Memorial Day 2014

How was your Memorial Day? Did you do anything fun? I spent the first three days of the weekend at work. It was interesting, to say the least. I had Monday off though, so I spent the morning relaxing, and my mom and I went up north in the afternoon.

In the morning I worked on some writing and I did laundry and painted my toenails using OPI's You're Such a Budapest. After lunch, I colored a picture and hung out waiting for my mom to call me to say that she was ready to go.

Our first stop (just south of Egg Harbor) was Bay Trading Company, which is an antique store with lots of little booths. This is where I bought my set of goldenrod and white Pyrex bowls! I didn't buy any this time though.

We drove into Egg Harbor, and my mom wanted to look at some of the eggs that they have on display for the summer. At least one of these buildings is the Cupola House.

I just really liked taking pictures of the flowers!

Here are two of the eggs on display!

I love all of the old buildings! This is the Cupola House. The detail is so pretty.

Some more flowers! I love all of the bright colors, especially the purple tulips. We also checked out a couple stores, including Greens 'n Grains and the Pink Umbrella. My mom wanted a snack, so we headed a little bit farther north, and we stopped at Wood Orchard Market. She didn't find what she was looking for there, but I got some honeycrisp apple chips and a postcard. We decided to continue north, and I wanted to go to Wild Tomato for dinner, so we ended up there for an earlier dinner.

We had a pizza with ham and pineapple. Their pizzas are woodfired, and taste so fresh. The pineapple was really sweet, and the ham was in big chunks instead of little slices. It was so delicious. We felt bad that we couldn't finish it, and we would have taken it with us, but I didn't want to chance getting food poisoning because of the car temperature, so I hope that waiter put it in the fridge for himself like he said he would. There were going to be scattered thunderstorms, according to the weather app on my phone, and it started to sprinkle as we left.

My mom wanted to stop at the ShopKo Hometown in Sister Bay, because she was looking for a curtain. I didn't really want to go in there, but I looked around at the kitchen stuff anyway. I want to get some thicker dishtowels. I ended up buying a shelving unit that I wanted for my laundry room/pantry, a new pair of Nikes, and a set of glass Pyrex containers. The Nikes and Pyrex were both on clearance, and I scored such a great deal on the Pyrex!

Of course, you can't go to Sister Bay and not take pictures of the goats on the roof at Al Johnson's! There were four of them up there, but these two were the funniest.

Because of the little bit of the storm that just passed through, the sky looked really cool, so we walked across to the marina. It wasn't as dark as it looks in the first picture, but that's how magical it felt.

On our way south, we had to stop at Wilson's in Ephraim for dessert.

Their ice cream is from Cedar Crest, which in my opinion, is the best for ice cream shops. The summer before my senior year of high school, I worked at a candy store in downtown Sturgeon Bay, and the ice cream that they had there was also Cedar Crest. I got the Caramel Collision {caramel ice cream with swirls of caramel and caramel cups}, which is a flavor we always had at the candy store, and I remember sneaking spoonfuls of it throughout the summer. Wilson's puts a jelly bean on the top of the scoop of ice cream, but my mom told the girls that I could have hers so I got two. (:

I love all of the little details of this vintage diner.

We headed south again to go home, and when we got into Egg Harbor, one of our friends was driving in front of us. I was so confused when it appeared that he was waving at no one on the side of the road, but then I realized that he was waving behind him at us, and then I realized who it was. haha.

We went to Target when we got to Sturgeon Bay, and I bought cling wrap, washi tape, and mascara. I was looking for a racerback tank top, but I didn't find any that I liked. I then needed a car wash (even though it was supposed to rain more) because of the dead bugs on my windshield, so we went to Shell for gas and a car wash. My mom wanted to get a copy of the Peninsula Pulse, so we stopped at the Door County Visitor Bureau. They have some really cute rocking chairs on their front porch.

When I got home, I put away my new stuff and I put together the shelving unit for my laundry room. It's five shelves, and that's too tall, so I'm only using four of them. It's going to be nice to have some extra storage space.

xoxo.

May 2014 NatureBox

NatureBox was having a sale where certain snacks could be added as an add-on snack for only $1, so I got two bags of a couple snacks, and my box was a little fuller than usual this month. (Add-on snacks are typically $3.)

Coffee Kettle Popcorn :: Of everything I received, I like this snack the least, and it was still good. The coffee-coated popcorn has kind of a burned coffee taste, and that burned taste is why I don't like coffee, but it balanced well with the sweet kettle corn. This was the only snack that I have received form NatureBox that wasn't in a resealable package.

PB&J Granola :: This is one of the snacks that I received two of. I love granola, and this one had dried strawberries in it, so it sounded delicious, and it was! The first bag that I opened only had one strawberry, but there were quite a few in the other one. This is another moist (not crunchy) granola, and it reminded me of the perfect peanut butter cookie.

Apple Pie Oat Clusters :: This is the other snack that I got two of. They are very chewy and not too appley, but they are very good. My only disappointment was that they all stick together in one big clump in the bag!

Lemon Tea Biscuits :: This snack was a substitute, and it was a snack that I wouldn't have picked for myself, as I would have thought that they would be too tart. Like last month's apple cookies, these are a buttery shortbread. I didn't really get a lot of lemon flavor out of them though. (I'm not a huge fan of citrus, so that was okay by me.)

Whole Wheat Apple Pie Figgy Bars :: The filling in these really does taste like apple pie! I just love NatureBox's figgy bars, so these were great as well. And the fact that they're whole wheat makes me feel like I'm doing something good for my body.

xoxo.

21/52 2014

Quite a few food pictures this week. There are also a lot of different colors! This weekend was pretty busy at work since it was Memorial Day weekend. I had a fun day off on Monday, and I can't wait to share more pictures of that!

Wednesday 21 May // day one hundred forty-one :: this lunch {grilled cheddar and fuji apple} would have been better executed if I was better at using knives.

Thursday 22 May // day one hundred forty-two :: I was running late {hence the flash and not figuring out the lighting} for a dentist appointment, but I wanted to get a picture of my Converse while they were still clean! {the doormat is from Target}

Friday 23 May // day one hundred forty-three :: I picked up the last load of stuff from the house, so the living room is full again, and that's my excuse for not taking pictures of the apartment yet.

Saturday 24 May // day one hundred forty-four :: I went through those boxes and sorted out what was going to be donated, what was trash/recycling, what I was going to keep, and what I was going to try to give to someone I know instead of just Goodwill. I had to keep these two outfits for my American Girl doll. I still want a skirt like that for myself.

Sunday 25 May // day one hundred forty-five :: I've been doing quite a bit of coloring lately. it's very relaxing. this Dr. Seuss printable can be found here. {of course finding the link that way a few days later led me to the one I originally wanted... haha.}

Monday 26 May // day one hundred forty-six :: Wild Tomato in Fish Creek for dinner with my mom! their pizzas are wood fired. we had ham and pineapple, and it was the best I've ever had, with chunks (not slices) of ham and sweet pineapple.

Tuesday 27 May // day one hundred forty-seven :: green smoothie and lush green grass and leaves. {spinach + banana + peach + chia seeds + water & ice then I added some frozen strawberries after the picture}

xoxo.

Travel Tuesday: Whistler/Vancouver, British Columbia

Helene used to do a linkup on Tuesdays for travel posts, and this was written in April 2013, with the intention of posting it to linkup! It's been sitting in my drafts for over a year, and I really want to publish it, so here it is.

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Linking up once again with Helene! I love this linkup because it's so fun to read about other people's vacations and see their pictures of their travels!

My short list of travels is quickly ending, but I have a few ideas up my sleeve for some upcoming weeks! (:

This post is heavier on words than pictures, since I wasn't the greatest at documenting things when I was fifteen.

Anyway. So in August of 2008, literally the day after I turned fifteen, my parents and I went to Whistler and Vancouver, British Columbia for about a week. We spent a majority of our stay in Whistler, and one day + one night in Vancouver. We flew into Vancouver and then took a shuttle bus (2-3 hours, I think) up into the mountains.

We stayed in the village of Whistler, where there are no cars; it is relatively easy to walk everywhere. There were lots of stores, restaurants (including three Starbucks), and hotels nearby.

My dad participated in a three day downhill biking camp while we were there. While we were there, Crankworx was happening. Crankworx is an annual ten-day biking festival. Because of the festival, there were a lot of booths, tents, and other activities going on in the streets during our stay.

This picture was taken from somewhere in the village, with a hotel on either side, the mountain in the middle, and then you can see some of the tents from the festival in the center.

On our second full day in Whistler, Mom and I went on a zipline tour. "Our guides were Sue and Richard, a really hot guy from New Zealand. He had a nice accent." {taken directly from my journal hahaha}

Here I am on one of the ziplines! The longest line that we did was as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall!

The view from the mountains.

My mom and I would go for walks through the village during the day. We found the beautiful library, and a grocery store that wasn't in the village area that we were in {it was just outside the car-less part}, and I was so fascinated that everything was labeled in French & English. I may or may not have taken pictures of canned SpongeBob pasta and Lucky Charms boxes. {okay, fine, I took pictures of like everything.}

After three full days in Whistler, we took the shuttle back to Vancouver, where we spent a full day. I really wanted to go to the Louis Vuitton store {even though I still can't afford anything from there!}, so we took public transit, aka buses that I did not like, into the main part of the city, and we walked around trying to find the street where all of the high end stores are located. It turns out we walked right past it, but we continued walking until we got to Stanley Park.

I guess I thought this tree was cool?

There was a garden with lots of pretty flowers!

After supper, we must have asked someone how to get to Louis Vuitton, and we found out that we had passed the street that it was located on! We actually went in the bebe store {where my mom got asked to not take pictures of the mannequins haha} that was on the cross-street of where I wanted to be.

I was surprised that there were three Starbucks locations so close to one another in Whistler, but there were so many more in Vancouver! There was one on practically every corner, and there were even two locations that were kitty-corner from one another. Obviously, I am from a small town, where the closest Starbucks is nearly an hour away! (:

Check out some more travels over at Helene's: