Ingeborg in Atlanta

Today is Ingeborg's last day in Atlanta...until May!  We've had such a fantastic time. 

We flew back from Puerto Rico on a Friday and my parents picked us up at the airport.  They hadn't seen Ingeborg in ten years.  On the way home, we stopped by Ingeborg's new favorite grocery store, Whole Foods, where they have the best salad bar in the entire world (really).  Then, we met my good friend, Andria and my boyfriend, David, to head to see my favorite local coverband, Yacht Rock, play at a bar near me, Andrews Upstairs.  We reserved a table with waiter service and had a good view of the stage.

Saturday, we met my parents for brunch at a restaurant, Horseradish Grill,  (  http://www.horseradishgrill.com/ ),   that's close to my house and across from of my favorite parks and tennis centers, Chastain Park.  On the way home, we were driving through a residential neighborhood and stumbled across an "estate sale".  Maybe someone older had died because they were selling all of the family belongings (kind of erie).  The home was a mansion and on a large piece of land in Buckhead.  So that made for an interesting tour of the house.  After brunch, my parents dropped off my dog, Sam, and then left to travel home to North Carolina.  That evening, David, took us to a restaurant, Aria, in Buckhead.  http://www.aria-atl.com/   That's where he found out how addicted to chocolate Ingeborg really is.  We split an amazing bottle of red wine and Ingeborg and I both had pork tenderloin, shared some appetizers and enjoyed dessert as well.  

Sunday we stopped by for dinner at Houston's (where David and I frequently go) and then to the John Mellencamp concert at the Fox Theatre.  Great venue.  

Then it was back to work for me... Monday through Thursday.  Luckily though, almost my entire group works in Alabama and my manager was out on vacation.  Let's just say I didn't work a lot last week.   :)

Monday, we went out for sushi down the street from my apartment and Tuesday night, I came home to find a home cooked meal by Ingeborg!  I loved the bread she made and she even left me fresh flowers.  Andria was nice to take her out to lunch during the day as well.  That evening, we went to see the movie, Black Swan (very intense), and later to dessert at Cafe Intermezzo, the home of the largest cappuccino machine and an insane selection of desserts.  My friends and I learned early on that if you feed Ingeborg dessert, she's happy.  

I was extremely jealous of Ingeborg on Wednesday as I dropped her off at noon for a half spa day at my favorite spa - Natural Body Spa in Buckhead.  I had to go back to work!  She had a 90 minute massage, facial and soothing eye treatment.  She was nice enough to stop by a stationary store beneath the spa and bought me a recipe box to hold some of the recipes she's made during her visit.  Wednesday night after work, we headed to another part of town, Virginia-Highland, to meet my friend Jena at Pozole restaurant ( http://www.pozolerestaurant.com/ ) for dollar taco night...yum!  Thursday, Ingeborg spent some time at a nearby rock climbing gym and that evening, we went to a local painting studio to take a painting class with some of my friends.  We brought beer/wine and cupcakes for one of the girl's birthdays and we sat at large tables with an instructor up on a small stage in the front of the room.  There were two art teachers in our group and I have zero artistic ability.  Ingeborg faired better and now I have a nice piece of art (hers not mine) to put up on my wall.  

Friday was a great day because I didn't have to work and instead we went to visit my good friend Katie who has recently become a full time artist with a studio at her house.  After viewing some of her recent paintings, we all went together to get manicures/pedicures at my local nail salon.  Afterwards, we went to get bagels at Goldberg's Deli, a NY style Jewish deli in my part of town.   Ingeborg liked the bagels as much as she had the first time when visiting me in NY.

Friday evening was my favorite by far.  We went to see an Imax movie on cave exploration at a local museum, Fernbank, where they have an event, martinis and imax, every Friday night along with a jazz band.  Then, David picked us up and took us to another part of town, Decatur.  Decatur has a cute town square and a lot of great restaurants and bars.  We went to the best restaurant by far, Iberian Pig.  AMAZING.  ( http://www.iberianpigatl.com/index.php ).  We had spanish tapas (soooo good), sangria (lots) and after imbibing for a while, the waiter was nice to let us know the sangria had 18 percent alcohol content?!?!  Good thing Ingeborg also had a glass of wine and we all had more drinks throughout the night.  David had to work the next day and he told us later, "I felt like I was out with two wild women."  We went to Whiskey Blue at the W Hotel near me for martinis and then to a bar/club closer to me, The Ivy.  Ingeborg is a enthusiastic dancer and my boyfriend, David, had to keep close tabs on her so the throngs of men would leave her alone.  It was quite amusing but maybe not as much for her?   I woke up Saturday morning feeling a little rough and swore I'd never drink again.  Too bad it only took me 8 hours to change my mind.

Sunday, we had to take a cab and go get my car in Decatur as Ingeborg learned how getting around while drinking in Atlanta is kind of a pain.  It's a HUGE city made up of a lot of different neighborhoods and people are into having their own cars, not using public transportation.  I don't mind it except when I want to go out drinking in another part of town.  However after picking up my car, we swung by a popular brunch spot in the part of town, Poncey-Highland.  Ingeborg ordered pancakes which would probably have served four people in any other country.  For our last evening together, I planned for us to eat at Rosa Mexicano, the same Mexican restaurant we'd visited three years ago when she came to see me in New York (they have a few locations in the US).   After some amazing guacamole, tacos, rice and beans, we headed to the Woodruff Arts Center to meet some friends and see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra perform.  It was a terrific performance.  My friend, Chip, convinced us to head to an Irish bar near me and have a few drinks...we went for one drink to be social and called it a night.

Now, it's Sunday and we're about to head to the airport so Ingeborg can catch her flight to LA.  If you managed to read all of what we did, maybe you're as exhausted as I am?  I'm very sad to see Ingeborg go, but not that sad because I know she'll visit again in May.  Sometimes I can't believe how incredibly lucky I am that we've been friends for 17 years!  I know Sam is definitely going to miss her.

Safe travels to Ingeborg and Jorgen!  I hope you all have an amazing time in California. 

Molly

PS - I probably sound like a HUGE drinker, but I'm really not...I just know how to show my guests a good time.  ;)

Pictures from Puerto Rico

 Fish taco at Ritz-Carlton for lunch. Never had them before, but they are now one of my favorites!

 Pina Colado

 The view from the lobby at Ritz-Carlton

 Bathroom at Ritz - Nice hotel room :)

 The pool from our room

 Tapas at San Juan old town

 Breakfast :)

 Iguana

 "San Valentin", me and Molly got flowers and chocolate at the cafe in old San Juan

 Hehe, in a shop...

 Molly in old San Juan

 Streets in Old San Juan

 View from our hotel room at Caribe Hilton, the second place we stayed.

 The most amazing place to have yoga, at the beach under the palm trees.

 Molly and I went surfing, more pictures to come.

Molly made great been burritos with guacamole at our flat in Fajardo where we stayed the last week.

 We took a day trip out to an island and to go snorkeling.

 Snorkelig. See the difference between the experienced snorkler and the "landkrabbe" who thinks she is going to die.

 Want to buy?

 Kayaking trip to a bioluminescent bay. It was amazing, the water lightened up when we touched it.

 My good friend :)

 At a nice beach

Molly and Ingeborg exploring Puerto Rico

After spending 5 nights at these luxurious hotels near San Juan we have been driving around the island. San Juan was nice, we ate dinner at old San Juan for some nights and walked around. A very nice city, but it is like there as the rest of the Island hard to see everything because of the safety issues. You can tell that a lot of the Puerto Ricans don't have that much money and the difference from us as tourists and them becomes so big that there are places we cannot go. That is a little bit sad since my mission here is to figure out wy te Puerto Ricans are the happiest people on the planet! I will come back to that question another time.

So on the 16th we drove to Rincon and stayed at The lazy parrot inn. A very funny and nice place. We had dinner at their restaurant and I had one of te best fish meals I have ever had. It was fresh fish (Mahi Mahi) and mashed sweet potatoes, green beans- so good. Rincon is a surfer city for sure, and the morning Molly and I tried surfing for the first time. We waitied to get picked up by the instructor and this local surfer dude (liked women very much) came in this car that almost fell appart, it was hilarious. The door was kind of in two pieces, and no handle on the inside. I had a hard time closing the door :) The surfing was so much fun, although Molly did way better than me. Who would think you could get sea sick of surfing??? Apparently you can. I get car sick,train sick, sea sick and of course the surfing made me so sick after some time and I had to go to the beach. But I really liked it and will try it again another time. The rest of the day I spend trying to get better from me seasickness. Molly was such a good friend taking good care of me.

Molly drove in our awsome car, a Jeep Wrangler, to Ponce and Hilton golf and casino. We spend the night at the hotel with free drinks, free chocolate, free snacks aso! And this morning we lay out by the pool, and then went to Ponce. A very nice downtown with old buildings and more policemen then I have every seen. They were everywhere and there were like 500 of them. With a little exaggearting :) We had this local and very good coconut ice cream, and starting to drive to Fajardo. We make a very good team, me as a map reader and Molly as the driver. We have done very well so far.

Tonight we went to the grocery store and bought enough food for a family for a week. We are staying here at the appartment for a week, until we are headed back to Atlanta. Tomorrow we want to check out the beach.

As soon as I get a computer where I can download my pictures I will show them to you!

Good night from Molly and Ingeborg - enjoying life!!

Finally Puerto Rico

Molly and I got up early this morning to leave for the airport. We are now outside San Juan at a very nice hotel, Ritz-Carlton. My travelbook Lonely Planet says this about the hotel:

"Ritz equals posh, so you better pack the trendy slacks and bring along the platinum credit card before booking a night here. Decked out in expensive marbleand embellished with Alhambra-esque lionsthat line the path to the swimming pool, this is San Juan at its swankiest and a favorite hangout for visiting celebreties...."

No, I have not won the lottery, unfortunately. It is my good friend Molly that spend her hotel points on our trip. We are stayinga t this hotel until Sunday, and are then moving closer to the old city at Hilton.

Today we arrived in the afternoon, we have spend some time at the pool and had a nice drink. Now we are dressing up to go to old San Juan and have tapas. Tomorrow we will stay at the beach, and next week we will start exploring the city a little more. Then on wednesday we will start driving around the island and hopefully I will try surfing. We are planning to spend 2 days on this tour, and then the last week we will stay at an appartment in Fajardo which we have rented!

Solhilsen fra Ingeborg

Reiserute

Endelig nærmer turen seg for min del, etter mye pakking både i koffert og ut av leiligheten. For Jørgen sin del står det igjen en måned med MYE arbeid før han drar. Her kommer reiseruten vår:

10.02: Trondheim - Atlanta (Ingeborg)
11.02: Atlanta - San Juan (Molly og Ingeborg)
25.02: San Juan - Atlanta (Molly og Ingeborg)
06.02: Los Angeles - Trondheim (Jørgen), Los Angeles - Atlanta (Ingeborg)
28.04: Los Angeles - Mexico City (Jørgen og Ingeborg)
29.04: Mex - Havanna
13.05: Havanna - Mex
14.05: Mex - LA
14.05: LA - Atlanta (Ingeborg)
15.04: LA - Trondheim (Jørgen)
24.05: Ingeborg flyr til Trondheim, kommer frem 25.05 sent på kvelden.

I morgen tidlig går flyet mitt, bare å pakket siste rest nå!