Los Angeles, CA

On Monday, I hopped off a plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan, concerned about fitting in and the future of twerking.  I traveled from St. Louis to Los Angeles and everyone on the plane was super into baseball because the St. Louis Cardinals was playing the Los Angeles Dodgers that night.  Great reason to travel: learn about the local culture through sports!

While my trip to Los Angeles was for business, I made sure to soak in some pleasure, in the form of Kosher meat.  Obviously the bulk of this blog post will now be about this meal.

I had dinner at Jeff's Gourmet Sausage and had a hamburger with onion rings and avocado on it. 

No need for a witty caption - the photo is perfect on its own

The best part about the restaurant is that it was cheaper to go to Pico Robertson than to fly all the way to Jerusalem, and yet the experience of walking down the street with Hebrew street signs everywhere was exactly the same...there may actually be more English in Jerusalem than in this part of Los Angeles.

I hung out with my friends Leah, Micah, Miriam, and Beni.  A great part about traveling all over the world is that I get to visit with people I know wherever I go! My friends seem to have found a great expat community in Pico Robertson and I was happy to connect these two couples so they can have a larger support network so far from home.

Leah wanted to get on the blog

Miriam wanted to get on the blog

 I also got to spend a morning with two former coworkers and people who are still my friends, Leeba and Justin.  Sadly we forgot to take photos of our sitting around and gossiping, but you can imagine what it looked like...

In other non-food related news, I got to see the beach. 

And the sunset.

This may be the last blog post for a bit of time, as my intense travels have ended for the time being.  Make sure to subscribe so you can get email updates from my next adventure!

St. Louis, MO

I spent the past weekend in St. Louis, Missouri, to celebrate the nuptials of my friends from college, Jon & Abra. 

I loved St. Louis! Everyone was so nice and friendly, and I've heard that is custom for this part of the world.

I took a lot of pictures of the famous Gateway Arch.  Unfortunately, due to The Government Shutdown, no one is allowed in the museum or up at the top, so I just had to take photos from afar. A great thing about traveling: You really feel the local country's governmental impact wherever you go! You definitely don't feel that where I live!

The water was red because the St. Louis Cardinals won.  Go Cards! AND The Dodgers were staying at my hotel.

Other things I liked about St. Louis:
1) Lots of culture! We walked through a sculpture park downtown, and on Saturday night everyone hung out at the City Museum. There were beautiful city parks as well.

This was one of the many staircases at the City Museum.  It's like a dinosaur!

2) Everything was really close and it never took a long time to get anywhere!

The wedding was so lovely as well - it took place at the Contemporary Art Museum and was really classy and beautiful, as would be expected.  Congratulations Abra & Jon!

Westchester, NY

I spent about 36 hours in Westchester, New York this week.  Again, this was for work, so nothing super exciting to report.  It is amazing, though, how different the Southeastern United States and the Northeastern United States! Who knew that one country could have such a diverse population depending on the area where one is from! What a great revelation.

Our social outing for the meeting was to have dinner at Melting Pot.  I had only been once before and it was a lot of fun.  We ate a lot of cheese and I felt, almost, like I was in Switzerland.

Things were set on fire

Me & Casey with our sticks

I love cheese and I love taking photos of cheese

The only thing better than a photo of cheese is a photo of melted cheese

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

I spent a little over 24 hours in Ft. Lauderdale this week.  Here are some fun facts I learned from my shuttle driver:

• You can take a boat from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas for $120 r/t.  The boat leaves Ft. Lauderdale at 8am, arriving at 10am, and it departs the Bahamas at 8pm.  This sounds like a lot of fun and the next time I make it to Ft. Lauderdale (the world is SO SMALL when you really think about it!) I totally want to do this just to say I did it!
• Peruvian food is delicious and is a mix of Mexican, Indian, and Chinese
• Speed camera/red light cameras in Florida are much more expensive than where I live! Oh, cultural differences - it is why traveling abroad and domestically is sooooooo important!

I was in Florida for a work meeting, so there isn't too much excitement to share.  I enjoyed connecting and reconnecting with some colleagues, and I especially enjoyed the humidity.  It's just not the same as humidity in DC, and it is one of my favorite things about traveling - experiencing thick air in other places!

We did stop and go to Jaxson's Ice Cream. 

I can never refuse to put my face in a hole and take a photo.

Next up: Westchester County.  Can't wait!

Cape May, NJ

I just returned from a lovely weekend with lovely friends.  We came from all over - DC, NYC, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, and we couldn't have been happier.

Some of said lovely friends, on the beach on our first morning.

We spent a few days in Cape May, New Jersey, which is on the bottom tip of New Jersey.  It is still unclear to me if this is "The Shore" or what, but it definitely felt more like a preppy New England town than a trashy MTV TV show set.

It was great to get away for a weekend and have a really relaxing vacation. We made a delicious Mexican Shabbat dinner with homemade enchiladas and homemade challah; we wandered in the sand, dipping our toes in the Atlantic Ocean; we strolled through the main streets of Cape May and looked through cute shops and had fun at a beer garden as part of Oktoberfest; and we celebrated Havdallah on the beach on Saturday night.  We also played Cards Against Humanity and Heads Up (a new app on the iPhone that my mom had actually told me about prior to this trip.  You know that when your mother tells you about technology, it has really made it in the world and you are clearly spending too much time traveling or writing unnecessary blog posts to know about new hit trends.)

It wouldn't be a photo if there wasn't food in it.  Hint: It was all delicious.

It was really nice to get away for a weekend and spend time with so many great people. Thanks for the memories! Hope we keep in touch!

On the way out of town, we stopped in Margate, New Jersey to visit a giant elephant named Lucy.  Not being from the East Coast, I was unfamiliar with the history of this monstrosity and eagerly read everything on Wikipedia about it.  It was worth the visit! Who doesn't love a six foot tall animal-shaped building?

Lucy the Elephant

#tbt - Columbus

Since I am totally and completely obsessed with all things trendy (and, duh, am myself totally and completely trendy), this blog will feature a "throw-back Thursday" (#tbt) post every Thursday, highlighting a past trip that I took recently.  Since I am super fun and funny, these memories are written in comedic hindsight.

The first #tbt is about my trip in May to Columbus, OH where Jonathan, Julie, and I visited Ruthie.  

Unfortunately for me, I was sick the whole time we were in Columbus. I basically vomited up everything in my stomach, and when that was done, just kept vomiting bile.  It was really sad, especially because I missed a trip to a bookstore.  Apparently they have quite the Holocaust selection.  In order to avoid FOMO, I FaceTimed with my friends from Ruthie's spare bedroom to where they were, in the living room.  Technology is the best!  And Ohio is the best - who has a spare bedroom?!

After being vomit-free for a few hours, I accompanied my beloved friends out to dinner in the Short North area of Columbus, for Thai food.  Note to my readers: if you have been vomiting for the past day, don't eat Thai food.  Needless to say, there is an area of shrubbery near a nice apartment complex that I spent some quality time with that evening.

Besides losing a bunch of weight by having a stomach virus, the best part about the trip was our stop at Grandpa's Cheesebarn. This is off the highway between Columbus and Cleveland and is the best place ever.  It literally is everything that is right with America.  There are many amazing stories from our time at Grandpa's (note: we were there for maybe an hour), including meeting Grandpa himself and having our friend Beth drive 1.5 hours out of her way to meet us at the Cheesebarn, because she was driving through Ohio anyway and she could tell that this was going to be the best place ever.

This is the screen shot that I sent to Beth to entice her to meet us at Grandpa's Cheesebarn.  Now that you have the address, I suggest you get in your car and go there immediately.

In addition to Grandpa's, some other food-related must-sees in Columbus include Jeni's Ice Cream (I had a minty flavor to counter any stomach issues) and the North Market (hello pretzels!) While it is a landlocked state, I was quite impressed with the culinary excellence of Ohio.

Julie, Jonathan, Beth, and me outside Grandpa's

First State!

Even though this blog is about future travels, it would be a travesty if I did not write up a past trip that just took place, to Delaware.  It was my first time to the First State, and I couldn't have been more excited! I went to visit my cousin, Michelle, who started college at the University of Delaware this year.  Delaware is a completely different place than anywhere else, and I couldn't wait to fully immerse myself in the culture of Delaware.

I drove up I-95 from DC to Delaware.  What a lovely drive! Not bad traffic and Delaware is so close that my Baltimore-based radio station still was loud and clear by the time I got off the highway and made my way to campus.  Prior to leaving DC, I ate some pierogies.  They continue to be the best.

This is a picture of me and Michelle in Israel when we went on March of the Living together.  Bet you didn't think I could go a blog post without referencing the Holocaust!

In Delaware, Michelle & I walked around campus a bit and made our way to Main Street in Newark (pronounced "New-Ark", not like Newark, NJ) and had frozen yogurt at Yogoberry (not to be confused with Yogiberry).    

The best part of our time together was when Michelle literally walked into a pole.  It was like out of a movie - she ricocheted off the pole and staggered backwards.  Also, strangers laughed at her.  It was a classic Michelle moment.

We had dinner at Homegrown Cafe where we shared a hummus platter and a grilled cheese sandwich.  Both were delicious!

Overall, my First Trip to the First State was a success! My cultural immersion into different parts of the United States is so great so far, and I can't wait to go back!!!!

First Post!

I've always loved to travel - there was once a time when I had traveled to more foreign countries than states in the US of A.  While that may not be the case anymore (really, who can keep track of all the places they've been?!) I am still an avid traveler.  When I studied abroad, blogs were not so big (I sent email updates out to friends.  Does anyone even use email anymore?), so, now that I am traveling for much of October, I decided to take a hint from my friends/former students who are currently studying abroad and start a blog!

So, make sure to check in on the daily because obviously my travels are so important and interesting that you need to know what I'm doing, what I'm eating, who I'm seeing, and what I'm wearing as often as possible.  Make sure to leave comments so I feel popular and talk about my blog on social media so I get a lot of hits.

Much love,
Rachel