The Golden Triangle (Day 1)

May 20th

We landed in Delhi at 3pm Delhi time on Tuesday afternoon. Even though the 14 hours went quickly, by the time we got into Delhi, we were not feeling so great. But we were in India and we were going to go full speed anyway.

The Delhi airport experience wasn't much different then any other state side airport so in many ways it didn't even feel like we were in a different country. Most signs were still in English and everything was pretty modern. We didn't have any problems getting through everything and since we packed everything in a carry on, it took us no time to meet up with our tour guide, Bhanu. By the time we headed to the bus there were about 12 of us. It was a bit of a relief for Jed and I since we thought we were going to be taking this tour with only 3 other people.

As we headed out to our bus, the heat just hits you. It feels like you have walked into a sauna. We knew it would be hot so we felt like we were ready for this weeks adventure.

Our first stop was to our hotel, The Park. It was a great hotel right in the middle of everything. When we first got there, we didn't realize it was in the middle of everything but after getting into our room and getting our luggage, we decided to go exploring.

By the time we had started to explore it was around the time that we would expect people to be getting off of work. There was a bus stop right in front of the hotel and tons of people get on and off the buses.

There were a ton of open air markets, little stands along the street, and people making all kinds of different kinds of street food. It was a little overwhelming with all the people, things to see, and lots of people coming to us and trying to "help". Please would walk blocks with us trying to get us to pay them to help us figure out what to do, where to go and every thing in between. We were nice to anyone that approached but that didn't always get us where we wanted cause they just stayed with us. Everyone spoke English so the language barrier really didn't affect them.

We ended up finding Central Park in Connaught Place. There were tons of couples hanging out on the grass which was surprising because we didn't think we would see much PDA but it looked like the younger generations are not as traditional.

There were quite a few street markets that we wondered through. It was interesting because they had medal detectors that you had to walk through as you wanted in or walked out but I am not sure they were working and no one was there even if they were. But we made our way through just too see what we could find.

After a few hours of exploring we decided it was time for dinner. Both our guide, Bhanu & the hotel recommended a restaurant called Pind Balluchi.

It was a really cool place. The food was great and the atmosphere was so fun. It felt like we were eating outside but it wasn't 100 degrees.

By the time dinner was put on the table we were both starting to fall asleep so after we finished, we made out way back to the hotel to call it a night. We had a big day the next day so we were excited to get started.

The Golden Triangle (Pre-Game)

May 17th - May 19th

Today was my first official day of vacation! Unfortunately, Jed had to work graduation most of the day on Saturday. But I made the most of the day helping Danielle celebrate her birthday. We spent the morning hanging out at the newest coffee shop in up and coming downtown Christiansburg called Indego Coffee. After a quick caffeine stop we headed down to Mockingbird Café for some morning pastries before the main event, The Food Truck Rodeo.

I wish that I could report that the Rodeo was a huge success and we spent the day there checking out a ton of different food trucks but that wasn't the cause. Don't get me wrong, we had a good time and good food and spent some time with some friends but they way over sold this event. There were about 6 trucks (max), a ton of people and there was only so many times we can walk the same block over and over. We lasted about an hour and decided to call it a day. But we did get a few fun pictures before we headed out.

The rest of the afternoon, I finished getting everything ready for the big trip. It wasn't long before Jed got home and we hit the road.

Our first stop on our adventure was New York. Since we were flying out of JFK we headed up 2 days early to spend some time with family. Like most Castro adventures, the drive up had a few pit stops. One being a new restaurant for dinner called Dickey's Barbecue Pit.

Little Hokie Bird is ready to make the trip

We finally made it to Noel's place around 1:30am for the night.

We had all day Sunday to spend with family so we started the morning with an amazing homemade breakfast.

Followed by a game of soccer-Frisbee.

Then a stop at the local ice cream parlor, The Blue Pig.

And next a hike.

Then we finished our day with dinner at Tyrynda Thai, in Sleepy Hollow, NY.

We hated to see the day end but there was school, work and vacationing to do the next morning so we called it a night after a few rounds of poker. (I didn't do so well, I ate all of my Cookie Crisp poker chips way too early in the game.)

Monday morning we got up super early to have breakfast with Kerry & Emma before they headed off to school and spent the morning getting ready, resorting, making sure we had everything and heading off to the airport.

It is a good thing we started the drive early too, between a few detours, morning commute traffic, construction on the bridge and trying to find parking, we made it to the airport just in time.

It wasn't long before we were boarding a 14 hour flight to Delhi. We were both really, really excited and a little worried about what we would do being locked down for 14 hours. We watched a few shows on our little computers and slept and 14 hours was over in no time!

Spring Game

April 25th - 27th

This year we had my entire family come for the Spring Game. It was a beautiful weekend and we all had a great time together. We spent the weekend just hanging out together, eating way too much food and watching a little football.

A Weekend With Friends

April 18th - 20th

This weekend we headed to Baltimore to spend the weekend with some friends that we haven't seen in a long time. Friday night we met up at a rental house that we were going to spent the weekend at. Jed and I made a quick stop for dinner at I love Grilled Cheese & Co. Why or why do we not live closer to one of these!!! We need to look into franchising one in our area!

After a few hiccups, some misunderstandings and not entirely true advertising on airbnb.com, we settled in and headed out for a late dinner and drinks at City Cafe.

We spent the evening catching up on life and started planning our weekend adventures.

We had all kinds of adventures at the ready on Saturday morning. Our first stop was a super fun and crazy restaurant that we had to check out for breakfast, the Paper Moon Restaurant. This place was everything we could imagine and so much more! Words and pictures just don't do it justice, just go!

After an incredible memorable brunch, we headed down the the inner harbor to check out what was going on down there.

First we stopped to check out a few boats before jumping on one ourselves. The four of us hopped on a Chessie Paddle Boat and oh my gosh, did we have a great time!!

By the time we headed back to shore, it was time to find a late lunch at Gordon Biersch.

After a bit to eat we went exploring at Fells Point, did a little shopping, checked out the local ice cream shop, Kilwins and just sat and enjoyed the weather, the views and the company.

We headed back to get freshen up before we headed back out for dinner and the evening festivities. There was a great Thai place that we found that we had to go check out, My Thai Baltimore. This place did not disappoint. The food and drinks were great and I will definitely go back the next time we are in town.

After dinner we here just going to head back to play games and hang out for the evening but the draw of the lights right by our subway station was too great and we ended up at Power Plant Live.

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and people watching. It was so much fun!

Sunday morning was Easter so we walked across the street to check out the Easter Service at Memorial Episcopal Church.

Unfortunately there was some misunderstanding and miscommunication with our renter and we got 3 panic phone calls to get our stuff out of her house pronto so after a very unique and unforgettable end to the weekend, we all parted ways. But we had a fantastic time with Joe & Shauna and miss them dearly. We can't wait for our next adventure.

After we parted ways, Jed and I made a few pit stops along the way. On our way to the Paper Moon Diner on Saturday morning, we had seen some graffiti that we just had to go back and get a closer look.

This art was just amazing! And then we found one more weird and random thing before heading south.

How appropriate to find the Easter Island Head on Easter!!

We made a few more stops for shopping and to visit more friends in DC (I never end up taking pictures with JG &CG, sorry guys) before we finally made it home for one more week before the Spring Game!!