Monday, September 14, 2009

U to the Ca

After living in Utica for a year, James still hadn't taken the opportunity to tour around the quaint little city. Therefore we took some time out to highlight the hotspots.


I've noticed a few other surrounding towns with a pretty clock like this, but I liked this one..


A nifty little corner building. I love these!


Vibrant Mural on the side of a building. It says "Utica: Always reaching towards greater heights."


Taking a nap at the Utica Train Station. Not too busy, but they offer spectacular scenic tours of the Adirondacks!


ALL ABOARD!! haha.


Speaking of Adirondacks... They have amazing hiking trails, and we recently took one around Cascade Lake. It wasn't all that difficult (only a few complaints out of me), and it was a gorgeous day. =)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Puerto Ricooo

In order to keep up with our spontaneous travels, we decided to go to Puerto Rico. I was told to pack light (which is a joke) and be prepared to find hostels as we go. As this was my first big adventure with James, I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle it. We rented a cute little car to drive around the entire island, but little did we know about the roads. They were bumpy, twisty, and hilly. All at once.



As we drove the perimeter we stopped in many different cities/towns (most of the names I have forgotten). And the quality of our sleeping arrangements increased each night. Here are just a few highlights...


A cute little central square. Every town had one...


Beautiful day, landscape, and James of course!!  =)


Old San Juan... waaaaayyy back there. We couldn't pay for tickets with a credit card and were fresh outta cash, so we were forced to take pictures from farrr away.
This is just an idea of how the driving was..

And horseback riding!!! =)

 
We had such a great time for the five days we were there, and can't wait to go back sometime!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Florida- Rounds 1 and 2..... 5 hour tour anyone??






 So a few years ago, I won a trip to Florida at a boat show in NY. It came in 2 parts, 4 days and 3 nights in Orlando, and 3 days and 2 nights in Daytona Beach. Unbeknown to me the trip was really just a secret interrogation session and ploy to make us buy timeshares... twice. Our first trip to Florida, we visited Chrissy's parents just south of Sarasota. To get our free hotel in Orlando, we had to endure a presentation and a tour of the timeshare. 180 minutes of telling salesman after salesman that we were not interested. We believed it was finally over... however the pain had been prolonged in our second trip. 
During our second trip to Daytona, we had clearly checked the "no" box for a presentation, but apparently there really was no choice. The second sales woman was pretty nice... at first. Her fiance was from around where I use to live in Rochester which was a quaint little coincidence. However while we became more comfortable with this saleswoman, we joked about the fact that we grabbed a quick drink before our "90 minute presentation." She immediately turned serious, and told us, "Ohh, if you have been drinking at all we cannot take you." My quick remark was that we had only had some coke, (well, we did... with a splash of jack) in a half joking way thinking that she was kidding... she wasn't. Luckily she let that slide, because as much as we were dreading our presentation, it was the payment for our hotel room. Without it we would be SOL.  
Moving on, after eating breakfast with her she brought us to another hotel, where they interrogated us about how much we would be willing to spend on a timeshare. We went through a few successions of more aggravating salespeople maintaining our stance..."It's not the right time for a timeshare, we are saving for a wedding." Finally three hours later (seriously) we were free from their clutches.
Our first line of business after leaving the time share was to hit the beach.  I bought a surfboard to hit some waves but the waves were pretty meek, so I splashed around on the board while Chrissy caught some sun.


 Later that night we decided to howl at the moon and break some misdemeanors, so we went out on the town to see what we could muster. We found ourselves in a night club... where we were one of the only ones representing the caucasian persuasion. We did see a larger white girl on a stripper pole... or building support not quite sure. After being flashed by her one too many times, we decided to vacate. We found a Hookah bar down the road and Chrissy hadn't had a hookah before. I had a few before in the Middle East and this place had some kickin flavors. It was an Egyptian run place with crazy mixed music with a screen playing 80's videos not matching the music playing in the bar. Next to us were a group of teenagers blowing bubbles with the smoke in them. After chilling with the Egyptians for a while we toured around the city and a few more clubs and called it a night. 


The next few days we ventured up and down the coast, getting my rear whooped in mini golf and trying not to hit kids with my car on the beach... or having them hit me. (cool thing about Daytona is you can drive your car on the beach). 


In the waning days of our rain or shine trip, we took a (gambling middle age drunk boat) cruise. It was a 5 hour tour. I really thought the boat was going to sink however, It didn't. It was five hours so it could float outside the US coast and legally gamble. 
 

                                                                

This boat was elevator music tacky. It had all the trimmings. Sketchy characters, the struggling musician playing his Oboe, and the middle aged drunkards. This boat was not whole without James and Chrissy, and we milked it for all it was worth...in the slots. Of course Chrissy made out 5 dollars plus, while I lost all 25 dollars. I will never gamble again...unless its with my life. Chrissy's the lucky one I guess...no wait... I'm the lucky one :)   


Struggling Oboe Player

Monday, April 27, 2009

In the Beginning...

As Chrissy and I were collaborating on how to manage this Blog, we figured we would start from this point forward, and document the craziness of James and Christina. However, we've had some crazy adventures thus far, that definitely need addressing. I'll try to go in order of our random soiree's acrossEast Coast. 

First off, one the
thing I really wish I had, 
is pictures of is our first "date" on the fourth of July. There is a little discrepancy in the facts concerning this shin-dig. However, I'm not gunna lie, she asked me out.. haha. Here's
 a  little more background info (which I do all the time telling stories often to the dismay of my future bride), Chrissy and I met at a carnival where Dan forced me to go, and we were introduced. The details were a bit foggy, for both of us about our first encounter, but all that needs to be said was she was stunning... We ended up hanging out with each other a few times, and clearly hit it off. 
Our first date was the fourth of July 2008. Chrissy sent me a text a few days prior asking what I was up to for the 4th. I hadn't planned anything and really wanted to
 take a drive to Watkins Glen NY south of Seneca Lake. I picked her up that morning in the Porsche and we took a nice drive down there, had a great lunch and watched fireworks happen (pun intended). 
After the summer ended Chrissy had to move to Lexington Park Maryland for a teaching job, and I had to head out to Utica NY to finish college. The distance didn't stop us a bit. At least a few weekends a month one of us would go to visit the other. We went adventures like train rides through the Adirondack Mountains, a trip to Florida, Ocean City, Annapolis, Savanna, Georgia
Washington DC,  and kickin locales like that. Here we are now Summer 2009 and we have a lot planned, so buckle up! p.s. we hire drivers jk.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Making a blog...(first timer)

Well here we are, making a blog of us for you all to see, God help you... jk. A little about us... we are about to begin the large journey with one another that is entitled "Matrimony." Along with this journey, there will be some career-related traveling that will separate us from our loved ones. Hence the reason to begin this blog. We wanted to perfect our blogging before the journey began, so the next... 444 days... will be practice. haha