This Week I...

...went to New York with work! We took a group of 39 art students to see the famous galleries and tourists attractions. Even though I've been to New York twice before there were still things on the itinerary that I hadn't done before. These included:

Going to the viewing platform of the Rockefeller Centre. This was actually our third attempt to go up as the first two were rescheduled due to poor visibility.

We went to the Guggenheim. The other art galleries we visited were the Met, the MOMA and the Whitney, all of which I'd visited before, but this was my first time at the Guggenheim. The building is amazing and unlike any other art space I've been to.

On one day we got up super early and headed down town to catch the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. It was cool to be so close to the Statue of Liberty and we gave the students a competition to see who could produce the best drawing of it, and Ellis Island was very interesting. It's cafe wasn't bad either.

Having got back today I'm thankful that I have the rest of the week off, as it's half term, to recover from a very busy few days.

Seattle and Portland Travel Journal

When I went on holiday this summer to Seattle and Portland I took a travel journal with me like I did for my trip to Nashville and New York. Again, it was made from parts of old Paperchase planners. 

I stuck in things we'd collected during the day, like bus tickets and shop receipts, and then wrote about the day around them. I made sure to write about each day on the day, or the next morning at the latest, so I didn't forget anything.  

I found ways to include other things we picked up, like this leaflet for Huber's restaurant; Portland's oldest restaurant. That was a dining experience I don't want to forget! I threaded cotton through two holes I made in the leaflet and tied it around the center spiral.

Once we got home I ordered some prints online of our holiday snaps that I could cut up, punch holes in and add to the book. I love being able to illustrate the stories we'd written about with pictures.

This Week I...

...went to my friend Lizzi's Hen Do in Edinburgh!

It was a pretty packed weekend with lots of fun activities.

First up was a cocktail making masterclass at Revolution. The class is made for hen parties and was really fun. Our barman James even made sure to include non-drinker me and Lizzi's pregnant sister. Non-alcoholic strawberry woo-woo = yum! 

On Sunday, after a night of karaoke, we had a much needed spa day. I had my first proper massage which I found to be part relaxing, part torture. 

After the spa we headed to a hotel for afternoon tea. The food was amazing and there was so much of it! This photo only shows half of what we had. Little smoked salmon bagels, warm scones, sticky toffee cake. And it wasn't miniature portions like regular afternoon teas.

This Summer I...

After a week in Seattle my boyfriend and I caught the Amtrak down to Portland. The four hour journey didn't seem too long and it was considerably cheaper than flying, plus we had some great views out of the window.

One of our favourite things we did during our stay was go on the Multnomah Falls and Columbia River Gorge Tour. The 5-stop tour lasted half a day and included three waterfalls and the Bonneville Dam and fishery. It was great to get out of the city and see some of the North-West's great scenery.

We also visited the Oregon Zoo in Washington Park. We found out beforehand that if you go on a Tuesday entry is only $4, so we did just that.

We used Washington Park's free shuttle bus to also vist the Japanese Garden and the Rose Garden.

We couldn't go to Portland without trying a Voodoo Donut. So good! And not as sweet as I was expecting considering America's love of super sweet frosting.

Another cool thing we found out about before we went was every second Thursday of the month Ground Kontrol Arcade holds a special evening where you pay $5 to get in and then all the games are free play. It was awesome. We played Pacman, Tetris, Street Fighter, pinball, some weird paper boy game where the controller is bike handle bars. $5 well spent!

Have you ever been to Portland or Seattle? Is there anything else we should have done? 

This Summer I...

I've been rather quiet online over the summer because I've been really busy offline. But now summer is over and I'm ready to tell you all about it.

At the start of August I went to Seattle! My boyfriend's best friend was getting married there so we flew over for the wedding, and did lots of touristy things at the same time.

The wedding was lovely; the venue was really pretty, it was catered by Chipotle, and it gave me a chance to show off all my best dance moves.

We used Air BnB and stayed in an apartment which was about a 10 minutes walk from Green Lake, which was near the wedding venue.

We saw fish being thrown at Pike Place, went on the monorail, went to the Science Center, had a barbeque in the woods near the lake, saw the first Starbucks, watched a Say Yes to the Dress Marathon on the morning of the wedding...

And we went to see a baseball game which, between you and me, was pretty boring. But at least there were chicken fingers!

Stay tuned to find out where I went next!

This Week I...

...went to Aberdeen!

My cousin Miriam will be graduating from Aberdeen University in a few weeks so my friend Daisy and I took the opportunity to go and visit her before she leaves.

Miriam took us around the university campus, including it's own botanical gardens. We were very lucky with the weather as it was warm and sunny most of the days we were there. 

We also ventured out of the city and went to visit three castles in two days. This one in Stonehaven had a lovely walk/trek up to it.

How was your week? 

This Week I...

...went to Disneyland!

My Mum retired from teaching at Easter and she wanted to mark the occasion by all of us taking a trip to Euro Disney for four days.

One of my favourite parts of Disneyland is the characters! My Dad took this photo and then Jessie asked for a picture with him. He loved it.

This Week I...

...went on holiday to Cromer with my family.

I spent a lot of time in the amusement arcades, love those 2p machines, but we also visited Norwich and Sherringham, went on a tour of the pier theatre... 

...went to 'Miniature World' which had a lot of model railway layouts with hidden Tardis' (Tardi?)

We rented a place that sleeps 8 allowing friends and family to come and go throughout  the week.

On Wednesday my friends and I had a great time on the beach, for all of about 10 minutes, until it started chucking it down and we took shelter under some wooden stairs. It was an adventure!

How's your summer been?

This Week I...

...went to Disneyland with my sister!

We popped over to Paris for 4 days on the Eurostar.

We saw loads of characters, which is really the best part of Disneyland, right?

And we had our photo taken with some of them, including Mulan and Remy from Ratatouille! 

 My sister and I aren't big rollercoaster people so we went on all of the small rides, and took selfies on most of them. This is us on the slinky dog ride!

Disneyland's Main Street was all decked out for Halloween and half of my photos are me posing with the decorations.

I had such a fun time, but then it was back to work the next day. Boo.

How was your week??

This Week I...

...went to Brighton with my family on bank holiday Monday.

We played mini-golf, went on the 2p machines (I'm still bitter about almost winning a mini skateboard out of a machine but I ran out of 2ps and as soon as I stepped away another girl jumped on the machine and later won the skateboard), went round the shops, looked at some art. It was a nice day.

And my Mum made me a hat out of a Brighton map. Jealous?

How was your week??