Can I live in a hotel? Please? I said please!!

I love travel and I love hotels. I love them with a reckless abandon. Of course, the nicer the hotel, the better, but I even love budget numbers, especially the ones with "make your own waffle" stations. I freely admit that I am a constant sufferer of wanderlust, and I think hotels often, to me, symbolize a bit of freedom. 

I have been given the opportunity to travel quite a bit in my lifetime, starting at a very young age. My father worked in sales and traveled quite a bit. Many times, we were able to travel with him, and many more times, his frequent flyer miles and hotel points afforded us the ability to take some great vacations. 

In my adult life, I was lucky enough to find a wonderful husband, who enjoys travel just as much as I do. His job requires frequent, but short, trips, and on occasion, I get to travel with him. We are currently in Carlsbad, California, for his annual managers meeting. Unfortunately, the sun hasn't wanted to come out and play, but I will take the 65 degree weather over the 27 degrees at home, any day! 

Layover wine at O'Hare

We are staying at the Hilton Carlsbad Resort and Spa, which is beautiful, and has a fantastic restaurant onsite. I have enjoyed my breakfast each morning, although, I have yet to deviate from the Greek yogurt bowl (it is just too good). My plan for the rest of the day is to take the free hotel shuttle up to the Cedros Design District to wander through the shops and drink some wine.

The aforementioned yogurt bowl.

If you have to workout, this isn't a bad view to have while doing it.

Tomorrow, we will head over to Stone Brewing Company (my husbands favorite), and let the beer geeks in us run wild. Then Saturday, it's back home to Cincinnati and to our beloved children with fur. I think that if we could take them with us, we would never stop traveling. 

Enough about me, how about you? Do you love traveling? Hotels? Favorite place to travel? Let me know!

Pre-Birthday Festivities, aka, Super Fun Times

My birthday was on Sunday, but the festivities began Saturday afternoon. Rico and I attended Fifty Fest at Fifty West Brewery, and tried some great local, and local-ish brews. My favorite of the afternoon was Gin Bunny by Christian Moerlein, with Kerfuffle Mild by Yellow Springs Brewing coming in a close second.

Rico looks pensive, but I promise he is having a good time!

I tried to give Rhinegeist another shot, with their Franz Oktoberfest brew, but it just didn't do it. I have discovered with Rhinegeist that their beer has flavor for the first second that it hits your tongue... After that, it just falls flat. I really don't understand all of the hype around Cincinnati about
their beer. I guess it goes to show what great marketing will get you. Anyhoo....

We headed out before getting too toasty, so we could get ready for dinner. We invited our friends Teasha and Dan to join us for a pre-birthday dinner at our favorite restaurant, Scotti's. If you haven't been, Scotti's is a fantastic, old school, hole in the wall Italian restaurant downtown. When my grandfather was still with us, we would go to Scotti's, and he would talk to "Mama" about the old
country. I believe Mama was either the mother or grandmother of the owners. It is always a great time, and brings a slight tear to me eye to remember my grandfather. No pics from dinner (too dark)' but I did get this gorgeous shot of the evening sky.

After dinner, we headed to Dean's Hops & Vines for some post dinner drinks. Deans has become my favorite bar on our side of town. It is a casual place, but has a fantastic craft beer and wine selection.  And the bourbon... Oh the bourbon...

The drinks *may* have something to do with our Olan Mills photo re-creations...

I call this one "Drunken Contemplation" or "This Took Us 4 Tries"

We decided that we would all look in different directions. Trust me, it was easier that way.

We headed out relatively early, so Rick and I would be in good shape for my birthday tea Sunday afternoon. More about that later!

It was a great night, with great friends, and definitely made me file like one special birthday girl!