Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Nike Fail

NYC/Moorestown
August 10 -17, 2010

The beginning of this trip included a quick stop in NYC to try and secure a special hoop shot. Nike was supposed to set up a court in Times Square for the World Basketball Festival. They didn’t announce that a change in venue occured until the week before the event. Additionally, Nike changed the event from a free all-comers welcome outdoor game to a VIP ticket required event inside Rockefeller Center. In the end the NYC stop of this trip was basically a FAIL but mom and I still managed to find some fun in the city. We then spent the 14-17th in Moorestown hanging out with the family.

Katy

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Shamu and School

San Diego
August 5 - 7, 2010

This week I went to San Diego with my sort of sister-in-law Jessie. Jess is my actual sister-in-law Joyce’s sister. Jess had an interview at a physical therapy school in San Marcos and wanted a travel buddy. As we all know, I’m always game for a trip, so I was happy to join her.

We left early in the AM on Thursday and arrived in SD shortly after 10am. Our first order of business was going to Sea World. I hadn’t been there since I was like 10 years old and Jess had never been. Sea World had grown considerably in the 18 years since I had been there. There were now a few roller-coaster rides and many more exhibits. My favorite things still hadn’t changed however. Watching the trained dolphin and Shamu shows were unreal. How you ever get that big of an animal to perform in such a way is beyond me. The shear athleticism of the animals is awesome too.

After five hours at Sea World we made our way North to Jess’ school to make sure we’d have no trouble finding it in the morning. Conveniently it was located very close to out hotel. For dinner we decided to do what people should do when in California and that’s have In-N-Out. It was delicious as always. Post dinner we went to the hotel and called it an evening.

Jess had to be to her interview early, so we got up, had breakfast and then I took her to campus. I then went back to the hotel, cleaned up and did some shopping at the Nordstrom Rack. Jess called at the conclusion of her interview, I picked her up, and then we did a little shopping. After that we met up with my cousins who live in Encinitas. We had a great time hanging out with the Phillips. First we went to the beach for a bit and then we had a great Mexican dinner. After dinner we hit the freeway and drove to our airport hotel. We had an early flight out, so we called it an early night. Overall Jess and I had a great 40 hours in San Diego...

Katy

Update: And now that she has been accepted to PT school, we’ll get to have many more. Congrats Jess!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Wedding Roadtrip

Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Portland-Eugene
July 29 - August 1, 2010

This weekend I road-tripped to Seattle for a friend’s wedding. As most, if not all of you know, I much prefer flying to driving. On this particular weekend tickets to Seattle were ridiculously priced, as were rental cars, so I decided to drive. In order to break up the trip I spent Thursday night in Portland at Amanda and Chris’ house. I had a bit too much fun shopping at the outlet stores in Woodburn, so I didn’t get to their place until a little before ten. Upon arrival we had a nice time chatting and going over wedding details.

Friday morning I was up and on my way to Seattle by 10am. I impressed myself with my early departure ;~) I did a little more outlet shopping in Southern Washington and then made it to Bainbridge Island by 3:30pm. Katie and Wayne’s wedding was set to start at 5pm, so I quickly showered and made my way to the wedding “on the point”.

What a beautiful spot! Wayne’s grandma has an incredible property overlooking the water and downtown Seattle. The wedding started a bit late because of traffic problems and delayed ferry’s but overall it was a great evening. I had a blast catching up with old friends, eating good food and dancing the night away.

Saturday morning I took the ferry into downtown Seattle to have lunch with a friend. We met at 12pm and before we knew it it was 3pm. After lunch I hit up both Nordstrom and the Nordstrom Rack. The anniversary sale was still going on at the regular Nordstrom, so unfortunately I did a little damage there. Thankfully Nordy’s has an incredible return policy, so when my judgement returns to tomorrow, I’ll be able to undo any mistakes I may or may not have made ;~)

After I finished shopping downtown I drove south to Tacoma to take in a Tacoma Rainers baseball game. The game itself was decently entertaining, while the food and the promotions were disappointing. After the game I was fairly awake so I decided to start my drive home. By the time I hit Portland my eyelids were getting heavy. I stopped at the La Quinta near PDX to sleep.

Sleeping in Portland also gave me the chance to catch up with my friend Jules on Sunday. She just recently got engaged to her beau Keith and I was excited to hear all the wedding details. I hadn’t seen her in person in a while and really enjoyed catching up. I also FINALLY got to meet Keith and her dog Drake, whom I’d been hearing about for at least a year. I’m already looking forward to their wedding next summer.

After lunch with Jules I made my way back down I-5 to Eugene in time for both dinner with the family and my soccer game. It was an action packed four-day weekend, that included way too many hours in the car... but it was worth it.

Until the next adventure,
Katy