What a Crazy Trip

So, the reason that I haven't written lately is that we just got home from a crazy vacation and we're also moving to Pittsburgh 6 weeks from now. I've been working on sorting through our trip pictures, and hopefully will have some from the first portion of our trip to share soon. We spent about 4 days each in Seoul and Beijing, and then went on to Australia where we spent most of our time in Sydney, but did get out to the Great Barrier Reef for a few days. So, pictures soon!

It's rainy and gross here today, and I can't help thinking about my dad's family, most of them are headed down to San Juan, Puerto Rico for my cousin's wedding on Saturday. I wish we were going too! But since we just got home from vacation a few weeks ago, it seemed a bit excessive. But I sure would prefer San Juan to a cold and rainy Chicago!

Weekend Recap and Menu Plan

We enjoyed our long weekend at home this weekend recovering from our trip. It was also our six year anniversary, and to celebrate, we went to see the Avengers. It was awesome! We also played some SWTOR, because we're dorks. It's awesome that we can do that stuff together. We actually spend a lot of time together. When we started dating, we spent a lot of time together (as most new couples do), but somehow we never got tired of that. I kind of assumed we would eventually, but we never did. I like it  =)

Menu Plan for the week
Tuesday: Hot dogs, refried beans, salad
Wednesday: Turkey burgers, cucumber and tomato salad
Thursday: Turkey burgers
Friday: Pork tenderloin, black beans and corn
Saturday: Out
Sunday: Leftover pork
Monday: Fish, mushrooms

Menu Plan

Wednesday - Pork reubens (I need to make these again since V missed out last time!)
Thursday - Leftover pork reubens
Friday - Reservation at La Gondola, yay Groupon!
Saturday - Baked coconut tilapia
Sunday - Turkey enchilada casserole
Monday - Leftover tilapia
Tuesday - Leftover casserole

Weekend Recap

This past weekend, we went to NC to visit V's family. It was V's mom's birthday, and we hadn't seen them in a while, so off we went! Friday evening after we got there, we went to a tiny little festival. We only ended up riding the ferris wheel, where I managed to take a pretty decent picture.

We also walked around the livestock tents, where V's mom decided she needed a baby potbelly pig. The piglets were so cute, but the full-grown pigs not so much. If only they'd stay tiny and cute! Then we went home and played BezzerWizzer and Cranium. We spend a lot of time with them playing silly games, it's a great way to spend time together that everyone (including the teenagers, although they're a bit reluctant sometimes) enjoys.

Saturday we went for pedicures while the boys went to a gun show, and we went to Cajun Queen for dinner. Their food is really good, and very authentic. I had the same thing I always have, the creole dinner, extra spicy! Yum. And they had a seasonal peach bread pudding on the dessert menu, which was just divine. After dinner, we went back to their house and played Dicecapades (which wasn't the most fun game ever) and The Logo Board Game (which V and I have, it's a lot more fun). 

Sunday before our flight, we had lunch with V's dad and his family. As always, it's good to catch up with them. V's dad is coming to visit in a few weeks, so we didn't spend a whole lot of time at their place before it was off to catch our flight home. Lately I'm a really nervous flyer, so I had checked the weather, and wasn't too happy when I saw that there were high winds in Chicago, but fortunately it was a pretty smooth flight and I didn't have to freak out. Sometime soon I need to write a post about flying, since we fly probably more than average (V definitely, me less than him, but still probably more than most people) and right now it's probably my number one cause of anxiety. A few people lately have asked me what I do to stay calm, distract myself, and even manage to sleep, so that will be coming up soon!

Life Recap

Things have been so crazy lately that I haven't had much time to blog! Work has been pretty busy, and our weekends have been busy too, so I've been neglecting this a little bit. But that's ok because things are starting to quiet down, so I should have some good posts coming up soon! My job is basically a two year contract, which is over at the end of June this year, so things are winding down at work. We're also trying to plan a move in July (we figured my job ending would be the perfect excuse to check out a new city, but that's another post) and another big trip before that, in May (that's also another post). Both of those plans are finally starting to fall into place, so things should be exciting but hopefully not overwhelming between now and our move!

Last weekend, we went to see my family in Michigan. For Christmas we got my parents tickets to the Redwings/Blackhawks hockey game that was this weekend. It was good timing, because we got to spend Easter with them too! The hockey game was a lot of fun because we would've been happy no matter who won. The first two periods were kind of quiet, we think because both teams are already in the playoffs and nobody wanted to get hurt. The third period was a lot more exciting, and ended with a 2 - 2 score. So we got to see extra time! Neither team scored, so the game went to a shootout. The Blackhawks hadn't done so great in their last few shootouts, so we weren't too hopeful, but they ended up winning!

The weekend before that, my friend Annie came out for a visit. I really miss our coffee dates, so it was so good to get to spend the weekend together! We did a food tour through one of my favorite tour companies, Tastebud tours. This is actually the third tour I've done with them, and the weird thing is I've had the same guide every time! Their tours are really good, they feed you a ton of tasty Chicago food and you get a good dose of history and information about the city as well. We walked around the Mag Mile area, had dinner at Gino's, brunch at Glenn's Diner, went to the Museum of Science and Industry, ate at Julius Meinl, and overall had a great time. I can't wait to see her again!

Last Week's Menu

Wednesday - Pork Ruben, salad
Thursday - Pork carnitas, black bean, corn, and rice salad
Friday - in MI, visiting my family
Saturday - MI
Sunday - Thai delivery
Monday - Easter leftovers
Tuesday - Turkey burgers, roasted potatoes, and green beans

Amsterdam Recap

Our last stop of our trip last fall was Amsterdam. I'm going to come right out and say that Amsterdam was a huge disappointment. I know that part of the reason that we weren't really feeling it is because it rained the whole time we were there. In fact, it rained to hard and so often we never got to ride bicycles anywhere, which was really disappointing. I know also that by this point we were pretty tired, so maybe that was part of it too. And we'd already seen a ton of artwork, palaces, and churches! One of the coolest things we enjoyed in Amsterdam was the houseboat we stayed on. It was so tiny, but it was cool to be on one of the canals. Here's the view we had from the wheelhouse.

You'll have to pardon my lack of pictures, since it rained the whole time, I really didn't take many.

Our first morning in Amsterdam, we started off with a city tour. Again, we did the Free Europe tour, and we learned so much. I really can't recommend them enough! The tour started in Dam Square.

And we walked past the Royal Palace. We talked about going back later to check out the inside, but we never made it back. Palaces were one of the things we'd seen a lot of on our trip so far, so I don't think either of us was particularly interested at this point.

This tour also walked through the Red Light District, but there wasn't much to see since it was morning. We did see a neat church, which looked really cool because it was all kinds of architecture stuck together. The tour guide told us it's because over the years the church has made a ton of money on confessions (being in a port city and right outside the red light district), and so they just kept adding to it. We went back for a Red Light District tour the next night, but you can't take pictures.

After that, we went past the Anne Frank house. We went back later the first day and went through the exhibit and house. The main part of the house and the building next to it are all exhibits now, and the rooms they actually hid in are empty. It was really moving.

One of the last stops was the former headquarters of the Dutch East India Company.

The tour and the Anne Frank house made up pretty much the whole first day, and with walking around in the cold and the rain, we were exhausted.

The next day, we walked over to the museum area to check out the VanGogh museum. It was definitely worth checking out, even though at that point we were up to our eyeballs in art! After that, we went to the Heineken Experience, which was a lot like the Guinness tour we did in Dublin a few years ago. Yes, it's touristy. But hey, we're tourists! Then we went on a canal tour, which was a neat way to see a lot of the city that you can't really get to from just walking around. We even went past our houseboat!


Our last day in Amsterdam we mostly just wandered around and hung out, and tried to get some relaxing time in since we were headed home. Oh, and tried not to get rained on. Blech.