erinelizabeth.tumblr.com

Hi,
Blogger is not cooperating with me, so I've switched to Tumblr. Come to http://erinelizabeth.tumblr.com to see pictures from the Virgin Islands!

Where to next?

Hello, my four faithful readers. I promise I will put up amazing Virgin Islands pictures soon which will make you all envious and me sad that I'm not there anymore. In the meantime, let me ask you a question. Last winter I took my mom to Florida for her big 6-0. I then took a lovely work trip to Seattle where I caught up with an old high school friend. Since I rode Southwest on both these trips, I received a voucher for a free roundtrip flight in the continental US. The question is, where to? I have to use the voucher before the end of March. This is unfortunate timing, since I'm going to Denver in April for work and would just use the voucher to bring Nick along with me, but that won't work.

Any thoughts? Further south? Out west? What do you guys think?

home for a while

Got back from the Virgin Islands Friday ~ midnight. Wishing I was still there. Spent hours checking my work email yesterday and tonight. Back into the full swing of things, including trying to get the hang of my new position, starting tomorrow. Meant to go to bed early tonight, but Nick sucked me into this Redskins/Cowboys game and now he's fallen asleep on the couch next to me while I feel the need to watch the end.

Pics forthcoming from VI and Chicago. No more work travel until March, I think? Weird.

Sleepy...

So tired! I got in from Chicago around 12:30 last night and struggled in to work this morning. A very sweet man sitting next to me on the plane told me all about his trip to Australia. This made me 1) jealous of his 4-week vacations and 2) so sleepy bc I was planning on taking a little nap.

Also, I totally forgot to take my little baggie of liquid items out of my suitcase when I went through security and no one said a word. Hm.

Happy Halloween from Chicago

It is warmer here than it is in Raleigh today. This is a strange situation that is working in my favor. I have 5 and 1/2 hours until I have to be back to my hotel for a work event. I'm off to wander through Grant and Millenieum Parks, do some window shopping on The Magnificent Mile, and perhaps hop on the train and head north of downtown, where I've never been. Today is a good day to be me.

Fri

68°F | 45°F

By the way I'll have you know all this good cheer is additionally remarkable considering that I had to get up when it was pitch dark and frosty out to catch my plane.

PPG Place

PPG Place is by far the most impressive collection of buildings in Pittsburgh. However, when I took a picture (not the one shown here) a security guard informed me that "they don't like you taking pictures." I'm not sure who "they" are, but why would you build such a fairy-tale castle looking skyscraper if you didn't want people to be so impressed with it they wanted to get a picture.

Grand Concourse

One night we had dinner in Grand Concourse, a really beautiful converted train station. I had delicious oysters and halibut. As usual in my travels, I was jealous of all the train lines and old buildings.

Pittsburgh

Hm, I'm sort of conflicted on Pittsburgh. Pretty from a far, such as this picture of Mount Washington from a bridge that crosses the Monongahela River. Up close, certain parts were not so pretty. I did have an excellent sandwich at Primanti Bros at Dan's suggestion. Gotta love a sandwich where they put the french fries right in with everything else. That's good lazy people food right there.

When traveling in Europe

I would suggest possibly bringing your own hairdryer if you are particular about those sorts of things. If not, you may end up with something like this. It has no settings. Just pull the right section of tubing away from the machine and aim at your wet hair. It's less of a drying sensation and more of a gentle, warm breeze directed towards your head.

Also note the amusing purple tiles.

Gas Stations

In Cagliari, all the gas stations we saw were called Agip. Apparently the symbol for gas is a six-legged fire-breathing dragon (alternatively, a six-legged dog catching a red frisbee). Also, check out the cigarette vending machines that were all over the city like ATMs. I think the only place I've seen a cigarette vending machine over here in the last 10 years was in a bowling alley. Also, they sold in half-packs, which I've never seen.