Ahhh, New Orleans—the city of jazz, ghosts, and enough fried food to make your arteries weep for mercy. It had been on my bucket list forever, and I finally made it! A city that wraps its sticky, humid arms around history and haunts, where Bourbon Street smells like the desperate aftermath of one-too-many-bad-decisions, and honestly? I was here for it. I went full-on tourist mode and I am not sorry about it. We’re talking graveyard strolls, overpriced bus tours, and gorging on beignets like I’d never seen powdered sugar before. I partied hard on Bourbon Street, made some spectacularly poor decisions (read: paid way
Category: Tourism
The Capitol – Then and Wednesday – Washington D.C.
It’s hard for me as an American to put into words the horror that was last Wednesday, watching what could only be domestic terrorists overrun the heart of my country’s government. I want to say that I’m shocked such a coup was attempted, but I’m not. Definitely shocked that the security detail was so pitiful given the obvious rage-building happening amongst Trump supporters on social media. I actually toured the Capitol on my trip to Washington D.C. a year and a half ago. I didn’t blog about it at the time partly because the pictures I took were pretty awful
National Air and Space Museum – A Museum in Washington, D.C.
I can’t believe my trip to Washington D.C. was a year ago. It seems like decades ago, an era before pandemic and a global crisis. A time when going to a museum was a fun day out and not a potential source of COVID. Le sigh. However, I can’t wax too lyrical about the National Air and Space Museum. Not because it wasn’t cool but because… I’m a terrible travel blogger. My problem is I go to museums and take a lot of pictures of crap without actually going through and figuring out exactly *what* the crap is. And being
Memories from Huntington Beach, California
My trip to Huntington Beach feels like a million years ago. Considering that my hair is long and brown in these pictures, you could say that it was at least two years ago. But quarantine has me thinking of funner times when travel was the *thing* to do and going out where the crowds were was not a nerve wracking experience involving the possible spread of COVID-19 I remember thinking of the absurdity that surfers were out in the middle of December which would be a wish for hypothermia if they did this anywhere in Washington. I was also vastly
Why I Shouldn’t Be Allowed at Hockey Games
Yesterday I went to my very first hockey game. It was the Seattle Thunderbirds and they were going up against a team from Portland. I’d watched a few NHL games on television and figured it’d be a good fit for me since I’m pretty barbaric. I mean, my fiancé and I shared our first kiss at a bar while watching Floyd Mayweather teach Conor McGregor a thing or two about boxing. I wouldn’t be surprised if my ancestors were amongst the spectators at the Coliseum, giving a giant hurrah everytime blood spilled. So you’d think grown men with hockey sticks
“The Nutcracker” by the Pacific Northwest Ballet – Seattle, Washington
Attending The Nutcracker is almost a rite of passage in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve rarely met a Seattleite who has not seen the show in question, and even rarer to find someone who is disappointed in the performance. I myself saw the show years ago as an eleven year old. It was the Maurice Sendak version and I loved the sugarplum fairy. She was gorgeous, knew how to dance, and had excellent fashion. In my tween years, she was EVERYTHING. Fast forward, and the current rendition being played is George Balanchine. I’m much older now but when I’d heard that
The National Museum of Natural History – Washington D.C.
When we arrived in Washington D.C., my boyfriend kindly asked me what I would like to see. Like a child hyped on pixie stix, I shouted “DINOSAURS!” because the six year old kid that is my soul still wondered in awe at the behemoths that used to roam the world. “Oh yeah! Or we could go to the museum of space and–“ “But there are DINOSAURS.” “There’s that too. We could also visit the Lincoln Memorial–“ “And we could DINOSAURS.” “…That’s not even a sentence.” “DINOSAURS.” Since I had been reduced to incoherence, we decided that we should go to
Central Park, New York City, New York
When you visit a place like Central Park, you have expectations. And mine included a vast area of nature in the middle of a sprawling urban jungle. It sort of was that and it sort of wasn’t. I think I forgot that it was a park like any other one I could find in my own city and not an actual wilderness full of untouched human land. I don’t even know why I had this concept of Central Park to begin with. I’d seen enough photos of Mariah Carey walking her dog on the concrete pavements to know better. There
The History of the Little Black Dress
The title of this post is a little misleading. It implies that you’re going to get a discussion on how the little black dress evolved, its origins, and how it became the iconic and timeless wardrobe classic that it is. But really, all you’re going to get is pictures, because I really like pictures and hate reading little museum placards. And that’s where I saw this, the Washington State History Museum where this was their current exhibit. My boyfriend, thoughtful guy that he is, knew that I’d enjoy the time warp back to the start of the little black dress.
The Story of Floofy, the Unwanted Sloth
We were in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware when one of those damn carnival games lured in my significant other. It was the one where you shoot water into a clown’s mouth and whoever gets the most in wins. He always wants to play it because he never loses. NEVER. And lo and behold he won! And thus started a journey with a sloth that he promptly named Floofy (I’ve banned him from ever naming our pets.) Upon winning, the kid next to us barely lost and I overheard his father telling him he did a great job. I told my significant