Christopher Guy

Christopher Guy by angie-garcia on Polyvore

Christopher Guy

Christopher Guy by angie-garcia on Polyvore

Christopher Guy

Christopher Guy by angie-garcia on Polyvore

Christopher Guy

Christopher Guy by angie-garcia on Polyvore

Traveling With My Best Friends

      It may seem a little far fetched but after taking five trips with my roommates (who I've lived with for 3 out of the 4 years of college) we have decided that our travels will not end after graduation. In fact, we have already compiled a list of the places we hope to visit in the future. As of now our plan is to go on a vacation a year. We know that all these trips will obviously require us to have a steady form of income so our next trip will not be until next year.

Places We've Gone/ Stayed:

• Palm Springs- Palm Canyon Resort
• Las Vegas- Planet Hollywood Towers Westgate
• Cabo San Lucas- Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach
• Lake Tahoe- Horizon Casino Resort
• Newport Beach- Private Beach House 

Our Big Plans:

• Major U.S. cities: 
•  New Orleans
• Seattle 
• Portland 
• New York
• Chicago
• Boston
• Miami
• Austin
• Atlanta 
• Europe (this will be in the distant future, when we are all more established) 

      Individually we have gone to some of the places listed above, but the point of these trips is to experience them together. As the trips get closer we will do more research about exactly where to stay and what to do. Any tips and previous experiences are welcome!

CABO After...

       For once Sonoma State got it right! They actually scheduled spring break at the same time as other colleges and now I can finally say I experienced a "real" college spring break, only took me four years. As I said in my last post, I didn't really know what to expect from this trip, all I really knew was what everyone had told me. "Mexico is dangerous!" and "Don't drink the water." I can now say that both of those statements did not ring true this trip. I don't know if it was because we stayed at a luxury resort or because there were so many people my age around, but I did not feel unsafe at any point of the trip. No one tried to rip us off and all the cabs we took were either provided by our hotel or by the bars/clubs we were at. Our hotel wouldn't even let us in the front gate without showing our ID's and comparing it with who was registered in our room. As for not drinking the water, its a lot easier said than done. I obviously wasn't drinking straight out of the tap, but it was very difficult for any of the girls I was with to remember that we couldn't order drinks with ice. We had our fair share of ice and luckily no one got sick. But now on to the fun stuff...

Mango Deck

   
PLACES TO GO:

• Day: Mango Deck- It is everything you image when you think about spring break (Wet T-shirt contests, booty shaking contests, drinking competitions). It is an out door restaurant/bar located right on the beach and by 1pm is packed with spring breakers. ALL drinks are two-for-one so you can drink a lot, without paying a lot. 
• Evening: Booze Cruise- For $35 a person, my friends and I went on a 2-hour booze cruise, with an unlimited supply of alcohol. It may not have been the best alcohol, but it definitely did the job. 
• Night: El Squid Roe- It is a bar/restaurant during the day but by 11pm it is THE place to be. With wall-to-wall college students, blaring dance music, and cocktail waitresses walking around with jello shots, Squid Roe is the epitome of Cabo spring break. 

LESSONS I LEARNED:

• BRING CASH: Even though you may think its unsafe to bring a large sum of cash with you, its the smartest thing to do. Lock it up in the safe in your hotel room and only bring out what you need for the day/night. One of my roommates learned this the hard way. Once she ran out of cash she started using her debit card, a very bad decision. What the bank doesn't tell you is how many international charges you will rack up every time you swipe your card. Not sure if it is just Bank of America, but a minimum $1 was withdrawn from her account each time she used her card. Also, the ATM's only dispense Pesos, which just adds more confusion. Every place we went to, along with cabs, accepted American money, so my number one tip would be to BRING CASH!!!
• LEARN TO BARTER: Whether you're buying something from a vendor or renting jet ski, NEVER accept the first offer you get. When you walk down the beach there are countless vendors trying to sell you anything and everything. When we decided we wanted to go jet skiing, we were able to talk the guy down from $50 a jet ski to $30. By the end of our trip we were paying $2 for headbands that we bought for $8 the first day. Just keep in mind they always offer you the highest price, in hopes you are dumb enough to accept it. 
• MEXICAN FOOD in Mexico isn't as great as you would think it would be. I don't know if I'm just used to Americanized Mexican food, but I was greatly disappointed by almost everything I ate. 

CABO Before....

       The first thing that has always come to mind when I think of Spring Break is CABO. In just 2 days, I will finally get to experience the ultimate Spring Break. After months of planning, the trip my friends and I have been waiting for most of college will finally be here. This will be the first time we have all traveled out of the country together so I do not even know what to expect. When telling people I am going to Cabo, the first reaction is get is, "Mexico is so dangerous!" From what I've been told, the area we are going is very "Americanized" so hopefully we do not have much to worry about.
       So far all I really know about this trip is when we are going and where we are staying. One of the girls I am going with has a time-share in Cabo at resort is called Pueblo Bonito, Sunset Beach. It is about 20 minutes from downtown and the resort offers a free shuttle. Other than this, I am leaving most of the planning to the other girls. I am just looking forward to laying all day, and drinking all night.

Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach 

Tips Before You Leave: 

• Make sure your passport is current (make copies) 
• Call your bank and make them aware of your travels so that your card does not get frozen for suspicious activity 
• Contact cellphone provider to find out if your plan works in Mexico (for Verizon it is 99 cents a minute for calls!) 

Price Breakdown/Budget: 

• Flight: $400 (from LAX) 
• Room (5 nights): $200/girl 
• Dinner and Drinks: $300 (hopefully we won't spend this much) 
• Fun Activities: $150

I'm not really sure if this is a realistic budget and won't know until I'm actually there. After the trip, I will give my readers a recap of everything that went down on SPRING BREAK 2012!

The Best Weekend to Live in Sonoma County

First stop: Trione 

        This week I am going to talk about place about that is familiar to all of us, Sonoma County. People travel from all over the United States and world, to visit Sonoma Wine County. Each year more than 7 million people travel to a place that many of us call home during our years at Sonoma State. Sonoma Wine Country includes regions such as Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, and Los Carneros, along with nine other areas that are labeled American Viticulture Area's. Best known for producing great wine, Sonoma County also has a variety of upscale restaurants and other tourist attractions. For the sake of this post, I am going to focus on the wine tasting aspect. 

         One of the most exciting times to live in Sonoma County, in my opinion, are the weekends barrel tasting occurs. During these two consecutive weekends in March, an association of wineries called Wine Road, puts on an event that hundreds of winieries have participated in for the past 34 years. During barrel tasting weekends, wineries sample their wines that are still in the barrels and allow customers to buy “futures.” This year Barrel Tasting took place last weekend, March 2-4 and this upcoming weekend, March 9-11. Over the years Barrel Tasting has turned from event attended by wine connoisseurs to a social event attended by large groups of college students, at the distaste of a number of wineries.

         The past two years I have attended Barrel Tasting, and let me just tell you, it is a great time. Each year my friends and I have rented buses to take us from winery to winery, a trend that many of my peers partake in as well.  Tickets can be purchased ahead of time on Wine Road's website, which is linked above, or day of, at any of the participating wineries. For one flat rate, participants can visit as many wineries they choose to during this three day period. This year, a pre-sale, weekend pass was around $33. This is definitely money well spent. 
         The group I went with last weekend consisted of two, 21 person buses, for a grand total of 42 people. If you plan on having a large group it is important to check Wine Road's website for a list of wineries, because some do not welcome large groups. From the hours of 11am-5pm our buses stopped at 4 different wineries, Trione, Wilson, Mozzacco, and Armida (we only got "asked to leave" one), and ended in Healdsburg Square. These are only a small number of wineries that participate in this event and depending on how many people you go with and what kind of "vibe" you are looking for, the options seem to be endless. 
       If you have never experienced Barrel Tasting you are missing out! I can promise that you will not regret going, whether or not you even like wine. 

My Favorite Places in the World...so far

        The summer going into my senior year of high school my mom surprised my sister and I with a trip to Europe. Although I had always wanted to go to Europe, I was very skeptical about going because I didn't want to miss out on summer fun at home for two weeks. Looking back I realize how dumb I was for even questioning going. There are so many amazing places in Europe and I went to six countries over our two week trip, but for this post I am going to focus on the place I literally fell in LOVE with.

Climbing the Eiffel Tower in the Rain

      Three days into our trip we found ourselves in Paris. I had always heard amazing this about Paris so I assumed I would love it...wrong. Between the rain, gloomy weather, and language barrier I was miserable. After visiting the Eiffel Tower the next day I had had enough. I was miserable and wanted to end my trip then and there. I called my dad and begged him to book me a flight home. The next country we planned on going to was Spain and I had no desire to make it there. Who knew that my dad's refusal to buy me an impromptu plane ticket would be the best thing that ever happened.
       The next day we took the train to Madrid and arrived in a beautiful, bustling city. It was when we arrived at our hotel that I realized I was going to love it. The rain from Paris was replaced with beautiful blue skies and sunshine. Our hotel was in a perfect location, walking distance from restaurants, shopping, and other tourist attractions. If you have ever seen The Bourne Ultimatum, the scenes filmed in Spain pretty much depict exactly where we stayed. I loved everything about Madrid, even the museums my mom forced us to go to. There was a great nightlife and I got my first taste of the "electronic club scene." Two nights later we decided to move onto our next destination, Barcelona.

View of Las Ramblas from our hotel

    I didn't think it would be possible to love a city more than Madrid, Barcelona proved me wrong. Not only did it have the city feel that Madrid had to offer, it also had the beach! Our hotel was located on Las Ramblas, probably the most recognizable landmark in Barcelona. From the window of our hotel we could see, not to mention hear everything going on in the streets below us. Barcelona had a much more relaxed feel than the busy city of Madrid. It was in Barcelona that I experienced my first nude beach, not exactly my favorite memory of the trip. Barcelona had the most beautiful and unique architecture and is well known for the work of Antoni Gaudi.
    As you can tell by everything I have said so far, I LOVE SPAIN. I cannot wait to travel there again and advantage of everything else the country has to offer, five days was nowhere near long enough of a time to experience everything in these two amazing cities.

 NEXT WEEK I WILL GO INTO DETAIL ABOUT WHERE TO STAY, EAT, AND VISIT!

If You Do One Thing in LIfe...TRAVEL!

Traveling is something I have always enjoyed. There is nothing like experiencing new places and meeting new people. No matter how much you plan, there is always an unknown when you travel to a new place. In this blog, I will talk about my personal traveling experiences, the good and the bad, give tips and suggestions regarding traveling, and also explore new destinations that I dream of traveling to. Some of the best places I have eaten and stayed at on my trips were thanks to suggestions from others.  Hopefully my insight will inspire people to travel to new destinations and help inexperienced travelers. When it comes to traveling it is very important to be flexible and open to new experiences, this is something I learned the hard way. You cannot always count on things going according to plan so if you are a meticulous planner, it is important to remember that one thing going wrong will not ruin your entire trip. The most important thing to remember when it comes to traveling is, ENJOY YOURSELF!

VIVA LAS VEGAS

WET REPUBLIC @ MGM

I know they say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but for the sake of this blog I'll give you a little taste of my experience traveling to Vegas this past summer. From partying with B-List celebrities to getting money thrown at you, Vegas is literally like no where else. To begin, it all starts with who you go with. In my case, I went with 5 of the craziest girls I know. I can't speak for guys, but as a girl I can say there is nothing better than being a girl in Vegas. 
                                                             After doing both, flying and driving, I would definitely recommend flying. Who wants to drive home from Vegas after a weekend of constant drinking, it is literally miserable. If you book a flight far enough in advance they tend to be purchased for under $200. With gas prices these days, and depending where you are traveling from, driving is almost, if not more expensive. 
   When it comes to booking a hotel, DO YOUR RESEARCH! My roommates and I scoured the Internet for months before deciding which hotel had the best deal to offer for what we were looking for. Weekdays are obviously less expensive than weekends. After deciding exactly what we wanted out of a hotel, we decided on a two-bedroom suite at the Planet Hollywood Towers. Complete with a full kitchen and living room, it was everything we were looking for. In total the room was around $1300 for 3 nights and divided by 6 girls it was definitely worth it. No one had to worry about sleeping on the couch or not having enough room to get ready.  
    Vegas in the summer is better than anything you could imagine. Pool parties all day, then rallying and drinking all night. I never thought I would see the sun come up 3 straight days in a row. Sleep is the LAST thing on anyone's mind. Each night we went to a different night club, some nights more than one.         


Tips: 

• Bring CASH- it is necessary for cabs and gambling of course
• PLAN AHEAD- don't just think you can go to dinner at some celebrity chef's restaurant without a reservation
• CABS/LIMOS- traveling with a group of 6, we found out that we do not fit in cabs, even the vans. Limos offer flat rates which divided by a large number of people isn't very expensive. However in my case, it would have been cheaper to take 2 cabs because everywhere we traveled were such short distances. 
• EMBRACE IT- not everything will go according to plan, you may not get into the hottest new clubs or get bottle service where every you go, but if you keep a positive attitude and open mind there is NO WAY you won't have the time of your life.
   
• BE CAREFUL and WATCH YOUR DRINKS (especially you ladies)
  
  
• PLACES TO STAY:
  The Cosmopolitan (beautiful)
  MGM Grand(everything under one roof)
  Planet Hollywood Towers West Gate (great atmosphere and price)