2015 Month By Month

January

2015 began in New York City and kicked off a year of adventure, travel, and great discoveries about myself. I returned home to Portland and spent the month soul-searching about the year ahead - what I wanted to do, where I wanted to live, and my goals for health and finances. Little did I know that the year would reveal much more about me than I was prepared for.

February

My job with TNT kept me traveling back and forth between Portland and Boise. I was able to spend time with my family while keeping myself planted in Portland. It was the perfect blend of calling the PNW home while spending time with my family, and earning Alaska Airline miles.

March

Starting the end of December, I had been working on fitness and weight loss. I steadily lost weight and increased my time outdoors over the months. I had the opportunity to meet up with friends and family for hikes, and enjoyed many good conversations in the great outdoors.

April

April was full of travel - Boise, Cannon Beach, Palm Springs, Saddle Mountain, Opal Creek, and Seattle. April was possibly my favorite month of 2015.

May

May began my crazy travel for work season. I enjoyed a long weekend at Disneyland with a great group of heroes and cheered on the Boise team through the heart of the city. I also spent time in Long Beach with family, and, of course, visited Cannon Beach too.

June

A bittersweet month. I wrapped up my time at TNT with a trip to Lake Tahoe with my cycle family. I was sad to leave TNT, but excited to be starting my new job as the Marketing Manager at CCA. With true optimism, I thought the career change would bring the best opportunities and be the start of a new life in Portland. Little did I know it was the beginning of the end.

July

The height of summer - concerts, beach trips, hikes... the best things in life all enjoyed with good friends.

August

Started training for a half marathon, saw "Wicked," caught up with friends from Australia, photographed many families, found the best apartment in Portland, visited the coast... so many good things in August.

September

Generally speaking, September is my favorite month of the year. Fall arrives, my birthday is celebrated, and the leaves begin to change. This year September was tough for me. Things had been difficult at work for a few months, and it came to a head in September. I had the flu on my birthday, and plans fell through for any celebration. I had plans for the second New York trip of the year in Oct though, and in September I received my tickets to see Jimmy Fallon, and my nephew was born on the 25th... so it wasn't all bad.

October

There are few places I've loved more than NYC. 

Strike that. 

There's no place I've loved more than NYC.

The skyline, the culture, the chaos... I love it all and itch to go back. As often as possible.

I enjoyed 4 glorious days in New York in October, quit my (horrible) job, and ended the month with the hardest news I've received to date and headed to Palm Springs. October brought the highest highs and lowest lows of 2015.

November

My niece officially turned seven, and I officially feel old. I started and quit my job as a nanny, and decided my life was leading me to another big change. I didn't think I was ready to make this big decision yet, but I proved myself wrong and began the process of moving back to Idaho.

December

December was a month of saying goodbye to Portland and the many amazing friends I had made there. I fit in 3 more trips - San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Seattle - and spent a day at the coast, making memories. The month was emotional, and difficult, but overall I knew I had made the right decision in choosing to head back to Idaho. 

2015 was a year of change, growth, adventure, and self discovery. It was a year of top experiences and low emotions, and all have led to many great things. 

I look forward to discovering all 2016 has in store for me.

Five Amazing Days in NYC

In October I spent five fun-filled days in my favorite city. The trip was originally planned around completing my 4th half marathon with Team in Training, but I was battling bronchitis and wasn't cleared by the doctor to complete the 13.1 miles; however, that didn't stop me from sightseeing and exploring!

Friday - Day 1

Friday started with Pearl (my travel buddy) and I grabbing coffee and a bagel and heading to Brooklyn Bridge Park where we could enjoy our breakfast with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline. Since we were staying in Brooklyn this time, we decided to dedicate our day to exploring this great borough. 

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge (my personal favorite), found delicious pizza for lunch, walked around Brooklyn Heights, and checked out some local street art. We also stopped by the Brooklyn Rock n' Roll marathon expo to get Pearl all checked in and ready for her event the next morning.

That evening we joined the rest of the team for the Inspiration Dinner and then headed back to Brooklyn to turn in early since we had to be up at 5 am the next day for the event. 

Saturday - Day 2

Saturday started off with an early morning at Prospect Park for the Brooklyn Rock n' Roll half marathon. As I stated earlier, I wasn't cleared by doctor for the run, so I spent my time cheering on the sidelines. This was Pearl's first endurance event and I was so proud to be cheering her on! She rocked it!

After the event Pearl was (understandably) tired and needed to recuperate a bit, so I headed out to explore a bit of Manhattan on my own.  I started in the South Street Seaport first, heading to TKTS to get tickets to a Broadway show for Sunday.

The view of One World Trade Center from the streets of the financial district never gets old. It's such a beautiful and prominent structure.

After securing tickets to Les Miz (hello bucketlist!) I spent a couple hours wandering the stacks of Strand Bookstore in Union Square. Whenever I travel my preferred souvenir is a book or two. It's a great way to spend money on something I would mostly likely spend it on anyway and it's fun to look at my bookcase and remember where I picked each title up.  

After choosing two titles, I wandered a few blocks south to visit the Flatiron Building. The sun was just starting to set and the lighting was gorgeous! Next to the building is one of my favorite parks, Madison Square Park, and I sat on a bench people watching for a bit while a jazz band played in the distance. It was movie-quality perfect!

After wandering a bit more, I met up with Pearl to see a movie. We were hoping to see "Steve Jobs" since it was released early in NYC, but all the showings were sold out, so we opted for "Pan" instead. We were pleasantly surprised! The movie was great, and I'll definitely be seeing it again!

Sunday - Day 3

Sunday began as all Sundays should begin... with a mimosa brunch. When Hannah and I traveled to NYC last December/January we stumbled into a great little restaurant called The Harold. When Pearl and I found ourselves wandering 34th street and hungry, I knew we needed to head straight for The Harold, and we were not disappointed.

After pleasantly filling our bellies, Pearl headed for a local pub to watch the Seahawks play (her version of the perfect afternoon) and I headed for the Imperial Theater to see Les Miserables (my version of the perfect afternoon)!

I happened to snag GREAT seats in the third row and cried through the entire production. It was beautiful beyond belief, and honestly words do not do it justice. It is a show that must be seen and demands to be experienced. 

After the show I called my best friend, Richard - the only person I know who would truly understand my reaction to Les Mis - and then wandered around Columbus Circle a bit. I was in a weird emotional state and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next when an idea popped into my head - why not see a second show?!

I learned about Something Rotten when it was still in pre-production and instantly fell in love with the premise. It's an original musical set in the Renaissance with a modern twist. It's tongue-and-cheek about Shakespeare and this 'new' notion in the theater world of a 'musical.' It's pretty popular, so the chances of me scoring cheap tickets weren't super high, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. 

So I headed to the theater, got in line, and scored tickets at 7:15 for the 7:30 showtime!  My seats weren't great (I sat in the balcony behind a group of students who wouldn't sit still and talked throughout the whole thing) but it was amazing regardless! I laughed so hard and LOVED it. I actually downloaded the music as soon as the show was over and have been listening to it on repeat ever since.

Pearl was a great friend and waited patiently outside the theater with me to get my Playbill signed. All the actors were so friendly and some even did silly little impromptu song and dances for us. When the actor who played Shakespeare came out I may, or may not, have giggled like a school girl. I asked him if we could take a picture and he said, "hell yeah, selfie it up girl!" *Swoon

Monday - Day 4

Day 4 - otherwise know as THE DAY I SAW JIMMY FALLON!!!

Let me start by saying, yes, he is just as nice and handsome in person as he appears to be on TV. In fact, if it's possible, he's even more handsome in person.

We started the day wandering around Bryant Park a bit enjoying the fall colors. Full discretion (and a bit of TMI): being sick and on meds the entire time we were there was causing my system to be out of whack a bit and I found myself getting motion sick quite easily. After riding the subway for about an hour in from Brooklyn, I needed to find a spot to sit and let my stomach settle. After about 20 minutes I noticed my right thigh was itching, and within another 5 minutes both my right and left legs were quite itchy. I sought out a bathroom in a nearby coffee shop to see what was up with my legs. I was wearing a dress with tights and as I pulled them down I noticed HUGE red welts spanning both legs. My fear was that a bug or spider had bit me, so I shook out my tights (nothing there that I could see), put them back on, ran out to find Pearl, and told her we needed to find a CVS asap.

Long story short, I think the culprit was hives (don't have a clue as to why I had them) and the walking around looking for a CVS seemed to be long enough to have them start to subside. Pearl was so gracious and asked if I was more comfortable heading back to Brooklyn and missing Fallon, but I quickly responded with, "hell no, I'll sit through Fallon with itchy legs, nothing's keeping me from seeing this taping!"

About 30 minutes later the hives seemed to have cleared and it was time to check in for the taping. I was so excited to start the process that my mind was completely off the itching, thank God!

Once you check in there is absolutely NO photography allowed. There are interns and NBC employees walking around and answering questions and often reminding you to not take out your phones. Security is a serious subject in the studio. They were so nice and fun to chat with though, and the whole process was quite fascinating to me. 

My favorite part of the whole experience was having the behind-the-scenes look at the taping of an episode. It's such a well-rehearsed, smooth process and watching the camera men, production crew, hair and makeup, etc. do their thing and rock it was so neat! I had a difficult time remembering to watch Jimmy and his guests because I was more interested in watching the production crew and camera men! 

After the show ends they escort groups of 15 at a time out of the studio, down the elevators and through a back door entrance of the Experience NBC Store. They definitely have that "enjoy the show? Great spend money" process down.

After we each spent a little lot of money in the store, Pearl and I wandered around Rockefeller Center a bit more. It's a beautiful building filled with all kinds of shops and studios.

After our exploring we grabbed an Uber and headed to our dinner reservations at The Writing Room.

My birthday was back in September, but between being ill, crazy busy at work, and making travel plans, I hadn't officially celebrated yet. Pearl and I decided to have my "birthday dinner" in NYC, and after much research I settled on The Writing Room in the Upper Eastside.

Oh man, this restaurant did not disappoint! If you ever find yourself in Manhattan and want a delicious meal with great ambiance and fun servers, check out The Writing Room!

Tuesday - Day 5

Our final day in NYC.

My friend Tam had joined us at our Airbnb the night before. It was fun to catch up with her and hear about her own adventures in the big city. When we woke in the morning the three of us headed to the cute little coffee shop around the corner and said our goodbyes to the city.

As we crossed over the street, I noticed a heart in the concrete that I hadn't seen before. I'm sure we walked passed it every day we were there, but noticing it on our last morning seemed like a sign to me. We took a picture of our feet with it, loaded up our luggage into the Uber car, and headed for JFK.

This second trip to NYC was a great one. It was a completely different experience from my first, and I can't wait to go back and have yet another new experience in what I've come to realize, is my favorite city in the world.

A Manhattan Love Story | Day 12

Day 12... the final day.

This has been the most difficult day for me to blog.  Somehow writing about it feels like I'm leaving all over again.  There has only been one other time I've experienced intense homesickness leaving a place where I did not actually live, and the previous time I moved there within a few months.

Our flight wasn't until 8:00 that evening, so we had most of the day to bum around the city and see more sights.  We didn't have an agenda, but we hadn't had the opportunity to walk around Central Park yet, so that was the direction we headed.

We started on the Upper Westside and came across a few cool buildings, including a beautiful fire station.

After ducking into an adorable French bistro with an adorable French waiter and enjoying a light lunch, we wandered out to find the Museum of Natural History.  Neither of us were drawn to pay the entry price and see the exhibits inside, but we enjoyed the outside exhibits for a bit.  I'll definitely be making all the museums a priority the next time I visit NYC.

I loved all the words written on the wall outside and couldn't help taking a photo with the word "humanitarian."

This statue of Teddy is beautiful.  I couldn't help but get a little sad about Robin Williams while looking at it.  He played a great Teddy in the Night at the Museum movies.

A friend had posted on my Facebook earlier in the day to not think of it as though I was saying "goodbye" to the streets of New York, but simply "see you later."  So I said "see you later" a few times as we wandered around to the beautiful buildings, street signs and yellow cabs.  I may or may not have shed a few tears while doing so.

Ahhhh, Central Park.  It was beautiful and serene.  A little escape from the city chaos, and I can absolutely understand why New Yorkers love it.  As beautiful as it was, I couldn't help think about how exciting it would be to visit during the spring or fall.  I can't wait to see the park full of trees and color!

Central Park is rather large and hosts quite a few things to see and do, so we dedicated our time to seeing the Shakespeare Gardens and amphitheater, because... Shakespeare.

After enjoying the park and walking to the Upper East Side to see the MoMa, MET and Guggenheim, we headed back toward our hotel in Midtown to gather our things and begin the journey to the airport.  I felt the need to slow down time just a bit more, so we stopped in for a latte and cinnamon treat at an adorable cafe in Korea Town first.  It was the best way to spend my last bit of free time in the city.

We gathered our things from the hotel, I said farewell to the city for the last time, and we headed down the stairs to grab the E train toward JFK.

As we rode the airtrain into the terminal the sun began to set over the city on the horizon.  I thought back over the last 12 days and smiled knowing it wasn't the last time I'd see that skyline.

A Manhattan Love Story | Day 11

Day 11 started with us packing up all our items and heading to a hotel in midtown.  The couple we were housesitting for were headed home that day so they could be at work the next day, and we needed to vacate the premises for them.  So we packed up, cleaned up and headed out to catch a bus. 

It was our first time taking the bus since the Subway was so handy, but we decided to take a bus this time so we could see Manhattan as we drove south rather than just the inside of the subway train.  We quickly realized that there was a very good reason to continue taking the subway.  The bus was, well, slow.

But the city was covered in a thick layer of fog and it was beautiful to see it roll (and I do mean roll) by.

Somewhere up there is the top of the Empire State Building.  Even standing as close as possible to the base of the building, you couldn't see the top.  It was pretty cool!

After checking into the hotel and grabbing a bite to eat we headed out to a close-by laundromat.

I know, we live the high life.  Try not to be jealous.

The condo we had been staying at had a broken washer so we hadn't had the opportunity to do any laundry and after 11 days, it was time to freshen things up.

After the exciting laundry we took our things back to the hotel and got ready for our last (sniff) night in NYC.  We were staying in the heart of midtown and decided to stick close to the hotel.  Right outside I looked up to find that the fog had lifted and the Empire was now showing off with all her pretty lights.

We stumbled upon a fun little pub that spoke to us and enjoyed a great dinner with a few drinks while we reminisced on our time in New York.

It was a low key day full of bittersweet feelings.  We were both ready to sleep in our beds again, and Hannah (who had been away from home longer than me with her pre-New York stay in Portland) was ready to be home and back to her routine.  But I was NOT ready to leave.  I had completely fallen head-over-heels with NYC and the energy of the city by this time and the thought of leaving nearly had me in tears just thinking about it.

Oh, and did I mention that our hotel in midtown (which only cost $99 that night) had this view:

Yup, New York was pulling out all the stops and trying to convince me to stay.