It’s a Cottage, not a Cabin

Last I left you, we were headed out to the cottage. Lindsey mentioned that we (the Americans) kept calling it a cabin but it felt very cabin-y to me because I could see myself 1) having a great time there and 2) getting murdered there.

If someone was chasing me, I would never make it down the dark, bumpy, dirt road to leave this cottage. Long, breathless run to safety or quick death by chainsaw? I think we all know the right choice here.

We got to the cottage pretty late Friday night, so we unpacked Evan’s truck, hung out for about an hour, and pretty much called it a night.

Lindsey and Evan rented a pontoon boat for the weekend, which I was super excited about.

I love a good, leisurely boat ride to nowhere. We all got up early(ish), had a delightful breakfast at a nearby diner, and got ready for our day of pontooning. Everyone was at max leisure on the boat.

After we got back to the dock, naps were had.

And sunsets were watched.

Much of the same leisuring was done the next day. That cottage is so dang relaxing, I see why Lindsey and Evan want to spend all their time there. I will be inserting myself into future cottage weekends from now on.

We left the cottage for the condo late Sunday after a bonfire and multiple s’mores. Cely had a super early flight home and hubs and I left around noon. I’m always sad to leave because I always have so much fun when I visit. I want to move in with Lindsey and Evan and have them entertain me forever. I think Pepper was sad to see us go too.

Thanks to Lindsey and Evan for being awesome hosts. Ya’ll are welcome in Orlando any time! (You too, Cely!)

Toronto Island and Other Toronto-y Stuff

Originally I was going to write a post about the last several stops of my work travel, but after a weekend in Toronto, my trips to Alamagordo and Clovis, New Mexico don’t seem as exciting. I did find a pretty sweet salad wagon (a salad bar in a movable, covered wagon) in Clovis, but that was as exciting as it got – unless your into hearing about my fiber consumption. So, Toronto it is.

Hubs and I arrived in Toronto around 4:00 pm to visit our friends Lindsey and Evan. Several months ago, I heard Cely was visiting Lindsey on Labor Day weekend, so I got in on that action and visited three friends for the price of one! Evan picked hubs and I up from the airport while Cely and Lindsey sat and waited for us patiently in silence having no fun whatsoever.

When we arrived at Lindsey and Evan’s condo, we were kindly greeted by her fridge.

We were all pretty hungry,  so dinner was our first line of business. We walked to a place where I had delicious cabbage rolls and perogies. I even took a picture of my food for a potential blog post but I posted it on my Instagram story and forgot to save it. I prefer Snapchat but Lindsey informed me that Snapchat is for old people and I should stop using it immediately. So Cely and Lindsey were teaching me the Instagram ways all weekend. Long story short, you can’t see my cabbage rolls.

After dinner, we went to The Lockhart – a Harry Potter themed bar.

I ordered a “Better Beer” – I guess it’s better (and not butter) because it has tequila in it. But not enough if you ask me. It was still delicious and I’ll take a roasted marshmallow any day of the week.

Lindsey and Cely got a pitcher of Better Beer, as one should. (Don’t go to the bathroom first thing if you’re ever with them at a bar, they order fast!)

Several drinks were enjoyed (responsibly) and the rest of the night consisted of us going to several other bars that were all awkward in their own way. Bad taxidermy? Sure! Guys in stylish Home Depot jackets? You betcha!  The night ended super late – around 4:00am – but a bit earlier for Cely as she has this ninja way of disappearing quickly into bed before anyone else knows what happened.

The next day, we made our way over to Toronto Island.

Hubs representing himself.

Toronto Island is BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL. We all ate meat and cheese at a picnic table with the best view of the city. It did not disappoint.

We walked around the island to check out all the sites and enjoy the perfect weather. I also finally got to try a Beaver Tail, one of the two foods that eluded me on my last trip to Toronto.

A Beaver Tail is basically an Elephant Ear (or a funnel cake – whatever you like to call it) with toppings. Hubs got hazelnut and I got vanilla icing with Oreo crumbles.

Delicious. But if I had to choose, I’d take a butter tart any day over a Beaver Tail. It’s these things I go to Toronto to discover about myself.

After the Beaver Tails, we went on the sky ride (for lack of a better name). Can you spy Lindsey and Cely behind us?

The ride took us over most of the island including the petting zoo where I found this lovely, leisuring llama.

Delightful views.

And these two jokers on the way back.

After our day at Toronto Island, we went back to Lindsey’s condo to meet up with Evan (who had to work that day) and head to the cottage. The cottage was a good time. More on that later!

Things I'm Looking Forward To

I haven’t had any special plans for the second half of 2012. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just different. Usually I have a vacation of some sort planned or something out of the ordinary to look forward to. My schedule has been fairly empty for awhile until just recently. All sorts of things have popped up that I didn’t expect, and I’m kinda excited about them.

1. In two weeks, I’m heading to DC for the first time to visit this girl.

If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know Michelle and I met her in January at the Miami ING Half Marathon. She was a stranger. We asked her to stay in our hotel room anyway. Sparks flew. We knew we were meant to be. That kinda thing. So, I’m heading up to visit her for the weekend because she said Orlando sucks and she couldn’t possibly be caught dead visiting here.

2.  At the beginning of August, I have tickets to see one of my future husbands.

Oh hey now.

Yep. I have Bush tickets. Again. The best part is my friend Tania, who I haven’t seen in a few years, is joining me. How we live 2 hours away from one another and haven’t seen each other in that long is beyond me. But it’s been so long that the last time we saw each other, my hair looked like this.

This will be the fourth time we’ve seen Bush together. We’re groupies like that.

I’ve known Tania since I was 18. We met at work – a video store located in a fairly ghetto area so everyday was quite entertaining. There were even employees at our sister stores that refused to work at ours for their “safety.” See? We’re hard core too. She hated me at first but then learned how wicked awesome I am and here we are 18 years later. Here’s a picture of us about 15 years ago in our natural habitat, also known as “a bar.”

I look pretty skinny there, so that must have been during my run-six-miles-and-eat-one-noodle-a-day diet.

3. I’m going to Texas! Ok, not as exciting as DC since it’s for work, but I’ll be there for two weeks in August and I’ve never been there before. I’ll be in Killeen, which someone told me sucks, but I refuse to believe it. I think she’s just jealous I won’t be in Corpus Christi. Anyway, Killeen is an hour and a half drive from Austin, so I may get to check out the city over the weekend. All I know is that I want to eat something shaped like  Texas. This is my only goal.

(source)

4. In November, hubs and I are planning to go to New Orleans to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

(source)

I’ve never been to New Orleans but it’s been on my short list of places inside the U.S. that I want to visit. I’m pretty sure I’m going to call it “N’Awlins!” the whole time I’m there. With the exclamation point.

5.  This movie.

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I was ready to hate it. Ben Stiller is on my shit list and Vince Vaughn hasn’t been winning any points with me lately either. But, hot damn, this movie looks funny. I think Ben and Vince are secretly trying to woo me back with their comedic wiles.

6. This movie.

I don’t like Colin Farrell. But even he can’t keep me away from this one. I loved the original and pretty much everything about this movie reminds me of my brother, Tom. When I was younger, he would pretend he was my father to get me into all the Rated R movies (he’s 13 years older than me). And we would see every movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it. Total Recall was the first movie I ever owned (on VHS) and Tom bought it for me along with my first VCR. I swear getting a VCR when I was 13 was like winning at life. Still the best present I’ve ever gotten (for its time). It’s kinda lame that this of all movies would have some kind of sentimental value, but it does. It would be cool if Tom lived closer so we could see it together.

7.  Maze Runner prequel comes out August 14. YESYESYESYESYESYES

Michelle told me about this one the other day and now I’m determined to get through all my other books so I’m ready when it comes out.

8. Golden Oreo ice cream.

This exists. And now I need it.

9. And you know it’s been awhile since I’ve gone on and on about Breaking Bad, so it’s time again. Season premiere July 15th! Sooooo close.

Wait, that doesn’t have Aaron Paul in it.

Ahhh, much better.

Three Things Thursday

**I’m not a big fan of long posts, but I don’t think I can help it with this one.**

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much I love to travel and all the cities that I can’t wait to see one day. Then I started thinking about all the cities I have seen and the ones that mean a lot. So, today’s three things are cities that have had a lot of meaning to the hubs and I.

New York – The Engagement

I wanted to go to NYC. Bad. At work, I was on a project that was going to send me to Brooklyn for two weeks. I was SO excited and even planned for the hubs to meet me there for the weekend so we could explore the city. The work trip fell through (temporarily, but I didn’t know that at the time) and I was incredibly bummed out. I had never been to NY, I didn’t normally travel, and I felt like I had lost my chance.

Because I was so bummed, the hubs booked a weekend for us out of nowhere. I couldn’t believe he actually pulled the trigger and bought plane tickets and booked a hotel because he usually asks me to do all the dirty work (I worked at a hotel for a long time so I’m comfortable with it.)

Little did I know, he bought an engagement ring for me a month beforehand and thought my business trip to NY would be the perfect place to propose.

Long story short, we were on the top of a double-decker bus exploring the city in 20 degree weather and decided to get off and walk instead of wait for our stop because I couldn’t feel my feet. NO exaggeration. The wind was insane.

On top of the bus, and before his PRK surgery. This was the day before the proposal.

We walked through Rockefeller Center so I could get a picture of the Christmas tree and while I was taking a picture, he was trying to get out the ring.

The ring got stuck in his jacket pocket.

That’s his head on the right. Trying to get the ring out.

I was done taking pictures within 2 seconds and was all, “let’s go now.” I was freezing. He pretended he needed to “see something” and started walking AWAY from the hotel. I got pissed. Real pissed. Something to the effect of , “what the f*ck are you doing?” came out of my mouth. Once he got the ring out of his jacket, he turned around, box open and asked me to marry him.

I was shocked. SHOCKED. Sure, we had been dating for 7 years and I always said things like, “someday when we’re married, you will be my man-slave.” but I had no idea it was coming. First words out of my mouth? A very loud OH MY GOD. Then a YES. And then I asked him if I could see the ring back at the hotel because I was too cold to look at it. He agreed and we speed walked the mile back to the hotel.

Las Vegas – The Marriage

I’d like to sum this one up in bullet points to make a long story short.

• I wanted to go to Vegas.

• He wanted to get married in Orlando because of his family.
• We booked a venue, chapel, caterer, and photographer and put down deposits in Orlando.
• Hubs realizes 6 months later that $5000 isn’t the total cost of our wedding but the total cost of HIS half.
• Hubs all of a sudden wants to go to Vegas.

• Paula cancels venue, chapel, caterer, and photographer and books wedding in Vegas.

No, we didn’t get married by Elvis.

Maui – The Honeymoon

This was the first vacation we ever went on. The kind where you’ve never been to the place and you don’t know anyone there. Most amazing vacation I have ever had.

Random overlook.

Black sand beach along Hana Highway.

Lots of wind.

Hiking through a bamboo forest.

Dirt on my calf that Hubs thought looked like air Jordan.

Walking like an Egyptian.

Luaus.

Ridiculously huge flowers.

Surfing.

Bike rides down volcanos. Hubs was thrilled. (Ok, this was the van ride up the volcano.)

White water rafting.

That doesn’t even begin to cover it, but you get the idea. If you’re still reading that is.

Where’s the best place you’ve ever gone on vacation? Where do you want to go on vacation? (I want to go to Anchorage and Vancouver next. But my list is LONG.)