What Happens in Vegas…

…gets blogged about!

******************************************

We’ve been planning this trip for months. Ten days after the last tax return was filed, we headed out (super early, I might add) to Vegas with my friend Mari and her husband. The last time I had been to Vegas, I was 14 and playing in an AAU basketball tournament, so the experience was a little less than…debaucherous (to say the least. I ended up with heat exhaustion for the water park and barfed the last two days of the trip). 

At any rate, we landed in Vegas, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and headed out on the town. It was 10 am, and we were STARVING! So we headed out to the Fremont district, where we got some breakfast and spent our time playing nickel slots at Mermaids. 

Because Mari and her husband have visited Vegas enough, they have their favorite cocktail waitress, Ling Ling, and boy did she not disappoint! I won a few good payouts on my own (to the tune of $14), but Ling Ling found me a machine that someone had abandoned with a whopping $16.50 on it to claim! Woo hoo!

 

After a few hours of nickel slots, we headed out to the Tropicana to see my buddy Adam Ray headline at the Laugh Factory. He and I went to elementary and middle school together, and he’s now blowing up (starring in movies like The Heat with Sandra Bullock), and he got us into his show for free! It was fun to ‘shoot the shit’ with him after his show, before he went to his next set. We then stumbled into our hotel around 12:30 pm, and I realized that parenting has made me the perfect candidate for Vegas…able to function off a little sleep and still manage to have fun! 

 

On Saturday we had breakfast buffet at the Bellagio, and wandered the strip for awhile, which made me angsty and sweaty. We headed back out to Fremont district to see my college roomie Marie! I love introducing my friends to my friends, and so we had a lovely evening drinking and eating and then finished the night off with some dancing at an old school arcade. All around amazing getaway, that I hope to repeat again in the future!

 

I’m Flying Solo…Solo…

 

I took my first post-baby-solo trip to Albuquerque to visit my college BFF, and boy was it both fun AND exhausting! The flight down was quiet, meditative, and I spent my time sitting in airports staring contentedly into space, writing in my journal and reading. I got in around 5pm, and so we were able to catch up before her husband got off work . We then headed out for some yummy authentic New Mexican food and margaritas!

Saturday morning she got to share her hot yoga class with me, and then we headed out to the old part of the town (aka the tourist trap), and spent our time taking silly pictures and finding hidden away gems, like a handmade soap shop where I was able to buy Boof a boar belly shaving brush and mint/hemp shaving soap!

 

 

 

After being in the city for about 24 hours, I started to feel really sick. Apparently the altitude difference (Albuqueque is a mile above sea level and Seattle is 500 feet. Ha!) was starting to affect me. Laura said that when other people have come to visit they’ve had the same experiences…it felt like I was hungover, with a headache and felt really tired, spacey, and even a little bit panicky…though that was probably the anxiety taking over. I tossed and turned and wished I was back home in bed, snuggled up with Boof and Potamus and Scrummy in our king size memory foam bed!

The flight home was torturous for the first leg, but then I got to occupy my time with the Seahawks game on the last 2 legs of the trip! I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to spend time just being myself, instead of being a mom or a worker or a wife. It was almost like being back in college…almost.

 

Solo Mama Road Trippin’ to the Oregon Coast (Part 2)

We could not have asked for a more beautiful 24 hours on the Oregon Coast. More often than not I’ve experienced the Oregon beaches to be tempermental, much like the Washington Coast. Beautiful and rugged and full of a loveliness all it’s own…but it’s often accompanied with some rain or wind or overcast skies. So, we HAD to take advantage of the sunny 70 degree weather! And all of this adventuring before 10am!

The weather was warm enough to even take a dip in the Pacific Ocean! Woo!

The trepidation that Potamus felt the first day was completely gone by the next morning. We could not keep him from race-walking (he can’t run yet) as fast as his little legs would carry him…straight into the waves! He was much more sure-footed now, not wobbling every time the sand shifted under his feet with the lapping waves. He even experienced several waves that got him thigh high and he didn’t get bothered by being knocked onto his backside. A kid after my own heart! When I was his age (and into late elementary school) I would TANTRUM SO HARD if there was water around and I wasn’t allowed to swim. I’m guessing I’ll have another fish on my hands 🙂

After some lovely wave jumping, Potamus settled in with grampy to build some sand-castles. Unfortunately we picked a place a little farther from the water, so instead of really building castles (because the sand started to dry pretty quickly), my dad said we were “building ruins.” We all had a good chuckle at that little quip.

After a hard morning of play, we headed off to take a nap. Afternoon adventures were to be had, but first, rest!

****************************************************************************************

The afternoon was spent traveling up the road a few miles to Cannon Beach. I convinced my parents to go to this pizza joint that Boof and I had eaten at on our honeymoon. So yummy! But, in true Oregon Coast fashion, the weather turned from warm and sunny to cool, overcast and a slight breeze in the air. Looking at the sky we realized if we wanted a few pics with the famous Haystack Rock, we’d better get skedaddling before it turned into a full on rainstorm!

By the time we made it to the beach, the wind was whipping pretty good. Not one to be swayed (we had come ALL THIS WAY DARNIT!), we headed out to the rock. It was low-tide and so there were some tide pools that we waded in (ouch! barnacles!) and tried our best to keep Potamus from running straight into the stormy sea.

just take the darn picture already mom!

being carried by grampy, cause it’s windy out here!

mom, what’s so cool about that rock? there’s the OCEAN right here!

wading into the ocean…regardless of the weather…a true Pac NW native!

okay, one picture mom, but I will NOT be happy about it. I want to wave jump.

We headed back to the yurt just in time for it to start POURING! I won’t bore you with details, but night two was less than stellar, and we headed home early to try and beat the naptime grumpies. While I am exhausted from our almost 48 hour adventure, I think I would definitely do it again. Though, ask me in a few days when I’ve fully recovered, eh?

Any crazy road-trip stories to tell me? Road trippin’ with kiddos?

It’s getting HOT in here

It’s hot in Seattle.
Really hot.
Like, sweaty while blogging in underoos hot.

While the rest of the country has been willing all summer under terrible heat waves, while the PacNW has sailed through unscathed. Not this week, though. This week Seattleites have gotten their come-uppance. We are melting. Mostly melting because only 6 places have air conditioning in the whole county. And one of those places is the mall.

Heat and babies doesn’t necessarily go well together. Potamus has been cranky, waking up approximately 46 times last night and crying like he was being chased by the boogie man. Not cool at all.

But, its days like these that I being thinking about how a mere 6 years ago I was returning from life in India. Returning from a place where air conditioning was a luxury I didn’t have. Granted, I did have a moody reed swamp cooler, and floors built out of stone to keep the heat down, and rickety ceiling fans, so in some ways the technology beat what I’m working with here in Seattle. But not everyone was so lucky.

It’s so easy to forget and acclimate to the goings on around me. 6 years ago 90 degree heat wouldn’t phase me. I’d get my wool socks wet and sleep with a fan blowing on my feet. I’d get my dupatta wet and pull it up on my nearly-nude body like a soaking shroud. How quickly I forget.

Even in high school, in Eastern WA, I had an affinity toward the heat. My car had no AC and I would sometimes drive with the windows rolled up simply because it was college than having 100 degree heat blowing in on me. Band camp and sports practices outside, and putting pants on when it got below 80.

But I also remember back to my young life, in the North Seattle house, where I wore slips to bed and had a big box fan in the doorway to cool it off. Where my mom got our hair wet and put cool washcloths on our heads to soothe the best-headache.

I know there will be a day, probably in November, where I will be missing the warm sunny days. So I am trying to keep cool and not complain. But with a hot, fussy baby, its hard!