Two Days in Mendocino and a Drive Up North

August 4, 2015July 30, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

(this is part two of a travel recap post – part one can be found here: A Day in Sonoma)

Last week, my family took a trip out to the West Coast to visit my brother. After spending time with family and a day in Sonoma, it was time for our next stop – Mendocino. The road to Mendocino was part of the trip in itself. Greg had helped planned us a route along highway one, with scenic views overlooking the Pacific coast. I’m so glad I was able to go – it was gorgeous, and we even got to stop for lunch in one of the small coastal towns along the way.

GREAT views along the ride.

We arrived in Mendocino just before our B&B’s happy hour, which was great. We stayed at the Inn at Cobbler’s Walk, which is part of Glendeven, and I’d definitely recommend it. The property isn’t too big, is close to a bunch of walking/hiking trails and even has llamas and 100s of chickens on site.

llamas on the property!

After enjoying the local wine and great cheese at the Inn for the complimentary happy hour, it was time for dinner in downtown Mendocino. It’s a small downtown with shops and restaurants, we enjoyed another dinner on a patio before taking a walk around the downtown as the sun was setting.

family selfie at happy hour

The next morning, I woke up relatively early and went for a walk, including to the beach, on a path just a few minutes away from our room.

beach front walk in the morning

We had breakfast served to our room at 9 a.m., which included a three-course meal – yogurt and granola, eggs and a scone. Sooo good!

the amazing meal

After breakfast, we checked out the rest of the grounds – the llamas and chickens and garden – and then headed to downtown Mendocino for a walk along the Headlands and lunch. It was such a gorgeous day!

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Our second night we stayed at a different place, this time with cabins and adjoining rooms so that we were all able to hang out and watch a movie – Beetlejuice – at night. This inn had goats this time.

Peanut Butter and Jelly, the goats!

We had a great dinner that night – we ended up wandering back downtown and hit up the MacCallum Inn. This week’s WIAW shares some of eats – wine, cheese, ratatouille and blackberry soufflé. SO good.

DESSERT.

The next morning, we took a short walk around the new inn, and then hit the road for breakfast in Fort Bragg followed by a drive through the Avenue of the Giants. It is SO cool to ride among those SUPER tall trees! We also had time to stop for a hike along one of the trails. I love a good, easy nature hike!

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What a great trip – I hope we can do it again soon!

Some questions for you:

Have you ever been to the Redwoods?
Do you like hiking? Nature? I enjoy hiking, but i’m not a HUGE nature fan. I’m scared of bugs, snakes, animals, etc.
Have you ever seen the movie Beetlejuice?

A Day in Macau

February 5, 2015February 3, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

Okay, tell me honestly. Are you tired of hearing about our recent travels and trip to Asia? Are you dying for recipe post or posts about running? Well, you’re in luck – this is the last post about our recent travels. Then, it’s back to your regularly scheduled broadcast 🙂

Due to flight schedules, we had a flight out of Hong Kong a day after our flight in from Hanoi, so we decided to spend the final day (and night) of our trip in Macau. What a fun experience – it’s a shame it was only a day (well, less than a day – we got into Macau around 4ish and had to catch a ferry out at 11:30 the next morning) but I’m so glad we did!

Some highlights from our day:

Walking around the old part of town and seeing some of the old Portuguese architecture, old churches, cobblestone streets and holiday decorations.

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Eating an amazing 7 course dinner. B and I had a room booked in the Grand Lisboa (the nicest hotel room I’ve ever stayed in! – it had a sauna and steam shower and Jacuzzi) and one of the restaurants in the hotel was a 3 star Michelin restaurant. For our last dinner, we splurged and had dinner there.

NBD – just a huge chandelier and piano in the lobby of the restaurant.

Oh. My. Goodness. Our meal was the best I’ve ever had. Each course was amazing. OH, and there were THREE DESSERT courses. A pre-dessert, a dessert and an after-dessert course. I was in dessert cart heaven.

This was pre-dessert. Yes, that’s a thing.

Course #2 – frog’s legs.

Course #3 – lobster risotto. SO GOOD. And there were more than 7 courses total.

B and the stuffed onion dish. It was one of my favorite courses.

me and my main course

Doing a little gambling. I’ll be honest – I’m not a big gambler and while I’ve played a few slots here and there I decided to just people watch and enjoy letting B do his thing. We spent some time in a few casinos, mostly just walking around (and getting stared at – we were a little out of place to say the least) and then B played some black jack.

The amazingly nice hotel we stayed in and the casino. Our dinner was at the top!

Getting in a workout at the hotel gym! The gym opened at 8 a.m. (of course I was there at 7:45 and had to come back – what kind of gym doesn’t open until 8 on a weekday?!) and I was able to get in a VERY slow 10k run before our flight. I know – what kind of vacation highlight is a dreadmill run, right? But seriously – it’d been SO long since I ran and it felt so good slash bad at the same time. It’s amazing how out of shape you can get so quickly!

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Just seeing Macau in general. Our hotel and the others were pretty insane. The area we were staying in was not what I expected – I was expecting a big Vegas-type strip – but instead there were just giant buildings among normal city buildings, schools, old architecture, etc. which was really interesting to see. And of course the casinos were so gawdy – ours was gold on the outside, had blinking lights at night and so much gold and crystal inside. So fun!

dressed up for dinner 🙂

And that was the end of our Asia trip. We flew back on our 15+ hour flight and somehow managed to keep ourselves occupied for at least a little while by reading, blogging, playing games on my phone (Dots), eating the 3 meals they gave us and doing laps every so often. I don’t know when I’ll get to travel again, but I can say that this trip definitely satisfied my travel bug/urge … for at least a little while!

Some questions for you:

What’s the longest flight you’ve ever taken? How did you keep yourself occupied?
Do you like gambling? What’s your favorite game?
Any phone game recommendations? I never play games on my phone but after this trip I’m so glad I downloaded Dots! What else should I download?

Missed the other posts? Full recaps of our Asia trip, including Vietnam and Cambodia and Hong Kong are here.

Traveling – Hong Kong!

January 14, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

B and I just got back* from a fabulous, amazing, incredible vacation in Asia. Neither he nor I had been to Asia before and had started planning a trip to Vietnam (plus surrounding areas) earlier last year. Well – we finally booked it and started our trip out east in Hong Kong over the holidays.

We had four full days in Hong Kong and the city did NOT disappoint. From the moment we got off the plane I could feel the excitement (We’re in ASIA! I whispered probably too loud to B) and when the Airport Express train went above ground and the blue sky, blue water and SO MANY tremendously large and wild looking buildings came into sight I was pumped.

Some highlights from the trip:

The food (for the most part):

Because our hotel package came with a pretty good free breakfast (western, european AND hong kong style – congee), we didn’t end up going out for breakfast or dim sum during our time in Hong Kong. We did, however, have some other great meals including awesome dumplings (my favorite!), fresh duck, tons of soups and noodles and some pretty interesting meals as well (including a few places where we pointed to pictures on the wall because the menu was not in English). B did end up getting food poisoning on our last night – but we had eaten the same food all day long so I’m not sure what did him in.

One restaurant we ate at with no english at all

great noodle soup!

first meal – spicy cauliflower!

Spending a day in Kowloon

Kowloon is another island that’s part of Hong Kong. I really loved Kowloon! The island was bumping, crowded, energizing, etc. To get there, we took the Star Ferry across the harbor and spent pretty much the whole day there. While there we checked out the bird market (so many birds just flying around and in cages!), flower market, the local parks, the jade markets (and did some bargaining), the Promenade, the Avenue of the Stars and more.

so many goldfish on this one street

one of the many bird cages on this street in kowloon

some of the many bird cages on this street in Kowloon

playing the role of tourist on the Avenue of the Stars – me and Jackie Chan (and tons of other Asian tourists)

Walking around Kowloon

Viewing the city from the top of Victoria Peak

B and I took the tram up to Victoria Peak on our first full day in Hong Kong and it was a great way to start off our trip. We walked to the tram station from our hotel (about a 40 min walk) and got a great view of the entire city (and it was so clear out!) during the walk and from our viewpoint atop the mountain. At the top, there are also self guided tours you can take that point out what you’re seeing in the distance – again, great way to start the trip and get our bearings.

B and I and the view!

The view from the top. So lucky to have a gorgeous, clear day!

Day Trips – Stanley and Aberdeen and the Big Buddha!

We spent most of our time in the central main district and in the western part of Hong Kong (where we were staying) so on our last full day there we decided to take the public transportation system to other parts of the island, including Stanley and Aberdeen. Aberdeen used to be a fishing district and it was cool to see the people still fishing (and then filleting) their meal. Stanley is a gorgeous beach town with upscale shops, touristy areas, a market and a few beaches for locals and tourists to enjoy. Both cities offered a different view than we had witnessed during our stay in the other parts of the island and on Kowloon.

Beach Day! Spending Jan. 1 in Stanley.

Loved the streets of Stanley

Selfie in Aberdeen – check out all the boats behind us. Some had people fishing, some had people filleting their fish!

Another day we trekked to yet another island, Lantau Island, to the top of a hill to find the Po Lin Monastery, famous for its Big Buddha. The monastery and some temples sit on top of a large mountain with great views of the surrounding areas, a temple with many gold Buddhas and more and of course- the Big Buddha.

At the top of the hill – monastery behind me ad mountains

Also at the top – great views!

B looking at the Big Buddha

The light show at night on the harbor

Each night, there is a light show over the waterfront between Kowloon and Hong Kong. It’s not like anything I had ever seen before – it’s lights (not fireworks, as I at first thought), lasers, and the buildings are also all lit up. Because it was the holidays the buildings were all lit up with “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” – something I had not expected to see while in Hong Kong!

View from Kowloon – all the buildings lit up

What a great way to kick off our Asia trip. Despite B’s sickness, we had a great time. I really enjoyed the metropolitan feel for Hong Kong, the gorgeous and really cool architecture, how efficient everything was, how easy it was to take the busses and train everywhere, and how walkable the city was.

cool buildings

Some questions for you:

Have you ever been to Asia?
What’s your favorite type of Chinese food? Least favorite? I tend to like spicy dishes or dumplings. Least favorite? Anything with rice or sweet and sour chicken.

Coming up next – some recaps on the rest of our trip – Vietnam, Cambodia and Macau!

*full disclosure – while you’re reading this, if travel plans work out right, I may be in an airplane flying above you – I was able to write this post while abroad!

A Northeastern Fall Foliage Tour

October 14, 2014October 12, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 4 Comments

B and I recently were able to take some time off – a week! – and decided to go on a roadtrip to some eastern states in what we were dubbing our “fall foliage tour.” Yes, that’s how I know I’m getting older – we are planning fall foliage tours. What am I, almost 30? (rhetorical question – don’t answer that)

It was a great way to spend a week off- it was relaxing (even though we were active), we got a chance to do some of my favorite fall activities (hiking and apple picking) and even got to spend a day seeing my parents and a day seeing a friend from college. Just what I needed in some time off! Some highlights from the trip:

We started with a quick stop to see my parents and go apple picking (full blog post here).

apple picking at indian ladder

Then headed to the town of Schroon, New York to see our friend Mitch and run the beautiful, hilly Adirondack Half Marathon along Schroon Lake (full blog post here).

After the race

On our way to our next stop, we hit up Ticonderoga, New York. We visited the small downtown area and then visited Fort Ticonderoga.

walking around Ticonderoga

B and some old cannons

Great views from Fort Ticonderoga!

Then we headed to the beautiful state of Vermont! It was B’s first time there and we spent a few days in Northern Vermont, staying in Burlington, checking out their pretty waterfront, trying the local food, walking around their fun downtown area, taking quick trips to neighboring small towns and touring Ben & Jerry’s!

Hello from the town of Stowe, Vermont!

Being goofy at Ben & Jerry’s

The flavor graveyard. RIP cookie dough frozen yogurt 😦

sunset along the waterfront in Burlington

On our way to our next state, we made a pit stop in New Hampshire for a hike through the White Mountains. We spent a few hours hiking around Mt. Eisenhower. Unfortunately the weather was drizzly and foggy that day so we didn’t get in any amazing views that we’d heard about. But we did get in some activity – something I’d been craving, since it had been a few days since our half marathon.

pre-hike

Then we headed to Portland, Maine. Full blog post coming about this trip, but we had a great time walking everywhere, trying the local food and craft beer (Shipyard Pumpkin FTW!) and I even got in a few runs while I was there.

maine craft distilling

Our last quick stop was Boston. We walked around our alma mater, Boston College, stopped by the place we got engaged, and hit up the North End for dinner. A perfect end to a great vacation!

Back at BC!

Some questions for you:

Are the fall colors changing where you are? What’s your favorite way to see fall foliage? On a run? A hike through the mountains? A Sunday drive? Apple picking? Other?
Do you like pumpkin beer? What’s your favorite? I’ve heard of some beer snobs who can’t stand it! I liked trying the Shipyard, but Pumking may still be my favorite.
What’s your favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor? I loved Vanilla Heath Bar fudge (they don’t make it anymore now that they’re GMO free … RIP Heath bars!) but also love their new core flavors (any with vanilla as a base) and love anything with Caramel. Oh, and Cherry Garcia. Do I have to choose just one?

A Relaxing Birthday Getaway To Vermont

July 31, 2014July 30, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Sunday was my mom’s birthday! She’d kill me if I told you how old she is, but since it was a somewhat milestone celebration, my dad, brother and I wanted to do something special. She is definitely not a surprise-party person (she’d probably also have killed me if I had planned one of those) but she does enjoy the occasional surprise. So, between my dad, brother and I myself we managed to surprise her with a weekend getaway to Vermont.

Being from NY, Vermont is only a short drive away (hour or so) and growing up we often spent long weekends at the various inns, B&Bs, and so on in the beautiful state. Unfortunately, the inn that we so often stayed at was booked with a wedding for her birthday weekend, but we managed to find another great Inn (the Inn at Ormsby Hill) not too far away in Manchester. So we booked the Inn, made Saturday night dinner reservations, and waited hoping that she wouldn’t find out. She knew I was coming home for the weekend and spending three days home (Sat-Mon) but that was it.

I got in from Cleveland around 11 pm Friday night and just relaxed with my family before heading to bed somewhat early. Saturday morning I got in a quick run, and then it was time for the surprise. During breakfast, we handed my mom a birthday card. Inside the card was a picture of the Inn. She was confused, obviously. She didn’t know why the photo was there or what the picture was of. After we explained everything to her, she was pretty much in shock. She had no idea that we had planned her weekend away and even had planned a quick meeting in her office Monday morning (that she was able to postpone).

Me and the birthday girl!

What a great weekend in Vermont! Not only was she surprised but we had a wonderful time relaxing, reading, drinking wine, trying Vermont cheese, sight-seeing and eating. My flight back to Cleveland got delayed a day – and while somewhat an inconvenience, it meant spending an extra day with my family and celebrating my mom.

Breakfast at the Inn. This was a polenta egg bake and it was amazing.

Another Inn breakfast. We all had our own minim omelets!

Another Inn breakfast. We all had our own mini omelets!

So easy to relax with chairs like this.

We drove to the top of the Equinox.

Great view from the top!

Beautiful parents before dinner

Dressed up for dinner in downtown Manchester

We also drove to a museum that ended up having a bunch of land and tons of crazy buildings (including a boat!) on site.

We also drove to a museum (the Shelburne) that ended up having a bunch of land and tons of crazy buildings (including a boat!) on site.

The Shelburne also had a merry-go-round

Enjoying some local Vermont cheese.

Thai for dinner one night

Surprise! Birthday candle @ the Thai restaurant

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful woman I know … my mom!

Some questions for you:

Any July birthdays? I feel like everyone I know is born this month! Okay maybe not everyone. But quite a few people!
Have you ever been to Vermont? What’s your favorite place to visit in the state?
Have you ever had a birthday surprise? Or surprised someone for his/her birthday? How did it go?

An Extended Weekend in L.A.

September 27, 2013September 24, 2013 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

Seen at a club in LA

NOTE: This is the last recap in a series of my West Coast trip adventures. Miss the rest of my West Coast trip summaries? Read more about them here:

After an amazing time in the Bay Area, we were off on another drive down the coast and ready to spend a few days in Los Angeles as we wrapped up our West Coast adventure. We would be staying with B’s friend (and Best Man), Wing, who moved out West just this year thanks to an awesome job opportunity. And we would also be lucky enough to see my friend and roommate from college, Kate, who moved out to LA right after we lived in Boston together.

So, what did we think of our time in LA? Some overall impressions:

The city is SUPER spread out. I’d heard that it was but seeing it in person made us realize it even more and also put a slight damper on some of our plans as we weren’t able to accomplish as much as we wanted to in our time there because it took so long to get from one place to another. There are tons of different neighborhoods that you can walk in – but to get to and from places, you really do have to drive.
There is SO MUCH TRAFFIC. Again, I’d definitely heard that but as we drove everywhere this really made a difference and also made it hard to get as much done as we wanted to.
The city is not really walkable. I love walking everywhere. Every other city we pretty much left our door and walked everywhere to get some sightseeing in. In LA we really had to hop in the car and plan which neighborhood(s) we may be visiting, and drive there. And we didn’t really know how long it would take because of the traffic. (See #1 and #2)
The weather is awesome. They were having a “cold front” when we were there, meaning the weather was in the low 80s, upper 70s. AKA perfect weather. It was cool in the morning, meaning it wasn’t bad for our run (we had a 15k planned that I was dreading because I thought it’d be super steamy but it wasn’t too bad – it hit nearly 80 by the end but it wasn’t humid), and then got hot during the day but not sticky. Perfect vacation weather 🙂
There’s so much to do. Aside of all the touristy sightseeing stuff that we wanted to do, there’s just so much in general going on, all the time. Comedy shows. Concerts. Great food. Bars. Clubs. And of course – the BEACH! If I lived in LA I would live at the beach, or at least go there as much as possible. And then try to fit in everything else.

Okay, enough blabbering, here are some photos and highlights from our trip.

SO MUCH TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN LA!

Stopping for In & Out as soon as we get in – B’s first In & Out meal!

B’s first In&Out!

Running around the Hollywood Reservoir – we did our 15K without any problems. We found the reservoir, which had some good views of the downtown and the Hollywood sign and was a 3.3ish mile loop – perfect for us, as we were able to do 3ish loops as Wing walked around once, carrying water for us. Yup, he was our awesome water boy!

post 15k run around the Hollywood Reservoir

Going to the beach!

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People watching at Venice Beach

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Being touristy and taking photos of the Hollywood sign

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Taking in a Dodgers game! AND they were playing the Giants so I got in TWO Giants games on this trip. Also, we got the all you can eat seats and feasted on the famous Dodger dogs, plus nachos, popcorn and peanuts. I need a detox after this vacation.

Go Giants!

Coffee at Urth Café (always featured in the show Entourage)

it’s a bird! Urth Cafe goodness.

Brunch from Homegirl Café. I had been wanting to go to this place since seeing the awesome movie G-Dog at the Cleveland International Film Festival. You must read about them and Homeboy Industries if you don’t know their story. Here’s just a short blurb: Homeboy Industries serves high-risk, formerly gang-involved men and women with a continuum of free services and programs, and operates seven social enterprises that serve as job-training sites. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

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Catching a BC vs. UCLA game – sadly, we lost – but it was great to see them play (it wasn’t planned!) on our trip, see their huge stadium and of course meet up with Kate

HUGE stadium – former home of the Olympics in LA!

Kate and me! Former roomies!

Enjoying Dim Sum for B’s birthday brunch – Wing lives in Chinatown and brought us to an amazing place

Birthday breakfast!

And then a really good meal, and beers, at My Father’s Office – I definitely recommend if you hit LA

the boys loved their burgers – I loved my butterfish!

Seeing some amazingly fun comedians at the Laugh Factory – in just one show we saw a TON of comics! Highlights include Dom Irerra (who we’ve seen before), the super cute Chris D’Elia AND the guy who plays Montez on Workaholics!

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Hanging out with Kate and experiencing some of the Culver City nightlife

Hookah bar!

What a great trip! Now, it’s back to real life and back to the grind. Getting back to work after any trip can be stressful, but just knowing and remembering our amazing two week West Coast adventure will hopefully help with the struggle of getting back into things. Here’s to a GREAT weekend!

Some questions for you: