Leaving on a Jet Plane

The first half of this year has been FULL of travel, some for work and some for leisure. Here's a snapshot of my travels.

February - Orlando, FL

This was for work and I really don't have pictures that have anything to do with Orlando. But here's a picture of us in our booth. Let's just say cows had a bit to do with our promotion.

April - New York City

This one was for work too BUT I was able to spend some time with my bestie, Laura too! I've been there several times so we've definitely covered the touristy stuff. This time it pretty much felt like a food tour. I LOVE to eat so we did our fair share. Some of my favorite spots are listed below. Oh and for work, our meeting was in the New York Stock Exchange, so that was pretty cool. While I was standing outside talking on my cell phone this magazine photographer asked to take my picture because they were doing this article. Unfortunately, my picture didn't make it. Boo!

• Blue Ribbon Sushi -- Went there and we got to eat with John Legend. Ok maybe we didn't eat with him but he sat two tables back from us, close enough. :)



• The Burger Joint -- This place is inside the Le Parker Meridien Hotel. It was voted as one of the best burgers in the nation by Gayle and Oprah. It was a good burger but I think Mark actually makes a better burger right here in Tennessee.



• Max Brenner -- Laura knows I love desserts and chocolate. So she took me here and we had a fondue sampler. Oh my! This was fantastic!



• Olive Tree Cafe -- Then we rounded out the trip with one of my favorite spots in the Village for their oh so yummy wings! Man, they are cooked just right, a bit crispy and so tasty. My mouth is watering right.now.

April - Puerto Vallarta
This was work also, the incentive trip for our top sales representatives. This is always a fun trip. You get to see people you work with all year long that are here Nashville and most of the time you get to meet their spouses too. So it's always a fun trip. It's a pretty sweet office I have for a week too. :)

May - Miami, FL
Ok, I know I said some of these trips were for leisure, I'm getting there......
This one however, was still for work. We had to check out some locations for a possible meeting in Miami. We saw some great properties. I had not been to Miami since I was there for a college conference in 2005 (maybe). I think it had changed a lot. Well and I probably got to see a few more things this trip too. One highlight was our dinner at Red. Oh and one more was dinner at Scarpetta inside the Fontainebleau.

May - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Back for work. This meeting was fun too. We got to experience some neat things in Ft. Lauderdale. I had never been there and really it's much smaller than I thought and a little dated but we did have a great time. We took a dinner cruise around the inter coastal and was able to see some FAN-tastic homes. I can't imagine how much some of them cost and then of course most have a huge yacht parked out front too - must be nice! We had dinner at Joe's Stone Crab (not to be confused with Joe's Crab Shack). We were there the last week of the stone crab season and they were oh so yummy. What an experience! One night, my friend Ashley and I went out on the town in South Beach. We had a great time hotel hopping. We met some great friends at the Delano. It was fun chatting in the poolside cabana. From my last trip to Florida I had heard about this restaurant, Le Tub. So of course, I had it on my list to check out this time around. It's a local joint with old claw foot tubs and toilets right located right on the water. Their menus are on white pieces of paper that were hand written who knows when and it even has drawings that look like they are from an 8 year old. Very cute! Remember this list? Well, Le Tub was #1! They did have one darn good burger but my favorite thing was the key.lime.pie. Man oh man, my mouth is drooling right now. It was chilled perfectly made with fresh key limes (you could even see the bits of key lime), the crust was perfect and it had just the right amount of whipped topping. I'm not even a huge fan of key lime pie and I don't think any other would compate.

May - Marco Island, FL
This is the leisure part. I purchased 2 nights at the Marco Island Marriott at an auction last year so we had to use them before they expired. Ya know what, I think this trip deserves its own blog. More to come........