Family trip to Topsail Beach, NC - Aug 2014

On the beach enjoying the sun and reading a book.

This was a pleasantly fun trip.  I have to be honest here and admit that I was not thrilled about it at first and I almost didn't go.  I was so scared of what David's family would think of me and it was intimidating to meet them in a place so far from home without having any means of getting away. David was so excited to go on this trip and he seemed genuinely interested in bringing me along, so I caved and decided to go.  Now, I am happy that he convinced me to join him and his family on this trip because I met a lot of very wonderful people.


Topsail Beach is in an island like area.  It's mostly beach houses and very few stores.  It was a pretty perfect area to get away from regular life and get absorbed by life on the beach.

One of Carmen's delicious drinks for our daily "Happy Hour".

 Each day a different family was in charge of the food and David's cousin, Carmen, had a different cocktail every day for her "Happy Hour".  It was a nice arrangement because some families live in the South and the rest of us live in the Midwest in Wisconsin.  The range of flavors and styles of cooking was pretty wide.  I have lived in the South but in Louisiana where cajun food rules.  Here the family cooked shrimp and made BBQ chicken and we even had a pork for a Southern BBQ with all the side dishes.
We had a packer night which was organized by David's family and they did an amazing job at bringing bratwursts from Wisconsin, cheese curds, and Wisconsin beer.
The daily cocktails were so amazing.  Carmen did an amazing job at bringing different flavors together.  We had Sangria, Margaritas, mojitos, banana baileys drink and there is one more that I can't think of.

David and the dogs taking a very relaxing walk on the beach.

The weather was perfect.  There were only two very hot days at the beginning of our stay but the temperature quickly cooled down after some rain.  We enjoyed clear skies and warm weather for the most part.  The last couple of days were rainy but that didn't stop us from swimming in the ocean and enjoying the beach.

During the first few nights we had open mic and we had a great time listening to live music.  There is a side of the family that is obviously very musical and it was great to enjoy a few drinks and sing along to a few tunes. That was one of my favorite things from the whole week.

The view from the beach house.

On the last full day, while the rain kept on falling, we visited a cute book shop called Quarter Moon Books.  David's aunt, Petra, wanted to get her daughter, Carmen, a chance to exchange an article of clothing so us girls took the opportunity to get away from the house and enjoy a couple hours browsing through books and scarves.  It was a very good time.

I would recommend Topsail Beach to anybody who wants to enjoy the beach and a small town away from their busy lives.  Check it out!

Road trip out West.

Last week was an exciting one as far as miles driven and miles hiked.  A few month’s ago my boyfriend told me that his brother and his girlfriend wanted to take a road trip out west and that they were trying to find people to go with them.  I told him that I love that part of the country and that I would like to go with.  So, last week we all got in the car and drove West.  Our final destination was Glacier National Park in Montana but we made some stops along the way in South Dakota.  First we visited the Corn Palace and the Indian museum. 

Both places were interesting.  The corn palace is pretty much a tourist trap except for some pretty educational sections where you learn about corn and why it is important.  The Indian museum was very cool because it showed artifacts that were dug out in the area and there were some nice pictures of how things used to be.  I’m not a huge fan of museums but this one was pretty interesting for being such a small one. After that we moved on to the Badlands. 

I had been there before and I thought it was very pretty and interesting.  Last week it was 98 degrees and the heat index was in the 120s so while it was pretty amazing to walk around and explore the badlands, it was also extremely hot and I felt like I was going to die of heat exhaustion. We only stayed there for a few hours since it was just a pit stop before Glacier.  After the Badlands we drove to Wall Drug.  We didn’t really buy anything, but we had to stop there because you just can’t ignore all the signs on the side of the road telling you that you are that much closer to it.  My boyfriend’s brother wanted to go to Deadwood so we made a stop there.

It is a very pretty small town with a main street that takes you back to the cowboy days and bar fights.  They didn’t like it very much because apparently it has changed a lot in the last few years.  Since I had no expectations of the place I really liked it.  That was our last stop before driving non stop through Montana almost all the way to the border with Canada to Glacier National Park.

Glacier is an amazing place.  The mountains are gorgeous with the trails to prove it.  It had been a long time since a place took my breath away but Glacier certainly did.  Our camp site was small but comfortable and aside from all the extra precautions to keep bears out of our camp site, it was pretty much the same as any other camping experience I’ve ever had.  The huge difference comes with the going-to-the-sun-road which takes you from east to west inside the park it is about 50-something miles and it takes a good 4 hours to go all the way around (driving).  There are many trails to choose from but the ones by Logan Pass were the most exciting as far as wild life goes.

  We were able to walk through the snow, we saw goats on hidden lake trail and we saw ram on highline trail.  There were many squirrels and prairie dogs all around.  The other trail we did which was also amazing was the Hidden lake trail.  That one is accessible through Many Glacier and it is where most of the bear sightings happen.  We didn’t see any but we always made lots of noise and carried our bear spray.  On our way out we saw moose and a baby moose.  It was very surreal to see wildlife so close to us.

Overall, it was an excellent trip.  I need to spend at least 2 months there to hike every trail and to make sure I get to enjoy all that it has to offer but we only had two days and we did the best that we could with the time we had.

Important note to those of you who want to ride the shuttles on the going-to-the-sun-road… after 5pm there are no more shuttles from the west going up to Logan pass.  We took the 4pm shuttle at St. Mary’s visitor center to Logan pass.  Then from there we took a smaller shuttle down to Apgar.  When we reach the end of the shuttle (around 6pm) we were told that we were stranded down in Apgar because no more shuttles would go up to Logan pass.  We asked to talk to the person who was in charge and the guy told us that he couldn’t approve any more shuttles to go up and that our best chance of getting back to our camp site would be by hitchhiking… “Have fun, you’re on vacation.  I did it for 40 years.” – with that we went over to the intersection on the road that had been pointed out to us as the best place to hitchhike and not even 4 minutes after we stuck our thumbs out these kind family picked us up.  They were not going that way but they still helped us.  It took one hour and thirty  minutes to get us to our car and from there it would take them at least 2 hours to get home.  These people were amazing.  They took us up the mountain and did not accept anything in return.  The only thing they wanted to do is help because that is what honest people do.  That’s one of the most humbling experiences in my life.

Soignez vous-autres! (y’all take care!) Baton Rouge, Louisiana

At last the last day has arrived.  The last year and 4 months went by very quickly.  I met very cool people from work and I even made some friends (you know who you are).  The food is very good and I never expected to fall in love with it so deeply and devotedly. 

Thanks to DM and his excellent research and planning skills, we enjoyed as much southern food as it was possible.  We visited cities and their festivals, listened to new music and experienced the gorgeous beaches of Mississippi and Alabama.

My favorite restaurants were:

The Chimes (Oysters, seafood pasta, po’ boys and alligator – and a great worldly beer selection)

The Drunken Fish (sushi and Pho)

The Lakeside Grill (The best boiled Crawfish in the city and delicious Godiva white Russian daiquiri)

Mellow Mushroom (Really good pizza and excellent wings)

Mother’s (New Orleans)

Pluckers wing bar

My favorite festivals were:

Festival international – Lafayette

The Breaux Bridge Crawfish festival – Breaux Bridge

Scott boudin festival – Scott

CPR Fest – Golf port, MS

Cochon de lait festival – Mansura

Living in Tigerland was fun and it gave us the opportunity to participate in the city’s college scene (without going to class) or to just witness the festivities around us.  DM took me to a Tiger’s game and that was a blast and during my afternoon runs I witnessed the weird parking techniques of baseball and football fans. Geaux Tigers!

I really liked going to the farmers market.  It is small and friendly and it allowed me to experiment cooking with Okra for the first time ever (yum). I fell in love with the Cajun brown rice and the delicious fresh veggies.  A place to visit is go yaya’s. That is in the market (building) and they have delicious crepes.

There is one last mention and this is a special one because I was able to get in touch with my body like I hadn’t before.  Sometimes it is not just about eating right and doing cardio 3 times a week.  Sometimes taking a moment to breath is just what we need and Agame yoga and Meditation center really accomplished that with every class I attended.  Every instructor is dedicated, polite and knowledgeable.  I couldn’t be happier with them.

That is all.  Wow.  A year could not be summarized into a blog post.  There were many experiences, people and food that I couldn’t possibly have enough time to write down since I still have to finish loading my car but they stay with me and with those I shared them with.

I hope to come back to visit one day, during crawfish season!

 

 

First hello

I decided to start this blog today because I don't know if I'll remember to do it when I start moving around.  I will try to document the places I visit because I think you will be interested in learning about some of the places I will visit but it is also for me to build something I can look back on in the future.  Thank you for reading.  Welcome to my new blog and I hope you enjoy it!

 (Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge Louisiana)