2011 was a wonderful year! I got to experience a lot of new places and go back to some old places. I checked off some things from my bucket list and added a few more places to my bucket list....ok well a lot more places. I thought I would do a short recap of the fun places I went and my favorite people that I got to experience these places with.
1. Vegas : I wanted to do something fun for my 30th birthday. I thought about going to Vegas the weekend I turned 30 but I thought it would be more fun to go nor NYE so me and 2 of my besties (and one of their husbands) made our way to Vegas. It wasn't my first Vegas experience but it was my first with friends. One of my dear friends lives in Vegas now so she got to join in the fun. We had a blast ringing in the new year in Vegas.
2. Italy : The planning started back in November 2010. One of my dear friends who also happens to live in Vegas wanted to do something fun for her 30th so Italy it was. We did a lot and made the most of our time. We had a private tour guide to show us Vatican City, experienced true Italian cuisine, went to Wine School in Siena, saw some beautiful things in Florence, relaxed and hiked in Cinque Terre, saw the incredible Swiss Alps on the way to Zurich, and experienced the high prices in Switzerland. The trip was definitely a trip of a lifetime!
3. Alaska : What an adventure! As you remember I got to share the experience with my mom. Those are some of the best memories I have with my mom. I will remember that trip forever. We saw parts of Alaska that a lot of people never experience. It was beautiful! The weather was wonderful compared to what we were hearing about back home. We saw some neat wildlife including moose, bears, caribou, and a few reindeer :) I could never list all that we did because they pretty much cram packed in everything into the 10 days we were on the tour. I will say though that going to Denali was one of my absolute favorite parts of the trip. It was gorgeous! I would love to go back and it's definitely on my bucket list!
4. NYC : How could I leave out Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade adventure. One of my besties that was mentioned earlier endured the early morning cold weather to score a front row seat to see the parade. Another experience I will never forget for sure. We also were among all the black friday shopping in NYC. I would most certainly go back for this annual event even though we were up early for the parade.
It was a wonderful year! I'm hoping 2012 is just as good and even better. Here are some goals for my year(I don't make resolutions)
1. Go somewhere that I have never been before.
2. Go somewhere that I have been before.
3. Leave the country for a vacation.
4. Take a trip with a friend or friends.
5. Take full advantage of airmiles and travel rewards.
6. Make the most of every opportunity I get to travel.
Hopefully I'll check off a few places from my bucket list. I guess I need to post said bucket list so you can all hold me accountable.
Thanks to all of you that encourage me to travel and go with me on all of my adventures. Thank you for following along with me.....I feel loved! :) I just want to make the most of life and experience as much as I can.
Stay tuned for more fun this next year! I'll see ya when I see ya! Hopefully sonner rather than later :)
Day 1: I already blogged about that for the most part down below. That night we went to see Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. The show was great as always and we loved it all. I was so tired throughout the show that I could barely keep my eyes open so when we got back to the hotel that night, I was ready to bed! 
Then after we made our rounds on the taxi, we ended up going back to the hotel before heading to the balloon inflation before the big parade. That was really neat to see. They started it around 3pm and it was supposed to last until 10pm. There were quite a few people there and it took us extra time to find the place because I wasn't looking at the map very good but we finally found it. Oh, I forgot to mention that before we went to the balloon inflation, we scoped out a place to watch the parade. We did some research ahead of time and decided that we needed to try to get close to the beginning of the parade route and we also needed to be near a public restroom. We located a Starbucks close to the beginning of the parade so that is where we decided we would go the next morning. After we located our spot and saw the balloons being inflated, we made our way to time square and checked out the scene and took some Times Square pictures. Of course it started raining again but oh well. We made the best of the situation. 
Day 3: The next morning started very early. We got up at 3am and then left by 4am. Our plan was to take the subway but for some reason it appeared that it was blocked so we got a taxi. It took hardly anytime to get there because there weren't many people on the roads. However, we weren't the first ones there. We did get a front row spot though (and we should have because we were there by 4:30am). Once we arrived, we set up camp. We brought chairs with us from REI that we bought. We found chairs that were comfortable and that would fit in our carryon luggage. We were going to be sitting in them for quite a while so we insisted on finding comfiness. They were quite comfortable. I'm not sure what time the bulk of the people started getting there. I do remember though that at 6:30 I left to go to the restroom a block away and it took me almost an hour because there were a ton of people in line. At lease I was waiting in the warmth instead of in the 30 degree weather. When I got back, I had to fight my way back to my seat. I was a little annoyed with people that were in my way and didn't seem to be going anywhere. I tried to explain to them that my seat was like 10 feet away and people weren't letting me through. I even tried to be a bold new yorker about it but they weren't budging. We slowly moved and I found my seat and didn't move until the parade was over. We watched and waited and finally the parade started. There were some kids next to us that were in the way quite often. The boy was probably 10 and I had to be strategic about getting him out of the pictures I took. The little girl was probably 6 or 7 and sweet and quiet and she loved Hello Kitty. It was really neat being so close to the action. It ended close to 11am at our spot and then we left to go back to our hotel to unload all of our stuff. We ate lunch at a burger place not too far from the hotel and then we went back over to time square. The weather was much nicer on Thanksgiving than the other days we had been there. I know at some point we went back to our hotel to rest because we were exhausted and wanted to get out to do some black friday shopping at macy's at midnight. So, we slept for probably 3 hours and then we were up at 11:30pm to get ready to leave. When we arrived at Macy's it was crazy!!! There were so many people but the doors were about to open and we were squished in the doorway and scooted up the escalators. If you've never been to Macy's on 34th in NYC, it's huge! There are 9 levels and a basement. I found some great deals and bought a new suitcase because it was such a great deal, a new coat that I love, and then some fun souvenir stuff. 
Day 4: Black Friday. We got back to our hotel around 3:30am and then finally got settled and in bed just in time to have 3 or 4 hours of sleep. We were up at 8am and ready to leave by 9am and headed to the airport in New Jersey. It was very easy to get to and there was NO ONE there. The plane left on time. I tried to sleep but it just wasn't possibly with the loud kid in the row in front of me. I could hear him with earplugs in my ears. Ridiculous! We made it back 30 minutes earlier than scheduled and then back home just in time to unpack and pass out. 
