Thieves in Buenos Aires

Thieves in Buenos Aires

Kevin and I got home from Portland on Wednesday, January 2 and turned right back around for our first business trip of the year. Our first destination was Baltimore, Maryland. We flew to Baltimore on Friday January 4 and arrived around 6:30pm. We collected our bags, picked up our rental car and drove to my friend Lucy’s house. Lucy is a great friend of mine from high school and she lives about 15 minutes from the Baltimore airport. We saw her and her kids in July, but this time we got to see the whole family (mom, dad, and her husband)! We didn’t stay too long, but it was so great to see everyone! We got to the hotel around 10pm and went down to the lobby to grab a bite to eat. We fell asleep around midnight.

We went to the ship around 9am and were finished with work around 11am. We arranged a late check out and didn’t have to leave the hotel until 2pm. We found a pub called The Pickle Pub and had a delicious lunch. We went back to the hotel to shower and pack before heading to the airport. That evening we flew to Buenos Aires! We used a few upgrade certificates to upgrade to First Class from Baltimore to Miami and arrived in Miami around 8pm. We had a 4-hour layover in Miami and flew to Buenos Aires around midnight. We slept through most of the flight and landed around 11:30am on Sunday, January 6. We got to the hotel around 1pm and went straight up to our room. We changed into our pool gear and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the pool before taking a short nap. We found a Parilla (Argentinian Steakhouse) right across the street from the hotel so we went out for dinner around 10pm. The food was AMAZING! I had a steak with Gruyere cream sauce and Kevin had a steak with a peppercorn sauce. They were fantastic! We also enjoyed a great bottle of Malbec with our dinner! We fell asleep around 1am.

Welcome to Argentina!

 The restaurant where we ate dinner.

We woke up on Monday around 1pm and decided to go out shopping on Florida Street. Florida Street is a pretty big tourist attraction filled with tourist shops, malls and restaurants. We have been there many times before but none of the visits were nearly as memorable as this one. While we were walking around, I became the victim of pickpocketing! It happened so fast and I am still re-playing the moment in my head. The thief got away with my iPhone! Looking back on the moment, we are lucky that it was just a phone and not any form of ID, credit card, or money, but it is still devastating and a pain in the butt to “fix.”

Here’s how it all went down: I had my phone in an outside pocket of my purse without a zipper – a mistake that I was aware of before the phone was even taken. I checked the pocket to see if the phone was still there, because I must have had a sense of what was to come, and told myself to move it to a different pocket (with a zipper). For some reason at that moment I didn’t act on the thought and we continued walking – ironically, right past some local police officers. About 30 seconds later, while we were crossing a major intersection with lots of people around, I went back into the same pocket to move the phone and it was gone, just like that! I felt nothing! I told Kevin my phone was gone and I think for a quick minute he thought I was joking. We started pacing the area trying to see if we could catch anything suspicious, but it was useless. These thieves are clever! We called Kevin’s parents to have them try to lock the phone but they were not home, so we found the closest hotel to use their computer. Within 15 minutes of the incident the phone was set to erase as soon as someone tried to access the internet. The problem we faced was that the phone was in Airplane mode. I keep my phone in this mode when we travel so I don’t get charged for incoming phone calls, but it ended up being a real problem. I also didn’t have a passcode on the phone, so anything stored on the phone, that doesn’t require internet access, was accessible to these jerks! Basically, because the phone was in Airplane mode, none of the messages we sent to lock and erase the phone would be sent until someone tries to access the internet. It is my hope that these people don’t want the personal information but just want the device to restore back to the factory settings and re-sell it. To be safe, Kevin and I went back to our hotel to deal with the aftermath. We called AT&T to suspend the service on the phone and changed any necessary passwords. To this day, the phone has still not been erased.

Needless to say, after the excitement of the day, we were not too keen on going back out. Instead, we hung out at the hotel and crocheted some hats. We enjoyed our dinner the night before so much that we decided to go back again. It was close to the hotel, comfortable, and delicious. We ended up ordering the exact same dinner plus Proveletta (grilled Provolone cheese with olive oil and oregano). It was nice to get out of the hotel and get our mind off of the situation, as much as possible. I had a very hard time falling asleep that night as I re-played the situation over and over again in my head, but eventually drifted off.

The best empanada I have ever had!

Delicious Proveletta

The steaks are so simple, but so delicious!

Can't go wrong with a local Malbec.

We woke up around noon on Tuesday and went to the port around 1pm. When we got to the port, the ship was not there yet. It was scheduled to arrive at noon, but was not actually arriving until 4pm. We went back to the hotel and changed into our pool gear again. We ate lunch at the pool and then went back up to the room. We saw the ship pull in to the port around 3pm, so we went back to the port around 4:30pm. We were finished with work around 7:30pm and went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at the same Parilla and then packed our bags. 

Slow cooking the meat! 

Our flight left at 11am on Wednesday and we could not wait to get out of Argentina! The steaks and wine were wonderful, but we were not sad to leave! As we were leaving I felt like I was having a panic attack. The reality that we were leaving and my phone was not set in. I was very anxious and just couldn’t wait to get back to the States to deal with the situation!

We flew 9 hours from Buenos Aires to Miami, had a 4-hour layover in Miami and then flew to Tampa. We got to Tampa around 11:30pm and went to get our rental car. There was one person working at the rental car facility and there were about 10 people in front of us in line. It took over an hour to get our car and we did not leave with our rental car until 1:15am! By the time we got settled at our hotel it was 2:30am! Fortunately there was a gas station near the hotel with a Subway so we were able to get some food, but it was a crazy night!

We got to the ship around 10:45am on Thursday and were done with work around 1pm. The main goal for the day was to get a new phone, so we drove to a large shopping center with an Apple store to see what my options were. We ate lunch at an English Pub first and then proceeded to the AT&T store - we figured that was a better starting point than the Apple store. The news was as we expected…I could get a new phone, but it wouldn’t be cheap. We weighed all of our options and decided to upgrade to the iPhone 5. I had to sign a new 2-year contract to get any phone and the price difference between an iPhone 4s (which is what I had) and the iPhone 5, was not as much as I expected. If I was going to be “stuck” with this new phone for another 2-years, it only made sense to get the newest model. We signed all the paperwork and added an insurance plan and then went over to Best Buy to get a new case and screen protector. I felt a little more at ease having a new phone, but was still so frustrated with the situation. We spent the rest of the day at the hotel getting the new phone updated. I got a new computer for Christmas, and had not backed up the old phone to the new computer, so I got to start from scratch! We picked up Taco Bell for dinner and fell asleep around 11pm.

On Friday we flew from Tampa to JFK and JFK to Barcelona. We were upgraded to First Class from Tampa to JFK and sat in an exit row from JFK to Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona around 10:30am on Saturday January 12. We were unable to check-in to the hotel at that point in time so we dropped off our bags and walked around Las Ramblas for a few hours. We went to the Boqueria and went into sensory overload. This is a market full of fresh fruit, veggies, and meat. It is a very cool experience, but if you are sensitive to smells it may not be the best place to visit. We walked down to the end of the Rambla and then went to eat lunch at Flaherty’s, our favorite pub! We were able to check-in to our room at 2pm and we proceeded to nap until about 8:00pm. We went back to the pub at 10pm to watch the Broncos/Ravens game. I was so excited that they were showing the game, although I was very disappointed with the result of the game. Because the game went into double overtime, we closed down the bar. We almost didn’t get to see the end of the game because the bar was closing. We went back to the hotel at 3am and fell asleep around 4am!

Welcome to Barcelona!

The Boqueria

A candy stand in the boqueria. I love the colors in this photo!

Christopher Colon (Columbus) Statue at the end of Las Ramblas.

We woke up on Sunday at 2pm! We went to the pub for Sunday Roast and then walked around Las Ramblas. We walked over to the Cathedral and then went back to the hotel. We watched a movie and crocheted some hats and then had McDonald’s for dinner around 11pm.

The beautiful Cathedral in Barcelona.

Some of the hats we made on this trip!

We went to the ship at 10am on Monday and worked until about 2pm. We ate lunch on the ship and then went back to the hotel. We took another nap and woke up around 7:30. We went back to the pub for a quick bite and then packed our bags. We had a hard time falling asleep and only slept for about 2 hours before we left the hotel at 5:30am.

We finally flew home on Tuesday January 15. The incident in Buenos Aires really put a damper in the rest of our trip. We spent a lot of time sleeping, watching movies, and crocheting hats. We made almost 40 new hats in 12 days, so I guess something good came out of the unfortunate situation!

New Year's In Portland

On Friday, December 28, Kevin and I flew to Portland. This was a trip that was purely fun so we booked our flight with miles and ended up having to fly through Dallas in order to get to Portland. We were pleasantly surprised when we got a complimentary upgrade to first class from Dallas to Portland! We arrived in Portland around 3:00pm on Friday afternoon. Our great friends, Molly and Carl, picked us up from the airport and we went to dinner at Meighan and Ryan’s house. Meighan, Ryan, and their two girls are good friends of ours from Miami and they just moved up to Portland. It was great to be able to spend time with so many wonderful friends! Molly made homemade ravioli for dinner and it was delicious! We went to Molly and Carl’s house around 10pm and went to bed around 11. Kevin ended up getting the flu in the middle of the night so that changed our plans a little.

On Saturday Kevin rested at the house while Molly, Carl, Meighan, Ryan, the girls and I went to breakfast at a place called Voodoo Donuts. These were some of the most creative donuts I have ever seen. They had a glazed donut that was bigger than my head, donuts covered with fruit loops, donuts with bacon on top and more. I got one donut with Oreo cookies on top and one signature donut: the blood filled Voodoo Doll. It was a donut decorated like a voodoo doll and filled with raspberry filling. It was incredible! After donut’s we went back to the house to check on Kevin and then went to Powell’s Bookstore. Powell’s is the largest independently owned bookstore in the world and it was amazing! Kevin and I went when we were in Portland in 2009 and it was just as amazing this time! We started getting hungry and our meter was running low so we drove back toward the house and picked up Thai food for dinner. Ryan, Meighan and the girls left Molly and Carl’s around 7pm and the rest of us got into an intense game of Monopoly. At this point Kevin was feeling much better and we were so glad he was able to join in on the fun! I was the glorified winner of Monopoly striping everyone of all of their properties and money and ending up with $8,000 in my own pocket (too bad it wasn’t real money). We crashed around 11pm.

About to enjoy a little taste of heaven!

Voodoo doll donuts and bacon maple bars!

Molly and Riley enjoying their bacon maple bars!

Miss mouse loved "helping" Molly spin wool.

On Sunday we drove to a town called Hood River to visit some tasting rooms. Our first stop was the Full Sail Brewery. We ate lunch at Full Sail and sampled some of their beers. We were going to do a tour of the brewery, but the timing didn’t work out. Our second stop was the tasting room for Stoltz Vinyards. Because of the season, we weren’t able to go to the actual vineyards, but most of the vineyards have tasting rooms where you can sample the wines. We sampled 4 different wines and bought a bottle to bring home, before we moved on. Our third stop was the Cascade Cliffs tasting room. We sampled 4 more wines and bought another bottle and then went on to play in the snow! Riley (3), being from Florida, had never played in snow before so we went searching for some good powder. We were very close to Mt. Hood so there was plenty of snow nearby. We pulled off the road and Riley went crazy! She was so excited! She didn’t have the warmest clothes on but she didn’t care. She started shivering because she was so cold but she didn’t want to stop. It was pretty stinking cute! We went back to the downtown area of Hood River and visited one more tasting room. This winery was called The Naked Winery and the experience was just as fun as the tasting. They had some creative names for their wines and they tasted great! We ended up buying 3 bottles there! We walked across the street to a local pizza restaurant and indulged in the largest pizza I have ever seen. It was almost as big as the table and was so tasty! We drove back to Portland around 8pm and crashed pretty early.

A beautiful view of Mt. Hood on our way to Hood River.

Carl, Paige and Molly all sporting Sung Harbor Threads hats!

A delicious lunch with great local beer!

There is something special about local brews!

Our first tasting. 

Such a fun experience. 

It is tough to see, but this was the only picture I got of everyone - Carl, me, Kevin, Molly, Ryan, Riley, Meighan and Paige. 

Enjoying our tastings at Cascade Cliffs. 

Riley's first experience in the snow! She loved it! And she is sporting a Snug Harbor Threads hat :)

Some of the wine selection at Naked Winery. 

Kevin keeping little Paige warm. I look forward to pictures like this with our own little one! 

The biggest pizza I have ever seen!

Miss Mouse loves to warm up by the fire.

Monday was New Year’s Eve. We woke up around 9am and hung out at the house until about 11. We walked to a local Mexican restaurant for breakfast/lunch and then went to Goodwill. We went back to the house around 12:30 and packed an overnight bag to stay at Meighan and Ryan’s house. We did some shopping on Hawthorne Street and got to Meighan and Ryan’s around 4:00. We nibbled on some roasted garlic and Brie cheese on French bread and then ate a delicious ham dinner. Molly and Carl got a Honey Baked Ham and Meighan made Egg Nog sweet potatoes. It was delicious! The kids went to bed around 9pm and we started celebrating New Year every hour with candy cane infused vodka shots and a game of Monopoly. At 11:55 we went to watch the ball drop but couldn’t find the remote to change the channel so we missed it. It was actually quite funny! Riley likes to hide things and it was just fitting that that night she hid the remote. It was a great evening! We didn’t last much past midnight!

This is the only picture I took on New Year's Eve :(

 We woke up around 8:30 on Tuesday morning and hung out at the house until 11ish. On the way back to Molly and Carl’s house we stopped at a huge Asian market and bought the fixings to make homemade sushi! I am not a huge sushi fan but I eat it occasionally. I planned to eat leftover ham while everyone else ate the sushi. We got back to the house around 1:00 and I napped until 4:30! I think I was pretty tired! When I woke up, Ryan, Meighan, and the girls were at the house and the cooking began. Kevin cooked Miso soup while Molly put together a variety of sushi rolls. I am not a huge fan of seaweed so Molly set aside some rice and Tuna for me so I could enjoy the sushi experience as well. The sushi was great and everyone else seemed to really enjoy the rolls! Ryan, Meighan and the girls left around 7pm and Kevin and I started packing to leave early Wednesday morning. I took a quick shower before bed and was pleasantly surprised when Miss Mouse wanted to join me! Miss Mouse is Molly and Carl’s 16-year old cat and she LOVES to take showers! She stands at the back of the shower so she is not in the direct path of the water but gets some of the mist. She ends up soaked and loves it! It is always a fun time. I wish our cats liked water as much as Miss Mouse!

Homemade Sushi! 

 Our flight left at 8:20am on Wednesday. We had such an amazing trip and can’t wait to go back!

Bacardi Factory in San Juan

On Thursday, December 6, Kevin and I flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We left the Springs at 8:00am and flew to Dallas, then we flew from Dallas to San Juan. I taught Kevin how to crochet back in August and he has made well over 50 hats since then. We brought some yarn with us on the trip and were both making hats during our flights. On our flight from Dallas to San Juan, we were approached by a flight attendant to make a hat for her 9 year old daughter. We said we would be happy to make a hat for her and we sold it for $15.00! The flight attendant was so pleased with the hat that she wanted one for herself so we made another $15.00. Then a couple across the aisle from us asked for a hat as well and we sold it for $20.00! We custom made and sold three hats on the flight and made $50.00! It was so exciting! We landed in San Juan around 7:15pm and met up with Kevin's boss Derek and his wife Nicole. We rented a car and went to our hotel for a delicious dinner at Texas de Brazil, a Brazillian steakhouse. We ate here back in APRIL, and were so excited to come back! We finished up around 10:00pm and Derek and Nicole left to go to their hotel. We went up to our room to watch the Broncos vs. Raiders game but couldn't find it on the TV. We fell asleep around 11:00.

One of our customers and her new hat! We were so excited!

We woke up on Friday morning around 9:00 and got ready to go to the ship. Our hotel has a great view of the port so I went to see where the ships where and to my surprise they were not docked yet. I went back to the room and did some research and realized that the ships weren't docking until 2:00 and 3:00 that afternoon. We called Derek and Nicole and informed them of the change and they came over to our hotel. Our hotel had a rooftop pool so we decided to spend the morning in the sun! We relaxed by the pool until about 1:30 and then checked-in to our new hotel (the same hotel as Derek and Nicole). We got changed and went to the ships around 3:00. We were finished with work around 5:30 and met up with Derek and Nicole at Senior Frogs, right across the street from the port! With all the cruise ships we see, you would think we would have visited a Senior Frogs before, but this was our first experience. It was so fun and we look forward to going back again! We had a few drinks at Senior Frogs and then went to Barrachina's for dinner. Barrachina's is the birthplace of the world famous Piña Colada! Kevin and I had been here once before, but didn't eat dinner. The dinner and Piña Colada's were delicious and we will be returning to this fine restaurant again! We went back to the hotel around 10:00 and fell asleep around 11:00.

Nicole and I at Senior Frogs. They made us hats!

Outside of Barrachina's, the birthplace of the Pina Colada.

Our delicious pina colada's. They go down way too fast and easy. 

We woke up on Saturday morning around 9:00 and walked over to the beach for some breakfast. At breakfast, we decided we wanted to go visit the Bacardi factory, so we walked back to the hotel to get the car and drove to Old San Juan. We took a $0.50 ferry to Catano and then a $3.00/person taxi to the factory. When you arrive at the factory you receive two free drink coupons and a ticket for the guided tour. The tour explains the history of Barcardi rum and how it is made. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see the actual production center, but we definitely enjoyed ourselves. After the tour, we used our free drink coupons and then purchased a mojito and Piña Colada's. We were a little disappointed with the Piña Colada's after what we had the night before, but the mojito was great! We went back to Old San Juan around 4:30pm and walked/shopped for a while. We made a quick pit stop at Barrachina's again and went back to the hotel around 6:30 pm. We dropped off our goodies in the room and walked across the street for a sushi dinner. I opted out of sushi and had some teriyaki chicken and we went back to the hotel around 9:00. We said our good-byes to Derek and Nicole and called it an early night after such a long day.

The Bacardi Factory!

The bar where we were able to order 2 free drinks!

The Bacardi Bat!

We got to play bartender. 

I love this shot!

The view of the fort in Old San Juan. 

Posing with our free drinks in front of the bar. 

This was an awesome tree we found while walking in Old San Juan. 

We flew home on Sunday at 12:30 and were greeted with a light dusting of snow! It was a great trip and we really enjoyed spending some time with Derek and Nicole!

And The Next POTUS is...

On Tuesday, November 6, Kevin and I flew back over to Europe. This just happened to be election day and I was very disappointed to be stuck on a plane while the election results were coming in. I was hoping we would get some updates throughout the flight, and although we didn't get much information, I was pleasantly surprised when the captain announced President Obama's re-election over the speaker about 30 minutes before we landed in Madrid. Our layover in Madrid was very short and we arrived at our first destination, Barcelona, around 2:00pm on Wednesday. We were able to check-in right away and proceeded to nap until about 8:00pm. We went down to the hotel bar for dinner and went back to sleep around 1:00am. 

We woke up around 7:00 on Thursday morning, ate breakfast, and hopped on the shuttle to the ship at 8:15am. We finished work around 10am and took a taxi back to the hotel. We did some work on the computer before taking another 4 hour nap. Jet-lag really sucks! We left the hotel around 6:00pm and went into the city to do some shopping and eat dinner. We ate at our favorite Irish  pub and went back to the hotel around 10:00pm. 

On Friday morning we flew from Barcelona to Venice. We landed in Venice around 1pm and went into the city around 3:00. We walked through the Jewish Ghetto and along the main shopping area until we got to the Rialto Bridge. I snapped a couple photos and then Kevin and I went to a pub called the Devil's Forrest Pub. This pub is awesome because they have a live web cam! It is so cool for our friends and family to be able to see us live, halfway across the world. I guess with Skype and FaceTime this is not as big of a deal as it used to be, but I still think it is awesome! We had a couple drinks and then walked over to St. Marc's Square. We took a few photos and then went to one of our favorite restaurants for some gnocchi in a Gorgonzola cream sauce. It is so delicious! We were pretty tired so instead of walking back to Piazza le Roma (where you catch the bus), we took a water bus through the Grand Canal. We have done this before, but it is always a fun experience. One of the coolest things about Venice is that there are no vehicles on the streets. You can drive or take a bus to Piazza le Roma and then you either walk or take a water bus/taxi to your destination. It is a very neat experience! We got back to the hotel around 10:00pm and fell asleep pretty quickly.

This is a "street sign" in Venice. 

This was taken using the Panoramic feature on my phone. Turned out pretty cool!

Sitting in the Devils Forest Pub. Screen shot on my phone of the webpage. If you ever need some entertainment visit devilsforestpub.com. 

In St. Marc's Square.

The Rialto Bridge from our water bus.

Sitting on the water bus.

We woke up around 8:30am on Saturday and went to the ship. We got back to the hotel around 12:45 and had to check out at 1:00pm. Our flight left at 5:30 so we spent some time in the lounge before we flew to London, through Amsterdam! We almost missed our flight from Amsterdam to London, but thankfully we just made it and were the last 2 people to board the plane! We apparently got out of Venice just in time because it flooded the day after we left! It would have been neat to see the flooding, but I am glad we didn't have to deal with another natural disaster in Venice! If you remember back in April 2012, we got stuck in Venice for 9 days because of the Icelandic Volcano Explosion. We were happy to get out when we did this time! It was a great, quick visit!

 We arrived in London around 8:15pm  on Saturday evening. We waited almost an hour to get through customs and got to our hotel around 9:45pm. We dropped our bags off and then went to get some food in the lobby. We went to bed around midnight. 

We left our hotel at 7:00am on Sunday morning and had a heck of a time getting to the ship! We stayed at a hotel near the airport and knew we had a bit of a journey ahead of us, but nothing like what we experienced. We took a double decker city bus to the closest underground station but got off the bus too soon. This set us back a little but we found our way. We then took the tube to Waterloo train station where we got on a train to Southampton. It took us a total of 5.5 hours just to get to the ship! We were incredibly grumpy! Fortunately we didn't have too much work to do on the ship and we were back in London around 5:00pm. It was a very long work day! We were going to go back to the hotel and drop off the tool bag but when we realized we would be traveling for another 4 and a half hours we decided to suck it up and carry the bag with us! We went into Picadilly Circus and did some shopping and then ate dinner at a Thai restaurant. We went back to the hotel around 8:00 and got to the hotel around 9:30. It was a very long day, but I was so glad we got to spend some time in the city! London will always be one of my favorite places to visit!

Mandatory photo in London.

We flew back home on Monday. We flew non-stop from London to Dallas and then on to Colorado Springs. It was a relatively simple travel day! It is crazy to think we visited 3 different countries in 6 days! It was an incredibly quick trip, but we made the best of it!