Erica's #20 - Get up early to watch the sunrise (2/6/2014)

I'm cheating just a little bit on this one...instead of getting up early to watch the sunrise, we ended up staying up all night to see the sunrise.  And it might have been less about staying awake to see the sunrise as it was staying up to drive to Miami from Indianapolis overnight so we could get on a cruise ship to paradise.  But let's not split hairs here...we saw the darned sunrise, and that's what counts!

There was, as there often is in February in the Midwest, frankly some pretty crappy weather the day before we were scheduled to fly down to Miami the day before Cayamo.  Crappy weather that led to many flights being cancelled in the Midwest and Northeast (not to mention me working from home that day to avoid the traffic headaches).  For those of us who fly standby, cancelled flights the day before you are planning on trying to fill an empty seat is not good news!  Any open seats on Thursday would have been filled by the people who's flights were cancelled the day before, so we gave up hope on the quicker/easier/cheaper option...

We ended up renting a car in Indy (a Prius, thankfully - that thing only sipped $90 in gas all the way to Florida!), and leaving Wednesday night, February 5th to drive to Miami.  Originally, we planned to stop around Nashville, TN, get a room for a few hours so we could get some rest, then finish the drive on Thursday, bright and early.

By the time we got to Nashville, we had scrapped those plans and just decided to switch off sleeping in the passenger seat.  It wouldn't have been worth it to spend money on a room we were only going to sleep in for 3 hours, and we'd probably feel worse if we took that short of a break and tried to get up and do it all over again.  So onward it was for us.  At one point, we did stop for an hour in a Target parking lot and both napped at once.  Sleep won for just a bit...

The roads were still a little iffy in Indy, but really not bad other than that.  By the time the sun was rising on Thursday morning, we had officially entered the South - Georgia.  It was still, for whatever reason, freezing in Georgia though.  We left home with no jackets, expecting the weather to warm as we inched toward Florida, but that wasn't the case.  Oh well - it was warm inside the Prius, and we only had to freeze when we got out at the gas stations that are strangely closed, and dark, but with pumps that still work in the middle of the night in GA.  At first, we assumed that they really were closed, but as long as you're paying via credit card, they are open.  Probably not the safest of places to be - at an eerily silent highway exit, standing beside a gas pump under a dark awning at 4am - but you do what ya gotta do.

We did get to experience a beautiful sunrise just before 7am near Fort Valley, GA.  It was truly a gorgeous sight, and one that we rarely get to really enjoy.  We do see the sunrise sometimes in the winter in Indy, since it comes up on our way to work, but it's tough to actually marvel at the beauty of it while you're in a hurry and battling rush hour on the same highway you take to work every single day.  It is quite another thing to bask in it's glory as you're barreling toward a vacation that includes friends, warm weather, music, sand and surf!

Mel's #26 and Erica's #82 - Eat at a Greek Restaurant (11/15/2013)

There is a really cute part of Indianapolis that reminds me a little bit of some of the neighborhoods we have visited in Portland, Oregon. You know what I'm talking about...hipsters, wine bars, non-descript music venues with neon signs that don't necessarily indicate that there is a music venue there. Well, in Indy, this section of town is called Fountain Square. It is a part of our city that has gone through quite a bit of revitalization over the past several years, and happens to be a part of town Erica and I frequent.

For years, I had heard that Indy had an amazing Greek restaurant in this neighborhood, called Santorini. I dreamed of trying it someday, since so many people raved about the food.

Now, I must disclose that for about a month in college, I probably watched the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" twice a week. I don't know why, but I loved that movie. I think it was the simplistic and light hearted humor about falling in love a little later in life and of course, the portrayal of the Greek family. The movie always lifted my spirits. After a while, I caught on to how big a presence food was in the movie and presumably, how amazing Greek food must be.

So, on that chilly autumn evening, Erica and I parked the Jeep and ducked in, all under the glow of a ridiculous amount of blue and white neon signs. Seriously...you couldn't miss this place if you tried.

Our dinners were incredibly delicious, as almost anything smothered in real Greek olive oil is. I had a chicken gyro, which came with about 10 sides, including a salad, green beans, and potatoes, all cooked Greek-style.  Erica had Tiropita, which is feta cheese encased in delicious phyllo. We had some wine, and enjoyed the nice family atmosphere where it seemed that everyone was enjoying their meal.

Also of note, there was a woman in the restaurant who was belly dancing for tips. I'd say she was in her mid-50's and not in bad shape, but I still thought she had a lot of guts and maybe a lot of wine in order to do this every night. I didn't quite know how to react to this. I'm the kind of person that would never ask for a string quartet to serenade us during dinner. In fact, when it comes to places where I'm eating and being entertained at the same time, I get a bit awkward. I don't know where to place my attention...I didn't know, for instance, if it was rude to ignore the belly dancer or actually watch her. I defaulted to ignoring her for the most part when she was close to our table, then looking at her when she was further away. I never know how to react in those situations. This is probably the best resemblance of the face I make when confronted with this scenario:

Oh, and I should mention, that should you ever go to this restaurant, you'll notice no smoke detectors or sprinklers on the ceiling, and that the ceiling tiles and a bit charred. Santorini has a famous appetizer called Saganaki, which is flaming cheese, complete with oil fueled flames licking the ceiling as the server brings it out. Everyone in the place yells "Opa" when the servers bring out this dish!

All in all, it was a great experience. And, my parents have decided to try new things and foods, so I'm thinking about bringing them to Santorini for something different. It is sure to be entertaining.

Erica's #22 - Eat in a revolving restaurant (12/23/2013)

You always hear about those fancy revolving restaurants at the top of buildings in big cities, and Indianapolis is no exception to this rule.  The Eagle's Nest sits atop the Hyatt Regency in downtown Indy, and I remember hearing about people having dinners there to celebrate special occasions since I was in high school.  Since we are typically operating on a Taco Bell or pizza budget, we haven't ever made it to this restaurant to give it a shot.  I decided it was time for that to change, so I made a reservation for us on the night of Mel's birthday.

It was a cold, windy, but thankfully clear night as we headed downtown to try out The Eagle's Nest.  Since Mel's birthday fell on a Monday this year, the place wasn't that crowded, and we were seated right next to the window.  The interior of the restaurant rotates 360 degrees, providing a beautiful view of all of downtown while you enjoy a delicious meal.

We started off with an amazing appetizer of goat cheese with sundried tomatoes and a balsamic reduction drizzled on top of toasted brioche slices.  Yum - you can never go wrong with cheese and bread in my opinion, and this goat cheese was fresh and the most flavorful that I've ever had.

Mel chose the salmon as her main course, which was served on creamy polenta.  I'm not a fish person, and I've eaten exactly one meal of salmon in my life that I've enjoyed, but I tried a bite - this salmon was delicious, as was the polenta.

I ordered the vegetarian pasta, and I'm not sure I've ever had a better pasta dish.  It was prepared with grilled zucchini, squash, and mushrooms, and troffiette pasta.  The pasta had been cooked to a perfect al dente, and almost had a grilled taste to it.  It was in a very light wine sauce, and had the best delicate flavor.

Even though their dessert options sounded delicious, we opted to skip dessert at The Eagle's Nest in favor of meeting Mel's mom, sister, and nephew for a late dessert of frozen yogurt!  This was one of the things on her list to do, and it was a great time.

So we highly recommend The Eagle's Nest as a place to go celebrate a special occasion.  The pricing wasn't even as high as we expected, so that was a nice surprise.

Erica's #5 - Take a trip outside the US (2/10/2014)

I honestly thought this goal would be a big stretch to accomplish in under three years. I figured we'd get to the end of this whole 1001 days experiment, and have to take some wild last minute road trip to Canada, leaving just enough time in a weekend to cross the border, take a few pictures, and head back home. Then a little thing called Cayamo happened...

The next few blog posts are going to all be Cayamo related - consider yourselves warned!!!  I promise I wasn't sandbagging when I created all of these goals that could somehow all be accomplished in one amazing week - we had no clue we were even going to try to get on Cayamo until just a few days before Christmas 2013.  Cayamo had been sold out for months already, and after losing the raffle at the East Coast version of Raise the Roof - a fundraiser for Brandi Carlile's Looking Out Foundation - we had just about given up our hopes of a winter escape.  We still had a nagging desire to get ourselves on that boat though - we've been dying to go back ever since our inaugural cruise in 2010 - so I called the Sixthman folks, who, surprisingly, said they could book us right away!  Merry Christmas to us!  Cayamo isn't a cheap vacation by any means, but it's well worth the money!

First, I'll explain what Cayamo is for the uninitiated...Cayamo is a floating music festival, or what the Sixthman folks refer to as "A Journey Through Song".  You board a cruise ship for a week, are entertained pretty much non-stop with amazing music, get to stop at a beautiful (and, most importantly, warm!) port for a couple of days, and, if you're lucky, you get to do it all with some of your best friends (regardless of how long they've been in your life), and make a ton of new friends along the way.

So, this year's port-of-call was the island of Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands.  After a couple of days at sea, we were greeted with beautiful weather in the 80's, plenty of sunshine, and a gorgeous view of the island.

While in Tortola for a couple of days, we took a small boat to another island, Jost Van Dyke, the first day to see Humming House play at a little bar called Foxy's, right on a beautiful beach (but that's a story for another blog!).  The second day, we caught a cab to the other side of Tortola, to Brewer's Bay.  It was one heck of a hilly road we took to get there, but the views and the beach were stunning.  More to come on that, since that day checked a couple more to-do's off my list!

Oh, and our excursions were referred to as "Bertscursions", after our friend Bert - the unofficial tour leader for our group of 10.  There were t-shirts and everything!  We even left a Bertscursions button at Foxy's, so we have to remember to check up on it if we come back again!

The British Virgin Islands were an amazing place to magically end up at for our trip outside the US - I wouldn't complain if the next Cayamo we end up on stops there again...

Erica's #33 - Make a loan on kiva.org (1/24/2014)

Many of you probably know that one of the causes that is near and dear to our hearts is Brandi Carlile's Looking Out Foundation.  They provide grants to organizations that span the gamut of charitable causes, and involve local organizations in their mission in cities that Brandi Carlile stops in while on tour.  We even raised money for the foundation last summer by riding our bikes across the country (you can read about that adventure HERE).

Last year, Brandi encouraged fans to pick up a book called Half the Sky.  This heart of this book is about creating opportunity for and empowering women across the globe, focused mostly on third-world countries.  The book is a very difficult read, describing the horrors that so many women experience that are almost beyond the realm of imagination for those of us privileged enough to live in developed nations.  It does not allow you to sit passively by and not take action...it's essence is a call to action to find out where and how you can help, and do your part to solve the problem of the oppression of women.

One of the organizations mentioned in the book is kiva.org.  Kiva works with microfinance institutions across the globe and brings together groups of individuals who are willing to provide loans of as little as $25 to help alleviate poverty.  People who are seeking loans are connected with their local microfinance organization, they complete a profile on kiva.org, stating what they want the loan for, and individuals can filter through the potential loan recipients and lend to those individuals or groups who are seeking the loans.  The borrowers make regular repayments, and the individual lenders can choose to reinvest in another project or withdraw their money once the loan is repaid.  It is a fairly simple and extremely useful concept.

I chose to become one of those lenders on kiva.org as a way that I could help those who need assistance.  And, luckily, discovered a Groupon for kiva loans that allowed me to double my $25 investment and make two $25 loans to those in need.  Last week, I sat down to find a couple of people to help out with these two loans.

Much of the discussion in Half the Sky centers around Africa, so I decided I wanted to select someone from that continent to begin my Kiva lending.  I also wanted to choose a project that was nearly funded and help push it over the requested funding level.  I ended up choosing to invest in Biasha from Kenya, a woman who buys fish to resell to neighbors house-to-house.  Biasha requested a loan of $175 in order to expand her fish purchases.  She is married, and has six children, all in school - their biggest monthly expense is school tuition.  Her loan is now fully funded, and will soon be in repayment mode.

I decided that my other loan would go to another part of the world, and selected to invest in someone from Jordan.  Feda is a married woman in her 50's, running a mini-mart to support her family.  Feda requested $650 to purchase more items to sell in her mini-mart.  I also wanted to choose a loan that was just starting out raising funds - as of my writing, Feda's loan is just 13% funded.

It struck me that what we in America would think of as relatively small loan amounts can have such a large impact on people's lives in less-developed nations.  This is a pretty cool way to help people directly and see the impact your funds can have directly in the life of someone halfway across the world from you.  If you have $25 you can spare (or maybe even a little bit more), check out Kiva and find someone to help out!

Erica's #15 - See Elton John in Concert (11/30/2013)

Like most children of the '80's (and probably children of the 70's too), I've been listening to Elton John since birth.  My parents liked him, his songs were all over the radio, and even in The Lion King in the 90's - you couldn't escape hearing his music if you'd have tried.  Elton John and his music are about as big a part of pop culture as you can get.

A couple of years ago, we went out and bought an old console turntable at an antique store.  We snatched up a few Elton albums (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Honky Chateau, among others).  Elton's music has that timeless quality that ensures that you can listen to it for four or forty years and never tire of it.

Elton's latest tour brought him through Rosemont, IL at the Allstate Arena - only about a 4 hour drive from our house - on the weekend after Thanksgiving, so I pulled up Stubhub and, after much deliberation, picked out a couple of tickets on the side of the stage.  They were on the side that Elton faces, rather than the side behind him.  No offense to Elton, but I'd much rather look at his face any day.  I was worried that the tickets would be limited view, but they really were fantastic seats, other than the fact that we couldn't get a full view of the stage production.

Traffic was a nightmare, and we got there just as the opener, 2CELLOS, was finishing up their set.  We were bummed to miss them - they are amazing!  Lucky for us, they also sat in with Elton's band on quite a few songs.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes after that when the lights dimmed, and Elton took the stage.  He was, in true Elton John style, wearing a sequined jacket with the word "Fantastic" on the back in offset red sequins.  This was, of course, accompanied by a shimmering pair of red shoes.  Elton doesn't hesitate to let his sparkling personality shine through!

We hadn't yet had a chance to listen to his latest album, The Diving Board, and we were worried that we wouldn't know many of the songs he performed, but (lucky for us) this show turned out to be Elton's Greatest Hits (which, I'd imagine, most of his shows are).  I knew all but a couple of the songs, and nearly everyone was singing along with every tune.  It was great to hear some of the Elton classics like "Rocket Man", "Your Song", "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues", "Candle in the Wind", "Levon" and "Crocodile Rock" in person.

And, all these years later, Elton still is a kick-ass piano player.  He makes it look easy, fingers flying over the ivories.  It was amusing to note that he has a teleprompter sitting at the edge of the stage - you'd think that after all these years, those songs would be such a part of him that he could play and sing them in his sleep!

All in all a great night - and since we got into the parking lot so late, we got right out without having to wait in traffic - score!

Erica's #70 - Participate in NaNoWriMo (11/28/2013)

So, for anyone who hasn't heard of NaNoWriMo - it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every year in November, and the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days in November.  That breaks down to about 1,667 words per day.  If you're writing in paragraphs, that's about two pages in word (12 point font, single spacing, normal margins).  Doesn't sound too bad, right?

Well it is tough.  And there are about 309,000 other "wrimos" who know that feeling now too.  I had a rough concept in my head from a short story I wrote when I was probably 11 or 12 years old - typed it out on our very first computer that my dad bought when he went back to college, and printed that bad boy out on that dot-matrix printer.  I can just hear that beautiful noise now...

I actually think I have a copy of that story somewhere printed out.  Someday, I'll find it.  So I had a concept, but I am not much of a planner.  I hated having to create outlines for anything in school, because it seems like such a waste of time to me.  If I'm going to do something, doing it once is enough.  That theme also translates to checking my work.  I rarely do it.

So the moral of that story is that I just jumped right in and started writing.  The story is set in Montana, and is about 6 friends in their senior year of high school - four boys and two girls.  The title of the novel is Rush - it's loosely themed around Montana's gold rush, and the fact that the kids are exploring an abandoned gold mine.  The six kids have been inseparable for almost a decade, and they are contemplating what they want from life after high school.  They're an adventurous bunch, and in this story, they end up finding an entrance to an old mine and exploring it.  There's adventure, danger, and a love story - what more could you expect from a novel?

I have no doubt that it isn't the next great American novel, but hey, it turned into an actual novel.  I finished it late on Thanksgiving Day, at just over 50,000 words.  The first six chapters are devoted to one character each, and there are, I believe 25 other chapters in the book.  I'm so glad its finished!  It felt good to validate it one last time in the word count checker on the website (www.nanowrimo.org), and get the notification that I was a winner!  Anyone who writes 50,000 words or more is a winner though, and you don't get much except a fancy little certificate to print out saying that you won.  And that all-important feeling of accomplishment!