I Heart NY

New York City is one of my favorite cities in the world. I went for a quick weekend last October to celebrate my friend Margaux's 21st birthday, but a weekend in NYC is just a tease! I'd like to go back again sometime soon. I'm a strange person who finds cities (the larger, the better) to be incredibly calming, and I'm in need of some big city calming in my life! I've been in a small town with no trips for too long (no, Salt Lake does not count as a big city)!

Oh hey, look at us, not looking like tourists at all...

Also, I really want some cupcakes. And no one does cupcakes like New York.

Keeping the Roads Hot

So, I realized the other day that I haven't remained in a single state in nearly a year (and I will be going a full year without staying in one state since I have travel plans through January). I thought it'd be fun to relive my travels a bit and preview those to come!

November 2011

Indiana and California

December 2011

Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and California

January 2012

Florida and California

February 2012 (my only one-state month!)

California

March 2012

North Carolina, Georgia and California

April 2012

Indiana, Michigan and California

May 2012

Indiana, Michigan and California

June 2012

Oregon and California

July 2012

Oregon, California, Georgia, France and United Kingdom

August 2012

California, Indiana, Georgia and United Kingdom

September 2012

California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah

October 2012

Utah and New York

November 2012

Utah and Colorado

December 2012

Utah, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida

January 2013

Florida, Arizona and Utah

My Recent Life in Photos

New bedroom with a new duvet cover!

My first piece of IKEA furniture ever.

Another IKEA item that also caused me to throw out my back.

Sporting 2006 Olympic-wear to work

Mountain life

Wandering Park City's Main Street...what ski resort are you trying to find?

New World Trade Center building in NYC

Bright Uggs!

Still the best vanilla cupcake I've ever had!

Cupcakes for Margaux's 21st!

Taking notes in colored Sharpies makes life a little brighter.

Repping the U.S. Ski Team

Absentee ballot!

Nice day in Salt Lake City

More delicious NYC cupcakes!

Gotta work out since I enjoyed all those cupcakes!

Mountain morning

Hot air balloons by the office

My first Utah rainbow

AWOLNATION with Korey and Ashley

Delicious, overpriced cookies.

Truth.

Greetings from 30,000 Feet: Part 3

Check out Part 1 and Part 2!

When I got on my laptop the next day, I saw an email in response to a job I had applied for at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. I had applied on a whim after Karen had sent the job description to me, figuring there was no way I’d get a job there since I wasn’t exactly an expert on skiing and snowboarding. But, they wanted to interview me! So, I emailed them back, detailing my travel schedule and when I could talk. I ended up having my first interview in San Diego airport the next day, since I’d opted to head home to Indiana for a week after London with my newly open schedule.

Side note: I got upgraded to BusinessElite on Delta on my flight home from London. BEST. FLIGHT. EVER. After drinking my welcome champagne, I read a newspaper they provided me with, had a four-course meal with an ice cream sundae bar and a flight attendant constantly refilling my wine glass, watched several movies and slept in my lie-flat seat. They also provided me with a down comforter, amenity kit (with sleep mask, ear plugs, toiletries, etc.) and noise cancelling headphones. Awesome!

My first interview went well, but I was still skeptical about how qualified I was for the position, so I kept applying for jobs and applied for unemployment benefits.

Lo and behold, shortly after I applied for unemployment benefits, they called and offered me the job!

So, the first order of business upon returning to San Diego (well, other than getting a nice tan before heading to the mountains) was arranging everything because I was moving to Park City, Utah!

I was rather skeptical about moving to Utah (I’m noticing the word “skeptical” a lot here…but hey, it all worked out) because I’d never been north of I-70 in that state (and that was just when I was driving from Colorado to San Diego). Everything south of I-70 is desert and there’s very little population to be seen. Still, everyone insisted that Salt Lake City was a “real city,” so I went for it.

I moved to a city I’d never seen.

Even for me, that was a bit of a leap of faith! I’ve moved plenty of times…last time, I’d only been to San Diego once and that was for the job interview. But sight unseen when I could possibly end up living there for years? This was definitely a first for me.

Mom flew out and made the drive to Park City with me in a VERY packed car. I didn’t take anything that wouldn’t fit in my car, although Karen did ship a few small things to me.

And so far, Park City is treating me well!

Work is going well. The people I work with are excellent and very friendly. The mountain landscapes are gorgeous. I found an amazing place to stay with two roommates who seem like they’ll be a good match. And, of course, it’s all at a fraction of San Diego rental costs!

Now, I’m on a plane headed to New York City for the weekend. Tonight, I’m hanging out with my Uncle Jeff and exploring parts of the city that I haven’t seen (since last time I was there, I didn’t leave Manhattan except to go to the airport). Tomorrow, I’m celebrating my friend Margaux’s 21^st birthday! I fly back to SLC on Monday night.

Phew. There’s the lowdown on my life. And all it took was a 4.5-hour plane ride to get it out of me :)

Thanks for following and thanks for listening…hope you all enjoy the randomness that is the life of Riley!

30 Questions: 5 Happy Things

What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?

My family

The fact that I may be going to NYC in two weeks for this girl's 21st birthday!

Possibilities and what my future holds

Photography

Ski season! Both for work AND so I can start mastering snowboarding!

On the Road

Over the last couple of weeks, it seems like travel has come up a LOT.  So, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite travel experiences...

French Stereotype Night at Le Tour Eiffel

Studying abroad in Paris was a phenomenal experience over all, but obviously there were lots of little events that stood out while I was there.  "French Stereotype Night" was one of the first of many of our outings to the Eiffel Tower. On this particular night, we befriended a pair of Moroccans and practiced our French with them (they had initially tried to charge us to use their wine opener to open our bottles of wine), posed with berets and the French flag (see above) and had lots of wine and cheese. It was a great bonding experience for our little group of Americans!

European Public Transportation/The Munich Incident

Subways are awesome. Yes, I know New York City has an awesome subway system, too.  But the awesome thing with the London and Paris transportation (not just subways, but train networks, as well) systems is that you can get within walking distance of anywhere you need to go without ever having to use a car. Okay, maybe not absolutely everywhere...but you can get pretty damn close.

Oddly enough, my first time in Europe, I had a pretty bad experience with the Munich U-Bahn (subway).  When rushing to grab the train before it left with my school group, I happened to be running the fastest...and was the only one to make it onto the train before the doors closed. Since I was not running this tour and it was our first night in town, I had no idea where we were going or how to get around the city, nor did I speak a word of German (except for sheiße, which probably wouldn't have gotten me far). Ultimately, I did end up finding my group (which included my grandma...she was pretty relieved when I got back) after experiencing some more colorful areas of Munich. I definitely learned some very important things about traveling: always know your hotel's name, and always know where you're going!

My love of European public transportation is kind of ridiculous...I even made a little video of my study abroad experiences with the Paris Metro.  If you're clever, you might be able to find it on YouTube somewhere.

Trunk Bay, St. John, USVI

Most. Beautiful. Beach. Ever.  After returning from a few trips to Europe, I got a little bit of a big head...why would anyone vacation somewhere so close to home (I lived in Florida for a few years, so the Caribbean seemed WAY too close to be considered a vacation)?  Still, my parents wanted to visit the US Virgin Islands because my mom had lived there for awhile when she was fresh out of college. So, we went...and I fell in love, quickly deflating my little travel ego I had developed. Soft, super white sand...crystal clear water that seemed even cleaner than most pools...a coral reef just a short swim away... It really is the perfect beach destination.

Magnolia Bakery, New York City

If you know me, then you probably know of my love for cupcakes. It rivals my love for European public transportation, although I have yet to make any videos about cupcakes.  The vanilla-vanilla cupcake at Magnolia is still the best cupcake I have ever had in my life. I'm sincerely hoping that the recent news of Magnolia starting a franchise results in two things: 1. delicious Magnolia cupcakes close to me and 2. loyalty to the original, so amazing recipe. Seriously, guys...go eat these cupcakes.  They're so good that I made Josh wake up at 6am with me on Easter Sunday (our last day in NYC) so that we could trek across town (the subway stations nearby were closed) and buy a dozen to take home. 

More travel memories to come...