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!!