october is breast cancer awareness month

As many of you may or may not be aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  We are so lucky to have amazing medical advances and support on hand for a lot of these women, but there is still a great need to support the cause and foundation.

There are so many great ways now available to get involved and show your support for your loved ones, as well as learn more about the disease. It's really important to take this time to read about ways to prevent it and how to check yourself at home. We are so lucky to have so much information right here at our fingertips so make sure to take advantage of every piece of it!

And what better way to donate a little money for a great cause and get a little something special for you? I have put together a couple of easy ways you can buy something and the company will donate a portion of the proceeds to the foundation - so happy shopping my friends!

 Pura Vida- Breast Cancer Bracelet - $5.00

I love ta-ta's Bracelet - $5.00

Save the ta-ta's Recycle Bag - $9.99

Promise Me Eau de Parfum - $59.00

Bright Pink Brand Black Tank - $20.00

Coach for a Cure - Price varies


There is also a great website called, Fab, Fit, Fun - if you haven't heard of it then you will be glad you have now! This great website was started by Guliana Rancic who also is a breast cancer survivor and they will be providing a lot of great articles about health and prevention and nutrition, you can check it out over here.

And remember friends to take care of yourself, not only for you but your family and friends or even your dog :)

X x

national yoga month

September is National Yoga Month here in the US. I have been meaning to get back into yoga for quite some time but it always seems to slip away from me. While in college I took yoga as a class and it was a really good experience and gave me a lot of great basics and foundations for my practice. From there I took yoga classes at the gym and bought a couple of pilates dvd's as well to practice at home. Last year I fell in love with bikram yoga but it can be a little expensive between paying for a gym membership as well as paying for the yoga studio that offers bikram. This month however I jumped on the ball and I found a really great deal from Groupon for a local studio that just moved in near my house. I know a lot of studios all over the country are offering a free week pass at their studio for you to try different classes during the month of September. I would highly recommend searching for a studio near you and giving it a try. Bring your girlfriends or maybe even your guy and get ready for a wonderful experience.

I would love to hear if you are planning on trying yoga out or if you are already a yoga master, leave your comments below!

X x

a few from labor day weekend

I hope everyone had a great three day weekend! As you know, I had my first camping experience this weekend to celebrate the holiday and it really was a lot of fun. It was different than what I was expecting but for the most part we were completely prepared and weren't going "ohhh, I wish I had brought that" which is very good.

On Saturday, our first day, we spent almost the entire day just out on the lake. We had a little bit of trouble as the plastic oars from my parents old little raft had all cracked and failed on us while out in the water. There was a general store with a restaurant on site so luckily they had one oar to purchase. We used that and it was a bit better but still it was a little difficult to get around on the small raft. Brett gave it his all fishing off the boat and caught three fish! They weren't that big but we still brought them back to BBQ and eat with our dinner.

Sunday we drove out to Columbia where they have kept the town and have shops and business's open as if it were 1850. These towns were developed when the rush for gold started and everyone came out west to strike it rich! I had been there once on a school trip and I have wanted to go back and see it again for awhile. There is a stagecoach tour that you can take, visit any of the old general stores, ice cream parlor, blacksmith, bar's and saloons and of course panning for gold. It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in California and interested.

X x

mykonos never sleeps, no seriously

Mykonos is one of the hottest summer destinations for people from all over the world who want to relax on white sandy beaches and party until the sunrises. This place puts Vegas to shame, but more on that later.

We took another ferry from Paros to Mykonos, it was only about 45 minutes because the islands are so close together. We were staying on the southern end of the island, about 15 minutes from the port and main town. Our hotel was adorable with an all white exterior and little blue doors. It was the perfect "Mediterranean style" I was hoping for! Also, it was only steps from the beach and a few restaurants.

First of all, we were so overwhelmed when we arrived into Mykonos. It was much busier than Paros, there were people walking and driving all over the place on these little windy roads. Luckily our hotel had a shuttle and picked us up so we didn't have to figure it out on our own. We spent our first day and night there just looking at maps and walking around everywhere to figure out what our surroundings were. There was a bus that would come every 15 minutes to take you into town. There were also taxi boats that would ferry you around all the coves from one beach to the other; it was perfect. We spent most of our time during the days on the beach and playing in the water.

The nightlife just exploded from there, everything revolved around the night - eating, drinking, shopping and clubbing took place all night and into the early morning. Restaurants and shops were packed from 10pm until about 1am, it was such a strange feeling to be in a restaurant eating a full dinner at midnight, but at the same time it felt so right. Makes sense, doesn't it? Anyway the three most famous and biggest clubs in Mykonos are: Space, Scandanavian Bar and any of the three clubs in Paradise Beach. Of course we went to all three. :] However, no one actually came to the clubs until about 4am, seriously. We tried, we really did to keep up.. but by 4am I was just so tired {Brett too} that we had to just get back to our hotel and crawl into bed. I really don't know how they can do it, I mean honestly what do you do until 4am anyways?! It beats me, but basically Mykonos won this time.

Of course not everything was party, beach, party, beach, repeat. We spent a little time walking through the town in the afternoon, while there was no one else around and I was able to get some great pictures. Mykonos is also known for a couple of other things, one being their windmills. There are 5 of them grouped together in the main town up on a little hill and they are beautiful. They can be seen from pretty much any point in the town and from the harbor. There is also a local "celebrity" of the town. His name is Petros and he is a pelican. He is beloved by his town and he is extremely friendly. You can easily find him just wandering through the town because there is a group of people chasing after him with their cameras. He even let me pet him one afternoon. :] I also could not get enough of the beautiful bright white buildings with its deep blue roof. I think when a lot of people image the Greek Islands, that is what they picture {because that's what I pictured} but those beautiful little buildings are all small churches and they have them almost every couple hundred feet! I even read somewhere that there are 365 churches on the islands of Mykonos alone. That is a pretty huge number for such a tiny little island, don't you think?

 We also lucked out and while we were wandering through the town there were tables set up with local Greek food that had just been cooked by the local women, selling them for a euro or two a piece. It was perfect! We were able to try homemade treats cooked by these women who were selling them to raise some money for a cause. My favorite, of course was baklava, which is a very sweet, flaky pastry. Oh it was so good to have it fresh & homemade. 

Mykonos definitely had a completely different style and vibe from Paros, so we had no idea what to expect for our quick day visit to Santorini, but we were ready to move on. It was great while we were there, but I think if I were to do it again, I would choose to stay on a different side of the island. By the time we had to checkout all we wanted to do was sleep. The hotel shuttle took us back to the port where we waited for the ferry to take us to our next destination. Let the adventures continue.

X x

paros: the windy island

First stop on our agenda was to get from the Athens airport, to the port where a ferry would take us to Paros, our first island, and part of the Cyclades Islands. Honestly, we really weren't sure what to expect, we knew it was going to be a quiet island with sandy beaches, we read there was rocks that turned into mud that people would put on themselves and let dry because it was supposed to make your skin soft and have "healing powers." Other than that we had no idea what we were in for.

We arrived in a flurry of people and vespa's, atv's, cars, taxis and were shuffled around until we found a taxi and asked to be taken to our hotel. It was about 5 or 6pm Greek time. (+10 hours to pacific time)  Our hotel was beautiful and situated a little further back from the port town, but up a little hill with a nice view and a little 5 minute walk down a path to the beach. It was charming and beautiful and exactly what we needed after a long journey there.
 

After getting to know the area the next day we decided it was best to rent an ATV for the day {i'm not so fond of the motorized two wheels} this way we could explore the island and do exactly what we wanted and at our own pace. One of our first stops of course was to see what the beach with the mud was all about. It turns out it's actually the rock that turns into a clay when you mix it with the ocean water and put on yourself. It was a lot of fun putting the clay on and letting it dry and then jumping into the ocean and having it wash off. I am pretty positive that I go to Target and buy a clay mask for myself that seemed identical to the clay found on the rocks. 

We spent some time going through the town, looking in all the little shops and stocked up on some things for the rest of our time - a couple towels, snorkels, paddle boards, etc. The town was great, it had a lot of restaurants right there on the water and Brett tried an authentic Greek dish - Moussaka. It was very interesting and you'll have to ask him about it since I did not have any!

Anyway, we got up one morning and went up to this other little port town on the northern coast called Naousa. It was a real fishing port with all the fisherman getting their catch out and hanging it out. That day we went, their "fish of the day" was...  octopus! Then there was this little castle ruins out to the side of the port, so of course that needed to be explored. I had never seen a castle like that before right on the water where all the waves were breaking right there. It's amazing to think that it is still standing all these years later with all the water thrashing against it everyday. Then we drove around a little more to explore other beaches before heading to our hotel to return the ATV. 

Paros was the perfect island to get us started for our trip and I am so glad we ended up there first. It was pretty small and a little quiet and the staff at our hotel were friendly. But like I said before, every island is completely different and nothing could have prepared us for what was next... Mykonos. 

X x

every now and then..

... you need a little reminder in the morning to get through the day :]

I hope everyone has a great Friday & weekend.

X x

30 hours to see Chicago

Sunday morning we sat on the train from Indiana to Chicago, completely exhausted from not only the wedding the night before, but from our ridiculous airport adventure out here. I  have never been to Chicago before so I had no idea what to expect - I was excited and nervous all in one. The train took us only a couple blocks away from our hotel, so a little early we headed there anyway hoping to just drop our luggage off at least. We picked this hotel because it was won the 2012 Trip-Advisor award for "Trendiest hotel in Chicago" and let me tell you, it lived up to it's name.
When you walked in, you were greeted with friendly staff, a beautiful scent of what one can only image 'tahitan vanilla' and quiet but still there trendy house music. Our room was ready for us, so we went up to the 11th floor and heard the slight sound of birds chirping in the hallway. Our room was fantastic, we had a pretty great view of the city and could even see out to the river to the right. The room was absolutely stunning  and beautiful! We quickly took in the room and then were hit with such excitement we immediately set out to see the sights.

Our first stop was Millennium Park - to see the bean! With temperatures high and little cloud in the sky we were optimistic for a great day. We had fun walking around the bean to see all the angles of the city and take as many silly pictures as we could. It was actually really crowded as well, there were lots of people who had the same idea we did.

Then, before you knew it... Those huge black clouds ▲▲ turned into big rain drops & gusty winds ▼▼ complete with a soaked Brett & Susie making haste back to our hotel to wait out the "storm." {aka about an hour}

After we dried off, changed and watched the rain, we saw some clouds break and some blue skies appear and decided to it would be a good time to check out the sky deck/top of Willis {formerly Sears, in case you didn't know, because I didn't} tower.

 We had some amazing views all the way around the tower as you can see. Unfortunately it was a little hazy and the windows were a bit dirty after the rain but it is pretty hard to believe just how high you are. They say on a clear day you can see 4 states; Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, and of course Illinois.  Standing out on "the ledge" was pretty scary too, the glass just does not look thick enough to support everyone. They had an entire wall removed and replaced with 4 of these ledges where everyone was taking turns walking on and looking out.

After we got down from the tower it was late afternoon so we went over to Navy Pier to check that out. It kind of reminded me of a combination of Pier 39 in SF and the Santa Cruz boardwalk. With a beer garden in the middle. Of course by now you can see the clouds have fully disappeared and we had a really nice view looking back at the city with the afternoon sun. {it was still a million degrees though} Then we went back to our hotel and got ready for some evening festivities. We met up with one of Brett's friends from school who is conveniently working in Chicago in the summer while he is in grad school at Irvine. We experienced as much night life as we could that night, but we were A. pretty tired and B. it was a Sunday so places were closing down early.

And of course you didn't think I forgot to mention some "authentic" Chicago food. I use authentic lightly here, so don't get all offended but you know everyone talks about Chicago Deep Dish Pizza and their Chicago style dogs. We shared a SMALL deep dish stuffed pizza from Giordano's. After we ate the pizza we pretty much couldn't move or needed anymore food for the rest of the day. It's hard to even look at that pizza right now. Later, Brett had his vienna beef street cart hot dog with all the fixings.

My overall feelings for Chicago were that I loved it! I have never been to New York/Manhattan but I feel like I can say Chicago is a bit San Francisco meets New York meets London. It was an absolutely fabulous city and I am already dying to go back and explore more! I couldn't get enough, I loved every minute, every corner, every feeling I had while I was there.

Chicago, I think you & I are going to become great friends someday.

X x