A Whole Lotta Local

July is almost over (already?!), but we have been having a great time. The softball season ended with our team winning four out of our last five games, then dropping to the first place team in the first game of the playoffs. We had so much fun, we decided we're going to play Fall Ball, too. Why not, right??

I know I always write about the weather, but it has been so insane this year that it's hard not to. We had the snowiest February, the rainiest and coldest April and May, and now the hottest July. I love the heat, so I'm not complaining... then again, I'm lucky to have air conditioning to cool me off when it's hovering around 100 degrees... which it has for the past eight days straight. We're spending a lot of time at the pool and in the shade, and while some people are not happy with the heat, I am still remembering that it was SNOWING two months ago!

As far as adventures and travels, we have stuck around Ohio this month, but we have been busy. We spent the 4th of July up on Lake Erie at the family sailboat in Marblehead Lakeside. We kayaked around, sat at the marina, and enjoyed the lovely summer weather. Later that weekend, we set off fireworks at my in-laws and hung out with my parents and my husband's family. Always a good time.

Outside of Progressive Field, Cleveland.

The following weekend was my husband's 28th birthday as well as his cousin's wedding, so we spent three days and two nights in Downtown Cleveland celebrating. We walked around East 4th (our favorite street in Cleveland), enjoying the food and drinks at Flannery's and 4th Street Grill. We strolled over to Progressive Field to get some Indians gear, and then partied into the wee hours at the Marriott for our cousin's wedding. It was a blast! That Sunday, I went to the Indian's game, sporting my newly-purchased Tribe hat, with three of my friends. It was so hot (97 degrees) that we opted to sit under the shade instead of in our excellent seats in right field. Even though we didn't win, we had a great time... Progressive Field is truly an awesome park, and one of my favorite places in Cleveland.

Last weekend my husband, our friend and I hopped on our bicycles in Downtown Akron and rode the towpath 21 miles through gorgeous scenery to the Brecksville Reservation. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is just so damn beautiful it nearly makes me cry every time I see a new portion of it. Having never been to the southernmost part of the park, I was once again taken aback that this kind of forestry and beauty is actually in Ohio. It literally takes your breath away, and I rode all 21 of those miles in the oppressive heat with a huge smile on my face. I think it's therapeutic, truly. Even after we were done with our epic ride, we decided to keep exploring, and took a hike around Virginia Kendell to cap off the day. It was absolutely perfect. Nothing beats the C-Val!

Now the month is winding down, and we're still taking advantage of the weather by laying by the pool, taking walks and jogs, cooking out, and spending as much time outside as we can. My nephew's birthday party is tonight and we're looking forward to spending time with my family and celebrating. Next month we are venturing out to Boston, Cape Cod, and possibly NYC, so we're very excited about that! Until then... enjoy this gorgeous summer!

Ketchup

I love when I suddenly remember that I have a blog. So, April is where I left off, and what an April it was...

I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but Mother Nature is actually really, really mad at us right now. We went from a nasty, vicious winter to a cold, rainy spring, leading into a scorching hot, scary summer with tornadoes and lightning storms reminiscent of strobe-light-infused horror movies. Now, it's mid-June and we've had nearly a week of 50-degree weather. Hmmm...

But all that aside, my husband and I have been traveling all over the place and taking advantage of the little spurts of decent weather when we can. Let's break it down for you:

April
I decided to get a little wild this month. I got my third (and final - according to my husband) tattoo on April 9. It's the first measure of "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethovan, and it's on the top of my back. I love it! The next week, we took a trip to Washington DC on a long weekend and wore ourselves out completely on sightseeing, eating at interesting restaurants and pubs, and traipsing through the abundance of Smithsonian museums. We had so much fun - the first day was gorgeous, so we saw as many monuments as we could fit into the day - ending our 20+mile hike around the capital with a delicious dinner and some drinks at the local eateries (Fado Irish Pub & Restaurant turned out to be our favorite!). The second day was pouring rain, so it was perfect for dashing back and forth between the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, the Library of Congress, Capitol Hill, and the Smithsonian Castle. You see, my husband and I are kind of history buffs, and this made for a fantastic way to make use of a wretched weather day.

We ended our DC trip by walking the grounds at Arlington National Cemetary. It was extremely beautiful, somber, moving and powerful. The place was virtually silent, aside from the shuffling of feet and whispers of families, although there were thousands of visitors that day. We saw JFK's eternal flame, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

I certainly think Washington DC is underrated in regards to its appeal as a tourist destination. We loved every bit of our trip, and we can't wait to go back to see what we missed. It's a great place for families, but there were also a ton of places for young adults to enjoy. We can't wait to go back.

May
May was kind of awesome as well. MOST importantly, my neice Delaney Kay Phillips was born on May 21! She is so cute I can barely stand it. I can't wait to spoil her rotton. As far as vacations and mini-trips go, we did quite a few this month.

May 13-15, my husband and I drove down to our alma mater, Ohio University, to meet up with his little brother, his parents, and a whole bunch of our college friends. We forgot how much we adore that school (and how cheap beers are in college towns!). We had two perfect days catching up with some of our favorite people, walking the campus, eating at our favorite spots, and visiting our old haunts. It was absolutely awesome.

Later in the month, we went down to Columbus for our old college roomie's wedding, and spent some time with a few of our other buddies from high school. Columbus is really a cool city - I always forget how much fun we have down there.

We capped off May with a Memorial Day party at my in-laws' house - a tradition that we get excited about every year. The roughly two-acres of the backyard is transformed into a cookout mecca, complete with a tent, kegs, more food than you can imagine, football, baseball, a fire pit, and inevitably, my father-in-law setting off fireworks. We had so much fun with family and friends, and it was the perfect ending to the month.

June
So now we're halfway through June. We've had some decent weather for the most part, and we're trying to fit as much into our weekends as possible. My husband and I are on a co-ed softball team this year, and it's proving to be a blast, dispite the fact that we are awful. The first weekend of June, we opted for an impromptu trip to West Branch State Park to camp (yes... tents, fire-cooked food, the whole bit), and it was incredibly relaxing and wonderful. We met up with his parents and did a little kayaking, a little reading, a little jogging around the lake, a little relaxing by the fire... it was perfect. We even got cozy with the local wildlife - a raccoon who ended up mad at us because we didn't leave any food out for him.

The second weekend this month, we went to Chicago - again with his parents and little brother - to get my brother-in-law settled in his new temporary home. He moved to Chicago for a fantastic internship gig with Price Waterhouse Cooper, and is living right downtown by the Chicago Theater! We spent time with him and a few of our friends who live in the city, and it was awesome. The weather was truly bizarre - after topping 98 degrees on Wednesday, it had hit a low of 44 by the time we got there Thursday night. It was misty and cold all weekend, but that didn't stop us from having fun. Chicago is one of our favorite cities, and I'm sure we'll be back again soon!

So there you have it, I've caught up for now. The rest of the month should be a little quieter, although we have some fun plans. I fully intend on making the most of this summer, so be prepared for a few curve balls thrown into this blog in the weeks to come. Until then... treat every weekend like a mini-vacation to keep your sanity, even if it's a local trip!

March Madness

I actually couldn't care less about college basketball - and I hate cliche headlines - but with the whirlwind month I've had, I felt this one was appropriate (and besides, I love the alliteration: it makes me smile). So here we are at the end of one crazy month, in which I believe the lion went ahead and ate the lamb this time around, because I haven't seen mild temperatures. The lamb started to come out around St. Patrick's Day, then the lion just devoured it and it's been frigid ever since.

Yes, the french fries are IN the
sandwiches at Premanti Brothers! 

The beginning of the month started out promising with a spontaneous trip to Pittsburgh with a dear friend of mine.  We stayed on the Southside, and walked almost the entire city throughout the first day. It was rainy, but we didn't mind. We stopped for lunch at the famous Premanti Brothers and had ourselves two honkin' huge sandwiches and cheesy fries. They were a sight to behold, and quite honestly, an accomplishment to consume. We of course made friends with the cooks (mainly because it took us nearly three hours to eat these sandwiches, so we had time to chat), and they told us to go to Carson City Saloon that night. We took their suggestion, and spent most of the evening there, drinking $2 mixed drinks and $1 drafts. The "best" part about this bar? They only had two beers on draft: Yuengling and Natural Lite. Despite the fact that they were both equally cheap, people were still ordering Natty. I thought the Apocalypse had come. (For those of you who don't know what Natty Lite is, it's the beer we ordered in college because we couldn't afford anything else, and it tastes like skunky water. As opposed to Yuengling, which is a masterpiece of brewing excellency.)

Pittsburgh was a fun mini-trip, and I'd certainly go again. The next couple weeks consisted of build-up to St. Patrick's Day, which I spent up in Lakewood with some great friends while my husband was out of town on business. I attended a pre-St. Patrick's Day party with him the weekend before, so we got our green-beer fix together then. But on the actual day, my friends and I went to a place called Deagan's in Lakewood, and it was positively perfect. They had delicious food, so we got a myriad of appetizers for the table, including pommes frites, bacon wrapped sea scallops, Peking duck confit mac and cheese, and sesame crusted calamari - yeah, it wasn't your typical bar food! We ate, drank Irish beer, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway "Ales on Rails"
beer-tasting train ride. What a great concept!! 

The month culminated with a funky fun twist in our food and beer adventures. My brother-in-law had given my husband and me tickets to "Ales on Rails" for Christmas. Now, I always write on here about the great Cuyahoga Valley National Park, but this is something different and interesting that they offer: a beer tasting train ride through the park on their famous, rusty, old train (the rust and ripped seats definitely add to the character of the 1940s train - I wouldn't upgrade it either!) My mother-in-law and father-in-law joined us, along with my husband's aunt and uncle, and we had two strait hours of bottomless ales and stouts paired with snacks while we rode the train through the CVal Park. Really, it was too much fun. I got yelled at by the conductor for not drinking enough (my kind of train), the electricity shut off about halfway through the trip, and by the end of the ride, the group had plenty of beer-induced "quotes of the night." I believe at one point my father-in-law referred to the city lights out the window as "fairy lights," and our uncle fondly remarked at the end of the trip, with a cheesy grin on his face and a shrug of his shoulders, "We liiiiike Mike." (Mike was our beer distributor who was telling us all about our tasters. We did like him.)  I won't tell you what our aunt said, but let's just say the entire train was dead silent when she was describing the head on the beer!

Next month, we're heading to Opening Day for the Tribe (April 1), Washington D.C. long weekend (April 15-17), and probably another few trips here and there! I can't wait!

Until then, enjoy the wee bit o' winter we have left, and don't judge my beer consumption.

Snow? Yep, we've got snow.

I think it's safe to say that we've had a pretty snowy winter here in Ohio. With an average of 35 inches of snow in the first two months of 2011 alone for our corner of the state, it's considered a rarity to see patches of grass anymore. We did have a couple days in February with a borderline Indian Summer - amidst a 40-degree swing in five days, we had two 60+ degree days right before we plunged into one of the worst storms of the season. So those who shout about global warming do have a bit of an argument... I guess. I don't know. I still don't buy it. Statistics be damned.

But, the Tunstalls have not let this crippling cold get us down. Nay, instead we forge ahead and have our fun wherever we can get it! We've done a couple ski trips to our local hills (Boston Mills and Brandywine - beware: small kids EVERYWHERE!), and we even ventured on a winter hike in our beloved Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I was lucky enough to be shipped off to California for a few days in the beginning of February for work, and I got to stand outside in 75-degree weather (for five minutes while walking to the convention center. Worth it!). I had almost forgotten what it felt like to have warm sun on my skin. 



Making snow angels with Louie
at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park



The highlight of our winter adventures thus far has to be our little impromptu hike in the C-Val. We took the pup and headed to our familiar Brandywine Falls, and trudged through a barely-visible trail, roughly covered in two feet of pack snow. There were ample opportunities for snowball fights; we built a mini-snowman and sat it on a rest bench, left to admire the ice-encrusted river below; we made snow angels, and we climbed off-trail, hoping not to fall into a hidden crevices. It was an adventure, and we had a lot of fun. Poor Louie dog had some frozen puppy paws by the end, but he was a good sport and we gave him an extra treat to compensate.

In all, we made the most of a rough winter so far, and we expect to continue for what is inevitably to be another month or two of cold and snow. I'm looking out my window at a slushy mess - a remnant of the blast we got last night that left us with an additional 13 inches of snow before noon today - and I'm not expecting spring to come early this year, despite what that liar Punxsutawney Phil predicted. I'm heading to Pittsburgh next weekend with one of my very best friends for a girls' weekend in the city, then I'll be back out in California for a San Diego-to-San Francisco road trip at the end of March (don't get too excited for me... it's for work), so I'll have plenty to keep me occupied until that elusive Ohio Sunshine decides to make it's triumphant return.

OH! I almost forgot. I have been to two concerts at the Cleveland House of Blues in the past couple weeks, and I must say, that is a great venue! I saw Jimmy Eat World with my husband, and Badfish (a Sublime tribute band) with a friend, and both concerts were so much fun. If you're not into the above-described freezing-your-ass-off-just-for-kicks thing, and you're looking for a loud, somewhat dirty, funky fun music night, catch a show at the HOB and you won't be disappointed. Tallboy beers, stale nachos, smelly hot dogs and overpriced merchandise... ahhh... the beauty that comes with rock 'n' roll. Can't really ask for anything more when show tickets average about $20 for a 4-hour party. Just do yourself a favor and bring some hand sanitizer. Make sure to grab dinner at one of the many fabulous restaurants right there on East 4th Street, adjacent to the HOB. So many good choices, you really can't go wrong.

Tunstalls Invade Europe!!

Because I hadn't started this blog yet, I was posting to TravelPod while my husband and I were overseas last Spring. To brush up on our 16-day trip through five countries, click the link below!

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/heathertunstall/1/tpod.html

Oops, sunshine, and holidays.

Somewhere... beyond the sea...

So, it's been a while since I've posted. I could give you about 1,000 excuses, but let's be honest, there are really only two people who read this, and you know what I've been up to anyway. However, because I'm OCD, I feel like if I leave out the obviously spectacular stories I have to tell about our cruise in November, then I will forever regret it. Maybe not, but hey, it's a snowy Saturday afternoon in Northeast Ohio, and I feel like writing.

So let's get down to business.

Thanksgiving week of 2010 was pretty amazing, I must say. The hubby and I took a nice, 17-hour overnight drive down to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. to hop on a big boat and set sail around the Caribbean. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, so we were pretty stoked for this one. It was a 5-nighter, going from Ft. Lauderdale, to Grand Cayman Island, to Cozumel, Mexico and back. We weren't sure what to expect, but it was 80 degrees and sunny in November, so we were fairly sure we'd enjoy it.

We cruised with Royal Caribbean, and quite honestly, we liked it a lot. We had a room with a private balcony, and it wasn't as small as we expected it to be - it was pretty nice, actually. We spent our days up at the pool, or in the buffet, eating ourselves into afternoon comas. It was fun to dress up, dance, drink, lay around, gamble (I won about $350 on one hand of 3-card poker!), and explore the ship. Each morning, we woke up and ate breakfast out on our balcony and discussed what we'd do that day.

Stingray City - the giant dark spots
are the monsters! 

Our first port was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. We opted for a guided excursion where we would take a bus and a boat out into the bay and swim with ginormous stingray. When I say ginormous, I mean roughly 150-lb stingray with eyeballs the size of golf balls. Now, you may not know this about me, but I am absolutely terrified of ocean creatures. On our honeymoon, my husband nearly had to push me into the water to snorkel. I'm getting better each time I try, but the stingray were freaking scary, no matter what anyone says. I forced myself to go in the water and try it out, and I stayed in there for about 10-15 minutes and even pet some of the monsters (which felt like wet mushrooms), but then I enjoyed the rest of the excursion up on the boat, watching my hubby have his own adventure and taking pictures. In my defense, because I'm only 5'2" and the water was choppy, the waves were throwing me around and I couldn't keep my feet on the ground so I was stepping on stingray left and right - hence, the freaking out.

After Stingray City, we walked around the shops and restaurants in town for a while, then headed back to the ship. We were a little disappointed because we spent so much time in transit to and from the excursion that we barely had any free time on the island. With that in mind, when we went to Cozumel, we chose to make it our own little adventure - without having to wait on other people. And an adventure it was!

We rode this hog all over Cozumel.

We took one look at the lines for excursions and taxis, said a quick prayer, and signed a sheet for our very own scooter for the day. Strapping our helmets on tight, we wobbled around on this 15-mile-an-hour deathtrap through absolutely gorgeous scenery - right along the beach and through a jungle until we reached a park where we could lay on the beach and snorkel. They also happened to have a nice little local mom-and-pop restaurant that served the absolute BEST tostadas we've ever tasted. It was a perfect, relaxing day, and we had a great time.

Overall, a cruise is something we'd do again - somewhere new next time, of course. We weren't big fans of the assigned eating times and attire, but that wasn't enough to dampen our spirits. When we returned to port, we drove down to Boca Raton to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's aunt, uncle and grandma, and some of their friends. It was so wonderful. We stuffed ourselves full for a full week straight, enjoyed each other's company and the company of our fabulous family, and then on our way home, we made a pit stop in Savannah (paid for in full with my poker winnings from the cruise!).

Historic Savannah, Ga.

Savannah was a pretty awesome town, and we saw a tiny bit of it. We only had one night, so we took advantage of the fact that you can get beers "to go" (no, really!!), and we set off on our own little walking tour of Savannah's Most Haunted Places, with a smart phone as our guide. It was a beautiful, historic, kind of creepy, super quirky city, and we loved every bit of it. We definitely want to go back sometime and fully enjoy what it has to offer.

So, that was our big trip at the end of 2010. We had a fantastic Christmas with our family, I had a Golden Birthday (27 on the 27th), and we had a fun New Year's Eve with our friends. In year two of my husband's and my New Year's Eve tradition where we write down three locations each and draw one from a hat to be that year's vacation, we chose New York City. So, watch out Gotham, the Tunstalls are already making plans.

A quick recap of the new year so far: I got baptized for the first time in my life on January 2, and that was a beautiful experience. The weather in Ohio has been extremely snowy ever since we returned from our cruise, and it's only getting whiter outside. We are planning on going skiing soon, and we have a busy few months ahead with LOTS of fun planned, so I will be back on here in a much timelier fashion from here on out!

Until then... keep dreaming of what each year has to offer, and remember - never underestimate what you can do with a little advanced planning!