St. Thomas !

I was having a pool day with my friend Sean, at his house in Concord, Massachusetts. In the late afternoon, we decided it would be a good idea to go out and get some bottles of white wine and a big box of Coronas to enjoy for the rest of our evening. While we were out, we stopped at a local butcher shop and farm stand, to get ingredients to make a dinner for his Mom when she got home. We made steak on the grill and a Grilled Summer Vegetable Salad with grilled asparagus, summer squash and zucchini. Sean made a homemade balsamic dressing to go with the salad. The meal was delicious and his mom agreed. It was so good that she decided to invite me to St. Thomas with their family for the week !! This was on Tuesday night and we were off bright and early Friday morning.

It was my first time in the Caribbean and it was more stunning than any photos or videos I had seen in the past. We stayed at his family’s beautiful house at the tip of Water Point in Red Hook. We spent a week being super stressed out: waking up late, having amazing fruit salad and granola for breakfast, hanging out at the house, snorkeling, and going to lunch, the pool, and the beach at the Ritz Carlton. Ugh – we were just so busy the whole time :P It was soooo nice !!

One of the highlight from the trip was all of the fresh seafood ! I had fish almost everyday and it was so good ! One of my favorite meals was on the first night at a restaurant called Pesce. I had seared Ahi tuna with pesto mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. This was my first taste of the amazingly fresh fish that I would be enjoying all week. The tuna was cooked to perfection, still pink and raw on the inside, which gave it a great flavor and texture. Also, I really like the potatoes and thought they were a nice compliment to the fish.

Another one of my favorite parts of our trip was spending the 4^th of July in St. John. There is a huge festival there on that day as well, not celebrating Independence Day for America, but celebrating their own emancipation from Denmark funny enough. We took the ferry over at around 10 AM and posted up at a bar on the second floor terrace. From here we had a perfect view of the areas where the parade would be passing by. At about noon and 5 pineapple rums later, the festival came our way and it was AWESOME ! there were so many musical and dance performances, and just so much to look at ! At one point we even joined in on the parade and climbed up on a truck with a live ska band playing on it. It was soo fun. Later in the evening we went to a live concert with traditional Caribbean party music. Lol I don’t even know how to describe it but it was great !

All in all, an impromptu, week long getaway to the Caribbean proved to be just what I needed to help pass the time before my departure to Denmark ! It was the trip of a life time and one that I will never forget.

Chicago !!

I just returned from an amazing trip to Chicago for my best friend's - Taylor Waterman - college graduation from Northwestern ! I am just so proud of her. We became so close senior year of high school and it is so crazy that its been 5 years since then ! I had so much fun spending time with her and her family, and I am so grateful they included me in their celebration.

The trip started a little rocky - while waiting at the Waterman's house for a car to come bring us to the airport, I realized I had forgotten my dress for graduation, toothbrush, deodorant, and BOARDING PASS ! uhhhh...whoops :P luckily I have the best brother in the world and he was able to quickly run home and get my stuff before we had to leave ! Things took a turn for the better when Taylor's mom - DMa - and I decided to get 2 pounds of fudge in the airport terminal while waiting for our flight ! They even cut each large piece into 6 smaller pieces, which was nice but did not stop us from quickly devouring it.

top row : rocky road, coffee toffee, coconut creme
bottom row : penuche with nuts, choclate peanut butter x 2
(bottom row definitely dominated in the taste category !)

When we got to Chicago, we met up with Taylor and she brought us to the restaurant she worked at called Tommy Nevins. To quote Taylor - "Its pretty much Irish Chili's." Nevins is an Irish pub serving tasty comfort food and boasts a wild night life scene ;) One of the most interesting menu items I saw was called 'Pint o Bacon' and was literally a pint glass with bacon strips and french fries spilling over the top. Niceeee ! We stayed at Nevins all night watching game 7 of the Stanley Cup championship series cheering the Bruins to victory !! yeah B's !

Some other highlights of the trip were :

- a bookstore/wine cafe called Book Cellar. It was a very cute bookstore made all the better by serving wine, cookies, and other treats. While I was there I bought a small Moleskin notebook that I know will come in handy in my upcoming travels. We enjoyed many glasses of wine and great conversation in the outdoor seating section just in front of the store. I also found this book there : Useless Japanese Inventions. I didn't buy it, but it gave me a good laugh.

Mr. and Mrs. Waterman in the cute outdoor seating section of the Book Cellar.

- dinner at The Girl and the Goat, a brillant tapas restaurant with head chef Stephanie Izard, the only female to have ever won Top Chef ! The restaurant was great all around : the interior design was very cool - raw and industrial and our waitress was so sweet and friendly which made the dining experience very comfortable and unpretentious. The food was AMAZING !! It was served in small portions so we ordered 10 dishes for the table (it ended up being too much food but we were glad we got to try so many different things) The freshest ingredients were prepared in unusual yet ingenious combinatoins, which not only made for delicous food, but also a great table converstation discussing the dishes and our favorites. Some of my favorites were:

Goat Chorizo Flatbread with ramp pesto, rhubarb, ricotta cheese

Crisp Calamari with rabbit ravioli, spring onions and bacon

Sugo (aka meat sauce) with homemade linguini, rosemary, and cape gooseberries

- a day in Oak Park, and getting a chance to see many homes designed by notorious American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Touring around the neighborhood, all of the homes we saw were absolutely spectacular. We also took a guided tour of Frank Lloyds personal home and studio. It was amazing to see first hand how visionary he was for his time and the innovations he mastered. For example - to save space and add to the open floor plan of his family's play room, he place the baby grand piano, not just againest a wall, but THROUGH the wall. He literally cut a hole in the wall and had the piano hanging through and into the starwell just behind the wall, while it was being suspended by an iron hook. It was so cool ! Unfortunatly we couldn't take any photos in the home but here is one of my favorites from the neighborhood. I love the round turret :)

Now that I am home, it is time to get serious about prepping for Denmark !! mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, etc.... AHHHH ! well its a step in the right direction, I have almost 100% secured housing yay !