Getting Chilly in Chicago

After the holiday season, it's a surprisingly short grind to the first 3-day weekend of the New Year - thank you, Martin Luther King Day. Luckily, this is a federal holiday that the majority of my fellow young professionals also have off work, and after the rude awakening of both winter and being back at my desk, I was already itching for a quick getaway.

Chicago has been on my list of American urban centers for some time now. I have spent many a layover sprinting through the O'Hare airport trying to catch a connection, but had never actually set foot in the Windy City. Perhaps we didn't quite think through the truth in that moniker when booking flights to Chicago in the middle of JANUARY, but despite the wind chill and store-to-store sightseeing we resorted to, the clear skies and warm vibe of the city kept my friends and I entertained and toasty during our 3-day jaunt.

Camping in the Catskills

Do you ever feel like if you spend one more minute dodging tourists in front of Bloomingdales and breathing in the fresh scent of hot garbage as you step out of your apartment, you are going to scream? Do you, like me, crave the sounds of a babbling brook and the smell of campfire smoke on a summer night? Well, look no further than a quick train ride north to New York's Catskills region - a green, mountainous, artsy region just begging to rescue you from another Saturday fighting for a table at the Frying Pan. Dylan and I took a trip to the Brooklyn-fluenced town of Phoenicia, NY a few weekends ago, where we undertook a rough-and-tumble river raft adventure, learned that "antiquing" is not the same as "cheap," and made several attempts to find a trailhead with no 4G service or GPS to guide us. 

Phoenicia, NY || Population: More in the summer

Une Petite #TBT

Three Years Ago Today.....I was lucky enough to find myself embarking on a classic collegiate adventure: a semester abroad in Paris, France. I've long been a francophile, dabbled in the language in high school and been obsessed with the Baz Luhrman film Moulin Rouge. Then, my fascination with America Modernist literature (think Hemingway, Fitzgerald, TS Eliot - in other words, Midnight in Paris) blossomed during a sophomore year English class, so Paris was a natural choice for the requisite fall semester away. While it would be impossible to recollect an entire semester - where I went to school, lived with a french family, explored several other European cities, and immersed myself in the Parisian environment over four months - in a single blog post, I wanted to collect and capture the feeling of those first few days in a foreign city. It's very different than visiting somewhere for just a weekend, which is my typical m.o. these days, where I plan ahead of time the best possible use of time and mix of activities to get to know a place or check off famous landmark boxes in just 48 short hours.

Mystical Day Trips

As the dog days of summer are upon us, the long sunny weekends don't offer much relief and respite from the heat and humidity. Let's face it, you can't tame the sweat dripping down your back and under your bra and on the soles of your feet, and waiting in line for a Loopy Doopy popsicle cocktail on a slightly less-sweaty roof just doesn't cut it when its 90 and humid. If you're interested in doing a little more than hugging your air conditioner this weekend, a quick waterside getaway is the perfect option. There are tons of places to go just a few hours from the city - beaches, boardwalks, bars - pick your poison. If you're in the mood for a little history (or just some cute marine mammals), there's no better village than Mystic, Connecticut, nestled on the southern coast of Connecticut right where the Long Island Sound meets the open Atlantic. While I wound up in Mystic  via an overnight stop in Hartford, CT (Dylan's hometown), the village is only two and a half hours by car from New York City, yet feels thousands of miles - not to mention hundreds of years - away from the noise, grime, and sweat of the urban oven.

Photo Courtesy of MysticSeaport.org

Philadelphia: Phun, Phriends, Phood

What's closer to NYC than DC, just as historical as Boston, and full of students, dogs, and babies? Philadelphia, of course. I took my first real visit to the city of brotherly love this past weekend and have to say I was more than impressed. It's easy to lump Philly in to those post-industrial bastions of American economic sludge, like Baltimore, Hartford, and Pittsburgh. Beyond that, maybe you think of the liberty bell or Nicholas Cage stealing the Declaration of Independence. While those elements are present, you must be sure not to discount the plethora of independent small businesses, tidy row houses with basements and backyards (for the same price as Manhattan "2 bedroom"), lively art scene, and attractions that go beyond the hallmarks of the American Revolution.

Boathouse Row on the Schuylkill River

About the Trip: I joined my roommate Anna, my soon to be roommate Nichole, and Dylan to crash in the spacious 3-bedroom house of Anna's boyfriend Aaron and Aaron's roommate Rob. Aaron is a filmer/producer for a local public art TV show, and is also an incredible chef. He and Dylan have taken a liking to each other, which offers multiple options for double dates and excursions, but this was the first time we had traveled to the city Aaron now calls home. Luckily, Aaron was more than willing to host his four guests in various beds, couches, and air mattresses throughout his home. His hospitality was compounded by his knowledge and eagerness to show us fun areas of the city packed with locals on a beautiful summer weekend. As is the habit of my generation, the weekend revolved heavily around food, drink, and debauchery, though we managed a pinch of refined culture and maturity thrown into the mix. 

Getting There:  Philadelphia is extremely easy and inexpensive to get to from NYC, with multiple bus departures from Peter Pan, Megabus, Bolt Bus, and the like, mostly for under $20 a pop. NJ Transit and/or Amtrak are also options if you have an aversion to the New Jersey Turnpike, but those tend to be spendier, and in the case of NJ Transit, much less convenient. A big shout-out to Dylan, though, who made the far less simply journey from Hartford via a combination of car, train, subway, and bus. And he did it all without complaining...

What to Do: Upon a late evening arrival at Aaron's apartment (a house he shares with two other guys in the family-friendly Graduate Hospital neighborhood), we immediately shook off the Greyhound bus smell with a backyard barbecue of meat, topped with meat, served with a side of meat (hot dogs and bacon burgers, of course). We washed it down with a few craft beers, of course, before heading out for a night at Morgan's Pier, a big, open-air beer and dance hall right on the waterfront of the Delaware River, underneath the Ben Franklin bridge. The casual vibe and proximity to watercraft make Morgan's Pier a solid destination whether looking to dance on a Friday night or relaxing on a Sunday afternoon (better yet, I just looked at their website and learned they have weekend brunch).

Not so Sunny in San Diego

Last weekend Dylan and I (by the way, he's the boyfriend/travel expert for many of my weekend adventures) had an extremely lucky chance to take a real vacation to the sunny Southern coast of California. Again, a convenient set of work obligations for Dylan the following week was just the motivation we needed to Expedia some cheap flights, take a precious vacation day out of the office, and jet off for a weekend of sand, surf, and sun.

Well, spoiler alert -- (in case the title of this post didn't clue you in) --- we actually spent three very unsunny days in San Diego. Yes, drought-stricken, heat-waving SoCal offered us three days of clouds, repeated sweatshirts, and even a few much needed raindrops. Luckily, it is still very possible to pack three days full of activities in this border city without being totally downtrodden by the lack of rays. We even spent some time in the water...up to our knees....wincing with cold....but still.

A few logistics of our whirl-windy getaway - we were both flying out of the NYC area, but due to our respective mileage plans (he's on American, I was trying to use up miles on United) I flew out of Newark while Dylan chose JFK. I managed to sneak away from the office about an hour early on Thursday and landed at LAX before midnight (although my body didn't quite feel that way). LAX? Weren't we spending our vacation in San Diego? Yes. And these two cities are not as close as one might presume. But, the costs savings and time convenience of the flights happened to offset the commute to San Diego in this case, which can vary to about one hour forty minutes on a magical fantasy day to probably 4 hours plus, traffic dependent. And LA/SoCal traffic is definitely as bad as they say it is. There's no predicting it either - "rush hour" is a loose term that can spring up at any inconceivable hour of day or night. We had a pretty smooth go of it both directions closing in around two and a half hours from LAX to our hotel in La Jolla, a fairly ritzy suburb of San Diego near the private high schools Dylan has to visit for his admissions job.

Friday morning, after a poor night of sleep near the airport and a semi-cranky drive south, Dylan decided he wanted to take me to his favorite place to run in San Diego, Torrey Pines. This state park area was just minutes from our hotel in the University district of La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya but way more fun to say the other way).  Torrey Pines is an incredible landscape of rugged, orangey-red rock and cliff formations, scrubby, desert-worn trees and brush, and vast views and steep trails down to the gorgeous expansive sea and a lovely, not-too-crowded beach. We first challenged ourselves by starting at the Torrey Pines Golf Course and running through the visitors center and down the main road into the park area, which winds several hundred feet down to sea level, before spinning on our heels and charging back up. I'll admit I was struggling but it felt good to get all the travel off our backs with a hard slog up the hill.

Beach friends | Torrey Pines Beach 

From there, there are a series of fairly short (.25 - 1.5-mile) hiking trails that end up circling back to the main parking lot. Some end up on high vistas overlooking the jagged cliffs with their erosion-splattered cracks running down to the sea, while some wind down through fissures in the cliffs to drop you gently on the beach itself. Dodging hikers is certainly a challenge but luckily the cloudy skies and lower than average low-60s temps kept the crowds away, and we were even able to splash through the waves up to our knees for a bit. It was a great beach for swimming, with perfectly-sized waves for jumping, but unfortunately it was just a bit too early in the season. I may have droned on about Torrey Pines but that is only because it was a spectacular slice of nature just minutes from our door, and a great way to exercise and explore on vacation. We ran again on Saturday, exploring different loop trails, and I got excited for a minute about an annual half marathon that winds through those same scrubby pines. It's not the most well-known attraction in the area, so I think it deserves a little extra oompf here!

This old metal supply building is
incorporated right into
the ballpark seating

After treating ourselves to a soothing massage (I'm telling you....vacation) we headed into downtown San Diego for a good ole American baseball rivalry. The San Diego Padres played nearby neighbors LA Dodgers in a chilly, fairly inactive game. But it doesn't really matter, as we were up in the bleacher seats with 25-oz beer cans, pretzels, peanuts, and a completely sold out stadium of nearly equal Dodgers and Padres fans. The exciting thing about baseball games at PETCO Park is that you are literally right in downtown. You can be eating at a restaurant up the street and actually see right into the ballpark, from the stands to the lights to the dirt and turf. They also kept some original buildings when constructing the park, and managed to incorporate them right into the modern bleachers, bars, and food stands. While the rivalry was captivating, the game itself wasn't, and it also got pretty cold in our flimsy sweatshirts, so we didn't manage to stay all nine innings and ended up back at the hotel bar with a pizza delivery menu...in other words, the perfect evening.

Doner Fries | Amplified Aleworks

On Saturday, refreshed from an early night and another fabulous run at Torrey Pines, we met up with an old friend of mine who recently graduated from UCSD, whose campus is right in La Jolla. Connor took us on a scenic route to the hip, student-filled town of Pacific Beach, where we enjoyed massive, meat-covered Doner fries and craft brews on a sunny patio with an ocean view at Amplified Aleworks. The communal vibe and big plates, along with the pleasure of catching up with an old friend, made for a pleasant and filling afternoon.

After a lingering lunch and a quick downpour, Dylan and I headed to downtown San Diego to check some more attractions off our list. We realized it was too late to enjoy a full day at the San Diego Zoo, but explored the rest of Balboa Park, a sprawling collection of museums, artists venues, and landscaped lawns right in the heart of downtown. With museum closing time drawing near, we impulse-bought tickets to the science museum and joined small children in exercising wind turbines and blowing giant bubbles. The disjointed exhibits failed to capture our adult attention spans for long, but we did walk through an empty artists exhibit area and Spanish colonial-style promenade where we observed a major prom photoshoot.  Continuing on a downtown tour, we spent the evening in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, the main restaurant and bar scene downtown. A fancy, three course dinner outdoors at Allure Restaurant with plenty of entertaining people watching was the perfect end to the evening - although I found the meal a bit too heavy and indulgent after the afternoon of beer and french fries!

Team Flamingo | San Diego Zoo

Good morning sir!

A trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a visit to the San Diego Zoo. We woke up early Sunday to ensure plenty of animal time before Dylan graciously drove me back to LA for my flight home. It was still fairly overcast, but plenty warm, and coupled with our early arrival, we enjoyed a blissfully empty trip through the zoo. The pandas - normally a 45-minute wait to be shuffled past the hunkering creatures for a few seconds - were lazily eating their bamboo breakfast as just a handful of people watched in utter joy. Other highlights of the massive, truly world-class zoo were flamingos, which paced back and forth in perfect formations of twenty gangly bobbing heads; a baby jaguar pup imitating every move of its mother; and identifying several giraffes based on their unique spot patterns. While zoos often tug at my heartstrings with the listless animals as far out of sight as they can be, it was impossible not to enjoy the wonderful selection of creatures this particular zoo has to offer. I took comfort in the fact that it is a premier scientific institution that does as much as it can to mimic the wild for its animal habitants. The zoo is a spendy attraction - $48 for an adult - but a basic ticket includes rides on the gondola that zips overhead from one end of the zoo to another, as well as various guided bus tours. We took charge of our own walking journey in order to maximize viewing time before getting on the highway, but did manage to get to the Sky Train while the line was still relatively short to jet over to the polar bears.

View of Balboa Park from the Zoo Gondola

While it may seem ambitious to fly six hours across the country for a very quick three-day weekend, this getaway vacation felt much longer to us. The weather wasn't perfect for lazy beach time, which actually worked out in our favor as we pushed ourselves to explore more of San Diego's downtown cultural attractions and various towns and neighborhoods in the area. Tacked on to the front end of Dylan's work trip, this was a great balance of business and relaxing time together in a new destination, and re-energized me for the chunk of working time until Memorial Day....only two more weeks!

Nautical Newport

This weekend Dylan and I visited Newport, Rhode Island, an upscale town known for attracting a yachting and sailing summer crowd and luxury-craving mansion gawkers all year round. The Newport mansions were - and still are, in many cases - summer playground homes for families who built America, including the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and other family names we now know for Avenues and universities with their namesake. Newport's most popular attraction is a shameless, indulgent tour of the opulent residences that have been preserved as historic landmarks. Next door to these open museums, complete with the "Servant Life" tour and modern upgraded restrooms, are acres of artfully landscaped thick, curling branches and bushes that half-shield the still private mansions from touristic view. The blatant showiness of past and present has a distinctly American Dream quality that, coupled with nautical stripes and rocky coastlines, makes for an extremely scenic and escape-happy weekend just a few hours from the city.

There is a Peter Pan/Greyhound bus from New York Port Authority, but I would warn potential visitors that the bus makes several stops and takes over six hours to arrive. I chose to take a two-and-a-half hour bus to Hartford, CT on Friday night, then drive down to Newport early in the morning (about one hour and forty minutes.) Splitting up the drive made it seem even closer, and I got to have some quality road trip time with my favorite traveler. Plus, to enter Newport you must drive over two iconic suspension bridges that hurtle you down the descent with the beautiful blue bay water, complete with lighthouses and sailboats, on either side.

Since Dylan was in Newport for a work event at St. George's School on Friday night, we were lucky enough to super-treat ourselves to a stay at the Newport  Marriott, right downtown on America's Cup Avenue. Though i would have liked to stay at one of Newport's many bed and breakfasts or inns, the Newport Marriott was a welcome indulgence after a tough and sleepless week of work. The lobby is designed to look like the interior of a cruise ship, with interior balconies in many rooms and canvas swaths on the walls and ropes hanging from the ceiling. The ship vibe even stretched to our room's bathroom, which featured a hug round painting of ocean waves, as if we were looking out a porthole.

Lunch in a parking lot

The best thing about our weekend in Newport was that we were able to walk the entire town and enjoy the first beautiful and warm day of spring, without the unbearable summer crowd. We walked from the hotel down Thames Street, which is full of nautical boutiques and oysters served up on sunny patios, and up one block to the Rosemary and Thyme Artisan Bakery, which I had read about on Yelp. We grabbed sandwiches (proscuitto, mozzarella, basil, oil and vinegar for me and pork loin and carmelized onion for Dylan) and cold-brewed iced coffee and walked toward the water, ending up on a bench in a sunny, open parking lot. It was an unconventional and messy lunch, but the sunniness and good bites revved us up for our day of walking.

 Caution | Cliff Walk 

Thanks to my Fitbit, I can tell you that three solid hours of walking across Newport to the start of the Cliff Walk, a paved trail that runs several miles along the rocky coast of the island, and back along Bellevue Avenue to peer over the twisted hedges, will run you about 25,000 steps. The Cliff Walk is also framed by a series of astounding mansion properties, both historic and currently lived in. Salve Regina university has also converted several of the stately homes and oceanfront property into academic and administrative buildings - it kind of had me wishing I had applied to more coastal and/or palatial schools.

While there are several museums, forts, and outdoor preserves in the Newport area, I think a perfect and fulfilling weekend was made by just wandering through the manicured grounds of the open houses, people watching and ocean breezing along the cliff walk, and eating and shopping in the touristy downtown stretch. We had dinner at Stoneacre Pantry, highly recommended for brunch as well, where we were able to stare into the open kitchen as the chefs prepared and plated our gourmet meals. I had the scallops, but only because Dylan ordered the chicken first - the restaurant is best for simple favorites done to sophisticated perfection.

Welcome to our Home | The Elms

Another sunny day on Sunday was the perfect time to force each other out of bed for a leisurely jog through town. Avoiding the crowds that were already out on the main road, we turned up past the town square and ran through the locals' town center: the court house, police station, and schools are all just as quaint and colonial as the less practical attractions down by the water. Our short jog brought us back to the grounds of the The Elms, where we ran in a lengthy circle around the open grounds and pretended to be fancy 19th-century promenaders (that Lorde song "so we'll never be Royals..." seemed to fit) before chowing into a casual lunch at the Midtown Oyster Bar.

We drove back to Hartford in mid-afternoon in time for me to catch a 5 o'clock bus back to New York City. You could certainly spend several days in Newport experiencing the sailing, beaches, nature preserves, and of course more of the mansions. But it is also the perfect getaway when a day off work isn't quite a possibility - all you need are some comfortable walking shoes, an appetite, and hopefully a cloudless sky to transport yourself to the nautical, societal scene of America's patriotic playground.

You can call me Mrs Vanderbilt