Chilean Cha Cha!

Today's post is going way back when, back to the days of my first overseas experience.

When I was in 7th grade, my mom and I tagged along with NU's (local school) first trip to Chile. It took students (me, a 6th grader, and maybe 6ish 8th graders) and chaperones (my mom, a teacher at the school and his wife who were my moms friends, and the spanish teacher) down to Temuco, Chile for 2 weeks in the spring. We flew through Santiago, Chile on down.

As part of the trip, we were to all be split up and sent to stay with students and their families. Mine was interesting, to say the least. The girl was quite young, and insisted on being bestest friends with me immediately, which was awkward. I barely ever saw anyone else in the family. I saw her dad maybe once, very very early in the morning, and her mom a few times. We were up for school at about 6am and didnt get home til 5pm each day. Her house was very small, but for Chilean standards, it seemed average. The family had a maid, also standard, and also owned a condo by the beach that we went to for the weekend.


This was the weekend that I got extremely sick from eating so much fruit, but the family read it as I couldnt have any fresh food. So for the rest of my time there, all I was fed was cereal with yogurt, McDonalds hamburgers with guacamole (I still refuse to eat that nasty green stuff to this day) and Coca Cola. My mother would sneak me fruit during the day at the school. She felt so bad for me one day, she pulled me out of the school to take me shopping and out to eat for a real meal in downtown Temuco.

Our days were filled with going to school with the student we lived with, and field trips with our other American students to various parts of Chile. We went to a ridiculously large dam one day, met some high up in the Chilean government, went on a hike all the way up to the top of a mountain, and went to visit another school that showed us an entire presentation. During school we went to art class and gym class and all that jazz, trying to learn as much Spanish as we could. Como Say Disa (How do you say), was our favorite phrase. The school even hosted a dance for us at the end of the trip.



My host family, as I said before, took me to the beach that weekend. It was gorgeous. A view from the condo that was impeccable, even to a jr high girl. Along that trip, we stopped at my host families grandparents house, which was awkward because they didnt speak a lick of English. In fact, no one in the family did. My host girl spoke a little, the mom spoke none. It was definately a barrier. But we also went to the Termas, which ended up being my favorite part of the whole trip. Its the hot springs. Pools of water naturally heated by the volcanoes surrounding the area. It was fantastic. It might have to do with the fact that I was allowed to eat a chicken sandwich, but it was really cool. The pools were lined with pebbles and steam just poured out of the water into the chilled air.

It's sad that I don't remember much from an entire two week experience. I wish I could remember more. I kept a journal, as I always do when going on a major trip, but again, as a 7th grader, I didnt really note the stuff that I wish I had. Either way, its my first impression of the non American way, and it definitely involved way too much guacamole. :)


PS. Sorry for the crappy pictures. I didnt know how to take pictures of the actually cool stuff when I was a youngin. Plus, I apparently had a HUGE thumb...

Halloween Kitties and the Deer Car Destroyer!

I try to keep this blog to all things travel related, but frankly, these two other parts of my life are worth sharing!

These are the two feline loves of my life. Myla and Nessa. Holidays are meant for kitty costumes. But this year, we thought we would be kind, and only decorate them with cute Halloween t-shirts. Myla is the trick or treat kitty, while Nessa is fat like a pumpking. Very fitting for her.

And then....


We found this awesome chicken costume. It's a little small for Nessa. And by a little small, we could barely get it around her. Myla took one look at her in it, and asked for the barbecue sauce. But this is Myla in said chicken costume. And she looks too cute for words.

The day after Halloween proved to be almost even better though. We found costumes for 50% off!! Who could resist when they fit their personalities perfectly!!!



Myla is an adorable little angel. Always being polite and heavenly. The crooked one eared halo is for the mornings when she decides she needs to be our alarm clock at 6am...



Queen Nessa rules the roost. She tells us when she wants to eat, when the windows should be opened, and when cuddles are demanded. The whole world revolves around Nessa.



I just love that Myla has her tongue out and they both look like they have a few too many trips into the catnip....

And lastly,


Tim and I were headed back from Minnesota this weekend, and BAM! Deer. Everyone was fine, obviously not the deer. A trucker that stopped said he, "Saw her bounce". It damaged the hood, windshield, front bumper, side mirror, headlight, driver door, and passenger door. $5600 in total. Than god for insurance. And for quick repair service!

New England's Halloween

This is the time of year that I miss New England the most. Mostly because of the events that occur in the month of October.


Every year, Life is Good hosts this HUGE pumpkin festival in the Boston Common. All day long, people bring or buy pumpkins and carve them in the Common, attempting to break the World's Record for the most carved pumpkins. They line the sidewalks throughout the park for blocks. And then they have this huge scaffolding tower several stories high with levels of jackolanterns. By night time, walking through the Common, looking at all the different kinds of carvings is so much fun. Its gorgeous.

My other favorite part of New England fall's is the annual trip to Salem, MA. For those of you that learned nothing in late elementary, Salem is the home of all of the Witch Trials several centuries ago. Hangings, burnings, all that jazz. So naturally, come Halloween time, the cuckoos come out to play. Every year we took the commuter rail out to this home of darkness. Street vendors line the side walks with crazy Salem paraphanelia, yummy warm food to keep out the cold, and just generally crazy people who think Salem will be the center of the next big religious movement. There is a carnival of haunted houses and magical stuff, and tons of museums dedicated to the historic era of Salem. Most of the museums are actually quite fascinating, and worth hitting up once a year. Tim's favorite was that the Pirate Museum was also located in Salem, and therefore, for the 45 minute tour, its ok to say "ARG!" every thirty seconds.

But the BEST part of Salem was that we always timed it that we would go on the day of the Pet Costume Contest in the Salem Park. Its always held late October, early in the morning, and its the cutest thing ever. I wish Cedar Falls could pull one off. Mostly dogs, a few cats, come out, decorated from head to paw in a costume. Some were weak with bandannas or just a doggy coat. But the Mastiff pulling a red wagon with fuzzy feet like he was Budweiser Clydesdale was always classic. Pirate doggies, little pups dressed like Wizard of Oz characters, Hoover vacuum dogs. The list was never ending what these people came up to dress their pets as. So for that hour, sitting on the frozen ground of Salem, with maybe 50 other psycho pet lovers, I got my animal love in for the year.




I miss it. Fall sea air is just different. *sigh*

I'm a Georgia Peach!

It's been over a week since I got back from Atlanta, but having come down with the sickness of hell, I am just now coming back to life. I don't know how much I can actually talk about Atlanta in this. I didn't get the chance to see much of it.

We landed in the airport, I miss big city airports. When a single location has its own transportation system with more than five stops, its officially awesome. Being addicted to my U.S. National parks stamp book, I convinced my mother to take a detour to MLK Jrs site, in downtown Atlanta. Let's just say, it was NOT an easy place to find. Once you get within a five block radius of the site, its one ways and back roads and parking lots. But it was also POURING rain. Once we found a sidewalk that led to the building, I hopped out of the car and ran about a block to the building. I was drenched by the time I got there. But I got my stamp!

Then we drove through rush hour traffic for at least an hour. Atlanta is definitely not a place to drive. All weekend, even if we were going only 10 miles, it took us at least half an hour to get there. It was crazy. The roads were strange, traffic was always heavy, and lights seemed to ALWAYS be red.

We ended up staying in Duluth, GA, about 45 minutes outside of the city. There I experienced my first Chik-a-filet. Or whatever. My mom rants and raves about them. I must admit is was quite tasty.


The next three days wasn't very touristy. We were there for the Catalyst conference and Night for Africa fundraiser (more the fundraiser than the conference). The conference was less than appealing, I actually attended only two sessions and spent the rest of the time in the hotel or in the car. I had started getting sick by this point, so, it was at least ok. The best part of the fundraiser was Jeff Foxworthy. I cant say Im a huge redneck fan, but his standup at the fundraiser wasn't based around it at all and was actually rather amusing.

We did venture out and do some shopping at a huge mall down there. It was an experience, there was an American Girl store. HUGE. American Girls sure aren't what I remember growing up with. But it was a good time. Plus we ate a lot in Georgia. I just can't say no to dessert! But who can blame me? You just HAVE to have Peach Cobbler when in the peach state!


One random note, we stayed at a Marriott while we were there. One that had three restaurants, a Starbucks, and a fitness room the size of the CF rec center. This was not the amazing part though. Somehow, we managed to get on the concierge floor, which is the top (17th) floor. The rooms were normal (with turndown service, complete with chocolates on the pillow, and an area rug in the bathroom). But there was an entire room on the floor that had free sodas and waters at all times. Plus an open honor bar with all sorts of liquor, fruits, appetizers, desserts, tvs and games. It was ridiculous. And awesome. Free food = always awesome.

I can't say that I would love to live in Georgia, at least until they get apparating/teleporting down to an actual science so I don't have to drive anywhere, but it was a good trip all in all.

Alaska.

People. Alaska, really? It is a destination that people seem to be talking about a lot in the past few years. They talk of beauty and nature. Here's the thing, Alaska sucks. Yes, it has some scenic views, but here's the thing, you can go to Colorado and see the exact same views with much less boredom.

The summer before my sophomore year of high school, oh so long ago, the Nordyke clan headed up north to the land of nothing. We were being joined by another family with two girls, one was three or four years younger than I, and the other a year younger than my brother. I think the killer of the trip was not this family, although it certainly didnt add to the fun factor, but that we were traveling with a tour group. Besides the two younger girls, the people closest to my own age, were my parents. The average age of the tour was mid 60s or so. Not so fun for a 15 year old girl. Anyways.

The first two weeks of the trip were on land. In a charter bus. As HUGE as Alaska is, the vast majority of the time was spent traveling the lone highways in the bus. And the tour director was on older man who thought he was God's gift to touring. He made us play bus games, like drawing on paper towels and playing Alaska trivia. But the worst really, was the fact that we had to rotate seats so that we sat next to different people. Anyone who knew me as a fifteen year old, knows that I didnt have much in common with a 65 year old man from Florida. That experience was tied with having to listen to this book on tape over the bus loudspeaker about these two old eskimo ladies trying to survive a winter in Alaska.

While on land, we went to several popular tourist places. But the two that stand out in my mind the most are Tok and Chicken. Tok, was literally a motel, a liquor store, gas station, and run down diner that refused to serve milk shakes to "bus people." Not exactly how I planned on spending summer vacation. But Chicken, Alaska wasn't as bad. Just as small, it consisted of three buildings, and was home to a total of six people in the winter months. But it had the best blueberry pie I have ever eaten. Yum. It also had a mascot of a three legged dog that had gotten in a fight with a Toyota truck.



The last week of the trip was spent on a cruise ship. Where it got a little better. That's where the real beauty came in. And a few better day trips. One involved getting to be on a land dog sled around a block circle in the forrest.
Not exactly the ideal dog sledding time, but way better than nothing. The glaciers were insane. Really. They look like several stories of sheer ice. From the ship deck, looking straight down was just chunks of floating ice.
We also got to take an excursion to go whale watching. Seeing eagles and whales and seals and puffins. That, I cannot complain about. On a cruise ship, its also a ton easier to escape from the rest of the tour group and actually try to enjoy the trip.

As stated before, the views are indeed beautiful, but you can get the same views in Colorado, theres no need to travel to the middle of nowhere to see them. And I am sure that being an angsty teenager at the time didn't help the situation. All it seemed to be was trees and rocks and sticks and rocks and more trees. But it was definitely an experience. Cant eat reindeer sausage anywhere this side of the Canadian border, thats for sure...

PS. There was a side trip to some town in Canada that once had a red light district. My mom and I wandered into a preserved brothel. Pretty much everything in the place was made of condoms. Lamp shades, window coverings, and shower curtains included. It was rather amusing.

New Mexico. And Aliens.

Back in good ole 2001, when I was a sophomore in high school, I was the typical student, looking into colleges, figuring out where I wanted to go and all that jazz. Being completely sick of Iowa, I was looking into the College of Santa Fe. Arty and far from the Corn State.

Lets just say that within hours of landing, my mom and I knew that this wasn't really the school for me. But that is a whole other story. So with three full days left in New Mexico, what else could we do but travel the state? We decided that a trip to Roswell was a must. As well as the artist community of Taos, including the Native American Pueblo there.

We started off with Taos, wandering the shops in the Pueblo. It was gorgeous. Just how people can use nature, but still live well is fascinating. As well as the fact that they still cook as their ancestors did. We tried this baked dough with sugar. Basically, an ancient version of the fried dough.



There is an artist community close by this pueblo, that is just ridiculous. Its an entire town filled completely by career artists, inspired by the nature surrounding them, and the Indian culture everywhere. I am sure that if everything wasn't at prices sky high, my mother would have bought entire stores worth.

Next stop. Roswell, New Mexico. Home of Alien Crazies. We didn't get started until super late, so we were still quite aways away from Roswell when it got dark. And even after living in Iowa, I have never experienced pitch black like that. We drove the highway, not seeing any other cars literally for hours. It was scary. More than scary. Knowing that there were miles and miles and MILES of desert in all directions, worried about running out of gas. The worst part was passing the probably ten mile long fence right along the side of the road that was littered with signs about being government property and any tresspassers would be shot immediately. Oh yeah, nothing secretive goin on there...

But we did finally make it. And the next day we tourist' it up. People in Roswell are as into the whole alien theory as you would think that they are, if not more. Its filled with crazies. We went to the UFO museum, which was rather interesting. And really reminded me of the museum that they work at in the show Roswell. Plus we ate some lunch at the Crash Down Diner, dont eat there. Its not exactly hygenic looking. The Walmart was greet with paintings of aliens on it. All of the light poles in town had alien heads as light bulbs.
It was definately an experience. A much much better one than having spent three days at the loony College of Santa Fe. Leaving Roswell, we made sure that we wouldn't be driving in the dark. I don't think either of our sanities could take that more than once in a lifetime.

New Mexico is definitely an oddball place. From city to city. But even so, its filled with places of entertainment and adventure!

Purple Mountains Majesty

I love Colorado. Plain and simple. Ever since I can remember, my family has gone to Colorado more often than any other destination, with exception of Disney. And every time, it is exactly what we need.

Something about the mountain fresh air, the cool crispness in the morning, that continues on into the day. The smell of trees. Or even just the simple fact that every day has no plan other than waking up and doing anything we feel like.

We almost always stay at Copper Mountain Resort.
A full on lodge with absolute everything on its grounds that you could ever imagine or want. Its gorgeous, its posh, and its close to all the towns that we love to go to. Vail, for the shopping. Breckenridge for the BBQ and the Alpine Slides. Denver for some Rockies baseball. And all of the mountain trails and scenic routes that you could ever desire.

When I was little, we would do a lot more scenic driving. We would wake up, and eat powdered sugar donuts on the porch. Mom would pack us sack lunches and we would head up the mountains, having a picnic by whatever stream was prettiest. I wasn't one for hours and hours of nature, so mom packed boxes of Boxcar Children and Babysitters Club books. I could have one a day, so I wouldn't go through them too fast.

Now a days, there's a lot more going through towns, exploring, a lot more eating at interesting looking restaurants, and a lot more relaxing. Us kids don't have to be constantly moving anymore, and just sitting and chilling, is a-ok by all. There's walking trails, shops, ski lifts, pools, spas, and everything all within the lodge, so its not like we are ever stuck.

One thing that we never miss though, is those Breckenridge Alpine Slides. You buy your tickets, and in line you get to head up the ski lifts. Ski lifts are terrifying. If you are ever on one with me, you must sit perfectly still. I am pretty much fine as long as they dont rock. But as soon as it starts rocking, Im done, even when it just passes the big pole things. I had a experience once where I couldnt get on in time, and it basically left without me all the way on. They caught me, but it was BAD. I also feel like the cars are just going to tear off at anypoint. ANYWAY. Up the 5 minute ski lifts, and then you grab your plastic sled off the back of the lift and carry it a ways before you get on the slide, and then you slide down the side of the mountain on the sled. You control your own speed and it tilts and swerves all the way down. Then you do it all over again. Its amazing. Fun for everyone.

Colorado is one of my favorite places. Cities have everything, and yet are minutes away from being lost in the middle of nowhere. Best of both worlds. Clean air, great smell, endless sky. Its too bad Colorado isn't everywhere.

I like to eat...in Boston.

Recently, I have had a few people ask me about traveling to Boston. What to do, where to go, what to eat, that sort of touristy mish mash. So today, I have decided to start a "Best of Boston" schtick. And since Tim and I are such major foodies, I am going to start with the Best of Boston: Food Edition. So next time you guys are in Boston, eat your heart out!

Best Deli: Michaels Deli, Brookline

This place can seat about 15 people, of the hundreds that flood through its doors every lunch. They PACK the meat between two slices of the freshest bread you will ever taste. And a chicken mango salad sandwich to die for.

Best Pizza (TIE): NYP and Upper Crust, Downtown

Pizza that does not exist in the midwest. Doughy, thin crust, tomato chunky sauce with not much spice. Something worth traveling for.

Best Cupcakes: Party Favors, Brookline

Seriously, everyone that has eaten a Party Favors cupcake, has never forgotten it. Not too sweet cupcake, with two inches of perfect creamy frosting in bright colors and ridiculously talented creations topping the sugar wonder.

Best Italian: Mother Anna's, North End

My first experience of gnocchi. And no experience since has lived up to this Italian yummy-ness. Also, the sangria is the perfect mix of fruitness and drunkeness.

Best Mexican: Sunset Cantina, near BU

Not only do they have what seems like millions of tequillas. Not only can you have the largest margarita ever. They have the largest piece of cake I have seen. Chocolate, coffee, vanilla, ice cream and cake mixture. Huge! Plus red bean rice (who knew that something so bland could be so yummy?) and also, a blackened chicken quesadilla that I still long for.

Best Breakfast Brunch: Fire + Ice, Downtown

Sunday mornings only. Ginormous grill. Add what you want to your own pancakes, french toast, omelets, or hash browns. MIne was a plate sized pancake that had bananas, rasberries, strawberries, blueberries, and chocolate chips. Oh yes, be jealous. And go there for breakfast!

Best Hot Dog (TIE): Spike's Junkyard Dogs or Cheers, Downtown

Both places have killer dogs. Spike's has huge buns four times the size of the dog, and great cheese fries. Cheers is more atmosphere, but the Fenway special is a must get.

Best Barbecue: Village Smokehouse, Brookline

I would walk on glass for this pulled pork sandwich. Cooked all day in a homemade BBQ. No wait. The mashed potatoes are creamy and soft and fluffy. This is a smokehouse that ranks up with Kansas City barbecue, if not better.

Best Grocery Deli: Johnny's, Brookline

So technically its a grocery store, but their deli counter will make sandwiches to order. The bread is unique and squishy, while the "sub sauce" belongs on every sandwich I ever consume. Great quality of turkey too.

Best Bakery: Mike's Pastries, North End

I dont think this place is ever not packed to the doors, but service is super fast, and they have the selection beyond all selections. From lobster tails (a creme puff thing), strawberry shortcake, tons of cheesecakes, at least 50 kinds of cookies, ice creams, marzipans, pies, cakes, and the only cannolis I have ever liked. Worth fighting the crowds.

Best Bar Food: Whiskey's, Downtown

If people need to quench their thirst, but still need to eat, Whiskeys has great barbecue and burgers. Best coleslaw in town too.

Best Seafood: Barking Crab, Near the Harbor

Lobster rolls = heaven. If you can't make it to Cape Cod, this place is like bringing the Cape to the city. Rocks on the tables to crack the shells, served in buckets with plastic utensils, but somehow still classy and delicious.

Best Thai: Chili Duck, Downtown

Rad Na noodles with chicken. And Thai Iced tea. Perfectly spiced, perfect combination of vegetables, amazing noodles. The dish I miss the most. And the tea has coconut milk mixed into it. It looks carrot orange, but it sweet and refreshing.

And somehow, I didn't gain 400 pounds while living there. How, I have NO idea. :)