Travel Archives - Page 3 of 3

5 on Friday: Road Trip Edition

May 23, 2014 by DetroitDuchess 1 Comment

It’s time for another edition of Five on Friday with A Liz Adventures, The Good Life Blog, Hello Happiness and Carolina Charm.

I was challenged by Relay Rides to participate in their Road Trip Essentials campaign and come up with my must have road trip items. Relay Rides is a really cool company. It’s a peer-to-peer car rental service where you can rent other people’s cars instead of doing a car rental or you can make extra money on the side by renting out your car when you aren’t using it. What a great way to save or make some extra cash!

This could not have come at a better time because we are heading out to Chicago this weekend and we have a few additional road trips this summer. Here are some of my favorite road trip essentials:

1. Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn

This is my absolute favorite snack in the world. I could eat this all day and all night. I usually try to save it for a road trip, but it is delicious!

2. Starbucks Refreshers

So John and I are terrible at road trips. We both get in the car and instantly want to fall asleep. I hope that bodes well for our future children that they will pass out in the car. Caffeine is extremely important for both of us when we are taking a road trip and my favorite is Starbucks’ refreshers. I don’t drink coffee or tea and these are the perfect beverage for me!

3. Donna Karan Cashmere Mist

When you go on a road trip you spend a lot of time in the car. I have found that Donna Karan’s Cashmere Mist Deodarant is the best item to have on hand in these situations. It will keep you fresh and smelling amazing for the rest of your trip.

4. Coach Nylon Signature Duffle Weekender Bag Tote

I got a Coach Duffle Bag in black at the Coach Outlet a few years back and I LOVE it. It is durable and perfect for road trips. I was trying to find a similar one online and stumbled across one in fuschia! I may have to invest in this one too!

5. RocketFish Lighted Cable

During a road trip I can’t put my iPhone down, whether it’s listening to my podcasts, playing my Oregon Trail game or checking Facebook, I need my phone to last for the whole trip. I just bought this new charger cable for myself and it lights up and is awesome!

What are your favorite road trip items?

For more Five on Friday posts click here.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Coach, donna karen, smartfood, starbucks

Holiday Recap

December 30, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 1 Comment

The Christmas break has been fabulous! I’ve loved my time off from work and school and have enjoyed spending time with my husband and family. As Santa (a.k.a. my wonderful husband) brought me a new iPhone right before Christmas, I have finally been able to take good pictures (and have the space to take them) and can start doing my weekend recaps again (hooray!).

On the first Friday of my Christmas break, I went to the fifth annual Passion for Fashion at the Shenandoah Country Club to benefit the Alexander and Gabrielle Mansour Memorial Fund. Since I moonlight as a teacher to fashion students I’ve been trying to attend more industry events. This event was really fun because one of my former students was running the show and one of my future students was working the show. I also got to catch up with my department head at the show and talk about next semester’s curriculum:

On Saturday, John and I went to a holiday party in cocktail attire. I also got a Sephora makeover (more to come on that later). I loved my dress too, which was from one of my White Collar recaps, here. Unfortunately, someone spilled their drink on me, so I hope the dry cleaner can get it out, because it has the potential to be one of my favorites.

Then on Sunday, I hosted a Painting with a Twist Event for my Phi Sigma Sigma alumnae group. We painted the Eiffel Tower and it was so much fun! I was impressed by how creative everyone was.

That takes us into Christmas. John and I had a great holiday this year and that was due to our amazing families. We are so blessed to have them. We also can’t get enough of our niece, she is such a cute little nugget:

Santa was so good to me this holiday season! Aside from the new iPhone, my husband got me this beautiful Michael Kors watch!

Michael Kors ‘Everest’ Baguette Crystal Bezel Bracelet Watch

My parents got me the Temptu airbrush system and I couldn’t be more excited! It is even better than I imagined. There will be more to come on that after I get the hang of it.

Temptu Deluxe Air Brush Kit

After Christmas we went to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra with my parents. They definitely put on a good show! We went to the Macaroni Grill before the show and had a great time!

On Saturday, John and I drove down to Chicago to meet up with some friends for the Michigan game. On our way down, we stopped at the cutest place for lunch, Tavern 109 in Williamston- I had a fantastic wine flight:

We made it to Chicago and went to Duffy’s Tavern & Grille (a.k.a. Chicago’s Big House) to watch the game. It is really fun, too bad the game didn’t turn out better for us…

Before we drove home the next day, we stopped at Pizzeria Due for some authentic deep dish Chicago pizza…YUM!

All in all, it was a fantastic break! I am looking forward to spending New Year’s Eve with my husband and friends.

How was your holiday?

Filed Under: Detroit, Travel Tagged With: Chicago's Big House, Duffy's Tavern & Grille, Painting with a Twist, Passion for Fashion, Pizzeria Due, Sephora, Tavern 109

Dream Destination: Puerto Rico

December 16, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Puerto Rico, The All-Star Island for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Welcome to the Island of Enchantment, also known as Puerto Rico!

I was asked to write a post describing what I would do on a dream vacation to Puerto Rico. I jumped at the chance because lately I have had a major travel bug, just itching to go somewhere! Not to mention that it is freezing here in Detroit. It was a lot of fun to dream about going somewhere warm.

In case you are unfamiliar with Puerto Rico, here are some fun facts about the island:

Puerto Rico is an island located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands.

Puerto Rico (courtesy of National Geographic)

One of the great things about Puerto Rico is that it is a U.S. Commonwealth, so you don’t need a passport to get there – you can just hop on a plane and go. That is a huge selling point. I love the idea of being able to just go whenever I want.

More than 70 percent of the rum sold in the U.S. comes from Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico has 270 miles of coastline and is featured in the Top 10 beaches from the Travel Channel – including Flamenco Beach in Culebra, often cited as one of the best beaches in the world.

Puerto Rico is also popularly known in Spanish as ‘la isla del enchant meaning “the island of enchantment.”

Puerto Rico is one of the countries that has won most beauty contests, holding 5 Miss Universe titles and a Miss World title among others.

Where to Stay

I did some research and decided that I would like to stay at the San Juan Marriott Resort and Stellaris Casino. It had great reviews and it contained a few of my favorite things:

Marriott Points (gotta get those points!)
24-hour casino, I may have mentioned my fondness for blackjack
Ocean Club Spa
A 90 ft. spiral waterslide and a swim-up bar
Yoga classes conducted outside on the deck three times a week

What to Eat

John and I love to eat out and what better time to do that than vacation! Puerto Rico has some amazing food that we would love to try, including Mofongo, Plantains, Lechón and Asopao.

Plantains are members of the banana family. I’ve had them before and they taste just like bananas. I would love to try out real Puerto Rican plantains:

Plantains

Plantains can be used to make Mofongo, which is one of the most famous Puerto Rican delicacies. You take a mound of mashed fried green plantains and stuff them with any kind of meat, usually seafood or pork:

Mofongo

One of those things could be lechón. You take an entire pig, put it through a spit, and roast it over charcoal.

Lechon

Last but not least is Asopao, which is a homemade savory soup, usually made with chicken and rice.

Asopao

I also want to make sure to try a Puerto Rican Piña Colada, which has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico since 1978. This reminds me of the “Escape” song by Rupert Holmes which is one of my favorite songs! If I could put this post to music that would definitely be it!

Piña Colada

What to Do

There are some amazing sites to see in Puerto Rico, some of the things I would want to do with John include:

Visit El Yunque

El Yunque is the only subtropical rainforest in the U.S. National Forest Service, one of their must-visit destinations. Most people visit the natural waterfall and climb to the top of the mountain where you are literally in the clouds. Check out this video to see some of the beautiful scenery:

Bacardi Rum Factory Tour

John and I are huge Bacardi fans and that is usually my drink of choice (after wine). Plus you get free samples at the end of the tour.

Visit the Bioluminescent Bay

The bay contains up to 720,000 single-celled bioluminescent dinoflagellates per gallon of water. These half-plant, half-animal organisms emit a flash of bluish light when agitated at night. The high concentration of these creatures (Pyrodimium bahamense) can create enough light to read a book from.

During the tour you can kayak out to the middle of the pond.

Bioluminescent Bay

Old San Juan Shop and Bar Hop Tour

We always have so much fun on these types of tours, this particular one includes:

Assistance of a certified tour guide/fashion consultant
Walk through historical Old San Juan with site seeing
Three stops for Rum cocktails
Taste of Puerto Rican hors d’oeuvres
Visits to local arts and crafts stands, fine local fashion designers, high-quality jewelry stores and even some excellent art galleries
Special Sales and discounts on many of our fabulous boutiques

Camuy Caves

The Rio Camuy Cave is the largest cave system in the western hemisphere (the third largest in the world). It also contains the world’s third largest subterranean river system. During a tour, you will see massive caverns, beautiful stalagmites and stalactites and drink from the “fountain of youth.” The fountain is a natural spring that trickles down the wall of the cave.

Camuy Caves

Old San Juan Food Tour

This looked right up our alley. The tour starts off at the Old San Juan City bay and you eat your way through the Colonial city, visiting six tasting locations. While you learn the history and culture, you get to dine at some of the best restaurants on the island. Most importantly you will discover why the cobblestones in old San Juan are blue:

Blue Cobblestones of San Juan

After researching all of these awesome activities, I really want to head to Puerto Rico. It sounds fabulous!

If you’ve been to Puerto Rico I would love to hear what your favorite places and activities are.

If you’ve never been to Puerto Rico, check out the official Puerto Rico travel website, Live your own 5-star vacation story in Puerto Rico. and let me know what your dream vacation would include. Don’t forget to Like SeePuertoRico.com on Facebook and Follow @PRTourismCo on Twitter.

For more Dream Destination posts, click here.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Puerto Rico

Dream Destination: Aruba

June 26, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Aruba Tourism Authority for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Welcome readers! Or as they say in Aruba “Bon Bini!”

Eagle Beach in Aruba

I was recently approached to plan my perfect dream vacation to Aruba. This presented a great opportunity to learn more about the island. I started by asking if any of my friends and family had been there and boy was I surprised by the results. Apparently, Aruba is the hot place to vacation and honeymoon. Many of our friends went there on their honeymoon and I even found out someone I know has a timeshare there, who knew?

John and I have our third anniversary coming up next year, so this would be the perfect romantic getaway for our celebration.

I figured I would start by learning more about Aruba, so here are some of the important and cool things I discovered about the island:

Aruba is in the Southern Caribbean Sea, off the North Coast of Venezuela:

Aruba (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Aruba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and shares a Dutch nationality.

Aruba is in a triangle of islands that is out of the hurricane zone, so if you choose Aruba for your honeymoon or vacation you don’t have to worry about your plans getting cancelled. This happened to me once with a trip and it is no fun. It rarely rains there so you don’t have to worry about being stuck in your hotel room for the whole trip either.

The license plates on Aruba say “One Happy Island.” This is the motto everyone lives by and I couldn’t think of a better place to escape to.

Aruba is GREEN! Within the next 10 years, 100 percent of the island’s energy will come from renewable sources. How cool is that?

Aruba has been known as the Las Vegas of the Caribbean. How did I not know this before? I would have visited a lot sooner!

Aruba is the largest exporter of Aloe and you can tour the museum and factory. For those of you who know me, this is music to my ears, as I always burn on vacation.

Where to Stay

After a lot of review reading, I decided that we would stay at the Aruba Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino. It has received the AAA Four Diamond award for the past four years in a row and I can get Marriott points. The reviews on Expedia for this resort were phenomenal and it includes everything that I look for:

24-hour casino, so I can get my blackjack on
Mandara Spa – one of my favorite spa chains (I have already selected the Mandara Balinese Body Polish with Massage as my service)
It’s right on the beach and within walking distance of the shopping district

Marriott Resort

Where to Dine

John and I are big foodies and Aruba has some amazing restaurants. Here are the places that caught my eye:

Sunset Grille

Sunset Grille

This is Aruba’s only AAA Four Diamond restaurant and has a beautiful view of Eagle Beach.

Papiamento Restaurant

Papiamento

Papiamento’s is housed on a 126-year-old Aruban “cunucu” (house) and was started in 1983. It’s a family owned business with a lot of personal touches that make it a special experience.

Pincho’s Bar & Grill

Pinchos Bar & Grill

Pincho’s offers a cool dining experience on the water. It is also one of the most romantic restaurants in Aruba.

Passions on the Beach

Passions on the Beach

This is such a cool concept – dinner on the beach at sunset. What a romantic way to start the evening. I can just feel the sand between my toes!

What to Do

Floating Yoga Classes

Have you ever wanted to try Yoga on a paddleboard? Well here’s your chance. The Aruba Marriott offers floating yoga classes for $40 where you try to keep your balance steady on your paddleboard. It sounds really neat and I would love to try it out.

Try an Aruba Ariba

Aruba Ariba

Aruba has it’s own special drink that includes Vodka, Rum and Coecoei (a special liquor). It looks amazing and I might have to make one to test it out this summer!

Jeep Tour

All of my friends seemed to agree on one thing – that we need to rent a Jeep to tour the island. There are parts of the island you can only see by doing this. One of the highlights is a natural pool or “conchi” that is tranquil enough to relax in.

Natural Pool

Kukoo Kunuku Pub Krawl Tour

Kukoo Kunuku Party Bus

This sounded right up my alley and most of my friends recommended this. You get four bar stops and a free welcome shot at every stop.

Snorkling or Diving

Once upon a time my husband was certified in Scuba diving. If we went to Aruba I think he would definitely want to renew his certification and I would want to get certified. There are some amazing beaches and awesome diving opportunities.

The Jolly Pirates snorkeling expedition looks really fun and I am a sucker for a good pirate theme.

Jolly Pirates

Horseback Riding on the Beach

Many moons ago I used to take horseback riding lessons, so this would be so much fun for me. How awesome would it be to take a sunset tour by horseback? You can also get to the natural pool by horseback so that could be fun too.

I am now hooked on Aruba! I was just singing its praises to my husband this morning and this sounds like an awesome getaway for us. I am thinking maybe in the winter when it is freezing here in Michigan or for our anniversary in May.

If you’ve been to Aruba before please let me know what your favorite places and activities are.

If you’ve never been to Aruba, check out the official Aruba travel website and let me know what your dream vacation would include.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Aruba, horseback riding, jeep tour, natural conchi pool, One Happy Island, pub crawl, scuba diving, snorkeling

Nashville Day 4 Recap – Stones River

May 30, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

This was our last day in Nashville and we had some time to kill before heading to the airport. Since it was Memorial Day we thought a trip to Stones River National Battlefield would be appropriate.

Stones River National Battlefield commemorates a Civil War battlefield and National Cemetery near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The battle took place on New Year’s Eve in 1862 and was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War.

My husband took some amazing pictures from the battlefield and we even found the Michigan marker.

Stones River Cemetery

81,000 men fought at Stones River and there are more than 7,000 graves at the National Cemetery to recognize them.

Stones River Cemetery

There were 71 Michigan men who lost their lives at Stones River for the Union. Here is a link to the marker if you want to read more.

John at the Michigan Marker

The Slaughter Pen was a particularly gruesome part of the battle which you can read more about here.

The Slaughter Pen

Battlefield

This was a great way to spend Memorial Day and made me very thankful for the men and women that protect our country and freedom every day.

For more on our trip to Nashville click here.

I was not compensated for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Civil War, Memorial Day, Michigan, Nashville, Stones River National Battlefield

Nashville Day 3 Recap – Hick Chick Pub Crawl

May 29, 2013 by DetroitDuchess Leave a Comment

Day 3 in Nashville was jam-packed!

We headed off to the Nashville Sounds (Nashville’s Minor League baseball team) game in the afternoon and had a great time at Greer Stadium. The Sounds won 3-2 against the Albuquerque Isotopes and there were some great plays!

After the game it was time to meet up for our Hick Chick Pub Crawl tour. Our first stop was at Dick’s Last Resort where the servers are actually rude to you. It’s part of their shtick. When we arrived our server gave us the lay of the land (and insulted us).

Stephanie asked for water so he brought her a glass of ice and told her that it would melt. He finally brought her a big bucket of water to drink.

Stephanie with her “water”

He kept taking our sunglasses and then he made John a ridiculous hat to wear. That was definitely an interesting experience.

John and I at Dick’s

We met up with our tour guide, Christy, who is also a stand up comedian. John got picked to be the caboose of the tour to make sure we didn’t lose anyone. We fondly referred to ourselves as the “Cabooze” after that. Here is a shot of our tour group and you can see us in the back:

Group Shot of our Tour Group

From there, we headed to Printer’s Alley, which has been known for its nightlife since the 1940’s.

Printer’s Alley

Our next stop was the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar which is known for its live blues performances every night. Once you got inside you almost forgot you were in Nashville. It transported you right back to New Orleans, so of course we had to get some hurricanes. I would have loved to spend more time here, this was a great bar – we would definitely come back the next time we visit Nashville.

Hurricanes

Live band at Bourbon Street Blues

We did some more sightseeing on the way to our next location. Here is the AT&T building a.k.a. the Batman Building which is the tallest building in Nashville:

The Batman Building

We also stopped at the statue of legendary country producer, Chet Atkins, a founding father of Nashville’s music business.

Next stop was a little honkytonk bar, called Layla’s Bluegrass Inn. This was another little gem, with live country music. Many famous musicians have taken the stage here, including Hank Williams III. The music was great and we could have stayed there all night!

John at Layla’s

But, we had to move on to our next stop – Bootlegger’s Inn! Bootlegger’s Inn features Popcorn Sutton’s famous moonshine. The bar has an old saloon feeling to it and they had live music throughout the evening. I was able to try some of the moonshine while we were there. I liked the apple pie flavor and could sip that by itself, but the blueberry was too much for me so we had to add a mixer.

Bootleggers Inn

Last but not least, our bar crawl led us to our final stop, Whiskey Bent Saloon. This was another fun bar with live music and dancing. As you can see, the details are a little fuzzier here, but each of these bars would have been great for a night out.

Whiskey Bent

We had such a great time on the Hick Chick Pub Crawl. I would definitely recommend this to anyone visiting Nashville.

For more on our trip to Nashville click here.

I was not compensated for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Batman Building, Bootlegger's Inn, Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar, Chet Atkins, Dick's Last Resort, Hank Williams III, Hick Chick Tours, Layla's Bluegrass Inn, Nashville, Popcorn Sutton, Printer's Alley, Whiskey Bent

Nashville Day 2 Recap – Arrington Vineyards

May 28, 2013 by DetroitDuchess Leave a Comment

My husband and I traveled to Nashville for Memorial Day weekend to visit our close friends Eric and Stephanie. The highlight of Day 2 was our trip to Arrington Vineyards.

The vineyards

Saturday was actually National Wine Day, which worked out perfectly for our trip to the vineyard and my Wine of the Week post.

Entering the winery

Arrington Vineyards is owned by Kix Brooks (part of Brooks & Dunn), winemaker Kip Summers, and entrepreneur John Russell. Brooks was inspired to open the vineyard by Faith Hill and her husband Tim McGraw. They used to give Brooks and his wife two bottles of wine from different countries each month which led to his love of wine.

Arrington Vineyards

One interesting thing that we learned on this trip was that Tennessee used to be a leading wine-producing region in the US, but this was cut short because of prohibition. Tennessee is usually known for its whiskey and moonshine, but wine has been making a comeback since the 1980’s. Tennessee now has more than 40 wineries and 150 vineyards (for more info visit the Tennessee Farm Winegrowers Association). Visiting one of the wine trails would make a great activity for our next trip!

Lots of areas to picnic

We arrived at the Vineyard planning to do a wine tasting, but it was packed! We put our name on the list and then proceeded to get a table on the deck. While we were waiting we bought some wine, cheese and crackers to hang out and pass the time. The winery had a great ambiance and it reminded me of our time in Napa. While we were waiting we tried a few of the different wines, including:

Stags White 2011 – $17.99

This was a great blend, perfect for a hot day.

Stag’s White 2011

Chardonnay 2012 – $21.99

We had to try this, because I was out of Chardonnay at home. It worked really well with the pepper crackers and cheese that we had.

Chardonnay 2012

I also tried some of Stephanie’s Raspberry Dessert Wine ($14.99) with truffles and it was delicious! We decided that it would taste awesome over ice cream.

Stephanie and Eric

We finally got called for our tasting and were escorted to a private room under the winery. I decided to join Kix’s Wine Club and this allowed us to taste five wines instead of four.

I tried the Viognier 2011 ($18.99), Firefly Rose 2010 ($17.99), Red Fox Red 2010 ($21.99), Petite Noir 2011 ($23.99) and the KB 409 ($49.99). I liked everything I tried. Which prompted us to take some wine home with us:

The wine we bought

Now I can’t wait for our first shipment of wine! It will remind us of our trip every time we drink it. Have you visited any Nashville wineries? Let us know where we should go next.

For more on our trip to Nashville, click here.

For more Wine of the Week posts, click here.

Filed Under: Travel, Wine of the Week Tagged With: Arrington Vineyards, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, Kix Brooks, Nashville, National Wine Day, Tennessee Farm Winegrowers Association, Tim McGraw, wine, wine of the week

Nashville Recap Day 1

May 27, 2013 by DetroitDuchess Leave a Comment

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Thank you to those who serve and sacrifice so much to protect our freedom.

*************************************************************

My husband and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Nashville visiting close friends. We had a blast and I can definitely say that we conquered the Music City! Here are some of the highlights of Day 1:

We had a great flight to Nashville, they have rocking chairs to relax in while you are waiting for your bags:

We are reunited with our friends Eric and Stephanie! They took us to a fantastic Irish Bar the first night called McNamara’s Irish Pub.

McNamara’s Irish Pub

McNamara’s was named the #1 Irish Pub in the world (click here to read more) and it’s not hard to see why. There is live music from Nosey Flynn, classic pub food and great decor and memorabilia.

Nosey Flynn

We enjoyed some Guinness and Smithwick’s for me and had a great time catching up with our friends. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone traveling to Nashville.

The Bourbon Brothers reunited

Me and Stephanie

I was not compensated for this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Guinness, Irish, McNamara's Irish Pub, Nashville, Nosey Flynn, Smithwicks

The City of Love

May 16, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

To kick off this blog I thought I would start by recapping our 2nd anniversary celebration. This seemed fitting to me because I first wanted to start a blog when we got engaged to chronicle the wedding, and then again after we were married to chronicle our newlywed adventures. I figured four years later, I’m finally going to do it!

My husband and I were married on May 7, 2011 so this was our second anniversary aka “the cotton anniversary.” We got married on the 7th because my birthday is July 7 and his is August 7 and we thought it would be cool if all of our big dates were 7-7-7 (21 in blackjack which I am obsessed with). Now in the future if we can make sure all of our kids are born on the 7th that would be pretty cool.

We got engaged in Toledo, Ohio (I will share our engagement story in another post) and ever since have jokingly called it “The City of Love.” We usually go back there once a year to celebrate our anniversary and try to do a similar trip.

This year was even more exciting because we hadn’t been back since they opened the new casino and it was Star Wars weekend (yes, I’m a nerd, I know)!

Our trip started on Friday night after work. Toledo is only about an hour drive from us so it is a nice little trip. We stayed at the same hotel we did when we got engaged and they really rolled out the red carpet for us. When we were checking in I mentioned that we had got engaged there four years ago and that we were hoping to get a corner room similar to the one we had before.

They did better than that, they got us the exact same room!! I didn’t even realize that they kept records that far back. The room number was 1023, John said he would never forget it. Kudos to The Best Western Toledo -they went above and beyond for us the entire weekend and made it really special.

After that we decided to head on over to the new Hollywood Casino for some grub and blackjack. The first thing I noticed about the casino was that it was smoke free which was just awesome! We had dinner at Scene, a sports bar restaurant and then proceeded to lose our shirts at blackjack. Oh well, we still had a great time.

We were so excited for Saturday because it was May 4 aka “May the Fourth Be With You.” We had tickets to go to the Toledo Mudhens game which was a Star War theme. The players were wearing special jerseys and they had their first fireworks of the season, set to Star Wars music. Even though they lost, we had a great time!

Chewbacca replica Mudhen’s Jerseys (photo from Crain’s Detroit Business)

“Feel the Force!” – Yoda

After the game, we came back to our room and did a special anniversary toast with our toasting glasses from the wedding. We opened a bottle of champagne that I had been saving from our honeymoon. We bought it from the Murgo Winery in Sicily at the bottom of Mt. Etna and it was delicious!

Cheers to us!

On Sunday, we made our way to the Toledo Zoo to see the elephants! My husband and I love elephants and the Toledo Zoo has a baby elephant named Lucas. We got to see their revamped African exhibit and we even got to see feeding time – it was so cool! The zoo also had two baby polar bear cubs that were about five months old. They were just darling.

Elephants Rock!

Feeding Time!

We had a wonderful time and if it’s possible fell more in love, in the city of love.

Happy Anniversary!

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: anniversary, Best Western, elephants, Hollywood Casino, Mt. Etna, Murgo, Sicily, Star Wars, Toledo, Toledo Mudhens, Toledo Zoo, Yoda

Keep in Touch

5 on Friday: Road Trip Edition

1. Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn

2. Starbucks Refreshers

3. Donna Karan Cashmere Mist

4. Coach Nylon Signature Duffle Weekender Bag Tote

5. RocketFish Lighted Cable

Holiday Recap

Dream Destination: Puerto Rico

Dream Destination: Aruba

Nashville Day 4 Recap – Stones River

Nashville Day 3 Recap – Hick Chick Pub Crawl

Nashville Day 2 Recap – Arrington Vineyards

Nashville Recap Day 1

The City of Love

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