Cirque du Soleil

We have lived here in England for over a year and we finally went to a show in London!!! We bought some tickets to see Cirque du Soleil, Quidam Show. Our tickets are only £60 per person, including the bus ride. The face value was £35 per ticket. We left at 10:45 am and we arrived back at our drop off point at about 7:30 pm.

The show was held at the Royal Albert Hall. We didn't want to be late for the show and so we decided to eat at Cafe Consort. They had some interesting items on their menu. (The downloaded menu is not exactly what they had to offer, but it is close.) I decided to play it safe and order the ever-safe Cesar salad with chicken. My husband had the Chicken Parmesan. The service was really fast. We ordered and our food was out to us in less than 5 minutes. The food was okay for what you expect in a theater. Once we found our seats, it was gorgeous. We had what you call the "nose bleed" seats. We were in section Q on the very top row to the left of the stage. This is the seating chart.

There were about a dozen different acts. I'll only highlight the ones that I found funny and/or the amazing ones. One of the first acts was what I call the, "human top" but really it is called the German Wheel. The man was able to weave in and out of this wheel, flip, and spin. It is definitely something that was captivating.

The four little Asian girls, they looked as though they were 10 years old, were really great. It seemed as thought they were doing this since birth. I looked in the program and they aren't related.

Unfortunately, I was not able to take photographs. Photos shown were from my camera phone.

Other shows I would like to watch:

Wicked

The Phantom of the Opera

Houston, TX 2006

I was really only in Houston for less than 24 hours to visit my “B.F.F” in August 2006. My husband and I, this is before we were married, had just left his family who live in West Texas and we were driving back to my house in Florida. Once we found her place and relaxed for a bit she took us out to show us a little bit of Houston.

First she took us to eat some sushi at a hip and trendy bar and restaurant called Ra.

Ra

3908 Westheimer
Houston Tx 77027
Phone: 713 621-5800

It definitely had a buzz about it. There was a long wait for tables, but we were offered to sit in the bar so we wouldn’t have to wait. The menu was really exciting to me. They offered unique ingredients that I have not seen paired with sushi since. I can’t remember the names of the rolls we ordered, but sushi such as mango, crunchy green tempura, and cream cheese! It was delicious! I know that this was 3 years ago and I still think that their sushi was memorable. Below is a photo of my and my husband in Ra.

After dinner we went to the Cotton Exchange. It was a neat little bar and lounge that had a laid back vibe, great for the young professional to meet and greet. In fact, in 2006 it won awards such as “After-Work Bar 2006,” “See and Be Seen Bar 2006,” & “Singles Scene 2006.”

Cotton Exchange

202 Travis St Ste 100

Houston, TX 77002

Phone: (713) 213-1141

Au Paris!!!!

This Blog is based on a trip that we had on 1st year anniversary. It was August 9, 2008. We went to Paris with a couple of our friends. They live in Italy and decided to drive and were nice enough to pick us up on the way in Switzerland. We each reserved a room in the Best Western Le Nouvel Orleans. Our room was very, very small. I don't think that I would choose to stay there again.

Day 1: It was late afternoon when we went by the Eiffel Tower and walked around; we didn't go in up the tower that day. We did walk around and we went to a café which was just a few streets away from the Eiffel Tower where we ate escargot for our appetizer. We went to see the Arch De Triumph.

Day 2: It was a gorgeous day and our anniversary. First we went to a café, and it was so very French. We had a coffee and croissant. Then we were off to see the Eiffel Tower. We spent hours waiting in line to use the elevator. In hindsight I think it would have been faster and more interesting to walk up to the 1st floor and then take the elevator. The view from the top was breathtaking. We spent almost 4 hours with the Eiffel Tower. We only spent half of the day with our travel mates so that we could spend some time alone. We went to the Centre Georges Pompidou which had some very interesting street performers.

The DK Eyewitness Travel recommened to go to a restaurant that said it had a romantic atmosphere that was not extremely expensive called the Le Coupe-Chou. Please take a look at their menu. The food was good, but some of the restaurants that we passed looked even better. After dinner we walked around and found that the streets were alive with tourism, shops open late, restaurants, and night clubs. It was one of my favorite parts of this trip.

Day 3: We set this day aside to see the Louvre. This was our last full day with our travel mates. One of our friends was not that interested in art, so we knew we weren’t going to spend a lot of time here. Luckily, we were able to hit the hot spots and saw Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and of course the Mona Lisa. My husband and I would have liked to stay longer. It was time for a late lunch and although my husband and I thought that the food court looked appealing, our friends had their heart set on the Hard Rock Café Paris. (We spent 2 hours looking for it, 30 minutes waiting for a table, and 30 minutes waiting for the food. The food was just like it always is; too expensive for the quality and generic.)

We walked around to see some of the other sites. We walked by Moulin Rouge and the Montmartre & Pigalle area. Later that evening we went on a riverboat ride to see the landmarks along the river. The timing was perfect to see the Eiffel Tower with its light show.

Day 4: We ate at the American Diner in Paris for breakfast. We went to one location and found that it was closed for remodeling or something so we walked from this one to the other location. The food was what you would expect from Denny’s. We had time to see one more tourist destination, or so we thought, and went to see Notre Dame, but we did not go inside because the line was so long (again poor planning). Our friends had to start heading back home from here. We specifically saved The Museum D'Orsay so that we could go by ourselves and also because they have already been there. What we were not ready for was to find it was closed on Mondays, which it was. It was one of the things that I was really looking forward to seeing. I really appreciate Impressionist art work. It was my fault for not checking into the hours. So we had to make an alternate plan B.

We decided to go up to the hill to see Sacré Coeur. Unfortunately, we did not have any directions other than to follow the general direction. We had to walk up this very steep hill. Once on the top we saw Sacré Coeur and my husband thought it was fascinating. I was impressed by the view that it offered. I was also more interested to find that there was a lift that we could have taken that would have saved me my feet, legs, and breath. I know I sound like I’m old, don’t I?

Also on top of the hill was a tourist attraction of Artists. Mostly they were doing portraits and selling their art. I was very interested to do this, but 2 things stopped me.

1. My husband said no. It was about €60/person.
2. There wasn’t anywhere safe to store the work on our trip home.

Once back down from the hill we found ourselves in what appeared to be the fashion district where they shops were filled with fabulous bolts and bolts of materials. We had just enough time to go eat something quick before we had to find the airport. We ended up going back to the Louvre to eat in their food court. It looked so good the day before so we thought we would go back. Not as good as we had thought it would be.

Overall, this trip was a lot of fun. I would have liked to have done more "French" things such as eat more real French food and spent more time in the Louvre. I also would have made sure to see the Museum D'Orsay. As far as places to see, I'm definitely very glad that I can say I've been to Paris. If you have a long weekend, I think that Paris is the perfect destination. Personally, if you have more than that, I would prefer Italy.

The Morning After

For my birthday we went to the Andaz Hotel which was a stone's throw away from the Liverpool Tube station. When we checked into the hotel, we were greeted by the concierge and checked in promptly.

They gave us a free King upgrade, it wasn't as nice as the photo, but the bed was large and comfortable, there was AC, the place was clean, and the staff was so nice and helpful. There were also a lot of amenities: complementary mini bar, free wi-fi, Ipod docking station, and a towel warmer (it didn't work but I don't have one anyway so it wasn't a big deal). There were also 4 restaurants that were associated with the hotel. The one that I really wanted to eat at was closed for the holiday. The breakfast was also included. We were instructed to order it the night prior and told to set up a delivery time. We each had the Belgium waffles, eggs, fruit plate, coffee, orange juice, and pineapple juice.

For lunch we ate at a pub. My husband had the fish and chips; I had a Cesar Chicken Salad. I didn't think it was anything to rave about, my husband thought that the fish and chips were really good. We each ordered a drink as well. My husband had a Stella and I had a Mojito.

The staff was nice enough to research and find a sushi bar that was open and not too far away. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of places were closed due to the time of the year.

We went to Matsuri:
Matsuri High Holborn
71 High HolbornLondon WC1V 6EA

(t) 020 7430 1970

(e) eat@matsurihighholborn.co.uk

When I first arrived, the place looked really nice. The menu was really exciting. I was really looking forward to eating at a different place than the same one I always eat at. We had the Tempura Shrimp roll, California roll, a special Marble Tuna Roll with special balsamic soy sauce, and a scallop Carpaccio.

Overall, I found that this was nice meal but nothing that knocked my socks off. I personally didn't like the carpaccio.

After dinner we went back to the hotel. We decided to stop off to get a drink and some dessert at Eastway. I had Cheesecake with mango. My husband had the brownie. I also had a raspberry martini which was made from fresh raspberries. It was very sweet but not compared to that of the cheesecake. ***The best raspberry martini I've ever had was at Bluepoint in Destin, Florida.

We also went down towards Trafalgar, but we didn't count on the delays with the tube stations. There were many stops that were closed. The tubes were also packed full of people drinking, which was prohibited. We did make it to Trafalgar in time for the stroke of midnight. Too bad for our poor planning we weren't able to see the fireworks. After midnight, it felt like a concert. The hoards of people pressed and pushed up against us as we walked along the streets. It was definitely an experience to see New Year's in London.

**We did not go to Simpsons in the Strand because it was booked and there was not an available time when we wanted to eat.