Something To Look Forward To

We have so many exciting things coming up within the next couple of months.  With football over and the cold weather  definitely here to stay, it helps to have events to look forward to throughout the months of February, March and April!  Here's a list of some things I'm looking forward to!

 

Alton Brown!  He is coming to Proctor's in Schenectady and we have great seats for the show!  Adam loves Alton Brown, he credits him as one of the people who inspired him to start cooking - so I got us tickets as part of his birthday present.  The show is supposed to be a mix of cooking demonstrations, comedy, live music and audience interaction.  I really hope Adam is one of the ones who gets to go up on stage!
 

 

Darius Rucker and the Eli Young Band ... Hootie anyone?  I didn't actually buy tickets to this show but my friend had an extra one and asked me if I wanted to go.  I really like Darius Rucker and I have never been to actual country concert; I think I'm going to have to wear my cowboy boots that I bought in Missouri for this one!

 

 

This coming weekend is the Mac & Cheese Bowl and I am beyond excited!  I have wanted to go to this for years but for some reason I wasn't able to go the past couple - but this year we are going!  We'll be able to taste over 30 different varieties of mac and cheese from various local restaurants; and better yet - the event benefits the Regional Food Bank!

 

 

Yeezus.  Let me start off by saying that I do NOT in anyway like Kanye West, in fact apart of me would almost rather protest this event than attend.  He annoys me, it bothers me more than it should that he named his child North West and I begrudgingly like only some of his music.  But Adam is a fan, and let's be honest this concert is supposed to be a spectacle!  We were able to get pre-sale tickets so we have front row seats in the balcony which is going to give us a great view.  Regardless of my feels toward him I do like some of his music and the concert will definitely be interesting.

 

 

In mid-March Adam and I are heading to Boston for the weekend.  My sister is throwing (weight) at the East Coast Athletic Championships (ECACs) there and since she goes to school in Virginia Boston is pretty much the closest she will ever come to Albany; so we want to go, support her and also have a nice weekend in Boston.  Turns out that the weekend we will be there is also the weekend that the Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show are playing at the TD Center - what luck!  I am super excited for this concert!  We also go a hotel within walking distance of the venue so overall it should be a great weekend.

 

 

Book of Mormon!  I blogged about this over Christmas and I am still just as excited!  Adam bought tickets for the three of us much earlier in the year but didn't give them to us on Christmas morning, it was first present we opened and there were screams!  The show is in mid-March at Proctors in Schenectady and should be awesome!

 

 

THE GOO GOO DOLLS ARE COMING!  I am SO EXCITED!  I know, I know but I LOVE the Goo Goo Dolls and for one reason or another have missed them the last couple of times they have come around.  This time though they are preforming their 'Otis Midnight Acoustic Session' at The Egg in the small theater.  Having seen shows in the small theater before I know this will be an awesome concert.  Adam, being the wonderful boyfriend he is, is actually going to walk to the The Egg box office the Friday the tickets go on sale to ensure that we get seats!

 

Bruuuuuuce!  Bruce Springsteen is coming to the Times Union Center.  At this point I am unsure of whether or not I will be able to get tickets (they go on sale while I'm in a meeting), but afterwards I am going to try.  I feel like I need to see Bruce live at least once in my life!

 

Adam is really excited about this concert and I am game as well.  The Hold Steady is coming to The Hollow Bar + Kitchen in Albany, which means it will be a really intimate and fun show!

 

 

Lastly, Adam and I are going to Boston for a long weekend in July and even though it is a long way out, I am still looking forward to it.  We got a deal from the website ZOZI that offered two nights in a really nice hotel for under $200, which is a great deal!  We're staying right in the heart of downtown and we recently got tickets to the Red Sox vs. Royals game that Saturday night!  I'm really looking forward to this trip and seeing a game at Fenway.

 

Christmas & Virginia

This Christmas was split between New York and Virginia.  I spent Christmas morning/day in New York & Massachusetts with Adam, Elise and Adam's family and then Christmas night we hit the road and headed toward Virginia.  We spent the night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and awoke to a ton of snow!  From Wilkes-Barre we drove to Berryville, Virginia - the town where I grew up - and met up with my best friend Dana and her fiance for lunch.  It was so much fun to show Adam where I grew up, the downtown and my old high school.  After lunch and hit the road again and made it to Lynchburg, Virginia a little before 5 PM!  Here are some scenes from our Christmas!

 

This is my living room prior to loading up my car with all the presents - it looks like Christmas exploded!  Between presents for Adam & Elise, Adam's family in Massachusetts and my family in Virginia - my trunk was packed!

The tree on Christmas morning!  I was so excited for Christmas that I got up early and did a bunch of things, only to have to wait for everyone else to get up to share in my excitement!

Our first present from Adam!  Elise and I wondered why he was giving us Christmas cards but this started the gift giving off with a BANG!  We are SO excited to see Book of Mormon in March!  We both screamed when we saw the tickets.

This Christmas present has turned into my latest obsession!  Polar watch and heart rate monitor!  I have used it nearly everyday since - it's awesome to be able to monitor your heart rate throughout your workouts and see how many calories you actually burn (hint - I bet it's not as many as you think!)

Kitty wanted to get in on the present-opening action!

Adam made the most amazing Christmas brunch!  First up was the strata - bread, smoked gouda cheese, spinach and egg - soaked overnight and baked together = deliciousness!

He also made homemade cinnamon buns (everything from scratch) - yummm!

 

While in Virginia my father wanted to make sure that we did something special.  I'm pretty sure he also wanted to make sure that my liberal northeastern boyfriend experienced some 'southern culture' while below the Mason Dixon line.  He decided to take us (me, Adam, my mom and my sister Mary Grace) to the Museum of the Confederacy and Appomattox Court House, which is about 30 minutes outside of Lynchburg.

 

Adam at the Museum of the Confederacy!  Doesn't he look thrilled?

Welcome to Appomattox County!

Learning about the confederacy!

After visiting the Museum of the Confederacy we headed down the road to Appomattox Court House where Lee surrender to Grant during the Civil War.  We took the tour and then walked around - it was such a beautiful day - about 55 degrees, sunny and blue sky - nothing like upstate NY weather, you couldn't have asked for a better day!

Lone grave (of a confederate solider) and tree on the Appomattox Historical site property.

The room (recreated) where Lee surrender to Grant!

 

After we toured the house and the slave quarters we had time to stop for a 'selfie'.

The last building we toured on the property was the jail - which was hands down my favorite.  As you can see from the picture above - we were jailed.

 

After a couple of days in Virginia we started to make our way to Washington D.C. to stay with Adam's cousin, it also was also a good (sort of) mid-way point that split up the trip nicely.  Before making it to D.C. though we stopped at a Trader Joe's in Charlottesville, VA.  You see - yes we have a Trader Joe's in Albany but due to the wine/liquor laws in New York it is not allowed to sell wine.  Now Trader Joe's wine is fabulous and cheap!  So I made it a point to make sure we stopped at the nearest Trader Joe's to my parents house and bring back a couple of cases!  We ended up buying 2 cases (plus a couple bottles of campaign for New Years) for only $100!

 

Stocking up on wine at Trader Joe's!

 

All in all Christmas was really good!  We had a great Christmas in New York and then it was awesome to be able to visit my family in Virginia!

Many Adventures in the Midwest

In the last four weeks I have been all over the Midwest - Michigan, Illinois and Missouri - and I loved ever minute of it!  The Midwest is truly a great place!  I love exploring the small towns, meeting new people and everyone I met was just so nice.  It seems like every time I go to the Midwest I end up calling Adam asking if he wants to move there (he typically says 'yeah sure' and just ignores me) but I do try to get out there whenever work allows me.  So here are some pictures of my adventures!

First up - Lansing, Michigan, on the campus of Michigan State University to be exact.  I didn't end up taking many pictures in Michigan because it truly was a whirlwind; we landed in Detroit on a Sunday night, drove to Lansing and then the next morning we got up, worked all day and then flew home.  Either way it was still fun to be in a new place.

Go Green!  Michigan State!

 

Next up I went to Springfield, IL.  Springfield is the capitol of Illinois and in my opinion one pretty cool city.  It is the home of Abraham Lincoln and pretty much everything in the area has something to do with Abe.  It is also home to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum.  We flew in to Chicago O'Hare and made the four hour drive to Springfield and let me tell you, once you get outside of the Chicago area there is nothing but flatness and farm land and HUGE wind turbines.  The next day my boss and I were determined to do at least a little site seeing before we had to head back up to Chicago for out 9:30 PM flight.  We knew the forum would take most of the day but we ended up having about 45 minutes for sight seeing (power sight seeing).  One of the representatives at the forum was actually on the board of the Abraham Lincoln Museum and was able to reserve us passes, free of charge!

 

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

In the land of Lincoln!

 

"Here I have lived a quarter of a century and have passed from a young to an old man."

- A. Lincoln

Abe!

Abe and his family inside the Abraham Lincoln Museum

 

John Wilkes Booth lurking outside the White House in the Abraham Lincoln museum.

 

Young Lincoln outside of the model of his log cabin childhood home.

 

Me & Abe!

On the way to Springfield we stopped at this hole in the wall diner off the main highway - it was called That 50's Place and since my boss loves 50s style diners we had to stop!  The food was actually really good - so good in fact we stopped there for dinner on the way back to Chicago too.  The diner also had great 50s memorabilia including Betty Boop, a Cadillac and the blue brothers! 

 

Pulling into That 50's Place!

Awesome sign over the counter!

Me and Betty Boop!

 

As I mentioned before on the way to and from Springfield, IL there was a ton of farm land and it was just flat, flat, flat; but that made it a great area for TONS of huge wind turbines.  This isn't the best picture but this is along an access road to the highways with nothing but farm land and wind turbines! 

 

 

After Illinois my last and most recent trip to the Midwest was a three stop tour of Missouri including Columbia, Jefferson City and Fulton.  I flew into St. Louis and made the trip to Columbia to hold a forum.  While in Columbia I bought my first pair of cowboy boots!  Authentic cowboy boots!

 

This was our first stop along our search for cowboy boots - I didn't end up getting my boots there but it was a really cool store!

Yee-haw!

 

After spending the day in Columbia I headed over to Jefferson City, the capitol of Missouri.  I was really impressed with the town!  It was very walkable, had some great sites and I was able to do some Christmas (and personal) shopping at some of the local stores.  The morning before my conference presentation I also went for a run around the downtown and was able to take some pictures.

 

Welcome to Jefferson City!  Sign was on the building that houses the Amtrak station.

Museum next to the railroad tracks - it wasn't open but it's apparently the original station Lincoln would use when he would come to Jefferson City.

The capitol building!

View of the governor's mansion. 

View of the capitol from near the governor's mansion.

I found the Lewis & Clark statues!

Lewis, Clark and their crew.

Lewis, Clark & the capitol.

Front of the Missouri Capitol.

 My conference presentation!

The day after my presentation I traveled to Fulton, Missouri and toured the grounds of the state's Forensic Mental Health Hospitals and State Penitentiary - which was so cool!  Both institutions were constructed in the 1850s and the grounds included a ton of haunted buildings.  I told my Missouri trainers that next time I come back we'd have to actually go inside!  After the tour I road tripped back to St. Louis and headed back to Albany.  Overall, it was a GREAT tip!  I have grown to love Missouri and I think the Midwest overall is just a great place!