this past weekend i had the opportunity to go to anza borrego state park with my environmental interpretation class. we camped at the agua caliente campground and spent 3 days exploring as much of anza borrego as we could. since the main focus of our trip was interpretation, we spent time with interpretive guides and rangers learning about the rich native american history in the anza borrego desert. we visited kumeyaay villages and pictographs and imagined how they used to live. we learned about the plants and animals that thrive in the desert climate, how they survive and why they are important to environment. we even went mud caving through naturally formed caves that were created by water flowing through a thick deposit of silt! overall, i had such a fantastic time learning about the desert, bonding with my classmates and spending time in the great outdoors. i realized how much i miss camping and i can't wait to start doing it more!

a little info about the park: anza borrego is about 2 1/2 hours east of san diego and is a state park located within the colorado desert of southern california. the park gets its name from 18th-century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, the spanish word for bighorn sheep. with 600,000 acres, anza-borrego is the largest state park in california and the second largest in the continental united states. the park occupies eastern san diego county and reaches into imperial and riverside counties.

adventure // palm springs girls weekend

this past weekend i jetted out to palm springs for the night with two of my best girlfriends.  we had a fantastic lunch at matchbox in downtown palm springs, complete with yummy cocktails and lots of laughs.  we headed to the ace hotel for some pool time and relaxation.  it was the perfect afternoon - the sun was out, the djs were playing awesome reggae and laid back music, the drinks were refreshing and it wasn't so crowded you couldn't move.  after hours at the pool, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner and start our night out on the town.  i had such a great time with my girls that i don't get to see nearly as often as i would like.  it was so great to just relax and catch up with everything that is going on in our lives.  i'm already looking forward to the next time we can get together.

some helpful hints if you're headed to palm springs:

- if you don't want to spend $300 a night in peak season, book a room at a motel for less (we stayed at the vagabond inn for $60) and head to a nicer hotel for the day and to take advantage of their pool.  the ace will issue a pool and spa pass for the day for $20 and during the weekdays, you can use the saguaro's pool at no cost.  

- ask the locals where to eat and drink.  they know places that are less "touristy" and probably easier on your wallet.  we got lucky when we chatted with our waitress at lunch and she recommended a couple great places to eat and to have drinks.  

- if you don't want to stay in the middle of the action and are looking to really get away and relax, there are great hotels and resorts in palm desert and indio that offer quiet and relaxing atmospheres to allow you to escape the loud and rowdy pool parties at some of the "cooler" hotels in palm springs.

tourist tuesdays: australia!

hi guys! today i have a great tourist tuesday post all about australia from an australia based rental car company.  now, i know most of you don't live in australia, but i thought it might be fun to dream a little bit this tourist tuesday.  australia is at the top of my must travel list and ive been itching to go explore down under since a couple of my friends studied abroad there.  reading about some cool places to check out just makes me want to go visit even more!  

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How to Make the Most of Your Australian Adventure

There is no denying Australia is one of the most exciting and inspirational travel destinations any of us could ever wish to visit. At the same time, getting around such a huge country and being able to take in all of the great sights around Australia is a daunting task.

We looked at how to make sure you make the most of a trip to Australia, so that you visit all of the great locations, eat in amazing restaurants, and enjoy friendly and welcoming accommodation.

Pick Your Poison

Before you head to Australia, you quite simply have to have some idea of where you want to go and the places you want to see. If your trip Down Under is imminent, then you could perhaps use our suggestions as a guide. Ideally, you want to know where you’re going, where you’re staying, and where you plan to eat, but leave a little time in between everything so that you can do a little exploration of your own.

We decided to stick to the east coast, and have put together a simple itinerary based around a stay in Sydney before heading north to Brisbane.

In Sydney

Sydney is Australia’s biggest and most popular tourist city. There is so much to do inside and outside of the city that you are spoiled for choice. Check out Bondi Beach if you wish to, and perhaps even take in a surfing lesson, before heading west to the Blue Mountains.

Here, enjoy a guided tour of the area by an Aboriginal guide, and if you get the opportunity to eat ‘bush food’ or traditional fare, and camp overnight with a local tribe, we recommend you grab it with both hands.

If you head back into Sydney, stay at the ‘Wake Up!’ hotel. Although budget and no-frills, it is clean, comfortable, and in a great place in the centre of the city. Eat at Chat Thai on the edge of Thai Town, or find one of Sydney’s several Chinatown areas and find a great ‘all you can eat’ buffet restaurant.

Travelling North

Campervan hire is a must for this trip. It is ‘only’ a ten hour drive, so achievable in a day, but that leaves no time for stopping off at great beaches or friendly villages on the way. Look to have a two or three day lease on a campervan so that you can explore the best coastline as well as the beautiful woodland a little further inland, with dozens of forests and national parks located along the route.

In Brisbane

When you get to Brisbane, your activities are likely to be all about the beach, so we’ll focus on the great places to stay and eat.

Situated in the centre of the city, ‘Bunk Backpackers’ is an amazing hostel offering free drinks and breakfast included in the price. If you are looking elsewhere, however, then Ortiga is a great Spanish restaurant that is nearby, and offers a range of menu options from cheap and cheerful – yet very tasty – up to gourmet and very expensive options.

Planning your Australian adventure is easy, and whether you are headed to Sydney and Brisbane or elsewhere in the country, it will help to make your trip easy and stress-free, giving you the time you need to relax and enjoy yourself.

This article is written by Transfercar, a car rental Australia service, providing travellers free transport for major cities in Australia.
This is not a sponsored post. I was not compensated for posting this article.

tourist tuesdays: san diego with sam!

hello friends! i'm so excited to have a fellow so cal girl here to share all about one of my favorite places with you, san diego!  sam is one of my wonderful sponsors and like she will mention, her and i are super new blog buddies, but i can already tell from this post that she (and her hubs!) like to have fun.  hey sam, maybe next time i can join you guys on your sd adventures?! whatcha think about that??

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Whoa, hello everybody! I'm Sam and I blog over at The Ellison Family Expansion Plan. (I couldn't think of a longer title.) So, I'm going to be honest here and tell you that Kelsey and I are still in the super-new, getting-to-know-you phase of bloggy buddiness. I mean, I knew that she's a SoCal girl, but it wasn't until just now that I realized that she lives in Orange County, just 20 minutes from where I live. (Surprise!)

When Kelsey offered up a Tourist Tuesday spot, I jumped on it. I thought about where I would write about... I could tell you about my home town in Ohio, but meh. I thought about maybe Cleveland? But no, I really don't know a whole lot about Cleveland, even though I spent 18 years an hour away from it. I love San Francisco, but have only been there twice. I could share with you the cool stuff to do in Orange County, but I don't really do a whole lot of cool things here in Orange County. So, knowing that Kelsey has shared about San Diego many times here on her blog, I dug around to see if my potential Tourist Tuesday post would be redundant. Luckily, I didn't find any of what I wanted to share with you guys, so I'm gonna hop to it.

So, Saaaahn Deeahhgo. My husband, Jamie, and I have spent quite a bit of time in San Diego. More specifically, the Gaslamp District. It's our favorite near-home weekend or just overnight getaway. Unfortunately, traffic on a late Friday afternoon (which is when we usually head down) is usually pure crap. Fortunately, we take the Amtrak train down. It's perfect. The cost of our tickets is about the same as gas and parking if we were to drive, it only takes about an hour and 15 minutes, and the train sells beer.

Another bonus to riding the train is that a good portion of the ride is along the ocean!

Once we arrive, we grab a cab and head to our hotel. (Our two favorites being Omni and Hotel Indigo.) After unloading, we'll head off to any number of places. I'm here to hopefully not-too-lengthily tell what those places are... in no particular order.

First, The Field.

Now, I've never been to Ireland, so I can't really say how authentic this place is... but I can say that it's the most authentic-feeling Irish pub I've ever visited. Just about everything in this place has been brought over from Ireland. It's dark and looks like it should be a little musty with wooden booths and little tables and stools squeezed in every available nook. The decor is dusty farming gear that hangs from the walls as well as shelves crammed full of antique-looking jugs, bottles, plates, and other things. They offer fantastic traditional Irish fare and make the best Irish coffee I've ever had with the cream being whipped by hand in a metal bowl. The Guinness are always accurately poured.

The best beginning-of-the-night pizza can be found at Basic.

While a little pricey, the pizza is delicious and huge. They bring it out to you on a tray. Basic is a lofty and trendy looking place that seemingly offers a great nightlife, but we've honestly never stuck around to check it out. That may have to go on our to-do list.

Probably our most frequented bar in Gaslamp would have to be The Tipsy Crow.

Tipsy Crow earned by love by offering a grilled cheese board.

A combination of 2 basic grilled cheese sandwiches with a shot of Blue Cheese Fondue & Tomato Basil Bisque. Choose from Cheddar, Fontina, Gruyere or Muenster on French White or Malted Brown Wheat

Uhm. YES.

Tipsy Crow has maintained by love by constantly offering a superb selection of craft brew both on draft and in a bottle/can. It also helps that this place has games! Fun games, both big and small. They offer shuffleboard, 4-player Pac-Man, a pool table, and a foosball table. Along with those, the booth seating offers huge checkers and huge connect-four.

However, probably the most valuable of assets afforded by Tipsy Crow is variety. When you walk in, you walk into a bar, but there's more! Downstairs they have another bar in a room that either hosts comedy nights or dancing. But then there's also upstairs. Upstairs has yet another bar and is stuffed with puffy leather couches and chairs. One would expect it to smell of rich mahogany, which it doesn't, but it does have many leather bound books that spectate the pool table.

Our favorite end-of-the-night spot is a quick trip to Ciro's Pizza to take back to the hotel (well, given that we hadn't eaten at Basic and still had leftovers.)

Apparently this place also has a great selection of beer on draft, but to be honest, I've never dined in. I've only ever grabbed a slice at the end of the night, usually kinda drunk. Yikes. BUT. It's perfect. It's just perfect at that point of my night.

So, this post has gotten really long, so I suppose I'll wrap it up. I could easily go on to day two of our San Diego adventures, but maybe I'll save that for another time.

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ahhh, makes me want to hop on the train and head to sd right this minute!  thanks so much for sharing sam!  i can't wait for all my readers to get to know you and your wonderful blog more

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tourist tuesdays: big sur with ashley & a giveaway!

hi guys! i'm so happy to be back with tourist tuesdays and to introduce to you one of my fellow so cal bloggers today, who also happens to be a huge travel fan like me.  and it doesn't hurt that she's absolutely hilarious and beautiful!  plus, she's sharing one of my favorite spots on the west coast with you (which just so happens to be her favorite too!)  we are pretty much soul mates, this girl and i.  and just when you thought it couldn't get any better ... she's giving away ad space too! woo!  

so hurry up and read all about this beautiful california treasure, then enter to win another treasure! 

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Hey, Eat Drink & Be a Tourist readers! My name is Ashley and i'm excited to share with you my favorite spot:

yes, that IS a waterfall spilling onto the beach

Big Sur, CA!

I first discovered Big Sur on a road trip with my best friend and then fiance. it was our last spring break together, so we decided to go out in style! we traveled up Pacific Coast Highway the entire time- enjoying the rolling hills and mountains to the east and the great, expansive pacific ocean to the west.

we even found our wedding location, randomly, while stopping to pee (; although, on our wedding day, it was super foggy and the view up the coast was obstructed...

whodathought we'd be back here in 6 months getting married?!

we camped, we hiked, we floated down the freezing cold big sur river... it was a trip for the books, i tell ya. one that always pops into my head around this time of year when it's still just a little cold to venture out in the redwoods, but warm enough to brave the isolation before the summer crowds.

best seat in the house. house = america.

and now that i've shared with you my favorite spot

i'd like to also share what is sure to be your favorite spot:

a sidebar ad on my blog!

i know, you're thrilled.. so enter below, will ya?!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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thanks so much for sharing all about big sur, ash!  i'm ready for a road trip up the coast now!  how about we get an old vw van and hit the road?  

and good luck to you all with the giveaway!

tourist tuesdays: south korea with chelsea!

hi guys! i'm excited to have a great guest blogger here today for tourist tuesdays.  i love reading all about all your favorite places around the world and i so enjoy lending my blog as a place for you travelers to do it.  i'm so happy to introduce you all to chelsea and have her share some of her favorite things about south korea!

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Hey guys! I’m Chelsea and I blog over at Lost in Travels. I am so excited to be here on Kelsey’s blog today for Tourist Tuesdays! I currently live in South Korea with my husband where I teach adorable little Korean kids English. We decided to move to Korea soon after we got hitched and the call to travel and experience the world was greater than the call to settle down in our hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’ve been here for just under two years now and have loved the opportunity that we’ve had to live here and travel abroad. 

I realize that when you hear South Korea, it doesn’t exactly go straight on your vacation bucket list. But after living on a small island off the southern coast of Korea for the last two years, I’ve grown to love it. Korea has such beautiful scenery and the people really take advantage of this seeing as how the majority of the attractions are related to the outdoors. Some of my favorite things on the island are: 

Oedo Island: 

Oedo is an island that rests just off the coast of our island of Geoje. A husband and wife bought it years ago and turned it into one huge botanical garden that comes alive in the spring and summer. This is actually one of the few places my husband and I haven’t yet been to. We are patiently waiting for not only better weather (long boat ride plus windy island in the cold…no thanks) but also for my parents to come this spring since my mom is a slight flower nut. 

Yacht Club: 

Heading to the local yacht club has been one of our favorite past times when the weather is nice. You can rent day sailors for only $30/2 hours or kayaks for $15/2 hours. We’ve been sailing a few times but I’ve learned the hard way that only my husband should steer since every time I’ve tried, we’ve immediately gone overboard. I’ll sick with the kayaks, which is fine by me. We usually follow the coast and around the bend to a few untouched beaches and relax there before heading back. 

Windy Hill: 

Another popular spot on the island is called Windy Hill. It’s pretty self-explanatory from the name. It’s a huge hill that jets out into the ocean with a gorgeous windmill that sits upon it. We loved going out there because not only is the view of the windmill set against the backdrop of the ocean gorgeous but there are also beautiful jutting rocks and cliffs that surround that area that are great for some cliff jumping. 

Shabu shabu: 

Since we’ve lived in Korea, we have fallen in love with the local cuisine. Our favorite by far has been a dish called Shabu Shabu, translated it means ‘swish swish’. The server brings out a boiling pot of broth and sets it on a burner in the middle of the table. They then add various vegetables and bring out sides of raw meat, rice paper and vegetables. With chopsticks you pick up a piece of the raw meat and swish it in the boiling broth, which will cook it within seconds. You then add it to the rice paper, topping it off with one of the various sauces and other veggies, roll it up like a burrito and enjoy!  

Like I said before, we have loved living on our little island in Korea and look forward to possibly another year or two abroad and the adventures that it will inevitably bring. Stop by the blog and say hi, I would love to hear from you!

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thanks so much for sharing, chelsea!

be sure to stop by her blog and say hi.

if you'd like to be a part of my tourist tuesdays series, 

send me an email.  i'd love to have you!!