visiting the concrete jungle

Hello New York!

To celebrate my impending 28th birthday, I've convinced a friend to join me to trek around the beautiful (and cold) New York City for a few days this weekend.

I've never been a tourist in the city with the exception of a college trip, which honestly at this point is a blur. Plus, I've been there another time last year for work but I was in and out in 18 hours. I couldn't see much other than the inside of a few buildings and my hotel room.

We have three full days in the city and we've already mapped out where we want to go, including the Empire State building to take pictures, Macy's, Bergdorf's and Saks to see the holiday windows and pick up a few things, eat some NY pizza and make a sign to get on the Today Show. (Watch to see me Monday morning!) We are going to spend the afternoons shopping and seeing Greenwich Village, Soho, Chinatown and Tribeca.

For those of you who live in NY or visit often, any must do places to shop or eat you can recommend? We have a running list but feel free to send any suggestions my way.

back from mexico

I'm back!

After a full seven days in Riviera Maya and no social media, I'm back in the city of Cleveland. Oh, how nice it was to be away a week. I left my phone at home, like I said I would, and only sent out a few last-minute tweets at 6 a.m. before we left and only logged onto Facebook once. I didn't check anything but just posted a quick update to say I'd arrived in Mexico with my friends.

We had a blast. We had perfect weather - 90 and sunny with only a little rain mixed in for no more than an hour. Our hotel was clean, the food was delicious and the it wasn't at capacity, which meant no major lines at bars for drinks.

I loved that my biggest decision was, "Which pool do you want to start off at today?" and "Should I drink a mojito, miami vice or pina colada?"

So, here's our week in pictures with funny captions by me.

We went ziplining

His face is priceless AND he's afraid of heights.



We swam in a fresh water cave.

We visited Tulum.

We swam in the ocean.

Boys proved you can do a push up and drink out of the straw at the same time.

We compared calf sizes.

The boys wrestled on a kid's toy and got yelled at by the lifeguards.

We go fishing after our girlfriend/wife asks us to go with someone reputable instead of the random guy who approaches you with a boat called "Tequila Sunrise" or "Poverty Sucks."

We drank too long in the hot tub without remembering to rehydrate ourselves with water.

We played with fish inside a pipe.

We posed for pictures on our last night - some more tan than others.



decompression

In under two weeks, I'll be south of here in Riviera Maya with friends and the BF and I don't think you understand how excited I am.

One week of sun, 88 degree weather, sand, mojitos and friends. (Well, I'm hoping for sun because right now there is a 30 percent chance of rain every day, but that's beside the point.)

Getting chills just thinking about it!

I rarely take a whole week off from work. I like to spread out my vacation days by taking a Friday off here and there and especially during the holidays. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to a whole week without email, Facebook, FourSquare, Twitter and blogging.

Because I'll be out of normal range with my cell phone, I'm not upgrading my coverage to include the beautiful country of Mexico. I'm taking a week off from social media.

Yep, that's right, I'm taking a whole week without my Twitter and Facebook apps, my Google reader and, more importantly, my iPhone that is normally glued to my hip. Are you wondering if I can do it?

I'm so incredibly connected and I need a break. I think we all do at some point. If you are a stalker, you know where I check in on FourSquare and what I did this past weekend with all of my friends because I'm always connected.  It can become complete overload and I just need a little decompression time.

So, for one whole week, I won't be able to follow the New York Times for instant news updates or monitor whatever blogger is having a conniption online or see funny twitpics from my many friends.

I'll be living in the present with my friends and boyfriend for seven days. I am excited and I can't wait.

the go-go's said it best

Vacation is all I ever wanted. Vacation had to get away.

You can say that 5 more times.

When is the last time you took a week long vacation?

Has it been awhile?

It has for me.

The last time I was on vacation was 2005 with five friends in Acapulco where we celebrated our last year of college with a bunch of strangers. (Let's not forget they were from Jersey referred other tan and jacked Italians as guidos but they were not considered that. True story people)

Picture to prove it below.

Told ya.

Since January, the BF and I have been trying to convince all of our friends to go somewhere this fall.

We didn't care where. We just wanted a beach and beautiful weather to spend a week free from work, Twitter and my iPhone. (Wait, I think that's more what the BF requested of me but you get the point.)

So where do we book? Oh, you know, in Riviera Maya during hurricane season. Duh, wouldn't you! After searching online for a good deal and bothering the hell out of our travel agent, we settled on Dreams Puerto Aventuras. If you've been there and had a great time, I'd love to hear about it and if you've had a bad time, keep it to your pretty little self!

Of course, we purchased trip insurance in case something like a natural disaster was to come through this September 18-25. Ah, serenity now.

There's me with my big hat

What the BF will be doing

On a separate note, thank you to everyone who entered my Gap jean giveaway on my post or via Twitter. Drum roll, please.

The jeans go to Jessica Donlon - lucky number 33 says random.org. Have fun shopping - if you get the Real Straight, you will absolutely love them. I speak from experience.

rock the boat

Way back in October, the BF and I went to Boston together. Remember? It was our first trip together.

The whole reason behind us going was to see Boston in the fall and to see Salem. I've always had an obsession with witches and witchcraft. Maybe because I watched Sleeping Beauty, Hocus Pocus and Teen Witch way too many times a young kid, but he was game to come along and explore the cities with me.

Anyway, on the way home from Salem, the weather became very windy. We didn't drive to Salem. Instead, we took the Salem Ferry which was a great and scenic way to see the coast and all the beautiful homes. Plus, it was one of the last times we'd be able to enjoy a boat ride. It was Halloween after all!

Here we are on our ride there: Notice the couple in to the right. This is what they did the ENTIRE 60 minute boat ride.


Streetview of all the 100,000 people visiting the city


Me with Bewitched


On our way home it became extremely windy. So windy that we were encountering severe rocking on the boat, up to 12 foot waves the captain said. There was so much rocking that the BF almost became ill. (I was too busy filming him and trying to not vomit myself.)

So very ill to the point I thought he was going to vomit in front of all these strangers, who all were trying not to vomit themselves. If you wonder why the video is so shaky, it's because I'm literally bouncing up and down with the rocking boat.

Boston Day 1

After 72 hours of each other, we made it back alive to share our weekend vacation together in Boston. The BF and I haven't taken a vacation together in the three plus years we've been dating.

Yes, we've gone to weddings out of town, but never a vacation alone and together. (I know, we were well overdue for one.)

We threw around a few ideas of places to visit and ultimately decided on Boston because I always wanted to see Boston in the fall and I have a small obsession with Salem. That's right - I've always wanted to go to Salem on or around Halloween to explore all the history that is the witch trials.

Since we were there for three days, I'm just going to let our pictures tell the story.

Day 1: Off to a beer tasting


And maybe I spilled some...


The BF kneeling in front of beer, only boys.


Beautiful view


BF reading the map. all. the. time


Ride on Paul Revere


Mike's Pastry is our Presti's


Hanging outside of Paul Revere's old digs


We finished the evening out with friends and at Jacob Wirth where you can sing around the piano while eating dinner or drinking. It's amazing place. Plus, there was a guy dressed up as Caeser with sword and all and it wasn't even Halloween yet.

Next up: Harvard, Salem and dinner at the oldest restaurant in America

Vegas Take 2

Rewind and flip back to Take 1 to catch up if you haven't already.

After my friends and I sunned ourselves all day at Azure pool, we all headed back to our hotel to get ready for another dinner on the strip. This time we dined at Rare 120 in the Hard Rock.

Katie and Michelle at Rare 120


Our plan was head over to Pure, the Pussycat Lounge and then over to the very popular XS. We were thrown off track when we ran into these very nice girls who were just a few years younger than us. They had bottle service at Body English but didn't have enough girls to get in. That's where we came in to save the day!

They begged us to just get them in and they we could be on our way if we wanted. Hell no. Oh please. No. We stayed and helped them finish their whole bottle.

With one of the nice girls


After that long night, we hung out at our pool in good ol' Vegas at the Golden Nugget. It was a total 360 from the Azure pool but this pool had a freaking slide. Not just any slide, but a slide that became cooler with the more tequila we drank throughout the day. You couldn't have a bad time at this the pool. The slide made you instantly happy again.

So, on our last night, we all agreed we had to make it to XS. Everyone talked about XS like it was the second coming and you can't leave Vegas if you don't go there. Go there, we did, but first we went to dinner at Lavo.



When we finally make our way to XS, it's almost close to midnight at this point. Now we had heard that people wait four to five hours to get into this place but we didn't believe it. Our friend's brother is a concierge out in Vegas and really helped us out all week. We cut in line and didn't have to pay any covers, including what would've been a $60 cover at XS.

About 20 minutes goes by and the doorman he knows isn't coming up yet, which is completely understanble the stupid long lines on both sides of the entrance. Between continously being escorted to "stop standing" because "you must keep moving" said the security guards in purple jackets, my friends had almost had enough.



By complete chance, a couple comes up to two of my friends and asks if we need into the club. Duh, of course we do. They lead us past the stupid long line and what we thought was just a table really deep within the club. We thought we were going to a table, but we actually walked all the way up to a cabana overlooking the pools.

Our time was short-lived in this club, but not without a chance encounter and a few old men to cap it off. The cabana was occupied by these older group of orthodontists who seemed harmless at first. Luckily, I saw Matt Logelin in the cabana next to me.

If you don't know him, you live under a rock because his blog and story have been all over whether it's Oprah or any newspaper. By complete chance, he's in the cabana next to me and out celebrating a friend's birthday. I leave, what turned out to be a bunch of creepy guys I find out later, to introduce myself to Matt, in a non-creepy-I-read-your-blog-everyday- way of course.

A few minutes passed and my friends Katie and Michelle walked up to us.

Katie: "Um, hi," she says to Matt then looks at me. "Allison I think we need to leave now."
Me: "Why already?"
Katie: "Well, that guy over there," she points to the one with huge thick black glasses on, "asked me to have an affair and wants us to go back to his room to 'do stuff."
Me: "WHattt!!"
Michelle: "And Dr. Love tried to spoon me on the lounge chair."
Me: Stunned, "Yep, maybe you are right. It's probably time to leave."

Are you wondering who Dr. Love is? Well, he's one of the orthodonists who were renting the cabana. He told me to call him Dr. Love and I nearly spit out my drink. Dr. Love is the kind of guy who probably has kids at home, definitely has a wife, because he didn't even bother to take his ring off. Actually, many of them didn't even care to take their rings off.

After Michelle and Katie told me their stories, I said goodbye to Matt and his friends and walked myself right back to the cabana with Dr. Love and the rest of the dental men. I poured myself another drink for the road only to find them canoodling with two women who definitely would be paid for their services later that night.

Here's the only picture we captured in XS before the creepy guys.


It was a long trip. It was so much fun and so great to getaway with a group of friends. On the last day before we left, I finally made my way to the fountains. My friend Katie kept telling me "you can't leave Vegas without seeing a fountain show." I finally saw one and then hopped on the four hour flight home.

yay for fountains

Vacation to the south

That is right. I'm heading to Charlotte to stay with two friends and another one on may down there. In order to keep myself busy, I rented two books on CD (Jennifer Weiner books) and tried to download some for free to my iPod, but it didn't work out like I thought it would - WTF! Anyway, I'm excited to listen to both of those books. Easy, summertime reading, you know?

Here's what we are going to do:

-Relax.
-Lay out.
-Maybe head east to Wilmington to tour where Dawson's Creed was filmed. (OMG - I was in love with this show in high school. I had my own version of Dawson, except the fact that it was stictly platonic.)
-Visit some bars/restaurants/noteworthy Charlotte places.
-Maybe make ourselves do two-a-days like our high school volleyball days
-Trying not to check my e-mail. (So not going to happen.)