Psst...

Get in close and I'll tell you some exciting (at least to me) news.  No, closer.  Come on, I probably won't bite.  Probably.  That's better!  The news...Antoine and I are going to Vancouver over Thanksgiving!

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We've been talking about it for months and months, I even renewed my passport in anticipation (though, truthfully, not having a valid password was driving me up the wall anyway).  But last week we booked our flight!  Part of me thinks that this trip is a highly frivolous thing to do when we're planning and saving up for a wedding, but that part is quickly smothered by the extremely excited, larger part of me that's doing its happy dance. 

Now, you might remember my post about how Phoenix is evil and I want it to die?  Well, yeah, my feelings haven't changed.  Scratch that!  They have, I hate it more now (if that's possible)!   The three hour difference continues to be a pain in our asses.  And the fact that Phoenix seems to be anti-AT&T is nerve-wracking.  When we try to face-time, my screen freezes with Antoine in mid-sentence and the speakers make loud, high-pitched screeching noises.  When we text, it sometimes takes him hours to receive my messages.  And when he calls me, the calls don't go through half the time.  Yeah, Phoenix can go do inappropriate things to itself and die for all I care.

But...(in an attempt to retain even the slightest amount of positivity) there are positives to this god-awful project.  Namely, skymiles, hotel rewards and credit card points.  And this summer, the hotel Antoine stays at is running some promotions that will leave us with a couple extra nights stays.  While he's been saving up most of his hotel rewards nights for our mega-honeymoon (as well as skymiles), we figured why not splurge a bit and use up these promotional stays for a pre-wedding-cation.  And since Antoine's been racking up skymiles flying to that horrible city every week, we've got plenty of miles to use for our Vancouver flight.  So, in November when everyone else is eating turkey and being subjected to forced family time, we'll be relaxing and exploring Vancouver, BC!  Oh, and did I mention we'll be staying in this place...

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And this place...

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Yeah, to say I'm excited would be a gigantic understatement!  So, now's the point in the story where I ask you fine folks who have been to Vancouver for suggestions on what to do/check out while we're there.  So far on our list:

• Bloedel Conservatory
• Vancouver Aquarium
• Public Market (and perhaps a tour)
• Chinatown
• Chinese Garden (depending on the weather)
• Diners, Drive-ins, and Dive spots around the city

Is there anything we're missing?  Any must-sees?  Keep in mind that the weather will probably be rainy and cold, so that does limit what we can do.  But still, any suggestions would be much appreciated!

So that's the scoop.  Oh, don't mind me, I'm just standing here in the corner doing my happy dance.  I don't think I've been this excited for Thanksgiving in a very long time.  I've heard flying on/around Thanksgiving can be a nightmare, but I gotta say spending the holiday in a city that doesn't celebrate it will probably be wonderful!  Apparently I've become quite the cynical lady in my late twenties.  But I'm okay with that.  Anyway, hope you have a good rest of the week!

Weekend in Instagram: Columbus edition

This past weekend I drove up to Columbus to hangout with my best friend, Amanda.  We were both overdue for some girl-time together, and Antoine was nice enough to offer up some hotel reward so we had a free place to stay.  The weekend was filled with good stuff like tasty food, shopping and wine drinking, and here's the proof:

FYI: I think the Heidi braid is going to become my second best friend during the summer-time!

Saturday night we picked up some pizza from Mellow Mushroom.  It was the first time trying it, for both of us.  Pictured is the Red Skin Potato Pie, which was pretty awesome!

Afterward dinner we did classy things like put on our pajamas and filled up the bathroom sink with ice, to chill our wine.

We continued to be classy, each drinking a bottle of wine out of plastic cups while watching Big Bang Theory and That 70s Show.

After I picked up Cheese from his boarding place and took him back home and gave him a bath, I curled up on the couch and tried out my new nail polish I had picked up on Saturday.

Overall, it was a nice, relaxing weekend filled with laughing and perhaps a bit too much wine.  It makes me wish, desperately, that Amanda still lived in Cincinnati, so we could hangout more often.  [Insert sad pathetic guilt trip here].  Anyway, stayed tuned tomorrow for a peek into Columbus' Franklin Park Conservatory!

Weekend (in Cleveland) in Instagram

 My HLP's cat, Lucy...who acts more like an energetic dog than a cat!

 Saturday night in with my HLP, wine and Dr. Quinn.  We're almost to the end of season 5.  A couple more episodes and we'll be on the last season!  It's only taken us like 4 or 5 years!

 Make that wine, DQ and pizza!  Good times!

 Sunday morning sunrise from my HLP's apartment.

 Oh Cracker Barrel, I don't really like your food, but when I'm driving solo and I need to pee...you're the perfect place!  Clean, friendly and devoid of creepy truckers!

 Once I got back to Cincinnati I picked up the Cheese-man from Country Lane (where we board him).  Dude was SMELLY!  So he got a bath as soon as we got home!  

 Since Guillermo was by himself all weekend, I kind of expected to come home and find ornaments all over the house or the tree down on the floor!  Nope.  It was just as I left it!  What a good cat!

 Post-bath Cheese going bananas on his bone!

Gui stayed right by my side as soon as I got home...he even wanted to share my pillow when I finally went to bed.  He's kind of my stalker!

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

 I've made it clear that when it comes to gelato Dojo has my heart.  I've got the warm n' fuzzies for that place super bad.  Not only because they made me a gelato believer (every gelato I had had prior did not impress), but they crank out deliciously creative concoctions with some major local flair. Plus, it's one of those places that reminds me of dating Antoine.  I remember the first time he brought me a pint of Dojo gelato, it was such a sweet moment...we had just started dating, we were getting pretty serious and he was always surprising me with things like that.

Anyway, where was I!?  As far as gelato goes, Dojo is it for me.  But when it comes to ice cream I tend not to pick favorites.  All ice cream is different to me, each has it's own texture, taste and special place in my belly.  I cannot compare soft serve from Hold the Nuts to Dairy Queen (nostalgia central), Young's Dairy to Graeter's.  They're all so different and wonderful in their own way.  So, naturally, I am never opposed to trying out a new ice cream place when someone recommends one.  [Seriously, I think I need an ice cream related tattoo...I've got a major addiction going on here!]  So, when several people recommended Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams to Antoine and I, we just had to check it out for ourselves.  Unfortunately, we don't often find ourselves in Columbus, where Jeni's is headquartered.  And while Jeni's is sold in several local stores...I'd much rather get the whole experience, especially for the first time around.  But leave it to Antoine to come up with a genius idea...he hunted down and found a Jeni's shop on the way back home from our recent trip to Cleveland and it only meant a very small detour off of 71.  My sis was with us, and seeing as how this love of ice cream runs in the family, she was happy with the little detour.

 I was blown away by the selection.  There were three freezer cases and each had about 8 unique and interesting flavors in it!  It was a tad overwhelming...and that's coming from me, someone who's generally pretty good about making quick decisions.  I felt bad for my poor sister, she's not so good at the decision making!

 One of the really awesome parts about Jeni's is they're all about you trying as many flavors as you like!  And I think we probably tried about half of them!  The only thing I didn't like about the sampling was that they used little plastic spoons, instead of little metal, reusable spoons like Dojo does.  It makes me, as a consumer, feel a little bit better about trying as many flavors as I want.

 For me, the second I tried the Brown Butter Almond Brittle I knew exactly what I wanted!  It was creamy and buttery and nutty.  Awesome.  For my second flavor I got the Black Coffee which was rich and bold but not too overwhelmning.

 Antoine went for the Salty Caramel (good, but I like Dojo's Sea Salted Caramel better) and the Brown Butter Almond Brittle.

My adorable sis went ordered (from top to bottom): Gravel Road, Whiskey & Pecans, and Brambleberry Crisp (her fav of the three).

Then after we finished out delicious ice cream, they even let us try a couple more flavors, now that the line had disappeared.  The Riesling Poached Pear sorbet was particularly good, as was the Smoked Tea & Plum Pudding. 

As far as fancy, unique ice cream flavors go, Jeni's is pretty awesome.  I like the variety, although not all of them hit it out of the park for me.  For instance, the Frankencense & Almond Cake tasted like an air freshener to me, and the Cumin & Honey Butterscotch was a little too much like putting a teaspoon of Cumin in my mouth.  But the rest of the flavors that we tried were fantastic, and it'd highly recommend trying Jeni's out sometime, if you haven't already.  It's certainly fun tasting all those flavors, and you might be surprised by which blow your mind and which don't!

West Side Market

Saturday morning, after my 5am wake up, medication/fluids/food, and a short nap, Antoine and I stopped by one of my family's favorite bakeries, Fragapane Bakeries (I've been going there since I was little and the Fragapanes are longtime family friends) to load up on an assort of pastries.  With breakfast in tow we made our way to my grandparents house in Elyria where we met up with my parents, Michelle and Christian.  We chatted and ate delicious pasteries, then the "kids" made our way to Cleveland to meet up with one of my cousins, Christa.  Christa, aka Uno Lady, is a talented one woman band and an awesome cousin.

For some time now, I've wanted to check out West Side Market.  I grew up about an hour away from Cleveland, but beyond going to the Natural History Museum, the Symphony, and Indians games I didn't get to experience the city too much while I was growing up.  And West Side Market was one of those places I missed out on.  Well, lucky for us, Christa lives literally a block from WSM!  So we drove up and she showed us all around.  Unfortunately, it was WSM on a Saturday after noon...so it was jammed!  But I'm cool with that...at least you get the whole experience.  Plus, I'm used to Findlay Market on Saturdays when everyone and their mother are there.

 West Side Market resides in an awesome little area called Ohio City.  It seemed very eclectic and cool, and it's literally like a minute from downtown...cross a bridge and you're there!

 Behold West Side Market.  It was an extremely beautiful day for market going, even though almost all of the vendors are indoors!

 Inside: the ceiling is this beautiful mosaic of brick.  I loved it!

 I gotta say, the variety and selection was a tad bit overwhelming.  Luckily we had Christa there to let us in on which were the best vendors for certain items.

 My favorite part was the little balcony just over the entrance.  It's very narrow, but there's seating up there so you can grab lunch, take a seat and people watch from above.

 View from the balcony.

There were so many amazing looking lunch options within the market.  Sadly (but really not so sadly...more on that tomorrow) we already had plans for lunch!  But next time I'd love to check some of those places out!

I was pretty impressed, not only by the size of the market and the building itself, but by the variety of vendors.  I definitely want to go back and spend a couple hours there...when it's a little bit quieter.

Chicago Botanic Garden

Well, I don't know about you but I had a very busy yet productive weekend!  Antoine and I got some major house stuff done, which was awesome.  However, the house is a wreck because of said productivity (things in rooms they shouldn't be in), but hopefully this coming weekend we can get everything situated.

Anyway, it's time for another Chicago recap.  And lucky for you, this happens to be the last one.

One of the last things Antoine and I did while I was visiting him in Chicago (besides going swimming in the hotel's pool...YES!) was a trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  I had been once before and loved it, but this was Antoine's first time.  One of the awesome things about the gardens is they are free, but one of the not so awesome things is that parking is $20 per car.  But, lucky for us, our hotel offered free shuttle rides to and from the gardens (perk of staying just down the street).  Not only did we save $20, but we beat a ton of traffic heading into the gardens, because we bypassed all those waiting to park.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is probably my favorite of all the botanic gardens I've been to (except maybe Kew Gardens in London).  It's an extremely large property with a wide variety of different types of gardens and plants, including many areas with water gardens (more than I've seen at other places I've been).  It's a really nice place to spend the day when the weather is mild and sunny.

 

 

 They even have a fruit and veggie garden that's on it's own little island.

Who knew okra was so pretty!?

 From the English Rose Garden, naturally.

The perfect end to a wonderful trip.  I cannot wait until my next trip to Chicago (maybe later this year?)...I absolutely love that city!