Vegas... then get me home to my own bed, PLEASE!!!!

By the time we were leaving the Sequoias late Saturday afternoon we were shot! So Barstow, California was our next pitstop for the night and would set out for Vegas the next day. There's no need to talk about it, we were in the middle of nowhere, again! Sunday morning we set out for Vegas. At this point we were both tired and pretty irritable but excited to get to civilization. Driving the Mojave desert is pretty surreal. There's absolutely nothing for seemingly endless miles and the landscape is just so different from anything I've encountered. Then the most bizare thing happens after driving through nothing for hours... Vegas just pops up in all of it's lit up, grandiose tacky glory!

As with most things in life we were late. Our plan was to stay at the Hard Rock and go to Rehab that Sunday to meet up with a few of my NY friends but arriving in Vegas at 3pm rendered that plan useless. So the Hilton it was, not too shabby, and it was cheap. Finally we got to relax poolside with a cocktail this made us both happy especially because we weren't getting along very well. That night we ate Thai food and went our seperate ways. Jessica decided to do a little gambling at our hotel and I went to drink with my NY friends. Monday morning rolled around quick as did the reality of how far we were from Orlando and that I had a flight to catch early Friday morning. Next stop was the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon then we had to get a move on! Luckily the Hoover Dam is en route to the Grand Canyon so we drove right over it and the canyon was another 9 hour drive after that.

The after the Hoover dam had become really monotonous, we were tired and were ready to go home. We arrived there in time to watch the sun go down it was absolutely amazing. That gaping hole in the ground is a site to see, I'd recomend it to anyone! As for the rest of the week... It was Orlando bound! I drove through the night that Monday, we switched around 5am because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. We almost broke down around 6:30am in Northern Texas. My short nap was disturbed by pulling over to the side of the road and Jessica telling me the car wont move when she puts her foot on the gas... AWESOME! We spent about a half hour sitting there clueless as to what we should do. When we started the car it went though, so we drove to Enterprise to see what they could do for us. Enterprise told us to go to Firestone where we spent 4 hours playing hurry up and wait. After sleeping for an hour and brushing my teeth in a tire/mechanic bathroom I was a little cranky. The guys there told us we probably just had some bad fuel and that we'd be alright. By then it was around noon on Tuesday we decided to drive as far as we possibly could. Oklahoma was next, we drove straight through into Arkansas were it was decided a shower and bed was needed. The hotel we stayed at in Little Rock was by far the worst! Once we put our bags down in the room we actually checked the box springs for drugs and or dead bodies. The room had the an undescribable smell but we were so tired we didn't care. Back on the road early next morning

into Tennessee... we drove by Graceland but opted to not pay the 40 dollars to go in. Mississippi had good barbaque and I finally tasted sweet tea, it's no wonder the obesity rate down south is what it is. The rest of the day and night was spent driving. I'm not a fan of Florida but when I passed the state line around 1am I celebrated! Our arrival to Jessica's apartment was around 7am Thursday morning. After a brief nap we cleaned the rental car that just had over 8,000 miles on it and returned it. As per usual it was time to eat and drink. Happy hour,sushi and reflexion of the journey we'd just finished. I think we fell asleep that night by 8pm. Never in my life have I been so happy to get  on a plane the way I was that Friday morning... Home :)
This trip was a check off the bucket list that Jessica and I both agreed had to be done. We laughed, cried, faught, saw amazing things, and had an adventure we'll talk about when we're 80! I think everyone should see what our own country has to offer there's a whole lot to see.

Florida Spring Break - The Sequel

            A year after our epic road trip to Florida we wanted to take a trip back, but this time fly and rent a car while staying in a hotel when we weren’t sleeping at my aunt’s.  We upgraded one friend of last year’s trip, replacing him with another, the legendary EPMG.  Another friend of the original four bailed last minute because his girlfriend wasn’t happy about the trip.  I will never forgive him for the last minute bailout.  This left us with a group of three.

            Before this binder we were trying to come up with a plan that would make this spring break even better than the last.  A week before we left an adult shop was closing right by my friend Mike’s house.  He stopped in and then later surprised us with a dumb theme that became crazier and crazier as the days went on.  He paid about 20 dollars and made out with a bag of 10 men’s undergarments that male strippers would wear.  There was a little bit of everything ranging from gross thongs, speedos, short shorts, and good old fashioned banana hammocks. 

            A few days into the trip we were hanging out by South Beach and decided to test the terribly corny outfits on.  We were hanging out around the Miami U area by neighboring dorms with some girls that had cheerleading experience.  That’s when the idea hit us.  We would choreograph a funny dance with their help and perform it alongside other street performers on the boardwalk in Key West.

            We ended up actually registering as street performers and had a tip bucket and a sign that displayed our dance group’s name as well as (incase it was nesecary) our sexual orientation incase you couldn’t already tell from EPMG yelling at groups of girls watching.  It read “Bikini Party: We accept tips from everyone but phone numbers from girls only!”  As it came time to get to our dancing location we were all thinking “Why? What are we thinking?” but EPMG pulled us together and we took some shots as liquid courage.

            The boardwalk was intimidating.  It was also hilarious and obvious we weren’t really dancers about 5 seconds in when we broke out moves like the “bus driver” and “the sprinkler”.  The crowds we drew in were comprised of hundreds of people.  Everyone was laughing except for the street performer’s coordinator.  We told him it would only be a break dancing routine.  He was probably fuming the instant we took our pants off.  After about eight minutes we got kicked off and left to an applause but very little tip money.  That night we were recognized at most places we went by our adorning fans.

            Though Bikini Party was relatively successful we still had a lot more to do on our trip.  My friend Mike and I rented a fishing boat in the Everglades.  We immediately took it out of the regulated fishing area and a few minutes into the real portion of our voyage we stopped the boat to look around.  We quickly heard a thud on the hull of the little boat and saw the top of a giant alligator.  I grabbed the oar and jumped up yelling “Go Go Go!” as Mike struggled to start the little electric motor.  We spent that day driving around and throwing food at alligators and joked that we should catch one and leave it in the trunk of the rental car that was becoming more trashed every minute we spent in it. 

            For the last leg of the trip we bought tickets to Wreslemania, which just happened to be in Florida while we just happened to be on Spring Break- we couldn’t say no.  We picked up a fourth member to our group for the event, a friend of ours who also just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  For the sake of trashing our rental car a little more we gave him a French Fry Party after we picked him up.  This is where we went to Mc Donald’s and ordered twenty one- dollar fries.  As if that didn’t seem weird enough, we started talking about all the “parties” we have been having.  We then mentioned how we were expanding our horizons to new parties including a (you guessed it) French Fry Party.  We immediately threw all of our fries through the car while directing them at our new group member.  He was covered in salt for the rest of that day, but at least he wasn’t in as bad shape as our rental car was.

-Brian

High Five

Everglades Voyage (note the pink whistle on Mike)

trashed rental car

Wrestlemania fireworks

The birth of Bikini Party

Rio de Janeiro

One place I can’t wait to visit is Brazil. I think just about everyone has heard the song “The Girl from Ipanema.” Well, every time I hear that song come on all I can think about is, me, sitting on a plane that’s landing and over-looking all of the beautiful beaches… kind of like the beginning of a cheesy movie. I’ve actually found a bunch of free applications and podcasts on my phone that teach Brazilian Portuguese. I’m only fluent in English so it’s a little hard to catch on but the more I listen the more words and sentences I can put together.

My new fascination began just a few weeks ago when I took my nephew to go see that new movie Rio. I know it’s just a cartoon but it looked so real and showcased some of Brazil’s well-known landmarks including the Christ of Redeemer statue, the beach of Ipanema and Carnival.

Of course, one of the first things that I do while researching a vacation is go to TripAdvisor.com. I type in Rio de Janeiro and see what pops up. Well the first thing that I saw was this picture:

picture from tripadvisor.com --- user: samba-angi

After I stared for awhile I clicked into the top-rated hotels and attractions. I was sold after the first 10 minutes.I definitely plan on going within the next few years. However, I want to be able to understand and speak Portuguese so I can really absorb in as much as I can.

Below are a few pictures of Rio:



 picture from http://traveltorio.blogspot.com/

 

picture from planetware.com

 

picture from allposters.com






-Katie

Cali and Beyond Part Duex...

So by the time we were done being chubby and eating 2 donuts each (I should now let you know I gained almost 10 pounds on this little escapade) we returned back to the sweet L.A. traffic and it was around 6PM. Our next destination was Sequioa National Park so we could hug a red wood.  We had set up shop at a Starbucks in seedy Hollywood earlier to map out the route and find a place to sleep. It was late in the day and Bakersfield was only 2 hours away so we decided to stay there for the night so we could actually get some sleep. I honestly can't remember where we stayed there... But the next morning we took off towards the giant forrest. The trip there would take about 3 hours maybe a little more. This area in California was pretty flat, dry and hot so the ride was kind of boring. Then we came across farm after farm of oranges, and a few vinyards. We got pretty lucky stopping at one vineyard in the middle of nowhere. It was a quaint little barn with all kinds of cheeses, and dried fruits along with obviously wine, SCORE!  Clearly we were driving so we just tasted a few and bought a few bottles along with some delicious cheese and crackers.

Our arrival to the mountains was pretty late in the afternoon, and of course we hadn't found anywhere to sleep.... but we were so excited to go into the park that we figured we'd just drive through a little then grab dinner and figure out the hotel situation.
bakersfield, CA.

Once in the park it's pretty amazing, the mountains are pretty huge and there was still snow on the tops of them. The highest altitude we reached while there was just under 8,000 feet which is more than enough to make you keep a slow pace, or get altitude sickness. In true female form neither of us had accessed the fuel situation, or even realized that you actually needed gas to make a car operate. So once we payed to get into the park the gas light pops on. Yet again like true females we figure we have enough to either A. get to a gas station in the park (that according to the map is on the other side of the mountain, where ever that is) or B. we can make it to the big trees and then back to one we saw in a town we'd past through no less then 15 minutes ago. So we keep going staring at the scenery on this narrow windy little road in the middle of a mountain with snow on it. Just as we make it to the sign that says "Entering Giant Forest" some type of light bulb goes off in our collective brain that says we have to turn back, so we do. I was driving, shocking (did I mention I drove almost the entire time) and had to put the car in nuetral to coast down the mountain. We did however make it to the gas station with barely a fume of gasoline to spare.

After the gas disaster we decided to grab dinner and figure out the sleeping arrangements. Of course there was no place within the little town that had vacancy so we ended up going back to a place we'd passed earlier. The town was a small place called Tulare, the hotel was quite nice though and Chilis was within walking distance. Two for one margaritas were calling our name so we headed out for a bit. Let me tell you that by now coming in contact with other humans aside from eachother was some treat! Eating, sleeping, driving, talking and spending every waking hour with eachother was getting to be a bit much. So whenever we came in contact with the outside world those pour people were stuck getting there ear chewed off. These random patrons of Chilis were no exception, oh and on the walk back I almost stepped on the biggest cockroach I've ever seen!!!!! Note to anyone: other states have strange bugs! Back to the mountain we went the next morning, it was awesome! We hiked a few trails in the giant forest and then hiked down to see General Sherman, the largest tree in the world. Like I mentioned earlier the air is really thin when you're that high, you walk to fast and it feels like your hearts going to come right out of your chest.To see the pretty things we saw that day made the rest of the nonsense of the trip well worth it.

Next Stop Vegas.... then time to haul it home I've got a flight to catch!

Lauren

Best/ Worst Road Trip Ever . . . The Finale

We spent early Friday AM driving the Focus around looking for a parking lot to sleep in.  We had just enough money to eat a few meals and drink a lot on Saturday night.  The Focus Resort was collecting labels of the various bottles we drank and its floors were collecting cans of beer and along with the cracked windshield and plethora of dead bugs on the hood, our ride/ hotel had quickly become an eye sore. 

            We caught up with our fourth missing friend the next day and took time recovering on the beach and we all had matching sunburns from the downtime on the beaches.  We were all in heavy amounts of pain for various reasons but we were determined to make our last night in Key West the best one of the trip.

            We started off on Club Ford and every one was pumped and ready for our last night out.  We even invited a few others on to our exclusive bar top. This night was going to be the best.  Our group of four were already rowdy and up to shenanigans that made us stand out among the rest of the loud Duval Street crowd.  Things were going great until we noticed that the tail end of our group, our friend Seth, somehow jumped then landed awkwardly and took out a garbage can, breaking his knee in the process.  Everyone else was bummed out almost as equally as Seth because this was the damper of all dampers on the trip.  The sudden stop to our rampage down Duval Street lead to an awkward emotional moment between two members of our group.  Yes, man tears were shed but ill spare them that story. 

            Luckily there just happened to be a fire truck and ambulance on the packed street as this was happening: unluckily they were tending to a heart attack victim and a drunk guy’s broken knee was the least of their worries.  We found a taxi and got our friend to the hospital.  Flash forward a few hours into the hospital stay and the booze had clearly not worn off yet.  One of my friends over heard workers at the hospital talking and the cops were on the way for us.  Thanks to some quick thinking we put the hurt member of our group in a wheelchair grabbed him crutches and took off- outrunning the hospital staff. 

            Now we had to plan the rest of the trip around our injured friend.  He had money wired for a hotel room for the night but some of us still wanted to salvage the rest of the night out.  The two of us who went out spent the night in the Focus Resort and this made for an awkward morning.  We woke up in the mess of a car and we happened to park in front of a church and it just happened to be Easter Sunday.  There were crowds of people standing around our car as we woke up from our stooper.  We got up to move the car out of respect and tons of beer cans fell out while we were doing this so we left our parking spot as quickly and awkwardly as possible. 

            We drove up to Ft. Lauderdale, beaten and battered, to get the rest of the stuff we left at my aunts.  We spent Easter Sunday at a restaurant/ bar with my aunt and found a ridiculous location where they were having a girl’s hot body contest . . . on Easter Sunday!  By this point of the trip we were so beat up that we showed up at this awesome pool party and said no, “No way we are done and going home.” 

Two of the four of us were going to fly home using Free Fly Buddy Passes- which left me and my newly broke friend Mike to drive the Focus all the way North within 24 hours so I could make a math test Monday night.  I drove the first eight hours then figured I could take a Nyquil and have a deep sleep for 8 hours while my friend Mike drove and then I would wake up refreshed and ready to go.  This was a good plan except Mike could not handle his shift after I had already taken the Nyquil.  He was falling asleep while driving and drifting off the road.  He even almost went up a highway ramp the wrong way.  Time was limited and the Nyquil started kicking in for me.  I then made a decision to take some No Doze stay awake pills.  This put me in a No Doze/ Nyquil induced zombie- like state, but was good enough to get me through another 8 hour shift.  I wasn’t falling asleep anytime during this period but I felt like death the whole time.  I made it home just before the test and barely passed it.  Although this was one of the craziest and nerve racking experiences of my life I would never regret going and the memories of this trip are some of the best in my personal hall of fame of great times.       

pics coming soon

Atlantic City

Hooray for an Atlantic City blog post! AC is so close that it makes the perfect weekend getaway. It’s almost like a mini Vegas… I’m going in a few weeks to meet some friends and I’m super excited. The last time I was there was back in October for Halloween. And on Halloween it’s definitely the place to be. Just about everyone is dressed up in costumes, and playing the part. One of the most memorable, simple costumes that I saw was the “I like turtles” kid from that viral video. I've never laughed so hard!

But anyway, I’m going in May. I’ve always stayed at Harrah’s Resort but the last few times I’ve stayed there I’ve had nothing but problems. The rooms are always SO dirty and my boyfriend and I had a major credit card issue last time at check out. The only thing I’m going to miss is the pool there. It feels like you’re sitting in Miami.

This time I’m staying at the Borgata. It’s a lot nicer there and they have two nightclubs that the majority of people flock to at night. I don’t think I can go a day without saying, “I can’t wait.”

-Katie

The Golden State and Beyond...

Let me just start out by saying California is awesome! It has everything from city life to country life, to laid back beaches, vineyards, and everything in between... The only other state that is comparable is New York in my own personal opinion. I left off 2 weeks ago in San Diego, we stayed 2 nights and about 3 days there. As previously stated it's a nice layed back place. While I was hoping for some beach and tanning time I was mistaken. Apparently the month of June in San Diego is predominantly overcast with temperatures in the low to high 70's. "June Gloom" as the locals refer to it kind of rained on my parade but we made the best of it, and got to catch up with an old high school friend which made it even better... But we had to get this show on the road, so next stop was Los Angeles...

 It was just a few hours away so we made it to L.A in the early afternoon... First we had driven through Compton (just because we felt it necessary) then Rodeo Drive, and Beverly Hills.  Aside from the fact that we were in Beverly Hills there wasn't too much going on. We were on a road trip which was already costing an arm and a leg so we couldn't shop, but we did see some paparrazzi, amazing homes, and window shopping was pretty fab! The hotel we booked for the night via hotels.com was right by LAX and was one of the nicesest we'd stay at the entire trip. After dinner at a great Thai place around the block from our hotel we decided to get a good night sleep so we could tackle Hollywood and head towards Sequoia National Park the next day.

Hollywood was a lot smaller then I had imagined it, and a lot more seedy and dingy then I had pictured. All in all it was pretty cool though. The Hollywood walk of fame, and Chinese Theatre are definitley a sight to see, as well as the Hollywood sign, other then that we had to keep it moving. But before we left we had to go to famous Randy's donuts. Now let me just take a time out and let you know that L.A traffic is worse then anyone claims, it took about 2.5 hours to make it 15 miles for a donut... this was an absurd idea but the donuts were good, and it made for a cool photo op... so here it is...

Part 3 of the FLA Awesome Disaster Trip: Key West Arrival

            So here we are on our way down to Key West.  We had just enough money to party with and the final leg of our trip would still be fun, but now there was an added sense of challenge.  We had two nights to live it up but no money to also buy a hotel stay still be able to fund the trip home.

            Another thing we had to go cheap on was our food costs.  We had to strategically spend money on food that was cheap and would fill us up at the same time.  Most of the time we stopped at Subways as the Five Dollar Footlong deal was brand new at the time.  On the long drive south we stopped at a random Chinese buffet to try and stuff ourselves.  The only issue here was that the food was disgusting and sometimes hard and stale.  The food was almost inedible but the reoccurring theme for this leg of the trip was that desperate times call for desperate measures.  Well we ended up pulling off a good old fashioned dine and ditch for the greater good of the trip.  The workers at the buffet lunged out like they really were ninjas by nighttime.  They chased us all the way to the car and the Focus almost didn’t make it out of the flooded parking lot we were in.  As the car was trying to not to stall out as it drove about 6 mph.  Then they hopped in their cars as the chase took toward the near highway.  My adrenaline was pumping and I was amazed that they were still so persistent in getting the money from us.  My friend who was driving my Focus ran through two very risky red lights.  He looked both ways without stopping and drove right through, which is how we finally evaded the buffet ninjas.

            After stopping off for a quick fishing break, where we caught a gigantic iguana on accident, we made it to the southernmost island of the Keys, Key West.  The game plan here was to pull an all-nighter since we did not have a room to sleep in.  We would catch up on sleep during the day on the beach.  My idea was to park our car at a hotel.  We found a Bestwestern and we would often have to fully change our clothes right in the parking lot.  As far as bathing we would spend sometime in the Jacuzzi with some shampoo and conditioner tucked away in our hands and then it was sponge bath time in the bathroom.  We would also use their bathroom to get ready before we went out.  This may sound a little gross but I stress the fact that desperate times called for desperate measures. 

            At night Duval street came alive.  In Key West it is legal to drink on the streets and this is one of the best parts of the beautiful island.  To save money we did most of our drinking during our pre game.  We would take Jager Bombs over and over while standing in each door of the focus and using the roof as a bar stand.  We called this area “Club Ford” in reference to our hotel room for the night that was conveniently located downstairs- “The Focus Resort”.   We lost one friend during the night but found him the next morning, at this point of the trip nothing really shocked us until the next night.           

Quick Sales

Recently, a new trend has emerged for online shopping. Private sale websites offer luxury products for large discounts, but the catch is that it’s only for a limited time. Many are invitation only, but it’s well worth searching around the internet for someone who posted their invite link. There are so many of these sites around, and if they aren’t targeted strictly towards travel, they usually still feature a few different hotel sales.

These sales are only available for about 2-3 days but if you are quick enough to book, the savings are about 50% off (or more) a night. Another great feature is that if you invite someone and then they book, you receive a credit.

Here are a few vacation-only sites:

·         Vacationist.com

·         Jetsetter.com

·         Sniqueaway.com

These sites feature travel, as well as kitchen goods, apparel, accessories, etc.:

·         Ruelala.com         

·         Ideeli.com

·         Hautelook.com

I haven’t book any vacations through one of these sites yet, but I have purchased other goods at extremely low prices. My cousin however, just got back from a trip to Cabo that her and her husband booked through one of these sites. She said that after she purchased, she received an email confirmation and voucher. She then called up the hotel, read the confirmation code and told them the days that she was coming down. She said the hotel was beautiful, the trip was perfect, and that she’ll be booking more vacations through private sale websites.

-Katie

Tough Mudder- Allentown, PA

So I'd like to take a little break this week from my road trip and share my short road trip experience to Allentown this past weekend. I signed up for a challenge called the toughmudder several months ago. This one in paticular was an 11 mile race with 18 grueling obstacles on Bear Creek Mountain (which is a ski/snowboard resort). According to mapquest the trip would take a little over 3 hours. I was running the race with a long time friend of mine but had informed him ahead of time I wanted to drive myself. My cross country trip taught me that sometimes when your going to spend a decent amount of time with friends certain components of the trip are better off being done solo. Personally I like driving, I also smoke which he does not, and have to pee usually once an hour. Instead of either of us getting annoyed at the other we should go the trip alone. I arrived at the mountain around 1pm and was able to watch the race for a few hours and was in time to see a few friends finish the race.

 My friend Ryan had booked a room about 2 months in advance at a Best Western, I had told him I wasn't sure if I'd being staying there or not with him. When I did finally leave the mountain and attempted to find this hotel I got lost for about 2 hours. This is where I realized just how much I missed having a travel buddy! It's extremely hard to navigate yourself without a navigation system, in a strange city while driving stick shift. Upon my arrival to the Best Western myself and Ryan realized he'd booked the wrong hotel and he was about an hour away! At that point I decided to call hotels.com and see what they had to offer. The woman on the phone told me she only had a room at a hotel I've never heard of and had no idea where it was located. So I decided to call the Red Roof Inn where my other 2 friends that had just ran the race were staying. Jackpot! Not only did she have a room available with a king sized bed for 70 dollars but apparently I was only an exit away and driving in the right direction. Within 10 mins the room was booked and I was walking to a restaurant with my buddies to get dinner. While lost though I realized how many things were within reasonable driving distance, I'd circled Dorney Park numerous times, Hershey Park seemed relatively simple to get to as there were signs everywhere, and of course I had just left Bear Creek Mountain where you could obviously ski and snowboard as well as the spa that was on site. Once I arrived to the Red Roof Inn the hotel itself wasn't too shabby. My room was clean and the woman at the front desk was really nice and helpful. It was a stones throw off the parkway and there were numerous places to eat within walking distance. Across the parking lot were a few franchises like Applebees, Denny's, and TGIFridays,and  Dunkin Donuts was literally in the middle of the parking lot. There was also a strip of stores right there that came in handy as I'd forgotten toothpaste, shampoo and other numerous important things normal people pack first. So all in all Allentown wasn't so bad, there's a quite a few things around there for familys or individuals... And if you want to abuse test your physical and mental strength to the max, check out toughmudder.com to see when next years Allentown race will be.

Lauren

Cali or Bust Part Cont...

Our arrival to Tuscon wasn't ideal, it was the middle of the night and took us an hour to find our hotel. When we did finally find it we were just happy to get some sleep! By this point we were getting to be pro's at unpacking and re-packing the car quickly. The next morning we agreed that this city had nothing to offer and we'd drive straight through to San Diego where we'd meet up with a high school friend who's naval station was just outside the city. Arizona did however show two native New Yorkers what this "dry" heat that people speak of is, what it looks like when grass doesn't exist, and just how cool gigantic cacti all over the place are.

The drive through the desert was pretty cool just for the shear fact that niether of us had ever encountered that type of climate. Driving through the rest of Arizona and New Mexico was a little over 400 miles and took about 7 hours. We'd only stop for food and gas but when we got out it was hot! It was really weird though because of the lack of humidity. It was the first time either of us had a decent hair day. It's like when your laying out in the sun and you feel your skin start to burn and get hot after a little while, except it took getting out of the car and standing in the sun about 30 seconds for that occur, yet you didn't feel all sweaty and greasy.

Once we entered California we were pretty excited, our Texas experience didn't have us in the greatest of spirits. To get to San Diego we had to drive pretty much straight over giant mountains that we dubbed "rock mountain" yet is actually called Anza Borrego State Park, was a really cool sight, and we both agreed we'll return there one day. But finally we reached San Diego around 6pm, and we were starving and desperate to get out of the car! Just a little tidbit of information for anyone considering a cross country road trip, take a large vehicle if you can and a few people. I don't care how good of friends you are, or how well you get along spending countless hours in a small vehicle with nobody else to talk to will begin to wear on anyone's nerves. Jessica and I have been friends since I was 4 years old but by this point we needed another human being to interact with.

San Diego is amazing and laid back. We headed right to Mission beach for fish tacos, and a much needed cocktail! In true form we still hadn't found a hotel so that also needed to be tended to.

Here's are a few little travel tip: Bring a laptop with you, it really comes in handy, also Starbucks is everywhere in this country, so is McDonald's and Walmart, even in the most desolate of places. So bring your laptop and buy a starbucks wifi card. Also a notebook comes in handy or anywhere to keep track of gas usage, prices, etc... we took turns paying for gas and kept note of the mileage and price per gallon, it was the easiest way to keep it fair. A map would've maybe come in handy but neither of us had even thought to bring one, her Droid and my laptop were more then enough. You have to love technology :)
-Lauren



VIVA LAS VEGAS



View from our room (Bellagio Fountains on left)



Vegas! It might be one of the greatest places on Earth. Even if you don't gamble there is so much to do your vacation will fly by. Since Vegas is in desperate need for tourists and gamblers, you can get hotel and air for a reasonable price. It's the extra spending money that you have to worry about. I've been there three times since I've turned 21 and I am planning to go back in August again. It's extremely hot in the summer (about 110 degrees) but there are so many pools and pool parties to choose from, you can jump right in! I love Mandalay Bay's pool. They created a walk-in beach atmosphere and it's amazing.

All of the resorts are huge and host so many different plays, restaurants, shopping centers, and night-clubs. The last time I went I stayed at Planet Hollywood. They have a complete mall right off the casino floor. It's more affordable than Caesar's Mall (which is beautiful), with stores that you would see at Roosevelt Field mall.




Cosmopolitan Lobby

 

The first restaurant I go to when I land in Vegas is TAO! The food is delicious and the night-club is alot of fun. Recently, The Cosmopolitan hotel opened it's doors to the public. It's beautiful and I'm obsessed. You've probably seen the commercials, the ones with bunnies and kittens coming out of an elevator? Their "right amount of wrong" campaign. Well the hotel feels like 1930's glam with velvet, diamonds and old telephones throughout. They have a few different floors, one for the casino, one for shopping, one for restaurants, and the top floor which is a roof deck walk-in pool over looking the entire Vegas Strip.



It's going to be beautiful in the summer, I can't wait :-D

-Katie

Miami- Part 2 of the Best/ Worst Roadtrip Ever

So here we are finally arriving in Florida during the middle of the week . . . barely.  My new car is already trashed, especially its cracked windshield and my co drivers’ wallets are starting to hurt from all the speeding tickets; but we finally made it.  With the exception of one of us we are all a little light on money.  One friend and I were both underclassman in college who worked just enough to get by, making this trip a stretch on our finances.  Only one friend had a career and a house and really didn’t have to worry about a budget throughout the start of the trip.

We started the week off in Ft. Lauderdale.  Nothing was too crazy here, but it was only the middle of the week.  We were staying at my aunt’s apartment and I was saving up money for the rest of the trip.  By Wednesday we figured we would get a cheap hotel in Miami and really go out in style Thursday night.  When you spend less money on a hotel in a rich city chances are you are in a bad neighborhood, and we were. 

Once Friday night came and after we finished our Pre- Game (drinks in the hotel before we went out) we put on our Money- Makers on(nice collared long sleeve shirts).  Two minutes after walking out of the hotel we could tell this was the place to be.  Some guy pulled up in a Porsche with music blasting so loud it echoed off of all the building.  He had a full- fledged Jew- Fro (curly afro) and quickly jumped out of the Porsche and started busting out dance moves in the middle of the street and in traffic.  Coincidently we ran in to him later on.  We couldn’t understand his name but we just called him Aladdin because it sounded close enough. 

Throughout the night we all definitely surpassed our budgets as everything in Miami revolves around having money.  People often say it is a very fake city where the people only care about looking flashy and having money.  They are probably right, but there is still an awesome night life there.  I remember slipping the bouncers at The Mansion forty bucks each to cut the insane line.  The Mansion is nuts.  Plenty of rappers talk about it in their song and DMX was even on hand.

We met a bunch of girls from Long Island and while walking back to hotels.  We definitely made a wrong turn somewhere.  Like most cities, if you walk too far the wrong way you quickly find yourself in the wrong part of town.  Now we were in the wrong part of town and the girls were getting heckled by everyone we passed.  Our walking group gained two more girls that didn’t fit in and had bad intentions.  My one friend, the only one with money, quickly took to the new editions of our group.

They tried to draw our attention by pointing at a golden key on the ground saying, “One of ya’ll dropped a golden key”.  Well the most intoxicated member who just happened to be the one with the most money thought, in his jaded state of mind, that they were trying to pick him up.  “Oh that’s my golden key” . . . idiot.  The golden key was symbolic of one of the biggest downfalls of our trip.

We tried to get him to walk with us and not stray away with his two girls.  We even tried to physically move him away.  He wasn’t having it and we went back to the hotel thinking he would follow.  He didn’t.  We took to the streets in the car and found him staggering alone by himself with a big smile on his face.  The smile quickly dropped when he was in the car and realized that his whole wallet was gone.  The smile was even further gone when he found out that his bank account was wiped out.  All he had left was the damn golden key.  We even bought a necklace to mount it on to commemorate the dumbest decision and night of his life.

Now we were all broke.  We barely had enough money to live it up like we did Thursday night in Miami.  We thought about driving back to Ft Lauderdale and toning down the rest of the trip.  This was not happening.  We continued down south for Friday night in Key West.  We couldn’t afford a hotel, but who cares, we had the Focus which then became known as The Focus Resort.

Next week- things get worse in Key West. . .

-Brian

Miami

Aladdin in the street

Aladdin in person

Prelude to my First Full Fledged Road Trip

This week I am touching on the first time I took a road trip down to Florida with a group of friends.  This trip marked the birth of our Binders.  Spring break was coming up and it was my freshman year and I had no plans or ideas of what to do.  A few of my friends had girlfriends who would not let them get away with traveling to a college hot spot during my break.  A few days before the official vacation started I met with three friends and we schemed a plan where we could all get away for the week. 

            We labeled it as a fishing trip and we did make an effort to fish for about two hours of the trip although that was definitely not the main idea.  We drove my newly acquired Ford Focus with five boxes of pizza as we embarked on the painful drive down south.  The drive was filled with many speeding tickets and a few eventful stops but I remember driving the graveyard shift and being surrounded by a slew of 18- wheelers and all of a sudden the car was surrounded by smoke and the smell of burned rubber.  I was driving fast but was afraid to slow down to a sensible speed because I knew the car was still surrounded by trucks as it was impossible to see and was getting pelt with huge chunks of rubber.  A tire somewhere ahead of us exploded and caused up quite a stir on the road.  I remember everyone in the car waking up and collectively yelled in unison about what was about to happen.  Then we saw it, I remember it like it happened in slow motion.  A half of a monstrous exploded tire was up in the air and came smashing down on my windshield cracking it in a few directions across to middle.  There was still no time to stop as I kept driving- we had places to be.

            The plan was to start off in Ft. Lauderdale and plan the rest of the trip by ear.  My Aunt has an apartment there and we used that as our starting of point on a trip that would take us down to Miami and South Beach, through the keys and off to Key West, then we finished up the trip on Easter Sunday in Ft Lauderdale.

            The events that followed in the next couple of days included times and moments we would never forget for obvious reasons.  The Friday and Saturday nights of our trip left us battered, beat up, and separated without a hotel or place to go in what resulted as an Easter morning that resembled The Hangover years before it was even released.

(first night in Key West on top of the Focus Resort (my car))

(somethings going down)

(???)

Universal Studios

Last year I went to Universal's theme park in Orlando, Florida. Of course, I had to pick the hottest week of the year to go there! I usually book vacations quick, not paying attention to the exact dates that I'm going (not the smartest way to book a trip, I know). So not only was it super hot out but it was the opening weekend of the Harry Potter world! There was a huge line and so many people dressed in heavy cloaks. I don't know how they didn't pass out from the heat but looking at them made me want to!

I decided to spend the extra money on the fast pass there. It was definitely worth it. You can only use it once on each ride but there is so much to do and see you forget about it. My favorite ride there was definitely the Mummy. I convinced my boyfriend, who was never on a roller coaster, to go on it with me. You can't tell from the outside that it's going to be a roller coaster but there are signs posted. He wasn't too happy when he realized what kind of ride it was, but at the end of the ride he wanted to go back on again! I didn't want to deal with the Harry Potter rides, but I did walk through that part of the park. It was kind of surreal. I have seen a few of the movies and it felt like I was walking through it.

As I was looking through my pictures from this trip I totally forgot that we ran into Sugar Shane Mosley in the airport! All in all I can't wait to go back, just maybe not in August.

-Katie

California or bust!

We left New Orleans around 4pm on a Friday. Travel tip: just because you're on vacation doesn't mean the rest of the world is! Interstate 10 runs across the entire southern portion of the country, and when we returned to it to head West in rush hour traffic we realized the rest of humanity were still going about their business though we were taking a break from reality. Once moving though we had got the chance to see some pretty awesome sights, and had learned a key lesson. First outside of New Orleans we drove over Lake Ponchartrain which is so large the causeway that goes over spans about 27 miles long. While looking out the window you find it difficult to grasp that A.this is a lake, and B.you've been on a bridge doing 65mph for almost 20 minutes already.

Did I mention Louisianna has not only some of the nicest humans I've ever come in contact with but amazing

food? Well dinner time rolled around and yet again an amazing place popped up... It was time to try good ole crawfish, or as the locals referred to them as craw daddys.

And just in case my NY Yankees shirt wasn't a dead give away that I was in fact a "yankee" they pinned me as soon as I opened my mouth to speak. This place was awesome and a middle aged woman from the neighboring table picked a crawfish from my plate and showed me the proper way to eat one when she saw me staring at my food clueless as to how to eat it.

Next stop was Texas...

By far the largest most monotonous state, not to mention boring, and unwelcoming! Granted that is just my opinion, and hopefully one day I'll return there to have a better experience. We arrived in San Antonio around 1am and decided we'd see the Alamo in the morning. San Antonio was hands down the cleanest city I've ever seen, not a stitch of gum, a wrapper, cigarette butt was to be seen, but boring!The Alamo took about 10 minutes to walk to from the hotel in the sweltering heat, then some awesome Mexican food on the river walk, and that was the jist of that town. We decided to get back on the road and head to Del Rio which is a small town that borders Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, connected by a small bridge over the Rio Grande. We were told this was a fairly safe place to cross over the border in spite of the drug cartel and human trafficing that plagues the border currently. 

Del Rio... I dubbed hell on earth! It's hot and it's a miserable place! The Days Inn we stayed in was one of the grossest hotels of many on this trip, you walked outside and started to sweat from breathing, had the worst meal, and not to mention the locals were not a fan of "yankess". Our mission of going to Mexico in spite of all the warnings was accomplished though. The border taxi we took cost 15 dollars and we walked back to the U.S over the bridge which was pretty cool though. By 1pm we were back on the road and decided we'd drive straight through to Tuscon, Arizona where we'd sleep then figure out where we wanted to go next....

-Lauren

 



Cancun

This week I am going to write about the time that I flew down to Cancun for a week with a big group of friends.  We booked this trip long in advance through a travel agent, so it technically is not a Binder for us.  However, we did have a great time and we traveled in a group of 20 friends which definitely added to the fun and safety of the trip.  I say safety because the pro of the trip if that you are in Mexico, the weather is really nice and the resort is fun and clean; the con of the trip is that you are in Mexico, just down the road in any wrong direction you are stuck in the middle of a slum surrounded people that live to take advantage of dumb travelers.  If I could give one bit of advice it would be not to be a dumb traveler.  Only participate in activities that are sponsored by your resort and stay together. 

                I remember going on this trip within the year after my high school graduation.  The $1400 price tag of a round trip, stay at a nice resort (Oasis), and all inclusive food and drinks is a nice price but it left my wallet hurting for the rest of the trip so I was probably a cheap tipper without having a choice.  I don’t regret spending out of my price range and breaking a few savings bonds at all.  This was a once in a lifetime trip and will almost definitely never happen again.  Half the people I went with are basically married at this point in time and there will never be a time where 20 of us can get together for a week and act stupid and forget about all responsibilities and alcohol control.

                Immediately upon arrival everyone in our group paid the extra $250 for a 5 day fun pass and this covered the night part of our trip.  The resort itself was great for the day time.  Every day we would wake up early and go right to the beach and relax or play volleyball.  Obviously we would exercise the all inclusive drinks part of our travel package about 95% of the time we were conscious.  When the sun got to be too much we would head to one of the gigantic pools.  The cool part of the pools is that everyone had a big bar in it.  The sketchy part is that after all of the drinking, nobody ever seemed to get out for a bathroom break.  You do the math on this one.  Whenever anybody was hungry, all inclusive food was always local.  At times the guys would gather up and throw the bartend about ten pesos and tell him to keep the shots coming because they were naturally weak and fruity.  We called this “Hammertime” and it would always end up in me running from Mexican security.  This was not a big deal as I was over a foot taller than your average Mexican Seguridad and easily out ran them every time.

                The nightlife was crazy.  Unfortunately I can’t get into heavy detail about some of the things I witnessed from the group of people I traveled with, but you can use your imagination.  The 5 day fun pass was the highlight of the trip and if you are traveling to Cancun to get drunk and stupid and do things you will probably regret, I highly recommend buying one.  If you are traveling for any other reason- definitely pass on this one.  One night we went on a bar crawl, another night we took a booze cruise to an island, and every other night was packed with tickets to get into over the top bars and clubs like Senor Frogs.  Every location had great entertainment and fun events going on.  Although at the time our mindset was more about the all inclusive drinks that were expanded to the fun pass locations and the girls we could find to drink them with that were not in our group (which were not in short supply).