Canada, Eh?

Niagara Falls is behind me, I swear.

Turns out, of the stereotypes associated with Canada, "eh" is the one that's not true.

But an obsession with maple syrup? Love of Tim Horton's? Kindness? Accents that make "sorry" and "about" sound like "soo-ry" and "a-boot"? 

Accurate.

My brief visit to Canada was everything I hoped for from the moment Danielle and I crossed the border and a McDonald's sign advertising a maple latte greeted us. While I quickly learned the stretch from Detroit to Toronto is simply the upper Midwest and we didn't see any moose, my adventure up north for Spring Break was everything I hoped for.

Favorite moment? Probably when our waitress at the most Canadian of pubs, Bar Wellington, told us "soo-ry aboot that" (sorry about that) when she forgot to refill our water while a hockey game played on the bar TV behind us. It doesn't get more Canadian than that :)

(Daily trips to Tim Hortons are high on the list, too.)

What are your favorite things about Canada?

Leeann

View from the CN Tower of the lake and west side of town (where Danielle and I stayed).

Christmas Travels | The TENTH Day of Blogmas!

On the tenth day of Blogmas, Leeann's blog gave to me... a Christmas travel story

Some years we stay at home for Christmas and some years we travel to my grandparents' in West Virginia. Traveling at a time of year where snow is always possible and crowded highways inevitable always brings adventures. We've had our fair share of traffic jams and snowy slow-downs.

But it was Christmas of 2011 when my family found ourselves in a hotel room come Christmas morning. Hotel stays typically happened well in advance of the holiday. We would be dreaming of sugar plums in a white farmhouse while Santa comes to visit instead of resting in rough hotel sheets without a fireplace in sight.

My high school football team had made it big that year--we went to the state finals! An event that hadn't happened in years, so no one would miss the game , including my freshman sister and senior me. The game that just so happened to fall on the Friday after Thanksgiving, a Thanksgiving we were supposed to spend in West Virginia with my mom's side of the family.

So we stayed in town for Thanksgiving; not a problem since we could celebrate with my dad's family. But it did mean we had to stay for Christmas Eve in Indy and somehow make it to West Virginia for Christmas Day.

My parents are smart when it comes to travel plans. Thanks to my dad's willingness to drive in the middle of the night and my mom's ability to keep him awake, the plan was concocted to celebrate Christmas Eve with Dad's side, leave straight from the party, and then head straight for West Virginia, driving until we were only about three hours away from the farm.

So with Christmas (seafood) chowder warming our bellies and Eloise at Christmastime playing on the portable DVD player positioned between my sister and I, we headed east on the night of Christmas Eve.

That's how I ended up in a double bed in a hotel by the highway with my sister early Christmas morning. Our stockings, at my insistence, hung from the TV cabinet at the end of the bed. I hurried my sister out of bed and the two of us dumped out the cross-stitched, faux socks to see what Santa brought us.

As we sorted through the nail polish, candy, toothbrushes, and Chapstick, my parents worked on packing up the room behind us. We ate a breakfast of cinnamon and pecan rolls carried all the way from Indiana and dressed in our Christmas clothes before straightening up the room. Our Christmas goodies were shoved into plastic bags, the stockings carefully packed away, and anything unpacked overnight tossed back into black and purple suitcases before we rushed back into the car to take on those last three hours to the farm.

On the tenth day of Blogmas, Leeann's blog gave to me:

A Christmas travel story, six final to-reads, decked halls a-twinkling, a Christmas tag of sorts, two Christmas book reads, FIVEEEE FESTIVE MOVIES! Memories filled with snow, one blog tag, the best study tips, and 10 Christmas songs to sing!

Traveling to the Twin Cities

That's right folks! Greetings from Minnesota, one week later :) The first week of July my family and I traveled up to Minneapolis to visit family. While we were there, we got to see some amazing sites, such as the Minnesota History Center, Fort Snelling, the Minnehaha and Saint Anthony Falls, the Walker Art Center's outdoor areas and the great neighborhood around my relative's home. Fun was had by all! I toted along my road trip bag for the 10 hour car ride and got ready for  great vacation in the northern Midwest.

Now get ready for a lot of pictures!

On the first night we went to this great restaurant Town Hall Tap. OH MY GOODNESS THE FRIES. Just look at them with me- ahhhhh. Some of the best fries I've ever had. They had the perfect amount of crunch and a slight sprinkle of cheese and spices along the top that came together as a celebratory bite in your mouth. I could have eaten a whole extra plate of these beautiful things.

The chicken sandwich was also delicious, with a good ratio of condiments to chicken. This place was spectacular, and if you find yourself in Minneapolis I highly recommend stopping by.

Wednesday we headed to the history center, where the cool "Welcome to Minnesota" super-sized postcard comes from. We saw several exhibits on Minnesota, but there was one particularly cool one on toys of the 50s, 60s, and 70s. I was surprised at how many toys I had played with myself. Sometimes this meant I played with the updated version of the late 90s, but other times the same toy was right there, on display. After going through the exhibit, I couldn't imagine why kids would want to be glued to screen all day when they could be playing with Barbies and Hotwheels.

That afternoon we went to Fort Snelling, my favorite place of the whole trip. It's like an interactive fort, with people representing the types of folks who would have lived and worked in the fort. There were presentations throughout the whole day that people could participate in and/or listen to, as well as a closing "parade" of sorts at the end of the day. A really cool history spot!

The next day (Thursday) was outdoor day, and we went to the Walker Art Center's mini golf course temporarily set up this summer. It's full of artist-designed holes that are both maddening and tons of fun. Every hole is different and brings a different challenge. The one above was like those coin funnels you see at the mall, only it was your golf ball doing the spinning.

Before and after the golf, we walked around the neighboring sculpture garden and saw the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry, as well as many other cool outdoor art sculptures. I especially loved this tunnel-like structure with all the different flowers scattered around.

That same afternoon we saw two beautiful sets of falls, one at Saint Anthony and the other at Minnehaha. Above are the Minnehaha falls- that is an insane amount of water tumbling off a cliff! It was both remarkable and very, very frightening to see the water plummet to the bottom. We don't have anything like this where I live, so the falls were a really cool experience.

Of course, you can't go to Minneapolis without stopping by the Mall of America. I was interested in a couple of stores we don't have where I live and to, of course, see what it's like when you put a theme park in the middle of a mall. You can kind of see in the picture how the rides fill the middle of the mall. I had to get a snap of the American Girl store, since I loved it so much as a kid (Samantha fan for life!).

After Fourth of July shenanigans (and some of the BEST fireworks I have ever seen- sorry Disney World), it was time to go home. Our drive took us into Wisconsin, so naturally we had to stop at the World's Largest Culver's to finish off our vacation. It was a great finish to a great trip. The  Twin Cities are really cool to visit (don't even get me started on the wonders of Caribou Coffee) and I loved getting to see them with my aunt and uncle.

Have you been to the Twin Cities? What are your favorite things to see there? What cool places have you traveled to this summer? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

A Writer's Road Trip Bag Essentials

I'm doing quite a bit of traveling this summer and recently came back from a nine-hour road trip to my grandparents' farm. As I've gotten older, I've brought less and less stuff with me for the ride since a good book and portable DVD player are about all I need. So last week I shoved any and all entertainment into my Lands' End tote and set off for my first adventure!

But of course, I wanted to share with you all what a book lover/amateur writer/college student (I wear many hats) brings on car trips, so that for the entire trip, you too can be entertained! (As long as you're not driving. Oh goodness, please not when you're driving.)

Here's what my bag of goodies entailed:

A Book (or two). Not so shockingly, the majority of my time in the car is spent reading. I also love to sit on my grandparents' sun porch and sink into a good book in the afternoon, so enough reading material is a must! This trip I brought Gone Girl (review coming soon!) and Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees. Gone Girl turned out to be enough, but I never want to be caught without a book!

Work. Glamorous, I know :)  The jobs I have this summer can travel, so I brought some along with me for down time.

Notebook, pen, and pencil. A writer never wants to be caught without a notebook! This is my favorite Moleskin that I take with me everywhere. I put a lot of creative writing ideas in it, but also use it to take notes and record blog post ideas. Whatever I want to remember goes in here! The pen and pencil ride around in this bag; you never know when you need a writing utensil.

Gum. The trip from my house to the farm involves a lot of driving through mountains. Gum helps avoid that uncomfortable ear popping which, let's be honest, no one loves.

iPod and Headphones. I don't listen to my iPod a ton since my family tends to listen to CDs in the car, but I like to have it on hand- just in case! My headphones get a little more love, coming out when I want to watch YouTube or listen to music while I work.

Laptop. Because where would I be without it? I work on here, blog, watch YouTube, and practically live inside Word and Gmail.

Tissues. Honestly not sure where they came from. But you never know, right?

iPad. Yeah yeah, I know you can't get internet on an iPad in the car. But I love to play Frozen Free Fall, and would break up my reading or napping with a few rounds.

Camera (and case). I knew I wanted to take some photos while at the farm (like the ones above) and so I needed my camera on hand. I never used to take my point-and-shoot anywhere with me, but now I'm trying to get into the habit of toting it along so that I will actually use it (instead of watching the battery die time after time in my desk drawer).

So there you have it! My family also brings a snack bag on the trip, so I had nuts and Luna bars to dine on (trust me, I eat on car trips ;)). What do you like to bring on car trips?