2017 Travel Planning

The only trip we have booked, signed, and sealed is Boston in May but otherwise K and I have just started planning our one big trip of the year and some smaller trips to cities around the US.

2016 was a year filled with lots of travel adventures from Jamaica to Nashville and Canada to the Bahamas plus a few other fun places in between (recaps one / two / three) so I plan to check off a few more of my bucket list travel destinations this year. These are the places on my radar for 2017...

Boston

The trip is booked and accommodations are confirmed but I've yet to start researching things to do or planning any sort of itinerary.

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Ft Lauderdale Beach

This is not a new destination for us but we're thinking of returning to enjoy the beaches for our anniversary this summer.
Most recent trip to Ft Lauderdale.

Europe
This is a vague one because we're still figuring out what countries/cities to visit but the travel dates have been decided on so far.

Houston
One of my close girl friends is moving to Houston this year so I'm hoping to visit her but this is not a definite travel plan so far.
 

Chicago
Another city we've already been to but K wants to return for his birthday and to visit a friend.

Chicago 2014 Trip Recap
 

Austin

Austin is the other option for K's birthday which falls on a long weekend and is my personal preference since it's a new city to the both of us.

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Charleston

I have my heart set on Charleston for my birthday weekend but this could change between now and December, although I highly doubt it will.

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Toronto Weekend Whereabouts

The details from last weekend are coming to you a little late since I was in Canada for a long weekend family reunion. I love visiting Toronto in the summer and this year was our family picnic so it was the perfect opportunity to make my way up there. My sister picked me up from the airport on Friday afternoon and we all went to the adults cocktail party that evening.

The family picnic was on Saturday so we gathered at a beautiful park to have some lunch followed by our traditional family photo plus some more of the different generations. The rest of the day was filled with different sports and then cooling down at the ice cream truck.

 

That evening my (immediate) cousins went out for dinner and drinks at Hungry Brew Hops in the cute downtown area of New Market. My sister and I shared their homemade "Woodsy" pizza (mushrooms, mozzarella, roasted garlic, truffle balsamic) which was amazing!

I stayed the weekend at my cousin's house and her pup, Pepper, was the sweetest little companion in the mornings while having some coffee.



Sunday was really my only free day to explore Toronto so a few of us started the day with some dim sum in Chinatown.



We then headed to the Distillery District in Toronto to walk around the local market and check out some boutique shops. The weather was warm but comfortable, and a nice break from the sauna heat in Florida!







While walking through the cute cobblestone streets I spotted a familiar face and it was a good friend of mine from high school who now lives in Toronto. How random is that? Such a small world sometimes.

On Monday it was time to make the trek back home. My sister drove me to the airport after one last stop at Tim Horton’s for some coffee.

It was a wonderful trip and time spent with family, but...you probably already know what I’m going to say…it was TOO SHORT!

Montego Bay: Family Vacation

Our trip to Jamaica last weekend was one for the books especially since it involved lots of family time and relaxing by the pool and beach with frozen cocktails. 
 

We stayed at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach all-inclusive resort in Montego Bay which exceeded my expectations in terms of the restaurants, entertainment, and overall amenities. Plus it's a gorgeous location for a destination wedding which was the purpose of our trip.

K and I booked a standard room and were so surprised to see this beautiful view from our balcony, considering most resorts charge an upgrade fee for an ocean-facing view.

Like one should do on vacation, I traded technology and my first-world worries for relaxing, exploring, indulging, and luckily spending time with family so I'll let the pictures do the talking from here.

The Restaurant Scene

 

My Cousin's Wedding

Family Excursion

All I can say now is "Take me back!!!"

Vacation Highlights

I'm back and hoping to catch up on all the blogging over the weekend!

Thankfully Friday arrived really quickly this week after returning home from Jamaica on Wednesday night. It's never fun jumping right back into reality but a two-day work week makes it so much more bearable to deal with the post-vacation blues.

We flew to Montego Bay last week Friday for my cousin's wedding and had an amazing time catching up with 20+ family members that came in from three different countries. It was really good for the soul and, being at an all-inclusive resort in paradise, made it that much sweeter!

 

I plan to post a full travel recap next week when I've had time to organize my photos...and my brain, let's be honest...but I wanted to share some highlights from the trip.

Family Time
K and I are the only ones that live in the US so spending time with my parents, sister, and the extended family was much needed. Especially being able to catch up with my cousins and meet their babies (and not-so-much-babies anymore) for the first time.

 

Pre-Wedding Fun
On night one, the bride-to-be willingly agreed to participate in the Miss Iberostar "pageant" which was really a very unorthodox competition involving collecting as many shirts and pants from the audience. Guess who won?



On night two, we secretly organized some extra entertainment from the staff that came to the beat of the Magic Mike soundtrack. She was a good sport and it was no rated-R show but it was so fun and pretty hilarious to cap off the night before her wedding.



The Wedding

This is a given because it was the purpose of our trip but we got to witness my cousin and her love say their vows in a beautiful setting.

Post-Wedding Fun
We only had time to leave the resort and do one excursion on this trip so we picked a catamaran cruise (more to come on this) but snorkeling was one fun part of the excursion.

On our last night we had a bonfire cocktail party on the beach for one last get-together before saying our goodbyes the next day.

Bonus Highlights
Other than all the quality time with my family which is priceless, a huge highlight of our trip was winning two free gifts. I chose a 50-minute massage at the and K picked two tickets to the VIP departure lounge in the Montego Bay airport. So much unexpected pampering but we loved it!

The MoBay VIP departure area offers complimentary food, drinks, and a really comfortable lounge with reliable WiFi access so it was a really nice end to our trip.

So happy to be home to be with my Lola but lots of detoxing and cleaning eating is much needed for the next few weeks.

I hope you enjoy the weekend just as much as I will enjoy sleeping in my own bed!