The Ambitious Odometer

Sunday, January 27, 2013

{Friends, Food & Fun} Las Vegas, NV

I just got back from a conference in Las Vegas, and oh what fun we had. We got out there on Thursday, and I was so happy to cross three things off my "list"... Though I've been to Las Vegas a couple of times before, most recently in April, I had not yet seen "the sign"...

I visited the top of The Stratosphere for the first time & enjoyed lunch at Top of the World...

before ending the night with appetizers & drinks on the open air deck of Brass the Lounge, overlooking the famous Fremont Street Experience, the part of "old" Las Vegas that I had yet to see...

After a full day of meetings and workshops, we headed out to dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill...

and guess who we bumped into along the way ~ Taylor Hicks from American Idol!!!

Embarrassingly enough, he walked right by us and I chased him down and asked for a picture...yes, yes I did... I was never really a fan of his, but he is really pretty good looking in person... :)

After another long day of meetings and workshops on Saturday, we ended the day with dinner at the Las Vegas classic, Piero's...

and I capped off the night with a visit to Tory Burch...

to indulge in a new pair of shoes!

We left Las Vegas mid-morning on Sunday. What a fun trip, but I'm so glad to be home!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Washington, D.C. {2012} - Day 3

Today Hubby got up super early and headed out to get ready for the 8:00am Army Ten-Miler race. The 3 little ones and I arrived just in (perfect) time to meet up with him after he was finished!

I have to say that I was seriously dreading the trip from our hotel out to the Pentagon. You see, our hotel is a shuttle ride to the nearest Metro stop, which just happens to be in Reagan National Airport.

Okay...not a huge deal... I'm fine with getting around in big cities and I'm pretty confident using public transportation, it is just the added factor of the 3 little ones and one massive (ginormous) stroller. It's been my (limited) experience that public transportation is not super-stroller friendly...

Enter the fact that our "double stroller" was a compromise...it is actually a bike trailer...

So, instead of a double jogging stroller, it is actually a double bike trailer that you can attach a wheel to and convert it to a "stroller". When we got it last year, L was nearing the age of not really riding in a stroller anymore anyway, but I wanted something that I could use to push the girls in on the walk to and from B's school each day. With us dropping that much money on a new piece of "equipment", Hubby wanted it to be something he could use and attach to his bike to pull the girls in. It has really worked well for us on trips where we plan to do a lot of walking...we took it to Walt Disney World with us last summer and it really did work perfectly on our extensive trek around Washington, D.C. yesterday!

With all that being said, I was super nervous about all of the logistics of folding and unfolding the "stroller" to get it on and off of the shuttle (while managing the 3 little ones), and everything to do with the Metro. It can be really hard to get to and from elevators (to use to get up and down to and from both the tracks and the street, and they usually aren't very well marked! Ugghhh!

Needless to say, I was super proud of myself for making it through each "stage" of our trip out to the Pentagon...

riding the shuttle...

{I couldn't even think about the fact that the littles ones weren't in carseats on the shuttle...made me nauseous!}

arriving at the airport (to catch the Metro)...

{see what I mean? our "stroller" is huge!}

Once we got out to the Metro stop (at the airport), the elevator (to take us up to the trains) was out of service, but the nice Metro man got it working for us...yay!!!

We got to our Pentagon stop, and it was a madhouse with everyone who had finished the race trying to get on the trains. Thankfully, I found another nice Metro worker who helped direct us to the elevator, and I got a text from Hubby at about the same time saying that he was done with the race...

We met up with Hubby and made our way over to the Youth Run where B ran his little heart out...

while his sisters helped to cheer him on!

So proud of my 2 boys!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Washington, D.C. {2012} - Day 2

We started off our day early with brunch at the American Girl Bistro just outside Washington, D.C.

and celebrated little M's 2nd birthday (albeit exactly 5 1/2 months late) in similar fashion to how we celebrated L's 2nd birthday just over 2 years ago in New York City...

M picked out her new Bitty Baby...

and we celebrated...

Our waitress sang to her and proclaimed our table "the cutest table she had ever waited on...ever"...ha!

After brunch, we headed into D.C. and went "memorial-hopping"!

the Washington Monument...

the Lincoln Memorial...

the FDR Memorial...

{B snapped this one!}

{we lost a couple on the walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the FDR Memorial!}

and the Jefferson Memorial...

{yes, we covered some serious ground in just a few hours!}

before meeting up with my Aunt M & Uncle K for a yummy dinner at T.J. Stone's, near our hotel...

Phew...early morning for Hubby tomorrow!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Washington, D.C. {2012} - Day 1

With the little ones on Fall Break the end of this week, and with Hubby registered to run the Army Ten-Miler on Sunday...not to mention B's love of all things Presidential, we headed up to D.C. for the long weekend...

We didn't get off as early as expected yesterday, but managed to make it well into Virginia Thursday night. We stopped for lunch in Charlottesville at Cinema Taco, and the sweet potato & black bean burrito with mango habanero salsa was yummy!!!

Afterwards, we headed on to Mount Vernon!

The one thing that I remembered from my family's visit to Mount Vernon when I was younger (besides the fact that the exterior was white when I visited!) was the gorgeous view of the Potomac River...sooo beautiful and peaceful!

I loved sharing the home of the father of our country with our little ones...

It is actually very interesting why the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association decided to resurface the exterior of the home using the "rustication" method, finding it more historically accurate...

Sunday, September 23, 2012

{Food, Friends & Fun} Chicago, IL

I just got home from Chicago, where I spent a few days attending a volunteer leadership conference. What a fun time! It was my first trip to Chicago and because of both our hotel location and our flight times, we really had a lot of time outside of the conference to visit some neat places.

Here are some of the highlights (friends, food & fun) from our trip!

K & I were the representatives from our organization. She picked me up at 5:30am for our 7:00am flight... Needless to say, we made it to Chicago in plenty of time to grab breakfast!

We dropped our bags at the hotel and took a cab across town to Lou Mitchell's...

From there, we walked over to the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and shot up to the 103rd floor...

I even made it out onto the glass ledge...

before heading back to the hotel to check in and make it to our first meeting.

After our meeting, we enjoyed a reception at the home of the President of our local counterpart in Chicago...

as well as some unmatched views of the city from her 53rd floor apartment...

After the reception, we met up with our Charleston girls and enjoyed dinner out at The Purple Pig...

On Friday, we had a full day of sessions, but had some free time that afternoon to explore and shop the best of Chicago's Magnificent Mile...

before dinner at Volare...

drinks and an awesome view from the top of the John Hancock Center...

and a little bit of singing and dancing at the dueling piano bar, Howl at the Moon...

On the last day of the conference, we had another full day of sessions, but were able to enjoy a couple of local favorites for lunch. While some headed to Portillo's for hotdogs...

others of us continued a couple of blocks further to Gino's East for deep dish pizza...

Half of our South Carolina group headed home that afternoon, but along with our Columbia girls, K & I headed down to the Chicago Children's Museum for the closing reception...

before finding a good spot to cheer on our Clemson Tigers... Sadly, our team didn't win, but we celebrated a great trip to Chicago anyway, with one last stop at the famous Billy Goat Tavern...