Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Our Mini Vacay!

I pitched my plan to Hubby last weekend, and he while he wasn't nearly excited as I was, he gave in and we made a compromise. We'd go to the zoo, not the waterpark, and we'd do it all in one day.

*blink*

That conversation went something like this...

Hubby: We'll leave early in the morning, get to the zoo right when they open...Tool around for a few hours and then drive back home that night.
Me: Uh, it's a seven hour drive. And the zoo opens at 9am, eastern time...You're saying we leave here at 1am? We're going to be exhuasted.
Hubby: You sleep on the way out there. I'll sleep on the way back. It'll be all good. We'll go Wednesday.

*blink*

Uhhh...okay. That sounds like fun! *eye roll* I was just happy that we weren't going to spend the ENTIRE vacation in the house. Even if it meant running around for 20 hours straight. So, I kept my mouth shut, although in my head, I'm thinking Dude, my hair's gonna look like a bird's nest if I sleep on the way there. Somehow, I'm changing your mind on this one day deal.

We had plans to go see Hubby's mom for lunch/dinner on Monday. So, we start getting ready and out of the blue, Hubby suggests that we go to the zoo a day earlier than planned. We discussed the logistics of it and I finally got him to agree to get a hotel for the night! So, after his mom grilled for us, we got in the car and started driving east. When we were about an hour and a half north of Columbus, and Hubby couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, we decided to stop and get a hotel room for the night.

First, we went to Holiday Inn Express. And they were completely sold out.

What?? We're in the middle of bu fu Ohio and the Holiday Inn has no rooms? Oh, and the front desk attendant tells us that the Hampton next door is also out of rooms, but the Comfort Inn & Suites across the street has some available rooms. So, we go over there and the lady at the desk tells us she only has suites available - all the regular rooms are sold out. We end up getting a King suite with a whirlpool tub in the bathroom. Between the bedroom and the living room area, it was almost as big as the first level of my house! And for only $110! Too bad we were only there for like six hours. lol I didn't even get to try out the tub, as much as I really would've liked to!!!

The next morning, we were back in the car by 7. Another hour and a half on the road, and we'd made it to our destination!!!


We took a TON of photos...And as much as I'd love to litter your temporary internet files with tons of pics, I'm going to limit myself to my five six favorite photos from the trip. I had a hard enough time narrowing it down to six.

We came at a good time to see a couple baby animals, which is always fantastic! The photo above is the baby Langur, born on July 6th - a week before our visit. It was really dark in here and so hard to get a good shot. I loved this one with the mother and sibling looking down on him.
This is Beco, the baby Asian elephant, along with his mother, born in March. They have viewing of him between 10-2. We were lucky enough to walk up at 9:45, and still waited around for about 30 minutes. When we walked out of the viewing area, the line was quite long - would've been 45 minute wait just to get up to where the elephants were at! It's amazing to me how these animals will walk up to the glass and just parade around (Some of them, anyway...Early in the morning, all the animals were still in sleep-mode. I didn't get any good shots of the lazy ass bears, because they refused to get up! lol).
The aquarium was pretty small, but still cool. They had a few small tanks and one gigantic tank that had a variety of fish and sharks swimming around in it. They also had a hands-on station where kids could touch certain water animals. I got in line (dragged Hubby in line, too) and then as I looked at the line, realized we were the only people over 10 that weren't holding on to a small child. I backed us out of the line and walked on by. I should've gotten some shots of other people's hands touching the starfish and stuff, but I didn't.

This orangutan made my day! We walked up and saw a couple of these orange guys hanging out in the trees, showing me nothing but ass. I happened to glance around the area, and saw this one all swathed up in the red cloth. Sorta looks like an old man. lol
I almost missed this one. We were getting near the end of our adventure, with only Australia to visit, and I was sweaty and my ankles hurt and I was thirsty. I told Hubby I was cool with skipping the last section. He was not having it. (I'm glad he didn't let me...Don't tell him that, though!) So, we see some more monkeys and the kangaroos, and then we come up on these fuzzy little koalas. How flippin cute!


I'm going to make a couple collages, I think. Maybe I'll post them later. Or maybe I'll just post everything to FotoJenic next week. We left the zoo around 1pm and got back on the road. We were home 7 hours later, and haven't done a whole lot since. :-)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Almost over? Already?

Geez! I will never get over how fast the time goes by when you'd like nothing more than for it to slow down or even stand still. My summer vacation is almost over. It's almost time to go back to work. Bleh. Just wanted to say what's up to all my homies. lol

We did go to Columbus - did an overnight trip. Checked out the zoo. No waterpark. It was a compromise. Had a very nice time at the zoo, but if we'd been in that car together any longer, I'm pretty sure my husband would be missing an eyeball. We can only be in those tight spaces together for so long before I want to poke him in the eye.

The rest of the week has just been spent here and there. Picked up my new glasses today. Apparently the shape of my eye changed since I last got glasses, so my eyes have yet to adjust to the new prescription. The lady who handed my new specs over said that I should put them on first thing tomorrow morning, so that my eyes adjust to them first thing, rather than getting all used to the old ones first. I'm excited for new eyes, though. Lost my sunglasses a couple months ago. Was hoping that they'd turn up, but they didn't. Gave in and bought new ones, along with new regular glasses, too. Maybe pics to come.

Today started the second session of my photography glass. We have assignments now. I'm stoked. We're working on composition this week. She gave us some things to focus on, but what I got out of the assignment is that she wants us to take some macro shots. I'm good at those!!! Yay! Five printed photos. So, we'll see how that goes. She also suggested that we play around with b&w and sepia editing, which will work nicely with this week's You Capture.

Anyway, this was meant to just be a short what's up! And I will be returning shortly with a more in-depth recap of the week. Hope everyone's having a good week!!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I really shouldn't...

Get my hopes up, that is. I have been trying for weeks to come up with a good plan for next week's summer vacation.
  • First, we were going to go the BMW National Rally in Tennessee. Then Hubby's mom told us she didn't want to go, so that was ruled out.
  • Then, we were going to go camping somewhere. But the more we considered that, the more we decided that camping is really something that's best done with other people. We get too bored with one another when we go camping.
  • So, then we talked about going to a waterpark resort like the Kalahari in Sandusky, Ohio, where we went for our honeymoon. But that's like $300/night. And honestly, part of the reason that we loved it so much for our honeymoon was that it was in the middle of October and it was rather empty. We got a great deal and didn't have to deal with a lot of people. But now, we're in peak vacationing season. I'm sure there would be a ton of people and their rowdy-ass kids there. And I know Hubby wouldn't enjoy it as much.
  • We talked about going on a roadtrip to who knows where.
  • He finally said to me last week that we should go someplace that has a nearby photo-op, like a zoo or some sort of scenic place and where the hotel room is relatively inexpensive.

I think I might have found the perfect place. And I really want to get excited about it, but I know that if I come home, jumping around him about it, like a puppy that needs to pee, I'm going to get shot down. So, let me jump around your ankles for a moment!

I want to go to Columbus, Ohio (I don't know what it is about Ohio...It just seems to be a happy place for me). I did a google search for the top-ranked zoos in the country and Columbus Zoo & Aquarium was one of the closer ones. So, I googled Columbus Zoo, and lo & behold, they have a waterpark that's associated with the zoo!!! At first, I didn't want to be swayed by the waterpark alone, so I tried to pretend like I hadn't seen that. I looked around at the zoo's site and it seems like it's a pretty nifty one! They've got a lot of the animals that I love, and a lot of ones that we don't have here at Brookfield. They also are associated with Jack Hanna, who is the COOLEST! Okay, so I'm totally sold on the zoo. So, now, I go check out the waterpark site. AWESOME!! They've got all kinds of rides and two different lazy rivers!!! (If I was a puppy, this would be the part where I piddle a little bit because I'm so effing excited!!!!!!!!!!!!) They even offer a discounted rate if you buy the package deal for both the zoo & waterpark - $38/person. It's only $4 off (waterpark - 30, zoo - 12), but hell. $4 will buy me...a cheeseburger...? I checked out hotels in the area and there's an Embassy Suites nearby - Can you say awesome room and free HOT breakfast??? I'm so completely and totally sold on this idea. It's about 6.5 hours away, which isn't too bad at all. I really hope I can sell this to Hubby. This is supposed to be his birthday celebration, but seriously, when don't we do what he wants!!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!!! :-D

Monday, June 29, 2009

Happy monday

Good Morning, My blogging friends! I need your help!!

Hubby and I are doing some sort of vacay in a couple weeks and I'm in the market for a new swimsuit. I have a really cute one right now, but I'm unhappy with the way the bottom fits, so I tend to only wear the top with jeans while I'm working in the yard and such. So....I'm on the prowl. I've narrowed down my search to two suits - pictures below. Please let me know which one you like the best!





Images all from Fashion Bug