of brews, this is the place.

We opted to stay closer to the University though, save ourselves the traffic, and just walk to the stadium. University Inn did the job. Perfect location, continental brunch included, great price, but the pillows were complete crap. So there ya go!

Our Buff pride shined on Saturday regardless of the score.

We were literally barked out of the stadium (Husky mascot and all), but we had a great time seeing a friend of Trevor’s from college ROTC and his wife. I even got to see some of my sorority sisters that were out in Seattle for the weekend. Can I just say, I love being able to see my friends all over the country and world. Makes me feel like I have friends everywhere, which is always nice 🙂

From the end of game we pretty much had 12 hours remaining in our trip. I’ll be back tomorrow with the Saturday night story, and Sunday explorations!

Accomplishments

While in Colorado I have:

Attended two football games… One win, one loss. I had a great time at both but the flight to Seattle had plenty of WSU fans. I’m very thankful they didn’t bust out their fight song. I would have gagged.

I did some Christmas idea hunting. To make it easier in my family, we are “pinning” what we’d like for gifts on a designated Christmas board on Pinterest. This makes it a little bit easier to hunt down items. My sister and I already have my mom’s gifts knocked out… Winning!

I got my tan on 🙂 something that I didn’t get to do ALL summer! Colorado was a lovely host and served up two blissful weeks of 80 degree weather. While I didn’t darken significantly, I’ll take any UV attention as I head back to the chilly north.

I did some cooking with my BF. You can check out the recipe and more pics over at Live and Love to Eat. Claire is off on an adventure in Europe, so I had my first opportunity to guest blog 🙂

I even got some spinning in. Check out my soaked hair. I’m hoping to get some new playlists done this week and get my legs going as winter swoops in.

I had a great time seeing my family and friends, hitting football games, happy hours, and being back in my favorite state. But it’s time to head back home…

I’m ready to see this guy…

See ya soon Fairbanks!

Less Wordy Wednesday

My second week in Colorado has been a little bit more mellow. I’m trying to relax and absorb, rather than run around like a chicken with its head cut off. There are so many people I want to see and things I want to do, but it’s also nice to sit back and enjoy where I am…

Of course I’m living in a dreamland. Honestly.

Colorado has been in the 80s everyday with beautiful cloudless skies. That is not reality, especially considering its very nearly October. I mean it is OFFICIALLY fall…

Colorado is sending very mixed messages. A truckload of pumpkins, and yet I can still lay out at the pool.

These things just don’t go together! Not that I’m complaining.

In fact I just feel plain guilty because good ol’ North Pole is on its last legs of any warmth. And yes having temps in the 30s is considered warm. This will be proven when we all strip off our down coats when its a balmy zero degrees out. So while I lay at the pool, my guilt manifested itself in a new pair of winter boots.

It really is a good thing that we don’t have DSW in Fairbanks. I think it would be more of a detriment than a benefit.

But my snow boots will have to wait til Monday for the inaugural visit to Alaska. I’m certain that the snow is holding out for my imminent return. So until then, I have a few more friends to see… And a little visit to my alma mater to see a little football action!

366

I have now been married for a year and one day.

Thank you, thank you…. I appreciate the round of applause 🙂

In my infinite wisdom as a married woman I wanted to share some year one stories.

Our wedding was wonderful and perfect…

I think the only hitch that people could see was this..

We were trying to light my parents 37 year old unity candle. Things didn’t exactly go well… The wick was resistant to light and we ended up faking it 🙂 As you can tell by my face I was thrilled.

Married life for us has involved a lot of traveling, at least for year one. Post wedding we headed out to St. Lucia for a Sandals honeymoon.

While I found it rather amusing to count the number of women with french manicures as we neared our destination, we quickly realized we were not the only newlyweds. The resort was beautiful, and the all you can eat/drink offerings were delicious. (Side note: if you ever go to a Sandals resort please enjoy a Dirty Banana. It’s a cocktail and its life-changing).

Sandals also did a fabulous job of treating each couple like we were the only honeymooners. While we couldn’t drop the line “We just got married” or “We’re on our honeymoon” and expect an upgrade, Sandals handed each couple nice perks that still make us feel special (i.e. massages, champagne, cheesy desserts that have “love” written in chocolate).

Plus it was actually nice to be at a resort surrounded by people who are there to solely spend time with their spouse. No kids, no drunk college kids, and everyone making googly eyes at their new bride/groom.

From the honeymoon we went over to glamorous Korea for Trevor to get back into the swing of work.

Please enjoy my husband’s creeper stache… Mustaches are apparently a “must” when you’re overseas. As a newlywed I found this both disappointing and revolting. I found this was the first instance that as a wife I was able to use sex as a weapon. Don’t be fooled, you will do it too. Lesson one learned.

From Korea, it was time to head back to the US to our new homestead. Yes, North Pole, Alaska.Not only were we newlyweds but new home-owners; which in itself is a learning experience.

Living with my husband has been comedic, frustrating, awesome, and comforting. After a year apart dating, it’s obviously an opposite side of the spectrum to live together.

I’ve learned things, like Trevor grinds his teeth in his sleep. This factor has now gifted us with the blessing of a mouth guard. I can’t tell you the sex appeal it offers. My favorite part is his retainer style lisp 🙂

Shockingly I’m not without quirks and habits that Trevor had not discovered prior to marriage. For example, my jaw pops, particularly when I eat cereal. This has become one of Trevor’s pet peeves. I have received more death stares in the morning than I care to count. Honey, I apologize. Blame it on my orthodontist that insisted on making me wear rubber bands. I hated him for it too.

We’ve landscaped a yard, foster cared for a dog, met new friends, settled into a new state, and soaked up time together. It was an interesting year, that’s for sure.

I know it wasn’t the easiest year on either of us. So many things to learn, to juggle, and to compromise on, but we did well. I may have talked Trevor’s face off a few times, and he may have tuned me out on numerous occasions.

Bottom line, year one was a success. I love my husband with all my heart and am happy to move on to year two together. I know a few things lie ahead, like hosting our second Thanksgiving and a family trip to Hawaii, but I know we’ll also be handed some surprises.

Looking forward to new and exciting adventures 🙂

Ruby slippers

I woke up at 4:06am today. Two bags were packed… Both meeting the requirements to be carry on.

I carefully applied my mascara so as not to scare the TSA agents. Then my lovely husband drove me to the airport before the sun was up.

Which FYI is already getting later and later…

This may not look too abnormal to those in the Lower 48 but to Alaska residents it’s a growing reminder that our precious daylight is slipping away.

It actually has/will take me the better part of the day to even fly out of the gigantic state. I have a doozy of an itinerary…
6am-6:54 Fairbanks to Anchorage
8:00-9:30 Anchorage to Juneau
1:30-4:30 Juneau to Seattle
5:30-9:40 Seattle to Denver

Yikes huh?

So here I am killing time on my +4hr layover in Juneau.

So I took a nap. Yes on the floor. My lovely travel pack from a UNITED flight long ago provided my neck pillow and eye cover. I looked like a dead body.

Knowing I had to be up at 4am, and would be traveling for around 15hrs today, I made a plan.

1. Nap whenever possible. Yes my mouth hangs open on the plane and no I don’t care.

2. Always check in early and snatch up an aisle or window seat ASAP. Everybody knows middle seats are for weenies.

3. Always bring snacks. I also packed two tortilla pb&j’s, plus my water bottle. Tiny snack packs on the flights are a joke and paying $8.50 for a bag a trail mix is bonkers. Not to mention this itty bitty airport in Juneau only has vending machines 😦

4. I have my kindle, a book, my iPod (stocked with movies and tv shows) and obviously my phone. It’ll be a long day but at least I can rotate entertainment… After-all watching toddlers torment their exhausted parents only provides so much “reality tv” to watch in the terminal.

I still have an hour to kill with apparently a delay tacking on more time… I think I’ll troll Pinterest.

I am seriously indebted to whoever created this site 🙂

Cross your fingers I make all my connections! Can’t wait for Colorado 🙂

How do you survive airports? Any favorite airports with good shops or restaurants?

Let’s Get Together

I’m sorry if I have now lodged this song in your brain until the end of the week 🙂 but I absolutely loved this movie when I was little. Hayley Mills kind of rocked my socks as a kid…

But on the sister end track of things I thought I’d share a tradition that my sister and I started about 4 year ago.

Elyse and I realized the difficulties that come into play as we grew older, managing time, living in different places, jobs, etc. Finding weekends or holidays that work to get quality time with family and friends gets more difficult as more life factors appear. When I was a junior in college my sister was a fresh-faced college grad starting work in DC.

We always saw each other at holidays and big family events but depending on the time she had off from work these visits could be few and far between.

Being that in our family there are only two kids, and we happen to both like each other (yay :-)) we decided to have a dedicated Sister’s Trip each year. Each year we’ve planned a 3-4 day weekend that we can meet up and enjoy exploring together.

The first inaugural trip was to Vegas…

A quick weekend in the City of Sin allowed us to shop, eat, enjoy a show, and hit the night life.

But from the city that demands you to be 21, we went the opposite way… It was time to revisit our youth…

Disney World!! We researched the crap out of how to conquer all three parks (Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom). I can tell you that hitting Disney World in your twenties, free of strollers, nap times, and big groups was a magical experience. We power walked our butts off and hit every major ride in the parks. We were Disney Champions.

And yes we also made homemade Disney shirts. My sister’s featured Belle because that’s her girl, and mine was Tinkerbell. We were epic and wore them with pride.

This last year I had the real treat of visiting the city to beat all cities. Elyse and I conquered New York…

From the sites to the shows, we packed the weekend. Book of Mormon and Anything Goes were our theater treats, and I even saw someone famous while there…

Oh Heyyyy Mr. Taye Diggs 🙂 He was at Anything Goes with his mother (awww) and yes he is as good-looking in person. And yes I squealed and said “oh my god that’s Taye Diggs”… I live in Alaska, let me get excited when cool things happen to me!!

We usually plan the big Sister trips for early spring-ish and have plenty of time to dork out and research our next locale. This year we’re talking about a possible Canadian location? Or Seattle… oorrrr who knows!

Its one of my favorite traditions though. It’s just my sister and I keeping tabs on each other, having a weekend to just be sisters. Since we both enjoy restaurant treasure hunting, and exploring its a special weekend that is just about us.

Do you have any family traditions? Sibling activities that mean something to you?

 

A Little QT

A four-day weekend is upon us and Trevor and I will be departing today for a long weekend together. A little Quality Time if you will 🙂

This summer has flown by and we’ve had very little down time to absorb any of it.

June was entirely dedicated to our yard overhaul, constructing our patio, and learning what the true meaning of home ownership is.

July was a mish mash of family visitors, military exercises and overall chaos.

August literally slipped through my fingers. Between having a double dose of colds and both of us being rather busy (babies, Air Force stuff, and whatever else you can think of) we just didn’t get much time to mellow out.

So tomorrow, my goofy and adorable husband is sweeping me off to who knows where so that we can decompress. We both need a little break from regular life, and are going to be those annoying couple-y people 🙂

So I hope you all have a lovely Labor Day weekend! May it be filled with gorgeous weather, a handsome man, a large glass of wine, and hopefully some R&R.

Cheers!

*yes this was a shameless post highlighting my husband. But guess what? When there are only two of you, one person is behind the camera… 🙂 And I happen to think he’s rather good-looking.

A Dark Place

Friends… I was in a dark dark place the last few days. It was lonely, I felt isolated and sad. Out of touch with the “real world”.

I didn’t have a cellphone for 5 days.

Five days. 5 days!!!!!! Its hitting you now.. I can see it. The look of horror mixed with pity.

That’s right for 5 days I was a lone soldier facing the world without my iPhone.

It was a dark place guys. I had plugged my phone into the computer and it apparently needed an updated. The update instead sent shock waves through my life… It MADE me, twisted my arm, and snarled “You must ‘restore’ your iPhone”. These words made my blood run cold. Would my phone be ok? Would all of my precious apps remain? Would it be the same?!?!

No. It wouldn’t. The restore kicked my poor little phone off of the Verizon network. Which in Alaska means you’re SOL. We don’t have Verizon up here, and we’re really just piggy backing onto a local cellphone network. So when your iPhone needs life support it has to be overnight-ed (2-nighted in AK) to the trauma center.

Well not really. It just goes to Seattle. But still its traumatic.

So they fixed my phone, linked it up to the towers again and then my brave phone made its way back to me.

So in honor of my sad-lonely-no-phone days here are the apps I can’t live without… well not again at least:

This app is my long lost exercise lover. It is by far the best exercising app I’ve found. This little baby is packed with tons of different options, exercises, challenge levels, and oh by the way IT’S FREE.

 

 

Its genius really. The app lets you choose what kind of workout you’re looking for, what level you are fitness wise (beginner, intermediate, or expert), and what time limit. You can even do their Focus workouts to target specific areas. The app will sync up with your iTunes music that’s on your apple device and then direct you/encourage you/kick you butt through the work out. Seriously give this a shot. I really loved having it while on vacation so that I could get quick 30-45min workouts in without evening leaving the hotel.

 

 

 

AllRecipes Dinner Spinner. This thing is magic. Pure dinner/menu planning magic. The app allows you to search AllRecipes.com gigantic selection of popular recipes. Either by a specific recipe name, ingredient or even nutritional information this app will search for the dinner you’re craving. I’ve used my app to focus a grocery shopping trip, use up whats in my fridge or save recipes I’d like to tackle later. It also allows you to email recipes to friends, which makes for easy swapping after a successful meal. The Dinner Spinner has a free version and then a Pro that is a fee, but I’ve gotten on just find with the cheap-o version.

 

Finally I love Kayak Flight Status. Another free app that gives me sanity! This app will look up your flight with flight numbers, departure times, airlines and routes. Where this info is key for me is it constantly updates arrival times, gate information and even baggage claim. This is mostly handy for me when I’m doing airport runs to pick up friends, family, visitors, etc. Instead of having to bug them for all the information I can usually figure it out myself, and then I’ll know exactly when they arrive. Definitely takes the guess work out of flying, no more arriving to pick someone up that won’t land for another hour 🙂

Now that I’m back in the era of cellphones, I’m off to call everyone in my phone book and tell them how much I missed the idea that they could call me wherever I was…

Itch

That sounds gross right? Well I have a craving…. a jonesing…. an itch that desperately needs to be scratched.

I need a trip to Vegas. I need a GIRLS trip to Vegas.

I NEED IT!! I’m obsessively thinking about the shows, the cushy hotel rooms, the wonderful black out shades that allow you to sleep in to whatever hour suits your fancy. The buffets. The Shopping… UGHHHH I could go on forever. I need to go to Vegas.

My first trip to Vegas was with my seester. I had just survived rush with my sorority, turned 21, and was in dire need of some fun. I hopped a plane and met my sister in Vegas for a show, some clubs, and a taste of The Strip. I loved this Vegas trip because it wasn’t overwhelming. There was no 5am out clubbing nights. No monster hangover. Just a nice classy trip hanging out with my older sister and exploring. We wandered the whole strip, went in and out of every casino and went to see a show. I HIGHLY recommend Cirque de Soleil’s “O”. It is awesome. Seriously amazing. While we didn’t splurge on any fancy dinners we did decided to drop a few dollars on a high brow dessert and drink. This place is fancy. They have a dress code. They book out for reservations. And their dessert is ridiculous. Mouth watering amazing sexy scrumptious dessert. I believe that I had a strawberry souffle and a crazy good dessert champagne. This was a serious treat and I highly recommend doing it.

My second trip to Vegas was a one night stand. One night in Vegas and we made it count. My roommates and I were road-tripping out to CA and, well, Vegas conveniently is on the way. The quick and dirty of this trip is that I decided we needed to go to Chip ‘n Dales. I can say this was both a horrible decision and one of the best most hilarious things I’ve done. In short, we had a few pre-show cocktails, I got pulled on stage, was privileged enough to take a picture with all the shirtless (gay) shaved men, and then the three of us pranced off to dance our little feet off. I woke up the next morning feeling the fun I’d had last night. The piece of advice I can offer here is, if you go to Chip ‘n Dales, please have a few… if you don’t you will feel incredibly awkward. If you do, your sense of humor will aid you in what will be the most hilarious 1.5hrs of your life. Enjoy.

The last girl’s trip I had was with my lovely and gorgeous friend D. It was a dance fest. We are partners in crime like that. We stayed at the Monte Carlo, which out of the three trips was about a 7 on a scale of 1-10. Great pool though. I’ve also stayed on The Hard Rock, which has a great pool, but the Monte Carlo has a pretty good lazy river going on. Plus they are on the Strip which earns points in my book. We hit XS, Tryst, TAO, and probably a few others.

Now why am I rambling on about my Vegas trips? Because I want to GO. I want to go sometime in September. I want all my friends and all their friends and all their friends friends to go. I want to issue a challenge. Come to Vegas in September. Shoot me a comment, an email, call me… whatever! I just want to go and I want my lovely gorgeous friends to come too. Make it happen. It will be fun. We will dance. And eat at buffets. And lay at pools. Come on who’s with me???!!