A New Adventure | Peaches Prattlings

{March 15, 2017} It took how long?

Flight…fine, pick up… fine, drive… not fine.

I landed about 30 minutes late, we taxied for a while, due to the show, which covered the runways, understandable. I had arranged with my taxi driver to pick me up, I was supposed to land at 630am, he would pick me up at 7, take me to the hotel, I would get an hour of sleep or at least a shower, then take me to the client site by 9am.

Big snowstorms in Chicago over the weekend gummed up that plan…

I landed about 7am, was in the car by 745, I had to get my luggage, then the taxi monitor had to call him, he was waiting in a lot.

Then…I got in the taxi and we were off. We were going 38 miles, should only take about an hour, maybe a little less.

THREE HOURS! Yes, you read right, three hours!

There was snow and bad traffic on the highway. GPS originally said just under two hours. I emailed my lead and the office I was going to, let them know I was going to be late, I should be there by 10am.

After about an hour, I told my driver I was going to take a nap. I woke up just before we got to the office, three hours total!

It was alright because everyone was running late, I still felt terrible! Got a lot accomplished in the short time I was there.

Best part…what a nap!

{March 14, 2017} Happy first birthday!!!

March 13, 2017, someone turned one!

My beautiful, smart, silly, fearless, curious, adventurous, happy granddaughter, Baby EB, turned one today!

Oh, how I wish I could show you a picture of her sweet little face! She is a wonder! Every day holds new wonders, excitement, joys, experiences, curiosity and so much more.

Each time i get to see her it’s a new experience, there is something new and exciting that she just learned or discovered.

I can’t wait to see where the next year and the next and the next takes her.

Happy birthday Baby EB. JJ sends love, hugs and kisses for your first birthday!

{March 13, 2017} What a weekend!

Paddle boarding, swap meet, visits, oh my!

You know my weekends are not sit around and do nothing, right? This was no different!

Friday was my second travel day, made it home, very exciting, laundry, straighten up, get ready for visitors, weehoo! Well, there was the dinner date with my honey, that was a Wahoo! We went for pho and then dessert a few doors down, closed them both!

Saturday morning cane early, with an alarm, boo. But… for a good reason! Something we have been talking about for a while and I surprised PSM with SUP lessons, Stand Up Paddle board lessons! The funny part…I ruined his surprise! He got us lessons as well, just hasn’t booked them yet! Sorry!

We headed into Honolulu to Ala Moana Beach to meet our awesome instructor Eva. We had a fifteen/ twenty minute lesson on the beach and a half wall, some stuff stuck, the rest came back when we went into the water.

It took a second, but we mastered it! Not experts ready to try out for the x-games, but we got the hang of it, enough that we went out and purchased a set of paddle boards for each of us! I think we’ll be doing this together every weekend I’m home and I think PSM will be spending some weekends practicing and leaving me in his wake! I’m hoping to find dime places i can do it on the mainland!

We had so much fun on the water, practicing falling, getting back on the board, turning, seeing sea turtles, they came by, stuck their heads up, said hi and then left, it was great! Some of them were huge!

After our fabulous experience, we were hungry! Off to a new place for breakfast, Egghead Cafe, really good breakfast. I had an avo-corn and egg sandwich with garlic aioli, yum! PSM had a pancake bacon,egg and cheese sandwich, he said yum. We shared the three pancake sampler, there were bananas, macadamia nuts, green tea, ice cream, red beans, so much…yum!

We then left to do some research into buying stand up paddle boards, went to a few places, left to do some thinking and went to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, http://www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net/content/home.aspx. 
This is an Oahu staple, three days a week its where you can find everything from trash to treasure. We bought Hydro Flasks, they keep your drinks hot or cold for hours, even days. I wouldn’t have believed it if i hadn’t tried it! Love!

Annie got an upgrad on her seat covers, these actually stay on because there is a separate head rest covert, who knew! PSM got some for his truck too. The best part, water resistant!

After the swap meat, we made a decision…Blue Planet, http://blueplanetsurf.com/, to buy our stand up paddle boards. We got boards, fins and leashes, it was a great package and they’re good boards. Because we bought two, we got tape they put on that will help protect the edge from the paddle, they ever threw in company logo stickers for the boards, looks awesome!

John was a great salesperson and help with installing the stickers, tape and helped PSM strap the boards to the roof.

We went home and got some dinner, tonight was Raman at one of our favorite places, shower, turn around and head back to the airport to pick up PSM’s aunt and uncle coming for a visit.

We got back to the house, visited for a bit, then bed, it was almost 1130 by now!

Woke up this morning, went to one of out favorite breakfast places, My Cafe, induced the family to malasada pancakes! Y U M!

Back to the house to pack and they headed to the airport to go to Kuai for the week, I was bummed not to be able to join them.. next time. I headed out to Honolulu to see TS!!! She was in Hawaii for the week with her daughter,KS and friend, M. How fabulous! We had lunch, caught up and they told me all about their fabulous time in Oahu and Maui, great trip! So great to see them!!!

I saw them off to the airport, went to the beach for a few hours and found my way home, without gps!

Then it was hanging out with Mollie, we’re talking about going to the beach in the morning for a few hours before I have to leave for Chicago.

Another fabulous weekend at home, too short, but fabulous! Can’t wait for the next one… next month!

{March 12, 2017} It’s daylight savings… check this out!

Now, our day was full, but this is too cool.

We were at the airport waiting for PSM’s aunt and uncle to land and we looked at the clock. We were doing some calculations that didn’t seem to be working out when I remembered that daylight savings happened today at 2am.

Something to keep in mind, if you didn’t already know, Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight savings like the rest of the country. There are several states that don’t.

As we’re looking at the clock, it’s too cool because parts of the country still haven’t changed yet.

During the winter, Hawaii is five hours behind the east coast, three behind central, three behind mountain and two behind the west coast. During the summer, east coast is six hours ahead, central is five hours ahead, mountain and west coast will be four ahead.

The cool thing is watching as the time changes in the different time zones eventually. When you know off the top of your head what it should be, but it hasn’t hit 2am everywhere, it’s confusing! Hey, if you don’t know it to begin with, oh brother.

It was ten pm when we looked at the clock and watching as the time changed across the country. East coast and central had already changed to six and five hours ahead because it was after midnight.

By the time we wake up, mountain will be four ahead and west coast will be three and we’ll be set for another six months until we have to figure it out again!

{March 10, 2017} New friends and vouchers

Today’s travel was pretty good. And profitable.

Today I’m flying home! That’s the best part. My flight from Chicago to was simple enough, we left a little late, but I knew I’d still make my connection in San Francisco.

The guy that sat next to me was very nice, turns out our last names are the same except for one letter, go figure. He’s from Chicago and doesn’t really like to fly and thanked me when we landed, for helping him get thru the flight. He made my flight entertaining, he was a character! So thank you!

I got to San Francisco and eventually made it to the gate and i hear them calling my name, uh oh! Turns out they wanted to see if i would move over one seat, sure.

Then they made an announcement that they were looking for people to volunteer to give up their seats because there was a weight issue, the plane was zaftig.

I called PSM and asked for his opinion. $400 and a seat on the first flight out in the morning. As it was, I wasn’t getting to Hawaii until 1045pm, hmmm…ok, why not, they may not select me.

They did tell me not to put the compensation amount as they would put the highest number on it. Ok.

They kept calling for volunteers, they needed eight. Then…20 minutes later, they announced the gate change, we needed a new plane. Great… there was a couple frm Alabama who had missed their 7am flight, they were supposed to be in Hawaii at 4pm, its now 715pm in California, ouch.

We all get up and make our way over yo the new gate, I made some friends along the way, an older guy from The Big Island, a young guy from Dalton, GA, and a mom with her three month old from Philly.

Then, we had to sit there and wait until the new plane arrived, now my flight would get in to Honolulu at 1244am, glad i made my decision to volunteer.

My new friends and i talked and enjoyed each other’s company until it was time for them to board. Also listening to their pleas for volunteers, “we need five more volunteers”, that went on for what seemed like forever! But… the amount for the voucher kept going up…

Finally the other plane left and we just had to sit there for a few more minutes and then they called us up one by one to give us our stuff.

I ended up with $30 in food vouchers, a hotel voucher and $800 towards a future flight, not too shabby.

But… my luggage is still going to Hawaii, huh? Didn’t someone explain that to you? No…

Oh well. So, I’m sitting here in the Comfort Inn Suites near the San Francisco airport, the alarm is set for 5am so i can catch my 719am flight to Honolulu, in my economy seat, did I mention I gave up a first class seat? Well, if it happened once, it will happen again, I’m sure.

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

{March 6, 2017} First run of the season…ahhh

I arrived in Denver late Friday, drove up to Silverthorne, where I was staying for the weekend.

The nice thing this time, I was joined by some friends. Last weekend I got to hang out with my friend APM, this weekend, his wife, NLM and their seven year ood daughter, ALM. They were already in the room asleep, best part… they brought my skis with them!

We got up Saturday morning, went for breakfast, caught up and then got dressed and headed out to hit the slopes at Keystone. I’m a skier and they are both riders, snowboarders, see…the two can get along!

ALM had never been on a gondola, she was a little nervous and after… didn’t want to go up the mountain ant other way!

We got to the top and picked a green circle, I was fine with this since it was a year since I’d skiied and wanted to get a feel for things again, they wanted it because ALM is still learning and this was a family/ learning trail.

We had a great time, there was stopping and starting intentionally and unintentionally, falling, learning, tumbles. We stopped after msking it down once for some hot cocoa and a treat, back up for another run.

It was great watching them together, I’m looking forward to trying a snowboard next year and NLM being my instructor!

At one point ALM said it was time for private lessons. That meant me, then her mom, then me. She would tell us what she wanted us to do, she said copy me, unless I fall, the don’t copy me! Sounds good!

After the second run, we were done, this had taken a good chunk of the day. We headed to the shuttle, back to the car, then the hotel. We regrouped, went to get some dinner at Whole Foods, back to the room for showers, dinner and a movie. We ended sacking out pretty early, a full day on the slopes can do that to ya!

This morning, breakfast, packing and they headed out for home and I went back to Keystone for a few runs, back to the hotel, shower, off to Boulder for an errand, traffic was ridiculous! Drop off my skis, say hello and goodbye and then to the airport.

Now I’m back in Chicago ready for a new week. Fabulous weekend!

{March 3, 2017} Reza’s… another great new restaurant!

Well, new to me anyway.

I met with WIS, a friend I met on this project in Chicago, at Reza’s, a really good Mediteran and Persian restaurant in the Andersonville neighborhood.

It was a nice, open space with an enclosed patio that doubles as more restaurant space. If you go while it’s cold, be aware that you have to go through this patio to get to the restrooms, which were equally freezing!

The space was nice and welcoming with brick walls and original artwork. Next time I’ll take pictures of the pictures. The menu was very vegan friendly, lots of great appetizers, which were also on one of the vegetarian plates, we were sold!

We asked the waiter if he thought it would be too much food… no, I have many customers who order those two dishes. Sure… only 2 people?! We each had lentil soup, which was great, it could have used a little something to thicken it up, but very tasty.

Then we got our fatoush salad, one of my favorites, but this could have been a main meal! It was delicious, so happy about that. I say that because there are places that just don’t know how to make it… and it’s not that complicated! No, I haven’t made it, I found others who do it so well! Ha ha

Then we ordered a plate that had five appetizers, hummus, banaganoush, falafel with pomegranate remoulade, Persian salad and eggplant steak, wow!

The other plate was called Vegetarian Feast and oh my! Cous-cous with eggplant, zucchini, roasted peppers, tomatoes, topped with almonds, raisins and feta.

I topped it off with hot Persian tea and we were set!

This is a great restaurant with a nice ambiance, I recommend it. And the price is right too! And guess who has lunch for tomorrow!

{February 28, 2017} Ristorante Merlo

Fabulous!

Tonight I asked at the front desk for a recommendation for dinner and I was given Ristorante Merlo. I know, you want to add a t to the end of it!

This restaurant is in a house set on the street amongst larger buildings, slightly hidden in its own way, one of those places that unless you know you’re looking for it, you miss it.

I walked in, no reservation and was taken downstairs past a bar and dining room with banquet seating, less intimate. Downstairs it looked like a place for a nice romantic dinner, family gathering, more intimate, like you might be with family.

There were only about eight or ten tables in the room

They sat me at a corner table and for about twenty minutes, I was alone in the place, a little weird, but I had my server’s attention and he was prepared to make my experience special.

It is not a vegan restaurant, but they accomdated me. I had the minestrone and it was fabulous, the broth was wonderful and the vegetables were barely cooked, nice and crisp. Then the pasta came out, tagliatel, spinach, asparagus, garlic and olive oil, really nice and flavorful; I didn’t even have to add salt, lovely. It was on the al dente side, because it was fresh that day, love it! What I liked was the portion size, appropriate, not too much.

The bread basket had fresh, crisp, flavorful foccaccia and crisps that were actually flash fried fresh pasta, that didn’t taste like pasta, it was great!

I had really nice dinner, can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds!

{February 27, 2017} What a weekend!

This weekend was great!

I flew to Denver Friday evening and checked into the only hotel I’ve stayed in since I moved from Denver. It’s a nice Homewood Suites in the center of the city with easy access to restaurants, nightlife, museums, the highways to get to the mountains and anywhere else you want to go.

I got to the hotel, had to get some work done and eventually got some sleep. I set the alarm, but that snooze button is too tempting. The phone woke me up, oops. I got up and headed to the airport because I was picking up my honey!!!

PSM is going to a meeting in Iowa this coming week and needed a place for a layover and Denver was one of those options and decided to make it a weekend, so here we are! Together!

We went back to the hotel and met his mom’s cousin and her husband for breakfast, a very nice couple who have lived in Denver for over thirty years. We had a really nice time getting to know each other, hearing stories about PSM’s family and PSM as a little kid.

After breakfast, it was time for a little break and some rest, after a bit PSM got up and prepped for his presentation next week.

Later we headed out into the city and ended up at a Machete for dinner, PSM was craving what we can’t really get in Hawaii, Mexican food. It was a noisy, energetic, eclectic restaurant with an impressive list of tequilas, someone was happy!

We were meeting APM, someone I’ve been friends with since high school, we met in youth group. Thursday and now Saturday, friends from youth group, fabulous! I also found out that his middle name is PSM’s first make, go figure!

After dinner we walked around, got some coffee and tea for a minute then wentb to another bar to hang out a bit longer, then on to the hotel and closing the blackout curtains, we were sleeping in!

Sunday brought a sleep in, brunch, a little more practice and then a tour of Boulder. It was nice to be in a place that I love together.

Then off to the airport, our flights were ably the same time, he walked me to my gate, we got to spend a little more time together and we realized that this would be a good place to meet for a weekend, easy for us both to get to, sweet!

Then I was off to Chicago and PSM is off to Iowa. I’ll be in Hawaii in a few weeks to see him again and we have a plan for my April trip! Wahoo!

Have a great night!

{February 24, 2017} A blast from the past

Thursday night brought a real treat!

I got to see a blast from my past. JM is someone I was in youth group with when I was in high school.

We lost touch after high school, as so many do and then reconnected through Facebook. I saw that he was traveling to Chicago on Monday and I reached out.

I was teaching and be had plans but had a window before going to see Hamilton. That changed a bit and we ended up meeting after the show. My hotel was just a few blocks away and it was like time had stopped. He looks the same, a little less on top, but the same face, smile, sense of humor and good nature.

We walked to the Palmer House to get a drink and sat and talked about everything. Hamilton, theater, musicals, literature, marriage, kids, movies, family, life, work, you tube, holidays, games, geeks, travel. Yup, I think that about covers it.

About 1am we were both starting to get a little woogie so he went off to his home base for the evening and I walked back to the hotel and boy, I’ve never seen State Street deserted before!

When we were talking, it felt like we had just seen each other a few weeks ago, how fabulous!

We parted company with the promise to keep in touch, I’m looking forward to that.

Such a treat.

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