2013- Looking forward to making every day a good day!

Being Happy for me is with my family at home & traveling together

Wow time flies and that's not really a good thing in my eyes, I want to enjoy every moment, every day, make something good out of everyday, even if I work full time during the week, I need to make those days count also. I love coming home after work to my family, watching a movie or walking or just sitting around hanging out with my boys, my husband and my cats :)

We LOVE to travel and we have been very lucky to do a lot of traveling every year. In 2010 we went on 3 big vacations-Texas-Colorado and Cancun and our smaller ones in between (Chicago and NYC) We usually plan 1 big one every year and small ones in between. I want to see as much as I can. This is what I live for and what I look forward to. My husband just got his 2 weeks approved so I put mine in and got them approved as well, so now it's so motivating to look forward to it. So far I have NYC and Chicago both booked for March, just weekend trips. Gage's birthday is in March and he wants Deep Dish pizza from Chicago. We love Chicago! Tom and I are going to a Vegetarian Festival in NYC. This summer we are planning a big one, we were going back and forth about Alaska or a Midwest Road Trip and I think it's leaning towards the Midwest one, more of a variety.

We are still planning everything but we are thinking of driving to Nashville and Memphis first then heading over to visit Oklahoma City, New Mexico (Santa Fe and Roswell and Albuquerque) Utah and Colorado. We haven't decided which way we will drive home yet, either Chicago and home or Kansas City, St. Louis and then home. I am so excited just thinking about it. My boys have been so lucky to visit so many places growing up and they really do appreciate it and we have SO many memories of all of our trips. I get so happy just thinking about it :)

Day 3-Brooklyn, New Haven and Providence

On Monday morning we checked out of our hotel and our first stop was Brooklyn, New York. I have been to New York City many times but never made it over to Brooklyn. It's super expensive to get into the city, even if you only want to spend an hour or two like we planned. Finding a parking spot that didn't want $35 for 2 hours, we finally found one driving around. We found one next to the Brooklyn Bridge, it was about $18 for 2 hours.

First we walked over to the Brooklyn Bridge Park where you can find the best view of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Also right there in the park is Jane's Carousel. It wasn't open yet, otherwise I would have tried to talk my sons into riding it with us :)

Then we headed up to walk across the bridge

We stopped really quick at Front Street Pizza for the boys.

I had Clementines Bakery on my list of places to go in Brooklyn, NY and OH MY GOSH I am SO glad I did. This little bakery is the cutest ever and everything is Vegan, the desserts in the case made me so excited, when I saw Raspberry Poptarts I was ready to scream :) My husband and I picked a bunch of stuff out and shared it with the boys. I LOVED everything we got. I highly recommend going there if you are in Brooklyn. Even if your not Vegan, you would LOVE everything.  They have a wide selection and it changes daily. The prices are very good also! I can't say enough about this bakery, I hope to be able to recreate some of the items for myself, otherwise I need to make a trip to Brooklyn again soon!

This Cinnamon Roll was the best most flavorful one I have ever had!

We then headed to L.B. Spumoni Gardens, this pizza place was featured on Man Vs. Food and Adam Richmond said he grew up in Brooklyn and has tried So many pizzas all over and no-one compares to them, my husband agreed. They have the Sicilian style and new york style and it's the Silician style that you have to try. My boys and my husband loved it! The line was non-stop and they had over 20 pizza ovens going.

After stopping for Pizza in Brooklyn, we headed for New Haven, CT and our first stop was Red Lentil's, a Vegan and Vegetarian Restaurant. I am going to be honest, I didn't really enjoy their food or the service that much. I had read about it on someone's blog so it was on my list. The shift was changing and the lady that was there first sat us and never waited on us, we waited 15 minutes for the next girl who just had came in to wait on us.

I had Sweet Potato Fries and Beet-Potato Latkes-these were awful, very earthy tasting, but I finished everything up since I was hungry.

Tom had a Tempeh Reuben with sweet potato fries and wasn't impressed at all with sandwich.

After leaving Red Lentil's, we headed to another pizza place on our list Frank Pepe Pizzeria, featured on Man Vs. Food also.

Gage and Graham really enjoyed the pizza at Pepe's also.

 After Pepe's we headed to Providence, Rhode Island where we had booked one night at the Homewood Suites. We had a long day of driving and stopping so we called it a night.

Philadelphia - Day 2

Sunday morning we got up and walked down to the Liberty Bell and the Independence Hall. We had walked down on Saturday, but my husband realized he had his pocket knife on him (he did this in DC and we missed out on going into federal buildings). So this time he left it at the hotel and we explored some of the historical sites.

See that little purple and navy blue dress above so cute right? Well I had one of my most embarrassing moments happen that day. I had used the ladies room at Blackbird Pizzeria and then walked to the Little Italy pizza place not to far from it and when I left the Little Italy pizza place, a couple sitting down kept staring at me and I didn't know why until my husband walked behind me and saw that my dress was tucked into my thong :( I don't know if it happened in the restroom or when I was sitting at the 2nd place. All I know is that my bum was showing, how embarrassing, I can laugh now but this stuff feels like it only happens to me.

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After we went to some of the historical sites we walked over to Blackbird Pizzeria, an all Vegan pizza place. Tom had the Seitan Cheesesteak and I had a piece of Veggie Pizza. Tom said the Seitan Cheesesteak was better than Geno's, but not better than Pat's. He loved it. The pizza was great, the crust is SO good, even Gage tried some of the cheese pizza and liked it. Great service there also!

Blackbird Pizzeria-Vegan pizza

Veggie pizza-they use Daiya Cheese

Seitan Cheesesteak

 After Blackbird Pizzeria we found the boys regular pizza at Little Italy Pizza

All the big cities we have been going to have these little frozen yogurt places that you can put toppings on and have a variety of flavors. The boys always like to stop at them.

Cool wall on our walk to the Art Museum

Art Museum

Rocky Balboa Statue

Graham ran to the top like Rocky :)

One of my favorite places in Philadelphia was Hip City Veg, all vegan and the food was SO good. I had a Crispy Hip City Ranch Chicken sandwich-SO good and no-one would ever know it was vegan chicken!

Crispy Hip City Ranch Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries

Ziggy Burger

Banana Whips -ripe bananas put in a food processor and whipped, SO good!

 Overall we enjoyed Philadelphia, there was a lot of great food and walking through the city was nice. Being so close to the Reading Terminal was great! It's not one of my favorite cities, so I doubt I will go back again, but I am very glad I did see it!