Lake Mission Viejo: South Orange County

A few pics from the lake by my house. Lake Mission Viejo. (located in South Orange County) This is a great place to take a walk. It's a little over 3 miles to walk around the whole thing. It is located on Alicia Parkway in between Marguerite and Olympiad. I usually park on Marguerite in a shopping center. Then walk towards Olympiad. Right on Olympiad. Right on Alicia and then Right back onto Marguerite. Basically it's like a big triangle. Nice views though!

The Fruits of my Labor!

Hi Travel Peeps!

No travel news today but I just had to show you my tomatos. Some of them are ripe and ready to eat! So exciting! I made some yummy dinner using one of the ripe tomatos and some basil from my plant. Yummmmmm!!!

Orange County: Beaches, Beach Cruisers & Balboa Bars

Orange County: Beaches, Beach Cruisers & Balboa Bars!

So on Friday, I was so excited that I was going to have 4 days off of work. 4 days!! Monday being Memorial Day and Tuesday being an extra day off to "save money" for the company. I have plenty of paid time off so I was happy to take the extra day off. However....friday at work all of a sudden I got a sore throat. No way! Seriously, I just got over a 3 week cold. This cannot be. Well I woke up Saturday morning and it was definitely a cold. Not cute. So I spent all weekend (and most of Monday) sleeping off this rude cold.

Today (Tuesday), I decided I'd had enough of my house and bed so I decided to venture out on a drive. I live in Orange County. Besides the hiking posts, I don't think I've done anything on Orange County yet.

Being that it was such a beautiful day, I decided to do some of the beaches. I started at the nearest beach to where I live which is Laguna Beach. It was still a little cloudy but still nice.

Heading North on Pacific Coast Highway, the next stop is Crystal Cove State Park.

A must stop is the Shake Shack! Located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's on the left (if you are driving north on PCH) right before Crystal Cove State Park.

This is the historic district of Crystal Cove. They are currently renovating some of the cottages within this district. You can rent one of the updated cottages per night. Right on the water. Amazing views and some movie history as you'll see a few pictures down. http://www.crystalcovebeachcottages.org/

Does this view look familiar? Check out the cottage on the left.

Up close. Well, it may not look like much now. But this was the cottage used in the movie Beaches! Seriously! I know, it's not so cute now but still pretty cool. And who knew it was located in Orange County! I believe this is one of the areas that will be restored once more funds are available. Hopefully they restore it to it's old movie star days!

**They also filmed scenes for the movie at the Balboa Fun Zone! Balboa Fun Zone is a waterfront amusement park located on Balboa Peninsula.

Next stop is Corona Del Mar. Located in between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. Mainly residential with amazing houses and amazing views. From PCH, take a left on Poppy Ave. This dead ends at a beutiful view. Make a right at the dead end onto Ocean Blvd. State Beach is on the left. Tons of celebrities live in this area. I didn't want to be a stalker so I didn't take pictures of the amazing houses around this view. But stop by and you will see. :-)

Wow!

Check out the top floor of this house! I wonder what it looks like from the water!

Last stop of the day was Balboa Island. Continue going North on PCH. Make a left on Jamboree Road which turns into Marine Ave. Marine Ave. is the main street of Balboa Island. Very cute little beach town. Quaint restaurants and beachy shops surrounded by cute (million dollar) houses. Lots of people drive golf carts around since parking can be tight and not plentiful.

A MUST have while on Balboa Island: A Frozen Banana or a Balboa Bar! Yummo!


This path surrounds Balboa Island making a really nice walk!

From Balboa Island, you can take the ferry (by car or walk on) over to Balboa Peninsula where you can access Balboa Pier/Beach and Newport Pier/Beach. Also on Balboa Peninsula is the Balboa Fun Zone which is a boardwalk/waterfront amusement area.

There is also another way to get to Balboa Peninsula without taking the ferry. From PCH continue going north and make a left on Newport Blvd and merge onto Balboa Blvd.

Normally, I would continue driving North to Huntington Beach which is a few miles north of Newport Beach but I didn't have time since I got a late start. Most people would probably start in Huntington Beach and go south to Laguna. But since I live south, I went backwards! Huntington Beach is a fun busy beach. If you make a right on Main Street, that is the central hub. Tons of restaurants, bars and beachy shops. On the beach you can rent beach cruiser bikes. When I lived in Huntington, I used to ride my beach cruiser from Huntington to Newport. It's a nice fairly flat ride. My favorite part of living in HB was utilizing my beach cruiser! If you live in HB you must own one! :-) Huntington is great for people watching too. Crazies!!

So if you are in Orange County, you must check out the beaches. Even if you just do a drive by. Have a nice casual Southern California day!

**Check out Newport Harbor Tours to see where your favorite celebrities live and hang out. Some celebrities you will hear about are: John Wayne, Dennis Rodman, Dean Koontz, Jean Claude Van Damme, Michelle Pfeiffer, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Shirley Temple, Bette Midler and more! Check out their website! www.seeing-stars.com/live/newportbeach.shtml

Movies to See:

Beaches of course!!! ha ha.

Online Travel Tip

Hi Travel Peeps!

Just thought I'd share a website I use to check flight prices when I'm researching a trip. I use http://www.kayak.com/ . You just load your dates and destinations and it searches direct airlines and a bunch of discount websites such as Priceline, Expedia, Cheap Tickets, etc. When it's done searching, you end up seeing all of the available flight options. This lets you know which website offers the cheapest rate. Once you've selected the flight you want, just click on the one you would like to book and it takes you directly to the website offering that rate. You are not purchasing your tickets through Kayak. Kayak is just your "search engine".

I absolutely love this site. It's so much easier and faster than my previous ways of searching. Me, being the careful shopper, used to check all of the different websites on my own. This just makes it so much easier.

Sometimes when you select your dates, you will notice a pop up calender on the right which shows the cheapest dates to travel to your destination within your travel month. This helps if you are flexible on your dates.

Try it out and let me know how you like it!
http://www.kayak.com/

Good Night Globe Trotters!!

Madame Tussauds- London

Madame Tussauds- London, England

A fun place to see if you have some extra time in London is Madame Tussauds wax museum. Entrance is about 25 pounds but the museum is so much fun. I thought it was quite worth it. So did my friends. I could barely drag them out of it to see the rest of the London sites! :-)http://www.madametussauds.com/

Madame Tussauds also have locations in Las Vegas, Washington DC, NYC, etc. I have been to the Vegas one and that one is smaller but still really fun.

Each Madame Tussauds location has different sports, political, musical, television and movie celebrities. The fun thing about this wax museum is that you get to pose with them and take as many pictures you want. You can be "interviewed" by Oprah, hug Brad Pitt, stare into George Clooney's eyes, etc. You will see a few examples below. :-)

They also have tv's showing how they make the wax figures. When they have the celebrity there, every inch of their body is measured, perfect eyes are matched, hair is matched, etc. So much detail is involved in one of these. It really is amazing.

So if you ever see a Madame Tussauds and have some extra time, definitely check it out!!

********

Getting There by Tube:

2 Minute walk from the Baker Street underground station.

**Tip: You can get discount tickets if you purchase your tickets online.

********

Check out some of my fun pics:

Me & William. I know, he's super tall!! (i'm not short!)

Running from Harrison Ford! (& charlie chaplin....& someone wearing feathers)

Saved the best for last.....

Me & George! <3>

Check out some of my previous London blogs:

http://christinamg.blogspot.com/2008/05/london.html

http://christinamg.blogspot.com/2008/06/excerps-from-travel-journal.html

Where I'm NOT Going...

In my last post, I told you I might be going on a trip soon. Well, I have good news and bad news. The trip I was talking about did not work out. This was the trip:


3 Nights, 4 Days in CHICAGO!!!!!
$230 airfare
Sweet discount at a Marriott in Downtown
and a Cubs game at Wrigley Field!!!!!
All on my 30th birthday weekend.

Sounds amazing, right??

**sigh**


The problem was not me but my friends!! :-) Either they had another trip planned and couldn't spend the extra money, just got an internship and couldn't get off work, can't take a vacation the same time as me since we have to cover each other's vacations, used all of their time off for other reasons or have another trip too close to this one, etc. So I am very bummed and totally in denial that it's not happening. I can't seem to cancel my room reservations. It was such a good deal.


Now for the good news. There may be a bigger trip coming up to take the place of this one! I can't give you more details yet because I don't have them. I'm still in the research stage. Checking out costs of flights, hotels, etc. I don't even have a set destination yet. Just researching to see the best deal.

Speaking of deals....where are the deals?? I thought since we were having a budget/economic crisis, there were supposed to be better deals on flights? Where are they? I don't see them. Very disappointed.

To hold you over until I get actual travel plans......I have some updated garden pics. Especially for my cousin Nina In Freiburg. http://ninainfreiburg.blogspot.com/ Who also loves to garden and randomly we like the same types of vegetable plants. :-)




Tomato Plant #1. This is the smaller plant but has huge tomatos on it. Can't wait to start seeing it turn red.


Bell Peppers are getting big!


New bell peppers are starting to grow.


Tomato plant #2- The big one. Had tons of flowers and now they are turning into tons of tomatos! Finally!!


Up close you can see some of the tomatos. Not quite sure how big these ones are supposed to get though.


My Cypress Tree. He's kinda puny but I still love him.


My kitchen basil plant. He's cute too.


Ciao for now World Travelers....

New trip on the Horizon?!

Good news Travel Peeps!!!!

There may be a new trip coming soon! I'm so excited. I don't want to talk about it until the plane tickets have been purchased. Don't want to jinx it. ha ha.

Oh hey....I just gave you a hint. It's far enough for me to fly!

Where am I going? Hopefully I will be able to confirm soon and I'll definitely let you know if it's a go.

Happy Saturday Travel Bugs! Enjoy your weekend!

In the mean time.....New Garden Pics:

My bell pepper gets a "home" makeover!

The whole gang.

One more thing before I go.

In honor of Earth Day, which was on April 22, my friends and I went to see the new Disney movie Earth. The deal was that Disney will plant a tree for every ticket sold during the movie's first week. So of course we went! The movie was great. It basically follows 3 families during a year. Polar Bear, Whale and Elephant families. However, the movie is not just about those 3 sets of animals. The cinematography was amazing. And of course it's Disney, so it's family friendly. I definitely recommend it! If you are interested in seeing it...go before April 28!! Lets get some trees planted!!!

Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G06r7eKKjkI

Go Green!!

Credit Cards, Trips, Birthdays and Plants!

Bonjourno!!

It's been a while! I've been keeping it low key. Paying off credit card bills and other bills. Also got my tax money (woo hoo!) which of course went mainly to pay off bills. Now that the bills are paid, I can focus on saving again. Saving for a trip maybe??? That's my intention!

This year I am focusing on getting organized. Organizing my finances, organizing my house, organizing my closet.....you get the picture. I figure the more organized and "in control" I am, the more at peace I will be. Which will make me happier and more accomplished. So far so good! I'm very proud of myself for getting my finances organized. Yes, I've had no life, but I have paid off the bills which will now allow me to save for a rainy day and a trip or two. And possibly some condo renovations. I'm all about HGTV at this point. Sabrina Soto is my new favorite person. She has her own show on HGTV and guest stars on lots of others. (including the HGTV Green Home special.) I love that she is like Miss Fix-it. She knows all of the little house hold tricks and she does everything on a budget! I want to be like her. ;-)http://www.sabrinasoto.com/

I'm starting to get the travel bug again. I'm thinking about taking a small extended weekend trip again like my Nashville trip last year. Hmmmm where to go..... Maybe Chicago? or North Carolina? or Boston? Maybe sometime in the next few months. My birthday is coming up and I would LOVE to take a small trip. It's the big (get ready for it...) 3-0!!!! Noooooo!!!! I can't believe i'm almost 20-10! (aka 30!) Gosh. I definitely deserve a vacation for that. :-)

Since I haven't taken any trips, I thought I'd share a few pics from my "garden". The plants are actually on my front ledge since my back balcony doesn't get very much direct light. I am growing two sets of tomatoes and bell peppers! I love my plants and am super excited for them to start producing some yummy fruits/veggies.

My first baby bell pepper!!!

Here he is up close.

My Asian Lily.

One of my Tomato plants.

My other tomato plant. Where ever there is a yellow flower, there will be a tomato!



My baby bell pepper is getting so big! A recent picture of him. With a few baby ones.

Sorry this post has been so random. I promise to have more "real" travel posts soon. :-)

Happy traveling....travel bugs!

Where to stay in London?

I love London! I could definitely live there. London has always been my "hub" while traveling in the Europe/UK area. I always fly in to London and then go from there. Whether I'm going to Paris, Scotland, Ireland or a Contiki Tour accross Europe.

While in London, I've stayed at major hotels (Marriott's of course since I work for Marriott and get a sweet discount!), bed & breakfasts and once I also rented a room for a few weeks. All of my accomodations have been different and amazing in different ways.


Marriott Hotels:
It's nice to stay at these hotels every once in a while because they are much bigger than your typical "European" hotels. So if you've been hosteling it or staying in little European Inns where you've been sleeping in a tiny twin beds, this will be a nice luxury. However, I definitely endorse trying out a bed and breakfast at some point for some English charm!

A few I've stayed at:

London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/londt-london-marriott-hotel-grosvenor-square/
I think this is my favorite one. Near Oxford Street (5 min walk) which has tons of shopping and restaurants. Closest tube stop is Bond Street. Great location.

London Marriott Hotel Regents Park
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lonrp-london-marriott-hotel-regents-park/
I liked this one too. Closest tube stop is Swiss Cottage Station.

Renaissance Chancery Court London
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/loncc-renaissance-chancery-court-london/
For me, this one was a little out of the way. Renaissance is still a Marriott, but it's fancier. Closest tube is Holborn Station.

London Marriott Hotel Marble Arch
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lonma-london-marriott-hotel-marble-arch/
I didn't stay at this one but my friends did. Still very nice. Closest tube is Edgware Road or Marble Arch.


Bed & Breakfasts:
http://www.londonhometohome.com/homes_central.html
(the one I stayed in is second on the website! my room was the one with the red twin bed!!)

I stayed at the "Kiln House" with my host Lee. She was super nice. I had a room on the main floor. The only room on the main floor. I had my own bathroom too. She had a continental breakfast set up for me each morning. However, she figured out what I'd actually eat and would just leave exactly that (instead of her huge spread of breakfast foods). She even made me hot water for my hot cider a few times! Her house is actually a historical landmark and has been featured in tours and in a book. Her house was an actual kiln. The kiln is now actually a dining room.

What I loved about staying at a bed and breakfast, is that you just get a whole different experience than if you were staying in a hotel. Just make sure your house is within walking distance to a tube station!

The "Kiln House"

A few more London Pics....

Tiffany's Taxi?!

Oh how I miss Pret a Manger!!




Ciao World Travelers!!

Train Rides to Scotland....

Rail Europe Travel….

I found a few pictures I had from traveling on the Rail Europe train. We traveled from London to Edinburgh, Scotland. You can check them out online. http://www.raileurope.com/ . They also have discounts for travelers 25 years old and under!

They have different classes of seating with different restrictions. We just got the economy seats. If the seats are not full, you can actually sit wherever you want. My friend and I got seats with a table to ourselves. Awesome!

I did find out that I can not face backwards while the train is moving. Nauseaus!! So I had to make sure my seat faced forward. Luckily my friend didn’t have that same problem so we were able to sit at our own table. And spread out our stuff. The views were great. Lots of green, lots of water and lots of sheep! They also have a snack car if you get hungry.

The train leaves from Kings Cross station in London. Kings Cross like in Harry Potter! Look for Platform 9 ¾ if you have some extra time. It does exist!


Gotta have your tunes on a trip like this. I'm not gonna lie, I totally have a Europe Trains playlist. Ha ha. Such a dork.



Train ride essentials: travel journal (my friend's), reading material & water of course. Oh and of course the previously mentioned iPod/Zune/etc.



Previous post on Scotland:
http://christinamg.blogspot.com/2008/06/edinburgh-scotland.html

Good Day Travel Peeps!!