Wine Country with the Folks!

The Allees returned to California last week to spend some time in Sonoma Valley (aka wine country)!  My parents rented a house with their friends so Shane and I (as well as their daughter, from San Diego) had the pleasure visiting for the weekend to check out a few wineries and get out of the city and into the sunshine!

Our adorable accomodations

Isn't she radiant? That's my Momma :-)

Dad, constantly making us laugh :-)

Just wanted to show off my new photog skills, thanks to my new camera!
(b-day gift from the Parentals)

Total wine connoisseur now

Cheers!

Cedar Point

Shane and I spent the last week in Shane's hometown of Toledo, Ohio. We had a great time seeing and catching up with everyone.  The most noteworthy parts of our trip were Shane's sister Kristen's graduation party (woo hoo! so proud of you!), Shane's nephew and godson Nico's baptism, and a trip to Cedar Point with Shane's Dad, sister Lily and sister's boyfriend Josh.

If you're not familiar with Cedar Point, then you're probably neither a native of the midwest nor a roller coaster enthusiast.  Cedar Point has been named the Best Amusement Park in the World for 14 years running.  There's nothing else I can say to do justice to how awesome their rides are, but I encourage you to at least watch this video of my favorite rollercoaster, the Millenium Force...

God I love roller coasters.

Summer Vacay: Cabo 2012

Better late than never, right?  Most of you have probably seen the full set of photos on my Facebook, but for the rest of you, here's some photos and details of our much-needed summer getaway to sunny Mexico!


Day 1, Friday:

We arrived in Cabo, after a leisurely (and surprisingly short) direct flight.  We checked in at the hotel, took in the beauty of the ocean and the mountains in the distance, then headed straight to the pool with a drink in hand!

Day 2, Saturday:

Slept in, had coffee and breakfast on the patio, napped in the hammock, basked in the sun (with more drinks in hand, of course), had our first massage, then went for a fantastic dinner out in the city....

 

 
Day 3, Sunday:

We took an early morning shuttle to Cabo San Lucas (the more touristy of the two "Cabos"). Walked around, ate chips and salsa, had a few drinks, then caught a glass-bottom boat to Lover's Beach (or Lover's beah) to see the famous Arch.  We ate the BEST late lunch at a little taqueria, did a bit of shopping, and then took the shuttle back to our hotel. Oh, and then we got another massage :-)

 

Day 4, Monday:

Our last full day in Los Cabos! So sad! We stayed at our hotel most of the day to soak up all the fun-in-the-sun time that we could.  We walked into the city for lunch, and ended the day with a long walk on the beach and a farewell dinner at our favorite restaurant.

Day 5, Tuesday (my birthday!):

We had most of the morning and some of the afternoon to enjoy our last moments of vacation. We started the day with massages (and the staff even gave us an extra 20 minutes since I was the birthday girl!), then Shane surprised me with a cake from the best bakery in Cabo, and then we were on to the airport for our upgraded flight home (thanks Mom & Dad!)...

 

For anyone looking for a vacation destination on the cheap, we DEFINITELY recommend Cabo, or anywhere in Mexico for that matter (we went to Cozumel last year)! We found our all-inclusive-hotel package on a Groupon-like site which saved us a bundle and allowed us to treat ourselves a few times (nice dinners out, shopping, daily massages) so we really felt like we were traveling luxuriously!

Cabo, here we come!

Fiiiiiiiiiinally, Shane and I are getting the vacation we need and deserve!  For the next 5 days we will be sunning ourselves and drinking margaritas on the beach and by the pool in Cabo!  Try not to be jealous...

Sunday in Charlotte

Pancake breakfast (hangover cure), Beauty and the Beast in 3D (which explains our super cool glasses), and my world famous red beans and rice for dinner (my momma taught me good)!

Saturday night in Charlotte

This weekend I'm visiting my BFF Becky in Charlotte, North Carolina. And it's awesome!

Virgin America

So one of the many airlines that fly into the San Francisco airport (SFO) is Virgin America.  They're a pretty young airline so their airplanes are super high tech and flashy and basically awesome.  For me, they're one of those airlines I always heard about but never lived even remotely close to a city they fly into (they only service 16 cities).  We flew Virgin both to and from Christmas via Chicago (coach on the way there and First Class home!) and will DEFINITELY be flying them again whenever possible!

They're also surprisingly affordable! I don't totally understand how they remain profitable with this cost structure, but you can fly from Dallas to SFO for $99 (ahem, Nancy), Chicago to SFO for $99 (ahem, Harter fam), Fort Lauderdale to SFO for $149 (ahem, Slaton fam), and New York City to SFO for $149 (ahem, James & Jessica).  So come visit.  Please.

Excitement!

The seats recline AND massage!

All you can drink AND free DirecTV

p.s. they also fly SFO to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for $141 (ahem, Shane take me here :-) )

A very belated Christmas post

Christmas has come and gone. Shane and I are done with our holiday travels and we're both back at work today.  We had a wonderful time in Ohio and we're both a little homesick, but we spent a lot of our time there preaching about how great California is, so hopefully we'll have a few visitors before too long (HINT, HINT!!).

I think I can sum up most of our holiday season with photos...

Archie and Traveller slept while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads
Our PHENOMENAL friends Kennedy & Dan dogsat for us
Photo credit: Dan and/or Kennedy

Shane and I had OUR Christmas the night before we flew to Toledo
Note the glasses of Cider -- our new Christmas tradition!

Shane got me an iPhone! Woo hooooo!

Flew to Chicago where we spent the afternoon and early evening

Amtraked to Toledo where we were greeted with a TON of Christmas cheer

Loved on precious baby Nico (nephew)

Played with Kobe (and missed Archie of course)

Flew home via Virgin America First Class (additional post on this subject coming soon)

Archie declared that next time we travel he's coming with us

We hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we did, and we wish you a very happy new year!

Chi Town

We're on our way to Christmas in Toledo and after an absolutely lovely Virgin America flight (during which I slept approximately 3 hours), we made it safely to Chicago! We spent the afternoon window shopping, visiting Millennium Park, and dining at a delicious Italian restaurant (Rosebud on Rush). After dinner, we headed to Union Station, retrieved our luggage from a locker and and climbed aboard our Amtrak train to Toledo! See you soon, Harters!

NTS: not too shabby ;-)