The Five Simple Rules I Follow Each and Every Time I Travel

As you probably know, I am a rule follower. I always drive the speed limit or maybe a bit over. Not 15 mph over like the rest of these crazy Charlotteans, but that's another story.  Once when I was younger, a cashier gave me $20 in change instead of $10 and when I realized it, I actually took the money back to get the correct amount of change. I'm serious, guys. It's bad. At least I can sleep at night though, right?

Anyway, in honor of my trip to Miami later this week {insert sun + margarita emojis}, I also have some basic rules I follow for every trip which I thought I would share with you all.  These tips basically started out as unwritten rules which changed and evolved as I traveled more. I truly believe that these tips are the formula for a successful trip.

CLT > SEA: Mt. Rainier from 10,000 feet last Summer  

1. If travel is a priority to you, then always keep in mind that you will be back, you don't have to do EVERYTHING in one trip.   I struggle with this one a lot, but have finally embraced this attitude. For example, on our first trip to NYC, we tried to see the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty but ran out of time. On our second time through, we made it to the Brooklyn Bridge and finally on our latest trip, we got to see the Statue of Liberty.  

2. No watching TV while traveling. It's a waste of time. Even in the hotel room.

3. When it comes to picking out restaurants, I make reservations on opentable ahead of time or at the very least browse restaurants on yelp and the key here is -- filter by 'most ratings' and/or 'highest rated'. I can't remember the last time I just popped into somewhere without looking it up on yelp first. It just doesn't happen.

4. Plan and schedule out each day -- and overschedule if possible. What I want to avoid is feeling like I don't know what to do next and then I end up wasting time. It's always easier to take things off the schedule as opposed to rushing to find stuff to do. I don't want to feel like I'm missing anything either.  I can be flexible if we don't get to do everything that we planned. 

5.  Stop, take photos and document everything. There are so many times that I have said to myself, oh I wish I stopped and took a photo of this or that. Now I specifically go at a slower pace and don't stress out when I take a few breaks to take photos of things I like.

Do you have any tips or rules that you follow when you travel? 

Friday Five | Vol. 1

I decided to start a new series on the blog where I do a weekly round up. I was actually inspired by Cupcakes and Cashmere's Five Things, but wanted to change it up a bit {hence the name Friday Five}, so here goes:

Have you seen the HBO documentary on Kurt Cobain yet? We watched it last weekend and it was riveting.

I might be living under a rock but I just learned how to use picmonkey. Thanks again Joey for the much needed tutorial. 

This old navy boyfriend windowpane flannel shirt just came in the mail today. I'm debating whether to keep the small or medium. #firstworldproblems, right?

I'm headed to Miami next week + weekend for work and some play. Would love to hear your recommendations. It'll be my first time!

Your Instagram addiction might actually have some health benefits. Read this. 

Happy weekend, lovelies! 

Discover DITTO

Today is a very exciting day, friends! Where should I start? Well, for a long time I have been wanting to get a DSLR camera so that I could hone my photography skills and take better photos for the blog.

While I didn't buy one myself, my friend Joey just purchased one -- and get this, we will be taking photos for each other's blogs! How exciting is that? We set a tentative date for this weekend to do a "shoot" as I call it. So, fast forward to last night. I got home from my mani/pedi around 6:45 and noticed that it was the golden hour. I quickly grabbed the camera and asked begged Jake to take a few photos for me. He was exhausted since he woke up at 5 am {I don't blame him}! He asked "why do we need to go outside?" and tried to take a few photos inside the apartment. "Not the same" I said. He wanted to do a few other things and asked if it could wait. I said no -- we're losing daylight {in a very dramatic tone}.  He reluctantly agreed to take a couple pictures. We went outside and I did my usual poses and just as I was inspecting his work --it was pretty good, but not exactly what I was looking for -- my friend came home and offered to take a few photos with her new camera! Um... yes please! Lo and behold, the photos are below and they came out marvelous.  I have the feeling that this is the start of a great friendship!

Now -- what I  really wanted to share about today is a new company called DITTO that let's you swap out your shades every month for $24/month. You basically rent designer sunglasses. What a steal, right? I have been waiting to try these Karen Walker "Number One" shades for ever but they are pricey. This is the perfect opportunity to try those sunglasses you've been wanting for ever and if you don't like them, no hassle. Just pick out a new pair to swap out and once those arrive, you send back your old pair -- so that you are never left without sunglasses. I love his concept!

They also have state of the art technology which allows you to see a video of yourself {similar to snapchat} to try on various pairs of sunglasses. It's very cool and helps ease the process of picking sunglasses out online.

Up next for me: Either Karen Walker Super Duper Strength or Ray-Ban Sunglasses "Clubmaster"!

Click on the link below to try DITTO's Endless Eyewear for yourself -OR- let me know in the comments section if you have tried it yet!

Endless Eyewear™. On Rotation.

 

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Sautéed Shrimp Sandwiches with Blue Apron

Lately, I've been super lazy about meal planning, grocery shopping and basically cooking in general. My co-worker told me about Blue Apron which is a meal delivery service that delivers all the pre-portioned ingredients {including meat} along with recipe cards. But you have to actually cook the meal. And the recipes are slightly involved -- they usually take me about an hour from start to finish and I gobble down my creation in about 4 minutes. It's even better if you have someone to help you cook and can divide up the steps into two. My co-worker sent me a link to try a week for free and I was hooked!

I recently re-discovered online grocery shopping which has been heaven sent.  Jake and I live literally eight-tenths of a mile away from a brand new Publix grocery store but there are times when I just cannot get my butt into the car and drive to the grocery store. Sure, I can peruse the aisles of Target for 2 hours... but that's another story for another post.

UP THIS WEEK: Sautéed Shrimp Sandwiches with Saffron Aioli and Celery Parmesan Salad. Recipe is here. 

Our Blue Apron deliveries arrive on Wednesday evenings before 8 pm and they come with 3 meals with 2 servings each for $60. It boils down to $10 per person per meal and I think that's a score. Sometimes I go to Whole Foods and spend $25 just on fresh Salmon for one meal.  So far we have made 6 meals and the meat quality has always been super fresh and tasty. So I know they are using good ingredients and not skimping in that department.  

As a side note, you can always 'skip' a week if you don't like what the meal choices are or you'll be out of town.  We've skipped several weeks without a problem. And you can see what the meal choices are several weeks ahead of time so that you can decide if you want to skip or not. 

As you can see, there are fresh veggies, cheese, buns, and way down on the bottom, under the ice pack thingie, are the meats to ensure they stay cold and fresh throughout the shipping process. 

In the brown bags, they have what they label 'knick knacks' for each recipe which typically include spices, mayo, or whatever else is needed for the recipe. One thing I love is that everything is pre-measured so you never have to measure anything. 

Each box comes equipped with recipe cards with photos and step-by-step instructions for how to make each meal.

Below is the Celery Parmesan Salad. I don't usually like celery but this was a nice change up from your typical salad -- and I am not a huge salad fan either, but I really enjoyed this take on it. 

The sautéed shrimp and saffron aioli. Have you guys had saffron before? It's actually really good!

The finished product: Sautéed Shrimp Sandwiches with Saffron Aioli and Celery Parmesan Salad. YUM! This was actually my favorite recipe so far. We are traveling a lot this month {13 days out of 31 --eek} so we are skipping the meals until the end of the month. But I cannot wait to make the Brie and Pear Grilled Cheese Sandwiches! My mouth is already watering! 

Things I learned:

It's super easy to make aioli. The main ingredient is mayo.

Every recipe I've made so far has used garlic and fresh lemon juice.  So, basically those are staples that should really be in {almost} everything that is make from scratch.

Nothing beats fresh veggies. For the first recipe, I literally had to cut fresh corn off the cobb and I normally would never have done that -- I would've just bought frozen or canned corn. But it was so easy to do. I'm sure I will try it again!

Zesting a lemon or lime is actually not that hard.

Have you tried Blue Apron or another meal delivery service? If so, let me know your experience in the comments section below.