Travel Posts

13Jul
0

Austin in Pictures

Here’s some more pictures from my Austin trip last month. FINALLY got my computer up and working again :)

Posted by Caro in Sports, Travel and tagged with
29Jun
3

Shoes!

With the Italy trip quickly approaching, I need to do some shopping….for my feet. I figure I’ll be on them at least 14 hours a day, and I know I need comfy shoes. Especially so since it seems Marla will be coming with me…

Clearly I’ll be bringing my running shoes. I plan to get new ones, but hadn’t had the funds to do so just yet. On the bright side my procrastination paid off – Asics just came out with the latest generation of the shoe I was planning to buy. So here it is: the Asics Nimbus 12!

The perfect cushion shoe for my over-pronating foot :)

So onto the other shoes. I have a pair of Puma’s that are perfectly fantastic, but it’s kind of challenging to keep my orthotics in them (yes, I am an old lady with orthotics! lol). I just bought these 4 with the intention of returning 3. If I hate all 4, I have like 20 other choices. So here’s the list of potential new sneakers for my collection:

1. Asics Gel-fieri

2. Onitsuka Tiger by Asics Ultimate 81

3. Onitsuka Tiger by Asics Mexico 66 (downside is that Zappos reviews say these have 0 arch support. Hopefully the orthotic will at least fit inside…)

4. Puma Street Kosmo (these also come in brown. I couldn’t decide. I can always change my mind!)

So there you have it. I can’t wait for this package to arrive in the mail so I can give a full review of these shoes!

Posted by Caro in Money, Shopping, Travel
22Jun
1

Austin

I went to Austin this weekend. Yep, this Cali girl went to Texas.

I’m not going to lie. I had a lot of preconceptions about Texas. And given that I was in Austin (which I understand is not in anyway representative of the rest of the state of which it is a part), just about none of those were accurate. Did I see cowboys? Maybe one. Did people have GIGANTIC belt buckles? Nope. I didn’t see a single one! Was everyone packing heat? Not as far as I could tell.

In a way, this disappoints me. I mean I kind of wanted to see all these things. But at the same time, I felt pretty safe (vs. fearful of getting shot for making some hippy-liberal remark) and actually really enjoyed Austin. Minus the weather of course. Sweet Jesus, that heat + humidity was like a punch to the face every time you walked outside!! (97 degrees + 80% humidity!)

Here’s the summary/highlights:

Friday:

  • We got in around 9. I was wearing capris and a short sleeved shirt, thinking this would be suitable for night time. False. I wanted to be in a bathing suit running through sprinklers.
  • Our group of 9 somehow ended up at three separate hotels, each a solid half a mile+ from each other. We headed straight to one of them when we got in. I met Grant’s new girlfriend, and was expecting to see Danny and Sabrina’s new (6 month) kid, but I guess he was tired and cranky so Sabrina took him back to her hotel. Sad.
  • We walked for what seemed like forever and got some food. Apparently there’s a lot of bats in Austin. We saw a few under a bridge on our way to the restaurant.
  • It was J’s birthday so we hit up 6th Street for some drinks and shuffleboard. 6th Street is apparently like Bourbon Street – no cars allowed for several blocks, and just a long row of bars and drunk people. It was pretty cool!!
  • Apparently you can get into a bar in Austin with a photocopied ID. That’s totally legit right? lol

Saturday:

  • Got up ridiculously early and headed to Danny & Sabrina’s hotel. We got to meet their son, who is SO CUTE – little chunky monkey! Spent about an hour there before meeting up with the others.
  • Grant brought his boat, so we headed to Lake Austin for some wakeboarding and swimming.
  • Sabrina wasn’t comfortable bringing the baby on the boat, and I’m not sure what happened after that, but the three of them ended up driving back to Corpus Christi. Seriously? I was both upset and sad when I realized what had happened (seriously, I wouldn’t have gone to Texas if they weren’t going to be part of the weekend)
  • J attempted to wakeboard for the first time. He made a noble attempt, but didn’t really ever get up.
  • J and I shared a Hu-La-La at the Hula Hut off the lake. It was 2 kinds of Bacardi + fruit juice served in a fish bowl. DELICIOUS! We then shared a Texas style FEAST.
  • Hit up the hot tub after we got home. J toweled off, and realized his stomach was red and in pain. He cried out “OMG I think I’m allergic to this towel!” Upon further inspection I had to explain to him that, actually, he was just sunburned. Yeah, he forgot to put sunscreen on his front. I applied sunscreen like 12 times. How do you forget that substantial of a section of your body?! lol yeah he’s magenta. It’s hilarious
  • Headed to a couple of lounges, which were fun, but I was tired. Headed back around 1. (Several of the lounges played music straight from the 90s. What’s up with that?? I thought Austin was the homeland for new music? At least the last place we went was awesome. Like seriously the best place I’ve been to in a long time. I’ll have to find out the name of it so I can properly review it, but dude, this place had free skeeball!! And pacman! What not to love? Also, they had a Chuck Norris painting on the wall. Don’t mess with Texas!)

Sunday:

  • Tired Caro and hungover everyone else decided to sleep in. Then we headed to Uncle Billy’s Brew&Que for some Texas style BBQ. Why I didn’t take a picture of my food is beyond me, but it was AMAZING. I got ribs with a side of glazed carrots and a side of mac n cheese. A great meal experience.
  • It was father’s day. I had to get a gift for my dad, and he wanted something from Texas. Too bad we were scrambling to make our flight!! Thankfully my dad is the easiest person EVER to shop for, so I spent about 5 min in the gift shop and found some treasures: jalapeno hot sauce, ‘ass-kickin’ raspberry jalapeno jelly, hot beef jerkey, a ‘Don’t mess with Texas’ mug, and of course a shirt. Sadly they had no belt buckles, but I think my mom was really happy about that (she begged me not to get him one lol).

All in all a great weekend, and I’m the slightest bit tan to boot!

a fishbowl of liquor for two

Don't Mess With Texas

random sign at a parking lot

Posted by Caro in Food, Life, Music, Travel and tagged with
03Jun
1

3 Wheeler

Why have I seen an increasing number of 3-wheeled vehicles on the street lately? Seriously though, who are these people that drive these things? I am forced to wonder what would possess someone to get one, and these are the only ideas I could think of:

  • Techy guy who wants to create his own “gadget”
  • A modern recessionista – let’s face it: buying 3 new tires is cheaper than buying 4!
  • Someone who wanted to ride a motorcycle but was afraid of being hit by a car
  • Old guy who decides he wants to go back to the “good ol’ days” when real cars didn’t exist

I cannot think of a single other reason why someone would drive this

Also, the state of California requires that all persons riding in a vehicle with less than 4 wheels wear a helmet. I mean you look ridiculous either way, but adding a driver with a helmet to this equation just makes it a million times better.

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Travel, weird
27May
0

The Holy See

I’ve been planning various details for my upcoming Italy adventure and realized I should probably buy tickets well ahead of time to get into the Vatican Museums. Turns out I’m too early, but while I was on the site, I decided to check out the other stuff the Vatican has to offer. That’s when I found it: the most unfortunate thing I have ever seen in my life.

The home page of the Vatican website has a link called “Abuse of Minors: The Church Response”

Really?!?

Is this such a prevalent issue that there’s a link to a statement on the home page of their website? Let’s get it together dudes. How about you all just STOP MOLESTING KIDS? Seems easy enough!

While I’m on my soapbox I feel the need to throw out there why I believe the Catholic Church has this problem in the first place. Priests aren’t allowed to get married. I feel like that invites pedophiles to join because no one even questions why they’re not in a relationship. It’s unfortunate too, because there are a lot of people who join the priesthood for honest reasons.

Maybe you’re wondering why Catholic priests are required to be celibate in the first place. That’s a bullshit reason too. Turns out that during the Crusades the Church wanted to acquire as much land as they could. Married priests usually had sons, and when they died, all their property was passed to their sons. As a way of gaining land, the church banned priests from marrying and even voided existing marriages. This gave them full inheritance rights!

So here’s my solution: let these priests marry. I think it would improve the overall composition of the priesthood. Namely, there would be less pedophiles.

For more on this topic, please watch South Park s6 e8 “Red Hot Catholic Love” lol

Posted by Caro in Random, Travel
18May
3

Walmart Bingo

I’m going to Austin next month and one of the things I’m most excited about is Walmart Bingo: The game played by fellow Walmart shoppers. Its like traditional Bingo but instead of letters or numbers you use the bizzare oddities of nature and trailer parks that can only be discovered within the confines of your local Walmart.

To play: google images, pick a few, print them for members of your group, and go have fun in Walmart.

(click to see the whole thing)

This is actually a rather tame card, but I’m lazy. Anyway, I’ll let you know what all I find ;)

Posted by Caro in Life, Random, Shopping, Things to do, Travel and tagged with ,
13May
3

I Want. Please!

Do I need a new camera? No, most likely not. I mean there is definitely something at least minor wrong with my camera, but it can be fixed. It’s relatively new, so as far as I’m aware, it should last a while longer.

But still. Can someone please buy me the new Sony Cyber-shot TX7?

My very first digital camera was a Sony Cyber-shot. It was like 5.1 mega pixels, which back then was an insanely large amount LOL. I loved that camera. Tiny display and all! It worked well for many many years.

And now I see this. WOW!

  • This thing takes 2 pictures, checks for blinking, and keeps the better one.
  • I’m not a camera expert and always have to attempt to figure out which scene setting is best. This decides automatically.
  • 10 pictures per second? Yes please!
  • HDMI output so I can look at pictures or videos on my gigantic television? Sweeeeeeet!
  • Sweep Panorama mode so you can actually capture an entire scene? Mind blowing.
  • Specialized smile detection mode where you can prioritize whose smile you want to capture? Are you joking? Obviously I want that – I have a small niece!
  • 0.3 second auto focus? Fabulous.
  • In-camera touch ups. Touch the screen to cover up red-eye, crop, etc.

So yeah, I don’t have $400 right now. Can someone please get me this?

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Shopping, Travel
04May
0

Vegas Party

This past weekend was spent in Vegas for Jess and Scott’s Bachelor/ette party. We all know that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, or at the very minimum shouldn’t get posted on the internet, so I’m just going to give a summary of an awesome weekend and rate various places and services using a point system. Get ready!

(more…)

Posted by Caro in Life, Rants and raves, Travel, Weddings and tagged with
03May
0

SwissWerks 3.0

I’ve never really had any good luggage. Or any luggage at all for that matter. I have this kinda crappy little carry on that I got in Spain almost 11 years ago. While it’s served me well for the past decade, it’s time to move on. While I’m at it, always having to borrow a large bag from J or my parents for those longer trips is kind of a pain in the ass too. So I’m asking for luggage for my birthday. I really want a matching set in plum, but I’ve found something I love enough to compromise on the color. It’s the SwissWerks 3.0 set. I don’t want (or need) all of it. Just the 20″ carry-on (to meet international carry-on size limits) and the 24″ checked bag.

I’ve decided I want the emerald green one. It’s not dark purple like I wanted, but it’s different enough that I won’t have a problem finding my bag in the mass of black ones at baggage claim.

Check it out:

Add to that lifetime warranty and I’m hooked. Now to convince a certain person… :)

Posted by Caro in Discoveries, Shopping, Things to do, Travel
29Apr
0

Vegas

Count me in for that tomorrow. I’m STOKED. We have a massive suite and an amazing group of people to fill it. Now I just need to finish my shopping. Yesterday I went to the mall in pursuit of gold shoes, but found none. I did buy another dress though lol. It’s cute, not quite this one but extremely similar:

Seriously though, must find shoes! So back to the mall I go tonight. If I’m not too tired I might also attempt to give myself a french mani. We’ll see. Pics of that will definitely get posted because it’s going to be one of two extremes: extremely awful and I will post it for laughs, or extremely amazing and I will post it for pride. haha I need coffee!

Posted by Caro in Life, Shopping, Travel and tagged with
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