Old Bust Head

Back in August I picked up a side bartending job at a new brewery that was opening up near my house. My yoga instructor had been working there for a few months in outside sales and I always saw her posting about it. It looked like she was having such a great time, made me miss working in the service industry (you never hear someone say that, do you?) One day on Facebook she posted a comment that the brewery was looking for bartenders for when the taproom officially open. I jumped on it! I wanted to make some side money and still do something where I could interact with people, plus I didn’t have to worry about making fruity drinks and shooters overload. Simple, just pour beer. Within a week I emailed her and the owner, had an interview and started working our grand opening weekend. Man when I tell you we were busy. Over 4,000 people in 3 days and sales grossed over $50,000.00! I was impressed with the turnout. Going on now 4 months and loving every minute of it. If you didn’t know, craft beer has been a booming industry in our region over the past few years, just alone in VA there are over 60 craft breweries. I feel excited to be apart of something new, something exciting, and something fun. Its still taking me a while to get acquainted with liking to drink beer, but out of the 10 beers we have on tap I must say that our Irish Vixen Red and our Old Busthead English Pale Ale are my top two. Our brewery is located in quaint Warrenton, Virginia. If you ever make it out to Fauquier County make sure to stop by and have a glass or two.

Useful links:

http://www.oldbusthead.com/

http://www.virginia.org/craftbeer/

Peanuts

I recently went to Williamsburg with my family to go see Christmas Town at Busch Gardens. Before we went to the park we went downtown to get some peanuts. I was not in the mood, I wanted to immediately get to the park because it was not open for a full typical day. I told my family they had 1 hour, get in buy and try, and get out. For one thing, my 1 hour was not realistic, everyone and their mother was in Williamsburg that weekend. It was already beautifully decorated for the holidays. It took over 20 minutes to find parking, but once we did we walked straight over to the main road W Duke of Gloucester Street and started shopping. We checked out the Christmas store, The Peanut Shop of Williamsburg, and The Cheese Shop. I was in love with it all! I just wanted to sit and eat for the next three hours. I kept thinking why is there nothing like this where I live, how much would it cost to open up a shop like this, and where do they get all this yummy stuff from??? I was happy that we went there, I hadn’t been since I was a child. I could see my self living in a town like Williamsburg. I highly recommend if you live in Virginia to go and check out this adorable and historic town. This is a very important place for all Americans and is a MUST GO!

My favorite Peanuts: Praline Glazed VA Peanuts, Honey Roasted, Smokehouse Bacon & Cheddar, and Sweet Georgia Pecans.

Inside The Peanut Shop, it was packed! Free Peanut samples and Chocolate everywhere!

The Cheese Shop. Has also a wine bar and restaurant inside!

All the yummy cheese I could eat!

        

A Visit to “America’s Finest City”… San Diego

Who gave San Diego the nickname “America’s Finest City”? Was there a vote on this? Personally I was not that impressed with San Diego, but I guess I didn’t get to give it a full chance since I was with family and not friends. FYI San Diego is not really a family vacation destination. The only thing family friendly is the San Diego Zoo. San Diego to me, is a mix of Georgetown/ Washington D.C. and Richmond, VA. If you have been to any of those cities you would know that they are streets full of bars, clubs, and shopping. I spent a few days in the city with family, a few days too many. We explored the Gaslamp Quarters, the San Diego Bay Waterfront, USS Midway, and the San Diego Zoo. Also made a little trip up the 5 to La Jolla, that was maybe my favorite part of it all besides the zoo. All of these can be done in 1.5 days max, especially if you are not laying out on one of the beaches. Next time I hope to actually get to bar hop, check out the local breweries, drive out to Temecula and check out wine country, and actually lay out on the beach and get some good sun! Also did you know that Tijuana Mexico is 16 miles away? You could catch the metro there for the day and go shopping.

Key recommendations when going to San Diego on a budget and want to stay down town:
1. Valet parking at the hotels sucks, its too expensive. Pay $15 for a 24 hour parking lot, they are everywhere.
2. We stayed at the Declan Suite which was downtown and only a few blocks away from Gaslamp Quarters and and all the bars. Each night for a king suite was $85 and it slept 5 comfortably.
3.A must eat is Harbor House down by Seaport Village. Such a cute area down on the waterfront with a bunch of boutiques and souvenir stores. Also the mall is there with all brand name stores and restaurants.
4.Every bar has a great Happy Hour so take advantage of that.
5. Take a drive out to La Jolla! It is beautiful and all the sea lions are so cute.

  

 

10 Marginalia’s for your Monday

As every weekend comes to an end and we begin to dread waking up Monday morning to go to work, I figured its gonna happen, time doesn’t stop for anyone, so why not embrace it and start off on a happy note. Be grateful that you do have a job to go to, that you are going to sleep in a nice comfy bed, and that you are blessed with the opportunities given to you. Don’t take shit for granted… EVER! People every where have it much worse than you.

So with that being said, my 10 notes in the margins of your busy life:

1. Plan something fun to do this week with friends or family.

2. Make sure to eat your fruits and veggies. Ain’t nobody got time to be sick.

3. Tell your parents you love and appreciate them. If you don’t still live at home like myself you better call, text, or at least email them.

4. Have dinner or lunch once this week with the girls or guys to catch up. Life is too busy and sometimes we forget a little check up with our favorite buddies is all we need to feel good.

5. Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Everyone needs their beauty rest.

6. Treat your self to something sweet.

7. Make an effort to have good judgement at work and at home.

8. Do something nice for someone.

9. Read the news and learn something new. More of you need to do this because we are so caught up with our own stuff that we don’t know what is happening right around us.

10. Take a moment to remind yourself how fortunate you are to start another week.

Even when I am distracted or overwhelmed with work, family, and life, I will try to do these or 10 things to keep me grounded in what matters most. Try to set the stage for a happy and productive week.

Do you have and tips for Mondays?

CHEER!!! Hope everyone has a super week!!!

Key West in a few words

It was a few months ago that I was on Facebook scrolling through and saw an ad for $15 flights from Dulles International Airport (IAD) with Frontier Airlines. I had never heard of Frontier, but I did not care. This year I told myself that I would travel to a different place at least once a month. So of course I clicked on the ad to read more details of what it was about and to see if it was real. Sure enough it was, but the website kept freezing up assuming everyone else in the DMV area was trying to buy $15 airline tickets like myself. This deal was just something unheard of. Like my gas tank is $65 a week (that is just for my Jag, not including the gas cost for my Xterra). Anyways I did everything possible to get on and buy some tickets. The deal was for 15 new non-stop flights to 15 different cities from IAD. Luckily I found a few places that were on the list that I wanted to go to this year. The deal was for only 12 hours, so I downloaded the app on my iPad and onto my cell phone to make sure I did not miss this chance for some cheap ass tickets. It took me about 2 hours to log in, create an account and pick the flights. As I was sitting on the couch doing this my mom asked what I was up to and told her the deal, she then told me that I could not go unless I took her on a trip. So of course I was the best daughter ever and asked her which trip she wanted to join with me on. I had booked Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami. She was not interested in Atlanta, and she was mad at my cousin so didn’t want to go to Chicago with me to visit her. She had never been to Miami, concluding this was the mother daughter trip of the year. We have NEVER done a mother daughter trip that was more than 3 hours of being together, this was definitely going to be one for the books. At first I was going to make it a full week trip, but realized that that much time together someone would not make it back to VA, so 5 days was enough. We figured that since we were already coming all the way down to Miami lets continue on down Route 1 and check out Key West. This was the best decision EVER! (Side note, my 2 cousins from Jordan came along on the trip with us so the whole mother daughter trip thing was interrupted). Skipping the whole story from arriving to Miami in down pour rain to finally arriving to Key West, Paradise awaited us. The drive through the Florida Keys was just awesome, I recommend stopping along the way in different state parks off the highway because all the waters and areas are different in each way. After a 4.5 hour trip we reached our final destination, Parrot Key Resort. It was so cute and we felt like we were literally in the Caribbean. Trees, flowers, plants, coconut trees EVERYWHERE! I highly recommend staying here. Right on the water on the north side of Key West, beautiful scenery of the mangroves and water just steps from our suite. If you ever make it down to Key West and don’t want to stay down town with all the hustle and party people (more of a relaxing couples or family place) book this place!! Our short trip to Key West totally captured our heart, we fell in love with the city, people and the history. In 3 days we did as much as we could fit in. Visited 2 beaches, Smathers and Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, The Southernmost point, Ernest Hemingway House, Key West Lighthouse, walked and shopped all of Duval Street, Mallory Square, and Sunset Pier. The weather is perfect in October, it is the beginning of high season there. For all the things we wanted to do but didnt have time for, best believe we will enjoy next year as we are already planning to go back next October, and for a full week vacation! Anyways I hope you enjoy my photos and optimistically wish you make it to visit this magical island at least one time in your life. Key West is a humbling, beautiful, relaxing and inspiring place on Earth.

Parrot Key Resort: http://www.parrotkeyresort.com/
Key West: http://www.fla-keys.com/keywest/
Trip Advisor: Key West