Asians Know Food

If I had to pick a favorite type of cuisine, it would definitely be "Asian."  I love all types of Asian food, whether it's Thai, Chinese, Korean, or Japanese.  I love it all!!!  One of my "must-eats" on any trip is to find a good Asian restaurant.  When we were planning our honeymoon trip to San Francisco last fall, I was so excited to experience Chinatown.  I read up on all of the good Dim Sum places to try out and finally settled on one that the guidebook said was good for novices.  I was definitely a novice at Dim Sum.  Minnesota has so many wonderful Chinese restaurants, but Dim Sum is not a big thing here. 

After walking around Chinatown all morning, we finally found the restaurant that the guidebook promised would be "excellent for novices."  We figured that 11:00 a.m. would be a good time to avoid the lunch crowd who would all be making fun of us because we didn't know how to order off the carts properly.  At 11:00 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, however, the restaurant was packed to the gills.  We were quickly lead to an empty table, and immediately the carts were rolling towards us.  The first cart that came to our table had the daily special, which was covered with a silver dome.  The cart driver pointed at a covered plate and asked if we wanted to try the special.  We had just sat down and had not come up with a pre-Dim Sum game plan, so instead of looking at the cart's offering we just nodded our heads and before we knew it this was plopped down in front of us:

This was our first tactical error (I'm talking about the seafood special dish and not the pork buns).  We did not really know what the dish was, and it ended up being flavorless and kind of icky.  It was also expensive.  I think it was around $17-$20, although they never actually tell you how much something cost at a Dim Sum.  They just stamp your ticket and then bring you a final bill at the end. 

After the seafood cart rolled away, Mike and I had a quick tactical discussion.  We only wanted dishes that looked appetizing and wanted to get mostly appetizers with no more main dishes.  At some point during that discussion the pork bun cart driver rolled by and I almost tackled him to get a plate.

After we got situated, the carts rolled fast and furious.  Soon we were inundated with delicious looking dishes and we had a table full of food.  I mean it.  Here was our table:

As we looked around at the other patrons' tables, we realized that most people just had one or two dishes on their tables and we looked like little piggies at the casino buffet.  It was embarrassing.

Our second tactical error was not telling the cart drivers "no" or "come back later."  Instead, we packed our table so full of food that there was no way we could finish it all.  I think once you start saying yes to everything, word spreads that you are suckers and then every cart comes to your table.  I think the pork bun cart came to our table 4 times. 

The real problem with this, besides wasting food, is that you have no idea what you are spending because none of the dishes are marked with a price.  I'm sure you could ask, but we didn't.  Our final bill was over $50!  Even in San Francisco, that is a lot to spend at lunch for two people.  We didn't even have booze.

I'm not sure that the restaurant we went to was good for the novice Dim Sum person, so I won't even name it.  There were tons of Dim Sum restaurants, and I think that anywhere you go you will probably have a good dining experience.  Unless you are a Dim Sum expert I would suggest going into a larger restaurant that looks like it has a good variety of food to choose from. 

My favorite dishes from the lunch were the aforementioned buns and the ribs and pot stickers:

I was somewhat disappointed in my first Dim Sum experience, but I think a lot of the disappointment came from how overwhelmed I felt while dining and the large price tag that the lunch had.  Next time I do Dim Sum I will go in with a better game plan and be firm in telling the cart drivers when I don't want something before our table gets loaded up again.  It was a fun life lesson and I don't regret going, it just wasn't my favorite meal in San Francisco.

A Home in Charleston

Out of all of the cities in the United States that I have visited, Charleston, South Carolina, continues to be my absolute favorite.  There was something magical about the city that I cannot quite put my finger on.  I loved being by the water and watching the sailboats; I loved the food; I loved the historic character of the city; I loved touring all of the preserved homes and learning their history; I even loved the heat.  It was hot as balls in Charleston.  We visited in August, which was not the brightest idea I've ever had.  I distinctly remember the last day of our trip as being the hottest of them all.  We were going to walk quite a distance to get to an old house that you could tour and I figured that we'd just leave earlier in the morning before the heat really set in.  We left around 8:15 A.M. and the second you stepped outside, the sweat started trickling down your forehead.  That's real heat. 

When I was researching hotels for our stay in Charleston, I had one requirement.  That requirement was that the hotel MUST have a pool.  I could not imagine being in Charleston without a pool.  Surprisingly, there are not many hotels with pools in Charleston due to the historic nature of the city.  I did find one, The Mills House Hotel, which we booked immediately and then never once went to the pool.  We spent our afternoons napping in the air-conditioned room instead of being outside.  This is what happens when northerners visit the south in the summer.

The Mills House Hotel was a fabulous choice even though we did not use their pool.  Here's a look at the outside of the hotel:

The hotel itself has a rich historical background and it's pink.  I loved staying in a cute, pink hotel.  The rooms were a bit small, but comfortable.  While they were nothing super fancy, I thought they were clean and the A/C worked like a charm.  That's all you really need in Charleston.  Here's a view of the room     

Mike always jumps on the hotel bed before I can snap a picture.  There he is lounging right after check-in.  I think he does this because he knows that my travel itineraries rarely leave room for rest and relaxation. 

 

We never ate at the hotel, but we did enjoy a few cocktails in the hotel bar.  The bartenders there made a stiff drink!  Here I am on our first night enjoying a Campari soda.  The bar had kind of a cool Havana vibe with large chairs and these huge palm leaf fans. 

 

The most appealing part of the hotel was the great location.  We did not rent a car in Charleston, so ended up walking everywhere.  The Mills House Hotel was close to the water and close to Broad and close to King Streets.  It was easy to walk everywhere we wanted to go as the hotel is right in the heart of the city.  Normally, when we travel to a large city we do not rent a car.  I think that when we go back to Charleston in the future, I would rent a car because there are a lot of things to do outside of the city that we couldn't get to without taking a cab.  The hotel was great about setting up cabs for its guests, but cab rides add up.

 

I would give the Mills House Hotel 4 out of 5 stars.  I think the rooms could use a little updating and the pillows weren't the fluffiest, but I was able to sleep just fine.

The Luxury of Sky Clubs

One of the absolute worst parts of traveling is airport food.  When I'm excited and stressed about getting to the airport for a trip, the last thing I'm thinking about is food.  I often get all checked-in for a flight and realize that I'm starving.  Then I spend $15 for a bagel and diet coke only to realize when I get to my flight gate that they forgot to give me cream cheese.  I end up eating a dry bagel that tastes like it was made four days prior.

One of my bestest gal pals' mother works for Delta.  Every now and again I have been able to get passes for Delta's luxurious Sky Club and it has been such a treat.  Delta's Sky Club is somewhat pricey for a year membership, $700 for a joint one-year pass.  I don't travel near enough to justify the cost of a year membership.  They do, however, offer day passes at $50/per pass.  I'm not sure that I would get a day pass for a domestic flight, but if I was traveling international, $50 is worth it. 

For me, the best part about the Sky Club is being able to carve out your own little space while waiting for your flight.  The Club has a lot of tables, small couches, and other seating that is quiet, somewhat private, and most importantly close to an electronic outlet to charge your phone, kindle, ipad, etc.  This is KEY at an airport.  I will sit four gates away from where my flight is taking off just to get a seat close to an outlet. 

The second best part about the Sky Club is the unlimited and free access to food and beverages.  When Mike and I went on our honeymoon last fall, we had to be at the airport at 4:30 A.M.  TERRIBLE!  We had Sky Club passes and an hour to wait before our flight.  We were able to nab breakfast, some snacks for the flight, and Diet Coke.  There is no shame in a Diet Coke at 5:00 A.M.

As you can see from the picture, I was able to get a bagel (with cream cheese), a mini muffin and a small scone.  I also grabbed a couple of pieces of fruit and had 2 (okay, maybe 3) glasses of the good stuff.  The Club also offered many types of cereal, yogurt, granola, hot breakfast sandwiches, and other pastries.  It got our morning off to the best start and made us feel relaxed and prepared for our flight. 

It used to be that you could serve your own drinks, but now you have to ask a server behind the bar to pour you something.  I really preferred the self-serve soda machines.  Back in the day, (i.e. a few years ago) you could actually pour yourself an ice cold beer and get good and liquored up for FREE.  I think you could also just grab mini bottles of alcohol and wine.  I may have heard a story about a group of guys filling up Nalgene bottles of Heineken before a flight to Las Vegas all while wearing leisure suits and large sunglasses.  Boys!

All in all, the Sky Club makes flying feel like it did in the golden age.  Fancy and customer-oriented are things you no longer find in the flying experience, but it's nice to indulge in them every now and again.  

Welcome Back and Magic Carpets of Aladdin

I took a hiatus.  It was a good way to refocus and recharge, like a vacation.  The vacation got longer and longer and finally I realized that it was going to be more difficult to get back to blogging than I thought.  I do, however, miss my creative writing outlet and decided to get back to semi-regular posting with a new theme.  Nothing makes me happier than traveling.  I just love it and love seeing and experiencing new places and things.  Whenever I'm out of town I feel like I'm a grand adventurer.  I wanted to bring that feeling to the blog, so for now I'm going to be more focused on my traveling explorations, advice, and funny stories.  Plus, I just got back from two amazing trips in May (one to New Orleans and one to Washington D.C.) and will probably get two more in before the end of the year (possibly Denver and a fall colors tour of Maine).  So, I will have lots to share with you! 

I love hearing about other people's travel adventures and tips and I hope that this blog will get me back to my happy place.  And for those fans who loved my "Random Acts of Douchebaggery" segment, never fear.  RAD's are staying.  Not only do I need this blog to be a place of fun and lightness, but occasionally I need it as a place to vent.

Without further ado, we are back to the place where my true vacation expertise lies, Walt Disney World. 

When you get into the heart of Adventureland you will find yourself in a clusterfudge of people, strollers, flying water and The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.  This ride is in the weirdest place.  Normally the WDW planners are really great at flow.  There aren't a lot of human bottlenecks in the parks, and if there is a jam-up it's usually for a reason.  So, maybe that is the case here, that there's a reason for the placement of this ride.  However, every time I come upon this obnoxious spitting camel, I feel like the ride is terribly out of place.

The Magic Carpets are your run of the mill circular kiddie ride.  You know the ones, you climb into your little car and the arm lifts you up into the air and you ride in a circle for a few minutes.  It's the kind of thing that little kids squeal at and adults can feel the breeze in their face.  So, it's pretty boring and basic until...

...Imagine, there you are enjoying  your dumb old circle ride when you get smacked in the face by a shot of water.  This is what can happen to you on The Magic Carpets.  You see, down on the ground level, the other guests can pay a quarter to put into a golden camel and aim it at the flying carpets.  They press a trigger button and the camel spits at  you.  It's really weird and kind of obnoxious.  Maybe I'm a party pooper, but I revert right back to my junior high self feeling like I'm being picked on by cooler kids.

I wish I could get out of my own head sometimes and think that being "spit" on by a camel while riding a magic carpet is fun, but I don't.  I just don't. 

This is one of those rides that I tend to avoid.  I realize, however, that it's not actually a terrible ride, so I'm giving it 3/5 or 6/10 stars. 

Things I Don't Understand

I am officially a crazy dog owner.  I embrace it by posting photos of my dog on the blog all the time.  It's just...that face...that face makes me happy.

Here are some things that don't make me happy, work edition.

• Lunch hour meetings.  I flipping hate when people schedule meetings or trainings over the noon hour.  I work a full day, from 8:00 to noon and 1:00 to 4:30 I am at my boss' leisure.  I have to do what they say when they say.  But that noon hour is MINE.  I like to online shop, read my kindle, make phone calls and sometimes just zone out for that one hour.  I feel like I need that hour.  My work is in the process of going paperless and so have been scheduling several mandatory trainings and meetings over the lunch hour.  Attendance has been low, so now they are enticing people with pizza and cookies.  Which almost makes it worst to me because I don't want to eat pizza and cookies for lunch. 
• Misuse/No use of Email.  I don't talk a ton about what I do.  The easy answer is that I am an attorney.  One would think that being an attorney means you are working with people who are really professional with their use of communication.  If you think that, you would be wrong.  I have realized that lawyering is a profession many people do well past the normal retirement age.  Many times I have had to contact a fellow attorney only to find out that they don't use email.  WTF.  This is unacceptable.  The real kicker is that these same people often don't use voicemail either.  So, to get in touch with them, you have to call their office and have their secretary write down the message on a cave wall.
• Fridays.  Seriously, does anyone work on Fridays?  Even if you are at work, are you really working?  On Friday afternoons, my office place looks like the scene of a wild west movie.  Last Friday I swear I saw some tumbleweed rolling down the hallway.  Sometimes I wonder what the point is.  Even if I wanted to do work myself, since no one else is at work I can't achieve much.  Although, it never fails that on Friday at about 4:00 P.M. someone calls with an "emergency." 
• Co-worker happy hours.  This is kind of an old bag moment for me.  When I was younger, I liked the happy hours.  Now that I'm old, I just want to go home after work.  I'm not trying to be anti-social, but I spend at least 40 hours a week with my coworkers.  I don't need another few hours on a Wednesday night.  I want to see my family, my husband, my dog, my friends.  I want to put on pajama pants and watch my tivo.  Happiest hours I know happen with my pajamas, a couch, a glass of wine and the tivo.  I would be remiss not to mention the fact that my marriage was started by a work happy hour. 

Does this make it sound like I need a vacation?

San Francisco Side Trip

When Mike and I were driving from San Francisco to Sonoma, we decided to make an impromptu pit stop.  I had been reading about the Muir Woods National Park and thought it might be fun to see the great Redwoods of California.  Holy Cannoli, this decision did not disappoint. 

The road to get to the park is a little windy and narrow, but it offers some amazing views of the forest.  The worst part is that we were relying on my GPS system to get us to and from the park, but once you get into the woods, you lose all cell phone service.  So this wouldn't be a place to go on a first date or with someone that you think hates you. 

When you get into the park there are boardwalks all through the redwood trees, so even if you are an inexperienced hiker you can still enjoy the forest.  There were tons of different paths you could take.  I think we could have walked for hours.

It's also extremely quiet in the woods.  There was a light sound of water rushing and these gorgeous rays of sun that were piercing down through the tree canopy.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  I am not much of a nature girl, but I started to feel one with the trees.

And just how big are the trees, you ask?  It's hard to put it into perspective, but if I were a tree hugger, I couldn't get my arms around one.  There were some fallen tree trunks that you could look at and they were impressive.  Here's the best photo that I could get of an entire redwood.

The leaves were huge, although I have baby feet, so maybe it's just that my feet are really small. 

There were also so many weird tree formations in the forest.  I couldn't get enough of the bright green moss that was covering these awkwardly bent tree trunks.  Here are my two favorites:

If you find yourself in San Fran, take a little side trip to the Muir Woods for some peace and beauty.  I left these woods feeling refreshed and clear headed.  It's amazing what a little nature can do for you!

Frugality

I am not a cheap person.  I like to indulge, oh boy, can I indulge.  My love for indulging has forced me to realize that if I want to indulge, I have to be frugal.  One of the top lessons I have learned as an adult is that I have to prioritize my expenses.  Would I rather have a new Louis Vuitton purse or go on a second vacation in a year?  Would I rather have a new fence installed in my backyard or go out to a grand dinner at a new hotspot?  You know you are an old person when your answer is: Fence!!  I want the fence!

Here are some of my favorite lessons on how to be frugal without being a cheap ass:

1.  Energy Saving = Money Saving.  Duh, right.  I remember when I was in elementary school they did this whole "energy awareness" thing where they  handed out books about a girl whose parents got mad at her because she always left lights on and left the water running when she was brushing her teeth.  What a bitch!  Now that I pay my own energy bills, I have converted all of my lights to CFL bulbs and try to keep lights off as much as possible.  Candlelight is so much more soothing.  I also turn the heat and air conditioning temps down (or up) at night and during the day while we are gone.  Right now, our heat goes down to 62 degrees at night and during the day and up to 68 degrees when we are at home in the evening and on weekends.  During the winter, this saves us about $50 per month.  Another thing that I try to do is unplug appliances when not in use.  This is one of those things that I often forget about, but apparently it can make a difference in your energy bill.  I've never noticed a huge difference when I've done this, though.

2. Desk lunch.  Bringing a lunch to work can be a real drag.  Sometimes I just don't feel like packing anything up and other days I just don't want to eat anything that we have in the house.  When I started wedding planning, I knew that I had to save money somehow and I resolved to only go out for lunch once a week.  I've stuck to this for at least a year and have to say that I can see the difference in my savings account.  It's still a struggle some days.  Eating at your desk can be lonely.  I live for that one day when I get to go to a restaurant and socialize.

3. Credit Card Rewards.  There are lots of credit card rewards programs that offer shoppers little incentives.  My credit card allows you to earn points towards travel vouchers or restaurant/clothing store/gas station gift certificates.  There are the famous airline credit cards for frequent fliers.  My husband's credit card has an amazing reward that for every $2500 you spend and pay off you get a $25 gift card.  We usually use these gift cards on our grocery bills and the combination of those gift cards and our wedding gift cards, we have paid maybe $20/week for groceries for the past three months.  It's definitely worth investigating all of the different reward programs to see if one will work for you.

4.  Pre-gift buying.  I start thinking about gift-giving way in advance of the celebration day.  For Christmas, I keep a list of people I need to buy for and ideas.  I usually start looking at this list in September and try to have ideas for everyone by October 1.  That way I can try to find the items on sale or take advantage of coupons.  I usually can get really great gifts on a limited budget.  I also utilize websites such as Rue La La and Groupon to stock up on gifts for birthdays or other occasions.  Having a stockpile of fun gifts for people makes my life a lot easier.

5.  Ebates.  If you don't use ebates, you are selling yourself short.  Har har.  Seriously, though, ebates is amazing.  Go to ebates.com and sign up if you don't have an account with them.  There are hundreds of retail websites that use ebates and they each have a different percentage off.  So, if I want to buy something at JCrew, I got to ebates first, search for JCrew and go to the JCrew website through the ebates site.  Currently the JCrew website gets 3.0% cash back.  After you make your purchase, your ebates account is credited.  Every four months, a check is sent to your home with the total of your cash back.  After Christmas this year, I received $85 cash back because I did all of my shopping online.  It really pays off, as long as you don't forget to go to the ebates website first before you start your online shopping.  I have forgotten this dozens of times!

6.  Track your spending.  I don't really budget, but I have a set dollar amount that I want to save each month.  I then track every penny spent on a spreadsheet so that I can make sure I can save my goal.  For me, this makes me think about each purchase that I make.  Before I splurge on something, or even before I buy a $10 frame at Target, I have to stop and think about whether I really want it or whether I'd rather see an extra $10 saved that month. 

7.  Big box stores.  When Mike and I moved in together, we talked about getting a Sam's Club membership.  One of the big arguments against it was that why do two people need to buy things in bulk?  Eventually we got a membership and it has saved us a lot of money.  We buy all of our cleaning supplies, household necessities and more packaged foods (like oatmeal, granola bars, nuts, spices) at Sam's.  They are ridiculously cheaper than at other stores.  Plus, it saves me from a lot of extra trips to Target.  I used to have to go to Target at least once a week for some household item, now I go to Sam's maybe once a month. 

8.  Spare change.  Mike and I have a central spot where we dump our spare change.  It's a big tupperware bowl in our spare bedroom.  Once that sucker gets full we take it to the bank and cash it in.  Usually it's about $70+ and we maybe take it to the bank twice a year.  What we've done in the past is take it in right before we go on a vacation and use it as spending money. 

Those are my (not so) original ways that I save my pennies.  The only thing I love more than watching my bank account grow is a chocolate frosted donut.