Allie Goes to Japan, Part 1!

Osaka was really the main destination for my trip to Japan. It was just added bonus (/convenience) that I got to go to Kyoto and Tokyo as well.

After a verrrryyyy long day (two days?) of travel, I touched down in Osaka in the early evening and met up with my boss, who had already been in Japan (Tokyo) for a few days. We checked into the hotel, and because it was already kind of late in the evening and neither of us were familiar with Osaka, we decided to get sushi at the hotel's restaurant. My first taste of real, non-American sushi! (Not my last, either.)

I already ate at least one before I remembered to take a picture.

Did you know that in Japan, they put the wasabi on the sushi before you get it? When Matt and I go out for sushi, I generally avoid the wasabi and ginger (it just ain't my thang), but there was no avoiding that sinus-clearing spice here! Thankfully they used a reasonable hand with the stuff, and the sushi was really good. I realize that I've never lived in a place super near an ocean, but the sushi was just so much ... gentler, I guess is the word, on the palate than it is in the U.S. It's fresher, and doesn't taste fishy, and is just really nice and light to eat. The plate I got had I think nine different types of fish, and my favorites were the salmon and the scallop!

Classy Traveling

When Matt and I went on our honeymoon cruise, he booked us a room with a balcony over the ocean. We didn't realize it when we planned the trip, but having the upgraded room entitled us to another perk: we got to board the boat earlier than the people with interior rooms, and that meant way less waiting in line. Our passports got checked, our luggage loaded up to dispatch to our room, and we were literally walking onto the ship in like, less than 20 minutes. It was amazing.

And I remember Matt looking at me with a little smile and going, "We're never going to be able to go on a cruise without a balcony room again are we?" And I laughed, "NOPE!"

Suffice it to say, we haven't gone on another cruise since then, nor are we generally upgrade-type people. (Okay, I'll say it. We're cheap!)

But when my boss said that I was going to Japan for a meeting (I work for an American subsidiary of a Japanese company), and he suggested upgrading to business class for the 12-hour flight, I wasn't going to say no. A seat that reclines all the way back, and a footrest that motorizes itself up to be level with the seat? Okay!

And look at all that legroom!

I'm used to flying in the back of the plane, getting no leg room and tiny packets of bland pretzels and being able to get comfy not at all, so it was weird, getting warm towels, and real fabric napkins for meal times, and glass cups, and a little kit of toiletries that you might need for the flight (and it included socks?!). It was kind of fun, but also felt pretty over the top.

It was also funny/sad when they put this delicious-looking plate of sushi in front of me, and then the flight attendant was like, "Oh wait! We've got a special meal for you" — pre-flight I had requested a vegetarian meal, because pescatarian wasn't listed as an option for plane food — and they took the sushi away and gave me a big plate of ... lentils. Even the guy next to me was like, "I would have tried to keep the sushi!" I'm thankful that airlines are willing to accommodate dietary preferences but I wouldn't have minded if they'd forgotten about me just this once! :)

Not including travel to get to the other side of the world and back — I left suuuuuuper early on a Wednesday and didn't arrive until Thursday night! — I was in Japan for only about three and a half days, but I did manage to do some sight seeing while I was there, so I'll be hopefully sharing some of that next time!

What's the best travel perk you've experienced?

San Diego

Note: I originally wrote this post in April. This trip happened in January, and I just found the post mostly completed in my drafts folder. So I'm hitting "publish" as is, and maybe sometime before next January I'll get around to writing its sister post about my trip to Los Angeles that same week?)

I wanted to talk about California before too much time has passed and I decide it's not worth going back to share. (A lot of things have ended up like that lately, but I was listening to an episode of the Robcast with the woman who founded Momastery, and she was talking about how she made a point to have certain times for writing, where she typed the things she needed to say and hit "publish" when time was up, and I realized that kind of focus is kind of what I need right now, so I'm making a better effort to write regularly and actually send it out into the world.) (October Edit: HAAAAAAA.)

So, I was lucky enough to get to go to California for a work tradeshow! On the day before the first enormous snowstorm hit Virginia in January, I flew to San Diego with two of my co-workers. We had switched flights to avoid being trapped in the bad weather, so we had an extra couple days to hang around and see the area.

There was amazing Mexican food! There were Bees! We were on a boat! There were margaritas the size of my face, and my Japanese coworker bought a sombrero after drinking one!

I don't like tequila, so I got a face-sized sangria instead.

But for real, I got to see and do a few things I'd never tried before. Like, after breakfast one of the days, we stumbled upon this farmer's market in the streets of San Diego, where my co-worker convinced me to try uni (sea urchin), which — believe me — is disgusting and you don't want to eat it. It was all slimy and salty and horrible. (And I LIKE sushi and don't have an issue with textures and all, but it was just. so. bad. Coworker disagreed.)

We also got to visit the San Diego Zoo. My sister-in-law used to live in the San Diego area, and she said it was one of the best zoos in the world, and it did not disappoint! We got to see pandas and elephants and lots of giant turtles, and it was fun.

One of the days, both my coworkers decided they wanted to go to Tijuana, to which I was like, no thanks, I've been to Mexico. So they took off, and instead I headed up the parkway to have brunch with a bee friend, Allison/Mrs. Parasol! We went to a place called Snooze, and I had uhMAZING breakfast tacos. (BREAKFAST TACOS HOW I MISS YOU. Virginia sux.)

That's all she wrote, folks.

Have you been to San Diego? How do you make time to write?

Things That Are Not The Color They're Supposed to Be

When we first moved to Virginia, I was browsing on Pinterest for cool things to do around here, when I came across this image.

I have no idea what the original source is. I have looked and looked and looked.

And I immediately thought, "I want to go to there." The pin described it as "Cherry River, West Virginia." So I looked up Cherry River, saw it was a 2.5 hour drive from us, decided that we would go when spring came, and stopped thinking about it.

So. It's now spring. Last week, I told Matt I wanted to go see Cherry River on Sunday, now that things are blooming. And we searched high and low and could find NO MENTION of pink trees. No other photos from people who had been there. No travel blogs listing it as a place to see. I asked my boss, who is from West Virginia, and she said she'd never heard of this, but went ahead and asked some of her hometown friends, none of whom had ever seen anything like this either.

They suspected someone took a picture of a river and stuck a pink filter on it. Plus, none of the other photos of Cherry River I found look like this at all.

I was disappointed. LIES, ALL LIES.

But that's okay. Matt and I decided that we'd go out and do something new on Saturday instead, so we found ourselves at a roller derby bout in Roanoke. It was pretty awesome; I'd never been to see roller derby before, and it was a fun experience, the two of us trying to figure out how the game was scored and watching the derby girls try to hip-check each other out of the rink.

(Side story: Matt and I went for a walk after work yesterday, and I told him I wanted to do some blogging. He said, "About your hair?" and I said "No, about Cherry River," and he said, "You could call the post, 'Things That Are Not The Color They Are Supposed to Be,'" and I laughed and laughed, so there you go.)

BTdubs, I LOVE MY HAIR. I went in Saturday and it took like three hours to get all the bleaching done and lavender added, but it turned out so awesome and I love it, and my colorist said it would still look good as it fades into lighter purple, with shades of pink and silver and blonde. It's like My Little Pony in the best possible way. 

Also, thanks to the bleaching experience, I now know that a whole head of blonde is not something that looks good on me, so now I don't feel like I have to try that anymore.

A Few Hours in Frankfurt

I may have missed seeing the Red Light District in Amsterdam, but I sure found out where all the prostitutes and sex shops are in Frankfurt!

So. I got lost on my way back to the train station. I had an eight-hour layover in Frankfurt, so I planned to take the train into downtown so I could wander around and see the city. I was there on a Monday, so most of the museums were closed, which was kind of a bummer. But the one I REALLY wanted to see — the Jewish history museum — was not only closed for Monday, but closed through 2018 for renovations! #themoreyouknow

Even though my plans for the city didn't really pan out, I did wander around Frankfurt and see some cool churches and shops.

Thankfully, the city is laid out in a grid so it wasn't too difficult for me to read a map. (I am notoriously bad at directions. For some reason, my mind assumes that the direction I am going must always be north. It rarely is.)

So I had finally gotten comfortable enough with the map, in that I had managed to find my way to this cool old church (Alte Nikolaikirche) and back, so I was feeling confident enough to wander off the main drag that the helpful lady at the tourist office told me about. I moseyed through a nice park that had a statue of Beethoven that looked like he'd just been caught having a threesome.

It's totally because of the expression on the face of the girl on the right. Scandalous!

I found the Alte Oper opera house and decided to rest my legs and people-watch for a while.

Frankfurt is a big financial hub in Europe, so I saw lots of smart bank workers in fancy suits and pretty shoes.

And then, assuming that I knew the general direction from which I came, I wandered back that way. And got completely turned around.

I knew I was in the wrong place when I walked past a casino midday and saw a woman in micro-shorts and heels with her stomach bared, when I was regretting not having my heavy coat with me.

—————

In addition to hookers, I also saw more cool buildings!

Statues holding up a bridge!

Gold detailing and strung lights!

An American restaurant that presumably serves Chicago-style food! (I did not eat there.)

One of my favorite parts of the day was ducking into the Alte Nikolaikirche church. I took some photos outside, and then I wasn't sure if it was open for visitors or not, so I tested the door, not wanting to disturb any worshippers.

Inside, it was empty save for this older gentleman. I'm not sure if he was a church member or a historian or what, but he told me all about the church, and about some of the pieces of artwork and stained glass. Some of the glass creations had survived World War II and were now on display in this 11th century building!

Gravestones depicting the man who gathered land to create the city of Frankfurt, and his rich wife.

Crazy hair day. A 4 a.m. wakeup call will do that to you.

I also loved that there was a big river that cut through the city and that there were nice walking bridges across. There was an accordian player performing on one of them! That was so cool.

There were locks all around the bridge.

After I had a quick, late lunch (not much to say about it; most places in Frankfurt I popped into to try to get out of the cold did not take credit cards and I only had a few euros that I had gotten from my co-worker, so I just had a simple sandwich), I made my way back across the bridge, back to the train station and shuttled back to the aiport in order to get ready to fly back home! (The gate agent asked me where I was headed. I said "the United States!" He told me that wasn't good enough, that I needed to tell him WHERE in the U.S. So, that was embarrassing.)

And thus ends Allie's First Big European Trip. Hopefully I'll get to go back to all these places someday, as there's still so much I'd like to see and do!

Have you been to Frankfurt? Are there any other places in the world where people actually play the accordian?! Do you prefer researching places to visit, or just wandering?

I'm Here For The Food: A Love Story for Milan

I really, really loved Milan. I got to spend four magnificent days in the city (one and a half of them on my own), and while we did some things for work, I'm not going to talk about them here.

I loved the food. Oh my gosh, the FOOD! I had fresh pasta three times while I was there, and it was just so amazing and creamy and wonderful. I had gelato twice. Gnocchi once. Panna cotta for breakfast, which blew any panna cotta I've had completely out of the water. Lemon sorbet that was more like a creamy drink than an ice cream, but was oh-so-good.

"After" photo of a melt-in-your mouth salmon taglioni in cream sauce. Sorry, I didn't get a "before," but it was basically the same but with a significantly larger amount of pasta.

I ate as much of the deliciousness as humanly possible, but almost every restaurant we went to in Europe asked me if the food was okay, because I could never actually finish everything I ordered. If only I could have taken a cross-continental to-go box!

Gelato #1 from a street vendor near the Duomo cathedral. Italian Cream flavor, and it was amazing.

Italy made me realize how much I love eggplant, when it arrived on a vegetariana pizza. (In the U.S., it's one of the few veggies I find generally kind of icky. It's that thick skin, it makes it hard to eat.)

Fresh pappardelle with porcini mushrooms. We asked the hotel concierge for a restaurant recommendation, and she recommended a restaurant where they would come pick you up (at the NH Hotel off Sesto Marelli). The sign on the place literally just said "Ristorante," and the food and wine and dessert were all fabulous.

The most unusual pasta dish I've ever had. It was a ricotta-walnut-chili pasta from the Sheraton Milan Malpensa restaurant before a 6 a.m. flight to Frankfurt. I had to ask the waiter if all the flowers and leaves were edible! Also, I love that every meal in Italy starts with prosecco. Mmmm prosecco.

I could basically just wax poetic about the food forever, but I won't bore you. If you have not been to Italy, get to Italy if just for the food! I could just eat the whole city and be perfectly happy.

Castles and Canals in Holland

Even though I flew into Amsterdam, and had a day to spend there, I spent more time in the Eindhoven area than Amsterdam proper. And that was okay, because I actually think I liked Eindhoven better.

Though it's hard to argue with beautiful canal views.

Amsterdam was bustling, busy, people everywhere. I usually love bigger cities, but I felt so overwhelmed when I got there.

It was way more crowded than it looks in this photo.

Also, every train station I saw in Europe was super duper fancy. 

This one had a golden weathervane on one pillar and a golden clock on the other side.

I saw coffee shops (which don't sell coffee), and cafes (which do sell coffee), and walked along some of the canals.

You may think this looks like a nice place to get coffee, but you'd be wrong. This is where you go to buy weed.

(Dear Mom/Grandma/Nana/in-laws, no I did not buy weed in Amsterdam.)

I saw the huge multi-block line for the Anne Frank house and, sadly, decided not to wait in line (since my original plan of going first thing in the morning and getting in line before it had even opened didn't pan out due to Allie's panicky insanity). I also didn't manage to make it to the Red Light District, which I had heard such interesting stories about and wanted to see for myself.

Some people live in the canals on house boats! This isn't one of them.

So I guess Matt and I will just have to come back sometime so I can see the things I missed.

There were people on bicycles and little motor-bikes everywhere! In fact, I saw a four-story parking garage that was only for bicycles!

In comparison, Eindhoven felt much calmer, like it was a more moderate-sized city that people lived and worked in. It was greener, felt more peaceful, while still having plenty to see. (I went there to meet up with my co-worker and go to visit one of our company's European distributors.)

Of course, I may just be biased because my first morning in Eindhoven started with Nutella for breakfast, and my first morning in Amsterdam didn't.

I wish I knew what this castle was called! I didn't catch its name and I couldn't find it in a Google search! 

In addition to all the work stuff, the distributor asked me what I most wanted to see in Europe, and I said castles. So he took me to see one!

Dutch castle not open for visitors today, but it was still neat to see.

It had a moat and everything! (The distributor had actually gotten married inside it!)

Later, we all went to dinner at a really nice restaurant that used to be a brick factory.

De Steenoven Galerie, where I had tomato basil soup, salmon hollandaise and delicious red wine!

We also walked to lunch at a local hotel and I had a wonderful salmon-cream cheese sandwich. I got to see a Dutch windmill, and the distributor told me that it used to mill flour (and happened to be attached to a closed bakery that used to bake with that flour)!

Of course, jet lag was the worst. I took the train from Amsterdam to Eindhoven on the first day, and kept falling asleep on the train. I was in bed by 6 p.m., only to be woken up for dinner around 8:30 p.m. (pear and mushroom risotto), so I dragged myself up for that because I wanted to make a good impression.

Sorry if you're not interested in hearing about food. The food was one of my favorite things about this trip, especially in Italy.

After a day in each city, I packed up my carry-on and we took the train back to Amsterdam to catch our flight to Milan! Can I just say that I have never had a more chaotic airline experience than I did on the way out of Amsterdam? There were no seats near the gate, and when they said it was time to board the plane, everyone literally just surged forward and crammed down this little staircase and I got stuck behind a whole mess of people even though my ticket said Priority Boarding. It was insane. Apparently transportation in Europe is a free-for-all, because no one seemed to do any transporting in an orderly fashion.

Have you ever been to the Netherlands? Do you prefer visiting big cities or smaller ones? What's the most chaotic travel experience you've had?

It Turns Out I'm Really Into Old Architecture. And Cats.

Alternate title: Did you know it's possible to pickpocket yourself?

It turns out that I might not be the biggest fan of traveling alone. For reasons that are entirely my fault and may not be representative of my actual feelings on traveling in general.

Yes, it's empowering and all, being able to find your way around train stations and cities you've never been to before. It's amazing to be independent and immerse yourself in another culture where you don't understand the language. It's great being able to do the things that you want to do, when you want to do them, without having to take another person's interests into account. (Want to sit outside an opera house and observe the fashionable locals? Done. Want to eat gelato for lunch? Obviously. Want to wander around a foreign castle looking for feral cats? ABSOLUTELY I DO.)

So it was a massive bummer that, when I first set foot on foreign soil, the first thing that I learned was that my debit card — which I had gotten solely for the purpose of going abroad — did not work abroad. And I had $10 cash in my pocket, because I had expected that I would be able to withdraw Euros with my debit card.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I had a scheduled day of sight-seeing in Amsterdam before meeting up with a co-worker, followed by several days of meetings and tradeshows, with two additional solo sight-seeing days in Milan and Frankfurt at the end of the trip. And realizing that I was on my own with one international credit card (and one U.S. credit card with huge international fees) and no other money was TERRIFYING.

So I did what any irrational human being would do. I split up my two credit cards (one into my wallet, the other into my luggage). I had hidden it in a separate compartment in my purse that would have been harder for pickpockets to get to. And then I promptly forgot — in my complete panic — that I had done so and flipped out when I couldn't find my own wallet. So I essentially pickpocketed myself, and spent two hours wandering around the Amsterdam train station trying to find something that had been in my purse the whole time.

EXPO (World's Fair) in Milan, Italy

I think that if I hadn't started off my trip on this note, I probably would feel better about traveling alone. Outside of that, there were no major mishaps, and I had a really awesome trip. There were a few things I wish I'd had cash for — turns out many of the little local eateries and cafes in Frankfurt don't take credit cards, and the Sforza Castle in Milan was having trouble with its credit card machines and so I didn't get to do any museum tours inside — but otherwise it wasn't a huge problem. Even the Milan train station had an app so I could buy tickets via Paypal!

Alte Oper (Opera House) in Frankfurt, Germany

With that behind me, I will share some better stories from my trip soon. :)

Have you ever traveled alone before? What are your favorite travel activities?

Virginia List: Our Trip to Charlottesville Went Off With Basically No Hitches

We went to Monticello! Matt took a nice panoramic photo and I photobombed it and ruined it.

For our belated dating anniversary/early wedding anniversary (who knows anymore, we've started calling the months of March through May "anniversary celebration months"), we planned a trip out to Charlottesville, Virginia. The ultimate goal was to see Monticello, the house/plantation/estate that Thomas Jefferson built that also kind of doubles as his presidential museum. We didn't really make any specific plans outside that.

When we were looking for a place to stay, Matt went on AirBNB and found this guest house on the outskirts of Charlottesville that looked really cute, and it was on a little farm! I was really excited to see some goats. They also had chickens and a rooster and a little pond full of tadpoles and fish, and some cute puppies.

Goats named Nutmeg and October!

Isn't this place just the cutest? The dogwood trees had just bloomed. (Those are the white ones.)

Life List: That Time We Almost Got Trapped in West Virginia

"Great story," Matt said as we ran up the ramp of the parking garage.

"What?!" I said. I didn't want the police officer to think that we had lied to him. I had told the truth! I couldn't believe what Matt was saying.

"This is going to be a great story," Matt clarified. Just moments earlier, we had suddenly, frantically, found ourselves staring at the prospect of being without a vehicle in the middle of West Virginia for two days.

But let's back up.

Matt planned this trip for me as my Christmas gift. We were going to drive up to West Virginia, so I could cross another state off my Life List. He researched things to do, places we should eat, things we should try. He booked a hotel. It was really sweet of him, and he did a good job.

We drove into Charleston, WV and, after a quick lunch, headed to the state capitol building. It's really quite beautiful; gold-leaf dome, marble interiors.

When you first walk in. I couldn't get a good shot of the chandelier, which was made of thousands of crystals.

Hall of governor portraits.

And this random stuffed bear. I had to get a picture with it, of course.

The Gift Guide for People Who Don't Have Space in Their Luggage

I'm not going to show you a pretty collage of things that you can buy for every person you've ever met. Most of the time, those things are so impersonal, so I don't like them. EXCEPTION: Funny (on purpose or on accident) gift guides. On Sunday I was flipping through the December issue of Glamour, and in the "For the Man in Your Life" gift-guide section, I saw a gold-plated HATCHET, with the caption: "Svbscription x SS&Co., a subscription service for an array of luxury men's products, like this hatchet ($155)."

via

I don't know how a hatchet is considered a "luxury men's product," but I did ask Matt if he'd like one, and it made him laugh.

ANYWAY.

When we lived in Texas, going home for the holidays meant loading up one of our vehicles, driving two or three hours and unloading all the lovely wrapped gifts we'd bought for our families.

Since we moved across the country and all gifts must be stashed in luggage (that we'll have to pay baggage fees to fly), I've been thinking a lot about how we do Christmas gifts, what we've got on our own Christmas lists, and how best to shop for our loved ones.

So here are some of my ideas — a gift guide of sorts — to making that process not take so many suitcases.

Shop online and ship gifts to your destination.
We will be celebrating with various family members on four different occasions over the week of Christmas. Because our first stop will be my parents' house, every time I order a gift online for anyone, I have it shipped to their house with strict instructions not to open the box if it's addressed to me (or, I threaten, I'll have to return all the goodies). I plan to wrap everything up all pretty when we get there, and my mom and sister and I will have a wrap party like we do most every year. (I was careful not to ship any gifts for either of them, so they will still be surprised.) Then, we're borrowing my mom's car to travel to the other celebrations, and we can load up like normal.

Give experiences.
I don't know why this one never occurred to me during previous holiday seasons, but now that space is at a premium, I've been thinking about how to give people the gift of their own adventures. Think: gift cards to unique destinations, tickets to cool events, classes for new hobbies or experiences. Listen to your loved ones when they say they've always wanted to learn to play the banjo or go to Coachella or break the world record for biggest flash mob. Help them cross something off their own Life List! Let your creativity fly!

Give to a good cause.
Matt's a better person than I am, and he thought of this one. Instead of giving someone some stuff, why not spend the money on a charity or organization that is close to their heart? There are literally thousands of organizations you can donate to: a local food pantry, the Susan G. Komen Foundation, ASPCA, UNICEF, Kiva, Ronald McDonald House, Room to Read, just to name a few! Whatever your people are passionate about, find a way to give to those causes.

Will you have to travel for Christmas? What are your tips for minimizing the costs of traveling with gifts?

Life List: Once Upon a Time in North Carolina

It all started with a dresser.

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away (Texas), Prince Matt owned this brown dresser that lived in his walk-in closet. It had begun to rebel, expelling undershirts and matched gold-toe socks every time a drawer was opened, as each drawer-bottom had partially capsized into the drawer below.

He put up with this dragon of a dresser until soon after his wedding to Princess Allie, at which point they figured, they had a walk-in closet, Princess Allie had a dresser big enough to allow him half the drawers, so they didn't really need this broken-down dresser anymore. It was valliantly slain and laid to rest at Goodwill.

And they lived happily ever after, until they moved to Virginia.

Now, their new castle did not have walk-in closets, and it would have been awkward to share such small spaces. Princess Allie took the master closet and still needed every drawer in her dresser, while Prince Matt took the guest room closet.

Prince Matt figured out really quickly that it was kind of a pain to walk from the en-suite to the guest room closet every time he needed clean intimates, so the royal family decided to make a trip to that glorious Swedish palace — IKEA — to find the prince a new dresser.

Except Virginia once again foiled their plans. The only IKEA in all the land was a grueling 4-hour carriage ride away, near Washington D.C., so instead, they decided to leave their kingdom to go to the only other IKEA nearby, which happened to be in Charlotte, North Carolina. They decided to make a day trip of it, and see some other local attractions while they were there.

And thus, Princess Allie got to cross another state off her Life List.

Camping With Yogi

OK, so this happened back in September and I just never got around to talking about it, plus for some reason I only ended up with one or two photos, which is just awful considering I was meeting with fellow bloggers. Blog card revoked!

Anyway, you may remember last fall, a lot of the Weddingbee bloggers converged in Austin for a giant Bee meetup, which was awesome and also really convenient since it wasn't that far from home. This fall, the Bee Bloggers planned to meet in Boston, and unfortunately, due to our household's lack of adult jobs (at the time), I couldn't make that one work. That really bummed me out, because I love how those meetups explore a ton of local attractions.

As I was looking through the sign-up sheet, I noticed that NONE of the other Texas bees had signed up to go to Boston. (Several of them have new babies, so I understand not wanting to travel with newborns, plus all the expenses that tiny velociraptors incur.) So, because I love opportunities to see blog friends (and maybe have a little bit of #FOMO…) I suggested that we have our own meetup.

So after a little bit of discussion about what the Texas Bees could swing, we settled on going camping at Jellystone Park in Waller, Texas (right outside Houston). Super excited, I booked a tent site, since Matt likes camping outdoors, and he could make sure everything was set up properly. (Most everyone else booked cabins.)

And then! And then, Matt got a job and moved to Virginia. And I was left with this campsite and no idea how to pitch a tent, and I sure as hell wasn't planning to sleep outside in a tent alone in the dark.

I asked literally every friend in College Station and Houston to come camping with me, and no one could make it, so I ended up begging my aunt to come, and she had her first-ever camping experience. (I came home with more than 70 mosquito bites, so I imagine she had a blast. How did all of us forget bug spray?!)

Beautiful sunrise, though.

But it was really awesome to see a few friends I hadn't seen since last year. All of them have adorable children, and we all got to splash around in the shallow splash-and-spray pool together. Because Jellystone? Totally not the same as regular camping.  It's all Yogi Bear-themed, and there's a mini-waterpark, and multiple pools, and movie nights, and a giant playground, and it is basically the perfect way to take young kids camping without having to come up with your own entertainment every minute of the day.

Apparently not a lot of people want to pitch tents in September, since there was only like one other tent the whole time.

And we all got to cook out together, and one of the husbands brought really delicious homemade cookies, and then us girls sat around and chatted and ate marshmallows while the husbands took care of putting the kiddos to bed, and it was awesome. (We couldn't get a fire started since it had rained for a few days beforehand, so no s'mores.) And then in the middle of the night, something (I assumed it was a giant bear — Yogi? — but it was probably a racoon or something) stole my bag of Veggie Straws and ripped apart a loaf of bread, which I had mistakenly left on the picnic table, and so that was scary to come across the next morning.

I'm glad I got to see my Texas blog friends one more time before I had to leave.

When was the last time you went camping? Do you prefer roughing it, or more family-friendly-with-amenities sites like this one?

Monday Night in Jackson, Tennessee

You know how it's on my Life List to visit every state in the U.S.? Well, usually I don't consider just driving through a state as having "visited." Like, on this trip to Virginia? We stopped at a McDonald's in Arkansas to use the bathroom, but I don't think that counts as having "been" to Arkansas, because I didn't actually do anything there.

So I'm not sure if traveling through Tennessee counts either, but I've got a good story for you anyway.

My dad and I had just crossed the Tennessee border, just passed through Memphis, and it was getting dark and pouring rain, and we were about ready to call it a day. I had gotten several recommendations from friends who had traveled with pets before to stop at a La Quinta Inn, because they don't charge fees for animals. The next La Quinta past Memphis was in Jackson, so I made a reservation for us. Once we got the cat and all our bags unloaded, we looked for a place to get dinner.

Now, neither my dad nor I are the type to stick with chain restaurants if we have the option of local places. We looked on Yelp to see what was close and had decent reviews, and ended up at this little fast-casual, beach-themed Mexican food place called Tulum's. It was fine; we were hungry. My burrito was the size of my head.

By the time we got back to the motel, it was only like, 8 p.m., and we were all, "What do you want to do?" "I dunno, what do you want to do?"

There was a bench in front of the La Quinta where people had been sitting and smoking while we had been unloading my truck, so my dad decided that we would go to the Exxon station across the street and get some beer. And then drink it on the bench in front of the La Quinta.

So we did.

So you tell me — do you think this counts as having visited Tennessee?

Life List: All The Bad Things That Happened to Matt in Virginia

"I know this is EXACTLY what you want to hear right now, but this trip is going to make a GREAT story."

That's what I told Matt after the cop let us off with a warning for not having our headlights on in the rental car after 10 p.m. (In our defense, Blacksburg, Va., is very well lit.)

Highway between Roanoke and Blacksburg. Watch out for those flying cops.

A couple of months ago, Matt was invited to present at a seminar at Virginia Tech. Whenever he gets invited to go to conferences and seminars, I always joke that he never invites me to go with him, so he gets to see all these places that I haven't been to (AHEM, Baltimore, Atlanta, Seattle). So it's kind of a miracle I was in the car with him at all. At the time he received the call, I was interviewing for jobs, but didn't actually have anything nailed down yet, so when we found we could both go to Virginia with the help of some airline miles from Matt's parents, I was pretty pumped to be invited for once.

But as soon as we landed in Virginia, everything that could possibly go wrong, did. It was kind of hilarious.

It Was Enough: A Mexico Photoessay

We got back from our Mexico mission trip a couple weekends ago. It took me a little while to figure out what I wanted to say about it, because I was having a hard time processing how I felt. But our pastor asked me to speak about the trip at church last Sunday, and with a quick deadline to meet, this is what I came up with to say.

Along with the pastor's wife and one of their daughters, Matt and I had the opportunity to go to Reynosa, a border town right across the U.S.-Mexico line, near the bottom tip of Texas. We were really blessed to be able to go.

Camp: home sweet home for the weekend.