Step by Step...

I've gotten made fun of quite a bit since I first let on that I really wanted tickets to the New Kids On the Block concert. Many of my friends are either younger than me or (very slightly) older than me so I think they missed the boat on the NKOTB first time around. I remember being 11 years old and singing Step By Step in my BFF Jamie's attic; band posters surrounding us and our Jordan dolls in hand..

Tonight I was simultaneously 12 and 28 years old. The concert KICKED ASS you guys! My mom wouldn't let me go to the NKOTB concert the first time they came to Calgary 15 years ago (I was too young!) and it was a little surreal standing there screaming my lungs out to Hanging Tough.

When I first found out the band was coming to Calgary I immediately cajoled Jill and Velvet (fellow Those Girls) to get tickets with me. They were doubtful, but something about my "come on guys, JORDAN KNIGHT!? convinced them. We started off tonight at Velvet's and my house, drinking cider, getting geared up 80's style and watching old NKOTB videos. We were especially excited to get fashion tips and dance move ideas from the videos.

Off we headed to the show, with Velvet and Jill relieved to see that other people had also dressed up for the concert in vintage band t-shirts and 80's gear. Our hero of the night was this girl in her spandex ensemble:

Natasha Beddingfield opened, and she was ok. I like some of her songs, but she just didn't really have the stage presence for a venue as large as the Saddledome. And then came the boys!! It was AMAZING!! I can't remember the last time I have screamed, sang and danced so much at a show! (And this is including the last couple shows I saw of my very favorite band!). Damn those Old New Kids are hot! Much hotter than in the 1988 I have to say! Jill and I even stooped to the level of yelling "take off your shirt!" when Donnie was talking to Calgary about how amazing we were. There was just the right mix of old stuff and new stuff. I actually like quite a few songs off the new album (yes, dorky I know..) so I was singing all the tunes. I made Jill and Velvet cd's of a mix of the new and old stuff to prepare for the concert, so they were up on their feet as well. I was a little worried before hand that they wouldn't have a good time, but we were all crazy and screaming and dancing.

Highlights of the show included when the band sang Dirty Dancing (from the new album) on top of a baby grand piano (I love the corny Swayze lyrics!), almost peeing my pants with excitement when Joey sang Cover Girl, and being almost too hoarse to scream the words to Step by Step during the encore. Good times ladies, good times.

Family Reunion - Idaho Style

You know you're good friends with someone when, after spending 24/7 with them for 31 days, seeing each other every minute and going to bed with them each night, you would willingly get into a car with them for a 20 hour road trip! That's my girl Jill. She valiantly offered up her car (vs. my gas guzzling SUV), company and road-trip-singing-voice for the whirl-wind trip to Idaho to meet up with my mama and sister.

We passed the 10-hour drive each way by singing, gossiping about boys, planning future Those Girls trips, taking pictures out the window of the car, puppy-walking breaks and, more singing. I think the highlight of the trip down was finding ourselves in the middle of a Friday afternoon Game Day parade in the town of Conrad, Montana. Go Grizzlies! It took us a minute to realize that we were not under attack as the town police, fire engine and ambulance led the parade of honking and shouting vehicles (all sporting GO GRIZ! paraphernelia) down the main street of town.

Once we arrived in the lovely middle-American town of Idaho Falls we settled into our hotel suite with Mama and Kelli. The room was equipped with a full kitchenette, which us girls on a budget proceeded to take full advantage of! Go out to dinner? Nah, we'll stay in and eat cheese and chips and salsa! We had a fabulous, albeit short, visit jammed with a scenic 5km walk of downtown Idaho, the Snake River and what we believe are the Idaho Falls, some shopping (hello Target!) and lots and lots of game playing in the hotel room. We also discovered (and drank quite a few bottles of!) a lovely local cider.

Then we were off, back to Canadia (that's how you say Canada in Canadian, right Jill?). It wouldn't have been a trip to the States without a stop in Montana to eat some Mexican food, sip on a coupe of (strong!) margaritas and plug our last couple (literally) American dollars into a smoky casino slot machine. With no line at the border, and no puppy to have to make frequent dog-walking breaks for, we made pretty good time getting out tired and car-weary butts home.

Despite the short time frame and not-so-tropical destination, we realized that even a teeny road trip is better than no trip at all AND that we can make pretty much any adventure fun! And hey, at least we got to use our passports!

Check out the video of Jill's Rocky Mountain High revelation and rendition..

Road Trippin' it to the Gem State

That's Idaho, in case you didn't know. Just one of many fun facts my sister has sent to Jill and I in preparation for our road trip extravaganza! We're heading off to Idaho, the meet in the middle point for my mom and I. I'm taking my puppy to live with my mama, who has a dog of her own that could use a playmate.

Now, this isn't a month long Mediterranean sailing trip... its not even a relaxing beach vacation. But when you have had to go on the "possible-no-job-Budget" and are no longer allowed to plan your next vacation.. a road trip to Idaho starts sounding pretty good! Plus, I've never been to Idaho.. and the trip does end with some Vicky Secret and Bath n' Body works shopping (umm.. shopping with a budget...).

We're heading out early tomorrow am with our cooler of snacks, puppy gear and the trusty ipod. We also have our Captain Ray-inspired Canadian road trip music. We'll meet up with the Moo and Kelli in the lovely (I hope?) city of Idaho Falls. Off to find my passport!

GET AWAY video

Still missing the boat... :) Yesterday I was in a liquor store picking up some wine for a dinner at my dad's house, saw some Metaxa brandy and boom! Flashback to the boat and John making us brandy and coffee every night!

Jill and I were asked by our coworkers to give a little presentation of some of our holiday pictures at one of our team meetings. Since I've spent the afternoon working on it (its pretty lame, I blame it on my junky old Windows 2000 work computer!), I thought I would post it here. Enjoy!

PVD still in effect, and more blog updates

We've been home for almost a week now, and we are still suffering the effects of some Post Vacation Depression. We've been waking up in the middle of the night for bathroom breaks (guess our bodies still think it is daytime pee-time!) and are lucky to get five hours of sleep consecutively. Work had been a challenge after about 1:00 in the afternoon, as this is about the time we fall head-first into daydreams about being on the boat. I was rudely awakened in a meeting the other day while I was midnight cliff-jumping in Lorymar, Turkiye. Huh.

We also arrived home to the news that our work contracts won't be extended past this coming March, which has prompted us to explore our options of running away to live on boats. We've got a little work to do, but we are definitely plotting ways to get to use our sea legs more than once every few years. We'll keep ya posted on plans of escape!

I've went back and added some photos to old blog posts, and also added some new posts that go into more details about certain experiences and events on the trip, so please continue to check back on the old blog every once in awhile! I hope to continue updating even now that we're back, we don't have any huge trips planned right away (we have to go on the possible-no-job budget!) but we DO have an Idaho road trip and Rock the Rockies coming up, and perhaps some other potential update-worthy events, so stay tuned :) I've also added a Subscribe function to the blog, but I'm not sure exactly how it works, so feel free to check it out if you'd like to be informed of updates, and leave a comment letting me know how it works!

Who says you can't go home? Well, sometimes you just have to...

Hello from Canada! I actually can't believe we are home, and that we've been gone for a month. In some ways it seems like minutes, but in others a lifetime. Getting off the plane to chilly 8C weather was also not the best welcome we could have hoped for!

Our last day in Istanbul was anticlimactic. After waking up and having Turkish breakfast (bread, jam, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers and hard boiled egg) on the roof terrace of our hotel we headed down to the Basilica Cistern. It was a little creepy, made more so by the spooky music playing in the underground cavern, but really pretty cool. Not entirely sure it was worth the 10YTL entrance fee, however perhaps I am just getting a little tired of touristy things and having to pay to see history.

We braved a monsoon to walk with our leaky umbrellas to Topkapi Palace (jeans wet to the knees) only to decide that we just didn't have it in us to do any more touristy things for pricey rates. So we headed off for some retail therapy in the form of the Grand Bazaar. This is possibly the loudest place in the world. There are men and women lining the streets selling you things, trying to get you to come into their shops. Also IN the street are people with little carts on wheels that move out of the way for cars and then immediately return to the street to resume commerce. Often the carts are selling things like spiro-sketch toys that remind you of when you were 8 and make you wonder who would ever buy one! The Grand Bazaar proved to be a little to much for us when not at top form, so after haggling for a few items (pillow cases for Jill and tea cups for me) we headed to the less busy and much more interesting (to us) Spice Bazaar. Yum yum yum. Spices and sweets and nuts and other goodies. We were much cheered up after leaving here. We stopped at a little supermarket to buy some food type items (olives, etc.) that we wanted and also purchased a lovely new suitcase to haul back all our goodies.

This was another day of fending off Turkish men. It is really hard not to be rude sometimes, and it takes a lot to make me that way, however by the end of the day it was getting really tiresome. Jill had no problem being rude to the guy that asked her if she was my mom though! By late afternoon we were ready to drink and headed off to a pub (playing Nickleback of all things... can't escape them even in Turkey!) for some 8 YTL VERY strong vodka tonics. I decided that the best cure for the end of a vacation was to get drunk, with Jill's still somewhat sick body doing the supervising. Early night of packing up the bags for the last time for our early flight the next morning.

This morning we were up and at em' at 4:30 am to get to the airport, only to find our flight from Istanbul had been delayed by 3 hours. After a couple of dicey moments and some running down the concourse, we made it to our connection in London (with enough time to enjoy one last Magners before hopping on the plane!). A loooong flight later (made longer with no sleeping and no personal TV's on the plane!) we are back on home turf. We are tired and in need of showers and a lot of photo editing! We plan on going back and updating some of the blog entries with pictures and elaborating on some of our experiences that were only briefly mentioned, so stay tuned for that.

Its Raining Hairy Men in Istanbul

Nothing like easing into life away from sailing by heading off to rainy Istanbul. Land of hairy men... 'Hello, how are you, where you from?? I give you my business card..' are echoed as you walk down the streets of the Sultanahmet area. Forget being traded for boat goats and having your skipper rescue you... here you better have a husband (or at least a pretend one that you are meeting in mere minutes!). Istanbul is huge. Pretty too, at least the small area that we have seen so far. We got to our hotel late Thursday night after a LONG travel day and immediately collapsed.

Yesterday we took a ferry ride up the Bosphorous river (we thought that getting on another boat might cure some of our boat-sickness), to see some of the sights and get an impression of the city, to the suburb of Sariyer. We ate at a small seafood restaurant on the river, but it was rainy and cold so we decided to forgo figuring out the bus and take a Taksi back to Istanbul (yay me for figuring out what was being said and being able to communicate a rate!). Forget traffic in Calgary, if I had to drive in Istanbul there would be some serious road rage! Every three seconds it was slamming on the breaks with horns honking! In the afternoon we were proper tourists, checking out the Blue Mosque (amazing) and Aya Sofia. We probably didn't get as much out of Aya Sofia as we could have, as we were both tired and suffering from some major boat withdrawl, and Jill was getting really sick and we needed to just go have a nap. We ate dinner out last night but it was interupted by a torrential downpour, and Jill's guts calling her back to the hotel.
Still rainy out today, but we will actually bring the umbrellas (ella) with us this time! Today we hope to see Topkapi Palace, the Basillica Cistern and then spend the majority of the day SHOPPING!