12
Oct
Posted by: The Blonde Diaries / Category:
Travel
Tonight Mike and I were goofing around on our Twitter accounts. Mike decided to sign up the other night to “reserve” his name before someone else could grab it. He’s not much for social media in the form of blogs and tweets but he tends to keep his Facebook account fairly current. I think once he gets a crackberry he might be more inclined to playing around with social media, such as Twitter, a tad more.
So he has managed to find all of his favorite UFC fighters and basketball players to follow so he is pretty happy. He also managed to customize his profile with photos of the two of us so I thought that was fairly sweet. Looking at vacation photos always makes me happy and tonight was no different. While he was looking at the fun Europe photos I was looking at our destin florida photos from our first trip to the beach in 2007. It was so much fun and I absolutely love the white sandy beaches of Destin. If the economy doesn’t get any better I think we might be taking a trip over to my parents timeshare and forgetting a fancy trip to Disney or on a cruise ship.
I found this photo of us with the white sandy beaches and thought I’d share. We are at the Crab Trap on the Old Hwy 98 along the coast. Delicious restaurant and great scenery. You couldn’t ask for anything more.

21
Aug
Posted by: The Blonde Diaries / Category:
Travel

Happy Friday! Today is a half day at work (yay!) followed by a trip to the gym and chores around the house. I’m hoping if I do the chores now I won’t have to do any the rest of the weekend!
From Island Life:
Welcome to this week’s edition of Aloha Friday.
In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!
So my question of the week is: If you could travel to any place in the world, where would it be and why?
I would love to visit Germany during Oktoberfest. I think going to the festival in Germany would be a blast. I also wonder if their brats and sauerkraut taste the same as the way we make them here in the States or if they are totally different. Kind of like wondering if pizza in Italy is like pizza in the States (it is!).
18
Aug
Posted by: The Blonde Diaries / Category:
Travel
Ever since I received a taste of culture and ways of life outside of the United States last month, I have been aching to travel again to somewhere new and exciting. I have a running list of places I would love to visit and have found a few others, thanks to cruise itineraries, that I hadn’t thought about but wouldn’t mind seeing either. One of the places I would love to visit is Switzerland. Switzerland seems like it would be a great place to visit and very picturesque with the Swiss Alps in the background.
I was amazed at all of the fun things you can do in Switzerland. I knew about hiking around the Alps and visiting scenic towns and lakes but there are a ton of different activities just ready and waiting for you to go enjoy them. Discover Swiss “Pearls” as they are called through the official tourist website, MySwitzerland.com.
One such “pearl” to catch my eye immediately when browsing was heading up to the countryside to make your own cheese. Making my own cheese is not something I have done before nor would I really think of it as a fun activity to try on my own. But, with an experienced cheese maker giving instructions and properly aging the cheese, it sounds like it could be really fun. The best part is that you can enjoy it after you make it. The cheese maker ships your cheese to your house directly so you don’t have to worry about food safety and customs!
Maybe cheese is not your thing, I know I’m a tad nervous about the work required to make my own cheese. Maybe making your own iron bell sounds a little better. I thought it sounded neat. Mike and I seem to go on tours or to events where people are demonstrating how to heat iron and mold it but we have yet to find a tour that allows us to make something of our own. This tour allows you to actually decorate your bell mold and then while you tour the factory, the iron is melted and poured into the bell mold resulting in a custom bell you can take home with you.
I am also a huge fan of stories: historical, fiction, and non-fiction. I also love visiting old castles and homes and seeing the way people lived centuries ago. There is a hotel in the southeastern part of Switzerland with a storyteller who captivates your attention. Now this sounds exciting as you sit around in a campfire setting and listen as old stories about Switzerland are told gleaming into their rich history. In addition to the stories you hear, there is cheese fondue melting away in a pot waiting to be eaten. Swiss cheese/fondue is something I have been wanting to make for a long time but have yet to do it. It seems hard to even think about missing it when you are in Switzerland!
I love to cook and use herbs and spices. They add flavor instantly to any dish. There are places in Switzerland which allow you to go and pick the fresh herbs directly from the fields in which they grow. You can then head to a restaurant and try your fresh herbs out on your selected dish.
Not sure about you, but I’m getting pretty excited about the possibility of visiting Switzerland and seeing what they have to offer. I have some great ideas for things to do and see. I even found one adventurous “pearl” that I will put on my to-do list: rafting! I never thought of Switzerland as being an adventurous place (other than skiing) but they do offer rafting and I have never been. I have heard how fun it can be and it is on a list of things I wouldn’t mind trying. Maybe Switzerland is where I should try it out!
Visit MySwitzerland and see what adventures wait for you!

06
Aug
Posted by: The Blonde Diaries / Category:
Travel
So yesterday I posted this photo for my weekly Wordless Wednesday meme. So now I’m going to tell you about it since it is…

This photo was taken after we boarded our plane in Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France a few weeks ago. Mike and I were traveling from Houston, Texas to Venice, Italy as part of our honeymoon. This was our first trip overseas and we were excited to get that first passport stamp in our new passports. At this point we had just come from our 9 hour flight out of Houston which was miserably hot (no air!!) and through the madhouse that is CDG and barely made our plane. I have never seen an airport not load a plane in an organized manner until we went there. No announcement that it was boarding, no calling people by class or row, just one large mob of people storming the gate and running to get on the plane. Lots of shoving and thrown elbows. We were relieved once we got to our seat and took off for Italy. We were even happier when we landed, got into a water taxi and headed to the hotel for a much needed nap. Traveling for 24 hours was not agreeing with us but after that 4 hour nap all was better.
04
Aug
Posted by: The Blonde Diaries / Category:
Travel

Come back tomorrow for Tell Me Thursday About Wordless Wednesday!

If you host WW weekly and want be linked drop me a line and we can swap links!