Travel Kansas City

Well I survived my first "vacation" away from my baby...yes it took me 10 months to muster up the courage to leave her. It's not like my mom didn't raise 3 kids of her own and manage to keep us all alive, I am just a control freak and had to let go. It was much needed and even though we went away, Kansas City's short 3 hour drive made it easier for me. Let's just say everyone survived and we all had a great time, grandma and baby too :) i bet she liked getting up in the middle of the night. HahaWe have some great friends with even better connections and we are so grateful they were able to "hook" us up while we were there! It made it so we didn't have to make hardly any decisions because that is what we both do all day long! We owe them big time! So I am going to share the suggestions I was given for you all to enjoy. We did not make them all because the idea of a get away was not to come home more tired than we left :) The hotel I wanted to stay at was booked so we ended up staying at the Marriott Country Club Plaza, which was just what we needed and more! 1 1/2 blocks from the Plaza, easy walking distance, or take their free shuttle which will pick you up when you call too. Who wants to worry about parking?? With a restaurant, Starbucks, and reasonable rates, all in all it was a great hotel. We started Friday evening checking in, cleaning up and headed to Bar Rossa in Hotel Sorella (where I wanted to stay.) Clean, cool, and modern. The bar/restaurant is on the 7th floor and with this view, you do not feel like you are in Missouri.

We were hungry so we decide upon a charcuterie tray which was almost too pretty to eat! Delish! With Happy Hour until 5:30pm it is a sure stop on your trip.

Dinner reservations Friday night was at a place called Bluestem! So trendy and romantic, great place to try new food! Dimly lit, open kitchen, and percise perfection when creating each dish. One of a kind stop. We did the 5 course route, which allows you to choose 1 option from each course. They also have wine pairings if you are up for it. I started with a gazpacho soup. Cool and refreshing.

Highly recommeded visit bluestemkc.com and book it on OpenTable if you have it! Best app ever. Saturday was set aside for shopping the Plaza, relaxing and once again dinner reservations. The mid-day perk....touring Boulevard Brewery. Breakfast on a patio, coffee without disturbance, and my hubby got my full undivided attention! So nice. At this point I have only texted my mom once and FaceTimed once too! I think I am doing great :) The weather was perfect and after shopping for a bit we were told to hit up the newest BBQ hot spot in KC. You do NOT go there without eating what they are famous for. Q39 is a open and industrial feel with a good vibe. We really were not that hungry but before touring a brewery we thought we should eat a little something. We split the sliders and french fries and left not a single piece. I really can't judge their BBQ skills without ordering the real deal, so I will leave that to whoever goes next!

One thing I saw everywhere I went and think everyone should jump on the bandwagon was water in recycled glass bottles on your table! No waiting for waiters to refill your glasses and such a great concept! I know of a few restaurants in Des Moines that do this but I wish more would join them. Next stop, the brewery tour. This would be a first for me. I have mentioned many times, Boulevard is easily my favorite wheat beer. With more and more craft beer popping up in every city, it appears the competition has nothing on them. Thank you Ali, Andrew, and the guys at Templeton Rye for the amazing expierence! *Rye on Rye will be made using old Templeton barrels.

Because this was all things sans baby, a nap was in store for us! Who knew I could still nap like a baby :) Thank you Rent the Runway for my fabulous dress! If you have no clue what I am talking about...google it. Best invention ever. Rent a dress, wear it, then return it all for a small fee. Perfect for the people who hate wearing things over and over and over. We ended our trip with dinner at Gram and Dun. Awesome patio and food, I am waiting for the day it comes to Des Moines! I decided to step outside of the box and order something I normally wouldn't. I ordered the pork porterhouse ( yes I live in Iowa and I don't eat pork...that much.) The description states it is grilled, smoked creamy grits, goat cheese, beets, pork sauce, and caramel corn. Don't ask me why or how but it worked! It was so freaking good, I almost cleared my plate! As if I hadn't had enough, dessert is my favorite part of the meal so we split the Gram and Dun bar. OMG!!! I can't even stand it, it was to die for...I still dream about it!

I still have a "list" of places to hit up, so I will save it for our next getaway :) If you get to any of these places before I get back, let me know what you think!! 1.) CaVa 2.) Harry's Bar and Tables 3.) Hotel Rieger and Exchange 4.) Manifesto 5.) Anton's KC 6.) Nara

I survived, my baby survived and we had a great trip away :) Success!

Travel Northwoods Wisconsin

This trip has been a family tradition on my husbands side for years! Everyone rents cabins along the lake and the cousins run wild and enjoy a week of freedom and nature at its finest. This year we brought along the baby of course and not sure I feel as if I just went on vacation. Although this is the type of vacation where you pack your entire house and drive it 8 hours. Seriously, salt & pepper, foil, and kleenex are a few musts. Yes you can buy it there and maybe that will be my plan for next year....or just rough it. HahaNot going to lie, my favorite thing about road trips is getting fast food. McDonald's is my stop of choice :) Soooo bad but soooo good!

We stay at White Birch Village in the Woodside Cabin along with my husbands brother and family. Looking out our family room window is this view, horrible right?

Breakfast is served at Grandma's house and the menu....eggs, pancakes, bacon, and toast all cooked in bacon grease of course! Hey it's vacation. Everyone goes in their own directions until about dinner time, then we all meet up for another home cooked, healthy meal :) Some choose to kayak, paddle boat, swim, play at the beach, play a little basketball, hot tub, explore, play some golf, and head to town and shop. With plenty to do, the word bored is never heard or said. Baby girl got some beach time in.....

And some sleep in the hammock. Seriously she must have been tired to sleep like this for almost 3 hours! Yes I blew in her face to make sure she was breathing...

One of my favorite things to do up North is puzzles. I scan the stores for the most awful looking challenge of a puzzle so it lasts for a few days. With built in babysitters I actually get to sit for a few minutes without chasing a baby. Some of you may not know I have an obsessive quality about me, once I start a puzzle the building has to be on fire before I will quit working on it :) I just like to refer to it as "focus."

Every year, Thursday is our day to cook dinner at the cabin but our new tradition is everyone goes out to Sayner Pub for the best bloody marys and of course PIZZA! That's the best of both worlds...no cooking and no clean up!

My favorite thing this year was finding this awesome trail in Boulder Junction. Since I signed up for my first marathon (crazy I know) running up North is not only beautiful, but you can breathe! No humidity. Although I was constantly looking for bears :) I am that crazy person who works out on vacation but running through such beauty hardly seems like "work."

Boulder Junction is about 10 minutes away from the village we stay at. Perfect little town for some local shopping and coffee. With shops named Coontail, Blueberry Hill, and Northern Latte, you know you're going to find something for everyone.

So until next year, we will count down the days until our family reunites for another week of fun! Thank you White Birch Village for the endless memories.

Travel Barbados

Well because I have a sense of humor and can laugh at myself and some of my awesome choices, I am writing about our Barbados trip. My husband thought it would be a good idea to share this experience with others so they can also get a good laugh. To this day we still laugh so hard about it that we cry! I love to travel and I love a good deal, so this trip was the result of both of those things. Should've been a homerun but instead it was a swing and a miss. Needless to say we did have a good time, and that is one of the reasons we love to travel together. Never a dull moment.I started looking for a place to go and Barbados seemed to be a hot spot. I was looking on Travelocity and found this awesome deal for $900.00 per person, which included round trip airfare, hotel for 7 nights, breakfast each morning, and a location to "die" for. I was so excited that I called my hubby and asked if he thought it would be fun. He always says yes :) Since I am in charge of the vacation booking and planning (because I am OCD, he doesn't have the time, and probably so I can't blame anyone for choices like this one.) Vacation booked. Barbados here we come! January 30th, 2012 we arrived in Barbados at roughly 10:00 p.m. and leave the airport in a taxi for our hotel, New Edgewater. As I was trying to remember the name of this "gem", I discovered an article "another Barbados hotel bites the dust." Not surprised. With a description like, " The Bathsheba hotel, which boasts 24 rooms and SUITES, and a history dating back to the 1700's, I was sure we were in for a treat. So as we were being taxied to the hotel, in the dark, on the wrong side of the road, no street signs, winding roads and no one else in sight, I was sure something beautiful would soon appear. After about 30 minutes in the taxi, we come to a small dirt road with a metal chain link fence on one side and trees on the other, and our driver pulls down this scary small road. After my head hit the roof of the van a few times from all of the pot holes, we arrived in the parking lot where there were no other cars in sight but our taxi. The driver told us to walk through the "lobby" and check in, then he left. I gave my husband the holy crap look more than once, mostly scared for my life. As we walked through the lobby, there wasn't anyone at the desk, so we proceeded to walk further along the path surely we would find the right lobby. Only to come across a sleeping security guard who asked us our name, reached up and picked a key off of the wall and led us to our "suite." This was seriously happening. He unlocks the door with a few jiggles of the key and lock....he shows us the room. "Here is your TV, air conditioning, and your bathroom." Then he left. I looked at my husband like this was some kind of a joke or bad nightmare. This was the location to "die" for? The bed had a brown comforter on it, the bathroom was walled off with a folding door that was 1/2 off the track, and the shower....good lord. It was so late, it was pitch black outside, we had no clue what the place even looked like or what was even outside of our room window. We lied down on the bed, on top of a blanket of course because I was NOT staying here. I was so mad and freaked out and he was laughing so hard at me that I couldn't be mad, after all I had picked this "sweet deal." We laughed so hard we literally cried before falling asleep. The next morning we woke to the sound of the ocean and an amazing view. Our hotel was set on a cliff overlooking the best surf I have seen. 

Heading for our "free" breakfast we scoped out the place and boy was it...simple. Breakfast was some fruit, toast, and some pastries. I quickly became consumed with getting on the internet and finding a new place to stay for the next 6 days but stubborn me, decided to stay and suck it up! Over the remainder of the time we were there, we were able to actually experience the culture first hand. In fact we were on the opposite side of the island than we wanted to be, also called the surf side. Beautiful and untouched but we were quickly informed that we should NOT swim or we would drown. Perfect. Our morning ritual became eating our "free" breakfast, catching some rays, the we would walk down to the local bar, Sea Side Bar.

Here we would grab a very local lunch of flying fish and macaroni pie along side a Banks beer. The locals started at the bar at 9 am drinking Rum and water...yep you heard me right. The view from this place was spectacular and that was about all. We did walk up to the Andromeda botanic gardens where we walked through this amazing area with every species of tree and flower you could think of, very touristy thing to do, but it was new and kind of fun.

We sat down afterwards and ate lunch at their Hibiscus Café, only to be served the very same stuff as everywhere else. At least they were consistent. Next we got a wild hair and decided to go to Bridgetown Barbados for the day.

A taxi would cost us about $60-$100 or we were told we could take the bus, which conveniently the stop was right across from the Sea Side bar. My poor husband. I sat on the inside of what seemed to be a very empty bus, only to realize we had about 500 other stops before we actually arrived in town. The bus was maxed out at capacity about 15 stops prior to town and my husband's view was the crotch, fat rolls, and breasts of complete strangers who never seemed to mind whose face their business ended up in, as long as they were on that bus. The heat, the smell, and the people were some of the things I will never forget about that bus, but again who want's to pay a bunch of money for a bus that costs only $2 each way? So we rode the bus every time we needed to get anywhere and it was the same thing each ride. After we got off the local bus, we visited the Mount Gay Rum factory (which was totally necessary if you rode that bus) where we toured and sampled the rum that these people seem to love so much. I will just stick with my Malibu rum, I don't much like the taste of gas.

After walking through the town we wanted to go to the side of the island that everyone else apparently stays on, the "nice side". We watched a dance off (which was probably the coolest thing we both had seen), attended the fish fry (duh), and watched the locals playing dominos. By then end of our day we were actually ready to go back to our quiet side of the island. My husband wanted to make sure I put the part in about us going back to our hotel and we were waiting for our stop which is right at the end of our hotel drive and I thought it was the stop before and insisted that we get off the bus...so we did. I am laughing while I write this because it was pitch black, scary as crap, and definitely not the right stop, but I had to maintain my "rightness" and in the midst of me peeing my pants from being scared I put on my big girl pants and pretended to him that we were fine, we could just walk the mile back to the hotel in the dark, no worries. The part he probably doesn't want me to mention is that he was scared out of his mind! Pansy. Needless to say, I was once again wrong, but I was willing to own it. In Barbados the people are not really that friendly and tend to mind their own business which does not work well when you have 2 white people from Iowa who want to chat with everyone we meet and mingle with the locals. I am sure not everything in Barbados is like we experienced it so please do not steer away from going there because I was an awesome trip planner. We ended up having a good time minus a few hiccups but that tends to be the best part about traveling and seeing the world. My husband still lets me plan the vacations so I must be doing something right! Happy Travels and cheers the Barbados way :) 

Puerto Vallarta and Baby

Back from our first vacation with a baby, I wouldn't call it vacation but more like a trip. Don't get me wrong it was more than nice to escape the brutal winter we have had and soak up some rays Mexican style, but it just isn't the same with a baby. Not bad but different, and my angel made it really easy to want to take her on another trip.The packing was successful, carry on only for the baby and I :) I hate to say it but I told you I could and would do it. Here is a prime example of why I choose to pack light. This is the carry on line at Puerto Vallarta airport

Now this is the check baggage line. I am sure they did not appreciate me passing them all up and then taking their picture. Sucks to be them!

I really dreaded the looks of other passengers as I boarded with a baby. Other than a few eye rolls, we were good. She seriously slept every flight for the duration of the flight, I may be bragging a bit but hey, it may never happen ever again! My goal was to keep her awake during layovers, starve her(not really), then feed her on the plane so she would crash. It worked. We stayed at RIU Palace Puerto Vallarta, all inclusive because it is familiar and we didn't have to do a darn thing....except care for a baby. Easy right? Parent of the year award goes to me again.

The staff loved her and carried her around all of the time. Her favorite was Lidia, what a gem. We would sit down for dinner and they would swarm over and whisk her away....ahhhhh. We ate the buffet every night instead of making dinner reservations at the restaurants on site, but avoiding the fight with bed time is so worth it.

Her naps were taken poolside except for her long nap, then we all went inside for a siesta, this is vacation afterall. Between her naps and daddy walking her all over the resort (probably because she is a total chick magnet) mama bear got to lay out in the sun....ALONE.

Our vacation was filled with a lot of firsts. First time out of the country (yes she has a passport), first time with her feet in the grass, ocean, sand, and the pool, and first plane ride. So many great memories that she will never remember except through photos, and trust me I took plenty.

Would I do anything different for the next trip with our baby? Yep. I would bring a stroller. I may be strong and she may be cute but good lord, we thought about buying one there. Would've been great for sitting up around the pool, great in the airport ( I used my Baby K'tan, but sucked taking it off through security), great for a seat at dinner since the highchairs are for babies who can already sit up. Now I wouldn't bring a double wide, extra long, every part of a stroller but just a compact light weight stroller! Other than that major need, we survived. Until next time :)