Alohaaaaaa!!!

I am super duper excited. Paul and I have created quite a lofty goal for ourselves.... and I shall call that goal:

HAWAIIAN VACATION SUMMER 2014!!!!

(Or 2015, depending on how good/bad we are at saving money!)

How did this decision come about? Well, we've always wanted to go to Hawaii, but it seemed like such an expensive endeavor that it sort of fell into the "someday" bucket. We don't really travel. Our one and only big trip was San Francisco two summers ago and we LOVED IT. I want to go back. But there are other places to go... Like Hawaii!

The thing that finally made me say, "Come on Paul, let's just do it!" was that I needed a motivation to teach piano lessons. You see, I haven't been teaching lessons this week, and it has been such a joy to come home from work and be done with work for the day. It's not that I don't like teaching lessons- I like it a lot! I enjoy it just as much as I enjoy teaching music at EPE. (If anything, it's even better because I get to sit the whole time and there is usually a kitty cat or two laying on the bay window listening.) It's just very difficult coming home from a full day of work and having more work to do. It also means there's less time I can spend with Paul. 

I decided going back to teaching lessons would be easier if I knew we were going to use that money for something incredible that we could enjoy together.

So right now, I have two pictures of  beautiful Hawaiian landscape on my piano. They will be my motivation for the next 10 months. We hope to go in August, but obviously, even though I have done a lot of research, I have sooooo much more research to do before we make even tentative plans. It's all good, though. I like to research places to go!

But the saving has already begun! I did not stop for coffee after Planet Fitness yesterday morning. You know why?

Because coffee is going to taste WAY better in HAWAIIIIIIIIII!!!!!

Have you ever been to Hawaii?

What was your favorite vacation?

Making Healthy Choices on Vacation

**Note: I wrote the first section of this blog before we left for vacation. I wrote the second section after I came back!**

Section 1

It's summer, and one of the best parts about summer is taking a vacation! Last year, we took a big trip to San Francisco. This summer, we are taking two little trips. As we have been preparing to go away, I have been thinking about how I can maintain a healthy lifestyle while away from home.

Here's the thing. I eat A LOT. I can't go more than 3 hours without eating. This is probably because I workout a lot, which usually makes me more hungry. Also, I think my metabolism is humming a long pretty well at this point because I feed my body with (mostly) nutritious foods. So if I'm eating mostly healthy stuff, it takes a ton of food to get myself up to 2200 calories a day, which is what I normally eat.

With a 4 day, 3 night beach vacation looming ahead, I am already thinking about how to make sure I stay on a healthy path during the trip. I do not want to be eating 2200 calories worth of crap each day. At the beach, there are so many yummy temptations, and while I do want to indulge in them some of the time, (It's vacation!) I don't want to come home feeling disgusting.

So how does one maintain a healthy lifestyle on vacation?

The best way to set yourself up for success is to PLAN.

**Plan to have healthy food choices available.

• I make sure I have healthy snacks in the car so that a drive thru and rest stop pizza are not my only options.

My favorite things to have in the car:

chicken breast (either a sandwich or just plain!)

small Tupperware container of Greek yogurt mixed with fruit

protein bars

chocolate covered coffee beans (for the antioxidants, I swear!!!!)

• I pack healthy breakfast, lunch, and snack items for in the hotel room. I'm sure we'll go out for breakfast at least one morning, but we'll be probably be eating lunch right on the beach. If the healthy, yummy option is available right there in my cooler, I will be sure to grab that instead of heading for the boardwalk or ice cream truck. (Ice cream is best after dinner, anyway!)

My favorite vacation breakfast/lunch/snack items:

chicken breast (I eat a lot of chicken breast!)

fruit

protein bars

oatmeal w/ protein powder

Special K Protein Plus cereal w/ skim milk

almonds

turkey sandwiches with hummus

**Plan to workout or at least do something active each day of vacation.

• This is not hard for me to do at all. First of all, I LOVE working out, so I would never even want to skip a session. Second, my favorite thing to do at the beach is run, and that is EASY to plan- just pack my running clothes and shoes and I'm good to go! However, because of an injury I'm trying to stave off, I will not be doing much running at the beach. Probably only 3 miles on one of the days. Which means I will be packing my kettle bell, jump rope, and 10lb dumbbells so I can find a spot on the sand to do some circuits. Honestly, I'd bring my stability ball too, but my husband already thinks I'm crazy for doing kettle bell swings in the Holiday Inn parking lot on our last trip so I don't want to push it...

My workout schedule for vacation:

Wed: full body weight training at Planet Fitness before we hit the road

Thurs: circuits on the beach in Atlantic City, 3 mile run

Fri: circuits on the beach in OCNJ

Saturday: upper body weight training at Planet Fitness when we get back home, spinning intervals

(I would love to just run, run, run on the beach all those days but I gotta run smart!)

**Indulge when it's worth it!

• For me, eating healthy throughout the day makes me feel great. I don't mind eating my normal “boring” foods for breakfast and lunch. Those foods give me a lot of energy for my training, and just make me feel good! But on vacation, I love indulging at dinnertime. I love getting dressed up and going out to eat. I'll have a fancy drink, a yummy dinner, even dessert! That's where I like to splurge. And I totally plan to!

So now my friends, I know I am not the only one who plans out their food and workout schedule for vacation. Or maybe I am, and you're all sitting at your computers snickering at me to just let go of control for one little vacation? But like I said, I do like to indulge- that's one of the great parts about vacation! But I don't want to indulge all day or I will feel like crap.

Section 2

Okay, I am back from vacation and I'm going to grade myself on my healthy and not-so-healthy behaviors on vacation!

The Pros: 

• Besides eating a piece of French toast one morning at breakfast, I ate the healthy foods I brought along on the trip for breakfast and lunch. I love French toast, though, so it was worth it! Other than that, I ate chicken breast, fruit, Greek yogurt, proatmeal (oatmeal with protein powder mixed in), and my cereal. Oh, and a sausage egg white sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts. It was from their "smart" menu. It's very healthy except for the sodium content!

• I did every workout I planned. Woohoo! I knew that would be easy, though. I love training.

• We did a TON of walking over the course of the three days we were gone. I was more active on vacation than I would have been at home.

The Cons: 

• I ate my fair share of junk for dinner and dessert. Wednesday night it was pizza, 3 mixed drinks, a huge cinnamon bun that my husband only managed to get one bite of, and Pringles. Thursday it was another slice of pizza and a huge Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard. (Not an actual Blizzard because it wasn't from DQ, but it was the equivalent.) 

• I felt guilty about what I ate. And that is the biggest con of all. I planned to indulge at dinner and dessert, I did indulge, but then instead of just owning it, I felt guilt. Why can't I just eat what I want on vacation and not feel bad about it afterwards?

How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle on vacation?

Do you ever feel guilty about indulging?

Life Without The Internet - 2.5 days felt like a LIFETIME!

Are you addicted to the internet????

As the years go by, it's obvious people are slowly getting more addicted to the internet. Think about it. I bet you can't even go out to dinner with friends without someone updating their Facebook with a “check in”. People announce the most mundane things on Facebook.... “Just got up”.... “Goin to bed”.... “Just burnt some toast...” I'm sure smart phones are a big element of this addiction phenomenon. We are provided instant internet access anytime and anywhere! That's one of the reasons I don't have a smart phone yet... I spend enough time online, I don't need to start bringing it with me places! I already spend enough  time on the internet.

I knew I relied heavily on the internet, but things really became ABUNDANTLY clear a few days ago. We were on a 3 day vacation in which we had NO INTERNET ACCESS. (Both places we were staying had wireless internet access but the wireless card in my laptop is broke so... no internet!)It was tough- especially since I didn't know I wouldn't have access and could not prepare myself mentally for the change of lifestyle.

Messing around on the internet is the first thing I do in the morning and it's the last thing I do to unwind before bed. I blog and I'm active on Facebook, so obviously I spend a couple hours online each day. Even during the school year, it is a key part of lesson planning and a lot of my music classes incorporate websites, music, and Youtube videos. Teachers communicate with each other via email. We communicate with parents via email. Grades are done online. The internet is how I get my news, entertainment, weather, directions, phone numbers... everything! It's my main source of information.

Boy did I wish I had a smart phone on this vacation. But I survived almost three days without checking my daily blogs, catching up on Facebook, visiting message boards, and checking the news. It. was. rough. I felt very disconnected from the outside world! I was so worried I'd miss the naming of the royal baby when I was supposed to be having fun and relaxing on vacation!

Source

Here's how it all went down...

Wednesday:

When we arrived in our room in Atlantic City and realized we had no internet access, my husband and I looked at each other with fallen faces that clearly asked, “Now what!?” It was as if our whole vacation was ruined. Never mind the fact that there were a ton of fun things to do in our hotel and down on the boardwalk. We didn't have internet! It was a disaster! We would just have to do without. We figured out where to go for dinner by walking around, not by looking it up online. For the weather, we checked the weather channel. I felt disconnected and was pretty worried about how I was going to post my blog the next day...

Thursday:

I just HAD to post my blog Thursday morning, so I went to the hotel's business center and spent 50 cents per minute so I could deliver my blog about planks. I had to swipe my credit card into the computer to do this, and now some third party is probably stealing my identity. You're welcome. Hope you liked the plank post.

Next, we headed to Ocean City, New Jersey for one night. This is where our GPS came in very handy. We needed to find a Dunkin' Donuts, a good place for ice cream and a pharmacy... the GPS took care of that for us, thanks goodness! Otherwise, we would have had to use the “drive around” method as our condo did not have a phone book.

Seriously, without a phone book or the internet, how were we supposed to figure these things out!?

Friday:

How was I to post my blog this morning!? There's no "internet cafe" or what have you in OCNJ. I was panicked. Luckily, I have a younger brother who is pretty computer savvy, so I sent him a 2,000 character text message with detailed instructions on how to publish my blog and share it on Facebook. I owe him one!

When we got home Friday night to our lovely home with internet access, it was like the world was right again. I caught up on the weather, the blogs I read, message boards, my news sites... Once I was completely caught up (around 2am) I breathed a sigh of relief. While I didn't miss anything earth shattering by being unplugged for a few days, I did miss somethings...

- Juror B-29 spoke out about the Zimmerman trial verdict.

- Kaitlin got evicted from the Big Brother house. (She deserved it.)

- Anthony Weiner continued being a weiner. (He keeps getting slimier and slimier!!)

- The Royal Baby was named George. (Not a fan.)

   

To sum it all up....

What is the moral to my story? I'm not sure there is one, other than I found out that I thoroughly rely on the internet for many, many, many things in my life. I don't think this is totally a bad thing. I thrive on information, and I love googling answers to all the random questions I think up during the day. I do check a lot of news sites, and do all my trip planning online.

Yet I get sucked into time wasters... like Facebook and message boards. I should really do something productive instead... like weed and clean out the shed.

Are you addicted to the internet? 

Could you survive 3 days being unplugged?

Am I the only person who doesn't have a smart phone?

"Weekend" Wrap Up – Atlantic City and Ocean City, NJ

This isn't a wrap up of our weekend, because if I told you about our actual weekend, you would be very bored. Instead, I will tell you about or Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! . We had another mini vacation planned: 1 night in Atlantic City and 2 nights in OCNJ!

Let's get it started!

Wednesday

Wednesday was our day/night in Atlantic City. The drive there isn't bad at all. It's way better than driving down to the Delaware beaches or OCMD. And we only almost died on the turnpike once! (A bus started merging into my lane and I had to slam on my breaks so it didn't hit us.) Luckily, we rolled up to the Trump Taj Mahal just before check in, all in one piece.

A couple of things about the Taj...

1. It's HUGE!!!! We weren't sure how to even navigate around the joint at first. It's more than just a hotel. There are several casino floors, many restaurants and shops, ball rooms, banquet facilities, auditoriums... And everything was so blinky. I mean, one slot machine looked just like another, so it got a little confusing!

The Taj likes to decorate with fake bamboo.

2. The Taj (and AC in general) is a great place to people watch. You had a granny with her afghan at a slot machine, a family with 4 kids walking around barefoot and sandy with all their beach supplies, and then a weird middle aged guy with a ponytail holding hands with a girl who could not have been more than nineteen (gross!!!!). Bottom line: There were lots of normal people (like me and Paul haha!) and then there was the freak show.

3. Our room was GORGEOUS! The wall facing the ocean was wall-to-wall-floor-to-ceiling windows. And we were very high up- the 93^rd floor. Not the actual 93^rd floor. They labeled the floors as such so you felt higher up (I'm guessing!). It was actually more like the 35^th floor. Even so, I was not comfortable standing closer than 2 feet from those windows. It gave me the heebie-jeebies!!!

Crazy windows!  

Christmas would love this room!

We had an awesome view of the ocean!

We were so freaking high up!

Double sinks! SCORE!

Fancy shower!

4. If you ever stay at the Taj, be prepared to WALK. I figure we probably walked a total of 2-3 miles just maneuvering around the building during the one day we were there. That was fine with me! Any excuse to get in some unstructured exercise is a bonus!

So after we explored the property a bit, we decided to get ready and go out for a fancy dinner. We dined at Il Mulino, an Italian restaurant. This is the type of place where they actually place your napkin on your lap for you. We don't go out to eat a lot, and when we do, it's definitely not somewhere like Il Mulino, but I wanted to DRESS UP!

I had magherita pizza and Paul had ravioli. I also had the. most. amazing. dirty. martini. ever. I think it may have had to do with the fact that it was made with Grey Goose.

Next, we decided to take a stroll on the boardwalk. The AC boardwalk is huge. We walked at least two miles and didn't even cover the whole thing. I took off my insanely high Vera Wang for Kohl's platform pumps and slipped my tootsies into flip flops for this excursion. Both shoes are bad for plantar fasciitis in their own ways, but there was no way I was going to wear my running shoes with my cute dress! Beauty, my friends, is sometimes painful!

Note: The hot items on the AC boardwalk this year are knock off Michael Kohrs handbags, shady looking massage parlors, and bongs. Yes, you read that correctly. BONGS. Boy did they have a ton of bong stores. Each store had a sign that clearly stated these devices were “FOR TOBACCO USE ONLY.” Yeah. Right.

Oh, and this was the new graphic tank that everyone was wearing:

Source

If you know what it means, let me know, because we are stumped.

(Other than that it sort of looks like an infinity sign. But what's with the anchor?)

We were so tired from walking the boardwalk that we almost paid one of those rickshaw guys to wheel us back to our hotel but we felt too guilty about it. Most of them were like 60 years old. No way would I feel good about having a 60 year old push our able bodied asses back to the Taj.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot! Ten minutes after we stepped onto the boardwalk, I got puhpped on by a seagull! Right on my toes! (Remember, I changed into flip flops! At least it didn't get my Vera Wangs!) It was disgusting. Then, on the way back to our hotel, when I was wishing we were getting pushed on a rickshaw, I noticed Paul had got puhpped on too! Right on the back of his new linen shirt from Kohl's! Freaking seagulls puhpping everywhere!!

I got puhpped on!

So did Paul!

They're coming to puhp on you!

Once we got back to the hotel, I put my Vera Wangs back on and we went barhopping in the casino. For us, bar hopping means going to two different bars. Paul got to try an IPA he never had and I got to enjoy my very first Cosmo and another Grey Goose dirty martini. Now, having more than one drink in the evening is VERY out of character for me and believe me, I paid for it the next morning. When I have more than one (even if it is over the course of HOURS, like tonight), I get a yucky feeling in my stomach and very, very, thirsty. I also develop and aversion to coffee. (Why couldn't I develop an aversion to ice cream!?) Luckily, the yucky feeling only lasts an hour or two and then I'm back to normal. BAM!

You're probably wondering when I'm going to get to the  gambling part. Guess what! We didn't gamble at all! I thought maybe my husband would play poker or something, but we didn't! However, we had a ton of fun, so even if you don't gamble, it's still fun staying at a casino. There is a lot of other stuff to do. Like drink Grey Goose.

Thursday

Thursday morning was dreary and drizzly. It was chilly too! I had my workout all planned out, though. I was going to run 3 miles on the beach and then do two deck of cards workouts. I figured it would be pretty fun to workout on the beach.

Wrong.

The Atlantic City beach is disgusting. That morning, the boardwalk smelled like trash, and the beach was full of cigarette butts. Luckily, I brought a towel, but it was still pretty gross. It was the yuckiest beach workout ever! As I was running along the water and smelling the fresh trash from the boardwalk, I remembered  an awesome beach run I did this past December. I was running on the beach in Delaware with my mother-in-law. It was cold, but the sun was so bright. It was magical. The total opposite of my AC beach run!

Oh well, not every workout is going to be great, even at the beach.

Thursday was our day to head down to OCNJ. We checked out of our hotel around noon, and then made the short drive to OCNJ. We had hoped to get in a beach day, but it was still dreary and only 68 degrees. We settled into our condo, which ended up being pretty lackluster compared to The Taj. (Let's just say I found a toenail on the sofa.) Even though it was dreary, it didn't take long to decide what to do. We headed up to the boardwalk to do some walking, people watching, and grab dinner.

I'm happy to report that for dinner I had the biggest, thinnest slice of cheese pizza that had just the perfect amount of grease on it. It was SO DELICIOUS. The wind was blowing all kinds of yummy food smells towards us but the pizza was drawing us in. Man, pizza twice in two days? I can't even remember the last time I had pizza since this vacation!

We finished the night with some yummy ice cream from Johnny B. Goode's Ice Cream Parlor. Pizza and ice cream... I can't think of a better beach dinner!

Friday

Friday morning was gorgeous! We could tell it was going to be an awesome day to spend on the beach. We went out for breakfast at The Bloomin' Tulip (our go-to breakfast place in OCNJ) and then packed up our cooler and hit the beach! 

I spent the first 50 minutes on the beach doing 2 very difficult deck of cards workouts. All I needed was a towel and my cards! Here's how it went down:

Workout 1:

Hearts- burpees (Have you ever done them in the sand? It adds a whole new element of difficulty!)

Diamonds- sit ups

Spades- jump squats

Clubs- push ups

Aces- run to the bathhouse and back (1 block each way)

Workout 2:

Hearts- run to the fence and back (not sure how far away it was... not too far!)

Diamonds- bicycles

Spades- lunge switches (Also freaking hard in the sand!)

Clubs- mountain climbers

Aces- 15 burpees 

I was going to do some planks after all this but I was too hot and tired! Instead, I changed into my bathing suit and jumped in the ocean! Then, I spent the next couple hours just chilling on the beach with my hubby. It was perfect!

Now, we were supposed to spend one more night in OCNJ and go home Saturday morning, but we decided to hit the road Friday night for several reasons.

1. We would beat the Saturday morning traffic.

2. We're homebodies! We couldn't wait to sleep in our own bed!

3. We couldn't wait to see our cats!

4. It would be nice to have a full day on Saturday to just chill and do whatever we wanted.

We made it home safe and sound. There were 3 kitties who were SO HAPPY to see us!

This an an old pic, but one of the few we have of all 3 cats together.
They did run up to the door when we got home!

I love vacation, but I love being at home, too. It's good to be back!

This was the only picture we took in OCNJ. It's an alligator made out of sea shells.
Our condo had "interesting" decorations...

I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!

Falling-jawnpiece: Weekend Wrap Up- Part II

What a weekend! Let me catch you up on the second day of our little birthday trip. Don't forget to read Part I!

Day #2 - Fallingwater

If you ever find yourself in the western part of the state, I highly recommend you swing by Mill Run and take a tour of Fallingwater. Actually, there is really no way to "swing by" Mill Run. It's out in the middle of nowhere. I think the closest "city" is Somerset- about 35 minutes away.

You may as well make a trip of it and visit the Laurel Highlands. There are lots of places to camp, or you can sleep in luxury, like we did. Ohiopyle State Park is right nearby, and apparently, it is one of the best in PA. In fact, we were actually going to bike there on the Great Allegheny Passage before going home but we were too tired.

My point is, if Fallingwater is on your list of places to see, it is so worth it! I'm not going to go into the details and history about the home because you know how to google, but I will post a ton of pictures from our trip and sort of give you an idea of at least the outside of the home. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside.

The tour itself was fascinating. The guides knew a lot about not only the architecture of the house, but the reason things were designed and decorated in certain ways. Also, we learned a lot about the family who lived there, and the reasons they wanted the house to be set up a certain way. 

Okay, here is what I can show you in pictures!

We just turned onto Mill Run Rd.

This is the road you follow once you enter the gates.

Indeed.

What a wonderful birthday present from a wonderful husband!

In honor of Frank Lloyd Wright's "organic" style of architecture, the Visitors Center 

and Cafe merge and become one with it's natural surroundings.

Heading down to the house! It's about a quarter mile walk.

The walk is very pretty! I wanted to go on a trail run on the grounds so bad!

There it is!

The house sits directly on top of a waterfall and is basically built into the earth. It becomes

part of the landscape. Those stairs look weird, but if you go up them, there is a hatch

that opens into the living room. Sort of like a ship. So from the living room, you could

go down the steps and sit at the bottom and dangle your feet into Bear Run creek.

On the bridge, ready for our tour!

This would look awesome in my parent's garden!

Just as you were about to enter the house, there was this little bath with soap 

hanging from the stone wall! So cute!

AT THIS POINT WE STARTED THE TOUR AND WERE NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PICTURES INSIDE THE HOUSE. IF YOU WANT TO SEE PICTURES OF THE INSIDE, YOU KNOW HOW TO GOOGLE!

 After we exited the servant's quarters (shown) we were allowed to take pictures.

The terrace just off the living room.

I believe this terrace was right off Edgar Kauffman Sr.'s bedroom.

My handsome hubby in front of Bear Run.

And his lovely wife.

On the short trail walk to get a view of the house, I couldn't wait to swing my purse around!

In the house, they were VERY STRICT about holding your purse IN FRONT of you,

not beside you under your arm. I got reprimanded as soon as I stepped in the door regarding

this rule, even though I had it very tight against my body.  I really don't take up that much space and my purse probably added 1/2 an inch to the width of my body. I don't get it!? 

The infamous view of Fallingwater through the trees.

Thank you, Paul, for a wonderful birthday present! "They" say you are supposed to spend your money not on THINGS, but on EXPERIENCES. I firmly agree!

Did you know Angelina Jolie took Brad Pitt on a tour of Fallingwater for his birthday!?

It was a private tour, of course, and she sent in for champagne and caviar to enjoy in the living room.

I said it at the beginning of this post, but I will say it again. If Fallingwater is on your list of places to visit, make sure you go. You will absolutely love it! I would move there if I could. Christmas, Jelly, and Basic would love all the windows. I'd host game nights on the terraces. Paul could turn the servant's quarters into a man cave.

It sounds like heaven to me. :o)