What you don't know....

 ....just gives you an excuse to learn more!

I've learned a lot about New Mexico while on our little trip. I thought I'd share some of the state's oddities (or at least what I found to be odd) with you on this cold Tuesday evening.

1. New Mexico has some pretty freaking awesome geography!

• There are mountains literally everywhere. They really frame out the landscape and make long drives across the state no so boring.
• There are "lava fields" in the middle of the southern part of the state. When you're driving you can see the ground is darker for miles and it's lava that has cooled (obviously) thousands of years ago but still remains in the area.

You can see the lava formation in this pic just to (you're) left of the pavilion.

The darkness in the image to the right is the black cooled lava.

• The white sands I mentioned in the last post. It's just crazy, I really need to figure out why and how they are there, it's just too crazy. Miles upon miles of clear white sand in the middle of the desert at the base of the mountains. It all just makes me only imagine what New Mexico's natural history must have been like.

2.  There are "trading posts" everywhere. These places are basically just hole-in-the-wall joints that sell various antique and new turquoise and sterling silver jewelry. Turquoise is big here. And I couldn't resist. I have to admit I did pick up a turquoise ring and a pair of earrings I'm proud of! I was told the earrings were Zuni (a local Native American tribe). I'm just going to go on and believe that I was told the truth about the jewelry! Honestly though, the jewelry is amazing, I just hope that I can integrate these pieces into my mid-east wardrobe.

 

This was a popular style I saw throughout the various shops.

 

The ring I bought was similar (and I say that VERY loosely) as it had a single large turquoise stone with some ridging around the edges. The ridging on mine isn't as pronounced. I loved the visual impact and the size of the stone.

3. There are random picnic tables on the side of the road, all over. These tables are hilarious and just pop out of the shoulder of the road all over. I don't know who would want to pull over in the middle of the desert for a picnic, but I guess if the moment strikes...it's there.

4. It gets cold! And I mean like, grab a coat, get a scarf, brrrr it's cold! Granted it's January but it's also the Southwest and when I think Southwest I think hot, adobe buildings and the burning sun and the desert. Not jackets and chilling winds. And so far, everyday we've been in Albuquerque (which is further north) there have been school closings for snow fall! I was floored!

Well, that's all I got right now. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our southwest adventures as much as we've had.

So.....We went West!

Mr. Chicken Butt and I are enjoying our time here in the Southwest. I thought I would update you with some of the pics we've been taking (mostly on the road, and all are with his Blackberry as I didn't bring a connecting cable for my camera). The scenery out here is gorgeous and really differs from what we're used to back in the mid-eastern part of the country. I hope you enjoy!

These first pics are pictures we took road-tripping from Albuquerque to Alamogordo (or vice-versa) as we randomly stopped on the side of the road.

While in Alamogordo we visited the White Sands Missile Range. There's literally miles upon miles of gorgeous white sands at the base of the mountains and sand dunes 20 ft + tall! It really looks like snow once you get deep into the range and away from the vegetation!

 Isn't it beautiful?

 The Visitor's Center at the Entry of the Park

While in New Mexico we stayed with some of Stephen's family. They lived right at the base of some mountains and were just a short walk from a great public walking path. I walked the path one afternoon and thought it was beautiful and convinced Stephen to walk with me the next morning!

 This is a view of Alamogordo (and part of the walking path) from right at the base of the mountain range. You can barely see the mountains on the other side of the city. Alamogordo is actually in a basin, surrounded by mountains.

One day we took a drive up into the mountains and visited the quaint little town of Cloudcroft. The next couple pics were taken at a scenic point overlooking all of the Tularosa Basin. Alamogordo is just out of sight to the left of the mountains in the pic.

We've had a great time thus far. I'll keep you posted as we've begun our adventure in Albuquerque.

Go West Young (Wo)Man

Have I told you before that I love, love, love traveling?

Since Stephen started his new job back in November we've known that he was going to have to fly out west for a few days in January for some training. Of course I looked at this as an opportunity for a mini vacay, but realistically it probably wasn't going to happen (sad face). However, Stephen had to go away for a day earlier this month and missed me so much (everyone all together now..."awwwwww") that he came home and decided we would not just take a mini vacay, but a full fledged week-long romp! I'm super pumped because I'm sure by the middle of January I will be so over the cold Kentucky winter and ready for a more temperate locale.

This will be neither of our first trip out west seeing as how his family is from Lancaster, CA and I've been to Vegas twice (amazing right?) but it will be our first time together and I've never been to New Mexico (which is where we will be going).

I'll keep you posted on the details!

I Just got back from St. Simon's Island...

... a couple weeks ago.

Okay, so bad blogger me, I've been MIA for way too long and I had way too much fun on St. Simon's Island to not blog about it more. So this blog is dedicated to my time on the island with Stephen and his family.

Enjoy the beautiful scenery!

THE BEACH!

So I'm not gonna lie, I was majorly ...err slightly bummed when the first time I laid eyes on the "beach" this is what I saw...

There was literally about 20 feet maybe of beach between the grass/dunes in theback and the ocean out front. And the place was packed and I mean packed. Until this trip I had yet to learn how much of an impact the tides had on the beach. This picture, I later realized was taken at high tide. Until I came to this island, I had never noticed such a dramatic change due to the tides.

These are more pictures of another part of the island at high tide. I think this island is pulling a "Venice" and probably isn't going to be around for much longer. This baby is SINKING!!! Except nobody seems to worry about it! It would be such a shame too because the island has such a rich history connected to America's great founding families like the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, the Morgans, even the Bush's and the Civil War, not to mention what the island has to offer ecologically.

Now here is a picture taken of the beach closer to low tide. Seriously guys, I can not relay how HUGE the difference was between low and high tide, and this pic really does not due it justice.

THE HISTORY!

So speaking of the history associated with the island, we spent several days exploring the infamous St. Simon's Lighthouse, Fort Frederica, the Bloody Marsh Battlefield and the historic hotels that were once the "summer cottages" of the founding families I mentioned previously. We even spent an afternoon exploring the grounds at the hotel where Bush Sr. and Barbara spent their honeymoon.

This is a picture of Stephen and I in front of the "Bloody Marsh" which is a marsh that apparently played a pivotal role during the civil war. Somebody was ambushed and lots of people died (hints the name "Bloody"). So I didn't exactly retain the history but the marsh was still beautiful in and of itself.

Here's another picture of the marsh framed by Spanish moss hanging off the live oaks. Stephen has told me about the abundance of Spanish moss and how beautiful it was. I must say the island and the oaks are literally covered in the stuff and it's gorgeous, it adds a fairy tale feeling to the scenery and makes you feel like you're back in time in the south somewhere.

We visited the lighthouse several times during our stay on the island. We even got to climb up the 120 stairs to the top! Above was the view. I think the island out there is Jekyll Island which houses the Jekyll Island Club Hotel which is where the Bush's (Sr.) honeymooned.

We were lucky enough to be on the island for Stephen's parent's 27th anniversary. We were even luckier that on that night the light house (which had just been remodeled and was going to be turned on after 8 months of remodeling) was hosting a picnic and lighting ceremony which we were able to attend.

We started the evening with a picnic and live music and waited for nightfall for the light house to turn on. we got some great photos that night.

We also toured Fort Frederica with Stephen's family.

The grounds were huge and the fort was positioned on the inlet river so as to render an incoming ship's cannon's completely useless.

NATURE!

The following are pics from driftwood beach on Jekyll Island. It was amazing, I've never seen driftwood on such a large scale before. This place was beautiful.

Isn't it amazing?!

We also found some pretty cool creatures on the beach pretty much daily (or nightly).

A Jellyfish!

A horseshoe crab!

Starfish!

The beach early in the morning-Stunning!

OUR LAST NIGHT!

On our last night we all had a glorious sea-food buffet at the restaurant at the King and Prince (one of those historic hotels I've been talking about). I think I finally found my sea-food tongue, yum yum yum!!!

Sorry for such a long post, but I could go on and on. Hope you enjoyed the recap, it really is a great place, check it out before it sinks!

Peace Ya'll

Come Ride with Me...

Stephen and I've spent the last week with his family on St Simon's Island off the coast of Georgia. A few days ago we rented bicycles and spent the entire afternoon exploring the island together. It's been forever since I've ridden a bicycle and recently a few of my physical therapy school friends have taken up biking and I can see why, it's so much fun! More than once it felt like the wind from the ocean was against us and we had to peddle hard! Our quads were burning! I took some pics along the way.

Early in the morning we walked just up the street to Ocean Motion where we picked out our bikes, got a basket and our locks and headed off!

Our first stop was to East Beach where we took this pic of us on the wooden walkway to the beach.

We then stopped at the Maritime Center and had a look around.

We continued riding toward town and came across this beautiful park full of live oaks and spanish moss. There were also tons of historic markers throughout the island and we made sure to read them whenever we came across them.

We decided to take a short break right at the marsh. The background in the pic above is the marsh.

We came across this secluded, wooded beach access area on our way back to the condo for a break. The view was too gorgeous to pass up.

Overall we had a great time finding a new way (at least for me) to explore everything the island had to offer with the freedom warranted by the bicycles. It was a great day!

I Don't think you're Supposed to Borrow This...

The second easy-breezy book I chose to read on vacation was Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. It's told from the perspective of a maid of honor, who after getting somewhat trashed on her dreaded 30th birthday ends up sleeping with/"borrowing" her best friend's (also the bride to whom shs is the maid of honor) boyfriend/fiance. And actually the entire book is about their affair and the big question is whether or not the fiance/boyfriend is going to call off the wedding. Who's he gonna pick? The fling or the woman's he's been dating for seven years and is engaged to? Oh and this book is full of drama, but fun-good-for-the-beach drama! The sequel is Something Blue, and I can't wait to pick it up when I get home to read it when Mr. Chicken Butt and I go with his fam on vacation to yet another beach (ahhh, it's the life :))

Oh, and it's also an older book so you can get it cheaper at places like Half Price! Happy reading

Going Coastal Cont...

So I couldn't resist!!!!!

I went shopping today and want to share some of my finds from shops around PCB!!

I love how they look in the shopping basket, just hope they look good in his apartment.

On a completely different note, I also went shopping for regular things, clothes, accesssories, books, you know, the usual stuff. Well as soon as I walked into Bath and Body Works a woman that worked there came up to me and said, "Babe, you need some of this as red as you are (it's true, I'm lobster red, you'd think after 23 summers I'd have the whole sunscreen thing down)"

Anyway she handed me their body souflee in their new scent, Deep Aqua. It was very cool and refreshing and felt great on my skin, so I bought it and I'm happy with it.

Come Fly with Me!

OH MY GOODNESS...

I went PARASAILING (you know, the beach activity where you're strapped to a huge parachute and let off the back of a boat with up to 1200 feet of rope flying hundreds of feet in the air) yesterday afternoon and it was amazing!!!! Soooo scary but so beautiful and also...very different than what I was expecting to experience. Once they let out that rope and you're hundreds of feet in the air, there is no sound, the wind is barely noticible if at all and as far as the eye can see is ocean. We were initially worried about losing our sunglasses so I went first because mine were tighter, and I found out there was no reason to worry at all.

I'm not trying to read more into the experience but when I was up that high, it was magical! I felt like the only person in the world up there in silence-amazing! I love experiencing new things and this was great. I recommend it for everyone.

p.s. don't look down if you're afraid of heights lol (although you will miss some awesome marine life)