Colorado Spring Break

This past summer I got to accompany my friend Rachel to her new adventure and home in Denver, CO. I miss her all the time, but know it is just another place to visit have new experiences. When I found a non-stop flight to Denver for $40 on Southwest during my Spring Break, it was too good to pass up. When I called Rachel to make sure it was okay for me to stay with her, she responded with, "Of Course!" and "We have to Ski!!!"

I have never been skiing before, and have only been in actual snow a handful of times. After my first visit to Denver, I learned that a LOT goes into winter sports, and it can be very expensive. I was nervous about this, and the fact that I had never done it before. So I could potentially go, try to learn, hate it, and be out loads of cash. Rachel told me that John (her husband) is super patient and would teach me, and that she had two of everything except for pants, so that's all I would need to buy.

I flew into Denver on Tuesday afternoon, and Rachel was not on Spring Break that week. She picked me up and we had to go back to her school as she had to be there pretty late that night for conferences. It was good to see her new school in person after seeing pictures and hearing about it. It was also nice to meet her team. We did some organizing to finally finish off the cleaning of the music classroom she inherited. It is very very interesting to hear about how different things are in Colorado with education and fine arts as opposed to Texas.

Since Rachel had to work on Wednesday and Thursday, I did what I would have done at home in Texas on spring Break during the day. I slept in, and walked to Orange Theory to get my sweat on. I also knocked out all of the papers I needed to grade, and some other school business that I needed to take care of. Even though it was Spring Break, it felt awesome to get so caught up.

Wednesday night dinner and happy hour with Rachel was at Cuba Cuba and hanging out at the house, and Thursday night was "Fancy Dinner." A fun tradition I share with the Severes. We use their wedding china (they are the only people my age I know that actually have wedding china), silver, crystal, and cook and eat a multi-course meal. Consisting of Charcuteries, Salad, Steak/Risotto/Asparagus, ice cream with berries, and 5 bottles of champs/wines. Always fun and delicious.

Friday Rachel took the day off so that we could have a Megan and Rachel day. We slept in and packed up the things we needed for skiing. We then went to have Brunch with bottomless Mimosas at Root Down. We obviously stayed there for awhile to get the most out of our bottomless mimosas, and by the time we got back home, John was coming back from work to load up the car and start our drive to the mountains.

I have to give a major shout out to the Severe duo for taking amazing care of me and guiding me through everything for skiing. If it weren't for them, I probably never would have tried it.

We stopped on the way at this discount ski rental shop. Since I was a beginner, I was able to get my skis, boots, and poles for $22.50. That was way cheaper than I was planning for, so I was pumped about that. John and Rachel got a room in Beaver Creek so we wouldn't have to wake up ridiculously early to go ski. We ate Pizza in the room and had some hot tub and drinks in the mountains. We then went out to two bars in Vail and had a freaking blast dancing.

Saturday morning we got up at a decent hour and got all ready to ski. I was feeling really really nervous. All the people we talked to and told that this would be my first time skiing kept saying, "well if you aren't falling you aren't trying!" Awesome. Got to the Vail resort, and thank god for John and Rachel having Season passes which provided Buddy Pass options for skiing. If I hadn't had the buddy pass, it would have cost me $189 to ski for ONE day. With the buddy pass it cost $116, so I saved a pretty penny there.

We spent about 2 hours on the gopher hill, and John was very patient. I had to be taught every little thing such as how to hold a pair of skis, walk in ski boots, put skis on, get on a lift, etc. I fell about 6 times in the first 2 hours, but it wasn't that bad. Super padded with the clothing, and it is snow. The first time I fell I was able to pull myself up without taking my skis off, but couldn't do it again after that. I would have to take my skis off every time. Every time I fell John and Rachel were right there to support and encourage me and help me up. They would bring me my ski if it popped off, or my pole if it flew far away.

My favorite time was skiing down the catwalk to our lunch location. I felt like I really had the hang of maneuvering myself on flat land haha. We had lunch, and since I was only there for a day, John said we were going to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain and ski some greens. This is some accelerated ski instruction people. I had 2 hours to learn! If I had the chance to do it again, I would do a half-day to learn how to ski, and then go back for a full day to have fun with it. Nevertheless, we went up and it was "learn through doing." I fell on the mountain some more of course, and would freak out when I started going fast. I was very anxious about running into people or other people running into me. I also had a mental block when it came to skiing straight across the mountain toward a run as opposed to down the mountain, because I didn't want to fall down a blue! At the end of the day I was totally exhausted and felt like my body wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. In the end though, I came a long way in the one day I had to learn to ski, and after having some time to reflect, I would totally go again. (I mean, I bought ski pants). Next winter I will prepare financially for 2 days of skiing and hope that Rachel will loan me her gear again! More importantly I hope that John has the patience to take me again and give up several hours of "big boy" skiing to take care of me.

Ski Pants: $162.38
Boots/Skis/Pole Rental: $22.50
Jacket, Socks, Gaiter, gloves, helmet: $0 Borrowed from Rachel
Day of Skiing Vail: $116
Lessons: $0 John taught me
Total Cost to Ski: $300.88

I know this doesn't include the room and transportation, but now I have pants and can do other winter sports!

We hit up Frisco, CO for Apres Ski, and then headed back to their house for my last night in Colorado. We had another yummy dinner using John's birthday Raclette, and more hot tub time. I had an early flight on Sunday morning, plus it was Daylight Savings time. (Note-to-Self: Don't schedule early flights on Daylight Savings time)

Once I can figure out how to join snapchat videos into one video I can upload some lol content on here.

Mardi Gras 2017

This was my 3rd time to go to New Orleans. Each trip to NOLA has been very different. You can read about my Girls' Road Trip to Nola in 2014 here, and my 2nd Marathon out in NOLA here. Travel makes up most of my "bucket list," but just going to the destination doesn't always satisfy what you are looking for. I knew I wanted to go to Mardi Gras "one day," and when the opportunity presented itself, how do you pass it up?

When I had returned from my 2nd NOLA trip, my co-worker, Laura, asked me if I wanted to go to Mardi Gras 2017. She said she found an Air BnB and had friends that we could go with. This was almost a full year ago. Since then we had the Air BnB cancel on us, found a new one, entertained the idea of driving (after seeing flight prices), found a one-way flight back and decided to drive there, then found a decent flight there so we didn't have to drive at all! Laura had done Mardi Gras twice before, so I was totally putting my confidence in her to show me the ropes. I was also looking forward to meeting the other 3 girls that would be joining us. Laura had met them several years back on a Mission trip, and they were reuniting. 

Arrival: Laura and I worked on Friday, and had a late flight out. The other girls were already in NOLA and experienced 2 Parades on Friday. We got in around 9:30PM, got an Uber out of the airport, and checked out our Studio Air BnB. It was the attic of a house/apartments. Now, when you go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, prices tend to be high. I don't even know where to begin to describe where we slept for 4 nights, but there were 5 places to sleep, a shower, and was walking distance to lots of our parades (necessary). We paid a LOT for this hole, but it served it's purpose and was the location we needed. I met the girls, and we went to bed early in preparation for a first day. 

Saturday, Day 1: Woke up earlier than I wanted to because the bed(mattress pad on bed slats) was super uncomfortable, and sunlight filled the room. We had breakfast in our room (bagel and banana), put on our fun clothes, and headed out to Parade #1 at 10:00AM. Krewe of Iris.

I learned SO MUCH about the traditions and culture of Mardi Gras, and I only want to learn more now that I have experienced it. Iris was a good "warm-up" parade. I was excited to get ANY beads, and threw them around my neck. The krewe doesn't just throw beads either. They throw Doubloons, sunglasses, plush animals, toys, cups, SOOO many things! We were catching all kinds of goodies! People take their kids, bring ladders with seats on them, and walk away with bags overflowing with beads and other items. Here I am with my first set of beads. Notice how plain jane they are? I didn't even know what was going to come from the more sophisticated Krewes later in the weekend.

After Iris we went straight to Krewe of Tucks, but first grabbed a quick bite of lunch in a school across the street. Tucks is a more comical parade with potty humor. Again, I caught a lot of beads, but some of my prized possessions from that parade include: A decorated toilet brush cleaner, sunglasses shaped like toilet seats, a pair of "blue balls," a gigantic cup that says, "Size Matters," etc. etc. etc. It was a lot of fun, and Laura's favorite parade. 

Of all the connections Laura had, we met up with a friend of hers from college and her Aunt/Uncle. They lived in NOLA and were SO nice. They really showed us that Southern Hospitality and took us to their house where we could leave our beads, use the restroom, and then drove us to Midtown for the Endymion Parade. This was a night parade with crazy LED floats and awesome throws. It was way crowded and everyone was aggressively trying to get the best throws. We weren't even aware about the accident that had happened with the man driving his car into the parade route. It had happened  3 blocks up from where we were located. Here I am excited about getting a set of "big" beads, and I still got more goodies after that!

Our original plan was to go to Bourbon that night, but after 12 hours of parading, we decided that food was very important, and eventually came to the conclusion that Bourbon wouldn't be fun if we went as exhausted as we were. Plus, finding an Uber after Endymion was IMPOSSIBLE. We were a good walk away from our Studio, walked as much as we could, but finally caught a Lyft with a 700% upcharge. It cost us $72 to drive 10 minutes, but that saved us an hour of walking and we didn't mind paying the $13 per person. Passed out quick that night!

Injury for Day 1 - Sunburn on neck... pretty bad..

Sunday, Day 2: I woke up earlier than I had wanted to due to the sunlight in the room, we decided to get a little more creative with our breakfast, and toasted bagels in the oven. (There was not a microwave, or a toaster) We all got dressed in more crazy clothes for another day of parading. I had read that the wackier you look, the more you fit in, and that is definitely true. I always wore Mardi Gras Colors, usually had on a pair of mermaid leggings, and was always in running shoes. We walked a lot this day, and it started with a walk to get beignets.

Our main goal was to see the Krewe of Thoth Parade, but on the way we were able to walk and see 2 other parades: Krewe of Okeanos and Krewe of Mid-town. We were walking "upstream" of the parades, and got a head start on catching some beads. We met up with Laura's college friend again and her aunt/uncle for Krewe of Thoth.

Another thing that I was told, (but had to see in person) is how hard some of the beads get thrown. You really have to be prepared to catch them, or be alert not to get smacked in the face. I was taking a video on my phone, and a package of beads came down and knocked my phone out of my hand into the street. They won't even bother to take the beads out of the packages half the time and just chunk them!

In the midst of all of our walking... my injury for day 2 was a sprained ankle. I fell into a hole in the street...

Laura's friend's uncle was kind enough to drive us to our studio and we unloaded all of our beads. we were able to get a quick rest in, freshen up, and eat some snacks before our night parade, Krewe of Bacchus.

The Bacchus Parade was great. I really enjoyed the parades at night. This Krewe is all about the New Orleans Saints, so there was a lot of Saints floats and throws. That was another big night for beads.
We took another load of beads back to the place, and changed for Bourbon Street. I didn't walk away with too many beads from Bourbon. to sum that experience up, we each had a hand grenade, I had a hurricane, and we spent the majority of our time in the Cat's Meow either dancing, or up on the balcony. Laura was quick to get us an uber home.

Monday, Day 3: This was one of our chill days, and another reason we decided to stay out later on Bourbon. We were able to sleep in and take our time getting ready. We had plans to walk around the Quarter. In the midst of toasting bagels, I smelled them, picked up a [wet] pot holder, proceeded to get the pan out of the oven where it sizzled my skin. I yelled bad words and had to tend to my fingers for a really long time. So my injury for day 3 was burning myself. I hope you have noticed that all of my injuries happened fully sober. One of the girls needed to tend to her work in the room, and I wanted to stay and chill my burns a little longer, so we stayed back, while the other 3 went out to the quarter early.

We had lunch at Desire on Bourbon Street. Some fresh oysters and Shrimp and Grits for me. Once that was over we preceded to walk the Quarter some more. There was a Mask Market going on, and I was determined to find a mask that "spoke" to me. I found it and it is a work of art! Not some cheap-o made in china mask in a souvenir shop, but a legit, handmade mask. It will be hanging on my wall in my house soon. We also got to sample some King Cake, which was the final box to check-off on the Mardi Gras Snapchat filter. (Mask, Beads, King Cake, Hurricane)

That night we went to the Krewe of Orpheus parade. You would think that after all of the beds we had gotten, we wouldn't really need anymore, but we were just as aggressive trying to get the throws at this parade. We caught some super fun things at this one. Once we got home, we took a picture of all of the beads that we had caught thus far.

We then spent a good hour trying to figure out how we were going take our treasures home. Laura and I were flying back on United, so I had to have a Carry-On sized bag. I had brought an extra bag to carry home beads in, but had no idea how much stuff I would actually get. We sorted through the beads and made contact with a lady who would pick them up to use for next year. I am not joking when I say we left behind 3/4 of the stuff that we caught. Since this was our last night, we packed up our bags, and laid out only what we needed for our final day.

That night we went out the Frenchman Street. We had a fabulous dinner at Three Muses, and walked around listening to jazz on the street. We found an art market and walked around there for a bit, but since we had an early morning, and had to check-out the next day, we headed back early to catch our last z's in the studio.

Tuesday, Day 4/Departure: We had to wake up early on this day and get all of our things packed up. the AirBnB host was kind enough to let us leave our bags in the room until we were finished with our parades. Laura had a friend in the Krewe of Zulu parade, and that was a long walk. We caught beads at this parade, but were quick to give them away to children if they were plain jane. The coveted throw at this parade is a decorated coconut, and we all caught one! Once Zulu was over, we had the Krewe of Rex that was going down the street our studio was on. At this point, we were so over parades, but wanted to catch a set of beads at this one since Rex is like the Parade of all Mardi Gras.

We grabbed some snacks, and thus began our journey home. There were no ubers or lyfts in the area, so we were resourceful and used a former uber driver's phone number to come get us and we paid him cash, in order for him to even get to us with the parade going on, we had to do some walking with our luggage. Made it to the airport and Laura and I had stress filled journey back home. Here's the gist: restaurant messed up, we barely got to eat/made it to our flight, took off late, landed in Houston where we had 10 minutes to sprint across the terminal to our connection, and then landed in Dallas at 6:30. Luckily there were no injuries for me on this day.

I documented a lot more in my snapchat stories, and saved them. My plan was upload each day's story onto the blog, but for whatever reason it isn't downloading as one whole story. I will have to keep working on that. 

Welcoming 2017 with Open Arms

Whew! After doing a major blog update on December 30th to catch up on the second half of 2016, I am ready to reflect on what I thought I had in store from 2016, and look ahead to what I want to see in 2017!

You can read my first post of 2016 here

It's funny how when you're busy making plans... life happens. 2016 had lots of surprises and adventures in it! After reading my blog posted not knowing what the future had in store (and now knowing what actually happened) it is fun to see the difference.

Update on the resolutions made for 2016

1. Health - I can definitely say that I embraced Orange Theory Fitness and am faster and stronger than I was in 2015. If I can keep it going with the OTF classes, and fix my issues in the kitchen, it would be a very successful 2017. Always have to start the year off with Health!

2. Principal's Certification - CHECK. I did my 160+ hours of internship under my principal, and took/passed the Principal's Certification test. I just need to put it on my certification! As far as other goals based on my career, I just want to continue to grow with Reading/Writing curriculum/best current practices. No new moves in my career are planned for 2017.

3. Continue with Fun/Travels - Of course I did! I have a lot of places on my radar for 2017, but I would really like to go to a state(s) I haven't been to. A lot of the places on my radar are repeats, which are still fun, or they are in Texas. I want to branch out somewhere I haven't been to add to my 50 States traveled journal.

Travels for 2016
January - Owasso, OK to visit then 1 month old Carson Scott Conn
February - San Antonio trip with girlfriends
February - New Orleans with Kelly to run Marathon #2
March - Seattle, WA & Vancouver, BC
April - Guess I was recovering from a busy Feb/March..
May - Glen Rose, TX tubing trip with Friends
June - Denver, CO
July - Cruise to Key West, FL & The Bahamas
August/September - no travels due to school starting and arrival of Nephew #2 Jackson Ryan Bentley
October - Washington D.C. w/ Dad
November - Norman, OK to see family
December - Owasso, OK for Carson's 1st Birthday
December - Austin, TX with girlfriends

Wishlist for Travels in 2017:
New Orleans for Mardi Gras (confirmed/paid for)
Denver, CO for Spring Break (confirmed)
Fredericksburg, TX (hopefully)
Atlanta, GA (hopefully)
Seattle, WA (in the Summer hopefully)

As far as Running events are concerned, right now I am only signed up for a 15K in February. I'm okay with that, as I really do want to focus on keeping up with OTF, and eating. If I can focus on that, I will be okay without new medals.

*3/1 - I apparently never published this blog! Whoops!