1st Year: In Review

It has officially been 1 year since Jason started at Southwest. During this time, we have had the opportunity to travel all over. In the past ONE YEAR we have been to:

California Wine Country (2 times)

San Francisco, CA (3 times)

Puerto Rico

Barbados

St. Lucia

Antigua

St. Croix

St. Maarten

Chicago - (6 times for me, 1 for Jason)

Phoenix, AZ and the Grand Canyon

Austin, TX

Denver, CO

Washington D.C.

Miami, FL 

Seattle, WA

Las Vegas, NV 

Minneapolis, MN

WOW, how absolutely crazy it is to look at all of that listed out. I think the only airfare we actually paid for was to get to Puerto Rico and back! We have been some amazing places and eaten some amazing food over the past year. I'm still finding it hard to believe that we've gotten to do so much for so little.

As much as I hate to admit it, I'm a little burnt out on travel. Thankfully, our next scheduled trip isn't until September. We will be making a 2 1/2 week trip to visit John and Mallory in France! We are SO excited! This will be our first experience with flying standby on another airline, so we're hoping for the best.

Knowing us and how much we are addicted to travel, I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up in New Orleans or somewhere in Texas for a quick weekend trip in a few weeks. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Seattle, WA

Sorry for the delay - work travel has definitely been crazy! Last weekend we both headed to Seattle; Jason flying from Dallas and me from Chicago. Jason had the wonderful experience of "Flying 4th", which essentially means Jason got to be a flight attendant for a night! He had to sit in the extra jump seat (there are usually 3 out of 4 filled by flight attendants - thus, flying 4th) and hand out peanuts and snacks to everyone. We arrived to the hotel pretty late - about 11pm Seattle time, but 1am central time.

The next morning, we ventured to Pike's Place Market. It was so cool to see all of the fresh flowers, food and fish. There were vendors of all kinds, so it was fun to just walk around and take it all in. While we were there, we HAD to stop at a Starbucks so I could be a typical tourist.

The rest of the day we spent exploring the waterfront area. Our hotel was right in the middle of everything, so it made getting everywhere really easy. We stopped for lunch at the local fish 'n chips place on the pier - Ivar's. Everything was delicious and fresh! After this, we made our way through the Olympic Sculpture Park and on to the Space Needle.

We ended the night at The Alibi Room. It is right across from a wall that everyone puts their used gum on. How is this an attraction?...GROSS. Anyways, we had some yummy pizza, and of course some fish. Everything from this restaurant comes right from the Market, so it's incredibly fresh. It was a great little place that we would absolutely recommend.

We woke up pretty early on Saturday morning for our adventure along the Olympic Peninsula. We drove south to Olympia and made our way around Route 101. We made a stop in the Olympic National Park to hike around a bit. 

After this, we stopped at a little Indian lodge for lunch on Kalaloch Beach. We walked along the beach for a while, but it was really cold and windy! Moving on, we made another stop to hike around in the rainforest. I had no idea there was a rainforest in Washington, but it was really beautiful. Completely different from the rainforest in Puerto Rico, but still interesting. We only had time to hike one trail - the Hall of Mosses. There were a few more trails that I wish we could have explored, but we'll leave that for next time.

Let me preface this by saying -  this wasn't my idea! Along the way, we saw signs for Forks, so we HAD to stop and take a picture here. It was a funny little town though. I guess they get a fair amount of tourists, but Team Edward and Team Jacob shirts were everywhere! I'm absolutely sure the normal residents hate Twilight with a passion.

As we were driving, we stumbled upon on the most beautiful things Jason and I had ever seen. We were literally driving in wall-to-wall trees for hours and then this ridiculous lake came out of nowhere! To finish our drive, we took a ferry from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. It was a good, relaxing way to end the day.

Our last day in Seattle wasn't much of one - for Jason. We ate breakfast in the Market, worked out and headed to the airport. Jason's flight was at 1pm. I (for some unknown terrible reason) scheduled an 11:59pm flight out of Seattle to arrive in Chicago at 5:30am. I watched a movie and walked around Pacific Place to kill time. Of COURSE my flight was delayed, but I made it back to Chicago for another week of work travel!

I will be going to Las Vegas for one more week of work travel next week. After that, work travel is over! Also, I will be making my way to Minneapolis in 3 weeks for a girl's weekend.

Thanks for reading :)

Boston...no wait, Denver!

As is evident in my last post, our travel didn't go QUITE as planned. I am in Chicago for work right now, so I had a flight booked from Chicago to Boston - a guaranteed seat! Should have been a piece of cake. That is, until American decided to cancel all flights into Boston. I wouldn't have been able to leave until 10PM the NEXT DAY. Wah! I called Jason frantically asking him to get me anywhere the next morning. After a crazy cab line and 2 hours of sleep at a hotel next to Midway airport, I jumped on a SWA flight to Denver (sans baggage - that was in Boston).

 

The cab line extended to the end of the terminal then wrapped back around...

Once Jason arrived and saved the day with a change of clothes, we went exploring Denver. We walked around Wash Park, ate dinner at a sushi place called Japon, and then went home. I still didn't have my baggage, so we also made a pit stop at Target for some essentials.

After MANY calls to American's baggage services, my bag finally arrived on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, since my camera was in my checked bag, the only photos I have are from my iPhone. We didn't want to wait around, so we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park early Saturday morning. One thing I love about Colorado is that everyone is so outdoorsy. While I've said the same thing about Arizona, Colorado is more "our scene". On our drive, we literally saw hundreds of bikers - so cool! We did a fair amount of hiking in the park since a lot of the trails were still closed for the winter season. In some places, there was literally a foot of snow on the ground! We hiked to Chasm Falls and then also around Bear Lake.

We also made a drive around CU's campus in Boulder. It was so beautiful! For those of you that know Jason, you know that he's always wanted to teach. He could see himself teaching here down the road and I could definitely see myself living there!

That night, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Denver Chophouse and Brewery. It was AMAZING! Everything we had was delicious, but my favorite thing was the (free) cornbread. Mmm!

All travel blunders aside, we had a great time in the short time we had there. Denver was a fun city that I definitely want to go back to. Jason has never been skiing, so I'm sure a trip back is in our immediate future. Barring any more unfortunate American Airlines events, we will be in Seattle in a week and a half. Look for another post then!

Thanks for reading and thanks SWA!

Ode to Southwest Airlines

While I could write about how much I hate American Airlines (which I do - particularly at this moment), I am choosing to write about how much I love Southwest. I am grateful every day that Jason works there, not only because he loves his job, but also because it truly is an amazing company. Thus, my ode to Southwest.

Thank you for my free flights, particularly when I get my three previous ones with American cancelled.

Thank you for your friendly service, it really made my awful night/day better. From the gate agents to the flight crew, it never ceases to amaze me how amazing your employees are.

Thank you for the yummy snacks :)

Thank you for not canceling ANY flights (no matter how late you had to work) and not stranding literally thousands of people. As a side note, I waited an hour and a half for a cab...just to give you an idea of how many people were stranded by American.

Thank you for picking up the tab IF flights get cancelled and not making people pay out of pocket.

Thank you for my free bags (and for not sending my bag to Boston...how can it get there but I can't. Hmm).

Finally thank you for creating a culture that makes people happy. Southwest customers are just so much nicer than any other I have encountered.

As a side note: Due to aforementioned cancellations, we are on our way to Denver this weekend! So thankful SWA got me out of Chicago and that I don't have to spend my weekend in O'Hare. My "confirmed seat" to Boston was supposed to be at 10:00pm tonight...no thanks. Hopefully my bag arrives in Denver by tomorrow!

Miami, FL

Quick update on my work travels - Miami was AWESOME! I honestly didn't really know what to expect. The city is just so full of life, it's contagious! It honestly reminded me a lot of the scene in San Juan, PR. I guess I just love latin culture!

After working on the latin american schedule (9:30-7), I got a little time to explore. I ate some great Cuban food and got a few lessons in Spanish (my favorite phrase was "gracias mami!")

The first night, I ate some awesome sushi at Doraku on South Beach. It was great people-watching! I went on a Monday night and there were honestly people everywhere.

Seriously, I cannot express HOW much I love Cuban food. My favorite dish is called "Ropa Vieja" and is essentially shredded flank steak in a tomato sauce with black beans, rice and sweet plantains. My mouth is watering even thinking about it. Hopefully I can find a place in Dallas that serves it.

I can't wait to go back when I can bring Jason and we will actually have some real time to explore.

Right now, I'm in the midst of my 5 weeks in Chicago. Hopefully I'll get some time to explore here as well.

Upcoming in the next month:

4 more trips to Chicago

College Station for the Maroon and White Game

Weekend trip to Boston

Annual Cinco de Mayo party at the Thompsons

Rangers Game

Weekend trip to Seattle

Whew! I get tired even looking at that :)

Look forward to the post on our trip to Boston in a couple weeks...

Sonoma and Russian River Valley, CA

Hello everyone!

We had it all planned out - we were going to San Diego. Seats looked great AND we would get in fairly early on Thursday. Well, as we were heading to the airport, I looked again and only 1 seat was open. WHOOPS! Frantic, I started looking for ANYWHERE that we could get to. Well, the only way we were getting anywhere was to first fly to Houston. Luckily when we go to Houston, we were able to make a 20 minute plane change and we were on our way to SFO! *Minor setback - getting thrown up on by a baby about 2 hours into a 3 hour flight. Sorry, but no kids for us any time soon.

Now, we've each been to San Francisco more than 5 times. Jason worked there during his E&Y days for a few months and it's probably one of my favorite cities in the US. I had actually been there 2 weeks before for work, so we decided to venture to wine country instead of hanging out in the city. We most recently went to Sonoma/Napa in July with John and Mallory and we absolutely fell in love with Sonoma.

Our first Golden Gate Bridge picture together

This time, we changed it up a little and went to Sonoma and the Russian River Valley. WOW. All I can say is that the Russian River Valley is THE place to go in wine country if you like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The wineries are much smaller and the people are all very knowledgeable about wine. It's great for Jason and I since we love wine, but don't know much about it. It has a similar feel to Sonoma, but the views are much better. Napa is fine, don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great wineries there that we really liked (Mumm Napa, Cakebread, V. Sattui), but it's crazy expensive and everything just seems so commercial. 

The wineries we went to for those of you thinking about a trip:

Sonoma

St. Francis - Our second time here. One of our favorites. Great "French style" wine and friendly people.

Ledson - The wine was alright, don't know if we'd go back. The tasting room was in this crazy building.

Gloria Ferrer - Our sparkling wine stop of the trip. I'd skip this next time. Mumm Napa was WAY better.

VJB - Definitely a favorite. Good "Italian style" wine. A small, family-owned winery.

Russian River Valley

Gary Ferrell - Really good wine, great views of the river. WAY too expensive to ever buy. Known for their Pinot Noir's and Chardonnay.

Arista - Ok wine, great atmosphere. Only Pinor Noirs.

Matrix - Our favorite! The people there were SO great and the tasting was free! A Pinot house.

After the wineries, we spent some time in downtown Healdsburg (pronounced HEAL-dsburg) and then made our way to the beautiful coast. We had no idea that it was only a (very scenic) 30 minute drive away.

Overall, we had a GREAT time. We will be back again - I'm sure of it. There are so many more areas to visit. We've heard great things about the Dry Creek Valley and Alexander Valley areas as well.

As mentioned in my previous post, I'll be traveling a lot for work in the 5 weeks, so look forward to those posts as well! Thanks for reading :)

Work Travel = Fun Travel?

We're FINALLY traveling again next weekend! No idea where we're going yet, but that's the norm now. Somewhere warm would be best - maybe Orlando or San Diego?

Also, I just found out I will be doing a 5 week stint in Chicago, IL for work. While work travel isn't always the most fun, Jason and I have decided to make the best of it and travel a few of the weekends. I've taken off a few Fridays and since I will already be in Chicago, I can buy a ticket whenever we're going instead of a ticket back home to Dallas. This will make it easier since only one person will have to fly standby. We're thinking somewhere that's a little harder to get to would be perfect - Boston/Seattle/NYC.

No worries about our fur child (he's almost 2!) - Indy will be with my parents for 4 out of 5 weeks. He likes them more anyways :) While having a dog definitely restricts your travel opportunities, I wouldn't give him up for the world. His first ever doggy daycare/boarding experience will be next weekend - I hope that goes well. And of course, I booked a place that I can watch him play with the other dogs on a video camera - I'm crazy like that.

Thanks for reading!