Haley Danielle : Travel

Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Me

For my 20th birthday, Steven flew me out to Colorado to celebrate with him. His birthday is 5 days after mine so we got to celebrate both! Because of the holidays, I had been lucky enough to see him almost every two weeks so I was so excited to see him again!

It was the first time that Steven's ever picked me up from the airport. Because he always has baseball practice on Friday nights, usually one of his friends will drive to Denver to get me. I'm so grateful for his friends who drive an hour and a half to get me, but there's something about being greeted with a kiss from your boyfriend that makes your welcome to Colorado that much sweeter. I was so happy that he was able to be there, it was one of my favorite parts of the weekend.

That night, we stayed in downtown Denver. Usually, we get a hotel room in Colorado Springs so the change of scenery made it even more fun. We went to a delicious dinner and opened our birthday presents a few days early.

The next morning, we drove to Frisco, a cute mountain town in the Rockies. We took our time getting there making lots of stops to see pretty sights. My favorite was the frozen lake that we came upon. There were cars driving on it which was really cool to see. (Did you know that it only takes 2 inches of ice to be able to walk on it? Steven reassured me of that as we were standing in the middle of the lake and talking about what would happen if one of us fell in.)

That night, we drove to Breckenridge to see these awesome ice castles. My family in Utah went to the ones in Midway, so we were so excited to see them for ourselves. Going through was amazing. I've never seen anything like it. There were tons of colorful lights and tunnels and icicles and the Southern California girl in me was soaking it all in. After the ice castles, we went to an underground pizza place. It was delicious and we were so full by the time we were done!

The next day, we snowboarded at Copper Mountain. We met up with Steven's friends for a few runs, too. The weather was perfect and there was so much snow, thanks to the snow storm the weekend before! I love snowboarding with Steven because he gets so happy. I'm not the best snowboarder, but Steven's so cute and patient. That night for my birthday, we went to a Mexican restaurant with some of Steven's friends and their girlfriends. We had a great time visiting with them and eating yummy food :)

The next morning was a sad one knowing that I wasn't going to see Steven for another 2 months. We had a teary goodbye at the airport, which was really hard. I was so happy though that I was able to spend my birthday with my favorite guy. We had so much fun doing new things and enjoying each others' company. Now, we're half way through to seeing each other next and I can't wait to see that hunk again!!! 32 days...32 days... the countdown is most definitely on ;)

{Cancun}

Steven's grandma has a beautiful timeshare in Cancun and was so sweet to invite his whole family and me to enjoy the week in paradise! When we got to Cancun, we slowed wayyy down. There were days when we didn't even leave the pool, and we were oh so happy with that! We lounged around, swam in the ocean and pool, sipped fruity drinks, it was perfect.

The spectacular view! We were so lucky!

One evening, we took a fun trip to a place called Mercado 28, which is a huge outdoor market. They sell a huge variety of things and we had a blast wandering around and looking at all of the pretty things! It's a tradition in my family to buy a Christmas ornament wherever we travel to to hang on our tree the next year. So, Steven and I bought a beautiful ornament to bring home! We also bought my mom a hand painted spoon rest that she loved! We had so much fun bargaining the prices too. Steven was cracking me up with his strategy to make them lower their price. After dinner we went to an awesome authentic Mexican restaurant called La Parrilla. It was delicious and had a super fun atmosphere!

We were in Cancun for the 4th of July but that definitely did not stop us from celebrating! That night after dinner, Steven and I took a walk on the beach over to the Ritz Carlton to take a look around. It was a beautiful hotel. We were walking down on the beach in front of the hotel, and all of a sudden huge fireworks started going off right in front of us! They were lighting them about 100 feet away from us and it was so awesome to be so close (a little scary too!). We laid down on the sand and watched as the fireworks went off above our heads. It was a perfect evening!

Please take note of Steven's shorts...very patriotic ha!

To make that night a little more memorable, while we were walking home from the Ritz Carlton, we literally almost ran into a giant sea turtle!! It was frightening at first, but then it was the most amazing thing. We continued our walk down the beach and ran into about 6 or 7 more along the shore, digging holes to lay their eggs in. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures in fear of disrupting the turtles, but it was an experience that I'm sure we will never forget!

Our trip to Cancun was a blast, and I had so much fun spending time with my man and his awesome family!

{Ohio}

Steven had 3 weeks of leave this summer, so his family planned a super fun vacation that let us visit with all of his family! Our first stop was a week in Ohio with his dad's side of the family!

I had never been to Ohio, or the Midwest for that matter (except Chicago but that probably doesn't count all that much) before this so I was really excited. We had a little bit of a travel mishap when we arrived at 1am and found out that the airline left our checked baggage where we caught our connecting flight. That was a bit of a bummer, but we luckily had enough essentials with us to get us through the night!

Steven's roommate from last semester, Joe, lives really close to his grandma's house. So, the next day we all went wake boarding and water skiing on Joe's boat. It was really fun to meet up with him! After we had our fun on the water, we all went out to eat. We escaped the looming thunderstorm perfectly because it was beautiful all morning and the torrential downpour only started the last few minutes of lunch! We got really lucky that day. Later that day, we played mini golf with Steven's family which was a blast. That night, Steven and I met up with Joe again and he brought his girlfriend, Emily, with him. We all had a great time! Those boys are so cute.

Steven, Joe, Emily and I were talking about the differences between Ohio and California and we were all cracking up. Here are the main things that we noticed!

Let's just start off with talking about how green Ohio is...like really, really green. Seriously, everywhere you look there are huge, gorgeous trees. It's not like that here in California. It's a beautiful place, don't get me wrong, but it's definitely not as green as Ohio!
Another thing that we noticed was that there were barely any sidewalks where Joe and Emily live. Where Bubs and I are from, it's rare not to see a sidewalk unless you're on the freeway of course.
This one isn't only about Ohio, but I always get a kick out of the fact that major super markets are different in different states, I'm weird..I know. In Oahu, it's Foodland, in Southern California Pavilions, Vons, and Albertsons are big. In Ohio...Giant Eagle.
And there's the most obvious linguistic difference as well. California- soda. Ohio- pop.

And those were our first two days in the Buckeye State! Check back soon for the next two and then our amazing trip to Cancun!

xox

Vacation!

Hi friends! Happy Friday to y'all!

I'm currently in Cabo with my grandparents, mom, aunt and cute cousin having the best time! We got here on Wednesday and we'll be heading home tomorrow.

Here's a little taste of paradise that we're loving right now:

All of these pictures are from their website

These next three weeks are packed with fun! Steven comes home for a three week leave tomorrow and then we leave on vacation for another two weeks! I can't wait to spend time with him, it's been too long!

Be forewarned, there will be lots of updates and pictures coming your way soon!

Sunday Fun

I'm hoping that everyone is having a fabulous weekend! I'm here in Colorado with my man soaking up the... snow...It's freezing! California girls aren't used to this kind of weather, but we are having so much fun and I can't wait to share with y'all later this week! Enjoy your Sunday!

xoxo

The overlook at USAFA

Where I Want to Be

I have a huge paper due on Monday. Ugh. That's all I have to say about that. And honestly, I could think of a million other places I'd rather be this weekend than sitting at my desk writing it!!

I'd rather be in laying out Cabo...