August 27, 2018 - Elisa Plans a Spontaneous Trip and meanwhile down at Bike the Bay in San Diego - 1 Bike Tour, 2 Unceremonial Patches and 3 FLATS

Elisa's Daily Scoop
Covering Long Island & NYC Boroughs 
CURRENTLY IN:  GARDEN CITY, NY
​NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 118 DAYS

Spontaneous Trip Planned!

Hi!  It's a new week and with each one that passes, we get closer to the start of school (YUCK!).

I know many parents can't wait for the kids to go back, but not me.  I love having my girls around and doing things together each day and enjoying the leisure time.

Can I tell you just how famished I woke up today!! I think the Bronx Night Market eating fest on Saturday evening increased my appetite yesterday through today! 

In any case, I have an early start today and will probably pick up something along the way.  I have to take Kelsey to get her new school uniform (no! I still didn't make it to the uniform store).  

The week pretty much just continues with school "to do's" through Wednesday: 

• Gianna has high school orientation Tuesday and Wednesday, for which I have to drop her off by 8:30.
• There is a parents' meeting for incoming freshman this week
• I have to pick up Kelsey's (pre-ordered) school supplies from her school Wednesday.
• Kelsey has a doctor appointment on Wednesday
• Gianna and i have to go shopping for her new IPad for school.

Lots to do through Wednesday.

However, in the midst of all this school related activity, there is some fun Foodie Plans for this week for me as well:

• I have several meetings with "vegan" eateries for upcoming articles, which I'll tell you more about tomorrow.
• Me and the girls will be making a trip to The Bronx on Friday for vegan food and smoothies (more on that to come)
• Saturday, we have a Vegan Brunch reservation on Long Island.

Clearly, the light at the end of the tunnel!!!

​

Travel Update!!!!

Ok folks - this is totally new news, I haven't even had a chance to tell Tanya yet.  She was busy at the Sam Smith concert Saturday night and then biking yesterday, so I'm sure I'm going to get a text from her once she reads this...

Let me give you the background first:  Friday night, Gianna and I were driving back from CVS and I commented how even though I had taken them all over the world I never took them to the Caribbean.

Gianna replied how she would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a beach vacation with nothing to do but veg out.

So with very little thought, I replied - "maybe we can do a short Caribbean trip over Christmas break."

And with that, when we got home, we began searching all-inclusive options  in the Caribbean, with no specific destination in mind. 

Although I'm a big "create my own itinerary" kinda gal, I've always found that vacation packages work best when traveling to the Caribbean.

Being a Delta frequent flyer, I tried DeltaVacations first and found a few interesting possibilities.  However, I wanted to inquire how I might use my Delta points.

As a result, I called and was connected to a very friendly and helpful representative, who actually answered all my frequent flyer questions and also assisted me in finding a more economical package.

I never actually thought I was going to book something, but the price was good, the trip felt like it would be just right for me and the girls and I just felt compelled to book. So, I did!!!

At this point, you are probably wondering where (and when!) me and my gang are headed...

     Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic!!

I booked an all-inclusive so we never have to worry about dealing with money, unless we choose to buy souvenirs or take an excursion. The fact that all food is included is a great thing, because, trust me, we'll be eating mucho!

I haven't seen Gianna this happy about a vacation in I don't know when.  Kelsey was a bit more reserved as a beach vacation is something new for her, but, I'm sure she'll warm up to it all in no time.

Considering the kids' school schedule, we decided to go over Christmas vacation break.

And as you can see from above title, we have 118 days to go! 

So, there you have it - my exciting news!!

And on that note, I need to get going to the uniform store.  
More later!
-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop 
Covering the West Coast & the World
​CURRENTLY IN: SO CAL 
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 4 DAYS

1 Bike Tour, 2 Unceremonial Patches and 3 FLATS

Well hello hello!

I'm coming off of a busy and fun weekend.

As you know Dave and I went down to San Diego for Bike the Bay early yesterday morning.

This was the first time that we drove down and did the ride on the same day. 

This was also the first time that we chose to take our mountain bikes rather than our road bikes. Reason being that we had signed up for a 10 (although it was suppose to be 8) mile extra credit off road spur.

Start time was 7am and we were off and pedaling under the balloon arch and on our way to the highlight of crossing the Coronado Bridge - which you can otherwise not ride a bike over.

The morning was rather overcast and not the best for pictures but we still chose to stop at the first rest stop and take a few with the bridge in the background.

 Continuing on I was pedaling considerably slower than my usual pace on my road bike. And I'm not that fast to begin with. It had already been taken into consideration that the mountain bike would of course slow us down, but I had cyclists of all shapes, ages and sizes passing me by. It was rather ridiculous!

I had Pandora playing and at one point this Twenty One Pilots song came on:

Even though I was going slow I continued to pedal.

Pedalling around Silver Strand you may or may not notice all the birds and what you may not know is that the San Diego Bay is the largest tidal estuary in California south of Morro Bay. 

After around 15 miles we would arrive at the turn off point for the "gravel" section of our tour.
We would come to find that the next 10 miles were interesting and that not too many of the participants signed up for the extra credit.

When we were about 4 miles to reconnecting with the main route, I had stopped and come to realize that Dave was not right behind me. I checked my phone and he had already sent me a text explaining that he was fixing a flat.

After a while of waiting, I saw that he was on his way.

But once we had made it back to the main route everything seemed quiet and the majority of the riders were nowhere to be seen.

With about another 10 miles to go, we pedaled and pedaled our way back.

However at around the 28 mile mark Dave got yet another flat tire. UGH

Frustrated but with nothing else to do he changed the tube.

Only for us to go about another mile or so and him to get his third flat of the ride.

And with not having a 3rd tube on him, he would pedal back the last few miles on a flat.

The clouds had burnt off and the sun was warm and we were about to arrive at the finish line to receive our medals, but only to be shocked and quite disappointed to find that they were now giving patches in place of the medals.

Sorely disappointed by this, we still took our pics and got a really good laugh from it.

Our next stop would be Bar Kindred for brunch. We both ordered the Benedict and then chose to make our way back to Orange County.

We had to start our shopping for the upcoming camping trip.

All I can say is that there is always somethng to do.

Back atcha tomorrow,
-Travelin' Tanya