Friday, April 22, 2011

It's That Time Again

It won't be long before I'm heading off to Alaska with my wonderful and beautiful mother. We leave soon after I get out of school at the beginning of June. I have really started to think about what I am going to take. It will be quite interesting when I start to pack for our trip. The first reason being that it is quite long. We will be gone 20 days. If my memory serves me correctly, we were gone that long last year BUT we were on a cruise ship for 14 of those days with laundry access at our fingertips. Wait, not only was it laundry access, people were doing our laundry for us. This time we will only be cruising for 7 days. Before we cruise, we will spend 12 days on a land tour through Alaska. I will post our itinerary soon. We will start in Vancouver where we will then take a plane to Whitehorse which actually isn't Alaska but it's close. So, I'm going to plan to take things that I can rewear without smelling too bad. That is when my awesome febreeze will come in handy :) I don't think it will be as tough as I am thinking it will be. Afterall, I did go on a nice long 15 day trip to Europe a few years back and I had to do laundry in the sink. So, I think I will manage to be ok without laundry service.

Be on the lookout at the beginning of next week for our itinerary on here. It's gonna be a great trip!

Monday, April 18, 2011

How to Pack Without Overpacking


When I travel, one of my favorite things to do is to pack light. I have some great reasoning behind it. First off, I don't want to carry a ton of stuff around with me, even if I'm only going from an airport to a cruise ship. The more I pack means the more I have to unpack, and then pack again when going back home. Then that means I have more to wash when I finally get back home.

Something I like to do, which some people would have a very difficult time doing it, is making a clothing schedule. I made one of these (sort of) when I went to Alaska except it wasn't as detailed as my clothing schedules are for shorter trips. The main reason I make these schedules is so that I can think about exactly what I need to just "get by" on the trip.

An example of when I used one of my clothing schedules was when I went on a cruise a few summers ago. The cruise itself was pretty short. I think it might have been 4 nights. Why in the world do I need to take 10 different daytime outfits, and then about 5 or 6 different nighttime dresses?!?!?! I needed swimsuits, coverups, and then my nighttime summer dresses. I saved so much space creating my little schedule to help me figure out how much I needed. Yes, sometimes people laugh at me, but it keeps me organized.

Another thing to do is to think about the shoes that you are taking. Try to coordinate outfits to only take a few pairs of shoes. I realize that on longer trips more shoes might be necessary, but there is no need to take 2 pairs of tennis shoes, 3 pairs of heels, etc. Take 1 pair of heals, 2 pairs of flip flops, and if you must a pair of tennis shoes.

One last thing I love to use to help me stay organized which also helps me pack light, are these packing cubes from The Container Store. They are awesome!!! Basically you can have several different ones for your small undergarments, socks, and swimsuits. Then you can use one of these to pack all of your shirts and pants. They are comletely and totally necessary on all of my trips now. They compress all of your clothes and really just save space. When you are packing light, creating as much space as possible is part of packing without overpacking.

So when you begin to pack for a trip, hopefully a few of these tips will help you.

Do you have any packing tips?

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Venture Card




I've been wanting to post about a credit card promotion for a few days now but my internet connection was non existent for some reason. I had no connection for the past 3 days but it has suddenly appeared.

So...about this card. Well my wonderful mom told me about the greatness of this card. There are several reasons this card is so great. First of all, the promotion they have right now ROCKS! If you have a lot of airmiles in your account on the airline of your choice, you are in great shape. I happen to have 62,000 and guess what Capitol One just did for me.....they matched my miles with points. They are giving me 62,000 points. Then, I have 90 days to spend $1000. It just so happens that my home owners insurance and my car insurance is due in about a week. The Venture Card was the perfect card for those two costs. I have the money in savings to pay those bills so I'm not worried about interest. So I really don't have much more to spend to get my $1000 spent. When I spend my $1000 in the first 90 days, they are going to give me 10,000 points. Yep, that's right....ten thousand points. So after I spend my money, I will have 72,000 points. If you look on their rewards chart, that equals $720 worth of travel. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good deal. This card does have a fee, BUT they are waving it for the first year....another perk of the card. Then for every dollar you spend, you get 2 points. One other great perk for international travels (Europe)....they don't charge an extra fee when you use your card to make a purchase. That's pretty much awesome because those fees add up. I'd rather spend my money on something to eat or some type of souvenir or anything besides a credit card fee.

So, you should check into this card. I think the promotion ends soon...well sometime in May. I can't wait to get my "free" travel out of all my spending :)

Capitol One Venture Card

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Seattle Restaurants

Palace Kitchen
Neighborhood: Belltown
2030 Fifth Ave, Seattle, WA 98121-2505
(206) 448-2001



We had walked by Palace Kitchen several times on our way to and from Top Pot Doughnuts. We had noticed the ceramic rooster in the front window but didn't really think anything of it being a great restaurant. When we met with one of my friends that I grew up with 3rd-12th grade, she mentioned that it was a good place to eat, so we decided to try it out for our last meal in Seattle before heading back to Dallas the next morning. We both got burgers...the Palace Burger Royale to be exact..." palace burger royale~wood grilled oregon country beef, dahlia bakery bun, pickled green tomato and fries." It was heavenly! Oh and I forgot to mention the goat cheese and lavender fondue that we had before our meal. The cheese was some of We had thought about getting desert before we left but we picked up our desert before we even ate dinner...which brings me to my next restaurant OR doughnut shop.

Top Pot Doughnuts
DowntowN Seattle
2124 5th Ave
Seattle, WA 98121
206-728-1966

HOURS:
M-F 6:00 AM – 7:00 PM
S-S 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM



The only way I knew about Top Pot was because a few weeks early I was watching a show on Travel Channel about doughnuts. Top Pot just happened to be on there. When I saw that it was in Seattle, I made note of the name and looked it up online. I told Mom that we had to go there. We were going to wait until after the cruise because we didn't think we would have time to go before our cruise...BUT, we did! When you walk into Top Pot, it's like heaven, especially for the doughnut lover. There are so many options. It's better to go in the morning though, because the second and third time we went, it was later in the day and the options are limited. The doughnuts just melt in your mouth...they are that good. They are better than Krispy Kreme Donuts which I love. If you are ever in Seattle you must try Top Pot. There are several locations. The one we went to was right by the monorail line and right down the street from Palace Kitchen. We are planning to go back to Seattle at the end of our Alaska cruise in June and I will definitely be visiting Top Pot and I sure intend to bring some doughnuts back on the plane with me.

Mama's Mexican Kitchen
2234 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
Downtown Belltown


The last restaurant I want to share with you is one that you would not expect to eat at in Seattle. I mean with Seattle being on the coast, you would think that we would have eaten seafood most of the time, but when you are from Texas, you can only go so long without Mexican food. Now all of us Texans know real mexican food. Most of the time when you eat mexican food in another state besides Texas, it's not that great. But I can assure you that if you want some good mexican food while you are in Seattle, try Mama's Mexican Kitchen. It was delicious! Mom has been there several times. That's the reason we went. She had been there before and remembered how good it was. From what I remember, I had enchiladas. When I go to a new mexican restaurant, I always order cheese enchiladas. In my opinion, you can tell a lot about a mexican restaurant from their cheese enchiladas. They were great and I was comletely stuffed at the end of my meal.

So if you are ever in Seattle and want doughnuts, mexican food, or a great burger and cheese fondue, I suggest you check out one or all of these restaurants.

Reviews

I have decided that besides sharing with you my day to day travel adventures on my trips, I will also give reviews of places we go, restaurants we eat at, and anything else I feel that you should know. So, be on the lookout for a few reviews this week of restaurants we ate at and things we saw while we were in Italy.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

59 days and counting

I've already started counting down the days until we leave for Alaska. I'm so excited about seeing more of Alaska besides the coast. We will be spending lots of time traveling from place to place but it will be worth it to see all of the different parts of Alaska. In the next week or two I will try to get our itinerary up of the places we will be. We start out in Vancouver and end up there too. This includes 12 days of a land tour and then 7 days cruising. Then we are spending once extra day in Seattle. After we dock in Vancouver at the end of our trip, we are taking a bus (with HAL) down to Seattle. I'll be updating along the way as I get ready for my trip, gathering things that I need, researching the places we are going and then packing up right before we leave. I CAN'T WAIT!!!