Maid of Honor Duty: Crashing President Snow's House!

Saturday, I felt like I did some hardcore Maid of Honor stuff: I got to attend the dress fitting with Lauren and her Mom!!  It was awesome!  The dress is gorgeous and I can't share it right now (for obvious reasons!) but I want to so bad!  It's gorgeous!!  :D

As a treat, Lauren's Mom treated us to lunch at the Swan Coach House.  It was definitely an experience for me!  I wanted to take photos of the dining space but I thought that would be in bad taste, so I kept my phone locked in my purse (for the most part).  The fun part came after dessert when we went to check out the Swan House grounds.

You might remember the Swan House from a little movie called The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  That's right - the Swan House was used as President Snow's house for the film so it was only natural that we tour the grounds, right?!  Luckily for us, they were having an open house, which meant we could enter...FOR FREE!!!  What a pleasant surprise!  Too bad we weren't expecting it or else I would've had my Nikon at the ready for photos galore!  Instead, we used up what little iPhone battery power we had left to take as many photos as possible!

The Swan House was like a mix between the Henry B. Plant Museum and The Biltmore.  I definitely need to go back with the old man so we can take proper photos.

Later on, Lauren, Chandler and I played the craziest game in existence: Dicecapades!  Arm wrestling, push-ups, sit-ups, drawing, math problems...you name it, it's in there!  It's definitely a lot of fun but after a few cocktails, the last thing you want to do is a math problem!

How was your weekend?

Check out my best Victor's pose here!
Check out Lauren's photos here!

Happy Monday!

Phila / Jersey Photo Post 1 - Part 2

1-3: Pat's King of Steaks / 4: Geno's cheese steak / 5-6: Independence Hall (aka National Treasure) / 7: The Liberty Bell / 8: The world famous LOVE sculpture / 9: Philadelphia City Hall / 10: Cassie and Mark's wedding / 11-13: Philadelphia Museum of Art / 14-16: Eastern State Penitentiary

Puerto Rico photo post #1

Here's the first (of a few) photo posts with my photos from Puerto Rico.
These are from my Grandma's house. My sister and I used to climb the tree in front of my Grandma's house - a Flamboyan: Puerto Rico's national tree.  One of the things I love about the houses in Puerto Rico is the creative beauty of the iron gates on the houses.  None of them are exactly the same and it makes the houses and neighbourhoods they're in unique and lovely.



Of course it wouldn't be my Grandma's house without a baby photo of me!


Even though it looks like a hibiscus, it's not. The Flor de Maga is known for its saucer-sized flowers and for growing on trees instead of bushes. They're gorgeous and I think they've definitely bumped the hibiscus down a few slots on my fave flower list (sorry hibiscus!)


My Mom took us to Kasalta on our first night and I had the pleasure of having a wonderful bistec (steak) sandwich. There's no photo of it because I was starving (sorry!) but I did manage to take a photo of the Tres Leches - which was AMAZING. My Mom said it wasn't as good as she remembered it (they used to sell pieces that were 3+ inches tall!) but it was still good. Bee tee dubs - President Obama has eaten there!


I've always loved this cemetery but I don't ever remember going inside. The day we went, we arrived, like, 15-20 minutes before closing time. My Aunt and my Mom tried to charm and plead with the guy who worked there to let us in but he was in a grumpy mood. I missed the whole conversation but one thing was for sure: dude was an asshole. Either way, I got some lovely photos (so did my old man). Maybe we'll get to go in next time...


Check out more photos here
Check out my old man's photos here

Holiday in Jacksonville

My old man and I took some time for some serious R&R last week and all I want to do is live by the ocean forever. It was amazing! Jacksonville isn't exactly the touristy spot like, say, Disney or something but it has what we wanted: nothing. We wanted a nice, chill place to spend the last days of summer being lazy and Jacksonville was perfect.

Neptune Beach is the BEST. The water is fantastic and because of the tropical storms on the way, the surf was AMAZING. It made me want to learn how to surf. For serious, y'all.



Our other favourite place is Saint Augustine. I was so moved by the architecture of the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now known as Flagler College) that I spent quite a few hours researching the history of the oldest city in the U.S. NERD ALERT I know, but it's beautiful.

All I kept thinking about was: imagine Flagler College the way it was before - when it was a hotel. A super fancy monocle worthy hotel. According to our Ghost Host (on the super fun Ghosts and Gravestones tour), you didn't pay for a room a the Ponce de Leon by the day or week, you paid for the whole season!  When we go back, we're definitely going to take a tour and see if we can truly imagine what it was like as a hotel.

Another tour I'm glad we did was of the beautiful lighthouse.  Yeah, it was quite the climb but it was totally worth it!  On the Ghost and Gravestones tour, our host talked about my favourite Ghost Hunters episode involving the lighthouse while we were on the grounds right outside.  We couldn't go in because the lighthouse has a separate ghost hunt tour thing BUT just standing outside and hearing the stories was enough for me to get creeped out - especially after what TAPS found in that particular investigation.  I took lots of photos on the ghost tour but here are some shots during the day tour
 
It is as gorgeous at night as it is during the day.  What a beauty!  And it has such crazy history - just like the rest of Saint Augustine.

We spent some time at the Castillo de San Marcos as well.  I wanted to walk around the grounds this time since we didn't last time we were there (in 2008, I think).  There's a rich history of war all over and I'm glad they have managed to capture that and keep it for the rest of us to enjoy and appreciate

Sorry all the photos here are from my iPhone - I took TONS more on my other camera that I'll be posting to Flickr soon (including the ghost tour pics!) Keep an eye out for those!!

Until next time!
Katzi
S.L.Y.A.S.D.I

PS - Looks like TAPS co-founder Grant Wilson is looking extra dreamy for the Syfy banner ad for this season of Ghost Hunters.

Why have I stopped watching?! I need to get back on it!