Tag: vacation

back from wine country

Posted on by jplatt27

Wine

I’m back from a week-long vacation in Sonoma, California, also known as wine country. We had a great time–good experiences, good wine, good food. I’m still trying to process it all but one thing I know I want to bring back/maintain in my “normal” life is the lack overwhelm. I really enjoyed just living in the moment and enjoying things one thing at a time. Check in with me in a few weeks and ask how it’s going. I really hope I can keep this up.

PS–Have you liked Love Always, Jo on Facebook yet? Only one like needed to get to 100!

wine country vacation: what i’m looking forward to

Posted on by jplatt27

suitcase

Packed and ready to go!

We’re headed to Sonoma, California! We rented a house with some friends in wine country for the week and the excitement is finally sinking in!

On this trip I’m looking forward to (in no particular order):

1. reading, I love reading in general so on vacation it’s a must. Choosing the books for my vacation is one of my favorite things. This trip I’m bringing Lean In and The Engagements.

2. eating outside (another one of my favorite things)

3. laughter, lots and lots of belly laughs

4. biking, we’re doing a self guided winery tour by bike

5. quality time with Mike I’ve been a little out of sorts lately so quality time between us has been lacking. I’m looking forward to getting back to myself and sharing the whole me with Mike.

I’ll be back in DC on the 11th and should be back to the blog sometime that week.  Ok, gotta go! Cabs coming in 20.

Have a great week my friends!

What do you look forward to on vacation?

 

 

link love

Posted on by jplatt27

There is nothing better than waking up on Saturday morning, getting coffee, and reading. Each Friday, I’ll share some links that I think are worthy of falling into that precious Saturday morning time.

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1. We’re heading on vacation with a group of friends this weekend so this post on traveling in a group caught my eye. I definitely agree with tips 5 and 6, even for life in general.

2. Mmm, mmm, mmm. This may have to be the first recipe we make when we get back from vacation.

3. This post about writing caught my eye. It’s definitely one I want to re-read at some point.

4. Jess Lively wrote a post on praying and relationships this week. Though I’m a little nervous to try it, I definitely think it would be immensely powerful.

5. I’ve definitely been thinking about how vacations fit in with life, how I want to spend my vacation doing simple things I wish I did all the time in my “normal” life. I even wrote a newsletter about the vacations you daydream about and how to use that inform your life.  This post about escaping to reality versus escaping from reality made me think even more.

new on love always, jo this week:

vacation state of mind

Posted on by jplatt27

This weekend Mike and I went to Charlottesville, VA to visit our friends Jess and Peter.  We left Saturday morning for a nice drive, stopping for Bethesda Bagel on our way out of town.

When we arrived, Jess had lunch waiting for us.  We sat down to a hearty lunch of chorizo, spinach, and cannellini bean stew with french bread.  What a nice welcome.

{Afton Mountain Vineyards, the mountains, the fresh air, amazing!}

Right after lunch we headed out for some wine tasting at two of Peter and Jess’ favorite wineries in the area: Pollak Vineyards and Afton Mountain Vineyards. Luckily Peter and Jess are veteran wine-tasters and brought snacks for the car ride in between–I was feeling the wine after the first round and started housing Chex-mix. I don’t know what it is, when I drink a lot I can. not. stop. eating.

We went back to their house for some down time before heading out to dinner.  We had dinner on the Downtown Mall before going to see Michael Jackson tribute band, Who’s Bad.  It was such a fun night–so different than anything we usually do.

On Sunday morning we relaxed before heading to brunch.  And when I say relax, I mean I really relaxed. I laid in bed reading Gone Girl all morning.  It was so amazing.

My state of mind was so different than a usual Sunday morning.  I was completely relaxed, the only thing on my agenda was to read my book. I didn’t have any of that gotta-do-this, should-do-that anxiety that usually plagues me on weekends. Nope, just lay here and read.  I think it’s because we were on vacation.  Vacation mindset is so different than normal life mindset.  Just relax, hang around, no expectations or pressure to produce anything, to do anything other than enjoy yourself.

Now that I’ve had a taste of this vacation mindset, I’m inspired to incorporate this mindset into my normal life. It’s certainly going to be a challenge.  Just this morning I woke up feeling like I should be doing x, y, or z even though it’s President’s Day and I’m off today.  I’ll have to continue to remind myself that I will get things done and that relaxing, when done fully, is so worth it, so enjoyable.

Am I the only one that has this problem?  

 

 

 

scenes from my summer home

Posted on by jplatt27

I spent the past week at my “summer home,” house-sitting Zoey and Nikko again.

Mike was actually out of town last weekend and had college buddies in town this weekend, so I had a nice little summer retreat for the past two weekends.

I read, wrote, napped, cooked a little, relaxed a lot.

I had a great week in a beautiful home and enjoyed a break from my normal routine.  But I am so glad to be back to my apartment, my bed, my DVR, my couch, and my husband.

If you had a summer retreat, what would you do?

What do you miss about your home when you’re away?

St. Lucia Recap

Posted on by jplatt27

I spent a fun-filled, sun-filled, week with my sisters and Sarah, Melissa’s girlfriend, in St. Lucia last month.

Now that we’re older and live kind of far from one another (me in DC, Melissa in Florida and Chrissy and Becca 3 hours apart in PA), it’s rare that we get to spend much time together.  Of course, now that we’re actually friends, we rarely see one another. So when Chrissy and Becca’s spring breaks fell on the same week this year, we took the opportunity to go on vacation together.

We had a really really good time.  We talked. We laughed. We laid on the beach and then by the pool.  We ate a lot.  Napped a lot.  Read a lot.  I emailed back and forth with Mike. I didn’t blow dry my hair or wear makeup the entire week. It was glorious.

Chrissy, Becca, and I shared a room for the week and it was kind of like a slumber party.  One night Chrissy plucked my eyebrows, making me bleed only once, and yanking a thick piece of skin one other time. I straightened Becca’s hair before dinner out one night. We talked about our relationships, watched the Bachelor finale. You know, girl stuff.

We went on two cool excursions off the resort. Mid-week we went SNUBA diving: a combination of scuba and snorkeling. It was amazing to see the schools of fish rushing by me…they swam so fast and so close to me.  Incredible.

On our last day we did a triple adventure: jeep ride, zip-lining, and hiking to a waterfall.

The triple adventure was awesome.  We rode in a jeep on the way there and the tour guide gave us some information about the island. He asked two questions and I answered them both right: 1) What is the best part about St. Lucia? The people! 2) Why are there so many bananas in St. Lucia? No monkeys!

The zipline was super fun.  There were 12 lines total, some higher, longer, faster than others.  It was so cool to be flying over the jungle. And it really wasn’t that scary.  Luckily we moved through the course pretty quickly.  I think if I had too much time to think about how high we were it would’ve been a lot scarier. But we were the first group on the course in the morning so we went right on each one.  After the zipline, we drove a short way and hiked down into the jungle to see a waterfall.  We brought our suits and climbed up onto the rocks in front of it for a photo shoot.  It felt very Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue like. Then we drove about an hour in the jeep back to the resort, caribbean music playing and the wind in our hair.  Good good times.

 

It was a good week.  A really good week. Did we get on each other’s nerves?  Of course we did.  We’re sisters. Would I vacation with all 3 of my sisters again? Definitely.

 

 

Back in Action (almost)

Posted on by jplatt27

I had a wonderful time in St. Lucia.  Lots of pool/beach time, quality time with my sisters, an afternoon nap daily, it was awesome.

Now I’m back in DC and happy to be home.  But I thought I’d come back refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. Yeah, not so much.  I’m. so. tired. And all I want to do is get through the day and get back in bed. So this is all I’ve got for now. I hope to be back tomorrow or later this week with a more interesting post.

I’d love to know:

How was your week?  Are you having gorgeous spring weather like we are in DC?

See you in a week!

Posted on by jplatt27

I’m off to St. Lucia!  I’m looking forward to lots of sun, relaxation, strawberry margaritas, and quality time with my sisters.  I landed in Florida last night and I’m already completely relaxed.  After just one night with my sisters, I’m so glad we’re doing this.

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to get lost in a good book so I never travel without a boatload of reading material. I got a couple books from the library, picked up a new one from Barnes and Noble, and added one from my shelf.  I used a gift card from Christmas to buy the whole first season of Downton Abbey for my iPad (LOVE traveling with this!) which will be perfect if I get antsy on the plane. Mike got me a little travel kit too: a copy of Women’s Health and some peanut M&Ms. So I’m all set!

I hope I’ll be able to blog from the resort but I’m not sure if that’s in the cards.  If not, I’ll be sure to share pictures when I get back!

In the meantime, I hope you have  a great weekend!  Oh, and Happy Daylight Savings!

a night at stone manor

Posted on by jplatt27

as a wedding gift, my girlfriends gave mike and me a night at a bed and breakfast in virginia wine country. i picked mike up from the airport on sunday afternoon and we headed to stone manor bed and breakfast for a night of relaxation and catching up.  from reagan national airport, it was just a short hour and 20 minute drive into the rolling hills of northern virginia.  it’s always so nice to get out of the city for a bit, there’s something about seeing grass and trees as you drive.  it feels free.

we arrived at stone manor around 2:30, a half-hour before check-in, but were warmly welcomed by owners spencer and beth.

spencer took us right into the kitchen, offered us a glass of wine and took us on a tour of stone manor. spencer bought the house in 1986 and shortly after he met his “sweetheart” beth, they began transforming the house into the manor it is today.

our room, the manor suite, was the last stop on our tour.  after we put our things down and spent some time looking around, we settled in for a much needed afternoon nap. boy was the bed comfortable: soft but firm and those pillows! ah, it was so warm and cozy, perfect for a cold, rainy october afternoon. after our nap, we chose a movie, the pelican brief, from the dvd collection and got back in bed to watch a bit.  after about 45 mins (remember i’m not a movie person), it was time for a break.

mike went to read in the library and i followed shortly after looking for the wireless password. i heard some people in the kitchen and went to ask for the password.  beth was there with another guest and offered some homemade bread and hummus, followed by another glass of wine.  i stayed chatting for a bit and soon enough it was time for dinner.

at spencer and beth’s recommendation, mike and i headed to magnolia’s at the mill in purcellville, just a short 15 minute drive away. i wanted to stop and take pictures of the beautiful tree covered mountains in the distance and the chimney smoke billowing through the trees but it was raining so i just looked intently out the window. our meal was absolutely delicious (check back at 4pm for a post about dinner) and we drove back to stone manor with full bellies.

we took a relaxing bath in the huge jacuzzi tub using the bath salts beth made just for us. as i sit under blankets in our drafty apartment, i wish i was back in the warmth of the bath.  the warm water and scent of the lavender in bath salts was so calming.  we both commented how relaxed our muscles felt when we got out.  after the bath, mike watched the phillies and i blogged for a while.  though our stay was coming to an end as we went to bed for the night, we still had breakfast ahead of us in the morning.

a six course breakfast was served in the morning. the first course, pineapple and cheese grits was served in a martini glass. it sounds weird but was actually pretty good.  as beth said “anything with a pound of butter and ritz crackers has to be good.” juice was a blend of orange, pomegranate, and blueberry.  another guest proclaimed “this is the best juice i’ve ever had” and i might have to agree. it was so sweet but light and refreshing all at the same time.  next up was “the comfort food of the breakfast world, think of it as macaroni and cheese,” beth said. it was two kinds of potatoes, 3 or 4 types of cheese, heavy cream, and eggs. then we had sweet onion, sweet pepper, and cheese in a puff pastry. i know you’re wondering how we managed to fit anymore in at this point, but we did. you would’ve found a way to fit these in too: corn griddle cakes (beth’s great grandmother’s recipe), two types of homemade sausage–pork sausage with and chicken sausage with mango and habanero pepper, and rancher’s style thick cut bacon. finally to end the meal was a chocolate peanut butter muffin. this was an amazing meal made with love.

we had such a nice time at stone manor bed and breakfast. if you’re looking for rest and relaxation, i definitely recommend a night (or two).

thanks, girls!

labor day in ocean city, md

Posted on by jplatt27

we had a nice long weekend in ocean city, md with mike’s parents, his brother, and his brother’s girlfriend, gayle.  we stayed in a beautiful ocean-view condo right on the boardwalk. the weather was perfect: sunny and warm (but not hot) with a nice breeze.

we enjoyed the sun, the sand, and the boardwalk food.

highlights of weekend include drinks with dave and gayle on the boardwalk, my first fried oreo, reading a few chapters of pillars of the earth without falling asleep, multiple icre-cream cones, sweet corn on the cob, and dinner at uncle george’s house on the bay.

we all wished we had one more day but mother nature made it  a little bit easier for us to leave when she brought a cool rain this morning.