Category: Travel

In 24 hours, I will be on a plane, on my way to this gorgeous, beautiful, white beach, turquoise water paradise.  Thursday morning the boyf and I will board a plane, destination: Playa del Carmen Mexico!  We’re heading down to the tropical paradise for 4 days to attend the wedding of two of our favorite friends.  I cannot wait to escape the busy city, the stresses of work, the anxiety of moving.  I cannot wait to sit by the beach, lounge by the pool, sip cocktails all day and most of all, I cannot wait to witness the love and promise of forever between our two friends.

Look forward to sharing pictures of our vacation!  xoxo

A photo reminder of where I spent the past weekend.  Tucked into the coastline of Maine, spending quality time with my family.

The road to Cozy Harbor. Over Robinson’s Wharf swing bridge, and through the woods.

Cozy Harbor Cottage. View from the lawn.

I recently watched 21 Mind Blowing Escapes, a program on the Travel Channel that left me jonesing for a far away vacation. The program featured safaris in Africa, beaches in Hawaii, lagoons in Iceland, cliffside villages in Italy and Santorini.  I’ve wanted to go to Greece for a long, long time.  My initial urge to go may or may not have been caused by a little book called the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (embarrassing), but it wasn’t until my junior year of college when I was studying in Florence that I really, really wanted to go.  My housemates planned a trip to Greece in the month following our finals, but I had decided to return to the states.  I missed some of the most beautiful travels (Greece, Croatia, Portugal), and ever since have been determined to go back to Europe.  To see the places that I missed that semester. The top of my must travel to places is: Santorini.

I’ve always thought that it would take years for me to get back.  I’d need to be older, more settled, more financially stable.  But as it turns out, a European and world tour might not be as far in the future as I thought.  My parents have been talking about a family trip, a world tour, for quite some time.  And now, the talks are being had more frequently.  When the time comes, I’ll be making sure Greece is on the itinerary.  One of my best girlfriends just spent a few weeks in Greece, and now the Travel Channel is taunting me with Santorini’s beauty.  I must go.  And I must go soon.

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to see that sunset in person?

I took a mental health day from work yesterday.  At 8AM I emailed my team, spent two hours working from home, and then got in my car and drove.  Ice coffee in hand, windows down, music on loud.  No explanation necessary, after all they call ‘personal days’ personal for a reason, right?  I drove nearly 2 hours north, into the great state of Maine, and I swear, as soon as I crossed the state line, I already felt better.  Relieved, relaxed, excited… happy.

I spent the entire day, 7+ hours, by myself.  And it. was. glorious.  In Kennebunkport I walked around the village, took pictures of everything I saw, checked out every single tourist trap, sat by the ocean and to top it off – bought myself an ice cream cone.

A gift shop, a pile of buoys, a stack of Shipyard.

My favorite place, in the world – a breakwater and beach in Kennebunkport.

Yesterday was the best day I’ve had, in a very, very long time.  I can hardly stomach the fact that today it’s back to the office, back to the grind, back to work.  Fortunately, it’s Friday, and by 5PM I’ll be on the road once again, heading north, to my happy place for the weekend.  Another weekend in Maine, and I’m happy.

Another week, another weekend, but this weekend we traveled to a place we go only two or three times a year: the farm.  The farm belongs to the boyf’s grandparents, and is located in Montville, ME, population 1,000 (+/- a few).  To get to said farm, one must quite literally travel over the river and through the woods.  Gram and Grampy run a working farm, minus the chickens and cows, triple the vegetables with a side of freshly hunted deer, moose and bear.  Welcome to downeast Maine, folks.

Arriving at the farm means leaving your make up bag in the car, your fancy jeans in the closet.  We wear comfy clothes, rugged shoes, and gloves.  Always gloves.  Gloves to pick fresh strawberries from the plants, gloves to dig carrots from the ground, gloves to push wood through the wood cutter, gloves to grind fresh horseradish in the barn.

At the farm, the whole house wakes early, no one is excused from hard work, and everyone reaps the benefits.  Meals are all home cooked with fresh ingredients, drinks are plentiful and hearts are full.  Sappy, eh?  Well, welcome to Maine, folks.

(Note to readers: these photos were taken summer 2010)

Welcome to the Farm!

The main house and one barn.

View from the bottom of the field.

Sprawling field at the Farm.

Tea Pond at the Farm.

Pond plants.

Tea Pond, room for two!

Garden rows.

More of the garden.

Freshly picked raspberries.

One of the hunting cabins on property at the Farm.

The farm itself is enormous.  Whether it’s 15 acres, 50 acres or 200 acres (I can’t tell the difference), Grampy’s land stretches further than you can see and encompasses a number of trails, a pond or two, more than one red roofed barn and at least a half a dozen deer stands.  Each spring, Gram and Grampy plant dozens and dozens and dozens of plants, each summer’s end they harvest their crops, each fall they hunt their own meat.  Gram and Grampy grow everything under the sun: lettuce, cabbage, kale, radishes, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, fiddlehead greens, pumpkins, potatoes, squash, corn, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries.  Throughout the year they cut their own wood to heat their own house, knead their own bread and buy their milk and eggs down the road at a friend’s dairy.

Every weekend at the farm is a friendly reminder of what life lived simply and honestly means. And by simple, I mean rich and beautiful and by honestly I mean hard working and well earned.

Cheers.

Did I mention that this Friday, the boyf and I are headed south to the city of lights (okay, so that’s not NYC, but whatever), it’s MY city of lights.  And this weekend, I will be there.  To celebrate with all my favorites.  I have not seen my college roommates / best friends in months, and this will be quite a treat.  Celebrating in the big city, drinks on the roofdeck, relaxing in the park.

This is typically what it looks like when we get together. Cheers to my birthday   Cheers to us.

I can sum up the loveliness of my entire Los Angeles vacation by sharing with you three pictures.  So, without wasting any more time, I present you exhibits 1, 2 and 3.

(Exhibit 1)

(Exhibit 2)

(Exhibit 3)

Okay, I’ll share more, but first, can you scroll up a bit and just take another look at those shots?  Don’t worry, your keyboard can handle a bit more drool. Yes ladies and gents, that is me.  Yours truly.  Snuggling close to Kevin McKidd, Patrick Dempsey and Eric Dane. What hunks, huh?  And just to clarify – exhibit 3?  That’s McSteamy himself showing Samantha and I home photos (on his Blackberry) of his (at the time) 24 day old beautiful baby girl Billie Beatrice.  Let’s hear a group “aaaaaaw.”

Moving on, the rest of my trip was filled with typical Southern California things.  Lots of orange trees, lemon trees, palm trees.  Shopping on Robertson and (window) shopping on Rodeo.  Drives through the hills, hikes through Runyon, sight seeing trips at the Pier.

Orange trees

Lemon trees

Santa Monica Pier

There was also time to kick back and relax with good friends.  After all this was a vacation!  I enjoyed joy rides down the 101, lunches on Sunset and a night out at Sky Bar.

Me, Claire, Ashley

Me, Sam

Sam, Claire, me

And, last but most certainly not least, the best part – I said it, and I meant it – the best part of my trip involved spending time with my beautiful family. My dad is from Los Angeles, so there remains a whole bunch of cousins and babes that I rarely get to see.  My California family is amazing.  I stayed with two of my cousins, spent the day on the set of Grey’s with another, and visited with the entire bunch o’cousins (all 17) on my final night.

We gathered at our cabana at the Bel Air Bay Club, and began with a toast over champagne.  A toast to my visit and to our family.

We all caught up, laughed until our bellies ached, watched the little ones with awe, and shortly after the sun set over the Pacific we packed up the leftover cheese and crackers (in my family there ain’t nevah leftovers in the wine department!) and enjoyed the most delicious dinner in the formal dining room.  It was pretty cool, a table set for nearly 20, with walls made of glass overlooking the beach, waves crashing in the foreground.

Bay club

View from the cabana

Cutest babe

Click to enlarge! About half of my cousins (all the adults).

Certainly a life I could get used to.  After even more bottles of red, and a perfectly presented cup of vanilla bean crème brulée, the night just had to come to an end.  After all I had a terribly horrible red eye  to catch back to the East Coast.  Had to make it home for Easter dinner with the family.  So teary eyed, and hearts full I said my goodbyes to the most gracious hosts an East Coast gal could ask for, and headed to LAX.

I miss your home, your fresh fruit and english muffins with jam in the morning and glasses of red in the evening. I miss you cousins, and I miss you LA. To my favorite hosts, I love you and cannot wait until January when I see you again.

Cousin Susu, cousin Leroi, me

Currently planning a fantastic getaway to Los Angeles: the one and only, the love it or hate it LA. Since the age of um, I don’t know, maybe 3 years old, I’ve been fascinated with Hollywood. Fascinated is the respectable way to state the situation, obsessed may be a bit more truthful. So in 7th grade when Samantha and I took our friendship to the best-friend, attached at the hip level, it was quite a relief to find that I was not the only Mary-Kate and Ashley wannabe, obsessed with being: skinny, famous, rich, and having 90210 in my address.

A few years of therapy and 23 years of maturity have helped me get over the obsessively skinny thing. Thankfully. However, the rich and famous and 90210 dwelling pieces… not so much. I’m the type of crazy cat who thought, and continues to think things like ‘hey, I’m pretty cool, and pretty pretty, and pretty nice, if only I ran into Justin Timberlake somehow, he would totally dig me.” With the same kind of twisted reality, I’m quite convinced that I would make a marvelous actress, and could surpass any of the trashy reality TV show stars that I love and adore so much. I mean, the OC hardly had even remotely quality acting.

So, anyways, since 7th grade, Samantha and I have dreamed of taking a trip to LA and POOF! with a snap of our fingers becoming rich and famous. Now here we are, well over 10 years later and actually planning the trip to LA. Unfortunately for our youthful dreams, this trip won’t be the POOF! snap our fingers and become rich and famous kind of trip… it will be more along the lines of visiting family, partying at the spots we’ve always dreamed of frequenting and trying desperately to wine and dine ourselves into the company of someone maybe on the D-list.

Man, I can’t wait.