Arriving in Melbourne, Australia

First, I want to start out with that the turbulence out of SFO was the worst we have ever experienced. And of course, it started right after the meal service began. It lasted about three hours, even the flight attendants said it was some of the worst they had even experienced.

Once we landed in Melbourne, we took the SkyBus to our hotel in the city. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Flinders which was a perfect location for catching buses, trains and trams…and a perfect location for walking the city. Once we settled in, unpacked and cleaned up we met with a distant cousin of mine for a tour of the city. We walked the streets seeing street art, arcades, allies filled with food and shops. After a lot of walking and exploring we had a drink on the river and then called it a night.

The next day, December 31, 2019, we started with a trip to the Queen Victoria Market. So many foods and souvenirs! We opted to have an early lunch here and enjoyed lamington for the first time. Lamington is an Australian cake, and everyone should have one! Delicious! Then we headed to St. Kilda to see the beach and visit some of the famous cake shops on Acland Street. YUM! Then it was back to the city to have dinner and relax until the city lit off fireworks to celebrate the new year!

Welcome 2020!!! (if we only knew what was to come…)

Christmas Special 2020

Wow, can you believe that 2020 is finally over?! I know a lot of people are looking forward to getting 2020 in the review mirror and hope 2021 will be better.

We typically travel for Thanksgiving but since we didn't this year and I was grumpy about it I decided to get the Christmas tree up the first weekend in November! We also took advantage of the warm weather and got the outside lights up too. 

I have also dabbled in floral design recently, trying my hand at some Christmas planters and some mason jar centerpieces for the table. 

And I have been baking, lots and lots of baking. Reminding me that I should make cookies more often because they are gooood! This year I made sugar cookies with royal icing, ginger creams, brownie truffles and chocolate crinkles. And there is plans for a peach pie! 

What have you been up to this holiday season?

24hrs in San Francisco

In December of 2019 Matt and I were off to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary (a few months early). Destination…Australia! But first, we had a one-night layover in San Francisco, CA. We landed at SFO around 5pm, took the BART to our hotel in the Union Square district, freshened up and then wandered around looking for some food. Surprisingly, most places were closed… I’m assuming it was because it was December 27^th and restaurant owners were taking a break for the holidays (this would be a theme for our time in Australia too). We finally found some food not far from the hotel, ate, walked back to the hotel, ordered drinks and called it a night. 

The next morning, we woke up and started the day with breakfast near the hotel and a walk to Fisherman’s Wharf. We walked to take in the sights…and…we just like walking. We viewed the famous Golden Gate Bridge and then walked to the San Francisco Maritime National Park and to Ghirardelli Square. Ah, the good stuff! I don’t think they opened until 10:30am and at 10:35am I was eating my ice cream sundae! After the walk we started to make our way back to the hotel, we walked past Lombard Street where I was surprised to see people just standing in the middle of the road taking pictures. Um, it’s an active street y’all, get out of the road! 

Once back at the hotel we took showers and packed, it was early afternoon but even with a late check-out we needed to be on our way to the airport for our 11:30pm flight. We got the airport around 4:30/5pm and headed straight to the United Polaris Lounge! 

The United Polaris Lounge at SFO was the only reason I was okay with getting to the airport with over 6 hours until our flight! We drank, ate dinner, drank some more, had dessert, watched TV and relaxed before our long journey across the globe… Stay tuned! 

Yellowstone National Park: Part 2

We packed up our things from our shared rental with my family and hit the road north to see all the things in Yellowstone National Park! We started the day with a drive up to Old Faithful where we waited to view the geyser in all her glory. Then we walked around the area viewing the other geysers.

Then we were back on the road to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. I feel like I had a major travel fail here as I did not realize there was an overlook for this spring where you could have gotten a bird’s eye view of it and all its colors. Oh well, next time!

Next stop was the Fountain Paint Pot Trail, a small boardwalk trail to see more geysers, some that spew mud and make the most interesting sound!

This is where we said our goodbyes to my family as they headed back down to Jackson Hole (and eventually back home to Texas). And we continued through the park and into the town of West Yellowstone where we stayed for the night. Of course, we used our free hotel night at the Holiday Inn Express (thank you IHG cobranded credit card)! We had the best BBQ we had had in a long time at Firehole Bar-B-Que and we took our stuffed bellies for a walk down the main drag for some window shopping and ice cream…because there is always room for ice cream!

The next morning, we visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. We tried to engage our then four-year old daughter, but she wasn’t really having any of it. Then we made a quick sashay west on the Targhee Pass highway to cross the Idaho/Montana state line so I could check Idaho off my bucket list. I know, I know, I do count airport stops and quick state line crossings like this as an official “been there” on my bucket list. And the only reason why I do is I’m never sure if I will ever make it back.

After that we made our way back to Bozeman, but not without making a few stops due to bison in the road! We checked into our hotel (another free night thanks to the co-branded Marriott card) and ordered pizza for dinner. Jack joined us one last time, we said our goodbyes early as we had to be at the airport at 4:30am for our flight home. 

Grand Teton Half Marathon - Day 3

The next morning Jack and I headed to the race, of course we had to stop for a moose! About 2 hours and 30 minutes after the race started, I crossed the finish line. I didn’t hit my goal time, but finishing is what is important. After a little altitude nausea and a bus ride back to the car we were able to freshen up, eat and relax for a minute. But not too long! We had things to see! We walked over to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and took the Aerial Tram all the way to the top where took in the views and had some of Corbet’s famous waffles at Corbet’s Cabin Top of the World Waffles.

Once off the mountain we headed to the Snake River Overlook and the famous Mormon Row of farmhouses with the Tetons as the backdrop. We had dinner and explored the town of Jackson Hole. But after a morning of running and an afternoon of sightseeing, it was time to call it a night!

{Snake River Lookout | Jackson Hole famous antler arch | Barn on Mormon Row}