This One is for Mom - Portland

I think everyone has heard of Portland before, at least in passing. The hipster capital of the world where coffee meets donuts and food trucks are abundant.
This place has captured the hearts of many and I would say it has captured mine too. I wish I could say I've traveled here a lot, since I live in Seattle, but within the last 10 years or so, I've only been downtown a couple times.

Being able to successfully plan and travel down to Portland with both my mother and sister, was a good highlight of this year. My mom was entirely excited to go down and see old friends and the sights, taking pictures at every turn.
Just throughout the planning process she couldn't contain her excitement.

We were able to do a couple things I didn't get a chance to do at my last go-around there, but there's still so much left to see.
Here are the things we did as well as some other sights that would be worth seeing if you ever venture there:

We stayed right downtown, near the Pearl District of Portland, which was the perfect location to get around. The hotel I chose was Hotel Lucia, which had a classic feel with modern touches. The hotel itself was nestled right in the heart of this part of the city, with attached restaurants and all. The room was awesome and suited our taste for the weekend just perfect.



The amenities they offered, while we didn't end up using any, were pretty great. Fully stocked mini bar and snack array, in case we needed it. Pillow service, ice cream service from Salt & Straw (I wish they had had my favorite flavor, snickerdoodle), basically anything you needed you could ring them for.
They also had a gym, meeting rooms, dining options, and more.

Our stay was great in the fact that we were in walking distance to the max, the Portland light rail system, that can basically take you wherever you want to go in the city.
We started off our Saturday morning right, with the glorious Voodoo Doughnuts (just blocks away from where we stayed). Who says donuts aren't a staple for breakfast?

We then journeyed our way, via max line, to the Oregon Zoo! It ended up being awesome and very easy to see all of the animals out in their enclosures. The lions were probably the most enticing, since the cubs were in their teenage years and very feisty. So funny to watch them jump on each other and even pounce and hit the window right in front of us! Crazy, but very cool!



I wish that we had gone to the Japanese or Chinese gardens during our trip, but my mom and sister had been to both so we opted out, sadly for me. If you do get a chance though, definitely go, because I've heard they're very beautiful and interesting to walk through.

The Saturday market is also very eclectic and very Portland, so we had to stop and visit as much as we could there. We actually walked around the whole place, checking out every stand and seeing what goods were available. I always talk myself out of buying things, but it was still cool to walk around. We grabbed some awesome food from there as well, lamb gyro for me!

Our night was spent with more exploring and grabbing dinner at a small quaint but fancy little restaurant northwest of us, North 45 Pub. Delicious selection of mussels and add-ons to their mac & cheese. All in all, delicious.
We were going to get drinks up at the roof-top lounge at Departure, but it was very busy. Apparently a sports team was staying at the hotel it was a part of.



Sunday morning, Mother's day, I had made reservations at the hotel restaurant, Imperial, for brunch. Let's just say, that was a great choice on my part. The food was delicious and it started off with a lovely homemade poptart. Perfect!

Portland, while being the hipster city you might know it to be, has so much character and so much to offer. The myriad of dining options and things to do is amazing. The transportation system is incredibly easy to use and makes everything that much simpler to do. Oregon, while not sounding entirely exciting, should be on your next trip list of places to go.

Cheers and safe travels everyone!

Work and Travel - Vacation Time

If traveling were free, we would all be doing it, wouldn't we?
Just goes to show how much planning and money go into just one short trip. While being spontaneous can be a major upside when traveling, being analytical and OCD about budget and welfare can take you back a couple steps.

Through my real work-life journey, I've realized one thing: Travel for me, takes time and money I don't have until I do.
I work a regular 8 to 5 shift at my office job, where I spend my time waiting for the next chance to plan a big trip or a couple small ones for the year based on my vacation time I'm accrued.

This is not the ultimate means for how I want it to be. Honestly, I wish I could just drop everything and head to Morocco or New Zealand to take some time away, but sadly, my world and the worlds of so many others, doesn't work like that.

I don't make a living based on the writing I do, nor do I have an opportunity to get a job that is remote or location independent any time soon. Therefore, I have to work, 8-5, to get that money and accrue that time.

                                 

It does give you something to look forward to planning every year, but hell, that's not how I want my life to be.
I want to be traipsing around the world, with a nice backpack full of my stuff and ready to go to the next destination on my well thought out map.
Travel, being it a passion of mine, has to take a back seat to the real life struggle of being in my 20's and not having any money. Being in debt for the community college AA degree I got 4 years ago and having to pay bills just adds on to the stress of life.

                                  

None of this means I never stop planning. I constantly have a list of possible itineraries on the back burner. Lists of Airbnb rentals to look at and faun over, looking at flights to get budget ideas, and constant additions to my bucket list that I hope I will get to fulfill someday.

Each step I take in the mundane life I have at the moment, is set to bring me closer to the dreams I have before me, the ones I'm constantly aware of in the back of my mind, pulling me towards them with their ever present vision.

                                  

Adventure is something I strive to be apart of in whatever way I can. So short day trips here and there will suffice for now and not break the bank for the bigger trip around the world I'm gearing up for in my life.
It'll happen. I'm not entirely worried. I would just rather it be sooner than later is all!

                                             

Cheers and safe travels everyone! Hope to see you out there one day :)

The Wizarding World and More

Universal Studios was a last minute plan for us, but it was more than worth it to go.
We happen to be friends with an awesome lady who's boyfriend got us park hopper passes for FREE.
What? Yes free. I couldn't believe it either, but that was majorly appreciated.

The most important thing to us while we were there was walking through and seeing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, both places. Diagon Alley was darker, with all of the interesting shops.
We had a lot of fun going through Gringots and the ride was very fun!

Of course, butter beer was a must here and it was amazingly delicious! It was rainy and cold the day we went, but I still had the frozen kind, which I would definitely recommend. Supposedly better than the regular.  We then hopped on the train to the other park!



Hogsmeade Village was lovely as well. This is where we ate lunch at The Three Broomsticks and went on couple rides they had there. The dueling dragons ride was the best and craziest, I was dizzy when I got off of it, in a good way!

The Hogwarts ride was fun as well, but I left feeling a little sick (motion sickness sneaks up sometimes) because the ride was moving a lot and was basically all projection screen scenes. So beware!

This was my favorite part of the day and I wish we had just stayed there the whole time (although the rest was fun too)

We went on the MIB alien ride, which was another highlight! I would have won too, if I hadn't been with people who go there all the time (3rd place out of 5 isn't too bad either).

We went through Jurassic Park to the activity center.
We were all very tired already by this point, but we also went through the SuperHero area to ride on the Dr. Doom ride, which was as bad as I was expecting it to be.



We waited in line for a long time to go on the Rip Ride Rockit (the music coaster) which didn't end up working for us. And trust me when I say this, not having music playing on that ride makes it entirely more scary than it should be. I wouldn't go on that again.

We were just about to go, but we really wanted to go on the Mummy ride, which was a great way to end the day. Such a fun ride!

By the end of the day, it was getting darker and rainier and we were so tired from the day before, we were just done.
All in all though, definitely go!
It would be better on a nicer day, but I'm glad we got to have that experience.

Cheers and safe travels everyone!

Germany, Italy, Switzerland - My Time Away

It's easy enough to say that "I had a great trip" and when people ask that's usually my response. They really don't know the half of it though. Whenever I seem to get to Europe I feel like I'm in a different place, a different world altogether. Europe is where my heart is and I'm constantly looking for ways to go back.

This trip I went with a tour group called EF College Break, which when I researched seemed harmless enough. All the other people going along were around my age and the trip itinerary fit where I was wanting to go. Signing up was easy, waiting the year to go was the hard part.
Yes, I signed up a year in advance, mostly so that I would have time to pay off the trip (because they offer that kind of thing for you, to pay monthly or all at once) which was a perfect amount of time for me to afford the payments and save more for the trip as well.

I was going alone, hoping to meet people I could connect and make friends with, but if not, I was good with that too. I was just looking forward to getting away from my day to day, having a break.

To recap my trip quickly (I'll post more about my experiences in each place in other posts), the trip was just what I needed.
We arrived in Germany, spent a day or so getting accustomed to the time change, exploring and eating our way through Munich.
Traveling by bus didn't seem very exciting at first, but air-conditioning and comfy seats weren't so bad. Venice was a dream for everyone and we ate more gelato than we thought we could in a day.
Switzerland was my favorite (more on that later) and we had a great time enjoying the fresh air and lovely scenery, cows included!
Back to Germany, where Frankfurt helped end our trip with a good bit of fun, meaning dancing at a local club and sharing our last dinner all together at a great local place.

The flights, despite being long and hard to sleep on, we're so bad especially when the airline was very courteous and gave us all we could hope for in food and drinks along the way (Delta airlines, by the way).

The trip had some shortcomings, lack of communication and organization in the beginning, but all in all, it got straightened out pretty quickly and we had a great time. Our tour director, while stressed at first, was funny and was glad to share with us what he knew of the different places we were going.

Making new friends and memories along a 10 day trip through parts of Europe, even through the rain, is always great in my book.
I would recommend this to anyone, especially since there are so many trips to choose from.

I will have more detailed posts soon about the different places I went, but for now that is all!

Cheers and safe travels!

Packing Only a Carry-On

Now, I will start off admitting that I have a problem with packing. It is supremely harder and harder every time I try to whittle down what it is I want to bring with me.
I challenged myself with my 10 day trip to Europe to only pack a carry-on bag (+ a backpack) with stuff I would need and it really was that, a challenge.

Packing what you want and what you need are both very different things.
Starting off, I threw everything I wanted to bring with me onto my bed... and yes, it was a mess.
Rolling up and squishing everything in my packing cubes was done, but it seemed like too much to me and a bit too heavy for a carry-on, so I thought and drew out things I figured I didn't actually need.

Here's a rough guess at what my packing list consisted of:

3-4 pairs of shorts
2 skirts (one of which was a maxi)
1 pair of jeans (which I will wear on the plane)
1 pair of casual cotton pants
2 dresses
2 rompers
6-8 shirts (tank tops and t-shirts)
4 cami tops
2 bralettes and 1 bra
10 pairs of underwear
1 cardigan
2 jackets (one my regular jacket and a windbreaker)
1 Bikini
4 pairs of socks

1 pair of athletic shoes (will wear on plane)
1 pair of comfy flats (Toms)
A pair of sandals

Toiletries (small shampoo, conditioner, makeup, cleansing wipes, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, lotion, etc)
Camera + extra batteries and charger/adapter + extra SDHC cards
Phone + charger
Passport and other important items (debit card, ID, money)
Purse
Snacks
Disposable water bottle
Gum

This of course will be edited and redone multiple times after this, but this is the roughest thought of what I wanted to pack.

I can't begin to say how difficult it truly is when you have a tough time like I do to not pack a lot, but in the end, it's totally worth it. You can always buy things you need when you get to your destination and it's always a lot nicer to not have to lug so much stuff around.

The bag I'm using is a Samsonite Savor Wheeled Tote bag that you can find here.
My pack is a High Sierra 14L Hydration pack (that I took the water pack out of) that you can get here.
My packing cubes are from Ebags and they work awesome! You can get them on amazon in different sizes (here), I just got the medium ones.

I leave on Saturday and thought I would post this early. I'll try to post pictures on my Twitter account (here) while I'm gone!
Or my instagram: suz1177

Cheers and safe travels!

Vancouver B.C. 2015

Canada is a beautiful country despite only seeing a small fraction of what it truly is.
Vancouver though, was still a great sight to see and just to be.

Planning a trip is easy. Actually going and doing this, well that's another story.
It's hard to know exactly how they're going to go before you leave, but all in all it was a pretty good trip.

Crossing the border the first afternoon was exciting for me since I'd never ventured that far North before. The border patrol lady who asked us questions wasn't rude and we passed on with ease.
The tricky part was after Surrey and getting through the horrible traffic that ensued after that (for whatever reason, it was playoffs weekend for the Canucks and we did not know this).
After sitting in traffic for an extra hour or so, we trekked on!
Driving through Vancouver and it's many parts was nice on first arrival. Obviously we were just glad to be there (late at this point) and we were ready to be out of the car for a bit.

Arriving at our apartment we had to walk down a couple blocks to a KeyCafe to pick up our keys, which was easy enough.
Booking our apartment through Airbnb was an easy task and everything seemed ok, till we realized we didn't understand the apartment ways in which to enter.
A nice French Canadian man came by and helped us though and we made it to our nice 12th floor apartment.

The city was gorgeous up there and we were satisfied with what we had accomplished so far during this trip. Just getting there was a feat in itself at this point.
That night we had our Lord Huron concert to go to at the Vogue Theatre, which we drove down to downtown and found parking with no problems.
By the time we got back to the apartment we rounded up some snacks and we were done, tired.

The next morning, after stopping off at a Tim Hortons for some smoothies and donuts (we had to) we walked to the Vancouver Public Library where we rode up all seven stories of escalators, took some pictures and read some interesting Earth books (mine was about African animals).

From here we drove back through the city and ventured our way out the the Vancouver Aquarium where we had a great time! Walking around and seeing all of the sea creatures, watching the Belugas swimming and giving us a show and all of the other mammals and fish they had there was awesome. A great time was had by all, you could tell by the children crying and the parents laughing after being soaked by a Beluga splash. Too funny.

The Jellyfish were probably one of my favorite to see at the aquarium. With the various species they had in different exhibits, it was cool to see the differences and also the similarities between all of them.

What a great experience to see the colors and the movement.
At one point I thought to myself, it makes you want to touch them (obviously, do not do this).
Just the way they look in the water looks so serene and calm. Their bodies of mostly water (90% actually) looking ethereal and soft.

The otters were another sight to see.
Their exhibit was outside and free for had great views into the enclosure to watch them swim around, float and knock into each other.

This little guy, as he passed his buddy on the way through, pushed him on the head and just kept on going.

They are interesting mammals with their dense, waterproof fur. What a cool thing to see!



The belugas were probably our favorite overall, mostly for the sheer surprise factor they brought to the table at the 2pm show.

It's funny how they had warned us not to sit so close, but in the end that didn't matter at all. Yes, even we got wet and splashed enough during the opening.

The belugas are funny and oh so smart creatures. Their trainers did a great job keeping up with them and showing us what they could do.
Waves, high fives, the use of water, and their sounds. What a sight!

Our afternoon at the aquarium was well spent and as we got in our car to head out, we were glad with the day.
That was until we went the wrong, crossed over the bridge to the North and found ourselves back tracking into more traffic (thankfully for not too long).
We did however get to drive through Stanley Park which is gorgeous, if only we had had more time to be there.
After getting back we decided food was in order and grabbed a bite at the local pub just walking distance from our apartment.
We ordered some beer and cider and a great order of poutine with our main bangers and mash.
The day could not get any better right?

As we winded down, took a nap and just rested, we also slowly got ready for our fancy dinner date up at the Cloud 9 restaurant downtown.
We parked right underneath the building in their parking garage which was perfect (no ones wants to walk in heels for too long) and found our way up to the 42 floor.
The view is 360 degrees and throughout the dinner we were able to see all of Vancouver, it is a revolving restaurant!
The dinner was amazing, salmon and vegetables with mashed potatoes. Yum!
Great date. Great food. Great views.

The next morning, our last day in the city, we decided we had a try out a recommendation one of our friends from work had given us.
Cafe Medina near Granville was highly spoken about and when we got there, we could understand that, since our wait was an hour long to eat brunch.
We walked around town to wait it out, visiting into some shops, getting candy and looking at clothes until we had to go back.
When it was our time to eat (we were pretty hungry at this point in time) we were so glad that we had waited. The food...was amazing! I'm not gonna lie, I would eat here every day if I could, so delicious.
Their little waffles allow could have kept us coming back.
And apparently the flavor of sauce to get (which is a must!) is the raspberry caramel. Just do it, you will thank me.

The main dish for me was called Les Boulettes, which was Moroccan lamb meatballs in a tomato and red pepper stew with poached eggs, raita, and focaccia bread on the side (Forgive me for the blurry picture but oh my gosh, had to capture it somehow).

This is some of the best food I've had on a Sunday afternoon and the wait was worth every single minute. It was also a great way to end our trip to Vancouver.
Driving home we could only imagine going back and what else we would do next time. Maybe take things a little bit slower, but our experience so far has been a great one.

Definitely recommended to anyone looking for a trip over the border.

Safe travels!

Planning a Weekend Away

Hey everyone!

For my first post I thought I would start with one of my trips that's coming up soon and go from there to past adventures and continuing with the big one coming up.

I planned a trip to Vancouver B.C. a couple months ago, because I was excited for a break from my work life. It seemed fitting seeing as it's pretty similar to the Seattle area, just for one, a different country and two, I've never been there!

It's funny because I've been across the Atlantic and I've also been to Mexico, but not across the border that's the closest to us. So therefore, obviously I'm ready to go and say I've been to Canada finally.

I thought I would go ahead and share my steps to planning this short weekend trip, because while we'll only be there for a couple days, we're trying to pack as much in that we like and want to do as possible.

Steps for planning a weekend trip:

First step was of course choosing the desired destination for where we wanted to go. Driving a few hours to somewhere you've never been can be exciting and sometimes all you need to relax and get away from where you always seem to be.
We chose Vancouver because of the proximity to us, the variety of options we can do there, and for me, the fact that I'd never been.
In the future a weekend trip for us might be to Portland or even Northern California for a beach stay, just other options to keep in mind.

The second step, although step 2 and 3 could probably be swapped around if you wanted, is deciding what you want to do while you're there.
Initially we were excited to go to the Vancouver Aquarium because they have Beluga whales and other exhibits we'd like to look at, but digging deeper and doing more exploring online, I found some other things we might enjoy, these are just a couple that we might end up going to:

Vancouver Public Library
VanDusen Botanical Garden
Capilano Suspension Bridge
Shopping downtown

Other people also suggested we go to Grouse Mountain and around Stanley Park, as well as, to see the Sea Wall.
These are just some of the options we had and after doing some even further investigation, I found a band we both like was playing up there, so we will be going to a concert our first night (to see Lord Huron at the Vogue Theater).
Apart from that, there are so many restaurants and shops in the area, for that we'll probably wing it and see what we find, although we did make reservations at Cloud 9 for a fancy night out (this is the revolving restaurant up there, which seems like it could make for a great view and pictures).

Third step would be to plan out where you're going to stay. Now like I said, I probably did these two steps simultaneously and therefore it doesn't really matter which you do first, just as long as you do it in good time.
For this step, we had agreed upon looking through Airbnb to see what could be available for us at a good price. Initially, being the cheap person I am, I wanted to find something well below our budget so that we could spend more while we're up there and on the trip itself, but we found a great apartment to rent for the weekend up there at a reasonable price (comparable to a hotel) but we could have access to a kitchen if we want it was just a homier feel with amazing views of the city.
Personally I would recommend Airbnb (and this is my first time using it) just because of the amount of options you have at the location you're looking to visit and price ranges vary depending upon the place as well.
I also chose to get in contact with the renter of the apartment early and make sure we had a clear spot for our weekend time away. 2 months in advance might seem too soon, but you'd be surprised how quickly things book up the closer you get and then your options are more limited.
The exchange and messaging was great and it was an easy process to use to book the whole place.
I reached back out to her a week ago and made sure of the plans and what we would do when we got there (how to get keys, where to park, etc.)
She also had a lot of great recommendations for restaurants and things to do as well. Asking locals is a great way to get the inside scoop on where to go.

The final step of course, is packing and in general making sure that you're ready to go.
Now we don't leave till Friday but I'm already anxious and already planning what to pack in advance.
Mostly it will be casual attire for walking around, but that fancy night out begs for something a little more, well, fancy.

Here will be my packing list for the weekend:

2-3 t-shirts all various is style
1 long sleeve shirt since it might be cool
1-2 pairs of jeans/any kinds of pants
Socks
Underwear
Fancy dress for dinner out
A nice jacket plus a regular casual jacket
Boots
Fancy heels
Flats
Deodorant, shampoo/conditioner (not a lot), make-up and other toiletries (face wipes, face cream, comb, hair brush, etc)

*Also since there is a pool in the building, maybe a swim suit just in case.

Other miscellaneous things would be my camera, phone and chargers for both, passport (important!), and snacks/water for the ride up.

We are driving up to Vancouver even though we do have a train that goes up there as well, it'll be nice to be able to blast music and sing during the short road trip.

All in all, it should make for a good trip and I'll take as many pictures and notes as I can to review things when I get back.

Thanks for reading!