Back from ACK

Photo courtesy of Kayak the Rockies via Creative Commons license

We apologize for the lack of posts lately, but Sister K and I have been spending the past few weeks getting ready for vacation, going on vacation, and recovering from vacation.  We spent last week soaking up the sun in Nantucket.

Husband M & I rented a small cottage in Madaket and invited Sister K and the other Sister M to come visit us for part of the week.  We had a great time of hitting up the beaches, going on walks, eating great meals, and napping!  I tried to cook a lot of the meals at our cottage, but we did get a chance to try out or revisit a number of restaurants in downtown Nantucket:

–Brant Point Grill at The White Elephant
–Black Eyed Susan’s
–Cinco
–Slip 14
–Straight Wharf

I would have to say our best meals were at Black Eyed Susan’s and Straight Wharf.  To get into Black Eyed Susan’s however, you need to wait in a line starting at 5 to put your name on the reservation list for a 7:30 or 9:15 seating.  They also are BYOB, cash only, and do not have a/c.  We joked with our fellow line-mates that we were going to open Sunflower Sally’s across the street where there is plenty of booze, takes all credit cards, and the a/c is pumping 24/7!  Despite all the effort to get into the restaurant, it was well worth it!

Husband M had to briefly take a conference call and need Internet access for a few hours one day…he greatly appreciated the free wi-fi and cold beers at the Brant Point Grill bar area that day.

This weekend, I plan to spend some time catching up around the house (we’ve been traveling the past 3 weekends) and will be posting my special Nantucket birthday clam chowder recipe (especially for Aunt N!)  Check back soon!

-m

Western Getaway

I recently got the chance to take a long weekend vacation to the Red Mountain Spa in Utah.  Husband M and I usually like 2 different types of vacation…he is definitely an outdoor adventurer, while I usually lean towards a more relaxing trip.  This resort was the perfect blend of the two.  Awesome hiking and sights to see for Husband M and a spa and pool for me.  The food at the spa was very healthy, but delicious at the same time.  We definitely left feeling very relaxed and happy with our time here.

One of the days, we signed up for a group outing to Zion National Park.  Husband M has had the chance to visit a number of national parks…Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Volcanos at the Big Island, Great Smokey Mountains, and Acadia.  He was excited to check this one off his list.  We were not disappointed.  The views were spectacular:

We hiked the first two miles of the Angels’s Landing trail.  The trail features Walters Wiggles, which looks a bit like San Francisco’s Lombard Street:

Walter Wiggles

Lombard Street, San Francisco

We decided against doing the last 1/2 mile of Angel’s Landing as it was a bit precarious and required you to hold on to a chain to get to the top:

We did get a chance to do two additional trails that day…the Emerald Pools and a trail that was on the other side of the Zion Park tunnel.

Back at the resort, we did an Adventure level hike one morning.  It was a really early hike…6:50 am start time.  When we finished, we were ready for lunch until we realized it was still 10 in the morning!  The hike at adjacent Snow Canyon State Park also offered some beautiful views:

I really hope to go back here one day for another vacation.  It was a great combination of adventure, outdoors, relaxation, and great meals.

-m

30th Birthday in Miami

This past weekend, my husband and I took a quick weekend getaway to Miami for my 30th birthday.  My actual birthday is February 29th, making me a leap day baby.  So technically, I was celebrating my 7 1/2th birthday.  This is a terrible time of year for a birthday in my opinion because it is still in the dead of winter and everyone is beyond sick of the weather.  My younger sisters all had summer birthdays, and therefore were able to have huge pool parties.  Not I…always an indoor party for poor little me (my sisters are definitely going to be rolling their eyes as they read this!)

Before we went on a cruise 2 years ago, we stayed at the South Beach Marriott overnight before we embarked.  We really enjoyed our stay there and have always thought about going back.  My 30th/7.5 birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity.  We were able to fly directly to Ft. Lauderdale after a series of mishaps with Jet Blue.  Our plane getting into Boston was delayed an hour, the Jet Blue systems went down and they grounded all flights for an hour, and then a plane on the Ft. Lauderdale runway lost communications with air control and we had to suddenly avert our landing and circle again.  Fortunately, our dinner reservations were for pretty late….it’s Miami!

On Friday night, we had dinner at Nobu, a famous sushi chain.  It was really delicious food, but our meal got cut a bit short when our tables got cleared and we were given dessert menus (we had been planning on ordering a bit more sushi).  Afterwards, we hit up the Sky Bar which was outdoors and was very nicely decorated.  They also had gas lamps, which I parked under all night as it did get a bit cool.

The next morning, we grabbed brunch at a place right around the corner from our hotel called The Big Pink.  We hit up the beach after and we were pretty much the only people for the 4 hours we hung out there.  It was a bit windy and overcast, but we got occasional bursts of sun.  It was really relaxing to just read, talk with my husband, and watch the water.  One of my friends from college, who now lives about an hour from Miami, met us up in the afternoon and we grabbed drinks and apps at the hotel bar.  It started to downpour while we were there and the whole crowd watched in dismay (ok, slight amusement) as the wedding decorations set up in the area adjacent to the outdoor bar all blew over and fell into the hotel’s water fountain!

For dinner that night, I had done some researching on OpenTable and Yelp and decided to try out Wish.  The food was excellent and they had menus that actually lit up as you opened them.  The back garden was closed due to the weather, but we were still able to eat outside.  On Sunday morning, we woke up on the early side to sit out at the beach for an hour.  We then got ready, checked out of our room, and hit up the Sunday brunch downstairs.  Here is the view from the South Beach Marriott:

We then headed to the airport and we were back in Boston by 6.  It was definitely a very fun birthday and one I will always remember!

-m

Sister M returns!

And she’s back!  Sister K mentioned to me today that lately it has been much more like 1sister1city around here lately.   Sorry for being MIA lately- work has been crazy with year-end reporting and I also took a last minute trip to St. John, USVI.  I promise to catch up on a few posts this weekend and start getting on a regular posting schedule during the week.

My trip to the Caribbean with my husband was definitely a great break from winter.  Even though I grew up in a very snowy upstate NY, I always dread this time of year in Boston.  The holidays are over and its colder and darker than ever.  It was refreshing to get a few days of warm sun (although I used my SPF 55 everyday!)  Now that I’m back, I feel like I’m that much closer to spring weather.

In St. John, we stayed at Caneel Bay.  We went to the same island two years ago and stayed in the Westin…the only other resort on the island.  Caneel definitely had a much different feel to it.  The resort was very spread out and had a bus service connecting all the major areas (although it was definitely walkable if you wanted to).  Caneel Bay has 7 of their own private beaches.  It was so great to wake up, step outside your room, and just hop right into the water if you wanted to go for a quick swim.  The resort provides you your own snorkel gear for your stay, which comes in handy as a lot of their beaches have great snorkel areas.  During our stay, we did a snorkel sail trip with Captain Pat and Bev (Sail St John) and a chartered power-boat ride to the BVIs (Captain Don of Nauti Nymph Power Rentals took us to Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and Yost Van Dyke- home of the famous Soggy Dollar Bar).   We also were able to go to a wine tasting, afternoon tea-time, and a work-out at the resort’s gym.  We ended up eating at the resorts most nights, but we will definitely try to get into the town of Cruz Bay more often next time as our meal there was the best (and probably least expensive) meal of the trip (Rhumb Lines).  The breakfast room service was also very nice…it was only about $25 total each time and arrived in a picnic basket with white starched table linens to put on our patio table.

Overall, it was a great trip and surprisingly very easy to get to from Boston.  Our flight there was direct and only took about 3 and 1/2 hours to get to St. Thomas.  The boat ride to St. John takes another half hour, but it’s a relaxing trip accompanied by rum punch.  The flight back does require a connection through Miami, but still a relatively easy flight itinerary.

-M