Arizona?

Good morning! This teacher is OFF from school today, thank you Veterans Day! (and thank you Veterans while I'm at it!). I have a bunch of things to get done today but I thought I'd start with a quick post.

First of all, please check out the second part of my trip to New Zealand over on Meghan's blog. If I had to choose which part I like better, I'd pick Part 2 and my only warning is that the pictures alone may make you want to book your trip to New Zealand right now.

Secondly, I need some help from all you world travelers (well actually all you US travelers) out there. For those of you who don't know planning trips is one of my favorite things ever to do. Every once in awhile I get a major itch to plan a trip. Traveling is also one of Eric and my favorite things to do together. We have such a good system going with each other where we can see a lot of things in a new place, but we never over do it and we always make sure to relax and have a good time. However, I was reading Kirsten's blog the other day and she mentioned she has been on a plane 31 times this year for personal travel. I know I could never get to that number but it did make me realize that I have not been on a plane since October 2008. I also have not been on a trip alone with just Eric since our trip to Europe in 2006. These stats may not seem like a big deal to anyone, but to me travel is the #1 "worth it" thing to spend money on. The other thing is, Eric and I have big dreams of serious travel before children. We still have a few years before we have to worry about that...but then again, serious travel requires serious time and money, so we need to start now.

Obviously next July we will be going on our honeymoon, but I still do not think I can let almost two years pass without setting foot on a plane. So I have been thinking about a possible February vacation trip to Phoenix Arizona/Grand Canyon area. I have dedicated a little bit of time today on my day off to do some number crunching to make sure this is a realistic trip and figure out a solid budget. Until then- I need some advice from anyone who has been to this area.

Right now my current rough itinerary is:

Arrive Saturday night- stay in hotel in Phoenix.

Sunday morning drive up to Sedona, stay there for 1 night

Monday drive up to Grand Canyon, stay there for 2 nights

Wednesday drive back to Phoenix, stay there for 2 nights

Friday- flight back to Boston

So what I need to know from you guys is...

• Does that look like a good itinerary? Is there anything I need to add or take away?
• Recommendations for hotels to stay in (and also- is it a good idea to stay in Phoenix or outside in Scottsdale etc?)
• Is there any way to get internet on a plane? I always see people blogging from the air, but I have never been able to even plug my computer in on a plane, forget receive internet access!
• Recommendations for how to find the best deal on a rental car
• Things I must see or do on this trip

That is about all. I'll be back later for a more "healthy living" related post :)

Newport, RI Part 2

I'm back! I am completely exhausted and ready for another weekend, any chance I can get that before I even hit Monday? This week is going to be crazy again, but I think by the time I hit Thursday everything is going to get a lot better for the rest of October and the beginning of November. Yay! I still have some more reviews and recommendations for Newport for you guys though...

Yesterday we started the day with a trip to the Newport mansions. You can't go to Newport without seeing at least one of these amazing houses. We had heard that Breakers was the one to do, so we headed to Breakers.

Breakers was built by Cornelius Vanderbilt as a "summer cottage" for his family. Can you imagine if your "summer cottage" had this view?
This inside was absolutely gorgeous. Although, all the crazy decorating was a bit much for my personal taste (as in, I wouldn't want to live in a house decorated this way). But it was definitely massive and how awesome would it be to have a full on library in your house? To visit Breakers you pay about $20 (I think it was maybe $23) and you get an audio tour inside with a head set. It's nice because you can stay in certain rooms and learn more about different things, or you can keep moving and you are not on a specific time schedule. You can also do other passes that allow you get into another mansion for a much cheaper price after you see Breakers. We decided to head to our next stop instead...
I have been wanting to go to this winery (and the others in the Rhode Island, Southeastern MA area) forever! They have a tasting bar, and you get to taste your choice of 5 different wines. I picked mostly white but I did taste the pinot noir.
It was fine, for a red wine. I don't think I could ever be a good wine taster since I just prefer white wine so much. Oh well, I can still enjoy wine tasting and just not be so great at it. I also totally tasted my red wine before the white, strike 2. But I wanted the final taste in my mouth to be my favorite haha. Yeah, terrible wine taster.

For dinner last night we went to a place called Fluke Wine Bar. I LOVED the atmosphere of this place. They even gave us this corner table completely by ourselves. It was a nice place, but not overly fancy. However, I probably would not go back there myself. I looked up the menu online beforehand (as I have to do because of my stomach) and none of the stuff was the same at the actual restaurant, grr! I ended up ordering sea scallops with a bacon risotto.
I love risotto when Eric makes it, but I can't eat bacon or cheese so I asked for the sweet potato puree instead of the risotto. The waiter said they could not do that because it was pre mixed with the scallops. Admire the picture above again, do you REALLY think it's pre mixed? Are you microwaving my meal in the back? I decided to just get the risotto but I was seriously pissed off about paying $30 for a few scallops. Plus I ended up really not liking the flavor of the risotto which was all over my scallops. Later, the girls were speculating that the chef probably does not like to mix things up and thats why they say it is pre mixed. Eric has told me that about other restaurants when I try to make my changes. If I go into my thoughts on this it could be a whole post (maybe tomorrow) but let's just say it makes me VERY ANGRY. I really don't care about your stupid chef appearance, I care about my stomach being happy and since I am the customer you should be willing to accommodate what I want, even if you don't think it's a good flavor combination or the best possible appearance on the plate. Grr. Anyway, I think everyone else was pretty happy with their meals, so you may like it. I suppose I'm not the best person to evaluate restaurants OR wine today haha.

After dinner we headed out to a couple of bars. We started at a bar across from Fluke, and I can't remember the name. They had a DJ downstairs and they were playing really good music. However, everyone there was at least 30 years older than us (not exaggerating) and random ladies were coming up and trying to befriend us, and it just was not normal. Tiff wanted to move on, so we ended up on the top floor of the Phelam, where we saw this...
These college boys were dancing on that platform with each other the whole night. I particularly was amused by the one with his shirt unbuttoned...WHAT?! At first I thought I was going to run into my freshman in college brother at any point (although he lives in a different state haha). But as the night went on, I HAVE to give my brother more credit than to hang out in a place like this! We felt pretty old. Especially when a girl started throwing up and Tiff (the bachelorette) really wanted to go help her. I told her she was not allowed to help college students at HER bachelorette haha.

Overall, we had a good time at both places including all randomness. Next time I'm sure we would try to find the place where people our age hang out :) I am not thrilled with any of the pictures of me and Tiff from the night, but here is the picture of Tiff in her awesome orange boa that I got her!
Catch up with you guys tomorrow!