Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Bermuda

Adam and I love lighthouses and love seeing them when we travel, but we're not crazy lighthouse people that make vacations just to see a lighthouse - that's crazy.

When we were in Bermuda, friends of ours told us we had to go see Gibbs Hill Lighthouse - so we did.

I have to say, while it's plain white on the outside and seems like it's going to be boring and drab, it's quite the opposite. The overlook is just stunning, and the walk up to the top is so nice with historic pieces and stories scattered throughout the landings. And while some climbs up to the top of a lighthouse can be really narrow and claustrophobic, this one is not.

And the top - well probably some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen from the top of a lighthouse. Probably didn't hurt that we were surrounded by crystal blue waters and big puffy clouds the day we went.  Everything is lush, green, speckled with colorful houses and beautiful boats. It's just breathtaking.

If you're going to Bermuda, make sure you hit the lighthouse, and don't be intimidated by the walk up the hill to get there or the climb to the top - do it, you won't be disappointed!

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Royal Naval Dockyard

Our boat arrived to Bermuda at the Royal Naval Dockyard and stayed there for three days. It was nice that there was plenty to do in that downtown area. We spent time strolling the shops, eating some tasty local foods, visiting the scuba park there, and taking a horse drawn carriage ride of the area.

I was truly in love with the colorful houses and buildings and of course the beautiful flowers and trees.One day while we were at port, Adam and I went over to the fort at the Royal Naval Dockyard, and we spent a few hours walking around the fort. The artwork in the fort was beautiful, the views from the top, and we loved the goats all over the grounds!

As much as I wish we would have made it over to St. George, we had a great time in port and also taking the water taxi over to Hamilton.

And when you're here, don't forget to get your ginger beer and black rum and rum cakes to bring back!

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Cruising Like We've Never Cruised Before

This past May, we took a cruise with my brother, sister-in-law and mom to Bermuda. It was great to all be together and enjoy a nice and relaxing week away. But this cruise was certainly different than any other we've taken. Since we all wanted to be able to be together as much as we could, my brother booked one of the villas on the boat for us all to stay in together. Let me say, while it was awesome in every way, it was certainly totally different from any way Adam and I have ever stayed on a cruise.

The room was great, a big living room area, a small kitchenette, a baby grand piano, 3 bedrooms, and a private patio with our own hot tub.Plus we had our own floor with another villa, a butler, and pretty much anything we wanted at our beck and call - including 3 pm popcorn and nibbles each day! Not bad for a week at sea.

Before we left town, Adam and I picked up some fun things at the party store to take on the boat - leis, a beach ball, and a party pig. The party pig became quite a hit between all of us and the housekeeping staff for our room. We moved party pig around the suite every day and it was always funny to see where he ended up!

We also had plenty of libations in the room! Note, playing a drinking game to the movie Jaws, FANTASTIC. Take a drink each time they say the word shark - and yes a drink - if you did a shot, each time, you'd die!

One of the perks to the villa on the boat is that we got a tour of the bridge on our last day at sea. It was so awesome to meet the captain and see all of the electronics and navigational aides. It was so cool and something we'd never get to do the way we normally cruise!

The trip down to Bermuda was very smooth and the weather once there was pretty darn near perfect. Mild temperatures, no rain, and just the right way to get your pre-summer tan going!

These are the photos from our suite and the boat - including the fun with Party Pig!!

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WOW

It's been a season and a half since I've written here? Uh-Oh.

I promise we didn't give up and we're not boring!

We've been on a vacation, we've had some killer career accomplishments, we've done some fun things! All the pictures are just sitting on a camera!

I promise to blog about all of these great things soon!!

Love,
Steph & Adam

An Early Christmas Vacation

At the beginning of December, we took an early holiday vacation to Oregon to visit my brother, sister-in-law and my mom flew out as well. The plan was to spend some time in Oregon together and then head up to Washington state to Leavenworth to enjoy the Bavarian town decked out in all of its Christmas glory.

We had a smooth flight out and were lucky to plan our arrival within a couple hours of mom's at the airport so we could just wait around for her plane to come in. My sister-in-law was sweet and met us there when our flight came in and took us for a nice lunch while we waited for mom.

I hadn't seen my sister-in-law in almost 5 years, and it had been just over 1 year to the date that we last saw my brother. My mom we last saw this past summer. It was so nice to all be together.

In Oregon, we really just hung out, did a little shopping, plenty of eating, and we enjoyed spending time with our "furry nephews" Porkchop & Applesauce - totaling about 30 pounds of furry kitty goodness!

We headed up to Leavenworth mid week so we'd be out by the weekend when all of the droves of tourists come in to town and you can't move anywhere. We had an easy drive up with clear weather and ice free roads - never even had to put the chains on the tires through the mountains. In fact, the weather was so perfect every day we were there. It was sunny, warm (if you consider 40s warm, I do), and dry. We were actually worried it was going to be too warm to do the sleigh ride my brother had planned for us, but they still ran the rides in the limited amount of snow they had on the ground.

The best part about Leavenworth, aside from the shopping, and the most WONDERFUL B&B we've ever stayed at, was the most delicious German food. Since we don't get ANY German food out here on the East Coast, it was such a treat to indulge in a multitude of schnitzel, spaetzle, cabbage, German beers, schweinshank and more!

Adam and I went 'rogue" as my brother called it, a few times to go to the shops we wanted to visit and check out the Nutcracker Museum. Now the Nutcracker museum here in Leavenworth is the same one that was highlighted on an old Conan O'Brien Show where the woman brought a Nutcracker they made just for Conan to the show for him - yeah she was working when we went to the museum - totally awesome!!

Once back in OR, we made sure we hit up Voodoo donuts before we left town, as it would most certainly be our last trip to OR before my brother and sister-in-law relocated. Now Voodoo donuts is the one you see on all of the crazy FoodNetwork shows and such - with the Captain' Crunch donuts, Bacon Maple, Tang, etc. Between the 5 of us I think we ended up with 2-3 dozen donuts and we ate them ALL over two days. The Captain' Crunch was by far the best doughnut I've eaten in my life - airy, light, the best vanilla frosting and of course, the Captain!. The bacon maple was good, but certainly not as good as some of the other ones. Adam had a Mango Tango doughnut that was really good as well - Mango chutney in the doughnut with an orange Tang powder on the frosting. DELICIOUS! And of course the traditional Voodoo doughnut was great as well!

It was so nice to celebrate an early holiday with my family and see some new parts of the country that we hadn't been to yet.

Pictures from the whole trip are below - ENJOY!

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Merry Birthday

We had a wonderful Birthmas in our house. We both got some great gifts, the birthday boy enjoyed his Rainier Cherry Pie (even after a minor fight ensued in the preparation for baking said pie) and it was just an overall low key and wonderful day!

The stockings were hung on the shelf above the couch with care, until we came home Christmas even and they were so full the shelf pulled out of the wall. Goodbye shelf!

Happy Birthday Birthday Boy! Enjoy your 2 weeks to the day of being older than me!

Damn' that's a mess - hope Santa's elves are going to come and clean this up!!

Even Santa made sure to fill stockings for the kitties!

An Anniversary Get Away - Day 4

After an overnight in Buffalo, Adam and I checked out another DDD for breakfast, where I had quite possibly one of the best breakfasts of all time - ham with red eye gravy, great eggs and potatoes. Oh so good! After breakfast we then headed towards Niagara Falls. But we decided to check out the American side first for the park there. I know everyone bashes the American side, and I wouldn't stay there, but the park is certainly worth the visit. We thought we'd pop in and out of the park but we were there for a few hours walking around, taking photos, and enjoying the views of the rapids and the falls.

We did pop in the visitor center on the US side, and my first comment to Adam was "Why does the US side smell like curry?"

After finishing up at the park on the American side, we crossed over the Rainbow Bridge and headed to our hotel. We had a wonderful suite on the 30th floor with great views of the US falls and really misty/foggy views of the Canadian falls.

We did all of the traditional tourists things you're supposed to do there - thanks to the AAA Niagara pass. The behind the falls view was really cool and included some great views for photos. And of course Maid of the Mist was just so fun! We also visited the white water walk, which is a great walk along the rapids of the falls - it was so sunny and beautiful that day that it just made for beautiful photos. And we certainly picked the best time to go because we didn't have lines for ANYTHING!!

The last day we were in Niagara Falls, we had pretty much done everything one is supposed to do there, so we headed out to Ontario on the Lake and went to a few wineries that our hotel gave us free tasting coupons for. Well, we were so thankful we left the tourist areas to go to the wineries. It was so beautiful and of course, the wine was delicious - especially the Ice Wine. We fell so in love with ice wine, we came home with about 6 bottles!!

Overall, Niagara was wonderful, peaceful, fun to visit and although Adam had been as a child, I had never been and it was so fun to go and see the falls.

Photos from our trip to Niagara Falls - there's lots and they are unfortunately not in order!

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An Anniversary Get Away - Day 3

Our next stop on our trip was to Cooperstown, NY so we could visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. Surprisingly, this was something I was more excited to do than Adam - but we both had a fantastic time!

We started the day strolling Main Street towards the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is an incredible brick building right in downtown. The metal work has baseball bats & balls and you can see each expansion the museum has made over the years since it opened.

We started on the 2nd floor with the history of baseball and the significance of Cooperstown and the building of the Hall of Fame. The museum was a great hall of winding rooms, honoring the history of the sport, the players & the leagues.

It was great to read about the introduction of the American League and how the teams were transferred from one city to the other so often. For instance, Boston used to have 2 teams, The Sox and the Braves. The Braves were then sent to Milwaukee and then Atlanta - I'll never look at the Braves the same again!

In the area with all of the lockers, which you'll see in the photos, Adam noticed that each team in the AL and NL had all retired #42 for Jackie Robinson - even the newer clubs all automatically retire #42 - how incredible!

It was so neat to see some of the old baseball cards too and we enjoyed the exhibits on Babe Ruth, Women in Baseball and Baseball in the movies.

The neatest part was all of the old jersey's, hats, balls, bats and cleats from the various teams. I also really enjoyed the area highlighting the various parks, including souvenirs, the music, the pieces from the parks in the museum. I mean who know they made Red Sox Cereal or that one of the pinwheels from Comiskey would be at the Hall of Fame?

Seeing the Hall of Fame was really neat as well. Adam liked finding the bronze faces with the best mustaches and I enjoyed finding the only woman in the Hall of Fame. The wooden statues you'll see in the photos below were so intricately and beautifully done, and even cooler, they were made in RI!

It was a great place to see and i'm so glad we finally went, even if it did take us 4 hours to cover the museum.

When we left the museum we had lunch downtown on the roof patio of a great restaurant and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air. From there we headed over to Doubleday Field where we actually got to go in and see the field and the stands. There was also a creek that flows next to the stadium so you could hear the water rushing as you watched a game - that would be great!

After we finished up Cooperstown, we drove 4.5 hours to Buffalo to enjoy dinner at Grovers Bar & Grill - a Diner's Drive Ins and Dives Restaurant. They had the BEST wings I've ever eaten in my life. If you go, get the Parmesan Garlic Wings, they are to die for. They are perfectly fried and cooked, not greasy at all. And the Burgers - share one - they are HUGE and so perfectly done. Really, it was so fun to go enjoy one of the DDD places!

Some fun facts on the Hall of Fame:
* There's 1 Woman in the Hall of Fame
* 1 Civil War Vet in the Hall of Fame
* If you go, spend time reading about the history of the rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees, there's way more to it than I ever knew!
* The Hall of Fame and Commission chooses what hat the players will wear for their bronze statues in the Hall of Fame.
* There's one woman who had more at bases than Ty Cobb and MLB argued that it wasn't fair because men had to run 90 feet and women 74 feet.
* The shortest game was 51 minutes - for 9 innings.
* The size of the Championship Rings has increased significantly since the 1900 - they used to just get a pin.
*Only 1/3 of teams have an organ player anymore at the parks.

Enjoy some of the photos from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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An Anniversary Get Away - Days 1 & 2

In October, Adam and I headed North West on a road trip that we've talked about taking for a few years now. We left RI on the Sunday morning of Columbus Day weekend and headed to upstate NY. It was a fairly easy road trip, no traffic, clear roads and weather, and the most beautiful colors we've ever seen with the foliage. When we left for this trip, we had yet to have any leaf color change in RI, we were all still green and lush. So it was so nice to go and see the lovely reds, golds, and even purples!

Our first stop was in Schenectady to see a good friend of the Hessler's - Ruth - whom has known Adam since he was a little guy. We spent the afternoon with Ruth catching up and filling her in on our life out in Rhode Island. It was the first time I'd ever gotten to meet Ruth, so it was a special treat for me, as Adam talks so fondly of her and has such wonderful memories of visiting her during his childhood.

After our visit with Ruth, we headed to Howe Caverns, NY so we could stay overnight and then explore the caverns the next morning. When we got in, the sun was still shining and the weather was beautiful, so we spent the afternoon walking around the site and just enjoying the fresh air, and eventually taking in the sunset.

That night we went down to a little German restaurant - Red Bull Inn - in the main town and had a fabulous meal. If you go you MUST get the potato pancakes and the spetzel. Next door was a little one screen theater, which was the ONLY thing to do in the town. Well, the line for the theater was out the door, around the block with I think everyone in town going in. Gosh I love small towns!! How awesome!

The next morning, we had breakfast at one of two places to eat in the main town - Cobbleskill Diner - a little local hole in the wall that was obviously the right choice as there were hardly any parking spots or tables! It was certainly delicious as well!

Once back at the Howe Caverns property, we bundled up and headed down 15 stories to the 52 degree caverns. We spent an hour + down there and walked a mile around the caverns. They were really quite impressive and I was really impressed at how designed they were for the average tourist with brick paths, railings, lighting, etc. There's nothing about this visit that was "spelunking", which is what I envisioned.

We hung at the back of the tour, which was the best decision, because we were able to get some really impressive photos this way. The stalactites and stalagmites were so huge and the water flowing through the whole cavern was something I didn't really expect. We even took an 1/8 of a mile gondola ride from the mid point to the end of the open portion of the caverns. And even cooler was that they even had a room in the caverns to age their own cheddar cheese!

I do recommend staying at the motel that's a part of the property - it's not the Ritz, but it's walking distance, clean, nice and there are some great combo packages you can buy when you stay at the motel. Our package include admission to the caverns, a bag of mining gems, where we found some pretty stones, fudge from their candy shop (which was out of this world!) and other fun perks.

From Howe Caverns we headed to Sharon Springs, but took the back roads the whole way. It was so great to see the little town where the Beekman Boys live and have their store. We did go in to the store and walked out with their book, their caramel sauce, and some other great products. Since we came home, I've made two orders from their online store and am pleased with the products.

From Sharon Springs, we continued on the back roads to Cooperstown and went to the Ommengang Brewery. We waited 45 minutes for the tour only to not get in to any of the buildings because they were cleaning. But we went to the tasting and that was worth it.

We checked in to the hotel and settled on BBQ for dinner at the little place up the street from the hotel, only to find out they were closed on Mondays. So we then headed to another restaurant that Rachel Ray had eaten at on $40 a Day and had great reviews - so we drove another 30 minutes there only to find it closed as well. Exhausted, hungry, and frustrated we then drove even farther out of the way to a huge 24 hour diner - The Neptune Diner - which was surprisingly delicious with big portions, great food, and great prices, and HUGE televisions showing the World Series!

Next Day, Cooperstown!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Christmas in the Hessler Household! And we don't even have our tree yet!!

Our Thomas Kinkade Nativity Tree, our beloved Peanuts Christmas Pageant, and the holiday carolers, passed down from my grandfather.

Our Charlie Brown Tree and bobble head and snow globe collection, on top of the best spot in the house - the bar!

Part 1 of my endless snowman collection!

Adam's Nutcracker Collection

My Holiday Village, Complete with a Lobster Shack!

Bashful is ready for the season - someone hates his Santa hat and is petrified of the mini tree!

I'm thankful I didn't end up with a flesh wound!

And this is my new winter wreath for the 2011/2012 winter season. Isn't it cute? I got the idea from Pintrest and just so happen to find the snowman head at Christmas Tree Shop for $1.69 back in October!