My Dream Travel Destinations: North America

My last dream travel destinations list was in Europe. This round I'm bringing it closer to home- North America. For this post's purpose, I'm just including U.S.A, Canada and Mexico. I know these are not the only countries in this continent, but places like Central America and the Caribbean will definitely have their own list.

So here is my (partial) list of places I want to go to in North America:

 Anywhere where I can see the Northern Lights (on my bucket list!) - i.e. Canada (Calgary, Ontario, Yukon Territory and/or Manitoba) and/or Alaska (Anchorage, Fairbanks, and/or Denali):

Alaska {via}

Canada {via}

Glacier National Park:

{via}

Kodiak Island:

{via}

Chichen Itza, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico:

{via}

Yellowstone National Park:

{via}

Quebec City, Canada:

Arches National Park:

{via}

 Portland, Oregon:

{via}

 Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico:

{via}

Austin, Texas:

{via}

 Honorable mentions:
Philadelphia (for the cheese steaks)
Boston (for the clam chowder)
Niagara Falls
Toronto, Canada

I could have probably gone on and on with this one- there is just so much I have still yet to see here! What's on your North America list? Have you been to any of these places? What are some must-see/do/eat things?

Photo Friday: Lake Havasu

Lake Havasu, Arizona

Some close friends of mine from back home in California have parents who own a vacation home at Lake Havasu. Every so often, they'd invite me to come along during one of their trips. We always had a ton of fun being out on the lake all day.  This photo was taken the last time I went with them quite a few years ago.

Check out other Photo Fridays here.

Celebrate Nashville Cultural Festival

Last Saturday, I ventured out by myself to the Celebrate Nashville Cultural Festival at the beautiful Centennial Park. I went by myself for a few reasons:
1. J was working
2. I love cultural festivals (well- just different cultures in general, really)
3. It's a short mile and half walk from our house and the weather was perfect
4. It was free
and last, but not least: 5. I haven't made any friends here yet (sad face)

Anyways, either way, I am so glad that I went, despite being a loner. It was a good time. The park was set up in different sections- from a Global Village, to a World Market, to a kids area to food. I kept busy the whole 3 and a half hours I was there!

First order of business for me was to find something to eat (of course!). There was all kinds of different food there- from Peruvian to American BBQ to Serbian! And there were a TON of different options! I had such a hard time deciding that, you know what happened?? I just got a popsicle instead. But it was a delicious pineapple chili pepper popsicle that hit the spot! I then went to the Global Village and walked around the different booths of the countries being represented there. Then I went into the Parthenon, which was free for festival day. I then checked out some live music and performances. It was fun to see all the different cultures there and seeing how diverse Nashville really is-- which makes my heart happy. =)

Parthenon

Huge statue of Athena inside the Parthenon

Spent almost 4 hours there and all I bought was a pineapple chili popscicle and got a free fire chief
hat from the Nashville FD tent for my preschoolers.

The only thing I was disappointed in was that the Philippines wasn't representing! I saw a couple of Philippine flags hanging up, but that's about it. No Filipino food vendors. No Philippines at the Global Village. No Filipino performances. I was kind of bummed because I hoping to meet some fellow Filipinos. Maybe next year? =)

Anyways, if you're ever in Nashville in early October which is when this festival usually happens, it's definitely worth checking out. Such a great time and fun for the whole family! Here is the website for more info-- and for better descriptions of things because I am sucking at my writing game as of late!: Celebrate Nashville Cultural Festival.

Summer Highlights

Ahhhh yes... today is officially the first day a fall. And I am pretty happy about it. I can't wait for cooler weather. I am really over this hot humidity Tennessee has hit me with. I mean, sure- I've lived in the Philippines, been to many countries where it's hot and humid-- but this stuff here in Nashville is a different breed.

But, enough of that. Here are just a few of my favorite things that we did this summer:

1. Camping at the Grand Canyon

2. Our whole roadtrip across America

3. Spending July 4th with family

4. Celebrating our 2-year wedding anniversary (here & here)

5. Bouncing back from the flood.

6. Labor Day Weekend

7. Taste of Tennessee Craft Brewers Festival

What were the fun things you did this summer? Are you glad it's fall, too?

Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was a pretty darn good one. Even though we didn't make a trip anywhere, we still enjoyed our 'long' weekend at home.

Friday:
We finally got to move into our apartment, which I talked about yesterday here. After we hustled our buns off moving everything in (just my husband and I, mind you), we worked up quite an appetite. We went to try out this Greek place called Athen's Family Restaurant. We got there at a good time because shortly after we were seated, the line slowly started to form. By the time we had finished, there were quite a few people waiting to be seated. I was wondering why it was so poppin'- then I went outside and saw their sign. It explained a lot. Their food was really good. And super filling! It was just what we needed.

After dinner, we went back home and did a little bit of unpacking. While I was in our room, I heard big booms and bangs, and I looked out the window and saw a fireworks show going on down at the baseball stadium. It was really awesome- especially since I had a perfect view from my window! It was quite the welcoming to our new home. ;)

Saturday:
I didn't feel like doing any unpacking in the morning, so Saturday started pretty slowly. After lunch, we headed downtown for the anti-war in Syria protest. On our way, I took a couple of shots of the Capitol building and another historic-looking building that I should have looked up what it was. Then we joined the protest. It was a pretty small turnout (especially since my husband and I are used to the HUGE anti-war protests in L.A.), but it was good being out there standing in solidarity.

Sunday:
We started the morning off with the oh-so-fun laundry time. Then we hit up the grocery store for some goods-- our favorite football (or soccer) team was playing so we had to make a thing out of it. We had chicken wings, watermelon, salad and of course some drinks! (And yes- our team won! iViva Barca!)

Later in the evening, we hit up Sonic's because I was feeling like a milkshake-- and I wanted to take advantage of their half-off shakes after 8pm deal while it's still here! I'm pretty sure I've almost tried every flavor.... My fave so far: Oreo Cheesecake!

Monday:
My favorite part of Monday: the fact that I got paid for enjoying a day off! Woohoo-- thank goodness for paid holidays! We walked to a record store that's really close to our house because they were having free food, booze and a band playing. So that was cool. And they had a life-size Muno there, signed by DJ Lance Rock and everything. I wanted to steal it.

Then later in the evening, we went our for some drinks with a friend. And, I will admit this to you blog world because I have no shame, we went to Sonic's AGAIN for milkshakes. Don't judge me.


So those were my shenanigans that were had on my holiday weekend! What about yours???

Flash Floods Ain't Nothin' to Mess With.

I now know from experience.

Thunder was going off very early yesterday morning. I tossed and turned, too lazy to get up and close our window, which was open to get some fresh air in the midst of the Nashville humidity while we slept.

A couple of hours and a lot more thundering later, Jason finally gets up to close the window. Then I hear him say "Oh crap..." then *squish squish*... he turns on the light, and he is stepping in a puddle of water. We look around, and the entire floor of our room is starting to fill with water.

Adrenaline instantly hits us. We start grabbing stuff and throwing it in backpacks. We wake up our roomate. We go into the living room and water is RUSHING through a crack in our front door. Our house was filling with water and fast. We knew we only had a minute to get out.

We knew the back would be impossible to go through to get out because the 'small' creek that's right in our backyard was now a raging river. The front door wouldn't budge open. So we all stuffed through a front window.

We tried to push my car further up the driveway. It was getting covered in water fast. It was still pouring rain. I didn't even have shoes on. Water was rushing up past my knees. I didn't even care. We got the cars as far as we could. I ran across the street to a small apartment complex for some shelter. Luckily, a neighbor came by in his truck and was able to pull our cars out of the driveway and we parked them on safe land.

After getting a few minutes to collect our thoughts and the little energy we had left, we made some plans on what to do next. We got a couple of things sorted out. And now, we're homeless, for the time being. We're in a motel. We don't know if my car is going to work.

But you know what-- we are alive. My husband and I are together. That's worth more than anything in the world.

My thoughts on this whole situation will be reserved for another post when I have more energy.

In the meantime, here are a couple more photos of what used to be our house:

Thank you to all our family and friends for their concern, love and help. Please just keep on sending us good vibes and prayers. We appreciate it. My cell phone was also a victim of the flood, so sorry to those who were trying to contact me. But J's cell still works, just f.y.i.

I guess the adventure really doesn't ever stop with us.

Roadtrip Across America: recap (parts 1 - 4)

If you've been keeping up you know that J & I made a move across the country in late May/early June. {And if you haven't, well- now you know}. On the way, we made some awesome stops and it turned into one pretty incredible roadtrip. 

From California to Tennessee-- it was a fun roadtrip, even with the boring parts of being on the road and seeing unchanging landscape. We took 6 days to get across the country, with planned stops where we stayed a couple of nights here and a couple of nights there.

Check out the full posts here:

Part 1: Grand Canyon

Part 2: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas & Arkansas

Part 3: The Ozarks

Part 4: Tennessee

Tennessee - Roadtrip Across America part 4

We're finally on the last part of our epic roadtrip across America. It took a while for me to get all the posts done, but hey- better late than never, right?

After our awesome trip to the Ozarks, we headed to our final destination:

TENNESSEE!

It felt pretty darn good to cross the Mississippi river and see the state welcoming sign-- it meant we finally made it!

Before we even left California, I knew the first thing I wanted to do when we got here was eat BBQ. So we did some research on Yelp & found a highly-rated BBQ joint in Memphis-- Central BBQ. The ratings are high for a reason- it did not disappoint. We got a rack of ribs (half dry, half wet) & some sides and I still often think of the deliciousness I experienced that day. If you're ever in Memphis-- definitely try Central BBQ! (p.s.- their bourbon BBQ sauce is AMAZING.)

After our amazing lunch, we continued east to Nashville-- our final destination. 

We were 'homeless' for the first week, couchsurfing with a German lady and her family for the first couple of days then staying at our friend's cousin's house. We were scrambling to find a place, but luck was on our side when we came upon a cute little house in a great location, just 10-minutes from downtown. It has a huge driveway, surrounded by trees and a little creek in the backyard, and rent is within our budget. Although we were sleeping in gracious & kind strangers' homes, I was happy to have our own place.

Our first weeks here were spent settling into our new place, doing some exploring of our new city and looking for jobs. Now, I'm the type of person who is pretty cool, calm & collected for the most part & it takes a lot for me to stress out. Being 'homeless' + trying to find a home + trying to find a job + a dwindling bank account = a lot, which means I was stressing the eff out. Luckily though, I did find a job a couple of weeks ago & I've been really enjoying it.

But all in all, we really love Nashville. It's a perfect size city for us, it's a great place for J to do his music thing, and it just has a really good vibe. There's also a really great bike path called the Music City Bikeway that we really like (& live really close to!). We've gone out only a few times- cuz, you know, a tight budget will restrict how often you can go out & do fun things, but we'll get more opportunities to explore this city, I'm sure. 

Since I'm new to this town, I am open to all suggestions on what to do/eat/see in Nashville, so please let me know. I already posted about my must-eat-at restaurants here- but if I'm missing something, please add! 

I'm excited for this new chapter in our lives!

If you want to read parts 1-3 of our Roadtrip Across America, you can check them out here:

Part 1: Grand Canyon

Part 2: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, & Arkansas

Part 3: The Ozarks