Vacation Recap

Happy Hump Day Folks!  Miss me?  I've been M.I.A. these past 5 days because Marcin and I decided to take a little stay-cation for Memorial Day.  We had 5 days to do whatever we want (sort of) and we fully embraced it!  Here are the highlights from my vacation:

Friday:  Sex and the City 2 Movie Night

I got to leave work early on Friday, so I had plenty of time to meet up with some friends to see Sex and the City 2.  We all enjoyed some cocktails before the movie.

 As you can see, we got a little dressed up for the occasion.

Movie Review:  While I enjoyed the movie, it definitely was not as good as the first movie.  I remember reading an interview with SJP and she described the movie as a light "romp," and it was.  If I were to compare it to the T.V. series, this movie was like the filler episodes during a season - nothing of great substance, but lots of funny moments.  I loved the character of Miranda in this film.  It was nice to see her lighter side!  "Abu Dhabi Do!"  LOL!

Saturday:  Ethiopian Food and Avatar

I get lots of magazine with coupons for local restaurants in the area.  I found one for a new Ethiopian restaurant in Downtown Plymouth - Addis Ababa.  I was curious to try it out and Marcin was happy to be a willing guinea pig too!

  First up, Ethiopian tea.  The tea is naturally sweet with rose hibiscus, lemon and orange peel, and other spices.  It was delicious cold and hot!

There are only two dishes at Addis Ababa - Vegetarian and Meat.  The meat "feast" had the most options and since we were going all out for it, we selected that option.

Mixed Vegetables, red, green, and yellow lentils, collard greens, spicy and mild beef, and spicy and mild chicken and other sauces that I can't remember.  

Get a load of the utensils!

The Bread!

Yep, that's right folks, this feast is meant to be eaten with your bare hands - with the assistance of the bread!  

If you are thinking of trying Ethiopian food, here are some tips:

1) Come hungry!  It's all you can eat, so the waitress can bring you more of which ever section that you liked.

2) Be REALLY comfortable with the people that you are with.  This is a double dipper's dream meal!  LOL!

3) Don't wear white.  Since you are eating with your hands.  It can get a bit messy!

See what I mean?  However, they did provide us with warm damp towels before and after our meal!  It was a great experience!

After dinner, we settled back at home and finally saw Avatar on ONDemand.  I really enjoyed it.  I really don't think I missed out too much having not seen it in 3D when it was in theaters for 5000 weeks.  The story was typical, but the computer graphics was seamless between the two different worlds.  I'm considering getting it to add to my DVD collection.  

Sunday:  Engagement Pictures and Family BBQ

On Sunday, Marcin and I met our wedding photographer at U of M's campus to take our Engagement pictures.  It was really fun!  She just let us do our own thing and she snapped away.  I'm excited to see the pictures.  We rushed home and hosted a family BBQ.  We had TONS of food.  Unfortunately, being the hostess, I was running around too much to take pictures of the food! But I did take pics of the fam!

The Boys/Grillers

The Women

 Great food, great company!

Monday: "Lazy Day"

Our original plan for Monday was to be 100% lazy.  Instead, we went to the gym and got in a great work out.  Then we changed the oil in my car - as in, Marcin talked me through the process and I got to changed the oil in my car!

That's me adding the new synthetic oil in my car.  That's after I emptied out my oil pan and changed my oil filter!  I just saved myself $50.00 by doing this!

Tomboy Soapbox:  I cannot begin to tell you the empowering feeling I had all day because I changed the oil in my car!  I got a similar feeling this one time when I got an oil change and the mechanic told me that I needed a new air filter.  I told him that I could do that myself.  The look on his face was priceless!  Now, I can add "change the oil in my car" into my tomboy toolbox!  

I also vacuumed out both my car and Marcin's.  Needless to say, I was dog tired after all that.  Not that it stopped me from reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  I put a major dent into that book on Monday night!

Tuesday:  Day at the beach in Grand Haven!

One of our goals was to spend a day at the beach during our stay-cation.  Tuesday was going to be the only day with great weather (Monday and Wednesday had crazy rain!).  So we got up early and drove 3 hours to Grand Haven, MI!

Sexy!

Catching some rays under SPF 30 sunscreen - That's why I'm shiney.

We spent 3 hours laying out, playing in the water, throwing a Frisbee or football (I can throw a mean spiral, another talent in my tomboy toolbox!), and wrestling around.  The water was very cool, but once you spend time in it, it was very nice. 

After beach time, we grabbed dinner at The Grand Seafood and Oyster Bar:

We decided to order dinner off the appetizer list.

Lobster Dip with bread

British Colombian Oysters

White Fish Pate

All were delicious!  We paired our dinner with two wines.

Michigan Riesling (I can't remember the name!)

Mosel Riesling

It was the perfect end to a awesome beach day!

Wednesday: Lazy Day Attempt #2

And we succeeded, we slept in, ran a few errands, and lounged around watching T.V.!  It's been a great end to our vacation.  I thought I would be getting the "Sunday Night" blues because I will be going back to work tomorrow, but I'm so relaxed now, I'm not even thinking about it.  I did finish my book!  I got to say, it was definitely captivating, but in the end, I think I'm still a little lost of what the "Great" secret was.  Part of me thinks that Dan Brown used this book to write something positive about God since The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons were critical of the Catholic Church.  While he didn't focus on any one religion in The Lost Symbol, I saw a strong message in having a belief in a higher power.  I may have to read the last couple of chapters again to fully understand everything.

Whew!  I am caught up!  Now it's reflection time.

On the healthy front:

I'm BBQ'd out!  I can't take it anymore!  I've been keeping breakfast simple - eggs with toast or cereal mix with greek yogurt.  I've also started drinking 16 oz of water first thing in the morning.  This is to get my digestive system going and flushing out everything in my system.  So far so good, but I'm telling you, trying to drink 16 oz of water right after you wake up is hard!

On the fashion front:

It's June!  So it's time to say goodbye to my May Chanel Purse:

and Kate Spade wallet:

And say Hello to my new Coach purse thanks to Marcin and Sherry!

And my new Coach make up case - Thanks to Zahra!

And my new wallet - Thanks to . .uh me!

I'm going to rocking this purse for the month of June although technically, this will be my October purse.  I'm currently looking for a June purse and haven't found any that have jumped out at me.

 

On the active living front:

If you have been following me on Twitter, then you will know that I have been doing my 10 knee push ups.  On Tuesday, the last week of the this challenge began.  Because I was at the beach all day, I didn't get to do it.  So today began my first 10 real push ups. Want to see how I did?

I need to work on my form, but I have till next Wednesday to work on it!  I'm excited to get to this point of my challenge!  I will post a video of my last day.  Hopefully I will have improved!

That's All Folks!

Thank you for your patience!