To the midtown miles…

22nd August 2014

I’ve officially crossed Peachtree, up the stairs at 14th and back into the Promenade for the last time. After four years, my company, Moxie, is moving to a bigger office space. Which while exciting, is sadly no longer in midtown. I could list on and on the experiences I have 1230 Peachtree Street to thank for, but it feels the best to start and end with running.

If the UGA Botanical Gardens were my meet cute to my run relationship, midtown is where I feel in love. Over the past four years, I’ve logged hundreds of miles on the streets here, learned to love hills and trained for my first (and second, third, fourth and fifth) half marathon. I’m sure I’ll be back, but it most likely won’t be several nights per week.

A la Jimmy Fallon…

Thank you, to that stretch from Monroe to Beverly to Peachtree for teaching me what it means to climb a hill and how it feels to make it to the top without dying.

Thank you, Ansley Park for your extra wide streets, allowing me to steal an extra mile when the fall sunset came too quickly without fear of being hit by a car.

Thank you, midtown neighborhoods to your Halloween and Christmas decorations, for well, just being plain pretty.

Thank you, Atlanta Beltline for the always smiling faces and the search for the Beltline cat or that lady that pulled her dog in a wagon to kept me entertained on those hot, no shade afternoons.

Thank you, Piedmont Park for an endless array of leaves for crunching. It seems fall in Piedmont is allowed to go on three times as long as anywhere else in the city.

And finally, thank you, to the running community of Atlanta for being out there with me during a pop-up thunderstorm, blooming of spring flowers or even the ever elusive winter flurries that sent the rest of the city into hiding.

To midtown making me into a runner. Thank you.

London Calling

19th August 2014

As I write this post, I’m finally regaining control over the jet lag beast after a whirlwind week in London, and what a little adventure it was. My first time out of the country (passport stamp to prove it) with six days of listening to those lovely British accents and heck of a lot of tourist moments to prove it.

When I found out there was a chance I would be heading across the pond for business, I purposely kept my excitement level at about a two all the way up until the point I crossed through international security on Thursday evening – from there, all bets were off.

I traveled with two of my favorite coworkers, making the journey that much more exciting. We started the trip with a stop at Ecco for a drink – a Long Live the Queen seemed appropriate enough.

Side note – how sparkling are the floors of the new international terminal at Hartsfield? Maybe I’m the only one who is dazzled by them every time I’m flown out of that are.

We landed around 7 AM London time, so I was beyond grateful to our hotel for the early check in around 9:30 AM. Bags dropped and we headed off to find food – sleep later. After lunch, we wandered over to Tower Bridge and Tower of London. In honor of World War I, there is currently a poppy installation that is absolutely breathtaking. I had caught a glimpse earlier in the week through US media, but was more drawn to Duchess Kate’s coat that time around, so it was such a pleasant surprise to see the grand scale and painstaking detail in person.

The next few days continued with more adventures, which seemed to also conveniently align with either champagne or sunshine. Rather than give you a play by play, here are the highlights broken into three categories.

1. Activities that included a glass of champagne

First up, a champagne tour of the London eye.

Second, a stop at Harrod’s.

Finally, not a champagne stop, but this adorable little owl drink at Night Jar – a fantastic speakeasy.

2. Tourist stops I wasn’t afraid to obnoxiously photograph (which was everything)

During the month of August when the Queen is away, Buckingham Palace offers tours inside. I would highly recommend it.

I couldn’t resist a double decker bus begging me to share with the home state.

3. Morning run routes that allowed me to see more of the city (and look like a sweaty, lost tourist)

Run club over Tower Bridge – at a balmy 6:00 AM.

While the 40 kid line kept me from an actual photo of platform 9 3/4, I couldn’t resist making a trip to Kings Cross.

While the week has been packed with work as well (hello sixteen hour days), I was so thankful to get to spend some time making the most of this incredibly gracious, welcoming and charming city. My next international adventure will be to Belize in just a few short months with a slightly different travel agenda and companion (hello honeymoon) and I cannot wait.

Until then, I’ll be dreaming of those delightful British accents and tiny tea pots.

#YouBetterBelize It: Planning a Honeymoon in Belize

8th August 2014

If I had to pick the most stressful element of planning this entire wedding thus far, it would have to be hands down, honeymoon planning. Those 300 hand calligraphed envelopes have nothing on the honeymoon monster. So let me tell you, booking flights this week was a huge weight off of our shoulders. Belize, here we come.

With the world as our oyster, our planning pretty much went like this for about three months:

Strategy number one: pull up Google Maps, choose a country, Google weather in that country, then look at flights on Kayak.

Strategy number two: hire a travel agent. While this certainly helped rule out a few destinations, it certainly didn’t cure my indecisiveness.

Strategy number three: go back to the always reliable Rory Gilmore pro/con list. Here was ours:

We are spending two weeks, so somewhere we could travel every few days, though not live out of a suitcase
Stay within budget, so we can travel comfortably, maybe even splurge here and there (if you know us, this will likely mean dinner where we spend more than $30 ;))
Beach. Has to have a beach
Make that a beach with activities – P gets bored quickly
Not spend days on planes, trains and automobiles getting there
No big resort accommodations. We are drawn to little local places, boutiques hotels and the like for the charm and personal feel

After this, we seemed to have narrowed things down a bit:

Rules out Peru. Too much hiking for this trip
Sadly, this is how New Zealand and that dream of Bora Bora died
Europe, we’ll see you someday, but too cool temperatures in November kinda kill the beach vibe
Most small islands, out, not enough adventure variety
Bali, though still SO high on the list, lost due to its 38 hour travel. Yuck
Hawaii came SO close, but then we did some more homework and stumbled upon BELIZE

We booked flights (and our first destination) this week and could not be more thrilled. We’re planning to spilt our trip with one part jungle, two parts islands.

The jungle is booked. First up, we’ll be heading to Caves Brach where we are staying in a freaking treehouse. Please note, I believe I’ve used the adjective ‘freaking’ every time I describe the treehouse.

Next up, we’re exploring two of the cayes, four days each. Currently, our front runners are Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker.

We now know why everyone counts down the days to the honeymoon and we can’t wait. 94 days and counting.