Archives for September 2015

Summer tales II – Grand Canyon NP

September 30, 2015 filed under: family, summer tales, travel, USA

I am recapping the wonderful times that I had with my family here in the States this summer. See all related posts under the category: summer tales.

Today (7/5) we had to get up early, because we were headed from San Diego to Las Vegas by airplane. We checked out of our hotel around 8 am, dropped everyone and the luggage off at the terminal and then my Dad and I returned the rental cars. We took a shuttle back to the terminal and then checked in for our 10:25 am flight.
Since we hadn’t had time to have breakfast, we bought coffee and bagels at the airport.

We touched down in Vegas shortly before noon and picked up two new rental cars – a Jeep Cherokee Latitude and a Nissan Pathfinder – and continued our travels on to the Grand Canyon.

We made it to Tusayan in 4,5 hours. We checked into our hotel, The Red Feather Lodge, and then decided to head into Grand Canyon National Park just in time for the sunset.

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

On our way back, we had to hurry to find a place where we could still get some dinner (yes, yes, we had a pretty busy agenda and everything was planned down to the minute – sort of), but were able to get Pizza and Wings at the “We Cook Pizza and Pasta” Restaurant before heading back to the hotel.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Canyon Plaza Resort (Tusayan doesn’t offer too much in terms of culinary experiences).

We checked out of our hotel and then headed back into the park. We parked close to the Visitor’s Center and used the shuttle bus to take us closer to the South Rim.

We didn’t have enough time to take any hikes down the canyon (it’s on my bucket list – one of these days!), but we hiked quite a bit along the trail and the kids participated in a “Junior Ranger”-activity where they received an activity book that they had to fill out and at the end were rewarded with a “Junior Ranger badge”. They were so proud.

We had a little bit of a late lunch break and left the park around 3 p.m. to continue on to Page, AZ. The weather was a little crazy… sun and rain and thunder and lightening, we saw it all.

You can read the previous post here.

September Favorites

September 28, 2015 filed under: monthly favorites

1. My Thinking Cup mug. I got this at the coffeeshop in Boston with the same name and I just love it. They exclusively brew Stumptown Coffee, so how can you not not love this place? This mug is a nice reminder of our visit in 2012.

2. Ritter Sport Dark Hazelnut – I am not a chocolate addict by any means (I prefer salty over sweet treats, usually), but “I would rather not have a piece of dark chocolate”… said nobody ever. (Ok maybe, my dad. He seriously does not like chocolate? I am not sure how that is even possible.) Anyway, this is delicious (and of course, German chocolate) and you want it in your life. It’s available at Trader Joe’s and Cost Plus World Markets.

3. Grove blood orange hand sanitizer (from ePantry) – it smells lovely.

4. Hexagon stamps from Studio L2E – I ordered these stamps a couple of weeks ago in a state of über-xcitement for my new 2016 planner and I am so in love with them. They’re great quality and I just have a thing for hexagons lately.

5. Apples – It’s officially fall (even though CA hasn’t gotten the memo yet) and while other people are all about everything-pumpkin in the fall, I am crazy for everything-apple. Give me all the apple overnight oats, apple muffins, apple pies, apple fritters, apple ciders, etc.

6. The Proposal – I just love this movie. It was on repeat on TV this month and I caught parts of it here and there. I’ve seen it so many times now, that I can almost lip-sync the whole thing. I think it’s witty, funny, and I love both Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. I also do own this one on DVD (which should tell you something, because I only buy a DVD if I really like a movie.

Summer tales II – San Diego

September 23, 2015 filed under: family, summer tales, travel, USA

I am recapping the wonderful times that I had with my family here in the States this summer. See all related posts under the category: summer tales.

After a restful night (3/7), we decided to have breakfast at Mimi’s Café in Anaheim before heading down to San Diego.
It turned out to be a good choice, because they had a delicious breakfast menu (with fresh croissants!) and we were able to score a table outside on their patio.

We had almost finished our breakfast and coffee when all of a sudden firemen came rushing through the restaurant asking everybody to leave immediately because there was a gas leak just outside the building and there was potential risk of an explosion.
Part of the road was already blocked off and cars were asked to turn around.

We walked away from the property, not really knowing where to go or how far to get away. Our cars were parked in the parking lot, so it’s not like we were able to just leave.

Also: we hadn’t paid our check yet.

So we hung out in a supposedly safe distance and waited for the permission to come back and at least get our car. Meanwhile, some of the waitressing staff walked away from the property too and when we asked them about our check (the honest person that I am), they told us to not worry about it and that the restaurant would take care of it.

Sweet. Free breakfast for everyone. Not a bad deal for a little bit of a scare. We were able to pick up our cars about 30 minutes later and then were off to San Diego.

Driving in Southern California is always on the crazy side…. so I wasn’t surprised it took us a while to get down there. We arrived at our hotel, The Crown Plaza, and first order of business was a couple of hours at the pool. The kids had earned that.

In the early evening, we drove to Downtown San Diego. After not being able to get a parking spot at Seaport Village (who’s surprised?), we parked near the convention center and walked to the Gaslamp Quarter from there. We had planned to eat at Fred’s Mexican Café (which we remembered from our last trip down there), but let it be known, it’s always wise to check the Internet if you haven’t been somewhere for a while. Lo and behold, the restaurant had moved and we had to revise our dinner plans. Of course, the Gaslamp Quarter on a Friday night is busy per usual and we had some difficulty finding a table for seven without an obnoxiously long wait time. (I swear, we always planned to eat early with the two kids, but it never quite worked out due to unforeseen circumstances.)

We ended up at “Operacaffe”, a small authentic Italian restaurant on a side street, where we were promised a table in about 20 minutes by the friendly hostess. It was already 7:30 pm and the kids were hungry and tired.

We waited 25 minutes, 30 minutes…. and finally after 45 minutes we were asked to come inside and were escorted to a table in the far corner of the restaurant.

There we sat and waited for another 20 minutes before a waiter took notice of us and took our order. The waiter apologized for the delay (it was pretty busy, I admit) and promised to get our order in right away, but cautioned us that it could be 30-45 minutes because the kitchen was so busy.

Well, you can guess it… the food came over an hour later. It was 9:45 p.m. at this point and we were just pissed. Greta had already fallen asleep on the bench.

The whole ordeal was really unfortunate, because the ambience was really nice and the food was authentic Italian, fresh and very tasty, but the service was awful.
I understand that it can get busy on the weekends, but a) I expect an established restaurant to be prepared for that and b) even for Europeans, who are used to longer wait times in restaurants, the wait time was just unreasonably long…. especially because we had two small kids in tow and they told us a time and then basically made us wait twice as long … that was just not cool.

They did try to make up for it with offering us (one) free dessert, but we were pretty fed up and just wanted to head back to the hotel. I should mention that they at least took a small amount off our final bill, which was accommodating, I guess, but the whole experience sadly was disappointing.

The highlight for the kids was that we actually saw a couple of racoons outside our hotel (rumaging through the garbage, of course). They thought they were so cute!

The next day was Independence Day (4/7). We purposefully had nothing planned for that day other than going to the beach and taking a relaxing day off from sightseeing and running around.
Unfortunately, we hadn’t really anticipated the craziness that is San Diego on a national holiday. We tried to find a place to have breakfast and everything was PACKED. We tried multiple places and couldn’t get a table anywhere, so we ended up driving further away from the city center and had breakfast at a Denny’s.
Not the experience that I wanted for my family (although the breakfast was actually quite good, I must say!), but the only place where we were still able to get breakfast after noon.

We tried to get to the beach afterwards, but we couldn’t find a single parking spot and the streets were PACKED everywhere. It was so frustrating.
We ended up driving around (and sitting in traffic) for two hours and then decided to just screw it and drove back to our hotel and hung out at the pool.
Again, not the experience I had hoped for. I had said so many great things about San Diego and was really looking forward to show my sister around, but we just didn’t anticipate the crowds of people on a holiday weekend. It was insane.

In the evening, we luckily were able to get a table at the Mexican Café that had moved away from the Gaslamp Quarter and was now located in walking distance to Oldtown. We had delicious Mexican food, margaritas and nachos and tacos.

We also explored Oldtown on foot afterwards.

We gave Seaport Village one more try in the evening in hopes of catching the Independence Day fireworks, but again, couldn’t find parking and ended up pulling over to the side of the road when the fireworks started. It was a little frustrating, to say the least. I wish my sister and BIL could have seen a different side of San Diego, because I don’t think they were really thrilled with the little that we were able to see of the city. But that’s why there is always a next time, am I right?

You can read the previous post here.

Currently | September

September 21, 2015 filed under: currently

crossing my fingers that HR will finally fix their mistake and make sure I get taxed as married, not single. It’s pay period 3 a.c. (after contract change) and they’re taking way more out of my paycheck than anticipated (and, of course, this kind of screw-up never works to your advantage. If I am lucky, I’ll see some of those dollars again when I do my taxes next year. Sigh.)

hoping for some rain to help with the fires that are burning around Northern California.

adjusting to the new iPhone font in iOS9. I am not really a fan of the new font yet… wish there was an option to change it.

loving the cute “but first – coffee” banner that my sweet friend and business partner made for me. I wish I had a better spot in my kitchen to display it, but maybe sometime in the future in our future home!

still rooting for the Red Sox, although they’re having a tough season this year. Gotta stay loyal though!!

wondering how many brain cells I lost last week by watching another GOP presidential debate. It’s not even just the fact that I disagree with all these puppets on virtually every single issue (I can totally respect people with different opinions), but that I feel I can’t take any of them seriously and they don’t know in the slightest what they’re talking about. The whole thing would actually be quite comical if it wasn’t for the fact that these clowns are actually running for president and one of them would – if elected – represent this country in the world. Just picture it: do you see any of them capable of doing a good job at that? I don’t.

looking forward to cooler weather. I want to cook all the soups and stews and I want to bake more again (right now it’s still pretty awful to use the stove/oven longer than absolutely necessary!).

hating that it’s now still dark outside when my alarm goes off in the morning. While I am looking forward to fall, I don’t really enjoy that the sun rises so late and sets so early.

reading City of Thieves by David Benioff for the Postal Bookclub.

(will be) doing some fieldwork the last week of this month (and hoping that the government won’t shut down again right in the middle of it… haha. Ok, not funny. At the very least this time, I’d actually be a federal employee if that happened.)

keeping in mind that ice-cream makes everything better.

Summer tales II – Disneyland

September 16, 2015 filed under: family, summer tales, travel, USA

I am recapping the wonderful times that I had with my family here in the States this summer. See all related posts under the category: summer tales.

On Thursday (7/2), we took the munchkins to Disneyland. It was a surprise (and my treat!) for them for coming all the way to California and they practically had no idea until the moment when we walked towards the park entrance. It was a wonderful surprise and I really hope that they’ll not forget that day! We had such an amazing time!

Of course, with only one day in the park you can’t do everything that Disneyland has to offer, but I think we covered quite a bit of ground that day.

We went on a ride around the park with the Disneyland Railroad.

We went on the “It’s a small world” -boat ride.

The Mad Tea Party!

We waited (quite a bit) for the Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin.

We met Pluto in Toontown…

… and Mickey Mouse!

And we finally went on the Pirates of the Carribean tour. I am sure there were some other rides I am forgetting right now. Of course, time flies when you’re having fun!

Around 5 p.m., my sister and I took the kids to the gift shop (of course!). They had saved every penny that they could get their hands on the weeks and months before the big trip overseas and my sister had told them that they could spend some of that money on something that they truly wanted. Greta really wanted a Simba toy (after changing her mind a gazillion times) and Tom picked out a set of toy cars. They couldn’t be any more stereotypical if they tried, right? ;)

We left the park after that to get some dinner and we seriously contemplated going back to the hotel at this point. J had insisted that we had to to go and see the parade, but the kids were already super-tired and we adults were pretty exhausted, too. Still, I argued that we couldn’t possibly bail out now and that we had to go back for the parade and it was so absolutely worth it.

It was also absolutely amazing to the kids’ eyes light up. The light-show, the parade, the music, the fireworks… it all gave the whole day a truly magical ending! Greta’s eyes got progressively bigger and bigger and by the end of the parade, Tom was convinced that Disneyland is where the cars from “Cars” live! We didn’t tell him otherwise! :)

At the end of a long day, everybody was exhausted and tired, but we all agreed: it was absolutely worth it to go back for the parade and the whole day had just been an incredible experience! Even my Dad, who hadn’t really been that excited about going to the theme park, had to admit that having this whole day as family was an unforgettable and special treat!

I only got a hazy photo with my munchkins, but I think you can see that we’re tired, but very happy!

You can find the previous post here.

September Link Love

September 15, 2015 filed under: link love

Did you notice that you can post landscape and portrait photos on Instagram now. I like it and I don’t like it. Wasn’t ‘square’ their thing?

Taking meal planning to another level.

OMG – Honeycomb shelves!!

8 cheap and easy ways to make your workspace more fun to stare at all day. I love this and need to take some of this advice. And now, share your workspace pictures with me for inspiration!

13 Gmail hacks you never knew existed. Some of these are genius!

Project semicolon. I love everything about this.

A good reminder: No one on the internet is living the life you think they are.

The Myth of Quality Time. Definitely thought-provoking, yes?

There is always room for you. So, so true!

I co-sign this post by my friend Marie. Stickler for credit.

Can’t wait to get back to knitting this fall. This is so pretty!

On the kindness of ‘strangers’ on the Internet

September 14, 2015 filed under: blog stuff, friends

{source: Unsplash}

You guys, I know you’re technically the wrong audience, because if you read this, you probably already believe in the power of blogs and the Internet, but to all the people out there who “don’t get” blogging and think that you can’t make deep, lasting connections with people you haven’t met in person, I tell you: you’re so wrong.

First of all, for the record, I already believed in the power of communication through the written word way back when I was a teenager and had pen friends all around the world. Some of these friendships still exist to this day. One of my closest and oldest friends lives in Australia and we’ve been friends for 23 years. There, beat that!

And then, since I moved to the US almost 14 years ago (gasp!), I’ve made most of my friendships on the Internet because making new friends in a new place is hard and especially so if you’re an introvert (and we all know the Internet is full of introverts!). I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of my online friends in person by now, but there are still many I have yet to meet. But regardless, knowing them only through the Internet doesn’t make them any less real for me.

How I know that they’re real?

Because there are some lovely people(not all linked here for various reasons) that have over time reached out to me in the most random ways and have shown kindness that I would have never expected. This speaks volumes to me about the kind of persons that they are. We might not know each other on the most personal levels, we might not communicate on a daily basis, but I feel a connection and that’s good enough for me.

There are friendships that run on much less than this and the great thing about the Internet is that, as it happens, people often know and interact with the same people and there is some sort of network and community feeling going on.

I might still struggle with building a local community, but I always know there are people out there that I can turn to and from whom I can get a “heck yes!” or “me, too!”, and the kindness of these ‘strangers’ on the Internet never really ceases to amaze me.

This is to say: thank you.

Summer tales II – Hollywood and Santa Monica

September 9, 2015 filed under: family, summer tales, travel, USA

I am recapping the wonderful times that I had with my family here in the States this summer.
See all related posts under the category: summer tales.

We started today (7/1) off with breakfast at ‘The Busy Bee‘, a 50’s Diner on Main Street in Ventura where J took me for the first time many, many moons ago. My sister remembered the cafe from her first visit to the US in 2004 and so of course, we had to go back there!

Afterward, we drove further south to explore the Los Angeles area. I know, we would have needed much more time to do all the things I wanted to show my family in the city where we once lived for a little while, but we just had too much on our agenda to spend an extra day. So, we ended up doing what people do when they come to LA for only one day… we walked the Walk of Fame (and I found the relatively newly instated NKOTB star!),

ooh-ed and aah-ed at the Hollywood sign,

the kids met Spiderman and we admired the Grauman’s Chinese Theater and Dolby Theater.

Then we drove to Venice. My Mom and I took the kids to the ocean right away because they were in desperate need of getting some energy out, my Dad, sister and BIL explored the Board Walk for a little while before joining us.

Then we drove over to Santa Monica. It’s hard to believe that this is where we lived a few years ago (and I feel like I didn’t really take advantage of it while it lasted), but it’s still nice to come back here and feel a bit of a sense of home.

We walked on the beach, the kids enjoyed the many swings, rings and other acrobatic equipment, and then we walked over to the Santa Monica Pier.

We didn’t really know where we wanted to go for dinner and ended up wandering around 3rd Street Promenade in hopes of finding a restaurant without long wait times (for some reason we always ended up having a late dinner despite traveling with two kids under 7). We got lucky and found a table at Barney’s Beanery, which looked kind of bland from the outside, but turned out to be a really cool sports bar on the inside. My BIL was pleased! :)

Definitely a place I have to keep in mind for future visits!

Daily life | My current workout routine

September 8, 2015 filed under: daily life, fitness

As I recently mentioned (oh, only a gazillion times – I am sorry), I have gotten myself back into a running routine with the help of my Runtastic App and a training plan (that one can purchase, but was free for me since I am a premium member).
I knew that I a) needed an accountability buddy and b) a structured routine that would help me stick to my workout days. In the past, I’ve been running on and off but never seemed to be able to keep it up longer than for a couple of weeks. I definitely thrive on routines and schedules and knew that I’d have a much easier time sticking to my workouts when I know on which day they need to happen (and also what I am exactly expected to do. I tend to think “oh, let’s just stop after 2.5 miles, if I don’t feel like running any longer… not possible if you’re sticking to a plan!). I used to be the person that said that she could never imagine running more than 3 miles, but here I am today running more than 6 or 7 miles frequently and working towards longer distances.

The (really not so) surprising result of a workout routine is: you will see improvements. I know, mind-boggling science, right?

I need to say upfront, I have a love/hate relationship with running. There are days (few) where I feel running is the most amazing thing and I feel like I am on top of the world. Sometimes, I need to force myself to place one step in front of the other and push through the workout. Most of the time, I am kind of indifferent to the whole thing (which, I admit, is better than loathing every minute), but while I know I am doing something good for my body + mind, I can’t help but feel that I could be doing so many other things with that time. (Granted, that is something I feel frequently and has nothing do with working out per se.)

I do get what people call the “runner’s high” at the end of an accomplished run (ok, for me it just means, I feel accomplished, not really ‘high’), but I usually don’t remember that elated feeling lasting long enough to know why I am running when the next workout comes around. I rationally have to talk myself into every workout. The running part itself doesn’t really do anything for me. I wonder if that has to do with the fact that I grew up playing team sports and exercising felt always also like some kind of pastime. Running for the sake of just running? Meh. I’d rather chase a ball.
The good thing about running though is: you can do it anytime and anywhere. You don’t need (much) equipment or other people (although running with someone can be nice) and depending on where you run, it can have the nice side-effect of some sightseeing (I even started listening to podcasts, which I have never consistently done before – but multi-tasking to maximize the use of my time is my jam and running lends itself for that purpose beautifully!).

I’ve been running at the park (or on the treadmill when it’s too hot which has happened often this summer). Or should I say, I’ve been running around the park, because it’s not really big enough to run “in it”. The good thing about our small park is: one time around it is exactly 1.1 miles. I never thought I’d say this but it’s nice to know how much you’ve already accomplished and how much longer you have to run when it’s measurable in “rounds” you have finished/left to run (and it’s still much nicer than running track IMHO).

I currently run three times a week. I run once during the week (Wednesdays after work when I go straight to the park or gym) and twice on the weekends (Fridays and Sundays). I also try to fit in some yoga (sporadically right now) and some weight training (even more sporadically) and hope to arrive at some sort of a more balanced workout routine sometime soon. I know it’s best to mix it up.

I wish I could choose if I wanted to work out in the morning before work or in the evenings after (yeah, and I am well aware that technically I could), but I start work so early that I really don’t see how I would ever make this work. I already get up at 5:45 am and even though I consider myself a morning person (for the most part) anything before 6 a.m. is just cruel, don’t you agree?

What’s your workout routine? Do you work out in the morning or evenings?

This post is part of my ‘daily life‘ series where I talk about how we do things around here! Find the last post here.

Labor Day Sale

September 5, 2015 filed under: crafts, Etsy

We’re having a Labor Day Sale over at our little Etsy shop this weekend. I thought I’d share this in case you’re looking for some cute handmade stuff that works great as gifts for family or friends or a treat for yourself. My friend Dina makes beautiful, customized banners and coffee cozies, I’ve been working on personalized cards and knit items.

Come one over and check out our shop!