Travel | Peaches Prattlings

{January 14, 2018} First run of the season…ahhhh

I so love Colorado! And swishing and swooshing!

For those of you not in the know, that means I went skiing for the first time this season today. I got in to Denver last night, got my skis from A&N M, hung out of a bit and then drove up to Breckenridge, CO.

I am staying at the Doubletree hotel, which is ski-in/ski-out. What that means is that you literally walk out the door, put on your skis and ski down to the chair lift and then when you’re done for the day or ready for a break, you ski down the slope, take off your skis and walk into the hotel, not too shabby, huh? I got spoiled staying at a ski-in/ski-out a few years ago and I’ve loved it ever since.

The only hard part is remembering which run takes you back to your hotel! Sometimes I have to take extra runs to figure it out!

I got up leisurely, it was nice to sleep to 8am, then I got some breakfast, back to the room to pile on the ski gear and head to the valet who had my skis. After I got my skis, I walked across the street, put on my skis and woosh.

Since this was the first good weekend for skiing and a holiday weekend, it was a bit crazy on the chair lifts. The runs weren’t too crowded, just the lines to go up were long. I think I waited almost 10 minutes each time, normally you don’t wait more than 5 or 6. They haven’t gotten a lot of snow this season so far, last night 13″, not too shabby!

I got to the top, put on some tunes and away I went! It was a beautiful, crisp, sunny day and the snow started, a light flurry. Ah…

I did a few runs, and it was a few because of the time waiting to go up. After a few hours, I went in, remember, ski to the hotel! I made a sandwiche, chilled out and then went back out, walked across the street and swoosh, swish for a few more hours, then I was done for the day.

As I said to myself “one more run and I’m done”, that trick a ski instructor gave me a few years ago, I see the run that goes by the hotel and I thought, “good deal, I’m done, let’s go”. I walked the skis to the valet and then into the hotel.

I went into the hotel, walked into the bar and saw a few minutes of the Eagles/Falcons game and ordered some brussel sprouts on the happy menu. The brussel sprouts and I headed up to the room to relax and talk to PSM

A few hours later I took a shower and then walked into town. It’s a nice 10 minute walk, the streets are covered in snow, it even started snowing while I was walking and then I joined the other folks strolling up and down Main Street Breckenridge, Colorado. The holiday lights are still up, warm and inviting and the air started to get chilly. Nice.

I went into a few shops and then I headed into my favorite pizza joint in town, it’s plant based, vegan and I love it! Piante, https://piantepizzeria.com/. I don’t know if you remember me telling you about this fabulous place. I sat at the bar, my server told me I was his first customer as a server, he usually just takes orders over the phone, he’ll be great at it.

I ordered bruschetta that had cherry tomatoes, cashew cheese and basil, yum! I then ordered the rosemary pizza that had cashew mozzarella, parmesan, truffle oil and let’s just say, y u m again!

I started talking with the chef, Wes, he remembered me from last year because we talked about the white pie which has arugula on it, which adds color, making it not a white pie!

I like the little touches; the open kitchen right on the other side of the bar, the books they have in their ‘library’ for anyone to read while they are there, bringing the check in a book, the ‘Greenbox” pizza box, where it’s perforated in four parts so that you can have your leftovers on an instant plate! It’s not a very big space, but it’s warm, inviting, friendly and cozy.

The Pats/Titans game was on and I was surrounded New Englanders, oh brother! And check out the t-shirt Wes was wearing! I talked to PSM a bit, he was at home watching and it’s cool, we’re only 3 hours apart while I’m here this weekend!

Then it was back to the hotel, relax and talk to you. Tomorrow I’m going to go out for a few runs, come back, pack up my stuff, the valet can put it in my car in the heated garage and then go back out for a few more runs, then back to A&N M’s to hang out, dinner and who knows what kind of trouble we’ll get in to!

At the moment, just loving looking out the window at the view from my room. Sigh.

Day 8

{January 13, 2018} Wow, I actually heard that!

Now, you know I have status with airlines and hotels and I use it to try to get extra fabulous on occasion, right?

The most I have ever done is ask at the front desk if there is any fabulous they can do for me and sometimes there is and sometimes there isn’t. I appreciate the times there are.

Now the airlines have been great automatically doing things, like upgrades, get my bags on the plane by the skin of their teeth.

But I have never pulled the “I’m a Diamond or Platinum whatever” to get something. The most I have ever done with that is said “I’m Diamond and I pretty much live in hotels and I want to point this out”. They try to give me points or whatever, I’m not looking for that, just to let them know someone isn’t living up to their standards.

Tonight, on my flight, I encountered ‘one of those’. The guy next to me did not like his, seat choice, apparently they didn’t recline. He said to the flight attendant, and I quote I am a 2 million mile flier and I expect…

Seriously? If he booked late like I did, these were the only seats available, at least he didn’t have to sit in the middle!

You know what I have to say… grow up!

Day 12

{January 11, 2018} Two different meals, two different friends, two great nights

Between yesterday and today, great food, great conversation, great friends. What more could you want? I have met and made some amazing friends through different jobs, you’ve heard me talk about ST, TS, JCT, RJS, they were from two different companies and now, in the last few years, you’ve heard me talk about DLP, HH, LJ, SH, LS, WIS, they are all from my current company, different projects, I have been super lucky and now I can add EDW! I know, I know, you really want faces with these name, or just names! Sorry! I knew I was going to be at one site on Wednesday so I reached out to EDW who I met at that site, and clicked with, to see if she was free for dinner, we had such a great time last week! Wednesday, I left one site and drove to meet her for dinner, on my way to my next hotel. We met Friaco’s Mexican restaurant, a place she really enjoys and as I think I’ve mentioned, you can’t get good Mexican food in Hawaii, so I’m always down for Mexican. Do you remember when SDL, Miss A and I went for Mexican food the night before we left for Mexico?! Friaco’s, https://friacosrestaurant.com/, was good. We had chips and guacamole, which I seem to crave a lot. We discussed how avocados are great, but when other people have them! I got into avocados and guacamole a few years ago and enjoy them when I go out to eat and when other people offer them to me, but when I buy one, it seems to sit there and go bad, could someone please explain this to me! Black bean soup and rice was just the thing, both cooked in water and the waitress was good, when she first brought the soup, I told her it was hot, which I had said I couldn’t do spicy, she said “how about another bowl without the pico”. Apparently when I tell people that black pepper is spicy, it does not compute! Oh well. After that, tasty, tasty, tasty! We talked travel, skiing, ski in and out places, Key West, Hawaii, work, families, food, working out, I think we covered the gamut! Yup, that sounds about right! Then, tonight, I went to meet SH at Amitabul, the Vegan Korean restaurant you may remember me telling you about last year, ha ha! that I went to with WIS. It was just as good as I remember it the last time! I like the atmosphere, it’s relaxed and comfortable and welcoming. One of the great things was that SH lives near the restaurant and orders from there all the time. Even better… she’s Korean and could explain a few things to me! As I’ve told you before, I love going to vegan restaurants because the one and only question I ever need to ask…’Is it spicy?” We had date tea, Energy pancakes, summer rolls, and we both had soup, ginormous bowls of soup with vegetables and noodles and mine had vegetable dumplings, oh my. Let’s just say, lunch tomorrow! It was a great time! We talked work, travel, family, what more could you want?! We both have some trips planned and ideas fur places to go and… we may even overlap in Hawaii! What’s are the odds?! So, good location, good food, great company, what more could you want!

Day 6

{January 10, 2018} Why does this not compute? My mouth is in fire!!!

I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but when it comes to spicy food, I’m a wimp!

Being on the road and vegan, sometimes it’s hard for me to find places to eat. At all. Most people have a common conception that certain nationalities are a sure bet, not so. A lot of people think ‘oh, Indian, you’ll be set!’ actually, not true. While there are some great options, but they love heavy cream, yogurt and cheese, let alone the meat, but that’s besides the point. Vegetarian, great, vegan, not so great. I digress.

Now, on the spice scale, I am a wimp. Some places listen, especially when I say ‘black pepper is spicy’, their reaction, ‘oh my!’ They thought I meant super hot stuff, no, black pepper is a good level to explain. You may think it’s just my taste buds, that are affected, but it’s more than that. I can’t process spicy food, I have gastritis and spicy food does nasty things to my system. There you go. Enough said.

So, you can see my dilemma.

Tonight, all the vegetarian or vegan options for restaurants that were near me were Indian and I do love Indian food, so that sounded lovely. When I got there, I was the only one there until a family showed up.

The waiter was great when I asked for recommendations based on telling him I was vegan. Unfortunately, my choices dwindled, but that’s alright. I found samosas, cauliflower and potato, rice, garlic naan and vegetable soup. I asked, as I went through each item was it spicy and the response was ‘how spicy would you like it?’ Not at all. No problem.

Um…Everything was very tasty, but my mouth is still on fire! It started with the samosas, oh my! Then the vegetable soup! I had to ask for sugar and when I said it was too spicy, he said “oh, maybe I’ll make another one not as spicy” What?! Now you get it?

The cauliflower and potato was quite tasty, not too spicy, whew! I’m glad there was rice, that helped! The naan was terrific! I promise, I enjoyed the entire meal, it was just a tad spicy, well, that’s an understatement! And my stomach is not too happy with me right now. Oh well, it was an experience!

Took the leftovers for lunch…will I be chancing it? Hmmm

Day 4

{January 8, 2018} Seriously?! Well, at least it traveled in style!

Remember last night when I said goodnight so I could get a few hours of sleep before I had to get up early for my flight.

Well…let’s just say 30 minutes is not enough! I could not sleep for all my trying, oh well, it happens. I got out of bed at 3:30am, out of the house by 4am and with no traffic, made it to the airport by 4:25am, got gas and then dropped off the car at Avis.

So…guess what I found in the back seat? A car seat! Seriously? Oh brother!

Well, no post office in the airport, so I guess it’s going with me! And since I have status, it went first class, nothing less for my girls accessories!

Day 3

{January 5, 2018} Nor’easter here I come…

Oh brother! I can’t catch a break!

Tonight, I flew from 8 degree Chicago, it had warmed up from the -2 when I woke up this morning, to 16 degree Boston. And by the time I wrote this, dropped to 8 degrees.

Apparently, I send out I love the cold vibe! My first project with my company, Michigan winter, then to Kentucky for summer, then Illinois for fall and beginning of winter, transfer to Buffalo for the remainder of the winter. Next was Boston for part of the winter, then spring, then back to Buffalo and then Chicago for the tail end of winter, then spring, summer, fall and full winter and then… wash, rinse, repeat.

And here we are at winter again. Either I have a penchant for winter or someone doesn’t want me to see the sun!

But… you know what happens when I get to my sister’s house, don’t you? Snuggles and hugs from EJS and MGS, so how warm will I be? Oh yeah!

{January 5, 2018} Hilton pulled it out again!

I don’t know if you know, but it’s a little cold around the country!

Where my dad is on Staten Island, it’s currently 19 degrees, Atlanta, where SDL and Miss A just landed today is 19 as well! Chicago is 5 degrees and where I am in Orland Park, Illinois, it is a big fat ZERO! Temperatures should have some numbers!!!

I got to my hotel yesterday morning and the heater was not heating, it was blowing cold, so I switched rooms. I set the temperature to about 85! Perfect! Tonight when I got back to the hotel, it was 1 degree out and the room was nice and toasty. But, alas, alack…brrrr both the living room and bedroom started blowing cold air, no!!!

I called down to the front desk and they told me how to fix it, using the fuse box and that worked on the living room, but the bedroom is still cold and instead of moving to another room, I thought I would sleep on the sofa.

The front desk called and offered to bring me a space heater and they did! And now, it’s toasting up the bedroom and I’ll be heading back in there in a minute. Go Hilton!

Sending you warm thoughts tonight!

{January 3, 2018} Nope, I want to go back!

It was in the mid 70’s when I left home yesterday and in the single digits when I landed in Chicago this morning. Just send me back!

When I was packing yesterday, I kept looking at all my long sleeve, warm clothing and then I’d pass by a mirror and see my shorts and t-shirts! Running around I almost started sweating!

I laughed with SDL when I showed her my parka and knew that this was my reality and vacation was almost over. Sigh…

I was wearing leggings and slippahs, it was fabulous. Got my bag and immediately put on my long socks, winter boots, scarf, hat, gloves and parka. Ok, ready to face the cold.

SDL isn’t leaving until later tonight, so she’s been sending pictures all day, not fair! It’s ok, I’m glad they’re enjoying Annie, the weather and the beach. Back to reality tomorrow.

And now it’s snowing. Winter is here, stay warm!

I wanna go home!

{December 31, 2017} Let’s get some culture on! Polynesian that is!

Today we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and it was grand!

Breakfast, lounging, showers, baths, dressed to kill and then…sit in traffic. Sigh…When you move to Hawaii, you must learn to ‘Drive with Aloha’ or you might commit murder! You can’t have a hurry up and go attitude because nothing happens that way in Hawaii! I saw the perfect shirt today “I’m not late, I’m on Island Time!” And it is so true!

We went towards the North Shore, it should have taken us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there, it actually took about two hours…welcome to Hawaii! On the North Shore, you have Turtle Bay and Shark Cove, think people are not going to stop there? Nope! The traffic happens when people are slowed down to look and try to find parking.

Eventually…we got through all that and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way, except for a slowpoke every once in a while. Then we were there! We got our reserved tickets and found some food for lunch and then went through the gates to Polynesia.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is in Laie, as I mentioned, on the North Shore of Oahu. It’s a theme park and museum covering 42 acres and was started in 1963 and currently owned by the LDS, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and BYU, Brigham Young University.

I remember touring it in 2008 on a trip I earned with a company and found out that almost everyone that works there are students at BYU and working on a scholarship, which is funded by the entrance fee for the park, luau and shows.

The Cultural Center is divided into seven villages, Hawaii, Samoa, Aotearoa (present-day New Zealand), Fiji, Tahiti, Tonga and the Marquesas Islands. Each village has different shows that represent the land, people and culture. Some are traditional, some are funny, all informative and interesting.

While we were at the Samoan show, I recognized the mc, as it were, Kap. He’s known as Kap Tafiti and I remembered him from when I was there in 2008! He was the best fire dancer I’d seen! He still does the Samoan presentation, a little fire work, coconut tree climbing, but doesn’t do the full fire dancing he did back then. We bought a few pieces of his and had a photo, he’s a very nice guy and we met his son, who runs his shop. http://www.kaptafiti.com/gallery.aspx

At 6pm, we went in to one of the luau houses for a sit down luau. This is very similar to most other luaus around Hawaii. A sit down dinner, performers on the stage, some fire, dancing, singing, hula. All traditional to the Polynesian culture.

After dinner was the big show, Hā–Breath of Life. The show features songs and dances from throughout Polynesia, including the hula, tamure, otea, titi torea, haka, poi, meke, tauʻolunga, and Taualuga. The majority of the show was in the native Polynesian languages, but you really didn’t need to understand the language, everything is share through song, dance and action.

We all enjoyed the show very much and by the time we left, we cleared the place out and it only took about an hour to get home this time, no traffic at 9:30pm at night!

If you come to visit, we’ll take you!

{December 29, 2017} An early flight, a canyon and an opinion

The day started way early, but we had an adventure to get to! SDL, Miss A and I were going to Kauai! Miss A had this strong desire to see lots of roosters and chickens, how could we deny her!?

430am wake up on vacation seems excessive, but the traffic on Oahu can be horrible, especially at 5am, which is rush hour. But we made it in plenty of time to get a snack and watch the sunrise. Then it was time to board our 40 minute flight and have an adventure!

We got to the car rental desk and upgraded for a jeep. So, here is where my opinion comes in… I’ll stick with a convertible! We had a few circumstsnces that made me think this. It’s a two door jeep, which makes it tougher getting a child in and out of the back seat, I’m sure with a four door it would be different. And the window and back flaps were not that cooperative, especially when it started raining! I really enjoyed driving it and it was esay getting up the canyon drive. I did miss having the top down, but after the trouble with the flaps, we weren’t taking a chance with the top, especially since rain was in our future! SDL had a jeep in the past, she said it was much easier. I’ll take my 13 second up/ down beetle convertible top any day!

We got in the jeep, headed to the hotel to drop our bags and started out for the Waimea Canyon Drive. They say that The Waimea Canyon is the Grand Canyon of Hawaii and when you see it, you get it! You can really see it as you go up and up and up, amazing!it We stopped along the way at some of the scenic overlooks, and they were true to their name, scenic and overlooking the canyon. We saw rock faces and formations, waterfalls, foliage and so much more! Spectacular! Even the second time!

A few times, the three of us got out, walked around and took pictures, other times, just SDL, Miss A and I admired from the jeep. We drove up the canyon, it’s close to 30 miles up into the mountains to the top. We got out at a few of the state parks to walk around and get up to the overlooks there. It truly is spectacular. And Miss A walked them all, like a champ! We didn’t take the stroller out once today, awesome!

After we viewed the canyon, we drove back down the Waimea Canyon Drive into Waimea, had some lunch at a local Thai stand with all the chickens and roosters. We were going to go to Ke’e beach, but it was getting late and the sun would be going down in about two hours, when we got to the beach. We took a chance and got on the road. Guess what happened…the sky opened up! So…rain makes for a different experience!

We stopped at Kauai Harley Davidson, https://www.kauaiharley.com/, for a gift for Miss A’s bus driver and a photo with the Hawaiian hog! Then a stop at the famous Hilo Hattie’s, a Hawaiian staple, unfortunately had gone under a few years ago and then a few shops have popped up and here was one! SDL had great memories of shopping at Hilo Hattie’s years ago, as did I when I first visited Hawaii. https://www.hilohattie.com/ Each time we walked into or out of a store, we were running through the raindrops, ok, let’s be real, we were dashing through the deluge! A quick stop at Walmart for some rain ponchos was just the thing! Luckily, the rain stopped when we went in and when we came out!

Imagine us getting Miss A into the jeep in the rain! At Hilo Hattie’s we decided to put the windows back on, um… that was fun! But we would be dry! All that matters!

So, raining hard, we went back to the hotel, dinner for Miss A, SDL and I ordered Italian and ate on the sofa while Miss A crashed out.

What a day! What’s in store for tomorrow?!

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