Elisa's Daily BlogLots Going onHello, Hello!! Another day of Easter STAYcation with the kids. Today me and the girls are headed out to Remsenburg (Long Island) to meet up with my friend Lisa and her daughter Sarah.  Lisa is going to help me do a little sprucing up of my second home, in order to get it in better condition for sale. I don't know what I would do with out her help! We'll be painting the living room today and giving some directives to the landscaper to give the outside a little more curb appeal. The girls are going to have fun spending the day with Sarah so it is truly a win-win for everyone. Yesterday, I snapped some pictures of the girls playing a little one-on-one outside!    In Travelin' Tuesday News... Today also happens to be Travelin' Tuesday here. For the past two weeks, I've been sharing with you, the day by day itinerary for our Cousins Milestone Birthday Trip to Eastern Europe. Prague and Krakow are now finalized - not only with the sites we will see and when, but Tanya and I have also secured our tickets for events and tours.  (courtesy Budapest River Cruises) Today, I'm focusing on our three days in Budapest, Hungary. Although we only have a short time in this city, we plan to pack in a great deal of sightseeing. Our accommodations will be at a Five-star hotel, unlike our private apartment rental in Krakow, from where we will be arriving. Additionally, because of the long distance between Krakow and Budapest, we have opted to take an overnight train so we don't lose precious day time traveling. Here's what we have planned for our 3 days in Budapest: Day 1: * Arrive via an overnight Train ride from Krakow * Central Market Hall * Stroll down Andrassy Avenue Day 2 : We are looking at booking a private tour of historical sites on both the Pest and Buda sides of the city as follows: Pest > Heroes' Square > Vajdahunyad Castle > Széchenyi Spa > Grand Circus > Zoo > Amusement Park > the most famous Restaurant of Hungary Gundel. > Andrássy Avenue (UNESCO World Heritage) > > > Music Academy > Hungarian State Opera House. > St Stephen's Cathedral > Parliament building.  St. Stephen's Cathedral (courtesy Wikipikia) Buda > Castle District of Buda (UNESCO World Heritage), >Matthias Church > Fishermen's Bastion. > Gellert Hill > Liberty Statue > Citadel  Fisherman's Bastion (courtesy fishermansbastion.com) Day 3 * Széchenyi thermal bath * Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace for Tea Tanya and I are so psyched for this trip. It will be the first ever trip that we have taken ALONE together without the kiddies. Well, my dear folks, I have to get back to painting! I'll see ya back here tomorrow!! Please keep up the voting --->>>--->>> -E xoxo | Tanya's Daily BlogSo many Plans!!!Hi there! It's TRAVELIN' TUESDAY here and today we've got plenty to overload you travelin' taste buds with! First off the kids and I DEPART in exactly 1 week from today! We will be starting our Pre-Cousins-Road-Trip, which is mostly a Vegan Food Tour, with some beautiful scenery and sights thrown in! LOL Day 1 - OC to San Francisco & Berkeley to Redding Since we've been known to spend lots of time in SF - this stop will mainly be to EAT and pick up goodies for the road! HIGHLIGHT - Cinnaholic for their AWARD-WINNING GOURMET CINNAMON ROLLS!!! While Dominic and I have already been lucky enough to visit this storefront of yumminess; I know that these freshly baked, warm ooey gooey rolls of goodness are actually worth the 6+ hour drive alone! This won't be Cosette's first taste - but this will be her first visit and first time having them fresh out of the oven! I'm pretty sure that she is SUPER EXCITED! (She's been known to actually even cry over something that tastes this good!)
 After gathering all of our nuts and berries, we will continue on the road and drive up to Redding, California - where will we be staying for night one. Day 2 - Redding to Eugene via Bend This will be a beautiful day on the road! I planned some extra driving yesterday to account for all of the view points and stops that we will be making today! We'll be getting an early start and driving past Shasta Lake and Mount Shasta on our way into Oregon. Past Klamath Falls and to Crater Lake National Park.  At Crater Lake - 2009 After a short visit at the park, our road trip will continue as we drive to Bend, and then to Eugene. Some of the roads that I chosen to take on this portion of the trip have been listed as Oregon's Most Beautiful Drives!  The chosen EATS in Eugene are: Cornbread Cafe & Viva Vegetarian. Day 3 - Eugene to Portland The next 2 days will be most about filling our bellies than anything else... There are so many food stops that we'll practically leave one to head to the next! Here is my list of Portland FOOD STOPS that I promised you last week: AND Cafe Back to Eden Bakery Paradox Cafe Sweet Pea Bakery - Hands down BEST DANISHES Portobello Food Trucks - Sushi Love, Open Source Cafe, and DC Vegetarian VooDoo Donut  24hr VooDoo Donuts Day 4 - Eating and Touring our way through Portland! Day 5 - Portland to Jackson Today will be a fairly long day on the road - probably around 12+ hours of driving. Our first stop will be picking up Dave C at the PDX airport. He'll now be with us for the rest of the trip. We'll be taking the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Drive to Multnomah Falls, falling 620 feet and making it the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States!   Multnomah Falls - Plummeting 620 feet The drive will continue through the state of Idaho, and then into Wyoming. We'll be arriving a few hours after Elisa and the girls have landed (coming from NY). And we'll start our Cousins Yellowstone Road Trip in the morning! Speaking of Cousins Trips - Please be sure and read Elisa's side, where she has posted our most recent additions to our Milestone Birthday Eastern European Trip Other travel related things that have been booked and checked off of the "to do" list: May - Resort in Las Vegas for our Road Trip to Moab and Southwestern National Parks June - Hotel for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride - Lake Tahoe, NV January - Tickets for the 127th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade I just love checking things off of the ever growing to do list! Another travel related item of interest: I've posted a Travel Blog that I hope you enjoy with lots of pictures from and about our recent trip to the Azores that you can find on the home page, the travel articles link, and right HERE As for today - I've got Day 7 of my 100 day Fitness Challenge to complete, and we'll be going to monkey around at the rock climbing gym, before taking Dominic to his night classes (where I'll be doing more trip research, and hopefully checking more off of my list)! I hope that you have a most fantastic day! And please remember to vote for us! Much Love, -T |
