Harry Potter World!

So, if you know me, you know I'm kind of a huge Harry Potter nerd. If you know my mom, you know she falls into the same category.



Ever since Universal Studios announced they were creating a Harry Potter World earlier in the year, my mom has been telling me that we're going to go. She kept her word this weekend and the two of us headed down to Orlando for a girls weekend of Potter and Butterbeer. (One of the awesome perks of Delta letting even non-dependent kids fly free!)

Although I got in late Friday because of weird flights (the downside of previously noted perk) we still managed to get up and head to the park just a bit after they opened on Saturday morning.



Now, the original plan was that going in the fall, in a weekend so close to Thanksgiving would lead to fewer crowds. Yes, that was the original plan. Ha! I can't imagine what this place was like when it opened. It was FULL! We didn't get to see everything because some of the shops had an hour wait just to get inside! BOO!

Oh well, we still managed to enjoy ourselves and soak up all the fun magical details.

The park is set up as the village of Hogsmeade leading up to the Hogwarts Castle.

You are greeted as you walk in by a steaming Hogwarts Express.










As you can see, we weren't the only ones here! This place was HUGELY popular.

As you wander through the streets of Hogsmeade, we were delighted to find all our favorite stores, complete with details straight out of the books. I loved the whimsical crooked chimneys and the shop windows displayed everything from extendable ears and puking pastilles to self stirring cauldrons.




Inside Zonko's.




"Please do not walk on the walls."






The Three Broomsticks, where we stopped for lunch and butterbeer.


For future reference, at least in the US, butterbeer is like a really rich cream soda.


We also had Pumpkin Juice, which is kind of like drinking a pumpkin pie, quite yummy!




Inside Honeydukes Sweets Shop.




I brought home a box of these for Alex to try. Watching someone eat Every Flavour Beans, may be the most entertaining thing ever. :-)




One of the places we couldn't get in due to the long lines.


We also didn't get in Ollivanders, however, the Universal crew got confused here, as the wand shop is in Diagon Alley not Hogsmeade!



From Hogsmeade you approach the castle, which really is quite awesome.







There is a ride inside the castle or you can just do a tour, we did both and thoroughly enjoyed it. They did a really great job inside, though it was a little dark for photos and I didn't have a good flash.


The paintings spoke and followed you as you walked by.


The desk in Dumbledores office.


The office with gross point and shoot camera flash.


Bulletin Board in the hall. The picture moved like the Daily Prophet!

The ride in the castle was sort of a combo of motion ride, roller coaster-ish, disney magic ride. It almost actually felt like you were flying on a broomstick around the castle and through the quidditch field. (Side note: one of my co-workers actually spent this weekend at the quidditch world cup, yes, there is one in real life, who would have thought??) The ride was filled with dementors and dragons, and all sorts of fun magic things and left you quite breathless by the end of it! Fun times for sure!

Overall I'd have to say the park did a great job, getting most all the details right and it was great fun to bring the book to life. The only con I would give it is that it's too small! There were so many things they could have added and so many directions they could have taken it, I think we both got to the end and were like, "that's it?" What was there was excellent, but I wish there was more to see. The wizarding world is by far the most popular area of the park, so it seems a little silly they cut things short! Perhaps they have plans for the future to expand?







Thanks mom for a super great time!

Fingerlakes Birthday Weekend!

Sorry I'm a bit behind, but I still wanted to post these photos!




Usually for my birthday Alex plans something as a surprise. I've been dropping hints to Alex since forever that I wanted to go wine tasting, particularly since I heard about the Fingerlakes region in upstate NY. He had been planning on taking me, but when we heard about the rally for sanity going on the same weekend, which he knew I also was interested in, he let me chose where I wanted to go.

I opted for a weekend up north.

Even though I didn't end up being surprised, I was SO excited to go! Wine tasting is one of my most favorite things, and the fingerlakes did not disappoint.

First off, upstate NY is BEAUTIFUL. We drove through beautiful mountain valleys and rolling farmland and even though we missed the peak foliage, it was still breathtaking.

We left Brooklyn on Friday morning and it was a about a 4 hour drive to Ithaca where we stopped for lunch at Moosewood Restaurant, whose cookbooks I've been enjoying for awhile now. From there we headed out around Lake Seneca and found our B&B, The Red Brick Inn, which was about half-way between Lake Seneca and Lake Keuka. The Inn was very nice, and I would recommend it if you're ever looking for a nice affordable place in the area.

We spent the remainder of Friday going for a walk around the farmland, relaxing, and then heading out to dinner in neighboring Watkins Glen which sits right next to Lake Seneca.






Looking back at the town.

On Saturday we enjoyed breakfast at the Inn and then headed out for the wine!



So much fun! The wineries in this region are SO relaxed, there is no snobbery at all. In fact, perhaps one of the highlights was a winery that had a little fun poking fun at those who take their wine a little too seriously.



Yes, their wine was actually quite good! :-)





After going tasting in California and Long Island, I was pleasantly surprised to find the wineries here so affordable! Most of them were either free or $2, and with that came 5-7 tastings and a free wine glass! Many of the vineyards offered delicious cheeses, fresh pesto and crackers, handmade fudge, or other snacks with their samples as well! The priciest vineyard of the day charged a hefty $5. NICE! This fit our student travel budget for sure.






Views from the Glenora vineyard, the oldest in the region. Not too shabby, even if most of the colors on the trees were faded.






Alex and I decided we definitely want to come back in the summer and rent a cabin on the lake.




Even though the trees had lost their leaves, the grape vines were a beautiful shade of gold.


A fantastic time had by all!




Our haul back in Brooklyn!

Around The World in 80 Dates: South Korea and Bibimbap!

So we haven't been keeping quite as on top of this as we'd hoped, but slow and steady wins the race right? For more on the original challenge, click here.

A few weeks ago Alex and I decided we were going to make Korea our next stop on the adventure. Many people may know that NYC has a fantastic Chinatown. Not as many people are aware there is also a strip around 32nd Street and 6th Ave known as Korea-town. K-town, as it's known around here, is one of the many reasons I love NYC. Wander down one of these blocks, and you may well have wandered into Seoul. All of the restaurants, grocers, businesses, everything is in Korean. It's fantastic.

I'd been there many years ago with my friend Diane, but Alex had never been through, so we decided to hit it up one Friday after work since we're both in Manhattan then. I'd googled for a few reviews, but ultimately we just ended up walking around and finding a place that a. fit our budget, b. looked tasty and pleasantly busy, and c. looked authentic/not completely all tourists.

The place we picked out had the option of entrees downstairs and then Korean BBQ upstairs. Since Alex had never had the BBQ, we went for it. If you've never done Korean BBQ, I highly recommend it!

*I promise to bring my camera next time for the restaurant part!

There is a mini grill in the middle of your table, and then you order a selection of meats to grill yourself table side. You are also served a huge assortment of mini bowls of all kinds of fun vegetables, kimchi, greens, etc. Tons of food and loads of deliciousness.

The at home version!

So the problem came with part two of the challenge. It turns out our tiny apartment kitchen doesn't really come with a ready made grill for BBQ. So, I'm cheating a little, but decided just to make something traditionally Korean rather then imitating the restaurant.

Enter, Bibimbap! First off, if that isn't the most fun food to say, I don't know what is!

Bibimbap was super duper easy, and is seriously my new favorite dish. This was SO good. Make it tonight. The name literally means (according to wikipedia) "mixed rice" and my understanding is you can pretty much toss together whatever you like and it'll work! There's even a comic about how easy it is!

Here is the recipe I came up with after googling around and combining a few:

Bibimbap

Serves two

1/2 pound of grass fed strip steak
Assorted Veggies: Green Pepper, Two Carrots, Zucchini, handful of fresh spinach
2 eggs
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 TBS sesame oil
3 TBS soy sauce
1/2 tsp honey
1.5 tsp brown sugar
fresh ground pepper
red pepper flakes
1 C rice

Gujuchang (Korean red pepper sauce) for serving

Combine the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, sugar, a few grinds of black pepper, and a shake of red pepper flakes in a bowl. Slice the steak thinly and add to the marinade, turn to cover and refrigerate for an hour or two.


As a side note, this steak was AWESOME. It's from a vendor at the farmers market who I've seen lots, but never bought from. I will be getting more for sure. If you don't know why you need grass fed beef, watch Food Inc.

Slice your veggies thinly. I actually used a mandolin to get them into nice shoe strings, which worked really well!



Cook the rice to package directions. Usually 2 cups water, 1 cup rice, boil, turn down the heat and simmer until the water is gone.

In a wok or large skillet heat a few tablespoons of oil. When the pan is nice and hot, toss in the steak. Since it's thinly sliced, you really only need to stir fry it for a couple minutes at most. It should cook really quick.

Some people leave the veggies raw, but I decided to throw them in with the steak to mix in the flavor and cook them for just a bit nice and fast.

While the steak is cooking or as it finishes, drop two eggs in another skillet and cook to over easy.

To serve, traditionally this should be in a big stone bowl. However, in our house, we piled the rice on a plate, topped with the steak and veggie and capped it off with the egg.

Serve with gujucahng sauce, which you can find at a korean grocer or your local Whole Foods. Spicy, but not overly so, it adds a great flavor to the dish.



DELICIOUS!

29.

That's a pretty big number. Last week I celebrated heading into the last year of my twenties.

In honor of the occasion, and the fact that I love making lists, I decided on a 30x30.

The first 30. I'm always scheming up new things I want to do. Often times when I'm telling Alex about all these cool things, he tells me I need to remember that I have actually already done some pretty fun things. And I shouldn't forget that. I figured this was a pretty good idea to remember, so thought I would start off my quest by listing 30 cool things I've done before turning 30.

The second 30. These are 30 things I hope to accomplish in the next year. Stay tuned, I will plan on a third rendition with the list of 30 post 30 in a year! :-)

30 awesome things DONE. (In no particular order other then my remembering them. Well, some things are probably in order. :-) )

1. Married a most amazing husband.
2. Managed to have a wedding story that involved: sunshine, hail, tornado wall clouds, and double rainbows.
3. Have kept in touch with and can still count many of the girls I was friends with in the 8th grade as some of favorite ladies. For some of you 6th grade! Wow, that's almost 20 years!
4. Lived in Spain
5. Lived in Ecuador
6. Taught English in a tiny indigenous village
7. Went sky-diving
8. Learned Spanish enough to pass for decently fluent-ish.
9. Pedaled furiously by bike to see sunrise over Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
10. Hiked to the top of Macchu Picchu.
11. Cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast on my own, from scratch.
12. Ran a half marathon.
13. Completed 5 triathlons.
14. Started a photography business.
15. Backpacked across Spain, France and Italy solo.
16. Survived a move to one of the craziest cities in the world. And learned to love it.
17. Consumed street food on 6 continents.
18. Completed a fast paced, though complete RTW trip.
19. Spent a night in the Sahara Desert.
20. Walked through the Sistine Chapel and saw Michelangelo's David.
21. Picked out fish fresh off the beach from the Dakar fish market.
22. Rode a motorbike through the Vietnamese country-side. (Rode not Drove, I let Alex do that.)
23. Got a black belt in Taekwondo.
24. Saw monkeys in Tikal.
25. Surfed in Hawaii. (Surfed is a big word here. More like stood up on a board while drifting on a ripple, however, I'm counting it. :-) )
26. Learned and now regularly practice yoga.
27. Snorkeled with sharks in Thailand.
28. Learned how to cook from scratch without a recipe.
29. Went white water rafting.
30. Went wine tasting in France, New Zealand, Hungary, California, and New York.

30 things TO DO before 30:
1. Run a half marathon under 2:30.
2. Finish an olympic distance triathlon.
3. Bake leavened bread.
4. Get a logo designed for my photo business.
5. Take more photography classes/workshops. (At least 2!)
6. Learn web design. (Basic web design)
7. Build my photo business.
8. Bake a pie completely from scratch, crust included.
9. Make apple crisp.
10. Make homemade cheese.
11. Run a 10K in under one hour.
12. Plan a 30th birthday trip extravaganza! (I have many ideas, now to buy the tickets)
13. Stay at a beach house on Long Island.
14. Get new glasses/contacts.
15. Bake something without a recipe.
16. Go fruit picking.
17. Design a better website/blog
18. Learn more about investing, and where my retirement deductions are actually going.
19. Cross country ski.
20. Make a meal from every country I've traveled to.
21. Try a new NY restaurant every month.
22. Make pasta from scratch.
23. Organize my recipe file.
24. Organize my drawers.
25. Rent a cabin on the fingerlakes.
26. Go somewhere awesome with our free AirTran tickets.
27. Have a dinner party. (This may be tricky in our little space...)
28. Get out to shoot more for fun in NYC.
29. Complete more countries for our 80 dates challenge.
30. Find direction. I'm determined to figure this out before next year.

New Photo Blog!

Hey Kids,

I'm attempting to get a blog started just for the photo business. So, look for any new photo/portrait session posts to be up over there! I'll still be posting fun stuff here, but am giving the photo sessions their own space.

Announcing the De Nueva Photo Blog!

I'm still working on it, but for now, I'm pleased with the progress! Give it a visit, and hopefully more photos will be up soon!

Happy Monday!