Time to Ring in the New Year and Time for a Quick Update!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:December 30, 2015
Post category:Baby / holidays / Home Life / Misc. / Parenting / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:2 Comments

Oh, heyyyyy! Yes we are still alive and kickin’ over here! Last time I checked in was just after my 30th birthday so over a month ago. Monthly posts are what is happening these days I guess. You know what else? I don’t hardly take any photos (besides of Bode of course!). But ya know, It is what it is!

So, since my last post here this is what has happened…

1.I thoroughly enjoyed my favorite meal day of the year, Thanksgiving, and so did Mr. Bode! I was much too excited to eat therefore no food photo was taken. Before we ate, we ran in our favorite 5k.

2. A couple of days after Thanksgiving, Bode got to hang out with grandma and grandpa for a week while Dana and I went on a Caribbean cruise. The cruise sailed from Miami to Panama and stopped at Cayman Islands, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. In Cayman Islands we swam with the stingrays and got to hold a big female stingray! In Jamaica we climbed up a bunch of waterfalls and laid by the beach, and in Costa Rica we took a pontoon tour and got to see sloths, monkeys, crocodiles, and other beautiful wild life.

The cruise itself was exquisite. Everything was included so we ate and drank like kings and queens. It was my mission to eat bacon everyday, and mission was completed.

Formal night/Captain’s dinner…

The “elves” decorated the boat while we were there! So pretty!

As fun as the cruise was, I was sooooo excited to get home and snuggle my baby. That is the longest I had ever been away from him!

3. After the cruise we were busy into the holiday season and lots of fun holiday parties! We all got hit with the stomach bug pretty bad, and after that we all got colds. In fact, my whole entire year was this way. Bode gets sick, mom gets sick. Welcome to parenthood, right? Thanks daycare! 😉

4. Christmas was celebrated in Colorado with Dana’s family and then back here in Minnesota with mine. I still can’t believe Christmas is over! We had so much fun with our family and friends.

5. Now here we are about to kick off the New Year! Where on earth did 2015 go? It surely was a great year but as always, I’m excited to see what 2016 has in store for us. I wish you all the best of health and much happiness as we ring in the New Year!

Check in with you all who knows when! 😉

xoxo

Babymoon/Anniversary Getaway

Post author:Melanie
Post published:October 8, 2014
Post category:Pregnancy / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:9 Comments

Oh, HEY!

So last weekend Dana and I took a mini getaway babymoon/anniversary celebration to La Crosse, Wisconsin. Yea, we got real fancy this time around. My travel distance is limited at this time, so we made do as best as we could and we had a great time in doing so!

If you all recall, I completed my dietetic internship in La Crosse. It is truly a beautiful city and while I was there I tried to enjoy it, but I was pretty sad about being away from home especially after just being away for five years for my undergrad program so I didn’t soak up the beauty as much as I could have.

I wanted to go back because La Crosse truly is a beautiful city. It’d been three years since I had been there! Geez how time flies!

On our way out there, we stopped in Maiden Rock, WI to take in the views and we stopped at an adorable bakery along the way. We split a cardamom roll which was insanely good! Who would have thought, right?

We took in the gorgeous bluff and river views along the way…

After 3.5 plus hours in the car, I was one swollen girl. I haven’t experienced much pregnancy swelling until this point, and my feet, ankles, and hands were all pretty beefy. Once we got to La Crosse and shoved some food in our faces, I made sure to put my feet up.

Shredded pork wrap…

We drove by my old apartment and I reminisced along the way.

We made sure to stop by the famous Pearl Street Ice Cream Parlor. Ice cream with homemade waffle cones on one side, and this candy goodness on the other. Willy Wonka anyone? Can I buy a Wonka bar?

Night one was fairly quiet. The whole thought around the weekend was that it was meant to be relaxing, and that it didn’t really matter what we did. So, I made sure to bring my cozy socks and wrapped myself in one of their over-sized white robes, and Dana and I watched some shows and played some games.

Saturday

Saturday was much more productive. We started the day by going to the farmer’s market which was right outside of our hotel along the river. It was super-duper chilly but we still managed to buy an acorn squash (baking as I type actually) and wax beans (yellow beans).

For lunch we went to Dublin Square and I had one of the best veggie burgers I have ever eaten in my entire life. It had walnuts in it and that’s all I know. I ordered mine with green olives, cheese, and tomatoes on top. So GOOD!

We made our way to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe which was stunning. We went to a mass and walked around the area. It was so calming and peaceful. Plus, I got my “hike” in from my fall bucket list! We had to hike up a hill for about 15 minutes to reach the shrine. It’s amazing that a 15 minute hike is now such a huge accomplishment. I can’t wait to get my cardio stamina back!

We made sure to make a stop at Viterbo University where I completed my internship, and also drove by the hospitals and clinics where I did my rotations. It was fun to see it all again, but I am so happy that it is over with!

On Saturday night we celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary with a fancy French dinner at Le Chateau. This restaurant is in an old home that is quaint and romantic. Not to mention the food is dynamite. We cheers’ed to three years with my sparkling apple cider and his wine.

For starters I ordered butternut squash soup and Dana got escargot. All I could think of was Pretty Woman while Dana was eating the escargot. He said it was really good!

For our main dishes, we ordered gnocchi with edamame and roasted tomatoes in a brown butter sauce. Dana got the same thing except he also had scallops on top. On the side we ordered brussels sprouts with prosciutto.

We had WAY too much food! It was so good but my stomach is pretty pinched right now so I can’t fit too much in there at one time! This main dish was so delicious. That brown butter sauce was a major winner.

Sunday

We relaxed for a long while in the morning then made our way home. On the way home we stopped in Lake City at an apple orchard (another one of my fall bucket list items!) and although it wasn’t an orchard where we could pick our own apples, we were still able to purchase fresh apples directly from their on-site orchard. I still need to find an apple cider doughnut though!

We grabbed lunch and ice cream on the way home.

It was quite the weekend and the perfect getaway for us! I loved every second of it—even the swelling. 😉

I meant to post this post yesterday and was planning to link up with Becky’s Treat Yourself Tuesday because there were a whole lotta treats this weekend, and even though it’s Wednesday I’m still going to!

Have you taken any weekend getaways lately? Where did you go?

What’s your favorite way to use orchard apples? I’m planning on making apple crisp but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have leftovers still!

Camping Recap: Food, Fun, and Muddy Camp

Post author:Melanie
Post published:July 7, 2014
Post category:Friends / holidays / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:6 Comments

Hello again!

How was your 4th of July weekend? Mine was exhausting but a lot of fun.

On Thursday morning we packed up our car (literally packed to the top), and headed up north to Grand Marais to go camping with 23 others.

The beauty of northern Minnesota is something that everyone needs to experience. The air is fresh, the lake is stunning and mystical when the fog rolls in, and the trees surround you every which way. It is truly wonderful.

I didn’t keep my phone on me this weekend hardly at all which was GREAT, and therefore didn’t get many photos. I will show you what I’ve got but also wanted to include my camping post from last year because I took way more photos last year and was in the same general area.

Dana and me at Gooseberry Falls as a pitstop on our way up north.

Camp

Our shared campsite. Dana and I bought a huge tent for ourselves this year (ours is on the right). It sleeps nine people and we had two air mattresses set up in there. Don’t judge. I call it glamping; glamorous camping. We shared our site with Adam and Stacy, our travel buddies.

The Weather

The weather was beautiful on Thursday and Friday, but made a turn for the worse starting on Friday night after the fireworks. It rained all night on Friday, cleared up in the morning on Saturday and then started raining midday again and didn’t stop. We decided to pack up one night early and start our trek back home. So, just like nearly every year, we packed up a muddy wet campsite in the rain, amidst the hungry mosquitos. That my friends, is not something I wish upon anyone.

The Fun

BUT…..besides that last clean up mess, the weekend was so much fun!

We walked down by the water and watched the kids throw rocks into the lake; something they could have done for hours on end. We walked into town and enjoyed some beverages at a rooftop restaurant and bar and soaked up the sun and the view of the lake. We watched a super cheesy parade. We sat right underneath the firework show and were in walking distance back to our campsite afterwards (this was amazing because I was seriously sleep deprived that day. I was in bed within 20 minutes of the last firework going off). We relaxed by the campfire. We ate doughnuts from World’s Best Doughnuts. We went to Sven and Ole’s. We laughed a lot. We ate a lot. We made the most of the rain. It was really a great weekend.

Camping Food

I put myself in charge of camping food for Dana and myself. Here is the menu I came up with:

Breakfast

Homemade peanut butter granola for breakfast every morning was SO good. The only ingredients were peanut butter, honey, granola, cinnamon and vanilla!

Dinners:

Boy scout dinners on night one. For this one I started with two sheets of aluminum foil per packet, then added 1-2 teaspoons of butter followed by onions, potatoes, hamburger patty, carrots, worcestershire, garlic powder, salt and pepper. We tossed them on top of the fire for a while and let them do their thing. These babies were really good.

On night two we had the option of either veggie quesadillas or burgers but since I hadn’t realized that we were going to be going out for dinner one night, I had one packed extra meal. I thought it would be better to eat the burgers and bring the veg quesadillas home because they don’t have any meat and would last longer. So on night two we had burgers on the grill over the fire with cucumber salad!

Dinner #3 was fresh fish and chips at a cafe down the road from our campsite. They were so fresh and tasty! We grabbed this dinner after we had packed up our site and before we started our journey home.

Lunch:

For lunch we had peanut butter, apple and colby jack cheese sandwiches. Sounds totally random, right? That’s because they are, but honestly they were really good!

Snacks I brought:

Homemade Chex mix
Watermelon
Havarti cheese slices
Potato Chips
Pistachios
Gummies
Carrots
Apples

Snacks I ate that other people brought:

M & M bars
Special K bars
Jelly beans
etc.

My gut was insanely mad at me by the end of the weekend from the excessive sugar, but I sure had some delicious treats!

It feels good to be back to my normal routine again and I’m loading myself with healthy goodies.

That is my camping weekend in a nutshell. Now I am off to tackle at least three more loads of laundry (we’ve already done four).

What were some highlights of your weekend?!

Did you watch fireworks?

Did you enjoy any delicious food or fun beverages?

PARIS

Post author:Melanie
Post published:April 18, 2014
Post category:Travel / Vacations
Post comments:11 Comments

Okey dokey it’s time to get this Paris recap on the boards seeing as I got back from vacation over a month ago!

I am going to do all of this in one post so bear with me as it is A LOT of photos and might I add that this is only about 1/15th of the photos I actually have. So while I will do my best to recap Paris in a nutshell, I will more than likely miss some things and will try not to become long-winded. We did a whole lot in one week!

After Belgium, we took the train to Paris, where our lovely friends Adam and Stacy were meeting us. They had gotten to Paris one day ahead of us.

On our first day, we got acquainted to the city a bit, went to the metro station (Gare du Nord I believe?) and bought our Paris museum passes. These passes were around 60 euro a person and got us into a bunch of different museums and sites around Paris. I highly recommend it. We definitely got our moneys worth out of it and a plus is we always had access to bathrooms which was very nice.

Gare du Nord

On our first night we had tickets to go to the Moulin Rouge for an evening show.

The inside was very red, velvety, showy, and packed with tables and people. We didn’t do the dinner option but we did get a half a bottle of champagne per person included in our ticket price.

Moulin Rouge is spendy but it is a must-do if going to Paris if you ask me. Yes the show is a little risqué (probably not the best idea for kiddos), but it is all part of the culture and the ambiance of the theater is something you must see.

Pantheon

Eiffel Tower

I adore the Eiffel Tower, especially at night. It is magical. In the evening it lights up and sparkles every hour. Talk about romantic!

This is the memorial site of where Princess Diana’s vehicle crashed the night of her death.There were notes written in the cement giving respect to Princess Di.

Sainte-Chapelle This church was absolutely stunning to me. The stained glass everywhere took my breath away.

Notre Dame Cathedral

So cool.

My favorite bakery where we bought bread a few times for our lunches. The dome mall called Galeries Lafayette. It is an upscale department store.

I loved the walls in the lingerie section covered in tulle. So feminine.

Champs-Elysées

A street full of shops and cafés from the ritzy Cartier to everyday normal people stores like H & M and Gap. It is so fun to say Champs-Elysées [shahn zey-lee-zey]. Notice the photo-bomb. Nice.

Arc de Triomphe

We decided they were either cleaning it or fixing it. Either way it didn’t make for a very pretty view.

We climbed to the top and got more great views of the city.

The Thinker at the Rodin Museum

The Sacré–Coeur This beautiful church (which we called our Parish while in Paris), was right down the street from our hotel in the Montmartre neighborhood. We all mutually agreed that sitting on the steps with some beverages and snacks, people-watching, enjoying the view of the city, and watching guys trying to sell mini Eiffel Towers while watching for police, was one of our favorite moments of our trip. It was so relaxing!

We visited the Père-Lachaise cemetery where Jim Morrison and Chopin (among others of course) are buried.

We visited the Louvre Museum of course where we got to see Mona Lisa in her (or his?) finest.

Jardin des Tuileries

I think this is where we were at least. We were at a tiny fountain a little ways down from the Louvre. We stopped for a snack and to decide on our plans for the rest of our day.

A day trip to Palace of Versailles. This is a MUST when visiting Paris. Everything about this royal château is unbelievably stunning.

Haribo gummies. The foodie in me had to snap a photo. Haribos are so good!

K, I know I’m missing a bunch here.

We also went to Musée d’Orsay.

We toured part of the underground sewage process of Paris for all of about five minutes before we all felt like we were going to ralph. This was a for real tour and it was included on our Paris pass.

We attempted a trip to Fontainebleau to visit the Palace of Fontainebleau. We took a train out to it; it is 35 miles or so away from the city of Paris. Little did we know that upon our arrival we would find out it was closed for construction and of course it was pouring. But, we ended up making a great day out of it anyway by finding a cozy little steakhouse and enjoying lunch before heading back.

We went to dinner every night at the brasseries except one night when we ordered pizza in. SO GOOD!

For lunches we would usually just buy a loaf of bread, some cheese, and apples and call it a day.

We stopped at cafés for coffee, hot chocolate and vin chaude (hot mulled wine).

We went into a ginormous fabric store and looked at all of their super pricey fabrics. We walked, we climbed stairs, we rode the metro, we took the trains.

We enjoyed baguette and french fries at nearly every meal.

Ok I need to stop. Yes, I’m sure I’m missing some things here but I feel bad that this post has gotten so long. Thank you for reading (if you’re still with me that is :smile:) and sorry if this post took five years to load! Talk about photo overload.

As you can see Paris was simply amazing. We were so lucky to be able to spend our time there with such great friends!

Au Revoir for now my friends!

QOTD: Have you ever been to Paris or plan to go someday?

We’re Talking Sunshine

Post author:Melanie
Post published:April 17, 2014
Post category:Misc. / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:4 Comments

Minnesota got snowed on yesterday if you haven’t yet heard. This isn’t out of the ordinary for April seeing as we got snow in MAY last year, it’s just never welcomed. I can’t complain a whole lot because where I live we just got a dusting of snow, but the northerners got up to a foot! Yikes!

I am looking forward to this weekend because it is supposed creep back up into the 60’s. I’m ready for the summer dresses and flip-flops!

So I was thinking, in lieu of Throwback Thursday, and due to the fact that I am dreaming of warm and sunny weather, I am putting together a post of some of warm weather memories. Let them take you to a warm sunny place in your head (if you’re in the cold climate like I am still) and dream of days soon ahead full of sunshine. Some are from last summer, some are from warm vacations.

Turks and Caicos

Warm sand between my toes, refreshing clear blue water, stand-up paddle boards, and lounge chairs.

Miami!

Bienvenido a Miami! I always find it so amazing that I can take a three-hour plane ride which brings me to such warmth and sunshine. I love Miami!

Eating desserts outside and getting free wine with two of my favorite blends!

Need I say more?

Dinner at Mill Valley Kitchen followed by a family photo in our lush backyard!

When the weather is warm, I love eating outside!

Bike Rides

Picnics

Camping and hiking

I have a love/dislike relationship with camping. I love it when the weather is perfect, I dislike it when it monsoons on us and a moat forms around our tent.

Spring weather will be here soon!

What are you most excited to do in the warm weather?

Weekend Recap: Blends Do Chicago

Post author:Melanie
Post published:April 2, 2014
Post category:Blog / Friends / Restaurants / Travel / Vacations / Video
Post comments:10 Comments

Oh boy. Let’s talk about this past weekend. It was epic. I flew out to Chicago to meet up with Katie, Caroline, and Becky for a highly anticipated girls’ weekend.

You’re about to get my weekend recap in one post so I hope you’re ready for it!

Katie and I flew out from Minneapolis and into Chicago around noon on Friday. We booked it over to meet Caroline as she exited her flight and we all went crazy when we reunited. The four of us haven’t been together since September at the Healthy Living Summit six months ago! But what’s great about our friendship and our relationship is that no matter how long we have been apart, we catch up right where we left off.

Becky lives in Chicago and was a fantastic host! We anxiously awaited her arrival at the airport. We repeated the whole greeting shenanigans and our faces were plastered with smiles the whole drive back to our hotel. Reunited and it feels so gooood!

You better believe there was a ridiculous amount of good food consumption that happened this weekend. It started in our hotel room. Katie broke out the Chex Mix and it tasted better than ever. I was SO hungry!

Next we walked to an Italian marketplace called Eataly. They sell every conceivable italian product I could think of (olive oil, pasta, chocolates, balsamic vinegar, etc.) but also have restaurants throughout, as well as sections dedicated solely to nutella and gelato. This brought me back to my honeymoon in Italy! We ate gelato everyday on our honeymoon!

We settled on the vegetarian restaurant and quickly devoured the complimentary bread. Oh yea, this weekend was not gluten-free.

I ordered the vegetable soup. I wanted something light since it was 2:00 pm and our dinner reservations were at 7:30. I didn’t want to get so full that I couldn’t eat dinner plus I wanted to save room for dessert back at the hotel!

Before heading back to the hotel, Caroline and I strolled down the street to a quiet cafe to catch up. I love love love these girls and made sure to express my feelings the entire weekend. I am lovey dovey and you guys know that.

Back to the hotel room we went to relax for a few hours before dinner. Enter: Becky’s sinful brownies. Six pounds of brownie madness. That is 1.5 lbs per person if I did my math correctly. Good thing we didn’t eat the entire pan over the weekend. But seriously, these things were insane. I preferred not to know what was in them but she shared the recipe so I had to find out. I still enjoyed them just the same!

Friday night was our romantic dinner at Nellcote to celebrate Caroline’s birthday. 🙂 Seriously the ambiance in this place was amazing. It was elegant with dim lighting, chandeliers, and candle light. So cozy and romantic!

After eating our weight in brownies, none of us were too hungry, so we decided to split a bunch of menu items. We split a margarita pizza, roasted brussels sprouts, creamy mashed potatoes, and potato gnocchi with lamb.

The food, the conversation, the ambiance….everything was perfect. We retired to our hotel room where we were calling it a day at 10:30 pm. Flying wears a girl out!

The next morning we all got a workout in before heading out on the town. It was time to do some shopping. Becky took us to Shop900 which is off of Michigan Avenue but not nearly as crazy busy as the magnificent mile shops.

But first a pit stop or two.

Coffee…

Duh. We had to see the bean!

And take group selfies. #nerdsreunited

Then it was time to shop. We hit up Banana Republic, Lululemon, J. Crew, and Nordstrom Rack.

All of the shopping surely worked up our appetites. We waited an hour for a table at Giordano’s and it was so completely worth it! Authentic deep dish Chicago style pizza. Yes that is what we wanted and that is exactly what we got.

After lunch we continued walking (we walked a lot on Saturday), shopped a bit more, and finally made it back to our hotel.

Katie helped me apply my first set of Jamberry nails!

The first time applying them was pretty lengthy but I think that with practice I could make the process go much faster. How cute are they, right?! Katie is a jamberry nail distributor so if you’re interested in ordering any adorable wraps for yourself, send her an email!

We got prettied up and made a stop at Becky’s before going out to dinner. I swear it seems like all we did was eat this weekend but there was a lot of walking and relaxing involved too!

Before dinner I got to meet Becky’s sweet pup Mitchell. He’s famous over on her blog so I felt honored!

Next up. Dinner at Mercadito, a fabulous Mexican restaurant.

Again, none of us were feeling super hungry so we went with an order of guacamole and salsa and an order of the chicken tacos to share. Some of the best chicken tacos I have EVER had! The combination of flavors involved were so pleasing to the ol’ taste buds. Once again my tummy was happy.

Unfortunately my energy level was failing. I called it a night after that—I slept terribly the night before and don’t do well on little sleep as you are all well aware. I went back to the hotel room, got cozy and hit the hay.

This brings us to Sunday. We woke ourselves up bright and early (again not enough sleep—theme of the weekend) and made our way to the Little Goat for breakfast. What’s great about traveling with foodie bloggers is you know you’re going to have a good meal since Becky picked all of them out.

My body still felt stuffed from all of the food consumed over the last 48 hours, so I decided to go on the lighter side. I split a cinnamon roll, split an order of bacon, and ordered myself a fruit parfait.

Everything was delicious.

The weekend seriously was as amazing as it sounds. I miss these girls already. We’re already discussing our next meeting place!

Continuing our European Journey: Bruges, Belgium

Post author:Melanie
Post published:March 31, 2014
Post category:Travel / Vacations
Post comments:10 Comments

I have quite the recap for you all to come this week from my incredibly amazing weekend in Chicago with my girls, but before I get to that, I need to continue to tackle my European vacation recaps.

Today, we’re talking about Bruges, Belgium.

After spending four days in London, we hopped on a high-speed train to Bruges, Belgium where we would be staying for one night. We figured we were so close, we may as well go check it out!

The train actually took us from London (through France) to Brussels, Belgium. Then, we got on a different train and headed to Bruges. If I remember correctly, the total time on the trains was around three hours.

When we arrived in Bruges it was raining, and it continued to rain for most of the day. That didn’t stop us from enjoying our time there though. Bring on the rain coats and umbrellas.

They have beautiful canals that run through the city. When the weather is nicer, they have lots of boat rides along the canals. We saw one going while we were there but they people all looked miserably cold. I wasn’t too enticed by that idea.

We dropped off our bags at our hotel and headed towards the heart of the city. We were both starving and on a hunt for some grub. The city feels small, but it actually holds more than 116,000 residents. We were only in the “city” area however and most live outside of the city. Coming from London, the city felt especially small.

We made it out of the rain and found a seat in a packed brasserie. I needed hot food in a bad way, so obviously I ordered the onion soup.

We sat (closely) to a man who us from Bruges. I asked him where we should buy chocolate in the area. He told us to go to the Pierre Marcolini shop, and that’s just what we did. I neglected to take any chocolate photos (still can’t believe I did that) but there was chocolate EVERYWHERE. Talk about my dreamworld. Belgian chocolate is incredibly well-known, and now I know why. It is perfectly smooth and sweet but not too sweet and so pure. I loved it!

They are also very well-known for their lace, and we noted a handful of lace shops as we walked up and down the streets. We spent much of the day looking around the shops. The city was bustling with weekend visitors, but not so crowded that I was going nuts.

Later in the afternoon we regrouped in our hotel and took a little siesta to refresh ourselves before the evening. Let’s talk about this hotel for a sec. I wanted to live in this hotel!

Imagine being chilled and tired from a day out in the rain and coming home to this room…

We stayed at the Hotel Goezeput. Our room was on the top floor and I adored everything about it. The vaulted ceilings, the windows, the layout, the bathrooms, the heater. It made me want to get into my sweats, grab a cup hot chocolate, and hibernate for the winter. So, so cozy! I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking to visit Bruges.

After our siesta, we headed back out to enjoy the city.

As we were walking along looking for a happy hour home, I spotted one with a fireplace. Being that I was still pretty chilled to the bone, there was no doubt in my mind that was the place we needed to be. We settled into our table by the fire, ordered our libations, and enjoyed some free olives. YES! Why don’t all restaurants give free olives. I loved this!

Dinner that evening was just mediocre, and in fact I don’t even want to spend time sharing the photos because I just wasn’t impressed. But it didn’t matter. We were SO enjoying our time in Bruges.

Our walk home to the hotel in the evening was stunning. All of the buildings were lit up and magical.

The next morning we made our way to the train station for our next journey to Paris. Of course, it was sunny and beautiful. Still chilly though.

Breaking up the big cities, London and Paris, with Bruges was a seriously good way to go. It had such a laid back, comfortable feel, and it was so worth the trip, even for just 24 hours!

Keep your eyes peeled for my final post about our European vacation: Paris! I don’t know how on earth I’m going to fit that into one post! It may be a two-part deal. 🙂

London!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:March 24, 2014
Post category:Travel / Vacations
Post comments:18 Comments

I have been wanting to give you some recaps from my vacation (we got back two weeks ago) but will be perfectly honest and say I have also been dreading it! It’s so darn overwhelming. BUT, I want to share the goodness of my adventure so I pulled myself together and got to work. I decided to break it down city by city to keep us all from getting too overwhelmed.

I’m kicking it off with London because that’s where we began our journey. Oh, glorious London how I love you. When people ask me my favorite part about London, I almost immediately want to answer “the people.” To begin with, everyone spoke so properly with their beautiful English accents, but the best part was, everyone we encountered was so friendly.

On our first day, we were those tourists walking around the city with our luggage pulling behind us, wandering fairly aimlessly as we searched for our hotel. We knew the vicinity, but just couldn’t find it. Finally, I asked a gentleman if he could help. He wasn’t sure of the exact location of our hotel but he pulled out his smartphone and got searching. He pointed us in the right direction and wished us luck. Considering the lack of sleep and jet-lag at this point, a friendly person who could help us find our hotel (and get some food in my belly) faster, was someone we were lucky to find.

Once we found our hotel room we quickly ordered room service and loaded up on a burger. We needed fuel fast or we weren’t going to make it too long. Before heading back out to explore the unknown, we decided that a nap was a must if we wanted to appreciate anything the rest of the day. We both conked out for a good two hours.

K, I’m done narrating every detail. Let’s move on to the good stuff.

The sights

Our hotel neighborhood in Trafalgar Square. Our hotel is on the far right of this photo. The Hilton Trafalgar. I really enjoyed this place. The location was incredible. We were able to use FF miles for this hotel otherwise it was out of our price range FYI.

The London Eye. As touristy as it is, it was worth it. It was fun going up in the little bubbles and getting 360 views of the city.

Big Ben. I’ve never seen a more beautiful clock.

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards. So, we went there on our second day and found out that in the colder seasons they only do the huge presentation of the changing of the guards every other day. We came back the next day though and saw the whole thing.

It was so cool thinking that at that moment we were there, the royal family could have been hanging out by the fire, sipping on some coffee in fancy cups, and chatting about the weather.

There were two marching bands involved in the changing of the guards.

The parks. This one is called St. James’ Park and was right outside of Buckingham Palace. Hyde park is a popular one as well. They are all beautiful.

Neat buildings at every turn.

Fancy shopping at Harrods. Obv I didn’t buy anything there except for lunch there. This store houses every chic brand you can think of.

Check out the well-dressed doorman! Fun fact: Princess Diana’s boyfriend Dodi’s dad used to own Harrods.

Westminster Abbey. A major highlight of our trip. This is where the royalty get married, where they have their grand funerals, and where many of them are buried. Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin are also buried here, among many many others. The detail in this church is indescribable. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside.

I felt the magic when I walked down the same royal aisle as Prince William and Princess Kate had just years ago.

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Of course, The FOOD!

London had some of the best food! We found a cute restaurant called Happenstance after both being freezing cold from the rainy London day. We nestled into our spot and I ordered a Butterbean burger and Dana ordered the duck flatbread pizza. We shared a side of mushy peas. When in London!

Hot chocolate and coffee. Their chocolate is just incredible and makes for the perfect hot chocolate. It’s perfectly sweet, rich, smooth. Oh my gosh I want one. I tried having one back home and they just aren’t the same. Dana thinks it’s because I’m not on vacation that they taste different at home, but I think it’s because of the chocolate! It’s probably a combo actually.

My favorite dinner the whole trip: Indian Food. We met up with some friends of Dana’s who live in London and enjoyed and absolutely delicious dinner together. We all split a cauliflower dish which was to die for, naan, and I ordered chicken tikka masala. So insanely good!

Fish n’ Chips. We haaaaad to get fish and chips. We found a whole in the wall little Fish n’ Chips place, split an order of the fried cod, and were both super happy with our meal. The fish was amazing, the fries were just meh. Actually I found that pretty much every where. They served a lot of fries or “chips” in Europe. They weren’t salted and they were thick cut compared to what we see in the U.S. They were all just okay to me but that didn’t stop me from eating them.

That was a bit of a “in a nutshell” London recap post as you can see, but in order for me to keep this from becoming a novel, that is what is going to have to happen! I adored this city. If you ever get a chance to visit London, please do!

Favorite Food in London, Bruges, and Paris

Post author:Melanie
Post published:March 14, 2014
Post category:Lunch / Sweet Treats / Travel / Vacations
Post comments:16 Comments

I really want to begin my vacation recap posts, but am still slightly overwhelmed by the thought of it. So, I am going to ease my way into it by covering one of my most favorite topics…food.

Figure-friendly foods were not on my agenda for this trip. I was looking for macaroons, crepes, baguette, cheese, and hot chocolate, and that is exactly what I found.

Below are photos or some of my food highlights from the trip from London to Bruges to Paris.

London

The hot chocolate. It’s soooo much better in Europe (or maybe it’s just better on vacation?).

Chicken Tikka Masala. OMG. I’ve had Indian food in the past but was never blown away by it, but this totally changed my mind. I couldn’t get enough of it! It was one of my favorite meals of the entire vacation. I can’t wait to find it at home now!

Butterbean burger at Happenstance. This picture does not do the burger justice. Have you ever thought of taking butterbeans and making them into a burger? I certainly have not but it is a brilliant idea. I devoured this burger.

Fish and chips. We had to; we were in London after all. Dana and I split a filet and we both really enjoyed our meal!

Bruges

French Onion Soup (called onion soup in Europe). You all know I adore this stuff. I also had French onion soup on the plane ride out to London as well as two other times on the trip. Four times total. I love my onion soup! when it comes to sanwiches you have to try the ones by Jimmy John Founder.

Paris

This meal was actually from a day trip to Fontainebleau. We traveled out to go see a beautiful palace only to find out it was closed for construction when we got there. Not to mention, it was raining and cold. We found a cute little steakhouse and settled in for a burger and onion rings aka the best onion rings I’ve ever had.

Back to Paris…

Our favorite bread shop was called Coquelicot because look at it….

It’s perfection. It’s exactly how I would picture a Parisian bread shop. They make their bread and pastries in-house and everything is always so fresh and the place is always packed. Many days, we would buy a loaf of baguette for lunch along with some cheese and apples. I really looked forward to this lunch.

Crepes with nutella and banana. Need I say more?

Crescents. Nearly every day. So buttery and flaky!

Macaroons. I channeled my inner Blair Waldorf while eating these.

This chocolate mousse. It tasted like the filling of a French silk pie. I was in heaven eating this. Ahhhhh so good.

More Indian food. We were actually planning on having Chinese food this night but the restaurant we walked to was closed so we had to find something else. I was once again so impressed with my meal. It was a rice and vegetable dish.

Check out the ambiance…

In Paris, the boys had a couple of crocque monsiers. Ham and cheese sandwiches with an egg on top.

Oh yes, more baguette.

And more onion soup. Don’t mind if I do!

My favorites: Indian food in London, the onion soup on our last night in Paris, the chocolate mousse, and the nutella crepe.

Needless to say we ate very well on vacation.

If you were in London or France, what food would be on your “must eat” list?

I’m linking up with Katie for Friday Favorites too! Thanks, Katie!

Back and Jet-Lagged!

Post author:Melanie
Post published:March 10, 2014
Post category:Travel / Vacations
Post comments:9 Comments

Oh, heyyyy!

I’m back…and I’m jet-lagged!

I told you I wanted to “unplug” for a while but what I didn’t tell you was that I was going to be unplugging while in Europe!

Last night we arrived home from a 12-day vacation to London (four days), Bruges (one day), and Paris (seven days). Holy cow I don’t even know how to recap this trip.

The palaces, the churches, the art, the food, the crepes (!), the people, the stinky metro, the views, the beauty, the history, the 60°F weather.

There was so much beauty seen on this trip.

It may take me some time to gather all of the pictures and recap these amazing memories, because this was indeed a trip of a lifetime.

I am keeping it short and sweet for you all today; I really just wanted to say “hi” and let you all know what I was up to. As much as I loved being on vacation, I always enjoy coming home to family and friends and the comforts of home. I missed my normal American food. I missed my smoothies for sure! I missed my bed. But mostly I missed my family, friends, and puppy.

My body will be thankful once it is back on central time zone time, well-rested, and back to a clean whole-food diet! Waking up at 3:30 this morning with a cough and feeling like it was 9:30 am in Paris meant my body was ready to be awake = not enough sleep for me last night. But waaah waaah I was just on vaca for 12 days. I’m not complaining.

Oh, and one confession. I didn’t completely unplug. I did check facebook, read up on a few blogs, and check email in the evenings in the hotel however I tried SO hard not to participate in any FB, twitter, or Instagram action. Meaning, I had to sit on my hands so I wouldn’t hit like on all of your photos. So even though I didn’t 100% unplug, it was a huge disconnect compared to what I am used to. I didn’t have my phone with me at all during the day! 🙂

I missed you all! I hope you have all been well. What did I miss while I was gone?

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