Travel Year: First Quarter

Back in September or October, I began investigating discount travel sites looking for opportunities Joe and I could take advantage of. Mostly I wanted to find a European package for a steal of a price because Joe has never been and I really want to go back. But for Europe you need a week, at least, and between my full time teaching contract and Elite during the summer, I really only have that kind of opening in my schedule 3 or 4 times per year – 2 of those times during big holidays our families would be unhappy with us for missing. So shorter, closer adventures were next on the list. Thus Joe and I declared 2011 our “Travel Year.”

BIG BEAR

First up was a weekend in Big Bear with our friends Ryan and Chantel. We did this last year over New Year’s and had a fantastic time. This year was more relaxed, shorter, and didn’t include a snowboarding day because Chantel was 6 months pregnant with their first child (to be named Connick as of now). Still, it was peaceful, beautiful, and a nice break from our regularly over-scheduled weekends at home. I played with my new camera, we took walks, ate good food, and hung out with good people. All around, a nice mini-vacation.

NEW YORK

In February, right as the entire East coast experienced a giant snow dump, we took advantage of a huge discount on airfare and a random 4-day weekend in my schedule due to furlough days.

We took a red-eye, arrived at 6 am on Friday and returned to LA at 10 pm on Monday. Since both of us had “done the tourist thing” in New York previously, we didn’t feel it necessary to do that again. Mostly we walked, ate, walked, stopped in somewhere warm, walked, ate/drank, and walked again. Highlights of the trip definitely include: taking in a New Jersey Devils game at the Prudential Center in Newark, Shake Shack hot dogs outside the Museum of Natural History, Central Park covered in snow, and countless yummy treats like Korzo Hungarian in Alphabet City and Franchia Vegan Korean in midtown. By the end of the trip we agreed that, though we’ll inevitably return to New York, we are satisfied that we never again need to do it in winter.

March presented a very different opportunity from January and February – there was no snow involved, no historical site-seeing, no sports.

VEGAS!!!

Our newlywed friends Alicia and Manuel found a killer deal on a weekend in Las Vegas and asked if we’d like to join them. With all of our already-planned travel I assumed Joe would not be interested, but of course he’s more spontaneous and adventurous than I am and responded with a positive “sure!” So off we went to Vegas. This was another whirlwind weekend but we had a great time together and with our friends.