Oh Hey, Friday! Travel Edition- Budapest

Forever ago N & I went to Europe.  I've never blogged about it. Heck! I didn't even blog about when we went to Turkey like 5 years ago! (Ok I did get ONE post done) But I do have some great photos- that are an excellent way to fill up a Five on Friday Post.

So today...I'll look back at Budapest

1)  Chain Bridge

2) New York Cafe

3) Flea Market Finds

4) The Szechenyi Baths

5) Fisherman's Bastion

Budapest was surprising. In a very very very good way. I absolutely loved it. The city was unbelievably gorgeous, the food was amazing and the people were incredibly kind and helpful. I would go back in a heartbeat. 

I have so many wonderful photos and memories from this stop on our trip, but there are so so so many more. 

The Chain Bridge is stunning. Stunning during the day; stunning during the night. I took more photos of this site than I can count, but it was iconic, and beautiful. We went on a long stroll one night and walked partway across; watching the boats underneath and the lights on both side of the river was a great evening view.

The New York Cafe was a Rick Steves highlight that I put high on my list. It was gorgeous; gilded in gold, and flecked with such history is was breathtaking to sit, enjoy a cappuccino and take it all in. 

N found flea market- and it may have been one of my favorite experiences from our trip. I curated some antique keys for my collected; N got an awesome lego person and we have tons of photos of the amazing assortments from vendor's tables.

The baths! Oh my! I would go back again just for this. I only did one; and it was relaxing; less stressful than I thought (minus figuring out electronic lockers in a different language) and really a glimpse into true Budapest culture. 

We only spent one day on the Buda side. The views from Fisherman's Bastion were worth the trek and it was like being transported to a different country just across the river. We have a lot of pictures of ornate doors- which were particularly amazing on the Buda side of the city.   

This is such a sliver of our trip- but it is really fun to go back through the photos and remember those awesome 10 days!

Catch-up: Family Comes to DC

It is a lazy Saturday ( a much needed lazy one), and the accomplishments today have included: catching up on missed Top Chef episodes, making a "ghetto" latte with coffee from Copenhagen, showering, and eating a lunch of Mac N' Cheese. Luckily, we do have plans to meet-up with some friends tonight, but I am enjoying the art of nothingness for today.

Time continues to evaporate, and I find myself not even knowing how or where to start when I am presented with some down time. Most "down" time is spent watching TV--which is such a waste in so many ways, but often all my brain can comprehend after multiple busy weekends, and weeks of intense work.

After family visiting, a trip back west, a work trip up north and early morning weekends, I relished in a lack of an alarm, and taking my sweet time to get dressed and ready for the day.

To re-cap some of happenings from the last few weeks...I present mediocre iphone photos to capture the moments:

Birthday Dinner for Gramps at DGBG, complete with homemade sausages.

We did a weekend trip down to see Williamsburg and Monticello, and lucked out with some of the most fantastic fall weather.

A final day-trip was to Annapolis where we checked out the state house and waterfront.

A final evening in DC was topped off with a impromptu visit to Graffito (which ended up being the best meal of their trip!)

And possibly the first family selfie.

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LACMA

For yet another one of our weddings on the #weddingtour2014 we found ourselves in LA and made a long weekend/ mini-vacay out of the trip. (since we all know I will use any excuse to be on the Best Coast as much as possible). We had the entire day after the wedding to hang out before heading to another epic dinner at Ink., our favorite restaurant. After a "rejuvenation breakfast" with some other friends who had been at the wedding, we decided to head to The Getty, but upon arriving, the line to park was barely moving and we didn't want to waste our day sitting in the car. A quick brainstorm and google search later...we decided to head over to LACMA. Parking was a breeze and in probably half the time it would have taken to finally get into the Getty, we were parked, had tickets and had planned our route through the multiple buildings to try to see the exhibits that interested us most. The architecture alone was amazing, and the weather was nothing short of stunning.

One of our finally areas that we were exploring lead us to a room with a HUGE installation that looked a lot like an adult erector set. It was a cityscape with a complex track for thousands of little cars to zip along. We quickly realized that it was actually motorized and we had come in just in time to have them turn the motors on so we could see all the moving parts.

The piece is Metropolis II by Chris Burden and it was entirely worth the trip to LACMA all on its own!

And to see it in action...some video footage

Taliesin West

I have yet to write about Christmas and my longbutalltooshort trip back West. Not only was I home with my family, I also got to go the BFs cousin's wedding in Scottsdale. While we were in Scottsdale we had a little bit of free time before catching our flight back up to Idaho. The BF had planned for us and his mom to get to go see and take the tour of Taliesin West, the winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the home of FLW school of architecture. Seeing Falling Water in Pennsylvania was so fantastic, that I couldn't wait to get to see Talisesin West.

It was stunning. There isn't much use in me trying to use words to explain or describe much of this, so I will let the photos walk you through the property.

Empire State- New York Day Two Cont.

After the ESB adventure we started walking up 5th Avenue in pursuit of a macaroon shop I had seen over at Amanda's Blog.It was the perfect walk to see many of the New York-y things I had wanted to stumble upon.
We had been walking and my neck was starting to get sore from starring up at all the amazing buildings when I saw it. My feet immediately did the excited scuttle step that the bf says I do when I get excited about something. But there it was. Magnolia. Cupcake mecca.



We had to try the vanilla/vanilla cupcake that has been the focus of my cupcake baking for awhile now. The cupcake did not disappoint. The cake was incredible, and true to form--the frosting was beyond yummy. The store was really cute and I even found a "Baked Fresh" onesie for Miss Ava!
We pressed on despite our feet really starting to get tired at this point.


But then the fun really started. The story goes like this: We are walking, nearing Central Park and the boyfriend goes, "Hey, we should get you a crazy extravagant engagement ring, and matching necklace. Because I just love you that much". I naturally couldn't refuse. So off to Harry Winston we went.

And I decided on this ring and complimentary necklace. Well the boyfriend decided that Tiffany’s was more our style and since we were right cross the street….


Ok. I kid. I kid. There was no ring shopping. Well not past window shopping and my wishful thinking!
So as I mentioned, Amanda had written about some of her favorite places to snag a macaroon in New York. One of her pictures in particular really caught my eye. There were 8 little perfect macaroons nestled in a cute little box that had POODLES on it. Well I had to have this box. So we tracked down Macaroon Café.  The box did not fail to have adorable little poodles on it, and it is one of my favorite souvenirs from NY. Both the boyfriend and I are yet to to be completely sold on macaroons, but we did vote that the less “florally” flavors were the best. I loved the mocha and traditional vanilla. It was fun to sit in the park with our ice tea and treats and got to people watch.






We found a perfect little bench to plop on to rest our feet and I could have sat there forever! Central Park has a magical quality to it that had me head over heels in love.









After people watching for an hour or so and walking around the little lake we headed back to our hotel to relax before celebrating our version of Valentine’s day.
I am a celebrity chef groupie, and I have a particular interest in the Top Chef contestants. For dinner the boyfriend treated me to an amazing meal at Tom Colicchio’s restaurant: Colicciho & Sons.
The food was incredible and the décor was really well done. We bailed into a cab to avoid a horrible rain storm and quickly crashed after our very full day in our big comfortable hotel bed.
Our last day was brief due to the rain and without any photos, but I do have some fun things to share!

Great Falls

Yesterday we both (great minds think alike! Or we just spend a lot of time together) had the inspirational idea to drive to Great Falls and go for a little walk and soak up some more of this unusually (really lame) warm February weather. The drive from DC was really pretty and complete with viewing some over-the-top ill designed McSuburbMansions.

In additional to seeing the falls we took a peaceful stroll through the trees and saw some of the remnants from George Washington's locke project.

It was a little peace and nature that does my soul good.

I Went to the Zoo Zoo Zoo, How about You You You?

Super Bowl Sunday. Yes, forever ago. I know. I obviously have been experiencing some writers block, or just sheer lack of motivation to write here. Which is bad bad bad. Back to the story. Super Bowl Sunday started to shape up as a day where I had zero invites, so to keep myself from sinking into "omgiwishedilivedinseattledbecausemysociallifestillreallyreallysucksincomparisonhereandigetsoupsetaboutit" mode I decided to go to the zoo and see if I could get a glimpse of the new lion cubs that were born not too long ago. I sadly missed the lion cubs BUT I did get some other great animal sightings. To start I got to see these little guys:

Sadly these 6 little guys, who are brothers, won't be at the DC zoo much longer. The zoo is trading them for a set of breeding ones, since obviously these ones can't produce offspring. I showed up just when it was feeding time and they were all perched on those rocks, trying not to fall into the ditch separating them from the fence. The were squeaking like it was their job. A zoo keeper showed up with little fish to feed them and she shared that the six brothers are called the "six pack" and are all named after a beer. I don't remember them all but there was Bud, Miller, and Dos who has cataracts.

They were so stinking cute! They would kind of clap their paws together and stand up on their back legs to beg for more fish. I loved it!

I also got to see the tiger and lion who are always asleep in their den when I go to the zoo, so it was a treat to see them out and about.

Did I mention that the weather was awesome? I was in a light fleece and actually had to take it off and carry it because it was so warm and sunny! Also for all you people who don't live here-- to make you a bit jealous (which is hard if you live in Seattle or Idaho), the zoo is F-R-E-E. Yup, all the time. Unreal huh?