Europe

And yet another post- I know, it is hard to believe you get two posts in 1 week after complete silence for almost a year. That's what happens when my husband works a lot of overtime!

Over spring break I had the opportunity to help lead a short-term study abroad trip to London and Rennes, France. The topic was history of crime and my colleague has been doing these trips for over 20 years now. This is definitely his area and it was exciting to see his passion come out during the trip. While he did most of the lecturing during our 'crime walks,' I did get to add in my two cents every now and then. As this was my first time to go, I wasn't sure all the topics he could cover. Now that I have seen it, I will be able to contribute more in the future and introduce topics such as comparative corrections and juvenile justice.

Part of the original Roman wall around the City of London.

We had to get a picture in front of the Easter Island statue at the British Museum

The requisite fish and chips (delicious!)

Outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London

More of that complex

My colleague doing his thing during a crime walk

If you're ever in the UK, you have to try
this chocolate bar. It is unlike anything I've
had in the US and it is SO good!

Outside the Tower of London

Matt came with me for the first leg to London and we had a great time exploring the city together. When he went back to the US, I, along with the rest of the group, took the Eurostar train from London to Paris where we then caught another train for Rennes, a small town southwest of Paris. 

Inside the Tower of London

My colleague, who is a London native, took us to Broad Street which is known for its Indian food. You literally barter for your meal. As you walk down the street, you are approached by different individuals, each representing their Indian restaurant. One will offer you a complete meal for say, 9 pounds, and then the next will offer you the same deal for only 8 pounds. You can then ask the earlier guy if he will reduce the price, etc., until you reach a deal you're happy with. I let my colleague handle that part and the results were delicious!

I took the train one day to Cambridge to have a couple of meetings with colleagues there. While exploring the vast campus (the University of Cambridge is made up of distinct colleges, each with its own grounds), I absolutely fell in love with the beautiful grounds!

This was part of King's College

More King's College

While waiting at King's Cross station for your husband, one must get their picture taken at Platform 9 3/4! 

Given its smaller size, it had a much more relaxed pace than London did and it felt nice to breathe and just wander. The city was absolutely beautiful- old cobblestone streets and buildings dating back to the 13th or 14th century. I spent many hours just exploring and also enjoyed walking around the large park. 

Welcome to Rennes!

This was actually the largest women's prison in France. I, along with a smaller group of students, were able to tour the facility. It is the only all-women's prison in the country.

Switching gears, back to pretty buildings!

One of the original gates into the city.

Rennes' city hall

The park they had was absolutely gorgeous!

On my last full day before flying home, I had the day to spend in Paris, solo. In order to maximize the number of things I got to see, I opted for a bike tour of the city. I highly recommend this as a great way to see the city! We got to see most of the major sites and it was actually fun riding a bike through the city streets.

Notre Dame

Not a bad way to end the trip!

Vegas: The Food

Congratulations, you made it through all of my trip recaps! For today's main event- food! When I research a trip, I tend to spend a decent amount of time in researching good places to eat. Sites like Yelp and Trip Advisor are a huge help and we have had pretty good luck in finding delicious restaurants while we travel. This trip was certainly no different, though there were a few misses due mainly to poor service. 

Lesson: If you want a nice dinner with good service and good food on the strip, you are going to have to pay at least $50/entree. Otherwise, go off the strip for a good experience.

Given the number of meals we were going to be eating out, we did not want to spend that much so we optimistically made 2 dinner reservations for restaurants that were more 'mid-range' but still not cheap by any means ($25+/entree; Searsucker & Mon Ami Gabi). While the food was good, the service was pretty bad. For example, the servers seemed less than enthusiastic to be there and (I know this sounds petty) they failed to mention it was our anniversary despite it being noted on the reservation. 

However, all of this was in stark contrast to another restaurant we made reservations for which was off the strip and ended up being one of my favorite meals of the trip (Honey Salt). This restaurant was in a more residential neighborhood about 20 minutes away and the service was perfect. The food was also amazing, so win-win! So lesson learned, unless you can really pay the big bucks, for a great dining experience go off the strip!

Anyway, here is a sampling of some of our delicious meals, for those of you who enjoy this kind of thing :)

Delicious BBQ at Rollin Smoke BBQ

This was their original smoker that they had turned into an
aquarium. Yes, there are fish swimming around with the 'meat!'

An appetizer one night of tomato soup with cheese and bacon dumplings at Therapy

Also at the same restaurant, we split this for dinner-
chicken & red velvet waffle sliders. Without a doubt
one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten
and worth every calorie.

One of my favorite restaurants was Honey Salt. We (yes, Matt too!) enjoyed a
delicious appetizer of raw and roasted local fruits and veggies.
We clearly needed it after the meal above :P

Don't worry, we got dessert at Honey Salt, too. Lemon-blueberry bread pudding.

And they celebrated our anniversary by giving us
double dessert- double chocolate brownies! 

We went to Lotus of Siam, a popular Thai restaurant off the strip.
Dude, they don't hold back the spice. I had a northern Thai dish
with chicken and noodles and thought it was spicy.

Until I had Matt's dish which was also from northern Thailand. This was the
epitome of spice but was also delicious! Highly recommend the restaurant!

So one of the restaurants we had bad luck at for dinner ended up having an
amazing brunch (Mon Ami Gabi)! This was Matt's breakfast of apple-topped waffles
with bacon and maple syrup. So good!

The final restaurant we ate at (and the other lackluster one)
was Searsucker. Our delicious appetizer consisted
of homemade biscuits, honey, and butter

And cookies and milk. Yes, the milk came with the cookies. They
were as amazing as they look.

And we finally got to try Sprinkle's cupcakes!

Our chocolate-vanilla cupcake was delicious :)

So there you have it, the reason I am spending a little bit more time working out than normal :P We definitely ate well and enjoyed many memorable meals!

I hope you enjoyed this recap and that it helped show there is far more to Vegas than gambling :)

Vegas: The Other Activities

Because the other posts were getting long, I decided to make a third post with other things we did. Yes, we fit in a lot in 1 week- I'm exhausted just typing all of it! :)

High Roller

Since 2014, Vegas has been able to boast that it has the tallest Ferris wheel in the world, standing at 550 feet tall. We went on a ride around 4 PM and ended up having an entire cabin to ourselves! The entire ride lasted for about 30 minutes and we were able to get a deal by purchasing the tickets online versus at the ticket office, so be sure to do that if you're going. The views were amazing and I definitely recommend it!

Super excited to have our own cabin!

Top Golf

While we do have Top Golfs in DFW, we had yet to do it together. Additionally, the one in Vegas had just opened a couple of weeks prior to our arrival, so it seemed like a great opportunity. Top Golf essentially combines golf with skee-ball-- you try to hit your ball into one of several targets down range. It is insanely fun, even for non-golfers like me!

Not a bad view!

Atomic Testing Museum 

I don't have too many pictures from this, but after we went to the Hoover Dam we went to the Atomic Testing Museum. Las Vegas is very close to the Nevada Test Site, so it was a natural location for this very interesting museum. It walks you through the history of atomic weapons and testing and has several interactive exhibits. We both really enjoyed it and would recommend it (look for a Groupon for admission- makes it that much cheaper). 

Have to know how to defend yourself from radioactive fallout while you're on the farm!

I promise, this is the last of the activity-related posts. But I hope you see how many different things there are to do in this city :)