Almost homeless in Mendoza. And we'd do it again.

The roar of a plane engine flying nearby just sucker-punched me in the gut. I've got flight envy... bad. At dinner with my grandmother Joan the other night we sat on the back patio of her Arlington condo, which provides perfect views of planes taking off from DCA. Maga Joan (I gave her this name once I could talk) loved and left many corners of the world, including Botswana, Costa Rica, and on twenty-something different occasions... Vienna, Austria. Knowing that I'm afflicted with the same wanderlust as she is, I took a mental note in that moment to not overlook whether a potential home has such a view in the future when making real-estate decisions. They say the golden rule of real estate is  "Location! Location! Location!" My preference is that it literally be in three locations. A girl can dream.

Anyways, today's plane roar inspired me to get back to the blog. Every time someone has come over to my house lately, they are bringing me a bottle of Malbec because they know it's from Mendoza. They either think I'm a Malbec expert now... or they want to make a gesture to connect with my recent travels to Mendoza. Either way, I'm flattered. I haven't really written about my time in Mendoza. Let me start by saying that I have tried to write this post multiple times and either technical difficulties or emotional difficulties stopped it from happening. Then, because I wanted posts to be chronological, I didn't write about the rest of my trip at all.

After a final night in Beunos Aires of tango lessons and the making of a lot of remarkable memories that I don't care to remark on on the public domain (but have dinner with me and I might tell you), Patti and I got on a north-westbound bus for Mendoza, Argentina. Our first time on a bus was quite the adventure. We really did no research, which I think added to the fun. For example, we attempted to prematurely evacuate the bus several times because we kept thinking we might be in Mendoza. Each time, the stewardess caught us with "No es Mendoza," and sent us back upstairs to our semi-cama seats. Semi-cama are the economy seats and something we learned on that trip was that if you're traveling for more than say... six hours... it's is worth it to spring for the Ejecutivo seats. The lesson from the multiple attempted "dismounts" was that these buses make multiple stops on their route to pick up and drop off other passengers. But, they don't really announce which stop they're at. Somehow people just know where they are. The best part of the bus was the amazing assortment of movies. I wish I could remember which ones but oh man... they either played good movies such as "Man on Fire," or the sorts of movies that are so bad they're funny. And they did it in a "bait and switch" fashion. I just asked Patti if she could remember the films from that particular bus ride and her response was "'Bad Teacher' and then some really sh!tty zombie movie." The best thing we viewed on that trip though were the Andes mountains as we got closer to Mendoza. Breathtaking.

Patti and I arrived in Mendoza on Good Friday with no reservations or plans anywhere. We were riding pretty high on that sense of adventure until we'd visited nearly every hostel in the city of Mendoza and they all informed us that they were booked because Easter weekend is one of the busiest for Mendoza vacations. Oopsie. One guy suggested a tent and we had to seriously consider it. Thanks to smart phones, we did find a boutique hotel about 30 minutes outside of the city of Mendoza (and right in the middle of several bodegas) in the pretty down of Chacras de Coria. Hotel SanFransisco was a bit of an unexpected splurge but still cheaper than what we would have paid for the same thing in the states and truthfully, it was relief to feel so "removed" after a week in the bustle of Beunos Aires.

After falling asleep by the pool for a few hours, we got ourselves together to explore the town, still exhausted from not enough sleep in the semi-cama seats and hauling our backpacks around the city for hours trying to find a place to live. The town was absolutely gorgeous. The homes were all beautiful and it seemed everyone had their own grapes growing and a pet German Shepard. Which reminds me... I stopped by the Animal Welfare League of Arlington recently to donate some toys and food, and it got me thinking how I don't think such a thing existing Argentina or many other countries because they let the dogs roam free or kill them if they're rabid. I don't know which one is a better system... just an observation. Anyways, Patti and I practically tripped over this little bodega called Pulmary as we were wandering and it turned out to be such a great find. The wine was all organic, the cheese and charcueterie board was scrumptious, and the staff was very laid back and un-pretentious... maybe even a little sketchy. Pol, who gave us the tour, was certainly a character. He had this unidentifiable accent... something to do with being U.S. born but his parents were both Danish and raised him part of his life in Spain... or something like that. When I asked if we could take a picture, he said it was OK as long as he wasn't in any because he didn't want to be found. We weren't sure if we should be nervous or excited, but we let the intrigue win over when he started pouring us "tastings" the size of full glasses of wine.

Following the bodega, we walked our sauced selves into the heart of town and wandered into an innocent looking shop serving tastings of all sorts of jams, tapanads, dulce de leche flavors... and liquors... including their homemade absinthe. We enjoyed all that they had to offer and then poured ourselves into a cab to go meet my friend Cliff for dinner in the city of Mendoza. When I'd announced on Facebook that I was in Argentina a week before, Cliff popped up and let me know that he was as well and we'd planned to meet up in Mendoza since we'd both be there Easter weekend. I feel pretty bad that we showed up as exhausted and inebriated as we were because I don't think it made us very exciting dinner companions. And we certainly didn't make it past dinner. It was fun though to see another familiar face from home and I remember the food was awesome. It's so funny that by coincidence, or universal/ divine intervention, Cliff's good friends from high school are now my roommates!

We spent the next day resting by the pool and wandering around a winery that we found out we weren't really supposed to be at.

The next morning, Patti and I took the scariest cab ride of our lives deeper into the mountains to spend the day at some thermal pools that looked nice in a brochure in the hotel lobby. Although the driver was a mad man on those switchback roads, he was a nice guy who could tell we loved the views and stopped a couple of time to let us out for pictures. A result of another one of those "lost in translation" mishaps, we arrived at Thermas Cacheuta an hour before it actually opened. Or anything in the teeny tiny town it was in. And it was chilly because we were at a higher elevation and the sun was still working it's way over the mountain peak. So... we walked around. We sat down. We did some yoga stretches. Walked around more. Got into a general store-type shop as it started to open and poked around. Pet some horses. Told a guy the time.. in Spanish... which was pretty exciting for me. Once we actually did make it into the park though it was worth it. The pools felt amazing and we had a fun bilingual chat with a stunning family from Mar del Plata. The husband looked like Antonio Banderas. I'm just sayin'. After we'd had our fun with the pools and laying out, we went to a restaurant in the village where we had the best epandadas in all of Argentina... in my opinion. I still think about those particular meat pockets. I also attempted blood sausage for the first time and loved it.

We took a taxi ride equally terrifying to the one before back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and moved into Hotel Lao in the city of Mendoza. It wasn't part of the plan, but Lao wound up being my home for nearly two weeks and this post is already more verbose than most people can tolerate on the Internet... so I'm going to end this post and pick back up on the rest of Mendoza another time.

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell

I'm back!

OK, I've been back for quite some time. I spent 111 days traveling and returned to my little cottage outside of D.C. Memorial Day weekend. I spent that first weekend at my mom and Dan's house on the Wycamoco Bay, relaxing by the water and savagely devouring blue crabs smothered in Old Bay seasoning. You don't get them served just like that anywhere else in the world. I know, I've now done the research. Then made my way to see Dad and Karen to visit the graves of fallen servicemen we've known and loved and pay our respects, followed by some fun sailing by the monuments along the Potomac River and then  making our own homemade sushi back at the house with some celebratory champagne. I was super determined to just enjoy those moments that weekend and not think about the overwhelming question on every one's mind... "what's next?"

Fast forward to today. My life is still transitioning and my bank account is still in a lot of residual pain... but I feel less stressed about the future and comfortable in the moment than ever before and I feel incredibly rich in all of the ways that it is important to be rich.

Professionally, I was not punished in the least bit for my adventure. I did not return to my last employer, but they had me in to the office after I came back to give a little presentation on my trip and were incredible references for my next endeavor. Not only have I landed a job, but I had two competing offers from employers and actually had to make a tough decision to pick one! I make a good amount more money than I did before with more benefits and on a pretty high profile account that is awesome for my resume. Added bonus: my morning commute is only 15 minutes and I can still wear jeans to work like I did before AND... there is a keg in the office. I still miss the old gang but in case anyone was worried that my decision would hurt my career... you can go ahead and worry about something else :) To be fair, some potential employers were concerned that I'd up and left like that, but the majority found it pretty badass. I'm sure the  manner in which I presented my little career break had something to do with it, so keep that important caveat in mind in case you hope to do something similar and yield the same results. I can't write every one's cover letters for them, but I'm happy to chat with you if you get to that point and do have questions.

I now live in a townhouse in Arlington and I'm loving the proximity to my friends and some of the things I like to do. I enjoyed living so close to my family and having so much nature in my backyard, but I didn't have to give much of that up. The roommates and I have a little backyard that they've let me get creative in and I'm walking around like I'm some expert farmer because I got green things to sprout out of the grown that I'm hopeful will become vegetables before the frost comes. It's a fun project. And, my new bedroom is GORGEOUSLY decorated with the stuff I've acquired from my travels. Funny story about the roommates, they're two guys who I met via Craigslist thinking they'd be strangers and it turns out we had a couple of mutual friends... including my friend Cliff who I hadn't seen in a while except for we happened to be in Mendoza, Argentina at the same time while both traveling and got to have dinner together. Crazy, right? I think that and another reference helped me get the spot in the house so that's another positive change in my life that I actually thank my travels for!

Life is balancing itself out nicely, but I'm certainly still in a transition stage. My yoga practice is still strong and I plan to begin teaching this coming month some nights and mornings outside of my regular work hours. I'm focusing on doing things I like to do and spending time with people who fill me up. I've removed several things, including relationships, from my life that I don't feel serve me. I just don't put my energy into those things so much anymore. I'm focused more on my health, shopping at the farmers market and doing regular physical activity. In a way I'm still traveling, but it's less literal. I'm wandering around my own life and my environment in a more present and aware manner. I'm in awe. I'm free. It rocks.

My heart twinges a little bit when I get taken back to my trip. Random things trigger it. The other day I was in traffic heading home in gorgeous weather. Jamming out with the windows down, a Foo Fighters song came on the radio, bringing me back to seeing them live with Patti and some of our new friends in Buenos Aires. As I was riding on the high of that moment, a girl in the car ahead of me stuck her hand out of the window to ash her cigarette and I noticed a gorgeous henna tattoo design up her hand and arm. That image took me back to the beach in India, laying there as a local woman in a beautifully colorful and glittery wardrobe drew swirls and flowers all over my body as my multi-national group of friends and I crushed on the gorgeous Austrian man down the beach. And then forward to a moment of looking down at that same henna but more faded as I landed in Argentina, aching to be back. Having all of that come in at once was an overwhelming and powerful moment. The real kicker? The Foo song playing was Everlong. So with that, I'll leave you with a link to the song and some of the lyrics, and a promise (maybe more like a "good intention") that I WILL fill in the blanks on the rest of the trip in later posts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBG7P-K-r1Y

"And I wonder if everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when"

Buenos Aires

Once again, I've been a bad little blogger. The good news is that it is because I'm very busy and having a blast! Today I've finally found myself without plans and totally alone, so I'm taking the opportunity to catch up on writing and various "travel chores."

I arrived in Buenos Aires with 250 rupee still on me and they wouldn't exchange it at the airport. No worries though since the universe has a way of taking care of me. I wound up sharing a taxi with an anesthesiologist from Philadelphia in town for a conference who told me he visits family in India all of the time and would be more than happy to take those rupees off of my hand and give me some US dollars. First problem in South America immediately solved. I love strangers.

It didn't take me long to shift my awareness to the bigger challenge in front of me: no hablo espanol. Whoever told me that the people in the city of Buenos Aires speak "a lot" of english either lied or only stayed in the confines of a hostel the whole time. The good thing about this is that I've been forced to pick up more of the language and quickly. Well, until I made an American friend who is fluent. It's amazing how lazy a translator can make you.

That wasn't until I moved into my hostel though. I spent my first dat in Buenos Aires in a hotel downtown so that I could catch up on rest in a big comfy bed and get my bearings. The concierge taught me the most important phrase I've learned since I've been here, "estoy aprendiendo espanol," (I am learning spanish), and then released me into the city to figure everything else out by myself.  I made my way to one of the pedestrian avenues they have throughout the city with a ton of restaurants and sat down at the one with the most people for my first of what I knew would be many glasses of Malbec and any sort of appetizer... since I knew I was nowhere close to true Argentina dinner time. Two Argentinian girls heard me speaking to the waitress in very bad spanish and probably a hyper-obvious American accent and invited me to come join them at their table so that I could practice my spanish with them and they could practice english with me. So nice! I can't imagine many Americans doing the same for a struggling tourist.

So there I was my first night in Buenos Aires, having drinks and cheese with two incredible nice locals. Great start :) My new friends are named Analia and Jesica and not only did they show kindness to me, but also to a beggar who they gave their french fries to. They told me that generally people do not give money to beggars but it is not uncommon to just give part of your meal to them and that the beggars are usually very grateful. Another difference from what I'm used to at home and since then, I've given a lot of food away to homeless here. It's my new diet.

I moved into Art Factory hostel in the San Telmo district the next day and that became my home away from home for the rest of the week. I planned to take it easy my first night but after a siesta and some gentle arm twisting from some of the other guests and even employees at the hostel, I found myself dancing like a maniac with confetti flying everywhere in a club called Crobar in the trendy Palermo district of Buenos Aires until 5 or so in the morning. So much for taking it easy. I'm glad I went though because it began the bonding of me with a handful of other people who I wound up doing everything else with the rest of that week.

The following day, I tried to go back to Palermo for a day market but my cab driver and I had some language issues, so he wound up dropping me off at a random shopping mall. I wasn't upset about it though, I thought my first "lost in translation" snafu was kind of funny and I took it as an opportunity to walk around the city and do some discovering. The more I wandered the city, the more I was reminded of Washington, D.C., even down to the eerily familiar look obelisque-shaped monument in the city's center.

I decided I was interested in going to a soccer/futbol game while in South American and so me and some of my new friends, Alex (from Canada), Will (from USA) and Andrew (from Australia), all hopped onto one of the city buses for the first time to make our way to the stadium. Yes, I'd found myself in a group of all boys, just like I often do at home. While we were on the bus, a local informed Will who is practically fluent that the game was about to end and we wouldn't make it. Soccer field trip fail :( We made our way back to San Telmo and agreed that steak and wine was a solid "plan B." Andrew and I had both heard good things about a place called El Desnivel so we took a chance on the slightly sketchy looking place. If you even go, order the flank steak. They brought sometime out that was about the size of my head, delicious, and only about $10 USD. There was so much leftover steak that we took some back to the hostel with us along with some eggs that we were able to buy directly from the restaurant and made steak and eggs in the hostel kitchen the next morning.

The following days were full of a lot of walking and adventuring around and it was all a lot of fun, but here are some of the highlights:

• They LOVE parks in Argentina. There are beautiful parks all over the place and the locals definitely take advantage, whether they're playing soccer, making out in the grass, fishing in ponds, grilling picnics, playing with their dogs or utilizing the built-in exercise equipment. I think this might be why you don't see a lot of fat people in Argentina. I give props for the Argentina government for maintaining this system that seems to serve their people so well. 
• They had... like... a NASCAR type race in the middle of the city while I was there. It was the coolest thing. It is called the TC 2000 and they shut down 9 de Julio Avenue, a 12 lane avenue in the middle of the city that is said to be the widest in the world. The roar of the engines could be heard from very far all around the city and the streets were crowded with vendors and spectators, including on the top of the surrounding buildings. It was an unexpected and unique experience that I'm glad I got to see. 
• Even though it is still hot in Buenos Aires, it is now considered their autumn and if you don't want to stick out as a tourist, you should be wearing fall fashion... especially boots. My flip flops have earned me a lot of stares. 
• Steak and wine are the main menu items for sure. You have to put in extra effort if you want to eat any fruit or vegetables. And if you want to eat dinner when the locals do, plan to go out around 10 or 11. 
• Went to the Foo Figheters concert at the River Plate soccer stadium and it was incredible! Patti had just gotten in town that day so I was very excited about that and we went with Alex and a couple of other people from the hostel. We'd bought general admission tickets but security wasn't checking at all, so we were able to walk right down to where the stage was. They played for about two-and-a-half hours straight and I think that was the best show I've ever been to. The Foo Fighters apparently have a lot of fans in Argentina because everyone knew all of the words to the songs and they even had a special chant for them.
• Had a lot of steak in Buenos Aires but the best by far was the kobe flank steak that Patti had at a restaurant along the canal called La Cabana. You should all get on an airplane right now just to come and have a taste. 
• Got to see a lot of tango and also took a lesson! I'm hooked!

Those are some of the main highlights, as Buenos Aires kind of feels like a long time ago and I'm feeling too lazy to write much more about it. Overall, I did like the city but I think I mostly liked it because of the people I surrounded myself with while I was there. Other than that, it really reminded me too much of DC and so I was very ready to leave and see other parts of Argentina that would feel more foreign to me. Patti flew into Buenos Aires and spent a couple of fun days with me there, and then we got on a night bus headed for the Mendoza wine country on the other side of Argentina. That is where I am now and I'll try to do a post on my time here so far but I want to get off of the computer now because it's a beautiful day and I want to get out there. No plans today, we'll see how it goes! 

Ciao ;)

Hasta la vista, India

I suppose none of us should be too surprised that I just spent an entire month being super zen in India and hardly posted on the blog. As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun.

I'm already out of the country and in my new temporary home of Argentina, but I wanted to say "goodbye" in writing. Or as they say in spanish (or Austrian if you're Arnold?), "hasta la vista!"

When I left India, I felt like I was the parent obligatorily and guiltily leaving for work as India played the role of the beautiful, fun child holding me by the ankles and begging me to stay and play some more. And by play, I mean something like the "hokey pokey" (hokey cokey for my newUK friends) or twister. After one month of learning how to tell people to put their left hand here, right food there, shake about now, etc., I do kind of feel like I've been playing those games for the past month only under the guise of yoga.

I am going to miss the playtime in India. Even if yoga does become a full-on profession for me, I love it, so it feels like play. I especially loved learning the partner/acro yoga and even when we fell, it was a good laugh. We also got to do a lot of dancing and singing and learning at Ashiyana and it all was very playful.

It wasn't all yoga though, there was also playtime beyond downward dogs. Mostly, there was the beach. The sand was soft, the water was warm, the waves were fairly big, and it was in the 80's or 90's and sunny every day. Perfection. When I'm at the beach I typically limit my time in the ocean to just enough to cool off but in Goa, I would spend a decent amount of time actually swimming and tackling the waves.

Dad, don't read this next part. Goa is probably the most liberal state in India and has so much tourism from Europeans and Russians that nudity on the beach isn't really a big deal. I didn't go full-on, but many of the girls and I did remove our tops when we swam and I have to tell you it was a pretty amazing feeling. If I felt that free swimming topless in the Arabian sea, I can't imagine how the fully-nude elderly hippies doing headstands  in the sand as the sun rose felt. After a visual like that I don't think I need to say this, but if anyone is uncomfortable with nudity, I can tell you that my choice to swim topless would not concern you compared to some of the other "displays" seen on the beaches of Goa. We were born that way though, so get over it. I was honestly a little envious of those people because they just seemed like they might have the least worries in the world. Just doing yoga in their birthday suit on the beach and being super "in the moment." Those are the people that ought to be writing success books.

When I was out of the ocean and back on the sand myself, I was sun bathing of course because we all know how I love a good tan. While lying on the beach, various Indian merchants approach you to buy scarves, drums, produce, ice cream, beads... a little bit of everything. When you aren't in the mood for it, it can be rather obnoxious. When you are in the mood for it, it can be the most convenient shopping experience ever. All of the scarves I bought as gifts for people were on the beach and I also had henna done all up and down my right hand and forearm from the comfort of my beach chair.

I didn't just waste away and shopping on the beach in my free time though. There was also shopping to be done in the markets! On Wednesdays, there is is an afternoon market that a group of us shared a taxi to and it was where I got to practice my haggling skills some more. The general rule was to ask the merchant for a price and then give them a counter offer than basically cut their price in half, and then bargain from there. Sometimes when I'd be trying to get someone to go down from 250 rupees to 200, I would realize that in US dollars I was arguing the difference between $5 and $4 and I would feel a little ridiculous and just give up. It was still going to get the item for far better than I ever would back in the United States.

On the way home from the market, various children covered us in colored powder as part of the Holi festivities and it was a ton of fun and one of the more truly "Indian" things that I feel I got to experience.

The following day, the day of the full moon, was the actual Holi day and Ashiyana did some things so that we could celebrate like provide more color powder for us to play with on the beach and then that night we had a bonfire under the moon. The bonfire was a blast, people were playing bongos and teaching different dances and Katie even came out of nowhere with some amazing fire dancing!

The other popular market to go to was the Anjuna Saturday Night Market, which was less about affordable shopping and more like a big party. There was a stage with live music, lots of food and drink vendors, and this market also featured some Western vendors, meaning some things were a bit more expensive. We found a vendor with wood oven pizza and pounced on a couple of those along with some bottles of beer. While sitting at the bench, and Indian woman about my age kept looking at me and smiling. I finally said "hello" and she proceeded to tell me all about how she was in Goa on holiday with some other girls who she decided to ditch and that she just had a "good feeling" when she saw me so she wanted to say hi. I found out that my new friend Sphoorti is Mumbai, recently divorced, and works for an Indian fashion magazine and blog. Based on her outfit, I completely believe her. We exchanged email addresses and she was sweet enough to invite me to dinner in Mumbai if I had a long enough layover there on my way home. I never did meet her for dinner, but we did email and it's nice to know I have a friend in Mumbai when I do make my way back to India.

I'd already mentioned how I spent some of my free time in Arambol in a previous post, so I'm not going to rehash all of that, but I do want to share another Arambol adventure I'd had. On my last free half-day, I convinced Brianna and Laura to walk that way and quiz one another for the anatomy test we had the following day. We walked past the main part of town we were all familiar with and along a path that went along the cliffside and had some shops and hotels. Once we got to the other side, we found what we'd heard was a fresh water "lake," but it was hardly a lake. We went for a swim then had a beer and some lunch before the other girls made their way back to Ashiyana and I stayed behind because I wanted to find the "magic tree" I'd heard about. The waiter told me to head to the "Om" rock and follow a path just under it into the woods that would lead me to the popular banyan tree where people gathered. Just as I entered the path, an Indian boy of maybe 17 or so chased me from the beach and asked if I'd like I guide. Well, he didn't really ask. He just insisted, started to walk in front of me, and then I had a guide. I will always remember Rohan the Goan as the friendliest, most informative person in the whole entire world. I really lucked out having him take me along because he knew a fact about every tree we passed, every bird we heard... all of it. When we did arrive at the banyan tree, it almost seemed as though the tree was growing out of a giant rock. For all I know it was. That's the one fact that Rohan the Goan did not tell me, although I did learn that the banyan  is the national tree and very significant to Hindus. There was a mix of Indians and Westerners, all with a bohemian "look" to them, sitting around the tree doing a little socializing but mostly just passing some sort of smoking pipe I'd never seen before around and watching Moses the Venezualan do acrobatics high in the tree. It was interesting for sure!

 On the way back from the tree, Rohan showed me a good spot in the stream to stop for an all-natural and free mud bath. I covered my entire upper body and Rohan was "nice" enough to offer to help. Boys will be boys. I declined but I did let him take pictures of me in my mud disguise and he was pretty excited about that.

There is so much more I could share, but that should give a good flavor of how some of the free time in India was spent! Of course some of my favorite times were just hanging out with my new friends over a meal at two of our favorite spots, La Plage and Cafe Nu, or even while fighting over internet bandwidth at Dunes.

I'm going to miss India but it's time for me to focus on the here and now, which is Buenos Aires on Friday morning!

I'm a yoga teacher!

It's amazing to think that one month ago, I started the yoga teacher training course at Ashiyana with all of the jitters of a kid attending the first day of school and now I've left with a the credentials necessary to begin teaching yoga, over 30 new friends from all over the world, and more information and inspiration within myself. We can mark this off in the "success" column!

For those who are curious, I thought I'd paint a bit of a picture of what day-to-day life in the training was like.

My roommate Anna and I both had our alarms set for around 7am every morning, but we were usually woken up before that either pleasantly by the ringing of the nearby church bells, or somewhat violently by the calls of an incredibly obnoxious bird that I swear must have been living on our roof. The morning time until after 10:30 is supposed to be reserved for silence and solitude, but Anna and I started to break that after the second or third week while still in our hut so that we could discuss how much we hated that bird, any exciting international text messages we might have received, or freaky dreams. We got back to silence though the moment we stepped out of the hut and did our own thing from there.

Usually I'd try to make time for a chai tea before 7:30 yoga practice so that I'd have something in my stomach for the two hours before we'd finish and gather for breakfast. Early morning tea time was perfect for reflecting, writing in my journal, studying anatomy notes or planning one of our practice classes.

For the following two hours we either had a yoga class with one of the teachers, usually Linda, or we had self-practice where we did whatever sequence of asana (poses) that we wanted to. I enjoyed Linda's classes so much that I kinda hated self-practice, even though I know it was good to get more into the habit. 

Then came BREAKFAST!! Wonderful, wonderful breakfast. It was basically the exact same every single day and I never got sick of it. The meals at Ashiyana were always served buffet-style and the breakfast spread was always a mixture of fresh-cut fruit that you could then mix with a variety of things including a nut/seed mixture, yogurt, porridge, cinnamon, and honey. Then there was always toast with some sort of fresh jam, eggs done either hard-boiled, scrambled or in an omelet, and a different kinda of fresh juice every day. My favorite was a mint juice but they were all really delicious. 

After breakfast, we could break the silence and begin going to our various classes of the day. They included anatomy classes,  classes where we learned how to teach and got to practice teaching one another, and classes about the philosophy and spiritual aspects of yoga. It was always a well-rounded, action-packed day that was broken up only by lunch and an hour-and-a-half of free time. We usually used that time to go down to the beach or to go to a local cafe to try and get some internet working. It was also a good time to take care of "chores" like laundry and showering. 

As the weeks went by, we wrapped up some of our sections such as anatomy and started using that class time to teach full mini-classes and get evaluated. I was a nervous wreck the first time I taught my short class but it flew by and went more smoothly than I'd imagined, so it made teaching a longer class much more relaxing. 

After dinner every evening, we had some sort of activity, usually of the music/dancing/chanting variety. They had different local artists come in and perform for us, including a didgeridoo player who is a San Fransisco native, the guitarists I'd mentioned in my last post, and a girl named Storia with a really awesome and unique sounding steel drum from Switzerland called a HANG.  

The nights that we did the more spiritual and chanting stuff (Bhakti yoga) really grew on me over time. I wasn't' sure how to feel about it at first because I don't consider myself a religious person and some of it frankly seemed a little silly. However I kept an open mind about it and found the sounds beautiful and the impact really bringing me into greater awareness for being "in the moment." Nothing really having to do with any God in my view, and yet a un-intrusive, spiritual feeling experience. It turns out it was really my kind of thing. One night we also watched a movie that was pretty groovy to look at called Ashes and Snow and I recommend you check it out if you can handle that it doesn't have a lot of words but is very visually stimulating. 

It wasn't all yoga stuff though. Everything in moderation :) We had half-days on Wednesday for free time, as well as from dinner on Saturday night until 8pm on Sundays to do as we pleased. A lot of that time was spent on the beach, out to try new meals or at the markets. I'll write more about extracurricular activities in another post though. 

Namaste! नमस्ते 

Sample 48 hours in Goa

As we all lay on mats and cushions on the floor of the main yoga shala, a Russian man sat down in front of us, said a few humble words that also happened to be funny, and then he got right down to business. He put his fingers to the strings of an electric-ish spanish guitar and did not stop making music out of it until an hour-an-a-half later. He didn't sing or stop to rest his fingers or tell us a little joke, he just went straight Carlos Santana on that thing the whole time; one seamless song. His only other "gimmick" was his Indian friend who sat down next to him in the beginning and a couple of minutes in, started to feel the music and move around, eventually getting up and dancing around the room. This got some of my classmates up, including Ashley, who is Indian as well and actually owns a dance studio in Mumbai and is well-known as a Bollywood choreographer. As you might imagine, the whole things was beautiful to be witness to. 

To add to how beautiful and refreshing this different kind of concert was, when we all went to clap at the end, he asked us to stop and to please just let it be in silence. His ego didn't need the applause or requests for CDs. He just wanted to come share his instrument with us. I got up in silence and then was when I finally remembered that I was in pain...

Earlier today I'd had another hour-and-a-half long experience that was also beautiful but equally painful: my very first Thai massage. I got up from the massage, looked at Steve (a tall British masseuse at Ashiyana) and only said, "Wow, I feel like you just performed an exorcism on me." He hand found a spot in my lower back that felt like it needed some work and so he'd basically beaten the snot out of it. Other than a brief dog fight, that's really the most violent thing I know of happening since I've been in India. I'll take it. I'll even sign up for another before I leave, but I think I'll wear yoga pants next time instead of shorts. I have learned a valuable lesson about appropriate dress code for a Thai massage after Steve had me basically tied up in a pretzel. Luckily he was really professional about it, but you might want to learn from my mistake if you've never had one before. 

Yesterday was pretty interesting as well. For those of you who know me as "Stranger Danger," I want you to know I was all over it. We have half-days on Wednesdays and I'd talked to some of the girls about meeting in Aranbol, a bigger town about a 40 minute walk down the beach from where we are in Mandrem. As you get closer to Aranbol, the language becomes significantly more Russian and the people look much more bohemian.

I wandered into town and had an eye out for the girls as I also checked out the shops and tried to find a good place to eat. As I wandered, I came across a nice looking older man playing a drum in front of a music shop. I stopped to listen and look since I'm thinking about bringing my brother back some sort of instrument and he offered to teach me how to play. That poor guy had no idea what he was getting himself into. The chaos I created for the next 20-30 minutes on the drum drew other shop keepers away from their posts and it wasn't long before I had a mini crowd... my first concert! If I can make a generalization about the people of India based on just that experience alone, it is that they are very patient people who are kind enough to humor a curious and silly person like me. If I ever choose to pursue a music career, I know who my target audience will be. It's all about the fans, baby. 

I was even more famished than before after my big concert, so I resumed my mission to find a decent meal. The trick to finding a good restaurant in India that won't make a western stomach sick is to seek out places that other westerners are eating in. The problem though is that it wasn't really lunch or dinner time, so almost everywhere was empty or people were just drinking. I did find a german bakery that several people were sitting in and i proceeded to stare helplessly into the glass case in the front, deliberating between the chocolate or the nutella croissant. So similar, and yet, so different. 

"Tough choice, huh?" I turned around and an Indian guy about my age was standing next to me. We got to talking about my eating options and he offered to take me somewhere on his motor bike. Feeling Stranger Dangerous, I got on the bike and we zipped between pedestrians and other vehicles in search of sustenance. He stopped the bike at a jewelry store that turned out to belong to his family, sat in office chairs... and that's when I started to wonder if maybe I was in a sketchy situation. He waved across the street and a teenage boy came over and took our drink orders and then reappeared a few minutes later with some juices. I sat for about 45 minutes and got to know my new friend Shane. We talked mostly about India and traveling and exchanged some "cultural" jokes that had us both laughing. It was a totally harmless, fun and random time. Maybe slightly sketchy, too. He invited me to a big Indian wedding before I leave and I hated to turn him down because that's a bucket-list item, but it would mean skipping some important time in my yoga training. 

I was probably walking home with a stupid grin on my face because nearly everyone said "hi" to me. At one point I passed a man in purple pants who I eventually "felt" following me. He introduced myself once I turned around and became my new, strange, Hungarian friend. He mentioned that he was influential in the fashion industry and when I probed further he said "you know white shirts with graphics in the middle? I was the first guy to do that." Oh. My. Gosh. Wow. What a character. What an interesting walk home.

So that is just a taste of some of my time here in India. It's just the past two days! I do want to write more about what has happened in the past 2.5 weeks and what daily life in yoga training is like, but I'll have to save it for another post. 

Namaste :)

I'm in India!!!

It was a 14 hour flight. Or was it 15? Does it matter? Dad made the journey with me to make sure I got here safe, to check out the resorts in Goa for possibly coming back with my stepmom, and just to spend some quality father/daughter time. Isn't he the best?

We had a relaxing and educational 24 hours exploring the tiny village of Mandrem Beach, including my first attempt at haggling. I didn't bring a beach towel so I went to one of the street stalls that appeared to be owned and operated by a 9 year old girl. A 9 year old girl who has a heck of a lot more hustle than most 30 year olds I know. I was able to get the price of the towel down from 400 rupees to 200... which is $4 USD.  A huge beer here is 100 ruppess, basically $2. Yea, don't hate on India.

The people here are very nice, and incredibly trusting. If you are shopping and want something and don't have enough rupees, they will let you have it and you can just pay them later. They're not worried about it. It's been a little challenging for me to adjust to this much trust when it comes to money. It certainly isn't the "American" way.

I've been at my teacher training training for nearly 2 weeks now and it has been so busy, plus so spotty with internet, that I'm only now posting on the blog. Sorry!!! I don't even have a lot of time right at this moment, so I'll try to just go for the highlights:

• There are 31 people in my course from all over the world, mostly Europe. My roommate is named Anna from Austrailia and she is hilarious. 
• I'm 10.5 hours ahead of east coast time and I spend most of my time from 7:30am here until 9pm or so in various yoga/ yoga related classes, five-and-a-half days a week.
• I have not gotten sick or kidnapped and I doubt either is going to happen to me. 
• I have already gotten to experience so much that I want to share but don't have time to right now... it's time to run off to a class!

I'll attempt to right more in the next couple of days!

Namaste :)

Bienviendo a Miami (and West Palm)

Day 1 - I continued the drive to Miami and landed myself at my friend Ashley's apartment in Hollywood. Sarah drove down from West Palm and we did some catching up as I prepared for the girls a version of a dish I like to make to throw on the grill sometimes. It's individual tinfoil packets with pieces of potato on the bottom, topped with andoullie sausage (sometimes I use chorizo) and then shrimp (usually I'll also put scallops on top of that but we didn't have any). Then I put some butter, garlic, white wine and dill on top of that and we took them down to the grill. Because I'm from the Chesapeake area, I also usually put old bay in there as well but this was an improv version of the dish. I don't think they use Old Bay in the land of the stone crab and spiny lobster.

We grilled out, had a couple of glasses of box wine and caught up by Ashley's pool, just  short distance from the beach. It wasn't a late night though, I'd had a long day already so we went to bed.

Day 2 - Ashley and I met up with her boss and went to a free yoga class at LuLu Lemon. The teacher was everything I imagine an attractive Latino yoga teacher in Miami to be. At one point in the class he instructed us to find our "sit" bones and joked that if we couldn't find it, he would come around and help us. I'm telling you, any woman (and maybe some of the men) in that class who deny that they weren't thinking in their head "Nooo, nope, I can't find mine, please come help me!" is a liar! My mat had been in the trunk of Doris the Yaris so I'd borrowed one of Ashley's and we cleaned it just before class. I was slipping and sliding all over that thing, so the store owner came over and offered me one of the mats in the store to use. At the end of the class, she turned to me, pointed to the mat and whispered, "this is a gift, I want you to have this." Once again, the generosity of a stranger. It's a really nice mat and because she gave it to me, I wound up giving the one I had in my trunk to Ashley. Just sharing the love.

After yoga we went to the beach and were eventually joined by Kim & Mark and their friends who were also in town. We hung out there for a while and agreed to meed later at the Hollywood boardwalk for dinner. We had dinner at a good sushi place then did some walking around.

Day3 -  The next day, met Kim at her place and went to a state park to BBQ some lunch and hang out on the beach. I was surprised by the beaches at the park, they were really pretty. At one point some people were digging in the sand in the shallows of the water and talking a lot in spanish. We went over to check it out, and one of them pointed to my feet and started screaming something in spanish. I started screaming as a result, and then they were all laughing, because they had tricked me. They were fishing around for a stone crab who had burrowed himself down in the sand and eventually they did get him out. It was my first time seeing a live stone crab up close.

After lunch, I made my way to West Palm to spend a night with Sarah at her place. Really nice area and a contrasting pace from Miami, but the drive there was terrifying. As Mark had said, driving on I-95 in Miami is like being in the Daytona 500 every day. I had a really fun time just taking it easy with Sarah and chatting with her and her boyfriend John, who said to call him Jack now and that it's short for John. I'm still trying to figure out how that makes sense. Sarah made us a big spaghetti dinner and it was really comforting and relaxing to have a hearty home-cooked meal. Then, Sarah forced John-Jack and I to watch 'The Bachelor' and I have to say I'm so happy I would be in India for the next week's episode because I found myself getting interested in the show and did not want to get hooked.

Day 4 - Drove back toward Miami and really wanted some cuban food before I left, so I made it my mission to get some. I'd wanted to try Versailles after seeing Anthony Bourdain go there on 'No Reservations' and then John-Jack's friend Eduardo said it was the place to go for cuban as well, so I decided this meant I had to go. I made my way to little Havana and entered the cafe part of Versailles, which also had a bakery part and a cuban coffee/cigar shop part. I ordered a cuban espresso and through a broken spanglish dialogue, the Criollo, which was some sort of sampler platter. It came with incredibly flavorful chunks of pork, an item that looked like a corn dog but then you dug in and it had ham and cheese mixed inside, sweet plantains, a tamale, some pulled beef in a tomato based sauce, and something that looked a little like slimy potatoes but tasted heavier. It was delicious.

Ashley's boyfriend was home for the day so I took the rest home to him. Afterward, we made our way to Ft. Lauderdale to the Elbo Room, a bar that has been so popular there for so long, it was recently declared a historical landmark. After doing some quality people watching at Elbo Room, we made are way back to Hollywood to a restaurant called Le Tub for dinner. It was a neat little place right on the waterway with tubs and toilets all over the place with various plants growing out. Ashley is in school for physical therapy and had just aced a test so we celebrated and on the way out, we went to say hi to a celebrity at the bar. Well, he's a celebrity if you're from Vienna, Virginia; the owner of Vienna Inn! What a small world.

Phew! Now I'm all caught up with my time up until India, which is where I am now. I may not be able to post any photos while I'm here because of the internet connection but I'll try to post something by this Sunday when I have my next block of "free time" from yoga teacher training. I can tell you that I'm loving it so far!

Key West: The Rest (days 3-5)

Slowly but surely I'm posting these! I have very little internet access here in India!

Day 3 - I made my way to Ft. Zachary Taylor Park for Yoga on the Beach. It was incredible to practice with all of that ocean and open air around and I walked away feeling very relaxed. I didn't walk far though, only a couple yards down onto the beach, laid out my towel, and started working on some sleep while the beach was still fairly empty.

For reasons I do not understand, a huge family came and picked a spot only 2 feet away from me to set up their day at the beach. The beach was still virtually empty so why they decided to come right up next to me like that is totally beyond me. I thought about just inviting them to come sit in my lap, since they may as well have. I didn't move my towel though until they did the ultimate offensive thing, which was to set up a huge umbrella right next to me and put me under the shade. They messed with my tan, so it was time for me to separate myself from my perplexingly rude adoptive family. There were no words in our goodbye.

I did get up at some point and do some walking on the beach, a little frolicking in the water, and some climbing on rocks. And when I say climbing on rocks, I'm even just talking about walking on the beach. There isn't a lot of sand in Key West, the beaches are very rocky. I think almost all of the fine sand on the island is actually imported from the Bahamas. There were also some very large rocks though that came out into a mini peninsula and others that made these kind-of mini rectangle islands. It looked man-made but what their purpose is, I have no clue.

I love dolphins and think they're one of the most interesting and amazing animals so I knew going into this trip that if I was going to spend money on one super-touristy thing, it was going to be a wild dolphin-watching excursion. I'd asked the front desk at the hotel to recommend a good one for me and the woman working said "Oh yea, I know this one run by two really nice ladies that only take a few people out so it'll be a really private and exclusive experience and it's a reasonable price, etc etc etc." Sounded good to me, so I asked her to book me. Well, today was the day of my dolphin tour. I got ready after the beach and started walking to the marina where I was supposed to meet the boat but the problem was, I wasn't sure which boat I was supposed to be on. I whipped out my phone and googled the name of the company that the front desk had jotted down on a sticky note for me and what I saw first on the website was, "Key West's only women only, lesbian friendly dolphin tours!!!"
....
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..............wait a second... am I going on a...? I am? The hotel probably thinks I'm a lesbian? Well, whatever. I like all kinds of people. I was not upset, but I couldn't help but laugh. I mean come on, that is a funny thing to just accidentally find myself doing. Girls-only love boat!

Oh.. and it was also scheduled to be a sunset cruise. So an extra romantic girls-only love boat. Even though the girl at the hotel left this little detail out, she was not kidding when she told me it would be exclusive. The only people on this 3-hour tour was me, Captain Angie, and Pam and Kristin, who were a really nice couple. We all had a lot of fun talking and laughing and they didn't think any less of me because I am straight. Or at least not to my face, I think they might have been a little curious about what in the world I see in men. I admit that sometimes I wonder that too. Don't we all, ladies? What I love about men though is that they put up with us, too. I could not date me. We didn't see any dolphins but we did get some snorkeling done and I got to test out whether or not my new digital camera was actually water proof. Good news, it is! I did get to see the sunset from the boat and it was even more beautiful than that night before.


We said our goodbyes and then I met Art, my friend from Eden House, for dinner at Bagatelle on Duval Street because we'd seen a lot of good reviews for it. The food was delicious and Art has a gift for conversation, so it was a recipe for a great dinner.

Day 4 - Finally made my way to the bakery on the corner that everyone had been raving about and got something you will almost never see me eating, a danish. I decided since I'm about to go to India to eat very healthy and do yoga every day, I may as well fatten myself up a little bit so that I have something to lose. It was delicious because it was sinful, and sinful because it was delicious. 

This was my last full day in Key West and I hadn't made an official decision about what I was going to do with it, but I decided this could be my"party" day. I hadn't been focused on that aspect of the island yet. I was OK with that, but I thought it might round out the trip nicely. 

The only real decision I had made though was to continue spending some time deciding by the pool. What a life. Eventually Art, Gordon and Linda, and Dottie and Ken (another couple I got to know), all converged around the pool as well. We got to talking, one thing lead to another, and the first plastic cups of wine were poured. So began my party/ last day in Key West; wine by the pool with the friends I'd made. Percet!

The transition between everything that followed that first glass of wine could be "one thing lead to another and…"

Very little was planned in advance, we all just went with the flow. Things lead into a very good dinner out. I just can't remember the name of the restaurant. And at dinner, the conversation lead to the group deciding to go see the female impersonators show at Aqua.

You're welcome because we went ahead and did that research for you, and we found out that you don't need to go to that show. Not when there are far better ones like at La Te Da in town. It was fun because we were all together and there were some good songs (one of them did Sister Act!) and a really energetic and flattering waiter named Chris. But, the three talents there only lypsynced and walked around begging for tips the whole time. We agreed that we were glad we went so that we would know never to go back again.

After that show, we lost Dottie and Ken to the night, but Art, Gordon, Linda and I pushed ahead and walked to the Green Parrot where we'd heard there was a must-see band playing. I don't recall their name, but if I could describe them, their sound was something like rock with a Cuban/Miami flavor to it. 

We were all bopping around, having a good time, and noticing this one group of men noticing us. One of the men finally came over to me and asked, "are you here in Key West with your parents?" He was gesturing toward Gordon and Linda and my response was "Oh yea, we're here celebrating my birthday and their 30 year wedding anniversary." I'm not sorry I lied. Sometimes the opportunity for a solid bar lie is too good to pass up. We chatted a bit and I was feeling pretty full of myself so when I noticed everyone was low on beer I told Gordon, "watch this, I'll get ALL of us free beers," and I turned to my new friend and said I was going to the bar to get a beer. Sure enough, he punched his buddy who was leaning against the bar in the arm and told him to get me, my parents, and "Uncle Art" all beers. Everyone got a beer expect for Linda, who the buddy passed a glass of Patron too. Turns out this guy had a thing for Linda. "You have to drink that whole thing," he demanded. "I don't have to do anything," she responded between tiny sips. I think that just further fueled his crush. Poor guy, he didn't stand a chance. Not to mention we noticed all of their wedding bands. 

Day 5 - The bakery from the day before made a positive impression, so I went back. I got a danish and a coconut water and as I was walking back to the hotel, the shop owner ran out the door after me. "Excuse me miss…" I was thinking I must have short-changed him on accident of something… "can I check the expiration date on your coconut water? I think I might have given you a bad one." Wow. That would never happen back at home. I was going to miss the pace of life here. I packed up and said goodbyes. Oh, and I went ahead and pre-booked a room in October for Fantasy Fest weekend. I'm told it's an experience and the friends I'd made plan to be there, so it will be a reunion weekend!

The drive from Key West to Miami was a little less than four hours, although it wasn't long before I needed some lunch on the way. The hotel had a list of the best sights/restuarants on A1A throughout the Keys, so I picked a restaurant in Key Colony Beach that they said were known for their fish tacos and blue cheese chips. I found Sparky's Landing about a miles off of A1A, which I liked because it didn't have as many other tourists dropping through since that was considered "far" off the direct path from Point A to Point B. I went to the bar and the bartender took my drink order and then lead me to a spot on the outside deck overlooking the water. We got in the whole where are you from/what do you do conversation and I learned that he had a masters degree in (insert some big word that has to do with lobsters here) and that he came to the Keys to do lobster research with Florida Game Commission. Bartending was his side job to help pay off student loans. My response? "Lobster research? Don't we already know everything we need to about lobsters? They taste great in butter and rolls." His response, "Yea I know but don't tell my boss I won't have a job."

The blue cheese chips were in fact amazing. Fresh fried chips with a generous helping of blue cheese crumbles on top and a drizzle of an herbed olive oil. I'm salivating just thinking about them again. The plate they give you is huge though and there was no way I could finish it on my own and still have room for fish tacos. Perfect timing for a group of people to sit down next to me! I offered them the rest of my chips, explaining that it wasn't because I didn't like them and that I just wanted to save room for my next dish. They were really excited and grateful and once again, I got into the where are you from/what do you do conversation. They were two couples in which the men had been doing some work in Key Largo for the past couple of months and had flown their wives in for the weekend to head down to Key West for some fun. 

When my fish tacos came, it was just too hot for me to eat them in the sun, so I told them to enjoy their trip and took my plate to the bar inside. A couple of minutes afterward, one of the husbands approached me at the bar and handed me some cash saying "this is for the chips." I informed him that that was more money than those chips cost and he replied, "yea, but we're not trying to survive for the next few months like you are, I'll make more money. This is all the cash I had in my wallet, otherwise I'd donate more. Have an amazing journey. I insist you take this." And then he walked away. How touching to have a stranger want to support and encourage me like that. Not a bad way to transition from the Keys to Miami.

Key West - Day 2

Day 2 - Woke up with a slight hangover. I guess that's what all of those free valentines pity drinks will do to you. Got my favorite hangover cure from the market at the end of Fleming street then curled up in the fetal position in my favorite hammock and let it rock me back to sleep.

Fun bike I saw on the walk to the market

Funky cars all over the place!

View from my nap hammock back toward
the pool at Eden House

 After I slept things off a bit, I found a yoga studio with great Yelp! reviews so I pulled myself together and started the walk toward Duval street. Got there a couple of minutes late and they were meditating so I didn't want to barge in. I was close to a major tourist attraction and hadn't really seen any yet, so I checked out the Southernmost point of the US and grabbed breakfast at a cafe there. It wasn't the best meal I had in Key West by far, which only further affirmed why I stay away from chain/tourist places to eat when traveling. I'd found another Yoga studio on Yelp! with a class time I knew I could make it to, so I went off in that direction.


It was a Spinal Release class at Shakti and I hadn't been to a specifically focused class like this before so I wasn't sure what to expect. The class was taught by a lean, tan shaggy-haired man named Carl and I only needed to talk to him for half a minute before I got a totally groovy, chilled out vibe from this centered dude.  He lead the class through bends, twists and stretches to work the six movements of the spine and that was all well and good... until he brought out the "contraptions." They were swing-looking things hooked up to the wall that he had us do various upside-down poses in to stretch our spine and counter-act the pounding we put on it walking and running... which eventually causes us to "shrink" in old age. A very good thing for you... but it felt very bad to me that day with my lingering hangover.


Delores and Tom, some family friends who are very close to my Grandmama, happened to be living in Key West for the month of February, so I made plans to meet them for a sunset happy hour that night. After resting up a bit, I made my way to their cottage that happened to be very close to Mallory Square where everyone goes to see the sunset. I was a little early so I dipped into a couple of shops on the way, including one that sold various antiques and artwork. I did some casual browsing and when I came across the jewelry, I got goosebumps. Remember the bird necklace my grandma had worn for good luck on all of her world travels over the years and had given to me for this trip? There in this little shop in Key West was a charm for sale with the EXACT same mother-of-pearl birds that matched the necklace perfectly. Whether you believe in signs or serendipity or just coincidence, you have to admit... that's pretty cool. I bought the charm and have since added it to my necklace. It will be so special to give back to my grandma after my trip with this addition.

The birds!!!

I made it to the little cottage that Delores and Tom have been living in and it was this adorable studio-style place, much like the little cottage I live in at home in Virginia. Delores was exactly as I'd always remembered her; dressed in bright and fashionable, yet age-appropriate and classy clothing and accessories, and with a bright charisma that was made even more pleasant by her southern accent. They showed me Mallory Square, where everyone flocks for the best view of the sunset and to watch various street performers, including a man who has his house cats trained like lions and puts on a little circus show. I think that's as much of a must-see in Key West as the sunset it… I'm still trying to figure out how the heck he got those cats to do that. They usually seem like such uncooperative animals that don't give a s#&!… just like the honeybadger. Note: If you don't get the honeybadger reference, you can look it up on YouTube but do so at your own risk, there is some profanity, etc. It's a social meme at this current point and time but I bet IF someone were to read this blog in 5 or 10 years they would not understand why that comparison might be funny.

When it came to the sunset, this was not Delores and Tom's first rodeo. Rather than standing among the hoards of people lined up along the edge of the water in the marina, they lead me to a restaurant that was just behind everyone and up the stairs to the upstairs bar/patio area, which was much less crowded than I thought it would be. We'd hardly gotten to the top of the stairs before we hear someone holler "Carlyn!" and there were Linda and Gordon from Eden House waving to me from the bar… I knew I liked them. 


We joined them for happy hour drinks and sunset watching and through conversation discovered that Delores was from the same area Linda and Gordon were from and she'd gone to high school with Gordon's cousin or something like that. These coincidences used to surprise me a long time ago, but they just don't anymore. Once the sun got to a certain point in the sky, it really was as though curtains had been drawn back and it was performing a show. People started looking all in one direction and vigorously taking pictures every 30 seconds or so because the sun, colors, clouds, sails in the foreground… everything kept changing and getting prettier and prettier. I found it hard to juggle conversation during the sun's show with also trying to get pictures with my camera, my camera phone, and then also my mental pictures. I did get some beautiful shots though and afterward, I was able to return to the group's fun conversation and my wine. 

Delores & Tom

After happy hour, Delores, Tom and I went to a restaurant right near their cottage called Kelly's for a bite to eat. When we sat at the bar, the waiter complimented Tom, "wow sir, you're with two beautiful ladies, you're a lucky man!" Without hesitation, and as cool as a cucumber Tom replied, "What? Don't you have two?" I'm still laughing about that one. 


We shared some appetizers and an entree and I'm going to tell you that though I understand most of the time you will want to get seafood in Key West, you must go to Kelly's for the wings. We had some with a sweet chili sauce of some sort on it that I am still thinking about. Whenever I do go back, I'm not even going to bother ordering anything else but those wings…. and maybe a margarita. I had the Top Gun margarita which was really delicious and then I noticed a lot of memorabilia from the Top Gun movie around the bar. I think Delores noticed me noticing because that's when she told me that the restaurant belonged to Kelly McGillis, the main actress in Top Gun. Supposedly, she took her money from the couple of movies she made and then came down to Key West and invested in it a couple of businesses and had this restaurant as an homage to the movie that made her famous. Starred in Top Gun AND Key West business queen/sometimes resident? Kelly, you are my hero. 

I still have a couple of days of Key West to write about, however in the interest of keeping these short enough to read, I'm going to break it up into another post. If you're even still reading...

Table for One: Valentine's Day in Key West

I learned something important from Key West before I even got there: the United States does not know how to do hostels. I'd reserved myself a bed from the only hostel in Key West to save some money and meet other travelers, but soon learned that the sheets were moldy (major health problem for me), the staff was rude, and it was just an overall sketchy place. I should have known, plenty of people before had told me that for the most part, hostels are perfectly good accommodations in other countries but for whatever reasons, any hostel one would find in the United States would be poorly run and not even as good of a deal as overseas. 

I called the first place I could find on Google on my iPhone and wound up with a reservation at Eden House without seeing any pictures first or anything. I just liked that the guy sounded nice on the phone and that the rate was reasonable. As far as last minute hotel reservations goes, this instance had to win some sort of award. They gent running the front desk was just as friendly in person as he'd been on the phone and offered me a free beer upon my arrival. Then he showed me around the beautiful property that looked almost like the garden of eden itself and where Goldie Hawn had once filmed a movie, and then he showed me to my room and informed me there would a free happy hour by the pool at 4pm. Jackpot! Eden House had really great little details though, such as no alarm clocks in the room on purpose and a suntan lotion and aloe bar free for guests to use. I guess you'll eventually think of everything though when you're running the oldest hotel in Key West. The best thing of all though? It is walking distance to nearly everything! In case you couldn't tell, I am recommending this place. 

I settled into my room and then made my way to the pool to soak up the warmth and contemplate my plans for the night. It was Valentine's Day, afterall. Somewhere in the middle of making all of my evening reservations and turning a nice shade of brown and pink, I found myself making my first Key West friend! His name is Art and it turned out that he was also taking a hiatus from work to do some traveling over the next couple of months. I am in good company! Art is a talker just like I am and so we kept the conversation flowing effortlessly right into happy hour, which finally got us out of our chairs and mingling with other guests. This is when we met two fantastic couples, Ken & Dottie, and Linda & Gordon. Linda and Gordon eventually became my "Key West Parents," but that's for another post. We all had a blast at happy hour getting to know one another and telling stories and it wasn't long before I got the (partially alcohol-induced) notion that this was going to become a fun and comfortable home-away-from-home.

Because I was having fun, time flew. I had to rush through getting ready for my big Valentine's night out with myself, which wasn't so hard since I only had to worry about impressing myself. I arrived to dinner at the Casa Marina resort and once again, I'd booked something completely sight-unseen and wound up having my expectations completely exceeded. All I knew about it was that I should go because Patti's dad, who used to live in the Keys, said so. It may not be the kind of place I'd be looking for on a normal day on my trip but for Valentine's Day, it was perfect. I walked through the aisle of palm trees and up to the hostess stand on the beach and took in a sight of white-linen tables scattered all over the sand in front of the water and under lit-up palms. 

I couldn't help but laugh out loud a little when I turned to tell the hostess that I was there for my reservation because I felt like I was playing out the real-life version of that scene in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall when Jason Segel is at their beautiful resort in Hawaii and asks for a table for one. I was just waiting for the hostess to yell "Yeah clear everything off the table, it's just one person!" or ask me if I want a magazine to read. Not only did none of that happen though (well... except they did clear the other plates off of the table), but they completely hooked me up! They sat me at the best table right against the water's edge and gave me a couple of glasses of free champagne on the house. The four-course meal was delicious although I may have had a positive bias about everything going on around me since my toes were in the sand the entire time and I had an amazing view of the ocean. 

Thanks to another recommendation from Patti's Dad, I made my way to my after-dinner activity, which was the cabaret at Le Te Da. I knew it was a female impersonator (aka drag) show, but once again, I was basically walking into something I knew no prior information about. Even though I got there a half hour before the show had started, it was already pretty crowded. However since I was by myself, they were able to squeeze me into a table with a bunch of strangers close to the font. Once again, being solo can have it's perks. 

The show itself was impressive. It was one incredibly talented man who played woman after woman in this mix of a singing and comedy show that he didn't lip-sync whatsoever. When he sang a Marilyn Monroe song, he sounded like her. When he sang a Reba song, he sounded like her. And he did a pretty good job of looking like them, too. Plus, he was hilarious. It was an awesome show and I highly recommend it. His name is Chris Peterson and apparently he performs at La Te Da pretty frequently. I did go to one other show during my trip that I'll discuss in another post and that one was total trash compared to Chris' show. 

As I was leaving the show, the hostess came up and asked me if I was really by myself for Valentine's Day. Apparently, the bartender had seen me come in and was "smitten" and wanted to know if I'd be his Valentine and have a drink with him. I tried to make up a million reasons why I couldn't but I guess I did a bad job of communicating them because the hostess convinced me to wait at the downstairs bar where a fun piano player was just getting started. The bartender, I think his name was Ryan, came down about 20 minutes later and was true to his word, he only obligated me to one drink and then let me go home when I wanted to. I did have fun though, I got to meet the performer, Chris and the guy singing and playing piano was awesome. 

I took a cab back to Eden House because I didn't quite have my bearings and didn't want to walk alone even though there is a crime rate of... like... zero in Key West. I hope my parents are proud. Instead of making my way to my room, I bee-lined it for a hammock outside just because I could and relaxed there under the palms and stars and reflected on my successful first day in Key West. The rest of the trip was just as colorful and relaxing and hilarity most certainly did ensue, but I'll save all of that for a second "highlights" post since this one is already very long! 

2/13 in Cocoa Beach, Florida

On my way from Myrtle Beach and Key West, I decided to take a day of rest and exploration in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I'd never been there before and don't know a soul who lives there, so I thought it might be a fun little stop. From the moment I hit the Florida state line, and possibly sooner in Georgia, I started seeing billboards for the Ron Jon shop in Cocoa Beach. My memory may be a little dramatic, but it felt as though there was another one at every other mile marker. I started to get a crazy inkling that maybe this was the big attraction in Cocoa Beach.

I spent most of the day catching up on rest, emails, etc in my hotel room since the temperature was in the 60s and way too cold for the beach. The only people at the pool was a Canadian family who probably thought it was warm enough. For whatever reason, it actually felt like temperatures were in the 70s or 80s on my balcony and the wind was blocked so I was able to sunbathe there for a while and even got pink on one side of my body. I know it's not good for you, but since that was the first sign of new color I'd seen on my skin in months, I got really excited about it. 

I decided that the Ron Jon's billboards would win after I had a hard time seeking out other activities and I decided to walk there via the beach. Being the day before Valentin's Day, a lot of people decided to make beach art to show their love. I enjoyed taking pictures of their art...

A man was walking down the beach saw me taking a picture of the shell heart and asked if I wanted my picture taken since I was alone. After he took my picture, was stood and talked for a bit and he told me he's a retired aeronautical engineer who now a "snow bird" who split his time between Cocoa Beach and the Poconos and that he really loved living in Cocoa Beach because he thought it had the bluest sky anywhere. I looked up and realized he might be right. The sky was the brightest blue I'd ever been under, as you can see for yourself in some of these photos I took outside of the Ron Jon shop once I got there.

I actually thought the sculptures themselves were a decent attraction, especially within their surroundings of the bright blue sky, colorful shop and towering palms. I then made my way into the shop and discovered that Coacoa beach has surf boards like Myrtle Beach has hermit crabs!

 I felt ever so slightly like a creep just walking around the store taking pictures, but I actually did buy something. I've actually had some naysayers with regard to this whole trip I'm doing who think it isn't wise for me to go alone or to have left my job, etc. So, when I saw a bracelet in the shop that had "I may be a dreamer" engraved on one side and "but I'm not the only one" engraved on the other, I felt very attracted to it and had to buy it. At some point on this trip, I'll meet someone who is on a similar journey and may have faced similar questions and challenges, and I'm going to give this bracelet to them.

The birds wrapped around my wrist in this picture are actually a necklace that my grandma, Maga Joan, gave to me as a good luck charm before I left for my trip. In addition to being a dancer, actress, writer, one-time surrogate mother to a baby gorilla, she used to be a photographer for the Peace Corps. She did quite a bit of traveling as a result and so her daughter, my aunt Megan, gave her this necklace as a good luck charm. Now that I'm in Key West I have cool story about this necklace that happened here.. but I'll save that for when I get around to my Key West post.

The checkout girl recommended I go to Sandbar for a bite to eat. I approached the outside and was a little concerned because it looked incredibly touristy and cheesy, but I do like pretty colors so...

... into the mouth of the monkey (?) I went. I'm so glad I did. There was a live reggae band and fun paraphernalia all over everything. The bartender was a sweet old woman named "Yo" who informed me that there were $1 margaritas for Mexican Monday and she was generous enough to make them as strong as a $6 margarita. They advertised the "best fish tacos" and I thought "wow, they have the best cannoli's in the world in Myrtle and now I can have the best fish tacos here... what are the odds!?" To be honest though, these mini grouper tacos with mango salsa were the best fish tacos I've ever had, so I guess there is truth in advertising once in a while! According to a signed surf board in the restaurant, the famous surfer Kelly Slater agreed with me. Overall, a great little day trip to Cocoa Beach!