Holiday Season 2016

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! After many holiday parties and festivities, I got off work on December 16th with two glorious weeks off! It is my favorite break of the year, so I had to celebrate accordingly.

Therefore....I went on a cruise to the Caribbean! My sister in law and I went out of Fort Lauderdale via Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas for a relaxing 6 day adventure.

Grand Cayman Island

Costa Maya, Mexico 

Cozumel, Mexico

I lounged A LOT, got a lot of sun, played a lot of trivia , ate a lot of food and read a lot of (3) books!

Then I spent Christmas with my favorite niece, June!

We snuggled a lot...

Since then, I have visited some friends, met a lot of babies, watched TV, run and will be enjoying a low key New Years! Get ready for my year end book list coming tomorrow!

ACES 2015 in Philadelphia

I spent last Thursday through Saturday in Philadelphia for the Association for Counselor Education & Supervision (ACES) Conference!

This was my first time in Philly, and my first time presenting at a conference. We stayed at the Downtown Marriott near the Convention Center (which was a great location), and I was able to explore a good part of the city. The conference itself was overwhelming (sooooo many sessions!), but I enjoyed meeting new people and having a few days of professional development. I haven't made my mind up about my thoughts on Philadelphia yet because there were things I liked and didn't like about it, but I would definitely go back to see more museums.

Liberty Bell!

Liberty Hall where Continental Congress occurred.

View of city from Lincoln Square.

Lincoln Square

Reading Market- really cool and right across from our hotel!

City Hall

A Frosty at the train station- I had 20 miles the next day!

I also did a nice run along a trail by the river on Friday morning that went by the art museum and Boathouse row- I wish I could have explored it more by bike! Philly has a lot of very historic buildings in the midst of all the newer skyscrapers, so I would love to learn more about the history of the city for another visit. I really enjoy cities, so I can honestly see myself living in a number of them, but Philly has a different feel to it which is why I can't put my finger on my thoughts about it exactly. 

It was a good end of the week and all the traveling went smoothly- love the train:) Hope your weekend was great!

I'm Alive! And I did more traveling...

Hey there! How has August been going for you? I, once again, after a week and a half of actually working and doing normal life things, went away again for ten days! I just can't sit still in the summer:)

I went on an impromptu trip to NYC the first weekend of August to visit my friend Jessica, who is getting married later this month, because I had to miss her Bachelorette due to being in Alaska!

I took the train from Richmond-> NYC, which is about 6 hours and includes a pit stop in Union Station (D.C.) where we have enough time to get off and walk around. I love D.C.!

Right when I got to NYC, I saw that Gotham was filming by my friend's apartment! No celeb sightings, but it was very cool to see the set and this cool car. She lives right by Wall Street.

Amongst other things, we went and visited the new World Trade Center building and memorial. It was very moving and a completely different site from when I first visited in April 2002.

We had an awesome dinner for restaurant week at Park Ave Summer and saw this nice sunset with our drinks afterwards:)

On Saturday, after a great morning run along lower Manhattan (I haven't been to the financial area in a while, so it was fun to stay down there and explore-> she just moved there), we explored Brooklyn for the first time! We walked around and went to a great pizza place.

I got home from NYC on a Sunday night and headed to Duck (Outer Banks) the next morning! It was my dad's birthday! He celebrated like a boss.

The weather all week was perfect- low humidity and sunny. Such a nice treat for August! AND I got in all my training runs, including a 16-miler!

My friend and her kiddos came to visit for a few days:) We loved on baby Everett!

Friends for over 10 years!

We also did puzzles! Took us 3 days with 5 people contributing...

These sunsets over the sound NEVER get old...

 SERIOUSLY. I can't even.

I am coming to grips with the fact that my big summer travels are over, but I am trying to be optimistic about some fun weekend getaways and school getting underway. Classes at VCU start this week and teachers come back to work soon, so things will be back in full swing, which I am excited about. To me summer is all about traveling, so working has been hard, but once fall rolls around, I tend to enjoy normal life stuff a little more. I am looking forward to cooler weather on the horizon, too, and not having to do long training runs on my own:) Doing a 12, 14 and 16 miler without a training team was not as fun!

What have you been up to?! 

Seattle

We got off our cruise ship at 8 am and immediately went sight seeing in Seattle! We were there until 10 PM the following day when our red eye left, so we had time to explore the way we love best- by foot!  These pictures are in a random order, so I apologize!

I obviously had to get Starbucks!

The first Starbucks! Obviously, I waited in line to get some:)

We also did a Seattle underground tour that went through the original city streets which were at sea level before a big fire happened in the late 19th century. It was very interesting! We explored most of the city but not as much of the northern areas, so I would have liked another half day to do that or have had someone show us around. Seattle is not my favorite city ever- I really liked Vancouver the best- but I do love the west coast lifestyle. The weather, scenery, and mentality is so nice. Maybe someday I will head out that way:)

So I am officially done with the posts about our trip! It was 12 days of fun, and I am already planning my next trip. I am so grateful to be able to travel, because it really does fuel me. I never come home tired- I come home exhilarated! What a wonderful world we live in!

Where should I go next?