Spontaneous Road Trip Preparations April 20-21

About a week before Easter, we realized Colin was going to have a day off for Good Friday.  With family in town and Colin traveling for a bachelor party, we didn't really have a chance to think about what we might do with a three day weekend until two days before the holiday.  We started the process by thinking of where we could go with just three days and three nights.  Colin has been slightly obsessed with Jacksonville, FL, so we decided that would be one of the destinations for our trip.  Since we both had to work a full day on Thursday, we thought about a destination between Raleigh and Jacksonville and immediately decided on Savannah, Georgia for the first leg of the trip.  We have both been to Charleston, SC and have both really wanted to make a trip to Savannah on numerous occasions, but never did.

There was obviously little time to plan, but on Wednesday evening, after checking hotel rates on Kayak, we decided to try and use the bidding feature on Priceline to find a better deal on a hotel in Savannah.  After selecting our preferences (3.5 stars, historic district or riverfront in Savannah) we bid $65 for the night and our bid was accepted!  The hotel we got, the Hilton Savannah de Soto, was priced at $150 for the same nights on Kayak!

As soon as we bid, Colin remembered an online forum where people share their bids.  For those of you that have never used Priceline, if your bid is not accepted, you can't just go and bid higher for 24 hours.  You can however, change details about the bid (like number of stars or exact location).  We thought we were lucky with our bid on the Savannah hotel, because a lower bid may not have been accepted.  Based on the forum posts, it didn't look like we could have gotten a better deal than we did.

We also went to the library on Wednesday and checked out some travel books on Savannah, Georgia, and Florida and I e-mailed a friend who was familiar with the Jacksonville area.  His recommendation was to go camping at Cumberland Island National Seashore, off the coast of southern Georgia.  I spent Wednesday evening and part of the day on Thursday trying to make reservations for the ferry and campground on the island.  I managed to get us on a ferry for Saturday morning to come back the same day because I was told the campground was full.  But, the woman told me to bring our camping stuff because sometimes there ended up being room on the day of the trip.

So, as soon as we got off of work on Thursday, we grabbed our city bags and camping bags, our travel books, cell phones, laptop and chargers and got in the car headed to Savannah.  We had lodging booked for the night and a ferry ride planned to Cumberland Island on Saturday - and that was all.

 Above: My clothes for a 3 day trip without concrete plans

Below: Colin's clothes for a 3 day trip without concrete plans

 Below: Water bottles, cell phones, cell phone car charger, mp3 players are the essentials for any long trip.  Only thing missing is our dinner and snacks.

Have you ever taken a spontaneous trip?
If so, how does it compare to other trips you've taken?

Stay tuned for details about how we made out!

Greenville and Greensboro, NC work travel March 22-25

The month of March was filled with travel.  As the previous two posts indicate, I spent the week of my birthday at the Outer Banks (OBX).  When I returned to work, I traveled each of the last two weeks of the month.

The first week, March 22-25, involved traveling for 2 days to Greenville, NC and a day trip to Greensboro, NC.

Greenville is about 85 miles east of Raleigh - about halfway to the beach.  I had been to Greenville twice before this trip.  The first time I went with Colin to visit our friend Leora, who was doing an occupational therapy internship rotation at the hospital there.  Leora is our friend from the University of Vermont who currently lives in Massachusetts.  Her internship brought her to Greenville from January through March.  The second time I went to Greenville to visit a program I oversee in that county.

This trip brought me to Greenville for a conference of North Carolina Cooperative Extension staff.  It was nice to meet other staff from the eastern part of the state and to interact with other NCSU Extension staff from Raleigh.  My coworker and I left on Tuesday and attended the conference on Wednesday and Thursday.  We had dinner at the City Bistro Cafe, which is the restaurant in the hotel where the conference was located and where we stayed.  The best part of the dinner was this amazing chocolate cake we shared.

The conference was enjoyable and the meals provided were okay.  On Wednesday night, I was able to celebrate Leora's last night in Greenville with her.  She had a small get together at a Mexican restaurant called La Cabana.  Leora loves margaritas and, at $2.50 each, you couldn't find a better deal.  It was great to see her one last time before she went back to Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much time to explore Greenville because the conference was an all day event both days.  The first time I was there, Leora took us to River Park North for some hiking through the woods with her dog.  It was a pretty small park, but did provide a place to enjoy the outdoors.  We also got to eat at Sup Dogs, an eatery that offers meat and vegetarian hot dogs.  My impression of the city is that there isn't much that would draw me there in the future.

We got back from Greenville late on Thursday and I had to travel again on Friday.  This time I headed 80 miles in the opposite direction, to Greensboro, NC.  This was just a day trip to meet with a colleague from outside of Charlotte.  The library where we worked for most of the morning was one of the nicest libraries I've seen in awhile (Hemphill Public Library).  There was a small private room that was perfect for us to work undisturbed.

In the afternoon we took our meeting to Panera, where we got lunch and continued to work.  I have come to really enjoy lunch and working at Panera.  While they do not appear to offer sustainable meat, they do have some pretty good vegetarian options - like the black bean soup, the tomato and mozzarella sandwich, and the Mediterranean veggie sandwich.  Their salads are also pretty good and you can get an apple with your meal.  I do find the food to taste very salty every time I eat there though.  When I go there to work and have already had a meal, I typically enjoy their chai latte or ginger-peach tea.

I don't know much about Greensboro and will have to save a post about the area for a time I actually get to spend some time exploring.

Exploring part of the Outer Banks

The week I spent in the Outer Banks with my mom was nice and relaxing.  Without a car at our disposal, my mom and I used what Colin likes to call "hamburger power" to get around.  With the car, we decided Saturday would be the day of exploration.


The day started out at the Wright Brothers National Memorial (http://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm) in Kill Devil Hills. Kill Devil Hills is the town just south of Kitty Hawk and our vacation rental.  It was interesting to read about Orville and Wilbur Wright, who chose Kill Devil Hills because they needed wind and sand to test their flights.  I am fascinated that it took at least 2000 years of civilization for man to sustain flight, but only took about 50 years for humans to escape the earth's atmosphere once sustained flight was achieved.


The memorial boasts few interactive displays, but the story is not lost.  There is one exhibit that was interesting.  It showed the 100 year celebration, where people tried unsuccessfully to replicate those first flights.  Outside, there is a monument on top of a large hill dedicated to the two brothers from Ohio.  On the grounds you can walk the distance each of the four first flights traveled (which was not very far).  I am reminded of the first flight every day when I look at North Carolina license plates! 

The park entrance fee is a mere $4 and you can get a year's pass for $20.  In my opinion, the best value is the $80 "America the Beautiful" National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass.  This pass is good for a year and gets you into all the National Parks throughout the U.S.  We bought this pass in 2008 when we did a west coast trip to The Grand Canyon and California.  The pass is a great incentive to travel and visit the U.S. Parks, which have been preserved for us to enjoy.  It is sad to hear that many of our parks are limiting their service.  Millers on the Road have enjoyed some and hope to see many more!


After visiting the Memorial, we visited Jockey's Ridge State Park (http://www.jockeysridgestatepark.com/), just south of Kill Devil Hills, in Nag's Head.  Jockey's Ridge is the tallest natural sand dune system in the Eastern United States.  It reminded me a little bit of our exploration of Frasier Island in Australia, which is considered to be the largest sand island in the world at 720 square miles.

At Jockey's Ridge, we stopped at the information center to grab a map and set out to explore the dunes.  We started along the boardwalk from the information center and reached an area where everyone left their shoes.  We did the same and it felt great to walk barefoot in the cool, soft sand.

There were hang gliding kites laying in the sand, but we didn't see anyone hang gliding.  We also saw some people carrying cardboard boxes for sand-boarding, but didn't see anyone actually boarding.

The view from the top of the dunes was good and mimicked the view from the Wright Brother's Memorial.  One nice feature at Jockey's Ridge was getting to see the bay up close.  I have a feeling the sunset from the dunes would be amazing.

We opted for continuing to explore and left Jockey's Ridge to drive north along route 12.  The drive through Duck showed us a really cute beach town that had some Newport, RI-like characteristics.  While it seemed like we drove forever past Kitty Hawk (maybe 30 minutes), we still didn't reach the northern-most part of the Outer Banks - Corolla.  As the sun dipped lower in the sky, we decided to head back to Duck to catch a sunset on the bay.

The houses between Duck and Corolla were enormous!  It was fun to imagine who owned them and what kind of parties they hosted there.  My guess is that they are corporate owned.  I think someone said a former governor of North Carolina owns a house out there.  Pop Quiz beloved readership: Anyone know who owns some of the mansion-looking houses out there??

We reached Duck just in time to see the sun dip below the horizon.  It seemed like a perfect ending to our last day in the Outer Banks.

The Outer Banks aka OBX

Those of you that know me know that I love travel deals.  When travelzoo (www.travelzoo.com) listed a deal on the Outer Banks through Endless Vacation Rentals (http://www.endless-vacation-rentals.com/) I jumped right on it.  The deal was actually pretty awesome - $250 for a 1 bedroom vacation rental for the week or $275 for a 2 bedroom rental.  The pictures looked decent and the property was within walking distance to the beach.

There were options for weeks in March, April, and May.  I knew April and May would be much warmer, but my big 30th birthday was in March, so I decided to book that week.  I did debate reserving a second week in May, but Colin kept me in check.  Since he did start a job here in North Carolina back in January, he doesn't have much vacation time built up yet.

Luckily, my mom was on board to come down and visit and spend the week at the beach with me.  Colin joined us for each of the weekends.  I tried invited people I know who were off of work and were relatively close, but no one else could join us.

The beach rental was called Barrier Island Station and was located in Kitty Hawk.  Because we were without a car for the week, we didn't explore much of the area until the weekend.  We did however, do a lot of exercise.  The rental property was actually a timeshare resort and had an indoor pool, fitness center, steam room, and walking trails.  I usually ran in the mornings before lunch and walked to the beach with mom after lunch.  I logged my miles on daily mile (www.dailymile.com) and the weeks total came out to 38 miles of walking and running.  That's the entire length of the state of Rhode Island!!  My mom probably logged pretty close to 20 miles herself.  There was an outdoor pool, but we did not dare attempt to swim in it.

I will admit that I did take water aerobics and my mom was the second youngest person in the class with me!

The weather was a mix of good and bad.  When we arrived, it was beautiful and sunny with temperatures in the 60-70's.  Unfortunately, the weather changed to low 40's on Monday.  That was the day we kept to the pool and indoor gym.  Each day got progressively warmer and we were able to walk to the beach each of the subsequent days.

Wednesday was my birthday and the day was in the 50's and cloudy.  We kept to our normal routine, having a good breakfast, going to exercise, having a nice lunch, and walking to the beach.  We did manage to take a few photos for the occasion.

On the way back, my mom insisted on getting birthday cake to go along with the delicious fish dinner she had planned for me.

Thursday and Friday were gorgeous days.  On Thursday, I ran 11 miles (training for a half marathon) and we went for a nice long walk on the beach.

Friday, we spent the whole day basking in the 70-80 degree sun.  The only downside of the day was trying to find a bathroom near the beach!!

Once Colin joined us and brought the car, we were able to explore more of the area.  I'll save the details for the next post.

Traveling to Asheville, NC - December 9-11, 2010

The months of October and November have been extremely busy with work.  Since I now work on a federal grant, our fiscal year starts October 1.  Once we receive our official award letter, it's a race to Thanksgiving.  During those two months we are printing curriculum, ordering supplies and making sure appropriate logos and non-discrimination statements are on any materials we are developing.  This year was difficult because the program doubled in size and the team of 5 increased to 7.  As a result of this increase, several of my travel experiences in the past two months have included large cargo vans with several trips to Rocky Mount, NC - an hour away.  I also had the great pleasure of helping to drive the 4 hours in a cargo van to Asheville, NC.

The only fun trip I've had in the past two months was a short Thanksgiving break where I did too much traveling.  It started with an hour flight to Boston and an hour drive to RI on Thanksgiving Day followed by a 3 hour drive to Albany on Friday.  Saturday was a day of rest.  Sunday was the 3 hour return trip to RI, with the 45minute drive back to Boston for my 1 hour flight first thing Monday morning.  It makes me tired just writing about it.

All of the hard work our team has done since October (and developing curriculum before then) was completed with two culminating events.  The first on December 2 with a training here in Raleigh and was the larger of the two the second on December 10 with a training in Asheville.  Today's post is about the trip to Asheville.

While driving a huge cargo van 4 hours is not ideal, the trip did not seem so long while in the company of good coworkers.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated all three days, and it wasn't until we were coming back, and an hour from Raleigh, that we saw any precipitation.  Since the Asheville training was the day we gave out the last of the supplies, it was a time for celebration when we finished.  Our boss was kind enough to buy us all tickets to the Biltmore Estate candlelit tour, which also allowed us entry to the grounds during the following day.  So, after the full day of training, we enjoyed exploring the Biltmore Estate, enjoyed a wine tour and tasting, and ended with a dinner at the Bistro, one of the Biltmore restaurants.

Upon reaching our hotel, we realized the Clarion Hotel in Fletcher, NC has a club where the locals visit on the weekend (it was a Friday night).  A few of us decided to explore the attraction and enjoyed the metal band mixed in with a DJ that had a difficult time transitioning songs.  The locals were typical of a small town - 20 year olds mixed in with 60 year olds - at the "club" to get wasted and pick someone up.  We quickly realized we were tired and headed back to our rooms.

Saturday morning we enjoyed the Biltmore grounds and Biltmore Village before returning to a rainy Raleigh.

The State Fair, October 12-24, 2010

The North Carolina State Fair was held in Raleigh this month, and boy what an event it was!!  Being in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at NC State University allowed me to be exposed to the fair as a judge, a volunteer, and as a participant.

As a judge, my job was to taste test about 50 different bakery items.  Now, this probably sounds really awesome to some of you - but let me just say that 10 bites is nice, 20 starts to put you in food coma, and 50 is way too much!!  I had a headache for most of the day.  Plus, I am not the best at describing what about the taste I did, or did not, like.  I also had to taste test the 9-12 year old category, so there were lots of muffins, cookies, hard candy and fudge.  Here are some photos of the items I had to judge.

The main benefit of judging is that I received a free entry and parking pass to the fair for the entire 10 days.  I called it my VIP pass.  All I had to do was flash my pass, and I was waived right in.  I took full advantage of this pass and enjoyed the Fair on 3 separate days.

The first weekend (October 17), I went with my coworker and we did a big loop around the fairgrounds, stopping in at the Grist Mill, Village of Yesteryear, seeing the poultry exhibit, and hanging out at the waterfall to enjoy "Elephant Ears" - which are just like Portuguese doughboys and much better than Funnel Cake!!

In the middle of the week, I went with other coworkers during our lunch break.  My office is a 10 minute walk to the fair - so I never even needed the parking pass!  My coworkers wanted to get lunch at the fair and were offered some pretty outrageous options!!

Fair food is a Dietitian's nightmare!  I guess it keeps me in business!!  My coworkers did not get lured in by the deep fried candy bars.  Instead, they went for the sausage sandwich, boiled peanuts and cooked corn (dipped in butter).  I tasted the boiled peanuts, which reminded me of salted potatoes.

I saved my eating for my evening at the fair last week.  On Wednesday, October 20, I went to the Fair after work to check out some of the exhibits I had not really gotten a chance to look at.  I saw all the bakery items that were judged by 20 of us, and the countless jams and jellies that were judged by my other colleagues.  In addition, there were beautiful displays of everything from handmade dresses, to embroidered artwork, to 4-H photography.  My favorite were the decorated cakes.

It was pretty amazing to see the time and effort put into some of these projects.  And many amazing things done by 4-H youth!

Once my roommate got to the fair, we explored the animal exhibits and I actually milked a cow!!

 

My roommate grew up on a diary farm in Jersey, so she thought it was hilarious that I was excited about milking a cow!  

We joined up with about 6-10 of her friends and walked around the fairgrounds.  This time I did sample a lot of the unhealthy food.  Since there were so many of us, we each got something different and shared, so none of us had too much of any one thing.  The list of foods I tried are: Wisconsin cheese mozzarella sticks, cheddar nuggets, and jalapeno sticks; Funnel cake; Deep fried Oreos, Milky Way, and Reese's cups; buttered corn; lemonade; and cheese fries.  All I can say is that it was a good thing I waited over a week after judging bakery items to eat at the Fair!!  

We ended the night with a perfectly timed ride on the Ferris Wheel - just in time to see the fireworks from 50 feet in the air!!

It was a great evening at the Fair with less crowds because it was cool and had rained earlier in the day.  

I went back to the Fair once more on Thursday night to volunteer at the Vermicomposting station at the "NC Green" Exhibit.  I spent almost 5 hours encouraging people to try worm composting.  I did get out for a brief break to grab a highly recommended dinner at the Pork producers tent.  It was the first time I had a good meal at the Fair (if you discount the hushpuppies that came with the pork).  Since Thursday was "get in free with 4 canned food items" the Fair was REALLY busy.  I'm glad I wasn't walking around that day.

My first "real" fair was impressive.  The weather was amazing most of the week, keeping in the mid 70's and sunny almost every day.  I think the great weather led to the record crowd of over 1 million people who came in those 10 days.  

Jonesin' for a Vacation!

For the past few weeks I have really been wanting to plan a vacation.  Since June, my only real travels have been back and forth to NYC.  I would not consider these trips vacations.  I have a friend from high school who has been in New Zealand since February and following her blog is giving me nostalgia to go back.  Another friend recently left on a trip to eastern Europe and my parents are currently in Portugal.  I love to travel and see the world, though I am not a fan of flying.  With our lives in transition, it's so hard for me to not be able to plan for us to go somewhere.  In the past two weeks, I've "planned" trips to Patagonia (South America), Macchu Picchu (Peru), Ecuador and the Galapagos, and Portugal.  Just this week I looked into an "Around the World" flight (http://wikitravel.org/en/Round_the_world_flights), which is actually cheaper than our roundtrip flights to Australia and New Zealand.  When I created my trip around the world (http://www.roundtheworldflights.com/), I planned to stop in Cario, Egypt; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Singapore; Darwin, Australia; Fiji; and Hawaii.  How amazing would that trip be!!??  I know that the Australia/New Zealand trip this past winter was a big one and we can't do that all the time, but I wish I had a job that would send me (and Colin) to various places in the world for months at a time.  I should have been a travel writer.  I envy those who traveled to Thailand, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand for a year or semester during or right after college.  It would have been amazing to go to the world cup in Africa this past summer, too.

The challenge is finding the time and money to travel.  You can certainly make it happen affordably, but if you are a professional, you lose "experience" and create gaps in your resume if you want to go away for an extended period of time.  Traveling right after college is a great time to go, but it's hard to find the money when you see the debt you've acquired over the last 4, 6, or 8 years!  When you travel during "vacation time" from work, you actually get paid while you are away, but it's hard to get away for longer than 1 month (unless you are a teacher).

If any of you out there have a job offer for me to get paid to travel the world, I am all ears!!  Or, just send me some amazing vacation ideas that I could research and get excited about doing someday!  :)