Atlanta (November 14-16)

Atlanta again... this time on a plane! We weren’t joking when we said we would never drive there again. I marked my word then, and I mark it now. 30th birthday parties had us becoming travel maniacs, and they had me feeling like a spring chicken! This would be my 3rd 30th birthday party to attend this year, and mine was soon to follow five years down the road! Ah – the joy of being youthful – have I ever mentioned I love having a boyfriend six years older than me? HA!

This trip was for Holly’s 30th and we had it at Tasha’s bar, Five Paces. We had our own little area and it was nice. The next day, the guys had a day in the city while the girls had massages and facials and went shopping. This was a really nice trip with great friends who I am so glad I have been introduced to by Tres!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (September 13-20)

This was the Big Daddy trip of the year! Sun, fun, and lots of margaritas topped it off, and luxury, relaxation, and champagne was drank ‘til the last drop! We stayed in Cabo an entire week, visiting two resorts and filling our lives with pure enjoyment! The first several days were spent with friends Tasha and Brandon and some of their crew they brought with them from Atlanta and Nashville, and once they headed home, Tres and I headed to ME Cabo resort.

Group of friends on the trip with us!

Day 1 - The first night we went on a boat cruise where we saw the famous rock of Cabo and had a spectacular dinner at a fancy steak and seafood place… that was just the beginning to great food and fun. Tres and I took it upon ourselves to go out every single night to clubs such as Squid Row and Cabo Wabo, Sammy Hagar’s famous bar. That’s the funny thing about me and Tres and what makes our relationship even more special and fun. It can just be me and him in any given situation and we entertain the hell out of each other and have so much fun. Seriously, most couples would pack it up and go home at midnight when all of their friends with them “called it a night.” Tres and I go out (just the two of us) and we have as much fun as groups of 10 I see. It’s hilarious, and I love it!

The first resort we stayed in

Day 2 - The second day we had fun at the pool with lots of “dirty monkeys,” as they call these tasty banana drinks they serve south of the border. We went parasailing with Tasha and Brandon on this day, and what we thought was going to be a blast turned into something neither of us would ever do again. Tres and I both learned that we have terrible motion sickness – on boats and in the air. And I am of course afraid of heights, so I have no idea why I thought parasailing would be a good idea, but I did it and was sorry after. We both felt so bad afterwards we held back our vomit and went inside for a nap. We went to a great dinner again this night, and when everyone else headed in, we caught a cab to our new favorite bar: Cabo Wabo. As we were out this night, we looked around and started to wonder why we were the only Americans out. Luckily, we ran into our hotel concerige who informed us that it was Mexican Indepenance Day and he “had to be at work in 4 hours.” (We later in the week made good friends with this guy and called on HIM AND ONLY HIM if we needed anything at our hotel. Haha.) So, Tres and I were out with the best of them celebrating the exact way we would if we were in America on the 4th of July!


Day 3 and 4 - Fast-forwarding the week (since we were there 6 full days)… Tasha, Brandon, and the crew left three days after we got to Cabo, so after that, Tres and I were on our own. We stayed at The Rui Palace one more full day. Since we had hung out at the pool for the past three days, we decided to rent a scooter and go out into the town of Cabo exploring, and boy did we discover some things! We visited several little bars (even the smallest bar in the world), did some souvenier shopping all over the little city, and then we got brave and went into the “deep heart” of Cabo San Lucas. You know… the place where people actually LIVE in the city, not vacation. It was interesting to see the lifestyle of people there. We past a beautiful church, interesting shops, and we even rode up on a Chiuaua! We thought this was HALARIOUS, so we had to take a picture of the little guy. I mean a Chiuaua in Mexico, who would have thought?! Yo Quiero Taco Bell!!!!! J This night we had dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant in the city. It was yummy and just what I needed on a vacay to Mexico.



Day 5 and 6 - The next day, we packed up our room and said goodbye to The Rui, making our way to our new hotel: ME Cabo!!! This hotel was… WOW! It was very swanky and modern, and it was no surprise that this is the place where several celebrities stay when they come to Cabo! This is the place where Heidi and Spencer from The Hills had their supposed 1st wedding, when they actually never got married in the first place (but that’s a totally different story), and where Bret Michaels took his final two dates in Cancun, and where the new Real World is held this season in Cancun! Anyway, this place was very “Tres and Andrea-like,” so we were content. Greeted with champagne and later pina coladas, we made our way up to one of the coolest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in! Only pictures can describe our view and how magnificent the room was, which is why I have included a few.

Our room!


View from our balcony!

Pool!

While at Me Cabo we hung out at “Nikki Beach,” the hip and upcoming beach in Cabo, layed out at the pool under great canopies, ate a very nice dinner at our hotel restaurant, and went to Passion Club, a famous hotel night club in Cabo that was actually connected to our hotel! Most importantly when we were at ME Cabo, we did not leave the resort once! There was no need to… we had everything we needed there and it was so relaxing. Not to mention, another night with Sammy Hagar… we were not up for! All in all, we loved our trip to Cabo and would most definitely go back, but next time we will stay at ME Cabo the whole time!

Atlanta (August 29-30)

We love Atlanta, and since last year, I think we have been there about three times. This time in particular was for a wedding: Corey and Kara… a really fun and pleasant couple to be around. Tres went to Graduate school with Corey (and Court… Corey’s twin brother). We actually got a dose of Corey and Kara when we were in Charleston, so I knew a fun wedding was expected from these two… and we ALL know how I LOVE fun weddings! It was a double-fun weekend because not only did we get to hang out with Corey and Kara, but we also stayed with good friends, Tasha and Brandon, who live in Atlanta. Overall, the weekend was great but I learned two things on this trip: 1) Two wrongs don’t make a right. No, I am not talking about the couple getting married – they are great. I am talking about the consistency of mine and Tres’ tardiness to events. I never thought I could meet someone who could possibly run later than I do! But then I met Tres, and might I just say, we are soul mates down to the possible worst tendency on the planet: not being on time to ANYTHING! I, on one hand, am usually only late to simple things like meeting a friend for dinner, trying to catch the 7:00 movie, etc. Tres, on the other hand refuses to even be on time to important events. In this case, it was Kara and Corey’s wedding. I think I contributed a bit to the lateness, but I am ashamed to say that Tres and I most definitely walked in not as the bride got to the altar, not as “you may kiss the bride” was said, but indeed when the entire ceremony was over and the reception had begun! The worst part? We pretended we were there! After running into the first friend at the reception, Tres was asked, “How did you like the ceremony?” He replied with, “Oh it was great!” Terrible, terrible! I would say we have been on time to everything since, but that would just make me even more a liar than before! And lesson learned number 2) Never drive from Memphis to Atlanta. Tres and I made a pact after the horrendous traffic full of rednecks on the way to Auburn vs. Mystery Team that we would fly to Atlanta from now on! And so far, we have!

Knoxville, TN (July 25-27)

We have definitely visited Knoxville more than a handful of times since this trip but this one was a little more special than the rest. Tres great friends, Mike and Holly were throwing him a birthday party. This wasn’t just any ole birthday party either – it took place on a houseboat in the middle of a gorgeous lake in East Tennessee. There is no need to even go into detail with this party because I have the pictures to prove how much fun it was. Take a look… Just from a glance of the picture - It’ll be hard for you to ever say you have been to a better birthday party!


I have to say though, a month later we attended Lori’s 30th birthday party (yep, back to Knoxville), and it wasn’t just fun, but as we like to say: It was FABULOUS! I have included a little memory from it to prove how fun we had at this birthday party as well!

Charleston, South Carolina (July 17-20)

Wow this seems like a long time ago, and I have to say it was considering the circumstances. This trip was taken for Tres’ 30th birthday. HA! What’s so funny is Tres will be 31 in less than a month! This is just a little slap to the face reminder that I am not very diligent in my blogging. Back to the trip though – We had a fabulous weekend trip in this charming city! Oh my, this city is so my style - southern charm with a little bit of modern flair!


We took the trip with our great friends Trevor and Lori where we ate good dinners and drank massive amounts of wine. Not to mention the infamous “Firefly” Sweet Tea Vodka drink. Look, all I have to say about this drink is: dangerous. If you have never heard of it, you may want to go to the website or something and read about it, but I will do my best to describe it: tastes identical to sweet tea, but is in fact pure vodka. Good luck if you ever go to Charleston and want to give it a whirl. I suggest it, but I also suggest you stop at one glass.

This trip was like all of our times with T and L… great fun! By the way, Trevor and Lori are pregnant now, and Tres and I were just recently asked to be the Godparents! We are so grateful to be such a big part of Baby Piety’s life and can’t wait to meet him. Needless to say, Lori can’t have any “Fireflies” now, but we may have to head back to Charleston after little Saxon is born!

I PROMISE to update and stay dedicated!

As they say… time flies - and apparently vacations, work trips, and the time in between do too because I have not updated my blog in almost a year. Yes – you heard right… a year! Geez. My friend Sara updates her “Baseball Wife” blog almost daily. Well, at least once a week, but Sara does not have a job, so what else does she have to do? I love teasing her about that! Anyway, every time I read her blog, she inspires me to write in mine, so here I am catching up. I mean seriously, I write FOR A LIVING, so in my off-time I just start slacking in the writing department, but I am going to make myself start again so one day Tres and I can look back on all of our travels!

Anyway, I just want to do a quick recap of where all my life has taken me in the past year. I have been on work trips, fun trips, and trips I never want to go back on again. Unfortunately, when work takes you to those places, you don’t have much of a choice.

So where did I leave off? Oh yes, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I will pick up there with the trips I have taken since, and hopefully I can start keeping up with this thing again soon. But, if I don’t - try not to judge me!

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Driving into the city

Ahhh... Milwaukee. Home of cheese hats, beer, and really bad accents. Sure, I claim it to be one of my favorite places on the map (thus far), but I have also only ever been twice and BOTH of those times were in the summer heat. I don't even want to begin to imagine that place two days into September, which let me just remind you that in the South, two days into October is still hot... just the way I like it.

A view of Lake Michigan... I had a good run here

I was in Milwaukee for work in mid-July, and the sun was luckily beating down on Lake Michigan and more gorgeous than I remember it. It's so nice to see a big city sitting right on a lake (that looks more like an ocean) with a beach behind it. It's just not something you will see in every city you go to... at least not like this one. This city has a certain Northern-charm (very rare... haha) to it that's hard to explain to someone who has never been there. Maybe the pictures will help? Bottom line: I love this city but wish I could experience it with a group of people to see what the city REALLY has to offer.

People having fun on the beach

See, this was one of my "Lonely Trips." What are those? My definition reads: "the trips that I take all by myself for work that I always look forward to at the beginning (day 1), but then at the end (only day 3... these are never long trips), get on the phone with Tres and Mom and whine about how I'm ready to come home." Let me break it down... I love to be by myself, and I think when I go on these trips that it will give me wind-down, relax time, but when it really comes down to it, a person just can't be by his or herself all the time. It starts to get really boring and let me exclaim LONELY! I mean, on these trips I will usually work with a few people during the day, but I will go back to an empty hotel room (alone), go for a run (alone... down some random street in a big city), go to dinner (alone... yes, I eat in restaurants by myself all the time. It's not that hard, guys, really.), watch TV (alone... the remote is all mine. This part is a plus.), and finally, go to sleep (alone... this is the scariest part of the trip). When you are a 24-year old Southern blonde with a mighty fine Southern accent in a "dontchaknow" city, that can get scary. Sometimes I am convinced some stranger has been watching me from day one and is plotting his way into my room when I sleep... super scary when your mind starts working like that. Fortunately, I am very cautious on these trips and nothing too scary has happened so far! Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Me hanging out on the beach

While there, I worked a lot on video stuff, ate at some decent restaurants, hit the beach and became as familiar with the city as a local... it's easy to do this when you drive around in circles trying to find certain places. All in all, I love the city, but next time I go hope it's not another "Lonely Trip."