April 7, 2017 - Tanya's Mountain Biking Marvels in Moab Trip - Day 2 - Dreaming of Food

Elisa's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 5 DAYS
​

It's Friday!! Yay - and I just did a double take realizing that I have 5 days till I leave on a jet plane over the pond to London!!

I had ordered British pounds and Euros (for Paris) in advance so I'm prepared for cabs and tips upon landing and arriving in each city respectively.

Not much left to do except for those last minute items in the suitcase.  I even made the taxi reservations yesterday for taking us TO and FROM the airport here in New York when we leave this coming week.

Can I tell you how happy I am when things just work out and I'm prepared!  

My day today started off with crazy!  

After taking the girls to school (after cooking breakfast, making lunch, putting up a load of laundry, and making beds whew!!), I had to drive around doing some errands - UPS Store (for a return for a dress purchased last week that didn't fit correctly); the bank to pick up my foreign currency; and lastly, to Stop & Shop to bring my two big bags full of plastic return bottles.

I've actually made the bottle return, my random act of kindness for the week, each week. With bags of bottles in hand, I give them to whoever is in there returning their own bottles in the machine room. Sadly, there is usually a less fortunate person in there and I love the look on their face when I ask them if they'd' like my bottles.  So, Friday is usually the day I take care of this.

Coming home, feeling pretty accomplished, I took an hour to do my daily gratitude and meditation and boy did I feel amazing to start my day!

(credit: .theateratmsg.com)

Friday is when we put our focus on Food.  Nothing too exciting for me today or tomorrow, but on Sunday, me and the girls are headed into NYC to see a show at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden - "Circus 1903 Circus Reimagined"

And as if this is not enough, me and my girlies are heading to one of our favorite theatre district restaurants, Azalea. 

AZALEA'S SPINACH RAVIOLI - MINE AND KELSEY'S ALL-TIME FAVORITE DISH AT THE RESTAURANT! (c)travelincousins.com

My mouth is watering just looking at the photo!!!

Last time we ate here, we had my nephew, Nolan in tow.  This time, my Aunt Ro is going to be meeting us for a late lunch/early dinner after the matinee.

Really looking forward to the day!! It will be a great way to start the week before leaving for Europe to celebrate Gianna's 13th Birthday.

Of course our trip includes amazing foodie places which I'm SO PSYCHED about!!  Here's a preview of those dining destinations:

THE RUBENS AT THE PALACE 
​Afternoon Tea

(credit: rubenshotel.com)

THE CHESTERFIELD MAYFAIR
Charlie and the Chesterfield Afternoon Tea
​London

(credit: chesterfieldmayfair.com)

 THE DELAUNAY 
Viennese Afternoon Tea 
​London

(credit: thedelaunay.com)

​AFTERNOON TEA
​BUS TOUR
​London

(credit: The Afternoon Tea.co.uk)

FOUR TO EIGHT
Italian Restaurant
London

(credit: Hospitality & Catering News)

CRÉPUSCULE   
Paris

(credit: tripadvisor.com)

Yummy, Yummy - can't wait!!

I managed to get my hair colored and blown out for my trip next week!
 

CAR SELFIE OF MY FRESHLY COLORED AND BLOWN OUT HAIR (c) travelincousins.com

The rest of my day consists of taking Gianna to the new physical therapist for the first time. 

​I gave the girls strict instructions to finish packing tonight!  Not sure what we'll be doing for dinner - not really in the mood to cook - but after all this food talk today, I'm definitely in the mood to EAT!!!

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See ya back here tomorrow!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
CURRENTLY TRAVELING TO:
MOAB, UTAH

What do ya know about Mesquite?

Welcome!

Here I am writing to you from the road en-route to Moab. Dave is doing the driving (of course).

This trip consists of crossing California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah (almost to the border of Colorado). ​

We drove out to Mesquite, Nevada last night which is on the Nevada/Arizona border.    Not much going on out there. 
Ya know a Walmart, a few Casinos, a Post Office, some markets, homes, gas stations, hotels and a whole lot of nothing. ​

Actually places like this always have me wondering how they even got on the map???

Here's a bit of Mesquite HISTORY:

Mesquite was settled by Mormon pioneers in 1880, who called it Mesquite Flat.    The community was finally established on the third attempt after having been flooded out from the waters of the Virgin River.
​The name was later shortened to Mesquite, and the city was incorporated in May 1984. Mesquite, like nearby Bunkerville, had its origins in farming.

The Peppermill Mesquite casino, which opened in the 1970s, drove Mesquite's diversified economy. The Western Village Travel Plaza opened in the 1950s, later owned by the Peppermill.

The city incorporated in 1984 and established a master development plan during the early 1990s.  In the mid-1990s, more casinos opened.
By 2006, Mesquite was one of the fastest-growing small towns in the United States, Who knew?!
Though the late-2000s recession led to the closure of both the Mesquite Star and Oasis (formerly The Peppermill) casinos.

The reason I chose this as the final destination for yesterday was that it seemed to be a good mid-way point for us. The next opportunity to stop wouldn’t be until St. George, Utah. And I do believe that we’ve made St. George our pit-stop in previous trips. But it just seemed as though by the time we would be pulling in for the night - we’d both be ready to hit the sack - so rather than driving tired which equates to driving dangerously - I chose Mesquite!

However Mesquite was just about the ONLY part of my plans that stuck. I hate it when plans don’t go as planned.

Ya see I am traveling with a self proclaimed “anchor” and he also happens to be quite the dilly dallier. Soooo being that we didn’t have a flight to catch, he took longer than I had wanted for us to get on the road. Meaning that there was a good chance our dinner plans were gonna fall through. 

And so they did. The restaurant that I was planning on us going to would be closed by the time we would arrive into Vegas.  

Honestly what is up with that…it’s Vegas - shouldn’t everything be open late?

I was already starving before we had even been on the road an hour and I was rather bummed out thinking about missing dinner.

I had no choice but to break open a bag of popcorn and start munching away.  

​Once my ravenous stomach was feeling better I had did a search to find out what LATE dining options there were, and came up with a Mexican restaurant that had almost a full page of vegan choices.

Dinner was a pleasant surprise! Sharing a vegan quesadilla and each having a Kale Salad topped with a grilled piece of vegan Chick’n and tons of vibrantly colored tasty vegetables. ​

Now we are on our way to do some mountain biking at Dead Horse State Park - which has got some freakin gorgeous views!

Read more about Dead Horse State Park here:

Tanya's Moab and Southwestern National Park Road Trip

I'm ready to get my pedal on!

​But before I do - check out this new lipcolor that I just tried out yesterday...I'm telling you guys, I have a new addiction and if you want to love your lips as much as I love mine - drop me a line and I'll hook you up!

Be sure to bop on over to Elisa's side to check out all of the fun eats that she and the girls will be indulging in!

They depart in only 5 days - how exciting! And we depart in 10 days to meet them...
I've still got so  much to do when I get home! 

Oh well - one trip at a time and one day at a time.

For now I'm gonna sign off and catch ya back here tomorrow with all the scoop from today.

-T