Stop 1: Copenhagen
Stop 2: Stockholm

Well here we are in Finland, folks!  Our Baltic cruise stopped in Helsinki on a drizzly Sunday, admittedly not the best for photos (drizzle) or tourism (Sunday).  The biggest attractions in town are several churches, so that is what we toured. 

The shuttle from the cruise terminal dropped us in downtown Helsinki, a short walk from Esplanade Park and Market Square.  I quite enjoyed walking around Market Square and could have spent a lot of money on the lovely leather goods and the works by local artisans.

Our first cathedral stop was Helsinki’s Russian Orthodox Uspenski Cathedral.  While it’s a lovely space, and by far my favorite church in Helsinki, it doesn’t at all compare to what we’ll see on Baltic Cruise stop 4: St. Petersburg.  Pretty nonetheless, though, yes?

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Stockholm is such a lovely city – definitely my second-favorite stop on our Baltic Cruise (after St. Petersburg). Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time in Stockholm, because the subway was shut down due to a fire. We did get to explore the Gamla Stan (Old Town), which was lovely.  There was a particularly cute pet shop that looked to have lots of toys; it was unfortunately closed or Charlie would have a Stockholm squeakie toy right now!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I’m finally catching up with things and ready to start showing ya’ll photos from our Baltic Cruise in September!  As you may recall, our Princess Cruise left from Copenhagen, so we spent two nights in Denmark before boarding the Emerald Princess.

It was rainy and yucky for most of the time we were in Denmark, but we managed to get in some sightseeing!

Our first stop was Frederiksborg Castle, outside the city in Hillerod.  The Castle was a royal residence and houses a gorgeous chapel with coats of arms for the knight orders in Denmark.  It was lovely!

{Read the rest of this entry…}

photo by Afonso Lima

I am moving from Los Angeles to Virginia Beach. I am simultaneously nervous and excited about the move. Like fellow EAD writer ABCD, I’m in the process of deciding where I want to reside next. For now, I will be back to my hometown to temporarily stay in my parents’ home.

The majority of my possessions have already been shipped. All that I need to do is get my car from here to there. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to see the country. I know that December is less than ideal for cross country road trips, but necessity dictates that I take the trip now. A week from today, my good friend and I will be headed on a cross-country excursion. We will be taking the Southern route through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana. From Louisiana, we’ll be heading North through Mississippi and Tennessee. We have to make a special stop in Kentucky. After Kentucky, we’ll head through North Carolina to our final destination of Virginia Beach.

To our EAD readers, do you have any advice or tips for someone taking a cross country road trip? Are there any sights or places we should see on our way through these states?

Don’t hate me, but while the US is starting the long cold winter, I’m still wearing shorts and flip flops. The weather has been incredible lately, and we’ve taken advantage by traveling and seeing more of Nicaragua.

A few weeks ago, we traveled to the beautiful island of Ometepe, located in the middle of Lake Cocibolca. This lake is the largest lake in Central America and the 21st largest in the world. The island of Ometepe is large enough to take several hours to travel around via car or boat. It is made up of two volcanoes, one of which is still moderately active. I wish I had pictures of all the modes of transportation, but we were so rushed there and back that we couldn’t stop to breathe let alone take pictures. We took the bus from Granada to Rivas, a taxi from Rivas to San Jorge, and a ferry from San Jorge to Ometepe. From the ferry port, we took a taxi to the hotel. Two days later, we took the same trip in reverse. Travel time took about 5 hours in total. We left on Friday afternoon, and came back on Sunday afternoon. The ferry ride was my favorite part, as we were able to get a lot of pictures of the island from the distance. Mid way to port, a rainbow appeared in between the two volcanoes. It was so incredibly beautiful. As the hubby put it, “When in your life are you guaranteed to see this again?” I can’t describe how amazing it was to slowly chug through the water watching the rainbow shimmer and shift through the clouds.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

{source}

For those of you who don’t read ABCD Design on a daily basis, I thought I’d give you a little {Lemons to Lemonade} update. As you know, Mr. D lost his job with a London based financial firm at the end of May. Since nothing was exactly keeping us in the City during the month of August, we gave up our furnished rental apartment on July 31 and have been spending our time visiting our families in Knoxville and Detroit. Thank heavens, the job market is picking up and he has been getting interest from potential employers. One week ago last Saturday, we flew back to NYC after nearly 50 days away from the City. We packed our agenda with important work meetings and dinners out with our friends.

{source}

It is a crazy feeling to be a “guest” in the town you consider your home. Over the weekend, we stayed at 60 Thompson. Great location and the common areas were beautiful! But I have to say … for such a nice hotel, our actual room was remarkably un-remarkable. We then moved up to Midtown and stayed at the Sheraton. For this portion of the trip we cashed in on our American Express points. When Mr. D and I got engaged, we enrolled with a Starwood American Express Card and paid for almost our entire apartment renovation with it. Since then, we have had endless amounts of “free” hotel nights which have come in handy when we want to get away for a long weekend, or in this instance visit NYC while he is interviewing! Seriously, it is one of the smartest things we’ve done as a couple. By the time our wedding anniversary rolls around each year we have at least 5 “free” nights – and we plan a “free” trip. Year one was a stay at the St. Regis Hotel in Rome and year two was ski-in, ski-out at the Westin on Whistler Mountain. Nice, no?

{source}

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Hi ya’ll!  Gosh, I feel like I haven’t talked to you guys in forever.  If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I just returned from a two-week tour of the Baltic sea.  Here was our itinerary:

Sept 1-3 – Copenhagen
Sept 4 – At Sea
Sept 5 – Stockholm
Sept 6 – Helsinki
Sept 7-8 – St. Petersburg
Sept 9 – Tallin Estonia
Sept 10 – Gdynia Poland
Sept 11 – At Sea
Sept 12 – Oslo

I’m going to do a few recaps shortly, but here’s a few photo teasers until you get the real thing:

{Catherine’s Palace, St Petersburg}

{Stockholm}

{Peterhof fountains in St Petersburg}

{Overlooking Tallin, Estonia}

{Fredericksborg Castle, Copenhagen}

{Copenhagen}

Lots more to come!

xo,
E.

PS – In other news, who else is over the moon that it’s fall TV time?  I bawled (naturally) during The Biggest Loser and am absolutely in love with The Vampire Diaries, Melrose Place, and Glee.

I apologize for my lack of posting over the past month.  I got laid off, so I’ve been focusing on my job search and some other goals and activities.  {Just in case you’re wondering or know someone who might want to hire me, I’m an intellectual property attorney with five years experience.  Ideally, I’d like to remain here in the Triangle, but I’m willing to move for the right position – elsewhere in North Carolina or somewhere else fun (i.e., Chicago, DC, Atlanta).  Read more about what’s going on with me here.}

Now, on to the main point of this post!

Last week, Jet Blue announced an All You Can Jet Pass for $599.  The deal is that the pass allows you to, with certain restrictions, fly all you can stand on their planes between September 8 and October 8.  Sounds pretty cool, eh?  Well, there are some catches to it.

1. All flights must be booked at least 3 days in advance.
2. The passholder must show up for each booked flight, or all other booked flights will be cancelled and no new flights may be scheduled until a $100 no-show fee is paid.
3. Only one flight per city per day may be booked.
4. Flights can be cancelled/changed for free, but this has to happen at least 3 days in advance of the flight or you’ll pay the regular change fees.
5. You can fly to JetBlue’s international destinations and Puerto Rico, but you’ll have to pay the taxes and fees.

So… it’s really only a good deal if you’re able to fly a fair amount within the time period, definitely won’t miss your flights, and plan to stay in the US.  As it turns out, it seems as though I have the time to really utilize this deal, so I booked it on Saturday.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Dottie tries to stowaway {from Author’s Personal Collection}

We are the owners of a large dog. Dottie is 70lbs to be exact. There are many restrictions for flying with large dogs, such as they are only flown when the outside temperatures are between 45 degrees and 85 degrees. When they are flown, they are placed in the cargo hold with the luggage. It’s a special section of the cargo hold, but it’s the cargo hold nonetheless. The thought of her being handled like luggage doesn’t sit well with us. So, we have been kenneling her or leaving her with friends while we are away.  It’s not our favorite solution. Whenever I see people toting their little dogs in carriers at airport terminals, I am envious.

We are in the midst of planning a trip to visit family on the East Coast and are entertaining the idea of bringing Dottie with us. She’s a member of our family and we really hate leaving for long periods of time. Since we prefer not to fly with her in cargo, our only option would be to drive to our destination. Driving cross-country is not always as fun nor as exciting as it sounds. The biggest downside to driving cross-country is the amount of time it requires. We would spend most of our vacation on the road and have limited time to spend with our family.

Recently, I was told about Pet Airways. I’m looking into it as a possible solution to our dilemma.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

We’re moving not once but twice in the next 30 days.

The first time will be this weekend to a friend’s house. She moved to the beach and is letting us stay (rent free!) in her house for the next month. Which includes access to her pool and extensive land with a lake (daily swims for the dogs!). This move requires separating everything we own into three categories:

• Things we will take to Nicaragua
• Things we will sell or donate – anything that doesn’t have real meaning to us
• Things we will store – one dresser, one side table, four chairs, one table, keepsakes, office supplies (paper, envelopes, printers, cutters, etc.), kitchen supplies.

The second time will be our move in late August to Nicaragua. Everything we need will be brought on the flight as cargo. We are taking the following:

• 4 lockers, measuring 32″ x 17″ by 12″
• 2 suitcases, carry on size
• 2 laptop bags

That is the sum total of all our necessary belongings for the next year. We ran into a problem when we realized the lockers (small enough to meet airline requirements) are too small to contain our printer. Which isn’t a true necessity (like, for instance, high thread count linens), but we really need access to a good scanner to transfer documents back and forth from the States.  Shipping is incredibly expensive (about $500 for the printer, not including customs). So we are trying to decide whether to buy a smaller model (really do not have the funds right now considering our vaccinations alone are $750, tickets are $1500, shipping the dogs is another $1000, emergency flights are $2000, medical flights are $1000…you get the picture), find a way to package it and pay for the extra luggage, or just leave it and take the risk that we can eventually pick up a suitable printer/scanner in Managua.

Oh, and I quit my job so our sole income is my husband’s graphic design business. Yay!

At the same time, we are meeting with a friend who is designing our future studio. Are we crazy? Yes! However, it’s really helping to have a short term goal (moving to Nicaragua) and a long term goal (building a studio and eventually a house). It’s allowed us to part with items that have no potential future use, and to truly appreciate the items we are keeping and/or able to take with us.

All I can say is that I am very happy to have read this book before the move, rather than after.