Coming Soon.....

I am headed to the beautiful Bahamas today and can't wait to fill you guys in on all the many adventures I have.... Stay Tuned!!!

Hotel Review: Club Quarters

Who: Club Quarters

What: Hotel Review

When: June 22-23

Where: Philadelphia

Why: In town for a Philadelphia Phillies game 

I booked this hotel from Expedia. And I am very glad I did, even with the mix up mentioned in my previous post. The hotel was located in a very restaurant oriented neighborhood but was surprisingly quiet.

The lobby was low key but beautiful,

The staff was very helpful and answered any and all questions I had. The hallways to the rooms were tiny and the door way off the lobby to my hallway stuck a bit and had to be wiggled to get open. When I entered the room I was pleasantly surprised.

The room was huge. It featured a kitchenette, a flat screen, a queen size bed, a arm chair, desk, closet, and small bathroom. Now for the negatives, I have never and I mean never been in a hotel room that creaked more than this one. The floor creaked, the bathroom door creaked, the mattress creaked a lot. it all made for a very noisy room. And since I move around a lot when I sleep, it made for a very fitful nights sleep.

Now I paid $222 for this room, which I feel was too much. I really didn't need all this space but for a larger family or more than one person this would be perfect. Given the hospitality of the staff, the room (creaks and all) and its location as well as the price, I give this hotel 3 stars. Not great but ok, and most of the time that's good enough for a one nights stay.

The City of Brotherly Love...

I arrived last night a little before 6. This city is surprisingly easy to navigate and I found the hotel and a subsequent parking garage very quickly after having entered the city. of course nothing I do ever starts off without some sort of adventure and right away I had one when I went to check in. Apparently my reservation had been made for Friday night as opposed to Saturday night, so I had to make a new reservation. But of course they didn't have any rooms available. So I had to take a larger room that of course was more expensive. I wasn't happy but I was too exhausted to care to much.

The room was huge and the amenities were convenient. They included a huge bed, kitchenette, and comfy bathroom. After dropping off my luggage I went in search of some food. The staff at the hotel told me that this area was filled with tons of restaurants so I went for a walk around the neighborhood, and stumbled upon this

 

This is their city hall! It was so beautiful I can't even describe it. I continued walking and stumbled upon this next 

It was so peaceful, and just what I needed at that point. To top it all off there was a man dancing to Michael Jackson's bad. It was quite entertaining. After grabbing a quick bite to go from a cafe I headed back to the hotel for a bath and an early turn in.

I had a fitful nights sleep and woke up early. I watched a movie (the Goonies, which never gets old!) before tackling the day. I dropped my luggage off at the front desk and headed to the Barnes & Noble cafe for a coffee and a blueberry scone, which I took to the park to enjoy. It was so nice, there was a lot of people enjoying the park. Lots of dogs and runners and people in small groups enjoying a Sunday stroll.

After some time I hailed a Taxi and headed toward the stadium.

It was an overcast day at that point, but the weather report said only 30% chance of rain, but after the sun from the day before I welcomed the gloomy weather. This stadium was beautiful, with an old industry feel, lots of exposed beams and manufacturing feel to it. And it had one of the most extensive play area for kids that I had ever seen. They also had lots healthy menu choices which I was grateful for. My seat was almost as good as the day before, I was higher up but the view was fantastic.

 The weather did not improve over the course of the game, in fact it got worse. That 30% chance of rain, turned into a guaranteed chance of rain. It drizzled on and off for most of the game and the Mets took a quick lead which turned into a huge lead by the 7th, when the sky opened up and the rain poured down on us, which resulted in a 30 minute rain delay. I used that time to head to the shop to buy my T-shirt and to get something called a Water Ice, which was like a frozen lemonade. It was delicious. I finally returned to my seat for the final two innings and watched the Phili's finish up their 8-0 loss.

 Luckily a lot of people had left during the delay so I only had to contest with about 1/3 of the people as we all tried to exit at the same time.I luckily got to a taxi that was waiting just outside of the exit. I headed back to the hotel to grab my bag and then headed to the parking garage to get my car. It was all relatively simple and before I knew it I was headed out of the city and on the journey home. It was about a 3 hour trip home but it gave me time to reflect on my weekend. Everyone I met in this city was so nice, they were all too willing to share their knowledge of the city with me as well as stories of their favorite spots.

That's one of my favorite things about traveling, meeting new people and learning about their cities, their lives. I have meet so many wonderful people at these ballparks, all kinds of different people from all different walks of life, and they will remain in my memories and I shall hold them dear to my heart for all of my days.

Now I am home and must admit that I am grateful, even though it has only been two days it feels as though I have been gone much longer.

So my friends I have now been to 9 ballparks in my lifetime and still have one more hopefully scheduled for this summer. I feel very accomplished whenever I step into a new ballpark, like I am truly accomplishing something important in my life, which might sound silly but this means so much to me, more than I am willing to admit to even. It is my greatest hope that you all have something in your own lives that you wish to accomplish and that you are on the path towards doing so.

Till the next adventure, laters!! 

Capital City Mahem

Hey Ya'll it's that time again, time for another griping episode of The Many Adventures of Stephanie!!

This weekend I am taking a little mini-road trip to our Nations Capital, Washington DC and to Philadelphia.

So last night, I mentioned that I was planning on leaving for Washington around 6am, and was kindly reminded that everyone and their grandma would be making their exodus to the Jersey shore that early on a Saturday morning, making my 5 hour commute down the Jersey Turnpike into more of a 9 or 10 hour journey. Keeping that in mind I set my alarm for 4 am and pulled out of my driveway near 4:45 in the morning. Armed with Coffee, apple slices and granola I settled in for the drive. I was listening to the 1979 radio dramatization of the Hobbit, which if you enjoy those types of books you should definitely listen to because it is hilarious!, and it had about three hours left so I wasn't worried about getting bored. I still hadn't hit any traffic so I stopped and grabbed another coffee from Starbucks and then carried on my merry way. The plan was for me to meet my "date" AKA my bosses Sister who has become a good friend of mine, who is also named Stephanie (small world right!) and will hence forth been known as BIG, at 11:15 at the center field gate. I rolled into town at 9:30. I didn't hit an ounce of traffic, not one back up other than a little delay getting over the bridge into DC and even that only lasted about 10 minutes. And to top it all off that bridge dumped me right in front of the stadium, like right on the welcome mat.

So I decided to drive around downtown Washington for a little while. I should have just parked.

First let me say that I have one of the worse sense of directions, something I think I have mentioned before, I literally could be following the GPS and not be having any troubles, but then it tells me to turn and suddenly I get distracted by all the signs and cars and scenery and before I know it I am somewhere near Topeka (that's in Kansas for all you geographically challenged folks). I did catch a glimpse of some landmarks though on my whirlwind trip through like 6 streets over and over and over again. I got so turned around and lost that my GPS was perpetually yelling "RECALCULATING" at me.

Hope you weren't planning on coming to see the Washington Monument anytime soon, it's covered head to toe with scaffolding.

After driving around in the same circle for almost and hour I finally found my way back to the stadium and to a parking garage. I was still a little early so I settled into the shadows of the gate to people watch, one of my favorite things to do!

As I was standing in the shade, two employees walked up behind me and started talking about some VIP that was coming for the game that day. First thought..... HOLY CRAP I'm going to get to meet the President and then he can totally put in a good word for me when it comes time for them to pick a new Commissioner of Baseball. BIG chose that moment to arrive so I didn't get to confirm my suspicions.  We made our way through the gate and set out to explore the stadium,

The stadium was pretty standard, without anything in particular to make it stand out from the others I have been too recently.There were tons of food choices, everything from Chili to Italian sausage. Our seats were FANTASTIC! But alas there was no President of the United States sitting next to me.

We were right off the third base line only 10 rows behind the visitors dugout and right smack dab in the blazing hot sun. And when I say blazing I actually meant standing inside a volcano burn your eyebrow hairs off hot sun. It was 92 degrees out that day, and on the Field it was closer to 100. That's right 100. My entire row didn't even make it through the whole game, they had to keep coming and going. Me I stuck it out, I escaped for haft an inning to go in search of some lemonade. The game was okay but not great the Nats were losing from early on, but one of the reasons I was excited about this game was because they do this thing called the Presidents race.

The fans, the whole city actually, really really get into this thing. And let me tell you, it is so funny. You can check out all the videos from past races here.

So BIG left during the 7th inning stretch but I stuck it out and stayed for the entire 7-1 loss. I followed the mass exodus out of the stadium and back to my car. Only to once again be stuck going around and around in circles in that dang city. The highways are under construction so every time I would make a turn that my GPS told me to, it would respond with a defiant RECALCULATING. It took me over an hour to get onto the highway and headed in the direction of Philadelphia.

But I finally made it here, in fact I've been here for a couple of hours and already the memories are building. But that dear friends, is a story for a different day.

Laters!! 

Prepare Yourself....

Hotel Review: Hotel Victoria

What: Hotel Review 

Where: Toronto 

Who: Hotel Victoria 

When: May 25th- May 27th 

Why: We were in town for a Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Game. 

Okay so now that we have the particulars out of the way lets get down to the juicy details. This hotel is centrally located to just about everything your little heart might desire. Yonge Street is a hubbub of activity with a shopping center, 2 of them actually, tons of restaurants, and a movie theater not more than 5 blocks down from the hotel. It was also only a short walk (or taxi ride, which we did do when we went to dinner and it only cost us $7) to the CN tower and the ballpark.

The entrance was a little hard to spot as I was driving but I remembered the flags from the pictures I had seen on their website. Now one of the downsides to this hotel is that there is no parking, and they don't have any sort of discount on parking. The parking garage that they mention on the website is about 6 blocks, and is supposed to have a lower overnight rate than others that are closer. The downside of this is that if you arrive alone (like I did) then you have to walk those 6 blocks, which are at a steady incline for most of the 6 blocks, hauling all of your luggage. Needless to say I was out of breath and sweaty when I finally walked through those front doors.

The hotel itself has a boutique feel with a very welcoming, but small lobby,

 

The rooms themselves have a modern feel. They are small but comfy. 

Each room has a very comfortable bed, a bedside table, a desk, a coffee maker, wardrobe, and bathroom. The bathroom was older and took some maneuvering because it was quite small. For our need though it was perfect. 

The hotel staff was courteous, always greeting us when we came in or went out, and very helpful with anything we needed during our stay. 

I paid $297.87 for the two nights. I got a better deal on the hotels website as opposed to using one of the big discount sites. Given the proximity to nearly everything, the cleanliness of the room, the helpfulness of the staff and the overall hotel presence I would give this hotel 4 stars. I took away one star for the parking and the bathroom. Overwise well done Hotel Victoria, well done!

 

A Sweet Goodbye....

I'm home. And while I am thankful I am also a little sad. It's not likely I will see my mom again until Christmas or a little after. Nerd alert: But I love my mom and I miss her everyday.

Anyways, back to the trip.

We woke up this morning and had an errand to run before we hit the rode. The Canadians are weird, you can't buy beer in grocery stores and you can't buy it after 5 pm. They have designated "Beer Stores" that you purchase it from, and the Wiz(aka my stepdad) had requested that mom bring him back some Canadian beer. So off we went. We did find it but imagine having to walk back 7 blocks carrying the equivalent of two six packs, not very fun, and my finger were totally crippled afterwards. OK not really :) Not long after we got back did we hit the road. Now it was supposed to be a 7 hour trip back for me, which wasn't a big deal, I've done way longer than that in a car before. Besides the Tigers were playing an afternoon game which would take up about 3.5 hours of that time so no big deal. The problem is that the Border crossing did not get the memo about it supposing to only take me 7 hours. I was stuck in traffic there for over an hour (it was terrible and not only that but it just plain wasn't fun) between that stops for gas and bathroom breaks and traffic in general it took me a total of 9 hours. By the time I got home I was exhausted. And I missed the start of the Yankees game, I listened to it on the radio but I am extremely superstitious about baseball which meant that I couldn't turn the game on T.V until after the 5th inning. All that adds up to one very long and exhausting day. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to travel as much as I have in the past four years. Words simply cannot express how much traveling soothes my soul, and goes along way towards keeping me sane!

Hope you guys all had an amazing Memorial Day Weekend, but don't forget to remember the reason, those that are fighting and those that died for our freedom. Thank you!

I can't wait for my next adventure!!!

Laters!!!

Feeling a Little Blue, Blue Jay's That is....

Today was so Awesome!!We meet so many amazing people and we saw an epic come from behind win and we ate some yummy food. So first things first;

We took our time getting up and getting ready for the game. @ around 11 we left the hotel and stopped at Starbucks (which just so happened to be right down the block from our hotel, Thank the Coffee Gods!) before we headed over to the stadium. It was a really nice walk and we got to see quite a bit of the city. We got there a bit early so we decided to pop into the CN tower giftshop since it had been closed the night before when we had left. All I wanted was some postcards (I collect them. Is that a weird habit? I have like a 1,000 or something from all the different places I have been) and I did find them but I also had to deal with a random attack:

Funny right! After we left the gift shop we headed into the stadium;

Our seats were amazing,

And we were both so excited to see the game

The game was Awesome(!!!!) and we were seated around some really cool people, there was a couple behind us that were big Blue Jay's fans and a father and son who also sat behind us, the son was a Blue Jay's fan and the father was an Orioles fan (whom the Blue Jays were playing) and a mom and her little boy sat next to my mom. We had some great baseball talk, which I was extremely grateful for. I often feel out of place because I have no one to really talk baseball with, no one I know loves it as much as I do nor can many people hold an intelligent baseball conversation for very long. See what I've found it that lots of people can talk baseball about the team they love, but very few can talk about the game itself. And while I love the Yankees and the Tigers I love the game of baseball even more. I can talk about lots of players, from lots of different teams who are amazing because I LOVE the game. Today's game was great! The Orioles were dominating for most of the game but the Blue Jays were holding their own. Adam Jones from the Orioles hit a home-run and they were ahead 5-2 when the Blue Jays came up in the bottom of the 9th. Now if you watch baseball you know that the Orioles closer, Jim Johnson, has been lukewarm at best this season so we knew the Jay's still had a chance. Two batters latter it was a 5-4 game. The Jay's had two out and their #9 hitter game up to bat, Kawasaki, he lines one to right field and it bounces to the wall for a stand-up double scoring two and just like that the Blue Jays win 6-5. The crowd (us included) went bonkers, everyone was jumping up and down and high fiveing. It was an amazing thing to be a part of, even now thinking about it I smile. The Blue Jays stadium, Roger center, is nice but nothing stands out about it, which is something that I noticed about Toronto. Its beautiful but there is nothing unique about it or that makes it stand out. Its missing something, I'm sure what, but just something. Anyways, after the game we walked back down to the center of the city, which was just down the street from our hotel. We thought we might see a movie but decided for a long dinner instead. We are big fans of the Hard Rock Cafe so we popped in there to enjoy a bite to eat. Around 9 we headed back to the hotel since we both had long drives the next day. My souviner from the day? besides the t-shirt and postcards, a sunburn to shame all sunburns. My nose is litterly the cool of a freshly cooked lobster, but thankfully it doesn't hurt that much! 

Hope you guys had even 1/10th the amount of fun I had today! 

Laters!!

Finally Made it....

Whew.... I finally made it. A total of 5 hours later. Boy oh boy was crossing the border rough, it took me almost 45 minutes just to get through there, that plus the traffic trying to get into this city was a nightmare. But nonetheless I finally made it. And our hotel is beautiful!

 We are staying at the Hotel Victoria which is a boutique hotel with only 52 rooms, it is centrally located to just about everything we want to do (not that there is much). So mom wasn't here yet when I got here so I came up to our room and got settled, and then headed down to the lobby to wait for her, not that I would recognize the car she's driving since it's a rental. She turned up about 30 minutes later, after having driven around the city for an hour trying to find the parking garage! After dragging her stuff (and there was a LOT of it) the three blocks back to hotel we decided to hit up one of my favorite things to do when I travel, which is to see the local markets, in Seattle they have Pike's Place, in Paris they have Marche Bastille, in NYC they have Union Square, and in Toronto they have St. Lawrence.

Which is an eclectic array of food, drink and wares. They building its self is beautiful antique and inside the flurry of activity captivates your eyes and your soul (at least mine it does!) We spent an hour simply walking around, our head snapping from left to right so as not to miss anything. This market is two floors which is unique and downstairs we stumbled upon a coffee shop (which as a coffee addict I could not pass up) and a bakery (which as a dessert fiend I could not pass by) where we sample a delicious strawberry rhubarb tart which was SOOOO Yummy! There were like a hundred different things we wanted to try but we had dinner reservations and we didn't want to ruin our appetite.Before we headed back to our hotel we stopped by a shopping center to see if they had any Blue Jay's things. You might not know this but whenever I go to a stadium to see a game I pick up a t-shirt, not a team t-shirt but one that has the stadium on it, to commemorate the fact that I saw that stadium. We found exactly what I was looking for and stumbled upon this delightful sight at well.

 Its a bunch of birds, flying through the mall! Okay so its just a art piece but I still thought ti was hilarious.

We had dinner reservations for the 360 restaurant at the top of the CN tower @ 7:15 so we hurried back to the room to get ready and made our way over to the tower. They had a ton of photo-op's on the way to the top!

I am so SPECIAL!

 Once we got to the top the view was amazing!

One of the unique things about this restaurant is that it spins, cool right! That way you get to see all of the views the city has to offer. Dinner was so delicious, and I loved the opportunity to catch up with my mom, whom I had not seen since my sisters wedding last June, that's a long time right. By the time we were done it was nearly 11 and we were both exhausted so we headed back to the room and called it a night.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and I am very excited!

Laters!

The Long weekend begins.....

I am so tired, its been a long day. Not only did I work all day (as in 6:30am- 6:15pm) but I also drove for what felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R. It was really only 4 hours but it felt even longer than that, especially since it was pouring and nighttime (I hate driving in the dark add on top of that and it's something out of a Hitchcock film to me). So here I am in God knows where, in actually a pretty nice hotel room @ the Microtel Inn and Suites tryin to finish up some homework and then hit the sack.

Where am I going to ask? What great adventure am I off on now? What kinds of shenanigans will I be partaking in??

Well it's funny you should ask because I just so happen to be headed to Toronto, Canada for the long weekend. Toronto, that's random right, but it is where I am headed nonetheless. Its a short 7 hour drive from my house and home to the Blue Jays @ Rogers Center the true reason I am going, it's another stadium to check off my list(!). Nothing particularly exciting happened on my way here other than the YANKEES WON!! Which I listened to on the Radio.

But now I am tired and I have to get up early to leave the hotel by 9 because I still have another 3 hours to go before I get to the next hotel. So I bid you good night dear friends!

Laters!!   

Charm City Adventures!!

It's been a long time since I have been anywhere fun enough to blog about, but a couple of weeks ago I spent the weekend in Baltimore and I had so much fun that I want to share my adventures with you!

Perhaps this is something you don't know about me but I love BASEBALL! and one the things on my bucket list is to see a game in all 30 of the MLB stadiums. Before this weekend I had been to five of them;

• Yankee Stadium 
• Shae Stadium (Mets)
• Comerica Park (Detroit)
• Wrigley Feild (Cubs) 
• Safeco Feild (Mariners) 

So back in January I decided I was going to go to a game opening weekend at Camden Yard. I took the bus into the city, and then the train from there to Baltimore. Let me tell you, I have taken the train a fair number of times in my life and it is seriously the way to travel, and I meet the coolest people on the train. A couple of years ago I meet a bunch of gentlemen that were on their retirement-moon (they were 5 men who had been friends for years and had all retired at the same time) they were traveling around the country for a whole month visiting a bunch of the different ball-parks, I was so jealous. This time, the woman who sat next to me was also a baseball fan, and was taking the train on to Washington where she was meeting family to go see a Washington Nationals game. We talked for almost an hour about the game and it was so nice. When I got to Baltimore I dropped my bag off at the Hotel and then headed for the inner harbor which just so happened to be only two blocks from the hotel.

The inner harbor is beautiful, and there is so much to do down there. It was still early, and the game didn't start till 7 so I had plenty of time and decided to hit up some of the highlights of the inner harbor. First I went to the Aquarium

They had a bunch of cool exhibits, but it was under construction and there were a TON of people, I had to shove little kids out of the way in order to see the fish! After spending a couple of hours walking around looking at the different fishes I wanted to walk around the harbor and see all that was going on.

They have beach volleyball courts right near the Harbor!!!

If you look far off into the distance you can see Ravens Stadium

They even do Graffiti right here in Baltimore 

After spending the afternoon wondering around the harbor and chowing down on some Yummy Mac N' Cheese, I met up with a friend who came down to go to the game with me, and we headed to the ball park.

#4 is Earl Weaver's Number, he passed away this past winter.

The Orioles were playing the twins, and both teams played a wicked game. It was really cold though, thankfully there were a bunch of burly men sitting next to us and they did a great job of blocking the wind. As a Yankees fan, I have to say that Orioles fans are CRAZY, in a good way. Yankees fans are very dignified at games, we get into it certainly, but we do it with class and grace. At Camden yard however the fans were totally into it, and so emotional. It was a lot of fun to be a part of. Alas the Orioles did not win, but it went down to the wire. I was exhausted afterwards, since the game got over at 10:30 and I had been up since 4:30 in the morning., so we headed back to the hotel. The next morning after a quick breakfast I waved goodbye and headed out to explore some museums.

  One of the reasons I wanted to come to Baltimore is because it is the birth place of my all-time favorite player Babe Ruth. They have a wonderful museum here that I was very much looking forward to seeing.

Each one of these represents a home-run that the Babe hit

He was a handsome fella wasn't he!

I will admit that I get very emotional around baseball stuff. So this museum was small and there were not very many people there, I think it was me and one other family. It is run by a woman and her husband, as I was standing in front of an exhibit about old Yankee stadium- which is also known as the "House that Ruth Built" I started crying, and we are not talking graceful, girly tears, I was CRYING. After a couple of minutes of this the woman walked past me, and stopped to comfort me, "Are you OK dear?" she asked to which I blubbered about how much I love baseball and how the babe was my favorite player and how my fantasy team is always called Ruth's Babes. She continued to rub my back and comfort me, and then suddenly she was crying and talking about how much she and her husband felt the same way. When I finally calmed down she took me to meet her husband and gave me a special ticket from the museum (they are changing things around soon). We talked baseball for a little while before I waved goodbye and headed to the Sports museum @ Camden Yards. Even now just talking about it brings tears to my eyes, and this memory will always hold a special place in my heart. After the sport museum I caught a Taxi to the train station and headed back home.

It was such a fun weekend and a great escape from everything going on back home. It feels so good to check off another stadium from my list, which I plan to do a lot this summer already I have tickets to a Toronto game, plans to see the Washington Nationals and the Boston Red Sox's at Fenway Park.

Can't wait to share my other adventures with you!!