RAFTING!!! The Rios Tropicales Pac-3 trip was PERFECT for us. We rafted for a few hours on two different days with a day at the Rios Lodge in between.

We got picked up at our hotel and then bussed an hour or so to a base where we had breakfast and then took another bus to the place where we started our rafting journey.


The river was beautiful:

We stopped for lunch along the river & ended up at the lodge in mid-afternoon. Our room was a cute cabin-feeling room with a private bathroom and a waterfall just outside our window!

During our time at the Lodge we did some hiking with the group and some relaxing in hammocks:


We also did some exploring on our own:

On our last morning at the lodge we got to do the Canopy Tour. This included not-comfortable, yet safe harnesses, helmets and gloves.


Here we gooooooooo:


And finally, more rafting. This time we did level III and IV which were pretty exciting! In the raft with us was our guide, Diego, and our new friends from TX, Cliff and Pam.

We went on our honeymoon way back in December & since I’m so far behind, I’m going to keep the recap brief & full of photos!

We flew into San Jose, CR late on Friday 12/18 (like, midnight) so all we did that night was sleep. The next morning we woke up bright & early to catch a flight to Drake Bay for a few days at Rancho Corcovado.

Rancho Corcovado is a family run resort on the beach. We were served homemade meals every day and we had a guide that took us on our 3 tours along with 3 people from Brussels, Belgium! This was the view from our room:

We visited the Corcovado National Park to hike:

We talked our Belgian friends into having a couple beers at the local bar:

We went snorkeling at Cano Island:

Chris & I got to see these Macaw’s in the tree on the beach in front of the resort!

Our last day in Drake Bay we went on a Mongrove Tour where we saw many birds:

And caiman (like crocodiles!):

We walked the beach on the last night and got this beautiful photo of sunset:

The next day we flew back to San Jose:

We spent one night in San Jose, walking around the Central Market & eating a nice dinner before we were picked up for our Rafting adventure…stay tuned for Part 2!

Waaaay back in September, when it was beautifully warm (or at least not freezing), we drove down to Kansas City, MO for a weekend with friends. Liz & Casey headed out Friday morning and cheered the Twins on to victory on Friday night while Shelly & Jeremy and us drove from our respective cities. We met up with Liz & Casey for a couple drinks after the game Friday night & then crashed pretty hard afterwards.

Saturday morning we met Liz & Casey and decided to walk around the Plaza which happened to have an art show which was interesting to see. Shelly & Jeremy had arrived much later than the rest of us (thank you, construction!) so they slept in a bit and we all met up for lunch. Jeremy recommended Houston’s (known for KC BBQ) and it was a hit. You can see Chris here - sporting a napkin/bib.

After lunch we walked to a park/museum that Liz & Casey had read about before the visit. The main attraction (for us anyway) was a huge shuttlecock on the lawn. That’s Casey standing in front of one…

While walking around, we found some other very interesting art.

We headed back to the hotel & changed into appropriate Twins attire before taking off for Kauffman Stadium.


It was a perfect night for outdoor baseball. Crisp & cool but very comfortable.

And, it was made even better by a Twins WIN!!

On Sunday, before heading out of town, we took the Boulevard Brewery Tour with Shelly and Jeremy.

It was a great weekend to celebrate my birthday!

The fifth stop on Chris’s Beer Tour was Schell’s Brewery in New Ulm, MN on November 17, 2009.

We drove down to New Ulm on Saturday morning so we arrived just before Noon and got tickets to the 1:00pm tour. The tours are first-come-first-serve and we wanted to make sure we got in on one sometime during that day.

The tour started out in the Museum (which we were also allowed to walk through on our own) and then we proceeded outside and over to the brew house. They have a lot of history included in the tour and it appears that Schell’s is very proud of where they have come from. This history includes the fact that Schell’s bought Grain Belt in 2002 and now brews those beers as well!


After touring the brewery we were taken to the “Hospitality Room” for some samples!

We started out by sampling bottled beer that was distributed by our guide while each one was explained.

After the bottles were emptied (sit near the center of the table & you will get extras…tip of the day), we were offered samples from the tap!

While Chris sampled some more beers, I switched over to 1919 Root Beer which is brewed there and VERY tasty! We eventually were asked to step outside so they could prepare for the next tour and the outdoor patio was gorgeous, set in the trees.

The land that the brewery is on is very nice, full of trees with wild animals running free. Someone said there were deer, but all we saw were peacocks.

One other piece of information that I thought was interesting was that the deer on the Schell’s labels comes from the family crest…not from our population of deer in Minnesota like I thought!

And, just for fun…I liked this guy who was greeting everyone who approached the mansion.

The fourth stop on Chris’s Beer Tour was Boulevard Brewery in Kansas City, MO on September 27, 2009.

We had plans to meet Shelly & Jeremy and Liz & Casey down in KC to catch a Twins game and so I decided to see if we could fit a brewery tour into the weekend as well. The tour was on Sunday at 1pm and Liz & Casey decided to head home right away in the morning rather than sticking around but Shelly & Jeremy were up for the tour so the 4 of us had lunch together before heading over to the brewery.

The Boulevard tour was unique. We had a guide that took us through the “company bar” (seriously!) and the brewery, but at different places along the tour we stopped and watched a video that explained the brewing process. I thought that was a cool idea & made sure everyone got the same information. When we were watching the video about bottling and packaging we noticed that the “drink by” date was Oct 2009 which means the video was relatively new. I’m not sure if they re-record them or if they are a new addition to the tour.

That picture is the main building (and bar) with new, state-of-the-art equipment that they only brew beer in for 6 hours a day. We came away from the tour thinking that Boulevard is about to explode and wishing they were publicly traded. They aren’t brewing even close to capacity and they are situated in a good location to distribute to both coasts & I wish them the best of luck! I think our guide said that Boulevard is the biggest micro-brewery west of the Mississippi River, or something like that.

After the tour we were shown to a tasting room and were free to have samples of everything they have on tap! Pretty awesome. While we were tasting, an employee walked in with a group of his friends and they all took a pint glass full of beer and headed back to the brewery…I think I need some friends in the beer business!

The tour was definitely worth sticking around for and it was fun to have Shelly & Jeremy help celebrate Chris’s 30th birthday as part of the Beer Tour!

On Sunday we took our time getting out of bed, but once we were ready to go we had an active day!

Before heading out on our adventure, Chris & I took a picnic lunch and walked to a park on Michigan Avenue. We found some shade and set up camp. It was warm but there was a breeze and it felt good to be outside.

After picking up Josh & Robyn at the hotel, we took the train up to Lincoln Park and walked over to the Zoo. It’s a free zoo and it covered more space than I realized. We saw deer, monkeys, zebras, poisonous frogs, snakes, polar bears and more!

From the zoo we walked to Goose Island to attend the Brewery Tour! Unfortunately, it started raining before we got to the brewery, but Josh flagged down a cab and we made it without being completely soaked.


I wrote about the tour and the beer in a different post, so I’ll leave it out of this one. We took the El home after dinner and ended up on a train with this advertisement in it. Are you kidding me?!?!

That about wraps up the trip. We got up Monday morning and drove home. It was uneventful and we made it back in time for dinner.

Read about the rest of our trip here: Friday & Saturday

The third stop on Chris’s Beer Tour was Goose Island (the Clybourn Brewpub) in Chicago, IL.

One thing that made this beer tour so easy to put together was the fact that we already had a couple out of town trips planned that I could piggyback on. The weekend of August 14th we drove down to Chicago with Josh & Robyn for a long weekend getaway. They agreed to go on the tour with us and we also convinced our cousin who lives in Chicago to meet up with us for dinner too!

The tour was a brief brewing overview followed by an extensive tasting session. For the overview we all piled into a small room where seasonal beers are brewed and our guide explained the brewing process.

After the tour was complete we headed back to a seating area where we proceeded to sample 6 different beers, some were good…some were not.


And, once we were done with that the four of us, along with Mike, found a table in the restaurant to have some dinner. And, of course another beer. The menu was not exactly huge, but I think we all found something we liked.

On Saturday morning of our Chicago trip we packed up a lunch and headed over to the Navy Pier where the Chicago Air & Water Show was taking place.

When we got to the pier we found a nice piece of grass and set up our picnic…sandwiches, veggies, grapes…nice spread actually. Then something weird happened. A woman approached us and started in on a 3-5 minute story about how she didn’t have any food and she had broken her daughters lock by getting her key stuck (and she showed us some keys) and her son wasn’t going to be able to pick her up until 4pm and could we give her some food. We all looked at each other kind of in shock and Chris offered her a rather large handful of green beans. She TURNED HIM DOWN! She then started in about how she couldn’t eat raw veggies and that she would prefer some grapes! Are you kidding me?!?! So, I told her that this was all we had and Josh spoke up and said this was our lunch and finally she left. She was begging for food and thought it was okay to be picky?! OMG.

After lunch we walked over to the beach area that was pretty much the prime Chicago Air Show viewing location. We were lucky enough to score some seats that were in the shade and so we hung out there for quite a while. It was really cool to see the stunts that some of the pilots completed as well as the military planes. As we were walking back toward our hotel, we caught the end of a fly by of the 4 military planes which was super neat to see.

I can’t remember, but I think we might have taken naps that afternoon, but I know for sure we took showers because man was it HOT that day! We decided to take the train up to Chinatown for dinner. We ate at a very large restaurant that I can’t remember the name of, but that’s okay because I didn’t really think the food was very good. After dinner we did a little window shopping before walking back to the train stop to continue on with our night.

Our evening was spent at Buddy Guy’s Legends listening to some Blues. We arrived in time to see Killer Ray Allison play his set, but unfortunately we weren’t early enough to get seats. So, instead, Chris & I played pool and we just hung out.

There was a transition of people moving around in between sets and we were lucky enough to grab a table in the back. The main act was Jimmy Johnson who was celebrating 50 years of singing the blues! He was a funny guy who put on a good show & was obviously proud of his family who were there to help him celebrate.

I actually called it an early night because I was hoping to get a 5 mile run in on Sunday morning, but by the time I woke up (at 8am) it was already 80 degrees and I couldn’t imagine how much hotter it would actually feel in the streets of Chicago. Oh well, at least I saved a few calories by not partying it up all night!

Read about the rest of our trip here: Friday & Sunday

We found out earlier this year that Robyn had never visited Chicago before and knew it was up to us to change that!! So, in August, Chris & I departed on a road trip to Chicago with Josh & Robyn.

We all took off Friday & Monday in order to make the most of our trip since we decided to drive. Upon arrival on Friday afternoon we checked into our hotel and immediately headed out. It was hot ALL weekend long, but we still did quite a bit of walking. Friday afternoon we walked up to Grant Park to check out Buckingham Fountain.

We walked through Millennium Park, up Michigan Avenue and finally arrived at our destination…Giordano’s on Rush. There was a 40 minute wait at 5pm on a Friday - that place is ridiculously busy - but we grabbed a beer and had no problem waiting.

We ordered the garlic bread which was a delicious started and then the four of us shared a pizza. Chris prefers Uno’s but I can’t even imagine how…Giordano’s is SO much better!

After dinner we decided to check out some new bars that our cousin, Mike, had recommended. First stop - Clark Street Ale House. The beer selection there was fantastic, and we were happy to see Surly (brewed in Brooklyn Center, MN) on tap!

Of course, Chris ordered something that came in a specialized glass. You know he’s going to be happy when that happens!

Second stop on our bar hopping adventure - Blue Frog Bar & Grill. This place is awesome. It is a small bar with tables scattered around and lots of character. There were posters and beer lights on the walls, special drink names and even board games hanging from the ceiling (the No Respect game was one that caught Chris’s eye).

We spent quite a bit of time at the Blue Frog because we found a table near the back. Once karaoke started then the fun began. None of us sang, but we were pretty amazed at some of the people who did. One man sang Frank Sinatra first and then did a rap song next…it was crazy!

When we left the Blue Dog there was one last bar on that side of town that we wanted to check out so we stopped in for one drink at The Pepper Canister.

I think Chris’s exhaustion came from getting up early, driving a long way, stuffing himself with pizza and finally, introducing Robyn to Vodka Gimlets…and drinking MANY of them with her!

We walked back to the hotel and crashed after a fun filled Friday.

Read about the rest of our trip here: Saturday & Sunday

Originally Chris & I were looking at taking our Honeymoon in April…a few weeks after the wedding. We were looking at adventure type trips in the Caribbean or South America. Well, when I hurt my foot in early February we started thinking maybe that wasn’t the best idea…and I’m so glad we did! Rather than push it, spend a lot of money and not know if I’d be able to keep up we decided to take a Minimoon (my word, not his!) in April and hold off on our Honeymoon until later this year.

Chris was the mastermind behind this trip. In fact, I didn’t even know where we were going until shortly after the ceremony! It was great…I knew we were taking a trip and that we left April 9th but I didn’t have to do any of the planning!!! Obviously by the title you know that we were flying to Las Vegas! I had only been one other time for a very short stay and I figured this time with Chris would be completely different anyway. Here’s a summary of what we did along with some photos. We really didn’t take as many pictures as I thought we would, but oh well!


Thursday, April 9
We checked into our room at The Venetian Thursday evening. Our room was GORGEOUS! Chris definitely went all out to make sure we had a special time. The room was huge, there were two levels to it and at least 3 TVs! Also, I think the bed was seriously the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept on. If we could afford it, I would find out what kind it was & buy one…it was that good. I guess you can’t see any of the TVs in these photos, but I swear there was one across from our bed, one in the ‘living room’ and one in the bathroom!

After getting settled in we immediately headed out for a walk down ‘the strip.’ It was fun because the weather was beautiful (70’s at 10pm) and there were a lot of people out!

We mostly stayed outside but we did walk inside O’Sheas to check out the beer pong and Casino Royale for the $1 Michelob Lights! We continued walking and made it all the way down to Bally’s and Paris where we decided to cross the street. It seemed like we walked a LONG time, but this map doesn’t look so daunting. Anyway, we crossed over to Bellagio and went inside to check out the flower gardens. They were kinda weird to me, as there wasn’t really a theme that went through the whole thing, but I’m glad we went.


Friday, April 10
Friday morning we decided to go to Downtown Vegas and the famous Freemont Street. Chris had never been to downtown vegas before and a coworker had told him about a Brewery that we decided to check out. Once we had correct change for the day pass we needed we boarded the Deuce bus. It took a little while to get downtown but the bus was comfortable so it wasn’t a problem. Once downtown we walked up the strip and came across “Neonopolis” which is a collection of old refurbished neon signs. I originally wanted to see the Boneyard of signs waiting to be refurbished but apparently they don’t feel it’s necessary to return last minute phone calls attempting to schedule a tour. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Our walk eventually led us to the end of Freemont Street and the Plaza hotel. We went inside there to ask about any known Breweries in the area (because, of course Chris hasn’t acquired any details about this place we had to check out). Luckily, a guy working at the hotel was able to direct us to Main Street Station and their fabulous 777 Restaurant & Brewery! We enjoyed a relaxing, delicious lunch while sampling some of their microbrews and playing cards. The food and beer was good & we liked the casino so much that if we go back to Vegas we will definitely consider staying at that hotel downtown rather than on the strip!

We did some gambling downtown before heading back to the strip for a nap & some dinner. Our quick nap turned into 3 hours…so dinner wasn’t until 10pm! What better meal to have at 10pm than a burger & fries, right? We walked as far as we could towards where Chris thought the In-n-Out Burger was and eventually took a cab the rest of the way. I know he was excited to eat there but I have to admit I wasn’t super duper impressed. It was good - but not worth the extra effort getting there.

We called a cab to come back & pick us up when we were done and went straight downtown. First things first, we had an after dinner drink at 777 (!) and then we walked around the strip a bit. We were killing time waiting for the overhead light show, which I have to say was completely disappointing. Just as the light show was finishing up it started to rain which made our decision to head back to the strip pretty easy. We waited a while for the bus but since we had our day pass we figured it wasn’t worth paying for another cab. I think we finally went to bed at 3am…or was it 5? Either way - way too late!

Saturday April 11
Saturday morning we decided we should go pick up our Ka tickets rather than trying to get down to MGM over an hour early for the show. We took the monorail because my foot had been bothering me & a day pass was reasonable (and we would be using it again that evening). Thus began an morning of torture. When we finally made it to MGM, the Ka ticket counter was closed and we were directed to the Concierge desk…where everyone who wanted tickets or needed help was standing. Not standing in line…standing in various lines that didn’t match up with the people working the concierge desk. So, we picked a line, stood there for a while and when the person at the counter walked away someone in ANOTHER line cut over and went to that person. Um, what? The person working mumbled something about lines merging…who knows. Anyway, Chris goes & gets in another line and I stay where we were and FINALLY it’s my turn. While the lady was retrieving our tickets (which had been purchased WAY in advance…not sure why they couldn’t be printed off at home) I asked her if they ever thought of having one line specifically for those people who are only picking up tickets and she tried to tell me that a line like that would get too long. Um, 20 seconds to get my tickets…I don’t care if 20 people are in line, it would go fast. I don’t know what they should do but it was a madhouse, even just a single file queue line would have been better. So, when she finally got our tickets she basically said “you’re in the front row, it’s too close, your seats are bad” which was infuriating. She didn’t offer to give us other seats, nothing…just pure bitch. Of course Chris was upset because he had been excited about having first row and was frustrated that the most expensive tickets in the theater were “bad.” Add to that the fact that I had been hungry for at LEAST 2 hours by now & we weren’t in great shape. We took another tram over to the Luxor and finally got some lunch at T&T. The food was pretty good & they had Dos Equis which is always yummy. As we made our way back to the monorail we passed the Ka ticket counter again and this time it was open so we decided to stop in and see what was up. We talked to the guy there and he said that because we were off to the side we might not have a perfect view of everything, but that the seats were, indeed, good. THANK GOODNESS.

The weather was finally improving by the time we got back to our hotel so we hit up the pool for a little while before getting ready for DATE NIGHT! It was fun to goof around in the pool a bit, although the wind was a bit chilly. There is a dance club just off the water and even at 2pm there was music pumping out of the speakers! After getting all dressed up for date night we decided to walk to Paris for dinner. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, except for the fact that my shoe heel got stuck in a crack in the ground and I totally walked out of it!

We had dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris hotel. They have outdoor seating which we put our name on the waiting list for even though Chris had made reservations for indoor seating. I’m so happy we did because it was perfect. We got a table outside, the weather was beautiful, the food was fantastic, we shared a bottle of wine and enjoyed the water show at Bellagio across the street! We finished up dinner with some time to spare so we decided to take a ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Yay! Bonus. I had a coupon for BOGO so it was very reasonably priced which is good because it was freezing up that high & we didn’t stay long.

We hopped on the monorail to get down to MGM Grand without me killing myself and it worked out great. We were there maybe 45 minutes before showtime and the line was wrapping through the casino! Once we were seated I knew the show would be great. There were flames coming out from below the stage and it was so hot we could feel it! Being that close is A.W.E.S.O.M.E! The show was super cool. I’ve never seen a Cirque show before but, let me tell you, my husband knows what I like! There was one small part where Chris couldn’t see what was going on but otherwise we ended up being VERY happy with the seats. Crabby lady at MGM can just shut her face. I think we got into comfy clothes after the show and hit the strip again for some people watching.

Sunday, April 12
We really didn’t gamble a lot during the trip. Friday while we were downtown we played Black Jack and occasionally I would lose some money in a slot machine but until Sunday morning that was it. We got up Sunday at a decent time and decided to try our hand at roulette before leaving Vegas. We ended up at Casino Royale playing $1/4 roulette. I don’t know if that’s how you write it out, but basically each chip was $1 and you had to play 4 each turn. I lost my first $20 pretty quick but Chris was doing well & I didn’t feel like just watching so I threw in another $20 and finally got hot! In the end we probably played for over an hour and I broke even! Chris lost his $20 but that’s it!

Our flight out of Vegas was around 1:30 so we headed out early to avoid trouble if there were long lines. There weren’t so we ended up grabbing lunch at a sit down place and playing some more cards. I slept most of the flight back which ended up being a bad idea because I couldn’t sleep that night…but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I had a really great time on our minimoon! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if the weather was a little warmer. You can check out all of our Vegas photos here.

PS Sorry about the long rant about MGM. It still makes me mad, two weeks later, and I will think long & hard before ever participating at any event at that hotel/casino.

Welcome to Vegas photo courtesy of imfwwdcc.