Travel – Fall Vacation: New York

My family (minus my brother) came to visit me in early October (in DC) before we adjourned our family vacation to New York and Paris. My brother was able to meet us in New York as he managed to request for his flight schedule to New York to be at the same time as we were visiting. (Yes, my brother is a commercial airline pilot.) We were there for 3 days before we departed to Paris (minus my brother as he flew back).

It rained almost the whole time while we were there and since we have all done all the touristy attractions, we stuck to a relaxing schedule of eating and shopping. It was however, the first time for us with the exception of my brother to visit Chelsea Market a chill place with restaurants and a few retail stores thrown into the mix. (WARNING: Picture heavy post!)

Direction Board

Clock in Chelsea Market

Fall Pumpkin Decor in Chelsea Market

We also went to Times Square as my mum wanted to snap some pictures. I’m only sharing two of which one is from last year’s Thanksgiving!

Times Square New York

Artsy shots of the subway on 49th Street…

…and of course, some delicious Korean food that we had in New Wonjo in Koreatown aka K-town. (I didn’t remember to snap pics of other meals that we had!)

Side dishes while waiting for BBQ meat to arrive

Sundubu Jjigae with Mushroom

Food was delicious and service was good. I had never had Korean BBQ before and it was great to have that with my family as there were enough of us to order a variety of dishes to share! And, last but not least, here’s what I had with my bro last year around Thanksgiving…

Seafood Stew from Pocha32

Okay, I’m officially hungry just from editing and posting this! I will have Paris pics up soon, I promise!

Hope you had a good weekend! 🙂

Travel Nostalgia – Stockholm

As mentioned in this post, G & I spent the weekend (more like a day) in Stockholm after his training in Oslo. We arrived in Stockholm on Friday night and after we got the keys to the apartment that we rented through AirBnB, we went grocery shopping for food for the weekend. Traveling in Scandinavia is expensive and we tried to be as frugal as possible. (WARNING: Picture heavy post!)

Saturday was the only day we had to do any sight-seeing and here are some pics to share.

SkyView

View from the pod of SkyView

Royal Palace Stockholm

National Museum of Stockholm

Sheets of ice on the river

Plethora of sculptures on the Vasa ship that serves as symbols

National Theater in Stockholm

We departed on Sunday morning back to DC and that was the end of our Scandinavia trip. It was beautiful albeit a short vacation but it was much welcomed and rejuvenating. Now only few more weeks till my Fall vacation with my family!

Molon Lave Vineyard Tour

Today, G & I took a tour of the Molon Lave Vineyard in Warrenton, VA. We had purchased a Groupon deal for it and decided to head out to the vineyard while the the weather is still nice and sunny. The Groupon deal we purchased was for an olive oil tasting and a tour of the vineyard with a complimentary gift basket. I had never been to a vineyard before and was curious to go to one after reading Classy and Fabulous’ post. Also since G was a wine lover, he was more than happy to accommodate my curiosity.

Entrance to the building

Overlooking the vineyard

While we were waiting for our tour to begin, we sampled 6 different types of olive oils – the original, orange, lemon, rosemary, basil, and garlic. Out of the six, both our favorites were the lemon. It was just the right amount of lemon without overpowering the overall taste of the olive oil.

Olive oil tasting

Louizos, the owner of the vineyard was our tour guide. The tour began with him taking us to the cellar to show us the various equipment and explained to us the process of wine-making. I didn’t pay close attention to the details as I’m not a wine drinker and was honestly just interested in checking out a vineyard and taking pictures! Heh.

Indoor wine barrels

Outdoor wine barrels

Machine for wine filtration

There were many other various equipment but since it was mostly wrapped up in storage, I didn’t take any pictures of those.

Close-up of the vineyard

Chambourcin grapes

The tour ended with all of us heading back to the building to redeem our complimentary gift baskets. Our gift basket consisted of two wine glasses, a wine bottle opener, a box of crackers, a block of zesty cheddar (some gift baskets had different types of cheese), and a box of beef summer sausage.

Molon Lave complimentary gift basket

For those who were interested in sampling the wine, tasting was available for only $5. Overall I enjoyed the tour and would recommend it even though G & I didn’t taste any of the wines as we decided to adjourn to the outlet mall for some shopping!

Outfit pics for today:

• Dress: Old Navy Mar 2012
• Bag: Chanel Reissue Wallet on Chain F/W 2009
• Sandals: Sam Edelman Trina S/S 2012 (as posted here)
• Hat: H&M 2012
• Watch: Michael Kors MK5384
• Ring: Custom-made white & yellow gold heirloom ring