What's Up Wednesdays

Continuing our wanderings across the Pacific Northwest, our next stop was Victoria!

I really love Victoria. Corey had never been and it was a short ferry ride from Port Angeles. It was also a bit of a nauseating ride since it was a smaller ferry. We found some good seats and good company and tried to avoid thinking about the rocking of the boat for the short duration of the trip.

Our first stop was the Butchart Gardens. It's seriously one of the prettiest gardens I've ever been to on the planet and I couldn't wait to share it with Corey. The temperature was perfect and we had so much fun wandering the gardens because it wasn't crazy busy. We even grabbed afternoon tea (well I had tea and Corey had a burger) at the Dining Room which was something I've always wanted to do here.

I think the sunken gardens are my favorite.

Corey enjoyed the Totem Poles.

Everything was in full bloom.

Tea was delicious.

Our next stop was Hatley Castle. We geeked out a bit and stopped here because it was in Deadpool (Professor X's house). We sure do love Deadpool.

We got crazy lucky with our hotel room at the Harbour Towers. With my Expedia Gold status, we snagged a pretty awesome free upgrade to one of the penthouse suites. This was such a welcome surprise since we'd just had weird mishaps almost every night so far and were really in need of a nice room. The suite had two balconies with panoramic views of the harbour, a jacuzzi tub (perfect for soaking our sad feet), a little kitchenette, and a really comfortable bed. 

Wandering the downtown area was perfect; no crowds and beautiful weather.

We went for Happy Hour at The Docks and had some oysters and crab cake sliders with our drinks. We purposely ate pretty light because our next stop was Poutine 66. Corey had never had poutine before so this was absolutely necessary. While we waited for our poutine, we wandered into this market that had some pretty fun Ben & Jerry's flavors that we don't have stateside so we grabbed a pint to take back to the room.

We enjoyed our poutine and ice cream from the comfort of our beautiful balcony while we watched the sunset. Definitely one of the best nights we had on this trip!

Monday Must Haves- Birthday Edition

Yikes, it's Monday already???

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I would have blogged sooner but it was a crazy weekend and immediately after I got the worst sinus infection/COPD attack. It happens pretty much whenever the weather changes and when my sinuses get inflamed I get some pretty fun (sarcasm here) vertigo. Hurray.

My birthday is in exactly a week. It's not a milestone so I don't have any crazy plans or even that many plans at all really. Corey is taking me to see Justin Moore a couple days before my birthday and I'm pretty sure I know where he wants to take me for dinner but I'll pretend I have no idea so I don't ruin the surprise. My mom and I have decided to do our annual birthday plans whenever we get around to them. 

Just for the hell of it- today's Monday Must Haves are basically my birthday wishlist. Let me just start by saying I hate wishlists. I hate the idea of putting together a list of things for people to buy because it feels awkward to be like "buy me this". I'm keeping it small this year and frankly, this is more for me to remember what I want so I can buy them in January after I'm done with all the Christmas shopping (I'm almost done and want to give my wallet a break). My memory is just horrible so it's not uncommon for me to completely forget something I want even if I really really want it.

I know I'm a pretty impossible person to shop for because frankly, if I can afford to buy it myself I'm going to buy it myself. I tried to make it easier on Corey this year by actually Pinning things I like that I wasn't planning to buy myself but the poor guy has still had to ask me about certain things just to make sure I don't have them. 

Love Always Monogrammed Necklace

I seriously don't know why I don't own a monogrammed necklace. I'm a Southerner and I love monograms. I've been looking at monograms all over because I don't want to spend a ton on a necklace I might not be able to wear forever (you know, names change and such) but this one is pretty and affordable. 

Dry Bar Hold Me Clips & High Top Rollers

My hair is just such a pain to style; it's heavy and doesn't hold a lot of curl for very long and it's difficult volume wise. Some handy tools would go a long way towards making me not want to shave my head.

Keds MLB Pennant Sneakers

The Braves ones of course. These are just so adorable and I can't wait to wear them to Suntrust Park assuming I can make it to Atlanta next fall.

Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Mini Lipstick Trio

These are so pretty and all make-up staples. I've heard good things about her lipsticks and this would be such a great way to try them out. 

Sole Society Kaylen Satchel

I need another black bag. Simple as that. 

What's Up Wednesdays

Hello Hello!

Last month I got to check out a really amazing show at the new T-Mobile Arena. I'm always really nervous about checking out shows at huge venues because in the South, parking was always a bitch and crowds were a nightmare. On the other hand, Keith Urban was playing and it's not too far from my work so I decided to go anyway.

I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the parking situation. The prepaid pass worked like a dream and everything was really organized at the NY NY garage where I parked. I hadn't been to the property since the arena opened and I didn't know just how easy it was to get around. So many great food options and I've never been to a huge arena that had garage parking access that close!

The show was really really amazing. The sound in the arena is great and everything was surprisingly organized. I was actually pretty impressed with how many amenities are scattered around the venue and how many there were. There was no trekking a mile to get to restrooms, food, bars, or merch tables. They were everywhere and the lines weren't long at all. The arena is HUGE and just walking to and from my seat to the meeting points was so much cardio. I had a few VIP passes for the openers- Brett Eldredge and Maren Morris so I was walking around all night to get from one spot to the next by the meeting times. 

I had purchased my ticket kind of last minute and my seat was all the way at the top directly overlooking the stage. Even in the nosebleeds, the view was amazing. 

Such a fun night!!!

Throwback Thursdays

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

I wised up this year. I ordered food from Marie Callendar's because I just don't have the time, energy, or mental capacity to cook. We are making the green bean casserole, stuffing (Stove Top of course) and that is just about it. Everything else is catered or store bought. We're probably actually saving a bit of money too since there's only three of us and I know we're saving family harmony.

Last year I cooked. Like, everything. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, an owner at the resort I worked at gave me a frozen 14lb turkey. So sweet. I was floored. I had no idea what to do with it. Ultimately, I decided to cook it and found a great recipe for spatch cocking the turkey. It definitely saved time in the oven and was easier than the traditional way; however, it was still a ton of work. So glad I am not doing any cooking myself this year!

Check out my before and after shots!

What's Up Wednesdays

Hey guys!

So today I'm continuing the massive road trip from this summer. After our stop in Astoria, we went over the bridge straight into Washington and made our way up the coast towards Olympic National Park. I know one of the biggest things we wanted to see on this trip was the Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rainforest and we planned a lot of the other things around making that stop.

Our time in the national park was pretty limited and there was a lot that we wanted to see. I think of all the portions of our trip, this one took the longest to coordinate because I wanted to make sure we saw as much of what we wanted as we could. 

We started with the Hall of Mosses which was a pretty far detour from the rest of the park that we wanted to see. It was a pretty easy and beautiful hike and having been freezing earlier that morning, the humidity in the forest was definitely a welcome warmth. The bugs; however, were not.

Next we headed to La Push to Rialto Beach. I had been to La Push before with my friends Kara and Robin and we had spent the weekend camping in the woods. It's one of my favorite trip memories so I was really excited to show Corey the beach. 

We made a pitstop in Forks for gas and snacks and I couldn't resist showing Corey all the Twilight stuff that's still inside Forks Outfitters. 

We headed over the Lake Crescent and got to relax by the water for a little while and enjoy the gorgeous view. 

We had booked a night in Port Angeles at a motel close to the ferry terminal since we had an early morning departure the next day. We wandered around the town for a little while, filled up on the last gas in America (since Canada is so much more expensive) and grabbed a really delicious dinner at the Next Door Gastropub (the hour and a half wait was more than a little excessive though). 

We actually even got to sleep at a reasonable hour which was great since we had been awake since about 3:30AM. We didn't quite make it to all of the places we wanted to see but there's always next time, right?