Category Archives: travel

Stop! Hammer Time

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We just spent an awesome week in Bilbao, Spain. I had never been to Spain (but I’ve been to Oklahoma – ha ha ha – I’ll stop. ;-)) so I was looking forward to the trip and also to see David whom I hadn’t seen since June 12.

We stayed in an amazing hotel, the Hotel Carlton.

Beautiful, old world style, terrific service, centrally located. We loved this hotel!

We ate some terrific food. The pastries at breakfast were not to be believed.

I got to use my one Spanish sentence, “mas cafe’ por favor”, a lot since they don’t drink coffee like we do here.  I said it in my head more than I said it aloud. 😉

We saw amazing architecture.

And drank beer on the sidewalk.

It was an awesome trip!

They smoke a lot in Spain. This was kind of disturbing. As we sat outside enjoying a beverage, we would begin to be surrounded by smokers. And there were plenty of people smoking as they walked down the street including kids coming out of school. I was actually surprised that I didn’t get burned by a flying cigarette during the time we were there.

But what was even more disturbing was the fashion trend we started to see – MC Hammer pants. Stop! Hammer Time!

When we saw the first gal wearing them, I thought it was a one off. But, soon, we were seeing gals everywhere wearing them.

My mom always taught me not to be rude and I wasn’t able to capture a photo of any of the girls wearing them. First of all, I was so shocked every time I saw it, it took some time for me to collect myself and think of my camera. But, then, how would you take a photo without being obvious? And rude?

So I found this one at homorazzi.com.

And that’s what they look like alright. His apparently were taken in Barcelona. Different town, same country. So I hope this is just a trend that is happening in Spain.

In his article, he basically says the same thing that I have been thinking: they look ridiculous. Even on the thinnest of girls, they look like they have huge hips and why would you want your butt all baggy. Doesn’t this cause chafing?

It confounds me. Disturbing for sure.

So Spain was fabu. I love it all except the smoking and the Hammer pants. I hope we’ll get to visit again some day. 🙂

The Moos and Booze Road Trip

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So, we’re still here. The question that Nikki and I are asked at least three times a day is, “So when do you leave?” We don’t know. It’s Ramadan in the Muslim world and that particular detail hasn’t been nailed down yet.

Now that all the hard throwing out and packing up work is done, we decided we needed some diversions. So we planned a road trip to Alva, Oklahoma. Why Alva of all places? I have an amazing friend there, Becky McCray.

Becky has cows and a liquor store which seemed like more than a good enough reason to head to Alva, a place where neither of us had been before.

We arrived about lunch time and Becky took us to lunch at The Sandwich Shop in downtown Alva. The sandwiches, all named after people, were amazing! I had the Ralph. Roast beef and swiss cheese on a hogie roll.

Becky pointed out some details of the downtown that indicated how old it was including the horse tie ups that still remain on some of the sidewalks.

Then we went to the booze portion of our trip, Allen’s Retail Liquor Store. Nikki and I each picked out some wine to take home.

Becky thought these would be a perfect choice for me.

And then this one, which I knew would match the shirt I photographed it with. 🙂

And then, Becky took a photo of Nikki and I. Our first! And what a perfect backdrop. 😉

We’d taken enough of Becky’s busy day so she gave us a big circle to drive with things to see along the way.

We first went to the Alabaster Caverns State Park.

I’ve never been on vacation with Nikki before so we had to do the silly head thing.

Then we went down a bunch of steps to start touring the caverns. Spelunking, if you will. 😉

Yeah, Nikki had great caving shoes on but I was the one who slipped. LOL! It is slick in there!

It’s also very cool, around 58 degrees. So after weeks of extra hot weather in Oklahoma, it was great to be in the cave. Even if there were bats in there.

We also saw a spotted salamander. And he just sat there, prettily, while I took his photo.

It was a cool tour in more ways than one. Alabaster Caverns is the largest gypsum cave in the world that is open to the public. All of the other caves are limestone according to our guide, Gail.

At the end of the tour, Gail loaded us into the tram and took us back to the top.

Then we went off in search of the Gloss Mountains. These are kind of like mountains, Oklahoma-style.

Nikki was thinking “Colorado” and wouldn’t believe we had truly found the Gloss Mountains until she saw a sign. 😉

We finished our big loop and ended up back in Alva for dinner at a restaurant that will remain nameless because it was just that bad. Who ever heard of a Mexican restaurant running out of chips? They were out of a lot.

After the disastrous dinner, I decided to check with Becky before making a breakfast decision. She assured me that Cookie’s Bowl and Cafe was good. I poked that into Tam Tam and we couldn’t find it. We drove up and down the street looking for it and still couldn’t find it.

I turned down a side street and decided to come back from a different direction. Nikki said, “What is that building with all the cars?” And then, “No, that’s the bowling alley.”

Lightbulb!

Cookie’s Bowl (as in BOWLING) and Cafe’. LOL!

So, yes, we ate breakfast at the bowling alley.

We probably should have had dinner there as well. They had the most amazing pancakes that were as big as the tabletop.

After fortifying ourselves with the fabu food, we headed for the “moos” part of our trip and to see the star, Bubby.

Becky took us to her farm and the cows were EXTREMELY interested in us when we pulled up. She said it was because they knew she was going to feed them.

We met Bubby!

And fed him.

And fed him.

And fed him some more. 🙂

That other little guy is Jethro. So cute they are!

Then we got our cowgirl bath.

And we headed for home.

Many, many thanks to Becky McCray for showing us a fabu time on the Moos and Booze Roadtrip.  We had so much fun in the wild, wild west. 🙂

Nasi Lemak = Not for Lauri

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In the more fun with food category, I bring you Nasi Lemak. These little packets are on the breakfast buffet every morning. I’ve been so curious so I finally got my nerve up to grab one, open it up and taste it. It was interesting, that’s for sure!

Here’s a crazy discovery I made after I turned off the video. This tastes much better after you’ve eaten it. I ended up eating about half of it because I liked the aftertaste. LOL! I’ve never had food like that before! 🙂

F-cup

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Continuing along our way through the center of Kuala Lumpur, we happened upon the Pavillion Mall.

The Pavillion Mall is where Laura and I went to the fish spa, I told David, and suggested we walk around this next mall. We were really hot and decided it would be a good spot to get something to drink and cool off.

We got some water and I ordered an iced coffee from Old Town White Coffee. I ordered the white coffee, minus the white but forgot to tell them to leave out the sugar as well. An interesting drink!

On our way out, we passed by a cosmetics store. I thought it looked like fun so we went in. As we wandered towards the back of the store, we came across a display of

F-cup cookies.

Intrigued, we started looking at the box. Then a helpful sales clerk came over and I began asking her about this product.

Me: So if I take this product, my boobs will get bigger?

Her: Yes, but you really need to take them for 2 months at least.

Me: And then I will have noticeably bigger boobs?

Her: Yes, and the fat that you have at your hips will relocate to your chest area.

Me: Really? Now THAT would be doing something.

Her: Oh yes. And you know the discolorations you can sometimes have on your face?

Me: (Okay, I have a brown spot on my right cheek and I’m starting to get a little suspicious here.) Yes, like this? (I point to my cheek.)

Her: Yes! Well, that will all go away.

At this point I am laughing because it was like she was looking at me and my imperfections and telling me that these magic F-cup cookies could fix ALL of it.

Me: So you know this really works?

Her: Yes!

Me: How? Have you taken it?

Her: Oh no, but I have customers who have taken it and it works. They see a difference.

David and I are both really laughing by now.

So we look at the ingredients to see what miracles are inside these cookies.

Exactly. LOL!

But here are the real ingredients:

Ingredients:
Flour, chocolate/vanilla/strawberry, margarine, powder of preparation soy milk, skim milk, liquid tofu, shortening,starch, dry albumen, powder of beans embryo, Pueraria Mirifica, swelling agent, emulsifier, spice, sweetening, coloring, (annatto,caroten)

Doesn’t that seem somewhat like the ingredients used to make cake? 🙂

The twins

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If you’ve been following along our trip, you’ve noticed a lot of photos of the Petronis Twin Towers. These are two of the tallest buildings in the world and I am enamored of them.

Yesterday, we got a chance to get really close to them and wowza! I couldn’t get enough.

I can’t tell you how many times I nearly face planted because I was too busy looking up instead of looking where I was going.

My favorite things about the buildings is the juxtaposition of the curves against the straight edges

and the fact that it’s made out of so much steel.

There is a cool sculpture at the front entrance.

And the floor looks like this.

Here are my boys at night.

And from the top of the KL Tower.

Love them! 🙂

Muffins and malls

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When we went down to eat breakfast yesterday, much later than we normally do, the restaurant was absolutely packed. Not an empty table to be found. Not my idea of a leisurely Sunday morning repast.

We decided to go out and find something to eat. According to Laura, Western breakfasts are not really common here in Kuala Lumpur so, before going, we consulted Google to see if we could find something that would work.

We found a terrific write up for a place called Terrace Bakery that told of caramel banana french toast amongst other yummy things. I looked at the map and it looked like it was near the Suria KLCC Mall. So off we went. I told David we could go and look at the mall after we were done eating, that it was one that Laura and I had been to earlier in the week.

Although we found the mall, sadly we didn’t find the Terrace Bakery. So we settled for the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. First we each had an incredibly hot muffin and cup of coffee that almost didn’t fit on the table. Can you say giganto?

Then we had some perfectly tasty Eggs Benedict that was ice cold. Maybe, because it’s so hot outside, it was meant to be served at a cooler temperature?

After that, we headed across the street to the Suria KLCC Mall.

Shopping here is not for the faint of heart. Kuala Lumpur has the biggest malls I have ever seen and, frankly, I don’t think I’m cut out for shopping like that but we gave it our best shot.

The coolest thing about the Suria Mall is that it’s right underneath the Petronis Twin Towers. I am so in love with those buildings that if I weren’t married to David, I might just marry them. 🙂

Nibbling on nail polish

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I woke up yesterday to a posting on my facebook wall from Laura saying we were going to go to the fishy spa. I had absolutely NO idea what that was so I looked it up on google.  So we were going to go and stick our feet in fish tanks. Hmmmm. To be excited or freaked out?

I’m always up for a new adventure and, since I have survived rides in the car with Laura’s driver, I figured the fish would be a piece of cake.

We got to the Fish Spa which is in a very nice, upscale mall where the size Large clothing equates to a US size 6.

After paying we had to wash our feet before letting the little guys feast on the dead skin of our tootsies.

Then we went to the tank with the little fish in it.

After a few minutes, Laura asked if I was ready to move over to the big fish. And so we went.

Here’s how the fish look up close and personal.

That was a really interesting and fun experience. I was sort of surprised that the fish didn’t go after my heels more. Because I like to walk around barefoot so much, that’s usually the roughest part of my feet. But my feet do seem smoother!

I think those fishy guys like a little more than dead skin or else my nail polish was just the wrong color. I seem to be missing polish on the 4th toe of both feet! Next time I’ll wear bright red like Laura. 🙂

Tall cool one

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After walking around downtown and shopping every level of the Plaza Singapura, David and I decided to grab some refreshment, cool off and relax. One of the times he conducted training in Singapore, it was at the Rendezvous Hotel.

It’s a beautiful hotel and in the middle of the courtyard is this cool, large, spinning marble ball.

When you look up, you see this.

When you look down, this.

Inside, we saw this.

But this was, by far, my favorite thing at the Rendezvous Hotel.

🙂