Road Trip to Virginia Beach

Well hello blog friends! I know it's been a hot minute since I posted anything but I've been knee deep in unpacking our life haha. I finally feel like I have a minute to breath so I wanted to update you on what's been going on in the Bradford house.

Two weeks ago my mom and I left Vegas to make the drive to VA beach. We didn't want to rush the trip because we had the pups with us so it ended up taking us 5.5 days. Our first day was the longest and almost took 9 hours to get to Albuquerque, NM. We encountered a ton of rain on our drive through Arizona but overall it wasn't bad. We stayed at a Sheraton off the highway and it wasn't great. Since I had the pups, they put you in a pet friendly room aka nasty floors from other dogs and cats. There were stains everywhere and the room smelled like cleaner/ covered up pee. Yuck lol. We didn't have much time that night but we went across the street to eat dinner and then went to bed.

Our second day brought us to Oklahoma City. We stayed at the Sheraton downtown and it was sooooo cute! They didn't heave a pet fee either which was amazing. I'll link the hotel here because you should definitely check it out if you're in the area. Their lobby was adorable! We went to the Bricktown area (per Ashley's recommendation) and had dinner at a brewery. The food was delicious and the area was super cute. The next morning we walked to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and it was also delicious. It was an order at the counter place but the customer service was awesome and the dogs were a huge hit there. I would love to go back to Oklahoma City and check out more.

our interesting wine glasses lol

Next, we made our way to Little Rock. This was another low key night but ended up being a lot of fun because we hung out on the deck outside with some wine. Sadly, I was eaten alive by bugs but it was still a good time!

My favorite day of the trip was arriving in Nashville. We stayed at the Loew's West End and holy moly it was nice. When we checked in they gave us a doggie treat bag for the pups. It included metal dog bowls, a mat for them to sit on, doggie bags, and treats. They love dogs there and I highly recommend it if you have pups. We also arrived just in time for happy hour on the club level. Such a nice and relaxing way to start our time in Nashville. Afterwards, we got ready and headed out to Tootsies. The music was awesome and the atmosphere was even better! :)

We headed to Merchants for dinner and sat at the bar for quick service. We both got burgers and it was seriously the best one I've ever had. In love with that place! I want to try their fine dining level next time we are in town. We finished the night at Tin Roof and has a blast dancing to the band there. Gosh, I love Nashville!!!

The next day we got on the road after a yummy breakfast in the club level. We didn't have a plan for this day but just wanted to drive until we got tired. We ended up stopping in Roanoke to break up the long drive to VA beach. We had dinner at the hotel and watched Big Brother and Game of Thrones in the hotel room. Such fun night!

On Tuesday, we finally arrived in VA Beach just in time for our walk-through. I was so excited to 1. see my hubby and 2. see the house! So far I had just seen pictures and did a walk-through on FaceTime with our realtor. It was a great day!

The rest of the week was a little crazy because we had some issues with our close date. This was a BIG problem for us because Mark was heading out of town at the end of the week and I was going to be homeless. Thankfully the Lord protected us and Sandra worked her tail off to make it all happen. We took possession of the house on Wednesday night and closed on Thursday. Such a whirlwind of a week but we are so happy to finally own a home!

Just waiting to move into the house. Pizza and beer in the street is normal right??? 

Road Trip Part 2: Big Bear

Our second part of the trip was to Big Bear, CA. Our very sweet friends let us stay in their adorable cabin. THANK YOU guys so much!! We left Idyllwild Monday morning and made it to Big Bear in about 2.5 hours. Not bad! We immediately went to Big Bear Lake Brewing Company to grab some lunch and to watch the Olympics... of course! We ate the most delicious avocado bomb. Basically it was an avocado filled with raw spicy tuna and crab, then fried in a tempura batter. Oh my goodness, it was delicious! We couldn't get enough. We spent the rest of the day checking out the little village area and watching more Olympics.

Half-eaten Avocado bomb. YUM!

We had dinner at Saucy Mama's and while the service wasn't great, the food was awesome. They were just super understaffed and couldn't handle the amount of people that were there. Thankfully, we had lots of time to hang out :)

The next morning we went to the Copper Q to have a light breakfast before our workout. The place was so cute I couldn't help but take pictures of the decor. The coffee was yummy as well!

We headed to a local park to do a partner workout. The altitude kicked my butt but at least we got it done!  We drove around to a local book sale, then checked out the wooden carvings. We really wanted a little bear or bald eagle but holy moly they are expensive! Needless to say, we left empty-handed.

Our plan was to spend the day at the beach/ swim area. Sadly, the lake levels are super low this year and the beach access area was closed. Such a bummer.

We ended up going to watch more Olympics and hung out in an outside area of 572 Social. We highly recommend that restaurant because they have live music and a great patio! Then we went to the Alpine slide to let our inner-child loose. So fun!!

We had dinner at Saucy Mama's again because we were craving pizza. The service was much better the 2nd time around :) We finished our night with some yummy treats. A s'mores caramel apple for Mark and ice cream for me.

We spent our last morning eating breakfast at the Little Bear Restaurant and cleaning up the cabin. Mark went on an early morning bike ride and I watched The Good Wife. Guys, I'm obsessed with this show. I know I am WAY behind the times but I just realized what I was missing. Anyways, we left around 11 a.m. and it was a easy drive home. We had such a wonderful time on our little getaway. Sometimes you just need to get out of the house for awhile, to really appreciate life. :)

Road Trip Part 1: Idyllwild, CA

I'm back! We just got home from our road trip yesterday so I wanted to get a post up today to share what we did. The first part of our trip was spent in Idyllwild, CA. We both had never been there before but our fiends Emily and James recommended it. We loved this cute little mountain town!

If you remember from my post a few weeks ago, we were actually supposed to be in Cancun but had to cancel our trip last minute. We knew we still wanted to go somewhere but we weren't exactly sure where and for how long. Our trip came together the day before we left. Way to wait to the last minute, right???

When I was looking for lodging, I wanted to find a B&B. We've stayed in a couple before and LOVED them. Since this was so last minute I ended up going with an Inn that was reasonably priced and had vacancies. I couldn't afford to be picky with such short notice. We ended up staying at the Creekstone Inn and LOVED it. The inn wasn't a B&B but they had coffee around the clock and a kitchen open to the guests. The woman running the inn was super friendly and made us feel right at home. I choose the "Out West" room, out of the available themes. It was a good choice because Mark was obsessed with it haha. We peaked at the other rooms when they were open (after the guests had left) and really liked the other themes too. I still think we had the best one though. :) The inn was walking distance to everything and was the perfect place for us to stay.

Our first day there was spent checking out the town and finding places to watch the Olympics. The Olympics were a common theme of our entire trip haha. We wandered into a Mexican restaurant at first but the service was terrible and we ended up leaving. The next place we went to was Jo Ann's. They lured us in with the live music and yummy-smelling BBQ. We walked around some more and headed back to the room to rest and change for dinner.

Cafe Aroma

We ate dinner at Care Aroma. I had done a little bit of research before we went up to Idyllwild and knew this was a place we wanted to try. The food was SO yummy! I highly recommend making reservations because they were PACKED.

Mark's dinner- vegetable stuffed Portobello mushrooms with a balsamic drizzle

my dinner- ravioli with sun dried tomatoes and a garlic, olive oil, and tomato sauce. YUMMM!

Afterwards, we went to Idyology, which was right across from our inn. We hung out on the deck, listened to the live music, and played card games. The perfect night!

The next day we went on the hunt for a good hike. We ended up at the ranger station to get a hiking pass and he sent us on a hike that he said would leave us sweating and breathing hard. Boy, was he right! He told us the hike was 3.3 miles each way and we would climb about 1,600 ft. We were already pretty high in the mountains, so we knew this was going to be a challenge. The hike was hard but beautiful. It also ended up being around 7.7 miles total and it kicked my booty. My legs and butt were so sore the next day lol. I also got pretty dehydrated and had a killer headache when we got back. Mark had me on a water drinking schedule but I still didn't drink enough. Thank goodness he was there to get me Powerade, snacks, and Advil. :)

the view from our hike :)

We relaxed for the rest of the day and then ate at Arribas for dinner. It wasn't my favorite place to eat but they were playing the Olympics. Win for us!

On our last morning we went to a local coffee shop to grab a light breakfast and read for awhile outside. Two of my favorite things- books and coffee! I finished The Cursed Child that morning. I'll be posting a Book Over-Review soon! Afterwards, we checked out and headed to our next part of the trip. More on that to come!