Meg Says

I know the whole purpose of this blog was to write about my travels, almost like a journal to look back on, and remember all the places I have been to. I went to London and Lisbon in January. I had a great time, but it unraveled a relationship shortly after, and I can’t bring myself to write about the memories, because they’re not ours to share anymore, they’re only mine.

Maybe one day i’ll go back to those places again, create new memories and be able to share them with the world. Both places were beautiful and I hope i’ll get to go back sooner than later.

We went to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs for an adventure of photography and a hike. When we got there we wandered around the visitor’s center, where I bought postcards to send home. We then drove around the garden for prospective places to get out of the car to walk around. We decided that the first pull off spot was the best. We got out of the car, it was a fairly warm day, I had a jacket and jeans on and was warm walking around. We wandered into the garden and admired the beauty and the massive size of the rocks. When the tectonic plates crashed together, the rocks shot out of the ground vertically instead of horizontally, thus giving them the shape and red color.

We wandered around for close to an hour, observing all of the people walking around with their dogs, runners, hikers and mountain climbers. There was a family who brought their dogs up to the rocks and one was running around on it. It was adorable.

We then drove down to Colorado Springs for lunch. After that we headed to the U.S. Air Force Academy. The visitor’s center was surprisingly closed but we walked a path to the chapel, which is famous for it’s architecture. It’s only open for weddings, funerals and a few other special occasions!

After that we went back to my grandmother’s house and called it a very long yet adventurous day.

I flew to Colorado on the day after Christmas with my family to visit my grandmother. On the first day we just relaxed and hung out with my grandmother. The following day we went to park meadows mall to meet my aunt for lunch and some shopping. On the 29th, we decided to go to Boulder Colorado for lunch and some shopping. It’s one of my favorite towns. It’s full of artsy and different things you wouldn’t find anywhere. We ate lunch at a bar where we saw some strange person in the street in a colorful dog costume trolling for tips. It was odd. After lunch my mother and I went shopping, we went into quite a few stores where I bought a book by John Grisham, called the Firm, a new pair of leggings and a few other trinkets. We got Starbucks and decided to call it a day. Boulder is one of my favorite towns to visit in Colorado, it’s where my parents came to get married. And there’s always good shopping to be found.

On Christmas eve, after all of our family parties, JT took me to Cranbury to show me something on main street. We arrived to main street and saw candles in white bags lined up and down main street. Apparently it’s a Christmas tradition and the stores on main street put them out. It used to only be on a small side street but it made it’s way to main street. It was so pretty along all of the old houses. We stayed for a few minutes before we called it a night.

JT and I had decided a while back that we would go to cape may for Christmas. We went on the 22nd and stayed in the honeymoon suite at the Grand Hotel. We could see the beach from our balcony. The room had a bed, mini fridge, microwave, 2 couches, a TV, a table with a few chairs for eating and a large bathroom. (When my mother and I stayed there, the master bathroom was the size of a broom closet basically, so a large bathroom was nice). We had two sliding doors that led out to our balcony. The weather was pretty warm for being close to Christmas.

When we arrived, we unpacked and put our presents on a table in front of a couch. We to wander on the beach but the entryways were closed so we went to find a Wawa for a small lunch. We found an open entry way to the beach went for a walk and took photos. We then went onto the balcony of our hotel room and ate our lunch and enjoyed the beautiful weather. JT then took a nap while I sat on the couch and read.

When JT woke up from his nap we exchanged presents. I gave him a variety of random things he had mentioned he wanted or needed over the last few months. I got a pair of moon boots, a few books and movies and a polaird camera! We still need to buy film for the camera, i’m so excited to use it! We then went to dinner at Hemmingways, which was in the hotel. We ordered a few appetizers and ate ourselves stuffed. When we got back to the room JT watched his favorite channel, FOX and I snuggled on the bed and read. About an hour later we declared ourselves hungry and ordered chinese food, I ordered a sushi roll. We then went out in the pouring rain on a quest to find this restaurant. After turning around a few times on a street, we then decided the restaurant was in the shopping square. We acquired our food and eagerly scarfed it down. The sushi was excellent, which I was suprised considering it was a chinese restaurant.

I woke up around 730 the next morning and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I read a book until JT woke up around 10. We packed and went shopping on the main street. I bought some fudge and a few last minute Christmas presents for my family. We then went to the Lobster House for lunch. I ordered a lobster bisque and was slightly disappointed in it. The bread was an “everything” bread, and was amazing. We then left to go home.

On Dec. 10th, JT and his family took me to New York City. We took the train into the city and went straight to an Italian restaurant called Trattoria Dopo Teatro. We went in and sat at a long table and ordered drinks. We all ordered appetizers and pasta for dinner, which turned out to be delicious. We left after dinner and went to see the Christmas tree. Due to the fact it was a Saturday evening, it was very crowded by the tree but we got close enough to get some good pictures. We went to a wine bar afterwards to wait and then we wandered around, we then saw a light show on a building by the tree. We went to walk around some more but JT and I looked away for a split second crossing the road and lost his family in the crowd. So we wandered a bit before deciding that we were freezing and wanted to go home. We power walked over to the train station and caught an early train back home. As soon as we got back to his apartment we put on PJs and curled up in bed and watched TV.

As a birthday present to JT, his step-mom’s parents gave him a weekend at their beach house at Bethany Beach, DE. I had previous engagements so we left very late Friday night. We arrived to the house around midnight, got out of the car, very excited to make the bed and fall right to sleep. We walk right up to the door and hear noises on the inside, the TV was on! We were frightened, so we called security to come check it out. The person searched the whole house, and the noises were only the TV turned on from hurricane Irene. We sighed in relief but that still didn’t keep me from being nervous.

The next day we got up in the morning, made coffee and then went down to close to Ocean City MD, we shopped for a little bit, the Candy Kitchen is one of my favorite places down the shore! It’s so quaint. We then got ice cream and Fisher’s popcorn before wandering down to the beach for about a half hour. My ice cream started to spill everywhere, which very uncomfortably, took me back to the memory when I was in London, it was raining and I was struggling to carry my purse, camera, umbrella and ice cream. Let’s just say I got ice cream all over my hands and could not find a garbage can both times. I mean, who would NOT have garbage cans in public places? Disgraceful. After we settled that little ice cream episode, we then sat on the beach and I, as always, took too many photos. We went back to the house, relaxed and made vodka rigatoni for dinner.

The next day we got up, ate some breakfast and headed down to the beach for a few hours. We left late that evening due to our reluctance to leave such a nice weekend in October, it was warm enough to get a tan at the beach, and it was beautiful. The drive back wasn’t too horrendous, considering Sunday traffic to anywhere usually is bad. I felt as the weekend was too short for my liking, I hope we’ll get to do something like that again soon.

Some more pictures from Cape May, even though it wasn’t sunny and warm the whole time, I still had a great time.

My mother and I went to Cape May on September 17, and 18th. Which was an important weekend to me. on Friday, my mom and I drove down by Stockton College to meet my friend Dana for dinner, then continued down to Cape May. We arrived in the evening and got settled in the Grand Hotel, which was really cool. We were both exhausted so we read for a bit and turned in early.

On Saturday, we woke up, I brought my Keurig so we made coffee (well, there was no milk so I made my mom some coffee). Then we decided we wanted to go to the light house. The light house was pretty cool, my mom doesn’t like heights so I wandered the over 200 steps to the top. It wasn’t a warm day but I had shorts on anyway and by the time I got to the halfway point, I was sweating. I think that’s a sign I need to go back to the gym. The top was spectacular. I spoke with an old woman who had worked there for years and she told me some stories about the light house and showed me some old pictures. She was an interesting character. I stepped out onto the ledge and immediately got nervous, it was so high up, AND windy, not a very great combination. I then started my descend back down the steps, which was much easier than walking up.

I found my mom at the light house grounds near the gift shop (which used to be a storage space for fire light materials) reading a book she had bought. We then wandered onto the beach, where we came across a military bunker from WW2. It had used to be 30 feet in the ocean and was recently put on the beach. Beach erosion is crazy. Some of the houses were moved back a block (and are still ocean front) to prevent them from going underwater. We then decided we wanted to go shopping so we went back, ducked into a building that had all kinds of reptiles in the area. The turtles and lizards were so cute.

We went to the center of Cape may, where all the shopping is. We went to quite a few antique shops and other shops before it got too crowded. Apparently it was fireman’s weekend in Wildwood and all the hotels were booked so people came to Cape May. I started getting frustrated with the crowds, because we both expected it to be almost deserted. So after ordering lunch we left.

The rest of the day was spent reading and napping. We then went to the Lobster House for dinner. It’s one of the best restaurants in Cape May, and you can’t make a reservation! We arrived at 530 and it was already packed. We then took a buzzer to wait our turn and went up to the bar area to wait. We ended up talking to a woman who worked in advertising and offered me her business card if I ever needed an internship. She was nice. My mother and I finally got to sit down and order food. Everything that we had was amazing, i’ll definitely be going back there again one day. We went back to the hotel, and I shared my Mongolia bakery cupcakes.

On Sunday, we wandered on the beach for a little bit before heading out. We decided to check out Smithville on the way home. It’s a very old town, with all of the houses turned into small shops. We had  breakfast at the original Smithville Inn, which was a 2 roomed house with a kitchen. Then we wandered around in the shops for a few hours before calling it a day.