Quick tip: if you ever want a relatively cheap trip with a bit of international flavor, consider a trip to Puerto Rico. You can fly here for the price of tickets to Florida ($339 If you look at the right time.) A majority of the people speak English, no need to exchange money and the beaches are beautiful. Flamenco Beach in Culebra is often on many top 10 beaches in the world lists. Since it's also a U.S. territory, you can leave your passport at home!
On a little bit of blog hiatus working on these exciting projects :) But I will be back soon with some new finds!
In other news. I signed up for Instagram, so follow me @looeyview. Honestly, I'm a bit overwhelmed. I don't really understand filter or why we have to # everything. Why the heck do the photos have to be square? Or how come hours magically disappeared when I sign onto Instagram #stilllearning #oldlady (did I do that right?)
Yay to finally getting some snow in Louisville! Yes, it's a little hectic driving to work and to places around in general but it brings such a lovely change to the landscape. While my husband worked, I took a little hiking expedition of the woods behind our house. Got a few scrapes but also found some pretty little things along the way. I hope you're staying warm and enjoying your snow day.
The sun finally decided to come out to play today so we packed up our bikes and headed to the water front for a nice brisk ride. We crossed the Big Four pedestrian bridge to Jeffersonville and found a nice surprise!
The Park in Jeffersonville is finished!
The Park at the base of Big Four on Jeffersonville is finally finished and it looks great! Stop by if you haven't been yet. They also just installed 1,500 "dancing" lights, a $2 million project, on the bridge. Come check out the supposedly spectacular display, it should start from dusk to around 1 a.m.
We ended our ride with a beautiful sunset. A Saturday definitely well spent!
I've been extreme couponing. $23 worth of stuff for free and an extra $1.22 to go towards a bag of chips.
The holidays mean parties and a lot of time spent offline eating
Crappy weather outdoors resulted in zero motivation to do anything that’s not couch related.
4. I’ve been researching, i.e. eating at lots of places to gather information for my blog entries.
Reasons why you should keep checking back on my blog :) :
Love soul food? Wait until you hear about this place, you definitely won’t find it on any map. Or how about a soul place that’s $1 for everything on the menu?
Love soups and ramen? Coming soon, an entry all about great places for Asian noodles that’s less disappointing than Rumplings.
Love weird and bizarre food? I’ve got your guide to tongue and brain tacos, pig feet and ox tail, black eggs, the most hated/loved fruit in all of Asia and other bizarre food, Louisville edition.
Video series on local Louisville restaurants that’s not located in NuLu or Bardstown Road.
Tips and tricks on cheap travels.
And maybe a blog entry on extreme couponing to help you save money for eating out!
Until then, keep checking back for more off the beaten path eats and activities. Have a happy and delicious holiday season, friends.
I have a bad case of wanderlust today, probably brought on by the change in the season and the 1,300+ photos from a honeymoon long ago. Suddenly, I long to be lost in a foreign city, to see and to experience new things for the first time.
Wanderlust comes and goes for me, easily and temporary appeased by a short trip out of town or an excursion somewhere new, but it never truly goes away. I jump on every opportunity to travel, for a short trip or a long adventure. Some people can travel once or twice and get it out of their system, I can't. It's as much a part of me as my dark graying hair and short stature.
Why am I really writing this? I guess I want to share my love of travel with others and encourage more people to get out of their comfort zone and explore what the world has to offer. It’s very easy and very tempting to put ourselves in an insular bubble, confined by the comfort of familiarity and secured by beliefs reinforced by likeminded friends and family. It can be dangerous and frankly, very boring. Travel challenges our world views and allows us to look at ourselves and our world from a different perspective. It’s a chance to see ourselves as part of humanity.
Grand Canyon, USA
Those majestic mountains in the distance, the grand canyons of the West, the vast blue oceans and even the ruins of Rome and Great Wall of China, although claimed by a single nation or state, are really all parts of our shared human experience and history. We owe it to ourselves to see the world, a unique wonder of the universe, and it belongs to us all.
We all have reasons why we can't travel. When we're young, you have all the time in the world, but no money. As a working professional, we might have a little bit of money but no time. Take longer trips in far off places when you’re young, time is your friend. A little money goes a long way in developing countries and you can rough and tough through it. It’s okay to take shorter trips when you’re older, you’ll appreciate each and every day more when you know time is not on your side.
Traveling is all about balancing between two extremes. Spend money but also be financially responsible, opt for a shorter trip or skip that designer bag and fancy meals to save money. Throw caution and your maps to the wind and explore, but plan and research first your destination and surrounding so you can be prepared for anything. Be friendly and talk to strangers but don’t be naïve or too trusting of everyone you meet. Be spontaneous, do something risky and different, but don’t forget to bring a trusty friend, like your common sense.
I’ve been very lucky and had many opportunities to travel. If I had to do it again, I would spend a year in another country, study abroad for an extended period and do backpack trips across the continents. I had a false sense of obligation and duty back then. But thinking back, I wonder if it was more out of fear of the unknown. So if you’re young and in college, don’t let anything be your excuse, just do it. When you’re older, your life is no longer just about you, opportunities to travel are hindered by responsibilities and obligations.
The world is a book and those who stay in one place only read only one chapter, you end up missing out on a big chunk of that big wonderful story. Start on that next chapter and see what story that book can tell you.
Excuse all the ramblings, I really just want to share these photos :) Photo creds to Frank B.
It’s been a full month since I made updates on any activities. It’s been a busy month! So I’m rolling out four posts for each of the week I’ve missed. What’s been going on lately?
My husband finished his first Ironman ever this past weekend, that’s 2.4 miles swim in the Ohio River, 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running, all in one day! I’m proud of his accomplishment and so is he. So proud in fact that you’ll see him decked out in Ironman gears for the rest of the year!
This year marks the 20th year our family has been in the U.S. and the first time vacationing together EVER as a family. A little bit hectic now that there are several editions to the family. But we had a great time at the beach and spending time together as a family. My favorite of course is that my sisters did all the cooking.
We’re involved in several community projects that I’m super excited about. I’m currently working with a group of amazing ladies revamping our Oral History Project. We’ll be interviewing and recording stories of Vietnamese living in Louisville, sharing them on-line and archiving them at the U of L library. Our project won the Kentucky Historical Society Award a few years ago. Check back for updates on this. We’ll also be participating in the WorldFest and the first ever Louisville Dragon Boat Festival.
I can’t wait for other adventures awaiting us the rest of the year.
Friday Food Fest For Friends or F5 (yes, cheesy I know) is something we started a few years back with a group of friends to try new eateries around town. So every last Friday of the month we got together to try a new restaurant. It's a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone, eat some delicious food and catch up with friends. It's less intimidating when you have a group of people with you. Give it a try!
Last weekend was definitely well spent, 4 local fairs, 1 Quest and a lot of mulching done.
Louisville Springfest on Friday was a little less festive this year, fewer vendors and fewer visitors probably due to the colder than normal weather. The chicken food truck I looked forward to wasn't there either. But it was still a nice stroll. See that green tent, make sure you stop if you see them this month. You can roll the wheel to wind a free prize, so far I got a free ticket to to the Stephen Foster Musical and free admission to Locus Grove.
St. Matthews Festival, a street fair filled with local business and vendors promoting their products. Lots of opportunities to sign up for give aways and fun freebies. The kids zone had a ping pong table too. The music was playing all day long and lots of greasy foods to try
Not really a lot going on Bardstown Bound. Lula's was giving away free samples and a nice old man was doing portraits for free at the same corner. It didn't seem like a lot of businesses were participating, but it's still a nice day to stroll down this busy street. Beer festival was going full swing though with lots of people trying out the beers at mid-city mall.
Louisville Quest is still one of my favorite events! We got there at 2:30 p.m. and found out we had only until 3:00 p.m. to visit 5 sites, complete a task and return to the Visitor's Center for our free Louisville t-shirt. It was a mad dash around town, lots of teamwork and illegal drivings but we made it back in records time. It really felt like the Amazing Race and the kids had so much fun.
I could spent hours at the Buy Local Fair browsing the many arts, crafts and foods booths here, all made locally. There are so many beautiful handcraft products and foods to look at and try. It was also an ideal setting to sit back, enjoyed local foods and listen to the music with the Ohio river as the background.
My mom blamed my dad for it. I silently thanked him everyday. I was eight years old when my dad took me on my first trip out of our small village, a week by the ocean and another in the mountains. I still remember the wonder of seeing the ocean for the first time and feeling invincible standing in the clouds and seeing miles of green beneath. Ever since, I have this insatiable thirst for traveling that had became an intrinsic part of who I am.
Twenty two countries and countless adventures later, I've made Kentucky home. This is where my heart is. It has been my home base for traveling in past years but this year I won't be able to travel internationally. So my goal this year is to be a hometown tourist and to explore and share hidden parts of Kentucky with the rest of the world.
Last year, Louisville, Kentucky was named as one of the top 10 travel destinations in the United States, http://www.lonelyplanet.com/american-samoa/travel-tips-and-articles/77583. The booming bourbon industry, lucrative horse racing culture and the emerging foodie scene make it an attractive destination for many. There are already a lot of amazing sites already dedicated to the mainstream tourist attractions. So I won't focus on those.
I'm more of a backdoor traveler, more interested in discovering the off the beaten tracks destinations, cheap/good places to eat, small local venues, etc. So if this is your style, join me on my adventure to discover my sweet Kentucky home this year!
