30 before 30: Our Stay at the Don CeSar

stay at a world-renowned hotel somewhere

Well hello there, friends! Taylor and I are back from our vacation and I need to catch up on some blogging! First off, if you'd like to see some of our photos, here's a link to the pictures I posted on Facebook.

As I mentioned before we left, we had the opportunity to turn some lemons into lemonade and to check an item off of my 30 before 30 list and stay at the world-renowned Don CeSar hotel in St. Pete Beach, Florida.

The hotel was built in 1928 and was a favorite place of the likes of Al Capone, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and FDR. The hotel's builder died suddenly in the 1940's and the hotel fell into disrepair and was vacant by the end of World War II. From 1945 - 1967, the hotel was used as a military hospital and a VA Administration building. The hotel re-opened as a hotel in 1973 and has undergone multiple renovations since. Every president since Gerald Ford has stayed there (except Regan), and the hotel was the site of the filming of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1985.

I first became acquainted with the Don CeSar when I spent the summer of 2005 living in St. Petersburg and working for a Christian mission trip organization called Youthworks. The hotel is pretty famous in the area, and since I've always enjoyed touring (though not necessarily staying at) nice hotels, I went there one Saturday with my team just to see the hotel. It was beautiful and I was really hoping to go back someday. About a year later, I read this silly chick-lit book called Mike, Mike and Me. In the book, the main character is traveling on business in St. Petersburg, FL and meets a fabulously rich, eligible bachelor (named Mike, of course) at the hotel bar at the Don CeSar.

That's the last I really thought of the hotel until a few weeks ago when Taylor and I found out that my grandparents wouldn't be in Florida when we were going to visit them and therefore we would have to make backup plans. We used some credit card points and booked the hotel about a week before our trip for just over $200 per night (average rates are about $450/night).

We arrived in Tampa on Friday night, but we stayed at a Ramada Friday night and didn't check into the Don CeSar until Saturday. Our luggage didn't make it to Tampa with us, and on Saturday afternoon, I had to go back to the airport to update our hotel from the Ramada to the Don CeSar. When I started to tell the woman the hotel and it's address, she was like, "Oh, the DON, why didn't you say so?" and another guy in the luggage office said, "Everybody knows the DON!"

When we got to the hotel, here's a photo from the parking lot:

From Curacao

We checked in and went up to our room.

From Curacao

Some of the reviews I had seen before we got to the hotel said that the rooms were too small. While I can definitely see how one might think that, especially for $450/night, we had no problem with it since we got a great deal on the room and also are used to living in 300 square feet!

Here's the view of the Gulf of Mexico from our room:

From Curacao

Some photos around the hotel:

From Curacao

From Curacao

After we explored a little bit, we went out for dinner and drinks. We came back and had a drink in the fancy hotel lobby, appropriately enough, it contained Curacao liqueur!

Late Saturday night, our long-lost baggage arrived from American Airlines! Yay!

Sunday morning, we woke up and went for a walk on the beach. We found a jellyfish!

From Curacao

Here's a nice shot of the hotel from the beach:

From Curacao

We spent some time at the pool:

From Curacao

The view of the pools from the 5th floor brunch

From Curacao

We checked out the brunch (but opted for Bob Evans instead :). Here are Ceasar salads in martini glasses.

From Curacao

And shots of seafood!


All in all, a great stay at a legendary hotel!

From Curacao

En route to some more 30 before 30 action!

Well hello there, millions of adoring fans. Hehe ok, maybe it's more like several loyal readers and a few creepers. Regardless.

So, as I'm sure you understand, it's been a bit of a whirlwind the past few weeks, and you don't even know the half of it (and to be honest, you won't know the whole of it for a few more weeks...that outta entice you to come back). Still, I'll do my best to fill you in in this post!

I'm writing this blog from about 38,000 feet on a flight to Tampa, FL. Taylor and I are going on a vacation that we planned way back in November, and the timing couldn't be better (or worse, depending on how you look at it).

We've taken to planning vacations within vacations and this trip is no different). We decided we wanted to go to the Caribbean and settled on the little-known but highly recommended island of Curacao. Last year, we tried to find time to go to Florida to visit my grandparents who live in The Villages, but we never were able to do so, so we decided to stop there on this trip. We would fly to Tampa, rent a car and drive to The Villages for a couple days, and then fly to Curacao for 5 days.

Well, last week, around the same time my grandma passed away, my Nana in Florida e-mailed me to tell me that they had a pipe burst and a huge flood at their home in Michigan and were coming back up to Michigan to deal with it.

So, not to be deterred, Taylor and I came up with some fantastic backup plans. First, we're going to see the Yankees play a Spring Training game in Tampa. Then, since we need to fill a couple days in Florida before we head to Curacao, I'm checking an item off my 30 before 30 list (stay at a world-renowned hotel somewhere) and staying at the Don CeSar hotel on in St. Petersburg! I lived in St. Pete a few years ago and had always heard about this hotel. I figure, what better way to make lemonade out of these lemons than to complete one of my goals!

Here's a picture of the hotel:
After I check this one off (I'll write a separate blog about it), we're driving to Miami on Sunday and staying overnight before catching our flight to Curacao Monday mornign, WHEW!

I'm also working on my goal to read 10 of the top novels of all time. I finished To Kill a Mockingbird a few days ago and I'm about 1/3 of the way through Pride and Prejudice (go me!).

And, just because i have the photo hand, I just thought I'd share a great photo of my whole family that was taken last weekend at Grandma's funeral. I already miss this bunch a TON!

Janet Irene Lucyk - September 19, 1936 - February 22, 2011

My beloved Grandmother, Janet Lucyk, went to be with the Lord at 3pm yesterday, February 22, 2011. I have definitely not had or taken the time to fully process this profound loss. I know that myself and everyone who loves Grandma Lucyk will feel the pain of her loss at many points in the coming days, months and years.

I haven't lost a grandparent since I was 11 and my grandpa (Janet's husband) died. Of course I was sad at the time, and I still wish I'd gotten to know him better, but at such a young age, it didn't hit me like this has. I have had many friends lose their grandparents and while I was of course sad for them, I always thought that this loss would be a little less jarring, more expected, and overall easier to take than it has been. Mostly, that's because I expected to have many more years with my Grandma Lucyk.

I know everyone always talks well of the dead (rightly so), but personally, I have always thought that people tend to exaggerate how amazing people are after their death. However, I have to say that over the course of Grandma's illness, I have not heard ONE thing said about her that desn't ring completely true. In fact, many of them are things I WISH I had told her while she was alive, or at least thought about enough to be thankful for.

My earliest memories of Grandma Lucyk are from visiting her house, the one my dad and his 3 siblings grew up in. I remember going to the back bedroom and watching Casper the Friendly Ghost. Grandma taught me to color by drawing a dark line around the edges with the color and then coloring in lightly in the middle. She always had a canister of Planter's Cheese Balls. They had a trash compacter, and Grandma would always let me push the button. We played marbles, and the cat-eye one was my favorite. I remember the kerosene heater they always kept in the living room. It had exposed hot coils and was an all around hazard for little children, but this was the 80's and health hazards were a lot more prevalent than they are now :). I also remember the year that I couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve and discovered the truth about Santa. And finally, I remember, at 10 years old, forcing my parents and grandparents to teach me how to play euchre. I didn't care that I was "too young," I wanted to be part of the games.

And that's what I was, from the time I first learned about "tricks" and "trump," "bowers" and "the left," I never missed an opportunity to play cards or games with my grandma. Not 2 months ago, we sat around the table in our living room playing hand and foot, 313, and Blokus. We went through a phase when Skip-bo was our favorite.

Grandma Lucyk was always a "cool Grandma." When Grandpa died, she got a new condo and wanted everything light-colored. Nothing depressing, she said. She got a black cheery colored Dodge Intrepid and I thought I had the coolest grandma in the world. I still thought that less than 2 years ago when she got her latest lease, a gold Lincoln MKX. She's a hip lady :)

Every time I asked my mom who was coming to our house for the holidays, I was always so happy to find out that Grandma Lucyk would be there. She just brought a great energy to every room she was in.

Even though she lost her husband at the young age of 57, she never seemed interested in finding someone else (even though we would have supported her). She loved her freedom, being able to do what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it. She went to California, Vegas, Florida, the casino, Yellowstone and New York City, and that's just in the last few years! She spent 3 weeks in January in Florida with her sisters. They went on a swamp tour, walked in the ocean, and (I'd imagine), drank their fair share of red wine. But red wine wasn't always Grandma's favorite, it was black Russian's when I was a kid. I think I'll have one in her honor sometime soon :)

This past Christmas was a typical one with Grandma Lucyk. As usual, she came to our house after the Lucyk Christmas Eve party and stayed with us all of Christmas day. We opened Christmas presents, Grandma sitting patiently by, opening her presents when prompted. We played games, ate good food, and even sat down and watched Ernest Saves Christmas. I fell asleep during the movie, but Grandma stayed awake with Taylor and at the end of the movie, she said, "That's a really funny movie!" endearing her even more to Taylor :) We played one last game of Grandma's favorite game, Hand and Foot, before going to bed. The next morning, we left our house early for a ski trip in Northern Michigan, dropping Grandma off along the way. This was the last time I saw her, but I look back on it with great joy and am thankful that Grandma lived such a good life right up until the time of her death.

Rest in peace, Grandma Lucyk. Or, since I know you will, enjoy heaven for all that it's worth!

Life goes on...

The title of this post says it all, in a lot of ways. First, no real update on Grandma Lucyk. She's still hanging on, and as much as we all aren't ready to say goodbye, we want her to go in peace and to be comfortable, so we eagerly await her being welcomed into heaven to meet her husband, who died 17 years ago last month. One nice side effect of this terrible situation is that we've all been going through all Grandma's old photos. Here are some gems:

This is a beautiful photo the grandma got from a man she went on one date with. He went off to the Korean war shortly after that date and had this painted off of her senior photo and sent it back to her.
Shortly thereafter, she met my grandfather, Jerry Lucyk. This is his senior photo with the note he wrote on the back when he gave it to her:

A few years later, he got his wish! Here are some wedding photos. Janet and Jerry Lucyk, 1956
And many years later, their 5 grandchildren:

Great memories :)

As I said, the title of this post is accurate in many ways. Life goes on for me, too. After spending last Saturday - Wednesday in Michigan with family, I'm back in New York.

I'm still pursuing my 30 Before 30 wholeheartedly. While I can't check anything else off the list yet, I've been taking advantage of some much-needed downtime, especially this long President's Day weekend, to do some reading. I'm working on the top 10 novels of all time, and my current book is To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book and I'm finally getting into it. I hope to finish it this weekend and to start Pride and Prejudice next.

I've also been reading the Bible (one of my goals is to read it all the way through) and planning my attack on the rest of my list!

Taylor and I are also getting geared up for a big vacation we've had planned for a while. We're traveling to Tampa, FL first to visit my grandparents who live in The Villages, near Ocala. After spending a couple days there, we're flying to the Caribbean to the beautiful Island of Curacao for 5 nights. We're in desperate need of a vacation and can't wait for this!

I'll keep you posted on all of our adventures and any developments.

Update on Grandma

Again, I apologize for the infrequent updates (Steve), but things with my grandma have been all-consuming.

Here's an update. Grandma was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday, February 9th at about 1pm after my Uncle Jeff found her unconscious on her kitchen floor. It had been roughly 12 hours since she had a massive stroke and she was clinging to life.

For the first few days in the hospital, she showed modest improvement, but unfortunately as of Sunday the neurologists determined that my beloved grandmother, who is more friend than "Grandma" and one of the most amazing people I know, was really no longer with us. Her body was there, but her mind, her personality, her beautiful spirit, were irrevocably gone. To our immense sadness, we had to come to terms with the fact that it was time to let her go. Tonight she is resting peacefully in a hospital room, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, sisters, and a few close friends. We will all miss her dearly, but we're anxious for her to pass out of this world and into the peace that we know awaits her in heaven.

We love you, Grandma!!
Two of her sons waiting for news in the hallway:
Me and my siblings at the hospital:

We interrupt this quest for awesomeness...

Hey there friends and family. I've already gotten an earful for not crossing things off my list fast enough, so I wanted to make sure I provide an update. Well, this is more of an update for why you won't be getting an update.

This week, my beloved Grandma Lucyk, my dad's mom, had a massive stroke. She has been in the hospital since Wednesday morning and I'm leaving first thing tomorrow to go to Michigan until Wednesday to be with my family and see Grandma.

She was found on Wednesday at 12:30pm after apparently spending more than 12 hours laying on her kitchen floor after having her stroke. We are so proud of her for holding on through all that, and it gives us tons of confidence that she'll pull through this. She has been sedated since she got to the hospital, but they started to wean her off the sedatives this morning and she has responded really well.

Today, Grandma actually responded to the doctors asking her to squeeze their hands and wiggle her toes, hence this lovely little photo collage:

Here's another nice collage that my Aunt Shari made. Doesn't grandma look beautiful! These were taken at a surprise birthday dinner for her that I was unfortunately unable to attend.
She's been making some progress, which is really great, but there's still a lot of uncertainty, so your prayers are much appreciated.

More gems from the vault

My friend Jonathan was inspired by my first 30 before 30 check-off to go searching through his old photos. I'm happy to share these gems from my (much) younger days.

Jon and I, taken on graduation night, June 2001
Fall 2001, Hemingway Hall, Kissam Quad, Vanderbilt University
Fall 2001, Reinke Hall, Kissam Quad, Vanderbilt University. Kim, we look SO young!!

First item checked off the 30 before 30 list!

excavate all the files I want to keep from my OLD computer before it is gone for good

Taylor and I decided to take advantage of a low-key weekend and the 1 terabyte external hard drive we bought on Black Friday and checked one of the items off of my 30 before 30 list. I have a Dell laptop that I got the summer after I graduated from Vanderbilt. It worked great for more than 3 years, but for some reason when I moved home to Ohio in December of 2008, it slowed to a near crawl and became virtually useless. Coinciding with that, I also got a laptop for my job, which meant that I didn't really need to have my own separate laptop. So, it has sat in our closet since we moved to New York and hadn't even been turned on in almost 2 years.

I have always wanted to make sure that I get all of the files off of it, so that was the project this week. The problem was, that I had no idea what the login password might be. After trying about 5-10 different passwords that I've had over the years and resolving that I'd have to deal with Dell Customer Service, Taylor had the brilliant idea to try just pressing Enter without putting in a password at all and, EUREKA! Turns out the password was nothing, literally.

So, once we were in, it was just a matter of waiting for the dinosaur to start up and then slowly moving all of the music, photos, and documents stored therein over to our external hard drive. I'm pleased to say it was an overwhelming success and I'd like to share some gems that were required. First, a photo from each year represented:

2000: This is the only digital photo I have from high school. It was taken by my friend Steve Kerr for a photo project, I believe. Junior year. I loved that shirt.

2001: This photo is from freshman year of college on a trip to the Opryland Hotel. Still some of the best guys I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.
2002: I believe this little gem is from our Freshman year beach trip with the BCM. The combination of silly, sexy, and unnecessarily serious is cracking me up.
2003: This photo was taken my sophomore year on a winter trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This was actually taken about 10 days after I started dating Taylor. Kim and Will (to the right of me) were just barely dating in this photo too. Now they're married and living in Australia! And I must say R.I.P. Thomas Lindsay, who's just to the left of me (in the button down and sweater) and died tragically in the summer of 2005.
2004: It's the summer of 2004 and Taylor and I took a trip to Sedona, Arizona. That trucker hat was all my doing...What a cute photo!
2005: The night it all began. This is the night that I met some of my best friends at a party in Nashville! I wish Brittany was in this shot!

Also 2005. I had to include this one not just because of my *awesome* outfit (pink and green, really!?) but also because I'm working on the computer that this post is about.2006: This is my first apartment in NYC. And yes, it was that small. Fun :)

2007: Traveling to Nashville to run my first Marathon and wearing an "I Love NY" shirt, how fitting :)2008: This is an impromptu engagement photo that Taylor and I took of ourselves the day after we got engaged. He looks a little terrified, no?
Such a fun trip down memory lane.

Oh, and here's another gem, a poem my friend Kenny Lee wrote about me back in college. I think he went through a period where he wrote funny poems about everyone, so here's mine:

Hey I'm Carissa and I major in HOD

Everyone knows that means Hand-Out Degree

I'm really very smart, just like the famous MacGyver

When I'm riding in your car, I'm also a backseat driver

I love to study rocks, when I'm in Geology

And I really prefer boys, who are younger than me

My boyfriend is a freshman, which does seem very fitting

Unfortunately he's in love with Kim, wait, just kidding

I do everything really fast, so I can have a chance

To finish all my essays, three weeks in advance

I do a lot of community service, in case you didn't know

And I'm originally from, the state of Ohio

The guys I met in Italy, think that I'm a hottie

And don't be too surprised, cause I can be a little naughty

This 30 before 30 thing is great!!!

It's here! 30 Before 30!

Alright, it's here, the kickoff of my blog re-design! Today is my 27 1/2 birthday and I'm kicking off a 2.5-year adventure to complete 30 things before I turn 30. The best thing about this endeavor, in my opinion, is that it really forces me not just to live day to day but to REALLY make sure that I live. Some of the items on my list are things I've always wanted to do (read the Bible all the way through, san francisco, get a dog), others I completeld came up with just for this list (give a speech, pick a stock, go a month without watching TV (yikes!)). Some people have told me it's silly to make up goals just for a 30 before 30 list, but I think that's the point! This forces me to finish some things I've always wanted to do and ALSO forces me to come up with some new goals that I may never have bothered with. So, here goes!

And, in case you're wondering, yes, I still have a husband and yes, he's aware of the list. And of course he will be participating in many of these with me. This isn't my attempt to be independent or have a bunch of adventures without him. I'm so excited to do some of these together (except maybe the spa day, I think that's just for me :).

I will keep you posted on my progress on this list and also just on life in general per usual over the next 2.5 years. Get pumped!

Carissa

Holiday Recap

Alright friends, I'm finally back on my feet after the holiday (and a sick day yesterday).

I can't believe 2010 is already over! Taylor and I had a blast visiting my family over the holidays. I figured I'd give you a quick recap with photos where possible.

We started our holiday break with dinner in the city on December 22 with Taylor's whole family including his brother Alex and his wife Hilary, his parents and his sister Allison. We went to a fun German place near our apartment. It was definitely an adventure!

On the 23rd, we opened Christmas presents in the morning with Taylor's family at their house. We got some great gifts including a new hat and gloves for me, some video games for Taylor, and a wine aerator for both of us. Thanks, guys!

After presents we left for the 10-hour drive to my house in Perrysburg. It was a really long drive, for some reason it took us almost 11 hours. Part of the problem was that we took a rather elongated break in beautiful Strongsville, OH and felt compelled to walk around the nice little lights display they have in downtown:

From December 2010

We met the mayor and his wife!

From December 2010

This is me feeding Baileys to an elf through his trumpet

From December 2010

Cute

On Christmas Eve, we traveled up to my cousins' house in Michigan for Christmas Eve with the Lucyk clan. It was fantastic and complete with Alaskan King Crab, delicious steak and plenty of shooting games (thanks, Brent and Miranda!).

Christmas day was VERY low key. So low key, in fact, that I have absolutely nothing to show for it. We opened presents and just hung out at home all day. Some highlights on the present front were a private ski lesson for Taylor and some fantastic new underwear, a North Face sweater, and a new necklace for me.

The day after Christmas (Sunday, the 26th), we drove up to Michigan again to have Christmas with my Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of my mom's side of the family. There were more shooting games:
And, of course, more gifts! Taylor and I even got a new laptop. It's a really small, super-portable one called a netbook. We're pumped!

Whew....this was a busy week, I'm tired just writing it!

Ok, so THEN...on December 27th, we piled in the car at 8am with my parents, my brother, and his friend Tony to go up to northern Michigan for some skiing. Taylor had never been skiing before and it had been years since I was skiing, so we were pretty excited (and anxious).

We stopped on the way at an outdoors store and had a little fun. This is a 5XL:
My grandparents have a chalet up north, but when I was growing up, they had a much smaller one that's not far from their current place, so we went to check it out. Here's a photo:

From December 2010

It's so cute :)

The next day, was the day we actually went skiing. I'm happy to report that all parties had a good time and no one got hurt. In fact, Taylor picked it up really quickly and totally showed me up. Here are some photos of skiing:

From December 2010

Getting ready in our thermal spandex

From December 2010

Ready to go!

From December 2010

This one's a video. I'm not sure if it will work. If it goes, you'll see Taylor in all black a little left of center.

From December 2010

Would a real "Sno Pro" need their husband to keep them from falling down the hill with his pole?

From December 2010

Me and Dad

We were pretty tired that night, so we were in bed by about 9pm. Then we got up early the next morning to take a quick ride on the snowmobiles before leaving. Taylor had never done this either. It was a week of firsts!

From December 2010

All of us on the "sleds"

From December 2010

On the trail

From December 2010

Taylor driving, watch out!

After snowmobiling, we headed back down to Perrysburg with a stop in Plymouth, MI to visit my Grandpa and Nana for Christmas.

Ok, so we just finished the 29th. I'm actually not even sure what we did on the 30th, which is a good thing because every other day was so busy!

On the 31st, we relaxed most of the day and then got dressed up for dinner/New Year's Eve at night.

From December 2010

Glamour Shot

From December 2010

All of us at dinner

New Year's Eve was pretty low key. We went to a bar after dinner so Taryn could utilize her new-found status of LEGAL (my little sister is 21, crazy!). Then we headed back to our house and drank whiskey sours and played games until it was time to ring in 2011 :)

My family convinced Taylor and I to stay through New Year's Day and return, instead, on the 2nd, which actually worked out really well. We had lots of time to relax, EAT, and watch football on New Year's Day. We also went to the store and bought Taylor 2 new suits using some of his Christmas money, which was exciting!

We left at 6:30 in the morning on January 2nd and made great time back to New York, arriving at Taylor's parents' house at 3:30pm. Whew! What a trip!