Philly - A Little East Coast Swing

Cory was in Philadelphia attending a training class for his new job, so I decided to fly out and meet him for the weekend. We'd been to Philly once before - on a road trip up the East Coast. As road trips tend to go though, we only stayed for a day and night and were off again. Since Philly isn't on my radar of hot-spot vacation cities, I figured I had better take this opportunity to get to know it a little better.

Cory's #1 "to-do" item was to see the Rocky statue and run up the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Yo, Adrian!

Da  da-da-da  da-da-da  da-da-da...DA - DA - DAAAA...DA - DA - DAAAAA!

We thought it would be poor form to only go to the Museum of Art for Rocky, so we went inside in an attempt to see the visiting Van Gogh exhibit as well. When we saw it was $17 each (or something along those lines) to get in, we decided we weren't that cultured after all.

We went to a Phillies game instead.

Phillies vs. Cubs - Phillies lose :(

The next day we decided to wander around town. We started at the Italian Market and made our way south to Pat's - one of the two most famous Philly cheese steak places in town (the other is across the street at Geno's). I was told that all cheese steak places have a man's name.

I was also told that you have to order your steak with Cheez Whiz - Yum!

Cory loves his cheese steak.

I think Cory owes the city $100 - He's too skinny. 

After wolfing down my first-ever cheese steak and not having a plan about where to go next, I thought it would be a good idea to sit at a coffee shop, digest, and decide what to do. We randomly wandered into Rim Cafe, which we soon learned is a coffee shop that makes super-amazing and intense hot chocolate. So much for digesting...

We met the owner, Rene, who was on Sugar High on the Food Network for his Cafe's concoctions. See below...

Rene makes his own blocks of chocolate and has tons of different hot chocolate recipes.

We thought the drinks would be really rich, but ended up perfect. Not too sweet and just what we didn't know we needed after a cheese steak lunch.

We spent the afternoon wandering through the streets. We encountered a YMCA Zumba class that had blocked off a city street to advertise. Adults and kids were dancing in the middle of the street, so we stopped to watch. We walked through Rittenhouse Square and wandered into a church that was having a full on dress-rehearsal choir practice. And we ended up LOVE Park, where there was a live band preforming and, separately, a bride and groom taking wedding photos.

The famous LOVE statue.

Just more proof that a day of wandering around can be more fun and interesting than a day that's fully planned.

That night we went on a ghost tour and back to bed early. We had another historical tour to catch in the morning. Among other things, we saw...

Elfreth's Alley - The oldest continuously inhabited residential street in the US.

Ben Franklin's grave - throw a penny for good luck.

Independence Hall - Cory is re-enacting the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Since our flight was in the late afternoon, we had time to walk part way across the George Washington Bridge, which connects Pennsylvania to New Jersey. Our shuttle driver told us we could find one of the best views of Philly from the bridge. He was right.

Downtown Philly

We spent a lot of our weekend walking around. Luckily, we had a notable landmark to indicate where we needed to turn to get back to our Comfort Inn (not recommended).

Thanks Mr. Bar Stool, Elvis, and Charlie Chaplin for pointing us in the right direction!

NOLA Bachelorette Party!

Be prepared that this will be an epic blog post. I'll try to keep the text to a minimum as these pictures should speak for themselves:

The first man we met on the trip at our first bar - still in the Seattle airport.  

When we arrived in NOLA there was a limo bus waiting to take us all to the hotel. It was supposed to be a surprise, but, like the destination itself, someone let the cat out of the bag before we got there.

I still acted surprised.

We stopped for some cheap gas station champagne and then we were on our way!

We debated whether or not we should go out on Thursday night, knowing it would be a long weekend, but we were too excited to stay in.

Melissa screen printed me an amazing T-shirt that I had to wear on our flights and out that night.

One last ride for the bride!

Liz Swary's cousin works as a bouncer at Coyote Ugly, so we went there first. Since there were only about 7 other people in the bar, we were the life of the party.

Luckily - since we were sober - taking shots with no hands wasn't a problem.

We finished the night at a dueling piano bar and went home to bed. Thursday night on Bourbon Street wasn't too crazy (at least not by Bourbon Street standards). We stayed out until 4am - not that impressive since we were on west coast time...

Friday morning I even got up and went for a run/walk through French Quarter Fest, which was going on all weekend.

We had a dinner planned at Jacques-Imo's Cafe near Tulane. Laura, my Lady of Honor and trip planner extraordinaire, went there, so she knows all the spots to hit in the area. We even met the owner of the restaurant. At first he seemed very nice and jovial - if a little burnt out from living through the 70s.

Jacques-Imo is in the back middle and I'm holding his dog.

He even bought us a round of Lemon Drops.

But then things got a little strange. He took a liking to Beaker and, after dinner, tried to get her to go home with him. Needless to say Beaker was a little scared.

Beaker and Jacques-Imo, pre-creepiness.

The food was tasty and we met a bachelor party that was also having dinner there, which made for an entertaining time. The groups got to know each other and this wouldn't be the last time we would see them.

Fried chicken - Yum Yum

After dinner we had the best cab driver ever. Beaker was rocking out in the front seat after having narrowly escaped the restaurant with her dignity and more Bourbon Street shenanigans ensued.

Laura gets washboarded - and it lasts a lot longer than she hoped it would.

I win $120 arm wrestling this guy (he threw the match and I gave him $20 and bought him a drink)

We run into the bachelor party from the restaurant - notice the creepy man behind us.

After another 4am night and a trip to IHOP, we made it home and prepared for another day. And, in case you were wondering, I did more than just drink. Here I am wandering the French Quarter and enjoying my Saturday afternoon.

There's not even a drink in my hand.

Saturday night - the official Bachelorette Party night - arrived too soon, however. I wasn't quite ready to go big for my third night in a row, but I sucked it up and made it happen. 

My softball girls made sure the sign we stole from a rival college while we were in school made an appearance (Thanks T!). 

I mean, GPA National Champions? Please!!

They also made sure I had a softball helmet with purple, sparkly penises to wear proudly all night long.

Purple Helmet!

My non-softball girls made sure to deck me out as well. Everyone participated in donning sexy tattoos.

It's probably for the best you can't quite make these out.

Then we went to dinner at a Mexican place on Bourbon Street. At dinner, we ran into this lovely lady.

I don't think those are real - and yes, that's just paint.

 I also decided I needed to wear my awesome mustache shirt again.

I managed to wear the helmet all night long too.

Ooops...how did this picture get in here?

We met lots of other bachelor parties and fun folks. My helmet was quite a hit.

Melody is holding the wrong body part.

This guy is from the bachelor party we met on Friday at dinner.

Irene, Liz Swary, and I closed the club down - with the help of everyone else.

Elvis lives!

 By the end of the night my feet were tired and I was ready for bed.

Thanks for the ride Melissa!

 However we still managed to get a final photo...

Everyone's looking pretty good for another 4am night!

and we had fun all the way to the room!

Why won't the elevator door close?

We didn't leave until Monday afternoon, but by Sunday we were all ready to relax. We made it to a fantastic brunch before a couple ladies had to leave. We were even treated to table side musicians.

Then we spent some time near the pool and headed out to listen to some live music and eat some local food at French Quarter Fest.

It was freakin' packed!

Finally, we hit up the infamous Cafe DuMonde for coffee and biegnets. A perfect end to a ridiculously fun bachelorette weekend. My first time in NOLA was a blast!

Oh, and we did have some hook-ups, but only the single ladies misbehaved :)

Hello my name is....

Tahoe Madness

We went to Tahoe for March Madness again this year. We had a few different attendees and a similarly fun time.

Much like Colorado earlier in the season, Tahoe had gotten very little snow all year. The base was only 40" when we arrived. Day one of skiing left a lot to be desired. Luckily for us it snowed 40" overnight while we were there, so day two of skiing was phenomenal.

Britt posing near her astrological sign.

We still ran into a few rocks and logs skiing through the trees, but the deep snow gave us face shot after face shot. Awesome!

We were also there for St. Patrick's Day. We got green beers to go with our green shirts!

Britt, Nick, Me, and Cory

A couple of Cory's friends from high school also joined us. Cory taught his buddy Chunk to play craps one night and they both won over $500. I guess there's something to be said for beginner's luck. Unfortunately for me, I was asleep. But I was rewarded with the aforementioned snow, so I can't complain.

Me, Chunk, Cory, Myra, and Jason

We also ran into this bachelor who was celebrating his upcoming nuptials. He was smitten with my tiny hat, so we made a trade...

I did love my tiny hat, but I gifted it to this guy - I'm so nice!

And we watched lots of basketball too...

Living Social in Whistler

I know everyone who reads this regularly is probably tired of reading about skiing. Well, lucky for you, ski season is almost over! Unlucky for you, I ski a lot and my posts are usually a few weeks behind.

So....here we are in Whistler! This trip was unique because we signed up for a Living Social Adventure.  Cory got it for me for my birthday. The trip included a bus ride up to Whistler, two nights lodging in the village, a 2-day lift ticket, some food and drink coupons, and breakfast both mornings. Not too bad.

We lucked out on the snow, which was fantastic, met a few nice people (but didn't really have to talk to too many), and generally had a great time. We did end the trip by braving a monster wind-and-snow-storm at the top of Harmony chair. I thought my face might fall off and the wind literally blew Cory over twice once we stated skiing down - in a total white-out. It was intense, but it's what brought all the snow!

Here are few photos for your viewing pleasure:

7th Heaven at Blackcomb (with some randoms)

Look how much fun we're having

Yes, that's a Corona bottle holder so I can drink and be hands-free!

As you can see, I saved the best picture for last. Congratulations on reading another post about skiing :)

Beaver Creek, CO

Cory and I went out to Beaver Creek, CO the first weekend in March. There's been hardly any snow in Colorado this year, as I mentioned back in January, but we lucked out. It dumped the week before we arrived, so we were met with new, soft snow and pockets of powder. Although the temperatures quickly jumped back up to about 45 degrees, I wasn't complaining. My Seattle body needed to be in the sun for a few days.

Nothing says, "I'm getting to ski without a jacket" like a Corona on the mountain!

Beaver Creek's motto is "Not exactly roughing it", which we took to heart. We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's cabin near the ski area. We called the shuttle every morning to pick us up at our front door and drop us off at the chair lifts. We enjoyed the free chocolate chip cookies in the village and hot chocolate at the top of the first chair (ok, we missed the hot chocolate this year, but we've had it before). We hot tubbed and relaxed for almost 4 days. It was nice.

My friends from college, Liz Swary and Beaker (aka Elissa), came out for the weekend to partake in the pampering.

Liz Swary on skis for the first time in four years

We discovered that Beaker has a slightly strange affinity for Albert Einstein upon encountering this statue in Vail Village.

The smart men DO get the ladies

Cory's cousin and his family were able to join us as well. They stayed through Monday and had a great time. Their 14-year-old boy, Cody, couldn't make it because he was training to compete in the Junior Olympics in Steamboat, which he did the following weekend.

The whole crew: Heather, Steve, Beaker, me, Olivia, Liz Swary, and Cory

I think Olivia (our flower girl) liked not having her big brother around because she got to be the center of attention. She skis really well and kept up on the mountain all day Saturday. Sunday she was up for a day of firsts: her first time ice skating and her first time snowshoeing.

We're excited to give it a try

After a little help from the rink attendant, we got Olivia off the railing and skating on her own

Olivia had no trouble snowshoeing. She trekked up the hill with me and Cory like a champ while her parents took a nap back at the cabin. She's definitely got more energy than the adults!

Olivia modeling her snowshoes

Cory and I can't wait to get back to Beaver Creek sometime soon! It's the ideal long-weekend vacation and we were excited to share it with family and friends.

Olivia's a pretty good photographer, no?