May 15th, 2014

Tanya & Elisa's New Mexico Road trip Part 2

Our New Mexico Road trip is still in its infancy, but we have made some great strides in two major areas.  First, our itinerary is all set:  Arrive in Albuquerque (Tanya by car from Anaheim via Sedona, Arizona and Elisa by air from New York).  We will stay in Albuquerque 3 nights, specifically for the Balloon Fiesta, which was the inspiration for this trip;  on to Taos for 2 nights; onward to Santa Fe for 2 nights; and returning back to Albuquerque for one night.  Elisa will then leave to go back home to New York and Tanya will continue the road trip heading to Carlsbad Caverns NP and traveling through White Sands National Monument, both in New Mexico and to Saguaro NP in Arizona and then back to Anaheim. 

We made some good progress with the accommodations.  For Albuquerque, we will be staying in a hotel.  We thought it would be great for the kids to have access to a pool for the beginning of the trip, especially since our days will be starting literally at the crack of dawn at Balloon Fiesta. We thought they would enjoy unwinding at the end of the long day with a fun filled swim.  After a great deal of researching, Tanya and I settled on the idea of doing private rentals through VRBO for both Taos and Santa Fe.. We actually had alot of fun checking the various properties and found two that would fit our needs just perfectly!   We know the kids will LOVE the idea of us all staying together under one roof and we are sure the girls will bunk up together every night.  The other benefit of staying in homes with fully equipped kitchens is that it will allow us flexibility to cook which is really an advantage for Tanya and her kids since they are vegan, and great for me since my Kelsey is an extremely picky eater.  Additionally, it will save us some money from constantly eating out; and lastly, we thought it would be alot of fun to cook together and have relaxing breakfasts and dinners at "home."  
Check out Part 3 of our Road Trip and the many sites we have planned to see in each city!!
~E

Not too big a fan..

It's like hella HOT this week in SoCal, and I'm soooo not one for the burning sensation I'm feeling when I step outside; it kind of feels as though you are in an oven just baking away. Awful.
So anyhow a thought that frequently comes to mind is why the heck do I live here? I know it gets hot in other places too - but come on...we live in an Earthquake land that actually has a Fire Season too! WTH?! Yup you read that correctly. It's SCARY and it sucks! 
Here in much of the USA we basically have 4 seasons (winter, spring, summer, and fall), in some other parts of the world they have a wet season & a dry season, other places have a midnight sun and a polar night. But I don't hear about any other place having fire season, mudslide season, earthquake season (just kidding - I wish it had a season so I'd know when to get the heck outta town), and of course we can't forget about hella HOT season! 
Vent session over....
Thaaaanks :-)
As for this lovely blog - Today, I'm doing 'An Underage Gambler' for Throwback Thursday, adding what I have so far for my Euro/Anniversary itinerary, as well as some of Lists of Lists; Elisa is working on part 2 of our New Mexico road trip...which is gonna be so much fun! 
And...tomorrow is our first Foodie Friday! Just thinking about the meals that we're gonna blog about is already making my mouth water!
Now it's about time to go check the fridge...Magia! Magia!
~T

It's a Day to vent

Although I'm in a really happy mood today, I figured I would join Tanya in a little vent.  Mine is on several levels;  First, weather wise, it's been kind of icky here in New York - muggy, humid and rainy.  It's central air time but we have not as yet turned on the system, so blow drying my hair today was a pretty gross  chore.  I'm not a fan of heat, but I can deal with it alittle better than my second rant -- the family of raccoons living in my ceiling!  It has been 2 weeks now since we began working with pest control to "evict" these little critters...unsuccessfully.  Apparently, mama raccoon has a number of baby raccoons, so we have tried the most conservative method to get rid of them which is to spread a kind of goo resembling the male pheromone which would indicate the babies are in trouble by an aggressive (and horny) male, at which point, generally speaking, mama would remove her babies from the current location and say hasta la vista.  That has not worked! Probably because the babies are too big for her to carry out.  So, now, being the animal lovers we are, we need to wait till these little guys are big enough to get out themselves - perhaps another 2 - 4 weeks.  And in the interim, we risk more damage &  more noise. UGH! End Rant.
Ok - so today Travelin' Cousins is proud to have made it's debut on Pinterest and Instagram, thanks to Tanya!! And a new travel story,  "Easter in Picturesque Prague & Imperial Vienna Part 1" is available for your reading pleasure! 
Have a happy day!!! --E