Coffee Lovers Anonymous

October 23, 2015October 23, 2015 Deby Ciui (Chewy)Leave a comment

Any coffee lovers out there?

What about coffee addicts?

Well, I’m not afraid to admit that I absolutely LOVE coffee. But because of all the caffeine I try not to drink too much of it. My hands shake enough as it is I don’t need caffeine to add to it. But I am such an oddball that Decaf just doesn’t sit right with me. I just don’t know. I mean I will drink decaf every once in a while but I just don’t like it as much as regular wonderful coffee.

I don’t know what it is about coffee that makes me like it so much. Sure there is different flavors and all but it is more than that. Some people like to drink hot cocoa, especially during the winter. When it starts to get cold out they call it Hot Cocoa weather. For me, it’s coffee, different seasons make me want different types of coffee.

You have the Peppermint lattes during the winter, cinnamon, or pumpkin spice in the fall, iced and frozen coffee during the summer. There’s always a time to have coffee.

But here’s the kicker right? You see I LOVE coffee… but I do NOT like Starbucks, in fact the only time I ever go to Starbucks is when I get a gift card or for my Free birthday drink. So where do I go?

It’s easy, I go to those little hole in the wall places that sometimes you don’t even know exist. You go to Starbucks and there is always someone new there, there’s really very little personalization there. But at my favorite coffee shop Crema Coffee, when I found it for the first time they were actually closing for the day, but when they saw me outside they opened the door and made me a drink anyways. And then because certain things going on and life getting in the way I didn’t have a chance to go there for almost an entire year. But get this, a year later I go back for the second time and the same person is there and they REMEMBER me. A YEAR LATER!!! How can you not like that kind of atmosphere? So I started going there as much as possible. When I had a horrible day at work I’d forfeit my lunch hour just to drive there get a drink and drive back. They say chocolate makes you happy, maybe coffee does the same. I go to coffee shops all the time and I am always looking for a new one to try out. If anyone knows of any great coffee shops please let me know, doesn’t matter what state it is in, I travel as much as I can anyways.

I also love the places that make the little designs in the coffee too. I want to apologize for the picture quality because it was taken with my phone but here’s some of the different coffee I have had this past year.

Metals from Air and Space

September 15, 2015September 14, 2015 Deby Ciui (Chewy)Leave a comment

I could post hundreds of pictures of airplanes and rockets from the Smithsonian Air and Space museum and it still wouldn’t be enough to show you how awesome this museum was. If you go then you should DEFINITELY check out their Einstein Planetarium which was worth the trip alone. Instead of posting pictures of airplanes, being a history buff I’m going to show you some of the metals and memorabilia they have on display in different sections of the museum.

Photography · Travel · Uncategorized

D.C Memorials And Tips

September 14, 2015 Deby Ciui (Chewy)3 Comments

One of the main reasons tourists go to the United States Capital is to see the monuments and museums and everything else in between. I tried to post every day but there is so much to see and do that by the time I would get back to the hotel I was so exhausted that the last thing I wanted to do was sit in front of my laptop so I will be posting my pictures for D.C at spread out intervals throughout this week. But before I put up and photos from my adventures I feel the need to point out things I’ve learned on this vacation.

D.C Tips and tricks

Take the metro!
- It is one of the most affordable means of transportation and goes pretty much everywhere you would want to visit. You can get a day pass for $14.50 but you can only use that card on one day so we actually decided to get a ‘SmartTrip’ card and put 20$ on it and we used that for the course of our trip and even had some money left over at the end. We’re keeping the cards in case we go back at some point.
- DO NOT take the metro between the hours of 7AM-9:30AM and 5PM-7PM you have to keep in mind that while YOU might be vacationing everyone else is not and unless you want to stand for the course of your subway ride (which believe me the locals make it look a LOT easier than it really is) you want to avoid these rush hour times.
Wear comfortable shoes.
- Believe me this is a must. We knew we would be walking a lot but we didn’t realize exactly how much. I have a fitbit now so I can tell you the first day we walked 7 miles and then after that every day was over 10miles worth of walking (~25,000 steps) so you definitely want to wear comfy shoes.
Less Bags = Faster Entry
- Every Smithsonian/National Museum has airport like security when you enter, your bag could be searched by a security guard or you will have to put it through an X-Ray machine just like airport security. The Holocaust museum even makes you sip any drinks that are open to prove that it is really water. If you don’t have a bag they let you go right though the big detector. If you’re traveling with a buddy like I was we ended up getting a backpack and then putting both of our things in there to get through the security lines faster.
Look for Groupon deals, especially the hotel!
- I was lucky enough to find my hotel deal on Groupon but I didn’t realize exactly how much it saved me until I got there. Many of the hotels can charge you for parking as well, in our case we stayed at the Sheraton in Arlington City and parking was $24 a night and the WiFi was also an additional charge. The Groupon deal covered all of these charges including the room fee. It saved us a lot of money!

That’s all I have at the moment if I think of some other things I learned I will definitely add them to this list. If anyone’s planning a trip to the D.C area and has any questions let me know!