Category Archives: Adventures

09.21.12

East Coast Road Trip - Virginia is for Lovers

Posted by Christina // 2 Replies

For our second day on the road, we decided we wanted to head out to Virginia.

I won’t deny that reading Young House Love and 7th House on the Left every day had something to do with this destination pick. They just always make Richmond and Virginia look amazing. Does that sound stalkerish? I mean we didn’t hang out at their local Home Depot for five hours with a dream in our eye or anything. Please understand my sarcasm….don’t email them a warning cry.

Actually, since it was Nascar weekend in Richmond we just kind of waved as we rolled through and mosied on down to Virginia Beach….but not before Tim’s charm scored us an amazing hotel deal. I am keeping him around for all my vacations.

We did see some pretty sights on the drive.

We wanted to explore Richmond, but we were aching for a beach. So even though it added two hours onto our drive, and we could only play in the sand for about three hours….we packed up and headed to Virginia Beach.

Worth it.

Just to get my tootsies in the sand.

Poor Tim was stuck on the beach taking business calls while I frolicked in the monster waves. Seriously, they were large and in charge.

While he was working….he snuck some of these, maybe he really does love me.

It was totally worth the drive to sit on a beach with my man and soak up the sun.

After kicking sand at each other, we played tourist and went to all the little boardwalk shops. It was such a great time.

It was so tough to leave, but since we couldn’t wiggle our noses, or flap our arms and land in DC we had to get to gettin.

Here we are driving off into the sunset, or something.

Until tomorrow friends….

09.20.12

East Coast Road Trip - Gettin Lucky in Kentuc...

Posted by Christina // 5 Replies

I wish my home state rhymed with something cool.

Anywaaaayyyyys….the best part about this trip was that we got to see so many friends. Most of our friends have abandoned us to move back home, or away for jobs, or possibly to get away from this Missouri humidity.

We miss them, way too much. So we figured this is a great time to go see them all.

Our first stop was in Kentucky.

One of T’s best friends, Greg, calls Louisville home. They met while Greg was going to school in St. Louis, and became the three best friends that anyone can have….minus one.

We totally understand why he boot scooted back home…because Louisville is incredible!

There was a beautiful river with lots of gorgeous bridges.

I know boys don’t talk about stuff like this….but Tim was a ball of excitement to see his buddy. They had not seen each other for years, which I fully intend to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Hi Greg….can’t wait for the Derby!!!

Apparently, when I was in this state of mind….

I realized that Louisville was the home of the Kentucky Derby. It must have been all the horse statues, paintings, signs, and memorabilia. I also decided at that time that we absolutely, positively NEED to go next year. The boys thought that was just a drinkity pipe dream….but I remembered.

I never forget guys, and I am holding you all to it.
I already have my big, floppy hat picked out!

How did I get to that drinkity state you ask……Fourth Street.

Please don’t notice the bed and pillow reflection…this was taken from our hotel room.

It is a street in downtown Louisville, KY that is like a mall of restaurants, bars, and fun. Since we were there on a Wednesday it was pretty low-key….which is just our scene.

So we explored, and had some dinner and drinks.

The handsome guy on the left is Timbo, yours truly, then Greg’s twin brother Mitch, and then Greg himself.

Here we are proving how awesome we are….our waiter was impressed to say the least.

No one was prepared when after the customary documentation photo I yelped, “No one move….it’s time for a funny face”. Well, no one except Greg…is that not the best zombie impression you’ve ever seen? I’m taking notes Gregory!

Here is a terrible video….where I thought Greg was still sitting in front of me. Instead, he was sneaking off to pay the dinner bill that we had in our hand…you tricky trickster. But it does give you a sneak peak of the awesomeness that is Fourth Street action.

Things to ignore:
The awful buzzing sound
Tim ignoring his loving girlfriend
My slightly intoxicated giggle

I really wish we would have had more time there….but we will make up for it come Derby Days.

See you soon Louisville!

09.19.12

The East Coast Road Trip 2012

Posted by Christina // 1 Reply

You may have noticed a hiatus here at Homemade Ocean.

If we are facebook friends, then you know we took the ultimate relationship test and drove across the country together. For the last two weeks. In a car. Together. For two whole weeks. Ya dig?

If we are not facebook official….well let’s do this so that you are never in the dark again.
Just click here.

So the long story short is:

4,030 miles on the rental
13 days with my love
85 driving hours
16 states got to see us
185 expensive gallons gone

and a partridge in a pear tree, or something.

However, I feel like if you are here….reading this….then you don’t want the long story short. You want pictures.
Well, I aim to please. We are going to relive our vacation in real time. That’s right…..we are going on a virtual vacation, here’s your plane ticket.

Today I just want to show you the overview, where we went and the simple road trip details that I love….

That is pretty much the break down of everywhere our tires touched. Some of them we just drove through ~~screaming in pain while our ears pop~~ enjoying the scenery.

I never thought I would like the East Coast, I just figured that I hadn’t been there and I ought to see things like our nations Capitol, where Forrest jumped into the reflecting pool. But this crazy, unexpected thing happened while we were rolling around the East side of America….we fell in love. Especially with the North-North East, like Vermont and Maine. We are already saving for a summer home, truth. The big cities just are not our cup of tea….probably all the honking, or the dreaded tolls.

Y’all we had no clue about tolls….you can’t find them in Missouri. Let me tell ya, if the price of gas didn’t break us then the tolls did. Not to mention, we don’t carry cash…..ummmm yea drama. We probably won’t be back anytime soon, but we have lots of cherished memories.

Don’t you worry your pretty little head, we are diving into each destination later….you will get all the juicy details.

Here are some of the little details that caught my eye and made me smile.

I just love the simple things, and I wanted to remember them for always.

I will say, this being our first road trip together….we may have overpacked. Look at all that luggage for two people.

There was a pajama bag, an undies bag, a shower bag, a shoe bag, a full suitcase, a full overnight bag, a computer bag, a camera bag, a charger bag, an accessories bag, and of course….two snack bags. Seemed logical, till we had to haul it all in every day. For twelve days. Bananas.

On a side note, can you tell I worked at Vera Bradley? You should see what’s inside those bags….Vera paradise.

Those are the basics of our trip. Oh yea, and the fact that we actually are still together after twelve days of getting lost.

Shocking, eh?

Dueces….see you tomorrow!

08.24.12

Love where you live.....Part Three....

Posted by Christina // 2 Replies

Last weekend…..we stayed in town. And enjoyed some popular St. Louis tourist destinations. We want to share with you why the Lou is so great.

You can read about some of it in these posts.

Part One
Part Two

But this post right here is all about poo flinging monkeys…kinda.

Actually it is more about fuzzy butts, because that was the theme of the day.

I’m not kidding….everywhere we went…..we saw tail.

Thank goodness we had some patience….or we wouldn’t have caught this…

Please don’t ask us about the turtle ~~threesome~~ activity. Seriously, it was mortifying. All the kiddos kept asking why they were making noises and hurting each other. I. am. scarred.

Moving on.

This is my favorite….thing. Dog face, horse neck, zebra legs. What are you?

What a rough life.

Those wire fences really ruin a great picture….I am bringing wire cutters next time.

Dang everybody be having babies.

But not these two.

Our babies are our fish.

But if I could take one of these home, I sure would call it my baby…

My sister would rather take these home though….Miss ya Leika…I got you one for your dorm-lawn.

And Tim….he wants a hippo. Or this guy….

That’s not asking too much, right?

I told him if he gets a gorilla, then I get to stuff homeboy below in my purse to go on princess rides.

I’d be the coolest girl on the block.

Just like stripes up there…she was voted “the coolest” on the Red Rock trail by some little three-year old on a leash.

After all this animal watching I was exhausted….and Tim was planning our next adventure. Hippo Harbor.

This might sounds strange…or maybe not considering this post…but my favorite thing was this leaf that was floating in the hippo tank.

It was so pretty and magical.

I think maybe you needed to see it floating gracefully to really appreciate it.

But that hippo tank was too small for those beasts! I have such a love hate relationship with Zoos, I love seeing the animals but I hate that they are captive and look so sad.

Maybe I’ll start a zoo animal support group.

08.23.12

Love where you live.....Part Two....

Posted by Christina // 6 Replies

We had a hometown weekend last weekend which you read about here.

You saw all the greenery that I swooned over, but I left out the real reason we were there. You may have figured it out from this Instagram shot.

or possibly this one….

The Missouri Botanical Gardens was hosting the annual Lantern Festival.

It is art by day, and magic by night.

We were supposed to go see the magic, but they were sold out the last two weeks it was open. And because we are naturally procrastinators, we only got to see the art. Whoomp, whoomp, whoomp.

But it’s all good in the hood y’all….it was still neat.

The main attraction was a giant dragon made of fine china. It was amazing.

I love the macho-ness of dragons and the delicate-ness of the teacups. The whole thing was a beautiful oxymoron.

The detail was impossible to capture, wish we coulda got a night view.

We also took a stroll down zodiac lane. I learned something new…..T is a dog.

Literally. Good to know up front I guess. I think it’s important for him to know I am a feisty tiger too.

That wraps up our Botanical Garden trip…..stay tuned for the real fun.

Fuzzy butts.

08.01.12

Can we move in?

Posted by Christina // 6 Replies

On our KC trip round two we had a wedding to go to, much more exciting than running a 5K in the heat wave called July. More on KC round one right here.

The wedding was bea-u-tiful and we had a blast dancing till the roosters were crowing.

The next day, we wanted to take it easy…and do something fun. Enter Sea Life.

It is the brand spanking new Aquarium in Kansas City, MO. Of course we had to check it out.

It’s actually connected to the Lego Land, so it makes for a super fun and exhausting day. When we first walked in I saw the cute Lego design and knew this was my kind of place.

How cute would that be in a kids room? Oh the possibilities!

I have to say, my favorite room was the very first room…I really feel like I could put a king sized bed in there and call it home.

It was so beautiful, and relaxing, and peaceful. I am really working on Tim to put wall to wall tanks in our bedroom, then work out the whole massive current and millions of fishies thing and presto…Heaven.

Tim was thrilled that I brought my camera so that he could pose for three gazillion photos….

and trust me, there was an abundance of photos. He was even MORE excited when he had to take the pictures.

This is Tim’s “get that camera outta my face” smile. Behind it he really loves that I document everything…..even down to the ticket stubs.

Can you feel the love?

This aquarium was chock full of fish and information, there were fin facts and lots of trivia along the way. The best part were the “head poppers”. I would like to personally thank whoever designed this place for all of these fun stops.

I’m not sure what was more fun, seeing if I could fit in to those oh-so-teeny spots or seeing the tiny fishie bellies.

Another favorite was the jellyfish room. As we were walking in I spotted these bad boys. Unfortunate news…they don’t sell them in the gift shop. Sorry y’all.

They were huge…and I will find a way to craft them for a kids room or something. After oogling the light up jellies for about ten minutes I got to the real deal.

I bet the song “Tiny Dancers” is really about jellyfish.

Alas, our stroll through jellyfish way was quickly over shadowed. The underwater tunnel was supposed to be the main attraction. To keep it real, I was not impressed. My sister was…

she could barely contain her excitement.

My dear, sweet mama and my lovable sister joined us on this adventure. Thank goodness…more photographers!

Aren’t they precious…I feel like I shoulda wore my specs.

The tunnel was neat because there were killer sharks the size of my car. Ok, there were sharks and rays and that was exciting.

It was just too short. It was over before I could even smuggle one out in my cooler. I guess I would have been more of a fan if I would have had time to make friends with the shark, make them smile so I could get a glimpse of that big ol’ grill. That’s all. Instead, I befriended this guy.

He said he will write, I sure hope he does.

We did manage one tunnel picture…although I wanted at least forty.

My buddy Ray eased the grief of not meeting my picture quota. And can we check out his friend Earl the Eel back there…the big green worm creature. Ew.

This room had a balcony with a “sea-through” floor so I could get a good look at Ray & Earl. I prayed that it would break so I could swim with my friends, it didn’t. I’ve been slamming Bic Macs ever since. Next time Ray, next time.

Check out the background, can we say party. Next birthday, it’s so on.

Mom enjoyed the big tank from dry land…scaredy cat.

Then we hit the motherload….my one true love.

Seahorses.

I am now more determined than ever to get some of those!

Now our plans are….open one in St. Louis and call it home!