2017: The Year of Mini-Breaks

This guy is getting a lot play time in 2017.

This year I'm hoping to take a few short trips, as compared to my big trip in 2016 (Tanzania). So I'm calling 2017 the Year of Mini-Breaks. There will be one international trip at the end of the year (there has to be, per this blog!), but it won't be a budget-buster like last year, which gives me a little wiggle room for small trips scattered throughout the year. Which turns out to be excellent timing, since the boyfriend has a couple of out-of-state weddings to attend that I want to tag along for. And it allows me to take my semi-annual California trip with my best friend and my sister. Here's my anticipated line up for the year:

• Long weekend in NYC to see the sister: February, already happened
• West Texas with the boyfriend's family: April, already happened, post coming soon
• Colorado (near Boulder) for boyfriend's friend's wedding: May
• Nashville: June, this is a work trip, but I still count it because I'm going to try to find good places to eat (and food = travel)
• Maine (near Booth Bay) for boyfriend's step-brother's wedding: June
• California: August, hiking in Yosemite and lazing in Big Sur with Sarah and Michele
• Cuba (I hope!!): December, week trip with friends and boyfriend

Does anyone have recommendations for any of these spots? Especially food recommendations (vegetarian or pescatarian friendly), but anything that could fit into a long weekend is appreciated!

TBT: Santa Ynez, California

While I daydream about my next California trip with Michele and Sarah (August!), I'll calm the restlessness a little with photos from our 2013 trip to the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara.

I flew to LA to meet up with Michele and Sarah (view from Sarah's roof). Mish then drove us to wine country.

We stayed in a yurt at a campsite on a lake.

We went to picturesque vineyards (Lincourt, Sunstone, and Rancho Sisquoc).

We lit fires and played board games at night, and kayaked on the lake in the morning.

And ate in Solvang and Santa Barbara.

It's probably offensive to wine connoisseurs, but I would pick Santa Ynez over Napa if given the choice. Santa Ynez felt much more relaxed, and my palette isn't refined enough to appreciate Napa wines any more than the ones I had on this trip.

Weekend in New York

My sister moved to Queens last year and I owed her a visit, so on an impulse I used some credit card points and bought a ticket to New York for a three-day weekend. I've been to Manhattan a few times so I didn't feel the need to do anything super touristy or cram the weekend full of activities, which made it very relaxing. I have a few photos from the trip, but be warned: they're mostly of blurry food. I went to New York to eat and I'm a crappy photographer.

I arrived on Friday when Sarah was still working, so I killed a few hours at the Met.
    

The Met

When she got off work, we met at Grand Central Station for happy hour at the Oyster Bar. The champagne was delicious, of course, but oysters are disgusting. I should have known. Why do people like these slimy blobs so much?

 

Oysters are gross, but the Oyster Bar is iconic.

The highlight of the trip was dinner at Le Bernardin, a French seafood restaurant with three Michelin Stars (!!!) for which Sarah had a gift card (work holiday present). I'd never been to a place with even one Michelin star, so I was pretty excited. By pure luck, Sarah scored a last-minute reservation at 10:15 pm, because someone canceled the day before. And because her gift card was very generous, we decided to do the tasting menu with wine pairings!

Le Bernardin

Top left: Amuse-bouches
Top right: Kampachi sashimi and Greek salad (Godello pairing)
Bottom left: Crab-filled calamari with mushroom pot au feu (Champagne pairing)
Bottom right: Seafood truffle pasta with scallop, shrimp, lobster, and black truffle emulsion sauce (Riesling pairing)

More Le Bernardin

Top left: Red snapper in a green curry sauce with goat-yogurt emulsion (Sake pairing)
Bottom left: Salmon, Buddha's hand salad, tarragon-olive oil emulsion (Chardonnay pairing)
Center: "palate cleansing" dessert of cheesecake and lemon sorbet (Tokaji pairing)
Top right: Banana s'more (Chateau la Rame pairing)
Bottom right: surprise dessert sampler after we paid! Pistachio cake, lemon macaron, chocolate tarte, guava jelly, peanut butter truffle

We finished eating at 12:15, and we were ready for bed after all that wine and food (brought to us by an adorable French waiter and an army of other wait staff). My favorites were the sashimi, seafood pasta, snapper, and s'mores. But the whole meal was incredible. I doubt I'll eat that well in a very long time, if ever again.

The next day we went back to Manhattan for brunch at Russ & Daughters, one of Sarah's favorites.

Russ & Daughters

After brunch we did a little (very little) sightseeing at the Brooklyn Bridge and the 9/11 Memorial.

Brooklyn Bridge

One of the 9/11 reflecting pools

Then Sarah tagged out for a hair appointment and our cousin Kendall took over as my tour guide. We hit a few bars in the financial district, and then Sarah met back up and we all went to Brooklyn for pizza and a little bit of salad to pretend we're healthy. And then back to Queens for a nice, long sleep.

Sarah let me sleep away the whole morning on Sunday, and then we wandered around Sunnyside (her neighborhood) and had brunch at a Mexican restaurant. Then it was time for me to pack up and head back to the airport. It was an ideal mini break, full of food and family (and sleeping).

Thanks, Sarah and Kendall, for a great weekend!

Safari in the Serengeti

Serengeti runway

After climbing to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and back down, the boyfriend and I had earned what came next: SAFARI IN THE SERENGETI! The morning after we finished Kilimanjaro, Andrew and I were having breakfast (with Dustin) at K’s hotel one last time. Then we caught a ride to Arusha, the next city west of Moshi, to a small airport. We took a prop plane (the first one I’ve been in and I never want to be in one again: it was terrifying) to the middle of the Serengeti. As we were landing, I saw little gazelles running off the runway to make way for the plane. 

"Serengeti" in the Maasai language means "endless plains"

Our driver with Wild Frontiers, Nurdin, was waiting for us when we landed. Again, we were supposed to be part of a five-some, but the others bailed right before the trip so Andrew and I got personal service. Nurdin picked us up in a giant Land Rover with a pop-up top for optimal animal watching and room for about eight passengers. We hopped in at about 3 pm and immediately were “on safari.” Nurdin drove us around the Serengeti for about four hours before taking us to camp, and in those four hours we saw so many animals! I told Nurdin my priority was elephants and he assured me we wouldn’t have any trouble finding them. I wasn’t about to get my hopes up, though.   

Can you see the leopard, up high, dead center?

The very first animal we came across (aside from the gazelles on the runway) was a leopard in a tree. Nurdin was freaking out (he is adorably nerdy about animals and has the perfect job for his passion). He told us that leopards are one of the rarest animals to see in the Serengeti because they often hang out in trees. And this one was pretty hard to spot; I’m sure Andrew and I would never have seen it on our own. After the leopard, we came across more gazelles (both Grant and Thompson varieties), zebras, antelope, wildebeest, hippos, crocodiles, and then … Nurdin pointed out, far off in the distance, giant forms moving slowly on the horizon: elephants!! We drove over to a soundtrack of my squeals and came upon a family of three adults, three kids, and one tiny baby almost hidden in the grass. They were about twenty feet from our truck, just meandering around and eating. It was an amazing moment in my life.  

Lioness in the front, ellies in the back

After letting me gaze in awe for an excessive amount of time, Nurdin started driving again. In that one afternoon we saw two lionesses (one stalking prey), an eagle, an impala family, lion lovin’, warthogs, dik diks (little antelope that mate for life), topi, giraffes (including a baby), guinea fowl, buffalo, and two separate elephant families. By then it was time to check into our “camp” for the night. We pulled up to a couple portable buildings in the middle of the Serengeti surrounded by large tents at wide intervals. We were met by a whole crew, including two guys who grabbed our bags and the camp manager who walked us around the common areas (there was a dining tent, a lounge tent with couches and a bar, and open seating around a fire pit). Then he showed us to our “tent,” which was a significant step up from the hike. We had a king bed on a frame with two bedside tables and lamps (everything was solar powered), a dresser, and a full bathroom with shower. It was dark at this point, so the camp guard was walking around, shining a flashlight into the plains to keep animals away. 

Simba

Glamping

After settling in, we headed back to the lounge tent and each grabbed a beer before sitting by the fire pit. Shortly afterward, the manager came by to tell us dinner was ready. We went into the dining tent and were going to sit down with the only other couple staying at the camp but the manager ushered us to separate tables. Apparently there are rules.  

Lounge tent

Dinner was buffet style starting with soup. Every lunch and dinner had a different soup, and they were the best food of the entire trip. Cream of various vegetables and oh, so yummy. The rest of the food was better than our hiking food, but nothing remarkable (other than those soups, which I still talk about).  

Before we finished eating the manager came by with a clipboard and asked us what time we wanted to wake up and if we wanted coffee delivered to the tent. Yes, we did! I didn’t know that was an option. 

Sunrise over the Serengeti

Day 2

We had breakfast with this elephant

We were in our comfortable bed by 9 that night and slept like babies. The next morning our coffee was delivered at 6:30, and we sat on our tent porch and watched the sun come up over the Serengeti. We had breakfast in the tent at 7 and an elephant came by for a visit. He walked up to the camp parking lot to eat some leaves and then walked around our dining tent before heading off in the horizon. I squealed a lot. The German couple told us they heard animals outside their tent in the night and found out the next morning they were lions. 

Cheetah

I really liked the hyenas

Nurdin picked us up at 7:30 and we were off for another animal-filled day. We went back to camp for lunch at 1 and had a break until 3:30 before heading back out until about 5:30. That day we saw: black-back jackals, hyenas, sacred-heart birds, ostriches (they’re so crazy looking!), rock hyrax, a cheetah mom with four babies, bat-eared fox, lizards, hartebeests, a vulture, heron, sausage trees (the fruit looks like sausage, and elephants and baboons eat too much of it and get drunk), vervet monkeys, bush-back antelope, lion cubs (almost newborn), mongoose, a baboon family with babies, a family of lions feeding, and another leopard in a tree (I’m not listing the repeats of animals we saw, but this one warrants a mention because they’re so rare).  

I won't show you the lion family eating
a wildebeest, but this is all the tourist
gathered to watch it happen.

Our second night on safari was much like the first: beers by the fire with the German couple, dinner in tent, and then off to bed. The next morning we had coffee delivered again and watched the sunrise on our porch. We could hear buffalo mating but they were too far away to see. We did see one lonely bachelor buffalo wandering near camp and grazing before we walked to breakfast.  

After eating we had to pack up because we were leaving camp that morning. Nurdin drove us from the Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Once we passed into the conservation area we saw Maasai villages and children on the side of the road, hoping to flag down tourists who would pay to have their photos taken with Maasai or to tour their village. Nurdin explained that no one (except rangers and park staff) is allowed to live in Tanzanian national parks, but the government granted the Maasai permission to live in conservation areas. He also told us that, according to Maasai religion, all the cows in the world belong to the Maasai, so they routinely steal cattle from other Tanzanians. The government has essentially given up trying to stop them and instead just reimburse people whose cows are stolen. 

Olduvai Gorge

During the drive we stopped at Olduvai Gorge, a famous archeological site. Then we drove to Ngorongoro Crater, which might have been my favorite part of safari. It was like a mini Serengeti isolated in an old volcano crater. We drove down into the crater through stunning landscapes and leveled out at the bottom. It took almost two hours to drive from one side of the crater to the other, and during that time we saw almost all the same animals in Ngorongoro that we saw in the Serengeti. The notable addition was a rhino that Nurdin pointed out to us, very far away. He was sleeping in the sun and, honestly, he looked like a rock from our vantage, but nevertheless I’m counting it, especially because it meant we saw the “big five” animals: lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhino.  

Ngorongoro Crater

After a full tour, we drove out of the crater and to our home for the night: Ngorongoro Farm House. We definitely saved the best for last. It was a picturesque hotel with rolling fields of flowers, vegetable gardens, coffee plants, and a coffee roaster on site (so the whole area smelled like fresh coffee). When we checked in, the front-desk attendant handed Andrew and I each a fancy water infused with fruit. Then another woman came over to carry our bags and show us to our room, which was actually a standalone cottage overlooking the hillside, with a family of cats living under the front porch. The room was stunning: bright, open, and clean, with a four-poster bed wrapped in a mosquito net, a giant walk-in shower, and a separate sitting area. We realized all the rooms were named after animals (with the Swahili names). We were in pundamilia, which means zebra. 

Ngorongoro Farm House

After marveling at the beautiful room, we walked around the grounds of the hotel. There was a big, main building with a bar, couches, and tables being readied for dinner service. There was a pool with lounge seating, a separate little hut for massages, and a large patio off the main building. Andrew and I ordered drinks at the bar and took them out to the patio, which overlooked the gardens. To the right were coffee plants, in the middle directly in front of us were flower gardens, behind the flowers were the vegetable gardens, and to the left were meandering paths leading to other cottages. We sat on the patio and talked through all the details of our trip. It was our last evening in Tanzania, and I couldn’t have dreamt up a more perfect place to wrap up the trip.  

Farm House gardens

After our drinks, we walked around the grounds and gardens for an hour. The weather was perfect and we encountered almost no one else the whole time. As dusk came in we went back to the patio and grabbed another drink to kill time before dinner. Most of the other guests were starting to come out too, and there was a good crowd gathering. As the sun started to set, the nightly entertainment came out: a man who called himself Baba Dingi walked around and introduced himself to almost everyone. Then he called his wife up to join him, and they started playing music. They were joined by more women singing and dancing. After one song, Baba Dingi’s wife walked around and pulled women from the audience (me too) up to dance with her. I’m a terrible dancer and I hadn’t had nearly enough drinks for it, but it was such a beautiful night and a surreal vacation that I didn’t even bother resisting. I danced like a jackass with a bunch of other tourists, and then it was the guys’ turn. I got a nice video of Andrew shaking it to pseudo-tribal music, but he probably wouldn’t want me to post it. 

Then we went inside for the fanciest dinner buffet of the trip, but again the food wasn’t memorable. After dinner we headed to our cottage and I was giddy to sleep in the amazingly fluffy bed with approximately twenty pillows. Plus it was the only night of our trip that we didn’t have to set an alarm; we were going to sleep in as late as we wanted! 

Coffee beans

Coffee flowers

The next morning we got up in time for the breakfast buffet, packed up our bags and left them at the front desk, and then waited around to meet our guide for a coffee tour. Surprise, surprise, it was Baba Dingi. He already loved Andrew from the night before (Andrew’s a good tipper), so he was excited and chatty with us. He walked us around the coffee plants and pointed out the various stages of flowering. He asked us about our lives in Texas and was shocked when Andrew told him he was 37 (“No! You look in your 20s”). But when he asked me my age and I said 34, he nodded and said, “Yeah.” He’s lucky Andrew was tipping that day. The tour took about an hour, and included a walk through the veggie and flower gardens, before we ended up in the roasting room. This was where they roasted their coffee beans, picked right from the garden, and made the coffee served in the hotel. We got a cup and took it back to the patio after saying goodbye to Baba Dingi. The hotel seemed to have cleared out again, and we saw almost no one else. After a quick lunch, Nurdin came by to pick us up and take us back to the Moshi airport. The drive took a few hours through chaotic traffic, but before I was ready to leave, we were checking our bags and going through security for the 10.5 + 8-hour flight +2.5-hour drive home.  

Tanzania was an amazing experience and the trip of a lifetime. I’d go back in a heartbeat to drive around the Serengeti and stay in Ngorongoro Farm House, but I’d probably be content to see Kilimanjaro from town. Our guides joked about how we need to try Everest next, but I think 19,300 feet is probably as high as I’ll ever climb.  

Until next time! xoxo