 How can March almost be over? This month has flown by! So how has your month been? March has been wonderful for me. Work is going great, lots of good things are in the works (more about them soon!) And I even found time to read a bit. #WIN  Currently reading..  I am behind in my book reviews...  I hope to post the reviews later this week.  But then the trees started blooming and I don't want to stay inside on the computer...  OMG!   Spring is here!   I have also been cooking less and snacking more this month...  The March Vegan Cuts box was excellent!  Love this new tea.  Really nice and organic. More book and product reviews soon.
Plus more travel tales and more all around randomness! Catch you Later~  It's spring and the wildflowers are popping up! Also the native plants and the annuals are fighting for attention. I have seen so many birds and even a few butterflies this week. No hummingbirds yet, as it still a bit too cool at night. But I am sure the hummers are already back in south Texas though. My friends tell me the temps are already hitting high 80's! With a few days of 90' heat already! I shall try to photograph some of these tiny jewels during my next visit. This was wildflowers and such this time last year in south Texas. If you want to see. These are the flowers I have seen so far in central New Mexico:  It's not al just cactus here, lol  Although, aren't these just darling?!  And the Yucca!  Nature finds a way. Always. Even a tiny crack and plants will take root. #Loveit  Love the colors!  I spent one full afternoon at the nursery - looking for plants for my raised planting beds. New Mexico has a pretty good growing season and I was excited to plant some herbs and veggies.  And trying my best not to buy all the bedding plants or roses....  OMG!  Yes, roses grow here!  OMG! How to not buy them ALLL!  Flower candy for sure!  And breathe! "I will NOT buy all the plants. I will NOT" I actually did come away with some veggies too!  Green peppers, jalpenos and some herbs for the win!, I have another plant nursery to visit and then it will be time to plant! #Excited
Catch you later-  Hi, How are things? Between work and adventuring it's been a busy year so far! I have managed to write a bit of the Iceland adventure up in multiple post and answer some of the questions you have asked. Here is a list of the top blog post for February 2017 if you missed any.  Excuse my eye bags and messy hair - it's been a wild month! I'm not complaining though - I like adventure and It’s been a busy year so far, both for work and travel. The trip posts in Februarys were of course, relating to my trips to NYC and Iceland. Here are the top, most clicked post for February, encase you missed them.  (Iceland) Iceland Answers This post was mostly answering the questions people asked me most often about Iceland. "How Cold is it?" "What the hell do you eat there?" Etc. Mostly it was silly shite like that, with 31 random pictures of stuff in Iceland. What Are you Reading? Guess what this post was about? lol This post contains 7 pictures of the illustrations from the Japanese art book I was reading and a little information about the films/TV shows being filmed in my area. #OnPoint I was surprised so many people clicked it. Or gave a flip about what I was reading, although I do get asked often "off line".... Top 25 Travel Quotes Another Guess what this post was covering? LOL These are some of my favorite and most used travel quotes. I feel they convey, way better than I ever could, the joy, mystery and love traveling is for me.  Instagram Explained This was a random catch up to explain some of the craziness I have been posting on IG. Eight (8) random images and sort of an explanation. Scared of Solo Travel This was just a dumb meme/short post I wrote in January. It's popularity shows me you want more posts about solo travel, or my fears or something scary. I will endeavor to do all of the above shortly. The Week After Christmas Random post with 15 random pictures. I was wine shopping for a New Year's Eve party and bitching about the cold. #GoodTimes Thank you for taking the time to read my silly little blog. I hope you enjoyed these posts and found them helpful or at least funny!  Just wait till you see what's up next! March promises to be an amazing month!
See you at the airport~  This is by no means an actual review. If your want that go to an expert. I'm just a person who likes tech and takes a lot of damn pictures and downloads a millions apps. Now that being said, I recently moved up from an iPhone 6 to 6s. Well actually thats not true...My British Phone was a iPhone 6 and my American phone was an Android piece of shit brick, (but with a nice case) and should have come with a string tied to it to improve phone quality. It was a "no brainer" to lose the Android. And by loose I mean refuse to use it after the iPhone 6s appeared in everyone else's hands. When I synched the new baby (Brick never liked synching with my MAC Book, imagine that..) It popped my British pictures up, so I thought I would share random randomness of picture quality with you. I'm still learning all the new features of the iPhone. I (by no means), ever came even close to mastering the features of the last one....But I can tell you after playing with the new one 15 minutes I was sold. I never actually wanted to come over to the "dark side" of Apple. It's so cult-y and clannish that I just don't like that. Plus they are not a cheap hobby...But after actually using the products I was sold. They are just THAT GOOD. And the new iPhone 6s is too.  English sunset  Photo from my iPhone 6 Here are random shots from my old phone taken this summer in England. As you can see I pretty much take photos of the same things in the US and I do in England. Home life, sunsets, flowers, food, etc. I never could master taking a selfie with the UK phone. The angles were off, or I was looking too uncomfortable or something...The new camera is much better at that after using only 3 days!   The Organic Mill lunch and outside walking around their grounds.    Now on to the new iPhone pictures-  Photos from iPhone 6s Natural light does make a HUGE difference but according to Apple "The iSight camera captures beautiful 12-megapixel still photos. But great photos aren’t just measured in megapixels. That’s why we’ve added a state-of-the-art sensor, a new image signal processor, advanced pixel technology, Focus Pixels, improved local tone mapping, and optical image stabilization. What does that all mean? It means we’ve taken care of the technology. All you have to do is find something beautiful and tap the shutter button for the best, most awe-inspiring photos you’ve ever taken." Read more at their site here.  No filters on any of these pictures... Actually as I look at this, this is the same rose bush as the picture on my side bar....Above the "We live in a world.." quote. I took that picture with either iPhone 4 or the iPad. It's a different BLOOM of course, but still big difference in tonal quality.   New jewelry my hubby didn't know he bought me...  Gluten Free Vegan Pizza! Are they better? I think they are HUGELY better. Which is good for YOU too! Don't see how you benefit? I will continue taking random pictures of everything for the blog, but at least you can now tell what the pictures actually are... lol    I honestly LOVE the new phone. The more I read, try and explore with it the more I find it does. The Live photo effect is stunning. It's the Harry Potter Newspaper photos come alive. And it shoots 4K video! #OMG! 4K video!
And did I mention the actual phone quality is so much BETTER too? Yes, I'm really happy with it. Now I'm off to work to pay for it! See you at the airport- 
Hello ~ How are things? Hope all is well with you. *WARNING - HEAVY PICTURE POST* This post is yet another in a series of cruise pictures. Spending 13 days on the ship I took a HUGE amount of pictures, which I shall spam you with. (Is ok, your welcome, lol.). The Oasis of the Sea was such an awesome ship with so many different features that is was easy to forget you were on a boat. We were spoiled for things to do everyday. This series was taken along the Boardwalk area. To read more about our adventures on this lovely ship click here and the stops we made in Spain click here and here for more Malaga pictures. 
Smooth water at sea, are we really on a ship?
Did I tell you the sea was so calm? it was if we were just gliding through the water, no movement at all. I confess to being a bit worried about it. Aug and September are the most active hurricane months in the Atlantic for the US. I booked this cruise at the start of the year, and inquired what would happen if there was a hurricane at the time of sailing. They told me the ship would just sail around the storm. The atlantic is huge, after all. Gulp, ok. But thankfully no storms. 
Ship or hotel?
During one of our forays on the 1st day on board we got off the lift on the wrong floor and attempted to go into what we thought was our state room. As we tried the key card over and over the people who were actually in that room came out. As I realized we were on the wrong floor I was so embarrassed, but the attendant for the floor, who was walking by, just laughed and said it happens all the time. Day 9 and the people 1 floor below us tried to do the same thing with us, lol. I guess he was right. Too funny! 
Now where am I again?
Ever changing view from the balcony.
Thats the Boardwalk down there.
View of the Boardwalk from our balcony. :D
Enough of that, lets go down there.
Shops, cafes and rides.
 As you first enter the Boardwalk area you are met with a set of carousel horses. Each is in a different stage of being carved from solid chunks of wood. 
Amazing, right? I think they are so pretty. 
And of course there is a good size carousel. It goes until 11:00 pm each night and it is free to ride as much as you like. Because of the date of this cruise, (Sept 1-13), there were very few children on board. So mostly adults were riding. 
Did you see the movie BIG?
There were in prompt to singing waiters, too! 
This is also where the Aqua Theater is located. There were movies shown nightly and also live performances. The most amazing act was the high diving. See they can fill the theater/stage area with water! Quite a cool show! Also there are dancing water fountains that shoot water to music themed performances- watched that more than a few times, pictures did not come out well, but trust me it was cool. 
Aqua Theater
And beside it was the rock climbing wall.
Yep, this still a ship.
And another bar with friendly staff. 
Pretty at night too.
There were a couple of clothing stores, sorry I forgot I had a camera and a candy shop. I think more? I become too busy looking around and end up forgetting the camera. 
And more stuff.
Johnny Rockets~
Donut shop.
Seafood place.
This ship has so many balconies! They are lining both sides of the Boardwalk.
Representing
From one end to the other.
And whats behind the Aqua?
Shuffle Board and
Still so smooth and calm. Do you know where we are now?
The very back of the boat.
And another awesome sunsets at sea.
We really, really enjoyed the entire cruise. It was relaxing, smooth and there was plenty to do. Oh and the food! Did I mention the food was amazing? There was so much fruit! Plus lots of healthy choices for everyone. I had no problem eating healthy everyday.
If you get a chance don't hesitate to book on Oasis of the Sea, you will be so happy you did. I am looking forward to out next cruise already! Catch you later-  Another "Throw Back" Post. I was looking for more Paris shots at Snapfish and found some of my pictures of Portugal. (All my photos are toast, I'll post about it one day when it doesn't make me so insane.) :X So anyway, a couple of years ago (wow time flies!) I took a cruise from Galveston, Texas to Barcelona, Spain. We made numerous stops along the way. We disembarked, stayed in Spain another week and then took a bus & then a train into France. And stayed well for the rest of the year, but that's another story. Anyway, back to this trip. One of the stops was in the Azores. 
Post Card from trip
Archipelago of the Azores The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about 1,500 km west of Lisbon and about 1,900 km southeast of Newfoundland. See Wikipedia for more info. 
Same thing as google map, wtf
Early morning view as we sailed in.
Our Ship Docked in the Harbor, nice, huh? We really had a great time on this cruise! 
Really a pretty place!
 Ponta Delgada - Old Town On the origin of the place's name, the famous Portuguese chronicler, Father Gaspar Frutuoso, wrote: “This city of Ponta Delgada is named for its situation located along volcanic lands, thin and not too considerable like on other islands, that lead to the sea, and where later, was constructed the chapel of Santa Clara (Saint Clare of Assisi), which was named the Santa Clara point...” Around 1450, Pero de Teive, established a small fishing village that eventually grew until Santa Clara. -from Wikipedia 
Feels kind of like Spain- sort of...It's different though. I liked the area.
Still in older part of town
Bird of Paradise
 After milling around the old city we went on a tour of the indoor pineapple plantations. I must say we were not excited about this. I like plants (a lot & I garden, too) but, it just didn't seem like it was going to be anything, BUT it was really a good tour! So do go see the pineapples, while you are there, k? 
See, you can translate this by yourself!
:D
Greenhouses
Inside..
Too Cute! :D
The people there were SUPER nice! We learned a lot and had fun too. There was a gift shop and fresh pineapple to sample. Taste NOTHING like the fresh fruit in the markets! Very, very good. We were then going to take a tour of a volcanic crater lake. We boarded a bus, drove up, up and up higher and then there was a storm & fog! We couldn't see anything, at all. Not even the road! So we headed back down the Volcano & discussed the EU with the tour guides and the changes it had made on their lives and then went back to the ship. (BTW They refunded all our $$ for the tour!) So maybe next trip we will be able to see the Lagoa do Fogo (Fire lake). Meaning: I will go back there again. :) 
View from the ship - See the thick clouds?
Eating Kinder eggs as we sailed off to the next adventure!
Catch you later- 
Random Bits, Mostly Shopping- Warning Picture Heavy Post 
So this is a good example of the shops. (Keep scrolling) You NAME it and its there. BUT you do have to know where to look. WTF, right? Prices vary from shop to shop too. Some are open late at night too, it also varies. I was out with Rox on this excursion and we looked at jewelry, household stuff and food. She is about to move, so she was sorta shopping for stuff for her new house. 
Cute stuff, but I didn't buy anything...Wasn't in the mood. 
So I have no idea the time, but it's really humid & I'm ready to eat again, lol 
I really NEED that pillow. What do you think? There are a lot of nice things on Rue Royal. Something for every taste and budget. 
Went back to the Sheraton and cleaned up for supper. 
Sunset- 
Chillin Before I showered & went out again. 
Ate at the Palace Cafe (see?) but forgot camera and was too busy eating to be bothered with snapping any photos with the iphone even. The food is good and reasonably priced. Do check it out if you are in the area. So it got dark and went back to window shop some more & check out a club or two. 
More rambling around shopping in the Quarter. This is kinda a crappy picture, but it does lend the right "mood" to how the streets feel at night. 
Some of the Window Displays were soooo pretty! 
LOVE these lamps! So pretty :0 
You KNOW YOU NEED a hand carved fuseball table! 
Another Random shot of the Streets. People Milling about & everyone having fun! 
The Moon was full and really, really pretty! 
Some of the buildings are still a work in progress.. Since it is one of the Oldest Parts of the US there are strict rules on what one can do to the buildings here. None are torn down and modern ones put up & prices are sky high to rent or purchase. 
Here's a nicer looking one, don't want to scare you! 
There are a lot of art galleries too. 
More interesting Window displays...Like have no idea what these store sold, lol
Ok, thats all for now. The night went on and so did we, hahaha But I'm tired of editing pictures. Later- I was super excited to be back in New Orleans! 
So I flew into Louisiana from Texas. It's a short flight, actually I usually drive, but I wasn't able to take off as long as I had hoped, so flew in to make the most of my time. BUT- it takes approx. 8 hours to drive..it took me 8 hours from the time I left the house until I reached the Hotel? WTF?? There was a storm that delayed the flight, then we had to fly way around and over the gulf to reach NOLA. There was flooding (nothing unusual there) and a tornado warning. BUT it was over in a few hours after I reached the hotel. Thank Goodness! 
My friends that are not familiar with where/what I'm talking about I have added a few maps. (If you know, then just keep scrolling, K?) Cause I HATE: when I read about some cool place I want to go in YOUR BLOGS and there is no map and I have to google and do not even know if I'm in the right country. WYF?! So bloggers include a map, for me, Please- 
True Blood fans know all these towns, lol
Heavy Picture Post- don't say I didn't warn you! 
I have stayed all over the city & surrounding towns. (Super hard to get a room during Mardi Gras. Book 1 year ahead if you want to be on the Parade route or close by) But my favorite place to stay is the French Quarter. It's one of the oldest areas in the U. S. 
Pat O'Briens less the rain. So this is one of the hotels I stayed in, (Pictures below.) I had to change because I was trying to book a condo and they could only accommodate 3 days, but then by the time I got the hotel booked for the earlier dates it was booked, so I needed up in yet another hotel for the rest of my stay. #FML But really it all worked out for the best though, I guess. My friends all asked me to stay with them, but I do not want to impose. *shy* 
Aren't these awesome? These are REAL FLOWERS and there is more on the piano. 
Nice Bar area. 
They offered FREE high Speed WIFI and also had this cute business center. Have a drink and check your email! 
My room was actually big for the Quarter. Remember that if you stay there, you don't go to stay in the room, you go to party, see the sights and listen to great music. 
I booked all the hotels through HOTWIRE and all was fine, as usual. Each wanted about $100.USD for extras..I gave them cash and they returned the cash when I checked out. There was no other charges added. So I knew going in what my stay was going to cost and how much I could BS away. 
I can't tell you anything about the cable, TV, etc. I didn't even turn it on... If you follow me on GETGLUE you know I suck at watching TV, but WTF I do have a pretty fun life. 
Big ass Bed, comfy too- And outside is pretty nice too. This is right after the storm, so keep that in mind. 
Meeting friends in the bar and then WE ARE OFF! 
Much talking, laughing and catching up later... :) 
Ended up really late and we just had Little Caesars Pizza! Hahaha Sinful, but really good! LOL I had been up like 36 + hours by this time and was ready to just sleep. 
Tshirt I picked up for my buddy feeding my animals
Jazz Fest was about to start and people were pouring in from everywhere. Met quite a few over Breakfast, LOL. It was really nice & FREE at the hotel the next morning. Forgot to take pictures (told you am NOT a foodie) Checked into another Hotel & then me and a buddy went out for... 
:X Can't remember which I posted so here are both, LOL. There were tons of people at Cafe Du Monde. 
So this was like our brunch. 
This is the FULL Menu. Thats all you need though- lol #bestfoodever 
See random People everywhere in Cafe Du Monde 
Forgot we went to the Jazz Park 1st. It was by the hotel I checked out of and across the Quarter from Cafe Du Monde. It was redone after Katrina and the city really made a BIG DEAL about it, so I wanted to see it. It was really pretty, but no one was there (it was 10:30 or so a.m.) The mant. people saw us, but locked the gate on us..We did get out (well duh) but had to walk around a bit to find an open exit. (I'm telling you everyday is an adventure..) 
Roses took a beating from all that heavy rain. :( 
Maybe we can escape through here? 
It became overcast again and looked like rain, but then ended up clearing off...WTF like Texas weather?! 
Wanted to get closer, but everything was really wet...Figured I sink down to my knees in mud...Not cool in High heel boots! 
Another locked gate, WTF? We ended up going over 2 bridges, but did get out. Too funny!
Anyway, there is soo much more and so many more photos. Jazz Cruise, Shopping, The Quarter at night, etc.. Wil work on posts. Catch you later~ 
New shoes :)
Picked up another pair of cute shoes & new shades today for the NOLA trip. The thing I always over pack is shoes. But changing shoes can really change the look of an outfit, right? So whats one more small pair? 
Simple, but cute!
Made in Brazil with recyclable tech & materials.
Roses
I think this is Lady Diana, but not sure
I like all roses except yellow, they look sickly to me. These are soo pretty! The pictures do not so them justice at all. 
Pretty!
And one last things... 
Talk soon!
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Author Welcome to my (I'm excited to travel again) blog, my healthy Vegan lifestyle blog and my life! It's a lot, but it's my passions and I just love to write about it. Visit the "About Me Page" to learn more. 
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