A super-speed tour of Italy

My last post detailed how we got around to so many great places in Italy now I am ready to talk about each of them.  This post hopefully won't upset my stomach the way the last one did, though it might hurt my heart since I can't go back anytime soon.
We drove from Venice to Cinque Terre, this is a series of 5 small fishing towns along the west coast of Italy.  It is more towards the northern part of Italy, almost directly west of Venice and about a hour north of Pisa and a couple hours from Florence.  Most importantly it is amazing.  It is featured in Rick Steve's guide books which means it is now more of a tourist stop for Americans than small fishing towns but it hasn't lost its charm.  There are a few things that make this place special.  They are in a national park so it is not overly developed.  The towns are all small and sit right on the ocean or on cliffs overlooking the ocean.  The best part is that they are all connected by several different hiking trails or if you prefer a quick train ride.  So John and I were staying in the southern village of Riomaggiore and we had rented for 2 nights a big apartment right on the cliff over the water.  We had a kitchen and even better a huge balcony all to ourselves where we could eat and watch the sunset.  We took the train to the Northern town of Monterosso and then hiked our way back south.  We had to take the train in between 2 towns because one of the trails was washed out.  For one portion of the hike we also went up in to the vineyard covered hills and hiked, rather than staying on the coast the whole time.  The hikes were hard enough to give you a work out but not to ruin the fun of what you were seeing.  It truly is incredible and you could spend a week there just hiking through the hillsides and visiting the towns.  Each town is charming in its own unique way and full of colored houses and blue water.  It was probably our favorite part of the trip and we have to go back.
Then we started our car ride to Rome which included a stop in Pisa and a drive through Tuscany.  Pisa really is so much more than the leaning tower, which is really cool.  The tower is in the middle of a fortress built to protect the city.  Within the walls you have the tower but also several other buildings that served as things like an armory and church.  They are all so gorgeous and the town seemed small and charming as a whole, once again I wish we would have had longer.
Instead of taking the interstate the whole way to Rome we drove through an area described generally as a highlight of Tuscany.  The area we were in is called like Umbria or Chianti, it is mainly this road called the SR222 that takes you from the highway near Florence through the countryside and then we got back on the highway after Siena.  It is full of hilltop towns/castles and little towns that you can stop and eat and shop in.  We stopped for lunch in a town called Castellina In Chianti, as you can imagine their main wine was Chianti so we had to get a bottle for later.  We were probably the only people at lunch not drinking wine, since we were driving, but we did have a great meal that included a boar sausage pasta that was to die for.  John hadn't had much meat the past couple days, so he said, and ordered a kabob type thing with 3 kinds of pork.  I would say he covered his meat deficiency there.  My stomach was so upset, probably from the car stresses, that my delicious meal couldn't be enjoyed as much as I would have liked.  If you go to Tuscany it is best to have a car and it is one of the few places were people would recommend it.  There really isn't a great means of public transportation for getting to these little countryside towns and part of the fun is just stopping on a whim and checking them out.  On a side note you might be suprised to learn that roadside prostitution is a big problem on these country roads.  They basically take a van full of girls and drop them off along the road with a plastic lawn chair to sit in and then at the end of the day pick them back up.  Strange and sad but we tried to overlook it.
We had to move pretty quickly to get to Rome where we turned in our rental car and took the train in to the city.  We had a great room in Rome right on Piazza Nova with a window over looking the bustling streets.  It is a major nightlife area but we were so tired and busy most days that we didn't really take advantage of it.  One restaurant we wanted to eat at had a 3 hour wait so we just wandered around and tried random spots.  The great thing about dinner in Italy is you can get a bottle of house wine for like 4 bucks and sit there all night drinking and eating.  Rome was John's least favorite stop only because of the crowds and difficulty getting around.  We were there on a weekend and it was overrun with people and as always hot.  We were probably to worn out from the crowds to really enjoy a lot of what we saw after 10 AM.  We also made the mistake of going to the Colosseum right after lunch, which involved some beers and 2 pizzas.  That meant we were full, sluggish and hot, bad combo.  I forced John around the city at lightening speed and we managed to see most major attractions in one day, no wonder he was tired.  The night before we had gone to the Vatican on a special Friday night tour.  In the summer on Friday nights you can reserve a ticket to see the Vatican which is really cool because it isn't hot or crowded at that time.  I love the Vatican and John thought it was cool too even after getting in trouble for taking pictures in the Sistine Chapel.
Well that was Italy at a glance, some cities and some countryside.  I think we are more countryside folks but now that we can check some of the tourist attractions off our list we can spend more time exploring the outlying regions on our next trip.  I would like to see every inch of Italy basically.

Stick Shift and Panic Attacks!!!

So I am writing 2 days in a row, I know what you are thinking, "she is going to burn out" but I will try to stay strong.  I also apologize for my totally incorrect coma use, I use them whenever I feel like it, not so much based on correct writing rules.
When I left off we were running through the Venice airport trying to make up time for oversleeping.  We got our rental car with no major problems and ran to our car, all this running now seems a little unnecessary but was very dramatic and important at the time.  When I was reserving a rental car I confirmed with John that he could drive a stick, they are about $200 cheaper than automatics so you could see why I was leaning towards the manual.  He never actually owned a car with manual transmission but had learned the basics along the way and said we would be fine.  I on the other hand have no experience with a stick so I was betting he wouldn't become incapacitated and I would have to drive.  We get to our cute little Fiat, throw in our bags and prepare to take off.  John puts the car in drive and off we go, by go I mean we slammed forward but didn't actually drive off anywhere.  Basically it was like we went head first in to wall but there was nothing in front of us.  No one panic lets try this again and again and again, OK now we are panicking.  Thank goodness no one was parked in front of our car.  So I suggest maybe he needs to do something with the clutch, though I have no clue what.  He agrees and after pushing in the clutch off we go.  I am trying to work the GPS and John is screaming about where he should be going and this sets the tone for most of our road trip through Italy.  If you are fluent with a manual than by all means you will have a smooth road trip through Italy, otherwise, get an automatic.  Everyone there drives a stick so it isn't a big deal to them to get close to other cars, make frequent stops, or go uphill, for us all of these things proved very challenging.  We had a plan to drive to Cinque Terre, which is the opposite coast of Italy, and along the way stop in Parma or Bologna for lunch.  As both of these names indicate they are home to some delicious food.  We get to Bologna around lunch time with no major issues and had a smooth ride on the interstate.  There was beautiful weather, scenery, and our IPod music bumpin.  As soon as we get off the interstate in Bologna we realize we have made a huge mistake.  Keep in mind along the way John has informed me that he is not good at stopping and starting and if we come to a stop on a hill we are screwed.  So as we enter Bologna and are following the GPS to our lunch destination we realize it will be one stop light after another, very bad.  We kill the engine so many times John informs me that he thinks we were burning out the clutch, who knew that could happen so fast.  We received many honks and angry looks but I was more concerned about John's face of panic every time someone would get to close to the back of us and then we would kill it and have to start again.  The place we were going to eat at happened to be down a small hill so we were going to have to improvise on the parking.  We ended up parking in front of a small fruit stand just off the road and the bystanders gave us some strange looks but we decided to just go with it, we only had an hour to eat.  After walking on foot for 10 minutes looking for the restaurant, we got it in our sites but realized there was no way we would have time to eat and get to our hotel by 5 and had to abandon ship.  I felt like those people that climb 95% of Mt. Everest and have to turn back because of weather.  We are still slightly bummed about this part of the trip but it was the cost of over sleeping.  Back in the car we go and we just needed to reverse out of our spot and hit the road, we would worry about food later.  Panic Attack #2, reversing.  After several attempts to get the car in reverse we had yet to go backwards.  We were also attempting to back up in to a busy street so this only added to the panic with each attempt.  I told John that I had heard my mom say to my sister when she was learning to drive a stick how it can be tricky getting the car in to the R gear so even though he had given up hope and thought we would be spending the night in our car in front of the fruit stand, he gave it another try.  Sure enough we were off, if we got killed in oncoming traffic it didn't matter we were going.  I can only imagine what that fruit stand owner was thinking.  We were both annoyed we had wasted 45 minutes in a town that wasn't made for our driving and getting out wasn't going to be easy.  John was terrified we were going to have to go uphill to get out of the city but God worked a miracle and we made it out of there alive.  So was our life in the car, on the highways we were smooth sailing and happy, in the cities we were sweating and screaming. 
We decided due to time and driving constraints to get lunch at this gas station type place they have all along the highways, it was not impressive but it did the trick.  Ordering was a challenge because this place is in the middle of no where and English isn't their forte.  They did pump our gas for us which was good since we had no clue how to even open the tank.  Italy does have beautiful countryside and I would drive through it for weeks, in an automatic of course. 
So we make it to Cinque Terre 30 minutes before our check in time and drive down a huge hill on a one lane street to the check in office.  The hotel directions said to do this but they acted surprised that we had driven in and told us we had to move right away.  One problem, the hill, I informed the desk clerk that there was no way my husband was getting that car up that hill and so she had her assistant drive the car up, another miracle.  I will tell you all about Cinque Terre in the next post but I am going to skip ahead to our next part of the road trip.  It is making my stomach hurt just talking about it again.  I can't tell you how many times in the car John would say "we are screwed, we are never getting out of here."
Our car is parked at the top of the hill but in a small garage in a tight space that we have to navigate out of and then we get to a gate that only residents can open so we have to wait for someone to open the gate for us.  A nice lady comes and opens the gate for us but of course we killed the car so then she comes to our window wondering why we didn't go.  She gives us a very annoyed second chance and we manage to take off.  So begins the screaming and stress of navigating when John won't stop the car.  This means that I have to tell him where to go way ahead of time without actually having a clue.  Stop signs mean nothing to us because we avoid stopping at all costs.  We had several stops planned between Cinque Terre and Rome but I had already decided that list was going to have to be scaled way back, based on our driving limitations and time.  I knew there was no way we were going to get close to Florence with our no stopping or hills restriction so Florence was abandoned, which we probably wouldn't have had time for anyway.  Our first stop was Pisa, which is a smaller town so slightly less stressful.  I will talk of my love for Pisa and Tuscany in another post.  Then we head towards the small country roads of Tuscany.  It was definitely less stressful than the cities but had several near death moments.  We chose our stops based on level parking spots we could get in and out of and lack of hills. 
The final stop we were going to make before Rome was in Siena. We get off the interstate and realize that Siena is in one of these awful places called cities. You know with all the stop lights and traffic. To make matter worse the city center is on a large hill, you guessed it we had to abandon ship. John hated to disappointment me but he said this was not going to work. My stomach by this point is so upset from all the car panic attacks that I was more than happy to skip it. The problem we encountered trying to get out of Siena were millions of roundabouts. The first one we came to was on a hill so we needed the roundabout to be empty so we could enter it without stopping on the hill. That meant we had to do one u-turn after another illegally until we got our chance. For the next 500 roundabouts we would just scream at the top of our lungs and go for it because stopping or stalling out in the roundabout wasn't an option. I wish we had a camera in the car. It is funny now but traumatic all at the same time. Finally we made it to Rome's airport to drop off our car. I wasn't worried about filling up the tank just getting the thing turned in. The whole way to the airport was interstate and I had very detailed directions printed off so it went smoothly but then of course our return area had to be on the 4th floor of the garage. That is right, uphill! Between floor 2 and 3 we almost stalled out and risked a roll back collision but John got er done and made it in to the first available spot. I have never been so relieved in all my life. Goodbye tolls, gas, stick shifts, and my insides. I don't want to discourage anyone from renting a car in Italy. We loved the freedom, the countryside, and it was actually easy to navigate, just make sure you avoid busy cities and know how to drive a stick.

Italy, the land that I love!

Ok, so once again you thought I gave up on my blog but really I am just trying to weed out any casual readers by only writing 3 times a year.  It is not that I am to busy at work to write it is more a lack of motivation and feeling overwhelmed by how far behind I have gotten.  Heaven forbid I skip any weekend of my life, I feel compelled to keep everything in chronological order and when so much fun stuff is happening it is hard to stay current.  For that reason I will try to do some quick summaries of my life from May through Sept.  Most of these adventures take place with John so I should say "our" lives.

So we left off in Paris...  John and I took a 5 Am flight from Paris to Venice and since dinner doesn't end until midnight we were totally worn out when we arrived in Venice.  I was convinced John would love Venice, how can you not like a "floating" city.  I even planned for us to take the longer boat ride, instead of the bus, in to the city center so he could get the full effect.  What does he do to show his appreciation, he sleeps the whole boat ride.  I tried not to be annoyed but seriously.  So when he would wake himself up I would mention how he missed tons of impressive stuff, not totally true, but my guilt tactic for his sleeping offense.  We had a great room in Venice, tiny but right on the square.  Once we checked in John committed his second large offense, suggesting we take a nap.  I know he had only slept a couple of hours in days but we have 24 hours in Venice, come on.  He really gave me no choice and since I had been to Venice before I didn't have a strong desire to go sight-seeing on my own again, so we napped.  I only allowed a short nap before we mazed our way through the Venice streets.  The key to Venice is to never plan on finding anything, just assume you will wander around aimlessly the whole time and stumble upon cool things by chance.  John did pick out 2 places to eat ahead of time and so we broke rule one and set out to find them.  Despite our best efforts we got totally lost but we did accidentally find the places we were looking for.  I need to emphasis this was mainly by accident.  It was a wonderful accident though because we had some great food.  That night in Venice I had one of my favorite meals of the whole trip.  We ordered so much food we should have been ashamed.  The highlights were a beef carpaccio and an eggplant dish that were to die for!!! 
As always we got back late from dinner and needed to leave Venice early so we could get our rental car, head thru Bologna and be in Cinque Terre by 5, otherwise we lost our hotel reservation.  We also decided that there is no way we would sleep in so why bother setting an alarm.  Big mistake.  We planned to be in our rental car by 9, instead that is when we woke up.  Woops.  To get to the airport where our rental car was involved about 2 hours of running and shuffling around, I don't think there was one airport we didn't run in the whole trip.  Keep in mind we now had about 6 hours to make a 5 hour trip to our next destination and we planned to have lunch in Bologna.  We were delirious because we should have realized no Italian lunch could be done in under an hour.  But little did I know one of the highlights of the trip, the rental car/stick shift driving, was about to take off and make things really interesting.

Paris, oh how lovely you are!

Ok so it is hard for me to get motivated to write any blogs lately despite plenty of free time at work but I am going to give it a shot this morning. I already detailed how we planned our European get away so lets skip straight to the plane. We had a 12 hour direct flight from LA to Paris and it would put us in Paris at 9 AM Sun. morning. Everything went smoothly other than John not sleeping a wink on the flight over. We did take some sleeping pills but they didn't have any effect on him. Maybe if we had known the booze were free he might have slept a little better, oh well. We landed at CDG and had to take a couple trains to get in to downtown Paris where we were staying. When we got came up from the station we knew we were near the Eiffel Tower and were looking around for it and someone jogging by pointed and said it is over there. We turned around and sure enough there was the Eiffel tower. We did a little walking and managed to find our hotel, drop off our bags, freshen up and start our exploring. We were staying in the Rue Cler area and Sundays have a bustling outdoor market so we basically strolled around looking at all the stands set up like a flea market, but a Paris flea market not like Flealand in BG. Then we grabbed our first Parisian meal. I wanted to go authentic so I went with the special which was a salad with duck and brie and was amazing. John had a roasted chicken dish that was also delish so we were off to a good start. We just took our time with lunch because we had to kill a little time before we could get in to our room. Once we could check in we were pleasantly surprised. Our room though small was very neat and clean and had a great window looking out to the Eiffel tower. From our shower you could also look out and see the Eiffel tower but our neighbors would have had quiet the view in of us. We spent the rest of the day walking around Paris and checking out the Eiffel tower and some other sites in our area. This is why we loved Paris so much, you can just wander aimlessly and see beautiful things everywhere. We ended the day with a bottle of wine and a blanket watching the sunset at the Eiffel Tower. There is a huge lawn in front of the tower where tons of people just gather and eat food, listen to music and just hang out, it was awesome. That first night for dinner the first couple of places we planned on going didn't work out so we just winged it and had a nice meal not far from our hotel. That night we really needed to catch up on sleep and it was one of the few nights we could sleep in so we were excited for some rest and didn't get back until around midnight so we were exhausted. Unfortunately John's cell phone alarm went off at 5AM, even though the phone was turned off, and neither of us could fall back asleep, major fail! We knew sleeping the day away in Paris wasn't an option so we just got up and got the day started.

Day 2 and our last full day in Paris we decided to conquer a lot of sites, the Louvre, Champ de Mars, the Latin Quarter, Notre Dame, and everything in between. I have to say we were tired by the end of the day but we saw so much great stuff. We enjoyed the Louvre more so for the funny picture taking opportunities it gave us. John got caught touching a statue of course, what a trouble maker. After a lot of walking around we ended the second day much like the first, laying on a blanket sipping wine at the Eiffel Tower. We did go to a restaurant that friends had recommended called La Gitane and had an amazing meal. Of course I ordered the special but John had an amazing bowl of french onion soup, which he had been craving. We ate, we saw, we loved. To recap why we loved Paris, BEAUTIFUL weather while we were there, clean and not to crowded city since it is a little spread out, wonderful buildings and sights to see, long lunches and dinners with amazing food, lots of cheap wine, the Eiffel Tower, and friendly people. The people were so much nicer than I had heard and most people spoke English so it was a great and comforting way to start the trip. We had to leave at 5 AM in the next day for our flight to Venice so sleep was not in our future. You don't really go to dinner until almost 9 so getting home after 11 is almost unavoidable and it seemed to stay light forever there. I am so glad we had 2 nights there and having amazing weather definitely helps your outlook on a place. So I am now part of the crowd of people who will say go to Paris you will love it, I know we did.

Making our dream vacation a reality

So John and I came up with the idea to take a trip to Europe almost 2 years ago and so it is hard to believe it has now come and gone. Part of our pay as the apartment managers is that we get to keep all the quarters from the washer and dryer in the building so in order to save for the trip we collected all of the quarters for almost 2 years. I called our bank to see about cashing these in as the trip drew closer and they informed me that we would have to roll all of the quarters to cash them. We had been collecting them in one of those huge water containers like you see in offices and rolling all these quarters was not a great option. I also didn't want the coinstar machine to take 10% of our earnings. Luckily some of our friends belonged to a credit union that had a coinstar type machine in the bank and they wouldn't charge you a fee for using it.  So we had to meet them at their bank and dump this huge container of coins in the machine, it was such a scene that everyone in the bank was watching us.  They even seemed to be excited for us once it was all done.  All in all we made over $2000 in quarters, not as much as we hoped but still a nice start.  We came up with a general game plan of where we wanted to go on the trip fairly quickly, I am not sure how decided but all of a sudden we had a starting plan. The rest of the details were now up to me. I knew we wanted to see Paris, Venice, Cinque Terre, Rome, Athens, and an island in Greece, we ended up going to Santorini. We only had around 11 days due to the amount of vacation time I had at work so we had to eliminate several stops we originally wanted to make and still were left with a pretty ambition schedule.  To start planning I knew the flights would be a major part of the costs so when I got a credit card offer from American that involved getting 30k points just for signing up and then another 30k if you spent 10k and the annual fee was waived I knew I had found my niche.  I got the card and we had not trouble racking up those 60k in bonus miles, it was the remaining miles that were slow to add up and I only had a year to do it. I realized almost to late that I really had less than a year to have the points I needed because I had to have the points before I could book the flight and awards type tickets get booked fast.  To get the miles we needed in time to still get tickets we ended up having to buy some miles.  All in all we basically got 2 tickets for the costs of 1.  There are lots of things about reward tickets I learned from this experience but as long as you have patience and time to call the airlines everyday to look for cancellations you can make it work.  Our original flight we booked got us home all in 1 day of travel and we booked all our other travel arrangements based on our overseas flight schedule.  Unfortunately we got a call closer to our trip that one of the connection carriers went out of business so now we had several long connections to get home and had to use an extra .5 day of vacation, this was our biggest hiccup in travel arrangements so I can't complain to much.  We also made the most of our layovers by adding a trip in to downtown London and NY City, I will get to that later. 
So as you can imagine I was a very unproductive employee for a large portion of the pre-trip period.  All of my free time at work was spent looking for the right hotels, train schedules, easy jet flights, car rentals, and activities we might want to do.  The internet has so much information that it can almost be overwhelming but we ended up relying a lot on trip advisor.  My criteria when looking for a hotel was that we had to have our own bathroom and how nice were the actual tourist pictures, not the hotel advertisment pictures.  My first time I went to Europe I mainly stayed in Hostels, the second time I stayed in tiny rooms with shared bathrooms, and so this time I wanted to go just a step above that.  I have to say that all of our hotels turned out to be more than we expected and we were totally pleased so apparentaly my formula worked.  Most places were between 100 and 150 Euro per night so you could definitely go cheaper but that is pretty reasonable for a comfortable room.  Since we were also going to several places in Europe I had to conquer how we would get to each location, basically plane, train, or car.  We used all 3 along with several other transportation methods.  For the longer distances we mainly did flights because we were on a tight schedule and didn't have time to waste on trains.  Also flights within Europe are a lot of times cheaper than taking the train, but you have watch out for fees and consider costs of getting to the airport.  We used 5 different different airlines on our trip so I made sure to read all the rules and tips for each airline because flight complications were my biggest concern.  Being a pound over a luggage limit can also cost you big time on budget carriers so I didn't want to risk it.  Another key when flying so many places is to plan ahead how you are going to get to and from the airport.  Most cities we were going to were usually close to an hour from the airport so you don't want to get stuck taking an expensive taxi in to the city. If you are wondering how you are suppose to keep all this information straight I used a binder.  I had copies of all our boarding passes printed, they charge you extra for that on some airlines, I also had information I found on travel sites online with detailed instructions about where to go in airports and how to get to the city.  Even if we didn't follow the instructions exactly it gave us a general idea what to look for since everything was foriegn to us in each new location and it can get overwhelming quickly.

In Italy we decided to rent a car so we could drive from Venice to Cinque Terre, which is on the west coast of Italy, and then from there to Rome.  We hoped to see Bologna, Parma, Pisa, Florence, and parts of Tuscany all from our little car along the way.  We were dreaming but it still made for some of our best memories of the trip.  Rental cars are a whole different level of planning because we wanted to be flexible but had timelines to be places so you have to have some general routes planned and then alternate routes and I spent a lot of time looking at different places we could stop along the way.  I will get in to more detail about our Fiat experiences in another blog. 
Also since we would be taking public transporation once we were in all the cities I knew from past experiences that we would be hauling our luggage down city streets trying to find a hidden gem of a hotel.  That is another reason we tried to pack lightly.  We each took a duffel with wheels, mine was small and John's was medium and then we each had an average size backpack.  I actually have very little trouble packing and never felt like I needed more clothes while we were over there.  The key is to be realistic and we knew we weren't going really formal anywhere so I could leave the heels at home. I bought a pair of toms that I could wear with anything and read online that they should be comfortable with all the walking and they were. I also had a couple small sandels and a pair of tennis shoes for our hiking day. I brought an old pair so that I could just throw them out after I didn't need them anymore, this left room for a few souveniers.
Most of the remaining research time I spent online involved researching sites we might want to see. It is good to look ahead at places you know you will want to see because museums are closed on random days, so our restaurants, and markets and you don't want to set yourself up for dissapointment. Also you can find lots of tips online about how to efficiently see stuff, like where to find the shortest line.  I did drop the ball on my Athens planning but other than that we had a pretty good plan for each day.  Don't get me wrong we wanted to be flexible but when you are on a tight schedule it is good it have an idea of what you really want to see so you can make sure you can fit it all in.  We also planned the trip so that we had a mix of cities and non-cities. Cities can be very tiring and overwhelming so we actually found most of the non-cities stops to be our favorites.  We also love beautiful scenery so sometimes you have to get out of the city to find that.  So now we've got our binder of plans, copies of important documents, and bags packed, next blog we will be in Europe.  If you are wondering what planning John had to do for this trip, he looked up food stuff, that is his speciality.

Where Have I Been???

So it turns out that planning a 12 day European vacation is very time intensive.  So any free time I had at work on the Internet was purely devoted to trip planning, I am sure my boss appreciated all my hard work.  Hence, my blogging has suffered.  Once again I debated just stopping the blog but I am no quitter so here I am again.  With a few trips between my last post and this one I will try not to overwhelm you with details all at once.  I have many stories to report from Europe but before we jump across the pond I need to blog about the amaziness that is Utah.
If you are like I was a few months ago then when you think of Utah you mainly think Mormons.  I am here to tell you that there is so much more in Utah than just Mormons.  I said after we went to our first trip to Utah last year that if we moved from California I would put Utah on my list of top places to live.  I know that might seem surprising and perhaps I haven't thought out all the sacrifices of living in a primarily dry state but what it lacks in liberalness it makes up for in natural beauty.  We have now visited 4 must see places in Utah, all natural parks I might add.  Zion, Bryce, Arches, and Canyonlands.  Given we only had like a day at each place so I haven't fully been able to enjoy all they have to offer, but after what I have seen I can definitely give it 2 thumbs up.  Currently Zion and Canyonlands are competing for the top spot, not that the other 2 weren't awesome in their own rights.  The problem with seeing overwhelming natural beauty is that you want to capture it and show it to your love ones so they will be inspired to make the journey themselves but pictures never do it justice.  If you have ever gone to the grand canyon, which I did for the 2nd time last month, you have been struck by the size and taken lots of pics only to get home and look back and think that is not the same thing I just saw.  So frustrating.  Hopefully enthusiasm in this blog in combination with facebook photos will inspire you to book your plane tickets now.  If there was ever a place to take a week long RV trip I would say it was southern Utah.  We are already planning more trips back, if only we had unlimited vacation days.
Let me break down a few details for you to help you understand.  Zion, amazing colors and mini-mountains layered in tons of shades of pinks and browns with lots of greenery on top of everything.  Water is abundant and you can even do hikes in the river.  No cars allowed in the park so you just drop your ride and take a shuttle where ever you want to go and it is small enough that you don't waste to much time doing this.  Canyonlands, so we only got to explore one little section of the park which is massive so it will definitely require follow-up visits.  We explored the Needles area of the park which is basically rock spires that I guess resemble needles but not in a bad way.  We stayed outside of the park in an area that is just free camping off the road, so there weren't amenities like bathrooms but you quickly get over that.  Our campsite felt like Mars, red rock boulders, canyons, crevasses, climbing, you had it all.  The hike we did once we got in to the park was our own creation since we combined a few of the trails together to make a big loop and it was seriously in my top 3 hikes ever.  Most of the time what makes a killer hike for me is a huge payoff view at the end and maybe some along the way.  This trail did have some good views but it also had a ton of variety which made it so interesting and fun the whole way.  We experienced lots of different terrains.  For example caves, overlooks, desert, woods, red rock, white rock, and sand.  It was like 5 hikes rolled in to one.
What also made this trip great is that we met John's sister and brother-in-law, Amy and Josh, at the park.  It was nice because they had some experience in the area and a good idea of where to camp so it took some of the usual trip planning stress off of us.  Considering my time had been devoted to Europe trip planning I didn't have much time to think about logistics on this trip so it worked out great.  Sometimes I want to be a control freak but this time I was happy to just sit back and enjoy the ride.  We also took turns cooking dinner so it was less work and since we could divide up some of the stuff we needed to pack it cut down our load a little too.  I am usually nervous to go camping with other people because if they don't camp often you will be doing twice the work to get them ready but when you go with experienced campers it just makes life easier.  Did I mention the weather was also amazing on this trip and that we made a stop at the Grand Canyon on the way home.

OK so I have a few other stories from before Utah and after that I need to tell but I am typed out for now.  I also want to give an update on how my annual goals are going so far.  Stay tuned.

Photography Update

I just wanted to say quickly how much I am loving my new camera. I know this might seem like a strange concept these days but I recently got a Snapfish coupon and went online to print off several pictures I had taken with our new camera. They were mainly from Christmas and New Years and therefore contained pictures of all my favorite people. I am also not exaggerating when I say they were amazingly crisp and vivid. They might have seemed even more amazing because I am so used to just looking at pictures on facebook or my computer these days. But printing photos is like reading a paper back, sure I could download a book to read on some electronic device (I don't actually own one of these it is just for an example) but something about holding the book in your hands and flipping through the pages is just nostalgic. I think it made looking at the pictures even more meaningful because it was like I was holding on to the people I love. They weren't there with me but holding a picture of them someone made them seem more tangible. Maybe it is just the novelty of never printing pictures anymore or maybe it is some sort of homesickness but I was just loving looking at these photos. I wanted to share them with everyone in the pictures and say here is a great pictures of us don't you want to stare at it too. I am sure soon enough they will be put in an album somewhere and I won't be staring at them all the time but even going through an old album can bring back such great memories. I almost look forward to putting them away and then finding them in a year and remembering those times all over again.

P.S. This last comment might make me seem strange so if you are feeling warm and fuzzy stop reading. I think for some reason I associate really great old photos with funerals, like when you go to some one's funeral that you have known a long time but you see pictures of them from earlier in their life when you didn't know them and you just wonder what they were like when that picture was taken. So I can't help when I go through pictures of other people and think we have to put this up at their funeral because it is such a great picture of them and captures them so well. I even had a dream the other night about having to get a picture of someone before the end of this really happy party because I was thinking if they pass away I want to remember this day. Am I the only person like this, probably so, it is OK I don't mind being strange. I warned you to stop reading.

Wine tasting anyone?

So maybe I let my last heavy blog linger a little long but now I am finally getting around to posting a lighter blog on the subject of wine tasting. The longer I am married the more amazing my husband seems to become. I really think I married one of the most thoughtful men out there which is good because I am not the most sentimental person on Earth. Anyway, on Valentine's Day 12 years ago my husband asked me to be his girlfriend, I will spare the very romantic story of how he did this. So Valentine's Day has twice the specialness to me and in some ways I still see it as our anniversary more so than our wedding date, probably because we have been celebrating it like 5 times longer. For this special day he booked us a surprise weekend trip. We hopped in the car Sat. morning and found ourselves in Temecula, which is like an hour south east of where we live. It is known for its vineyards but I didn't realize what a cute downtown it had. It was kind of like Gatlinburg but much smaller and slightly less cheesy.
We checked in to our hotel and then he informed me that we would be going on a jeep wine tasting tour. So someone came to our hotel to pick us up and we met up with our fellow passenger. There were a couple of older women who were friends and assured us they weren't lesbians which the I guess they commonly get mistaken for and a mother daughter duo. Everyone was very friendly and intrigued with our accents as usual. On a side note I have found a KY accent often gets mistaken for Australian, I think they just aren't sure what an Australian accent sounds like. So we went to the first vineyard and had several delicious wines outside with live music playing. I was already feeling a little tipsy after the first stop so I wasn't sure how the other stops were going to go. Apparently a lot of people just have a taste and pour out part of the glass, I found that out to late. After the first stop we went off-roading up to this hill where we could look out over the valley. Then we headed back down the hill to the next vineyard. I thought the jeep ride might have straightened me out a little but after a couple more taste at the second place I realized I needed to start pouring some of these samples out. We headed off to our final vineyard and there we had some cheese and crackers to snack on which I shoveled down thinking it might get me straightened out, not so much. Everyone was very friendly and touchy feelly by the end of the night and it provided many laughs.
We got dropped back off at our hotel and then we were going to get some dinner down town. There was one place we really wanted to eat at but it ended up having a 3 hour wait, what! So after driving around some more looking for a new place I informed John that the only thing I needed was somewhere to lay down. So he grabbed some take out while I feel asleep at 8 PM. It was so much fun though, despite how rough I might have felt at the end. The next morning I felt fine and we went back to that same restaurant and had lunch with no wait. The thing about these cute little tourist towns though is that they are outrageously expensive. I paid 2.12 for a 16 ounce coke, I couldn't hide my shock when the man rang me up.
Normally you would be sad to have to come home from a fun little trip but luckily it was sunny and 75 so I was able to head down to the beach and lay out while napping. It really helped damper the sadness. I would definitely recommend this type of trip to others, just pace yourself.
On a side note John finally got a new surf board, made by a guy from Bowling Green that lives in San Clemente, small world. He also got a new wetsuit so he is really turning pro, just kidding, but he is excited.
My pictures from the trip are not on this computer so I will have to post later but they are also on facebook.

Real expectations

So a couple of events came together to really get my brain working and inspiring this post. One I am reading a great book called A Case for Faith and the first chapter is about how can a loving God allow bad things to happen on this Earth. Two, a family member heard the dreaded word Cancer and there is some fear and uncertainity right now related to that, though the prognosis is good. Three, the sermon at church Sunday was on fear. I have come to realize that God doesn't necessarily speak to me through a loud voice in my head but more through events and messages that all come together at a perfect time and there is no way I can miss what he is trying to get through to me. I think that is why prayer and reading his word and christian fellowship are all so important because those are all part of hearing what God has to say to us.
What has been on my heart lately is how I could explain to someone who doesn't know God why he would allow bad things to happen, especially when you are praying to him for a positive resolution. I know God says when we pray he hears us and that he can perform miracles so why can't he just start throwing down miracles all over the place like he did when he was here on Earth. I know he is a healer and I believe he performed many miracles on his time here on Earth and even since then, so why wouldn't he want to bust out one of those miracles when I am praying for something serious. Well I think I have come up with a couple of reasons that can bring me some comfort even though I might still just prefer the quick miracle.
I am not a biblical scholar and still growing in my faith so please excuse me if I don't get all this right, I am just letting my heart's thoughts flow for a second.
1. God gave us a perfect place to exist with no pain and suffering and we blew it. I hate to point fingers but specifically Eve and Adam kind of blew it. So since they went for that seemingly healthy apple snack, the world fell in to suffering. Since that bite we have existed on a fallen Earth. Disease of the body and mind became the norm. Cancer wouldn't have been an issue in God's perfect plan but once we became a fallen place all kinds of diseases were allowed to run their course. It is not that God is causing these things he is just allowing them to happen because that is the result of a fallen world. All these sickos who kill and hurt people, well they got their start with that first bite, I know, it sucks. I have been reminded several times lately that it is not God wanting these things to happen but as a result of the fall in to sinfullness Satan has some temporary power in this world and things are going to have to run their course until Christ returns to claim his kingdom. The good news, all things will be made right in eternity. That is a strong encouragement for me. All the wrongs that we endure and feel like aren't justified here on Earth are going to be reconciled in Heaven. If a love one is suffering here on Earth and we want their pain gone, it might not be gone before they leave this Earth but it will be gone when they get to Heaven and everything will be made right.
2. God sent his son to this Earth to suffer all the nastiness of being human and then sacraficed his son for us. How can I be in a position to ask God how he can allow something bad to happen to me or a loved one when he sent his own son down to Earth to suffer as a human and then die on the cross for my sins so that I can spend eternity in his glory. As a human Christ asked God the same thing we often ask in hard times, why does this have to be me is there anyone else that can carry this burden? God why would you forsake me? But ultimatly Jesus trusted in God and knew that his will would be done and while we can pray for burdens to be lifted off of us we have to remember that God's will and plan have a purpose. He won't give us more than we can handle and what we endure through following God will not be in vain. God never promised that our lives would be perfect if we followed him, he never said this. We live in a sinful world full of sinful people and bad things are going to happen, this isn't Heaven, this is Earth. What he did promise is that he would be there with us through the journey. He will be my strength when I feel like giving up and I can trust him to never leave me. Suffering can have a purpose, I truely believe that and I just hope that the next time I am faced with trials that test my faith I can trust in the Lord to help me through. When bad things happen or what you prayed for doesn't happen it doesn't mean you didn't have enough faith or didn't pray hard enough it just means that is not the plan. God doesn't set bad things in to motion, living in a fallen world has set those things in motion, God will be there though to hold us up as we walk through this world.
My mind has been racing with a lot of thoughts lately and I am not sure I conveyed them all or if I conveyed anything well with this post. It was probably more for me than it was for anyone reading. But something I heard lately that stuck with me is "my faith is based on my circumstances." So I am not going to have faith in God's power when things are going well and then doubt him when things go bad. This is a fallen world and bad things are going to happen, that is a fact. But I have faith in the Lord leading me through those bad times and all things being made right when I enter his kingdom. For now I praise because I feel truely blessed.

Bad Blogger, bad blogger

So I got really busy at work and therefore my blogging suffered. There is probably a direct inverse correlation between my productivity at work and my productivity at blogging. But anyway the past couple of weekends have been pretty slow so you haven't missed much, other than the couple of 75-80 degree weekends we have had lately. It as been amazing. I was complaining about my tan fading and I guess the Lord likes me better tan because he blessed me with 2 great beach weekends. In my world nothing is coincidental everything is a direct blessing from God, that is just how I like to look at it. It can be a good parking spot or extra income, it doesn't matter the size I just like to imagine it is my friend Jesus looking out for me, I don't think that is wrong, just good fun.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago on one of these beautiful 80 degree days we spent our Sat. painting our neighbor's, the sober living house, trim work. We started this project in Oct. with our church's serve San Clemente day but we got rained out before we could finish and we finally wrapped the project up in Jan. There were just a couple of us this time but we got a lot done and mainly thanks to the hard work of John, David (from our home group), and Eric (the painting expert and leader). During the painting project John and Eric set up a surfing date for the next day. So on Sunday I headed down to beach and got settled in for the afternoon when John called and said that Eric was bringing his wife and daughter surfing so I would have to go with them now. After first I was a little bummed because I thought great I will be sitting there with this guy's wife who I have never met and teenage daughter what will we talk about. This is a big insecurity of mine being in situation with new people and not knowing what to talk about or will they like me. But I said this is the Lord challenging me to get over these insecurities so suck it up. Anyway we all rode over to Trestles, my first time at this surf spot and you have to walk down a long trail to get there. We talked a lot on the ride over and down the trail and I found out that I actually have a lot in common with Eric's wife, his daughter didn't end up coming. I guess I just assumed that I would have a limited amount of things to discuss with someone older than me with teenage kids but I was being age biased. They love the outdoors and see we had lots of hiking adventures to compare. His wife surfs too so I just hung out on the beach on my own taking pictures, which was fine with me.
That weekend I also stepped out of my bubble and went with a friend to a women's connect coffee that our church was having. I had to laugh when I walked in because if it were not for my friend and me the average age would have been around 50. Most women were grandmothers but it was fine because I just was scouting potential babysitters. Also a lot of the women were talking about how they have gotten in to stand up paddle boarding and it was cool to think of how you are very to old to pick up cool new hobbies. I think I really overcame some age bias that weekend and some insecurities of my own.
The point is that since we have actually been in town the past couple of weekends I have been able to enjoy the company of several people I don't get to see when we are always out of town and met several new people. Relationship/Friendships really do take a time commitment and when you get older that only gets harder but I feel like the benefits are definitely worth any sacrifices involved. Just because get older doesn't mean you don't get those nervous feelings meeting new people (like your first day of lunch at a new school). But I think it helps a lot to realize that the people you are seeking to connect with are probably seeking the same thing. That has probably been one of my biggest growths since moving to Cali because before I was already in a lot of comfortable friendships that didn't require much work but new friendships require a little extra effort and courage. I think like a home cooked meal though everything is more satisfying when a little extra work goes in to it. But maybe I am just really lucky to have found so many women here that I connect with and think will be life long friends.

NYE in San Fran

So I wanted to do a quick recap of our San Francisco trip so I could remember what a fun New Years it was. To me a good New Years is full of fun and awkward moments. One of our BG friends Dave recently moved from KY to San Francisco and is living with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. They have a nice big house about 25 minutes south of San Fran so we decided to take a trip up and stay with Dave to celebrate New Years. Luckily they have an extra guest bedroom so we had a comfortable place to sleep. John flew in from KY Friday night and so after I got off work I headed up to pick him up from LAX and then we drove about 4 of the 6 hours to Dave’s. We pulled in to a local Holiday Inn to stay and John noticed that across the street was one of the famous Anderson’s Pea Soup restaurants so he insisted that we would stop there for breakfast the next day before we left town. I am not a fan of pea soup especially early in the morning so I secretly hoped they didn’t serve breakfast. To my chagrin they were open. My breakfast was actually pretty good and involved no pea soup. John on the other hand ordered a combo breakfast that came with a side of pea soup. Needless to say he only ate like 10 bites of his scalding hot pea soup.
We got to Dave’s on the 31st and picked him up and headed in to San Fran because we had tickets to go on the Alcatraz tour. When we came 5 years ago to San Fran tickets were sold out so I was interested to see what all the fuss was about. We were lucky in the it was actually a clear day in SF and even though it was windy and a little chilly it felt pretty warm for December. We took the ferry over to the island and I took a lot of pictures along the way. The island was pretty cool as far as historical things go and after completing most of the audio tour we jumped on the ferry back.

We had lunch at Fisherman’s Warf and drove around to some other scenic parts of town but had to get back home to get ready for New Years.

They do fireworks on the bay near the Golden Gate for New Year’s so his brother had worked it out that we had 10 PM dinner reservations on the North side of the bay and after we wrapped up dinner it was time for the show. On the way to dinner we crossed the Golden Gate which was fun and then we had a couple drinks at a local tavern near the restaurant. This place was perfect for awkward NYE moments. It was mainly very old people, I am talking walkers and canes old, who had too much to drink and were feeling rowdy. One older lady and gentlemen broke out dancing near the bar and the even older bartender told them no dancing, he said it was too crowded for that. Which was not the case at all but we kept joking that it was just like we were in footloose. There was also a suspicious looking gentlemen that sat quietly in the corner creepy eyeing us all night. The bartender was a no nonsense kind of guy and when you ordered a drink it better not involve anything fancy like sweet and sour or a blender. Don’t worry they did have a microwave on the counter at the bar though. The name of the bar was actually called the “No Name” bar. Charming huh. For dinner we sat in a glassed dining room right on the water and had an amazing seafood meal. John probably wouldn’t say this was his idea of a wild NYE but it was perfect for me and I have done enough NYEs his way. After dinner we sat on the water and watched the fireworks. Of course some drunk lady with balloons sat right next to me with her balloons flying inches from my head the whole time, John thought it was hilarious.
I am going to skip the part of the story where it took us an hour and a half to get home for reasons I can’t understand and just say after a very long drive home we were lucky to have a free sober right so we can’t complain.
The next day John and I said goodbye to our hostess Dave and headed out to do a little more exploring. We did another run through of downtown SF and then had lunch at a little spot on Haight and Ashbury. John tried to explain the significance of the area to me but I only caught something about hippies. We decided to take Highway 1 home through Big Sur, an extremely beautiful part of the California coast. We had never been on the 1 that far North so it was great driving through Pacifica and Moro Bay. We had great weather driving through Big Sur but it got dark about 2 hours before we finished the drive, we covered most of the good stuff though. A crazy fog cloud surrounded us right as it got dark and I felt like I was in the movie The Mist. We stayed at another lovely Holiday Inn south of Big Sur and after a struggle to find some food for dinner, I get grouchy when I am hungry, we were so ready for bed. We got up the next day and headed home, all in all a great New Years trip.

Christmas in KY!!

So I think I should do a quick recap of Christmas just because it is such a marathon and needs to be captured in words for my future memory. John and I flew home separately, due to differing work vacation schedules. I didn't particularly mind this considering it meant for once I didn't have to seat in the middle seat so John could have the aisle and I didn't have to hold any clammy hands or assure anyone that the flight was safe. The main problem with flying separately is that I worry about John smoothly making his flights. I was flying in and out of LAX which would have been really convenient for having my sister pick me up and drop me off but she was also out of down the day I was flying out. Since my flight was at 6:30 AM I decided to go stay at her house, which is close to LAX, the night before so I could sleep later and not worry about driving up the day of my flight. I normally don't sleep well the night before a trip but on top of that I was staying alone in a strange house and was nervous about the cab not coming in the morning and missing my flight. So I somehow managed to fall asleep around 9:30 but woke back up around 11:30 and from then on I was wide awake. I laid there with the TV on a couple of hours and then I laid there a couple hours in the dark. Finally I just got up and called the cab and got to the airport nice and early. I even had time for a Starbucks. Now when you fly southwest you know getting a good seat is all about getting in the "A" group which is increasingly tricky these days. You must click on the "check-in" button exactly 24 hours to the minute ahead of your flight or you will become familiar with the "B" group. For my flight home I managed to make the A group and there was an aisle seat about 4 rows back open and a larger man next to the window. I am pretty good at figuring out which middle seat someone is going to work really hard to avoid and I figured the odds were pretty good in that row so I went for it. Sure enough there were only 3 empty seats on the plane and our middle seat was one of them, this is like winning the lottery, especially on a direct flight. I made it to KY no problems.
The Friday night I got in I headed to my Dad's house to celebrate Christmas, John had to miss out since his flight didn't get in until like 2 AM Sat. morning.

As you can imagine I was pretty tired for a long travel day and no sleep the night before so I tried to sleep in a little Sat. morning. Sat. I got up and went for a run, this would be my only workout of the trip, and I noticed that even though it didn't feel that much colder out initially the chill really set in once I started running. Breathing in the cold KY air brought back a familiar stinging to my lungs, it might get chilly here but the air is never stinging cold. By the time I showered and got ready Cam and his wife Erin made their way up from TN to hang out for Christmas Eve. My brother Chris was already there so we were only one sibling down from having a full house. We just hung out all day, snacked, got all caught up on life, and opened presents of course.

That night John's parents came over and we all had Christmas Eve dinner together. The next morning we had to be up bright and early to get to my Grandmothers church, John skipped this part to hang out with his family. I told him skipping Nanny's church service would get him on the naughty list but he lives life on the edge. After church we hung out and Nanny's and ate and opened presents of course. John still got his presents even though he skipped church. Nanny pointed out that she didn't make any of my favorite Christmas morning foods, I wondered if I was being punished for making everyone go to early service.

After we left Nanny's we headed further south to Hendersonville to celebrate Christmas evening with John's family. There was a new baby "second" cousin in the mix year so that was a fun addition. As always the Lansden family get together involved a lot of noise and since I was suffering from a never ending sinus headache I would say I was a big party pooper that night. I got back to my parents house around 10:30 and with a killer headache sent John to his parents house to sleep.

I had to get up early the day after Christmas because I was heading to Lexington to visit all my college girlfriends. This year that get together included two new baby boys in the mix. The babies eventually went home and we just sat around eating, talking, and opening presents of course. I slept on a loveseat so despite how tired I was I wouldn't say I got major quality zzzs that night, also I have determined I don't sleep well in new places.

The next morning I couldn't stay very long because I had to get back to BG in time to have lunch with some of John and our friends, I can't skip Shogun when I am in town. Since I had half an hour to spare before lunch I stopped in and visited my Grandaddy. He as more than half an hour worth of stories but there is a schedule to keep, even if the person is in their 80s. Lunch was great but I had to head out before the bill arrived because I needed to shower before my next get together. After a quick shower I packed up my bag again and headed to see all my old H.S. dance teams buds. This year included 2 toddlers and 2 pregnant women, are you noticing a trend here. We told tales and I took more pictures and we ate more.

I had to leave at 10 that night because I had one last stop for the day. I headed over to Jamie and Michael's to make sure I saw as many BG friends as I could before I went home the next day. Exhaustion started setting in though and I will admit around 12 I feel asleep on their couch. John and I went back to his parents where I stayed the night. The next morning I had to head out because I was flying home that afternoon and had yet to really see my mother, what a shame I know. So after a quick Starbucks stop I made it home to shower, pack, eat and visit. Before I knew it the trip was over and I was on a plane back to CA. Unfortunately I messed up my confirmation number and ended up in the "B" group going home. I chose a seat next to probably an 8 year old boy and this provided some good entertainment. His mom hadn't brought a single thing for him to play with on this 5 hour flight home and you can imagine how antsy this made him. He had 1 toy car which he showed me several times. I was watching a movie and he would lean over and watch it with and ask me questions about what was happening. I had to be careful and cover the screen during any r-rated moments. I started coming up with games for him just so he would give me a break but I think that just bonded him to me more. As soon as we got on the plane he informed me he was having a coca cola zero. So when they took our drink orders I ordered a coke zero and he said "I'll have what she is having", the stewardess looked at me like we were together. Anyway it made for some laughs. I finally landed at LAX, aka, hell on earth. Luckily Kristy was back in town so I had an easy ride back to her house, I probably shouldn't have sat around talking for an hour though because it was 10:30 when I finally got home. Getting up for work the next morning didn't come easy but luckily I only had a 2 day work week. Which went by really fast considering I had to unpack and repack for a Friday night departure for San Francisco. Stayed tuned for my new years San Fran blog coming next.

A New Year and a renewed blog

So it is the start of a new year and I felt like it would be a good jumping off point to restart my blog. Last year during the summer we were on the go so much it just became too much to keep up with. I think after my little break and hearing from a few people that they would like to see it again I am ready to give it another go. I would start the blog off with thrilling tales of our first trip in 2012 to San Fran or trip home to KY but I am going to save that story for the next blog. I want to kick off this blog, version 2012, with a summary of my New Year’s resolutions.
I was meeting with my small group last week and we were discussing goals we have set for ourselves for 2012. I was still worn out from said San Fran trip and year-end close at work so the best thing that came to mind was hopefully John would cut his hair. This was not very thoughtful or probably very nice so after a weekend at home and a slow down at work I am feeling renewed and now have clear mind to consider goals for 2012. I haven’t actually listened to the sermon on setting goals yet so my goals might get adjusted but right now I have a basic list of daily/weekly/monthly things I hope to accomplish in 2012. Now that I look at the list I can say I have covered mind, body, and spirit so it has to be somewhat well rounded. I have never been a “write down your goals” kind of girl but I am hoping to gain something from this exercise. When you are younger your goals are more easily defined, finish high school, excel at a sport, graduate college, or get a job, these are all pretty big goals and pretty much the extent of my goal planning. I have always been a fairly self-driven person, I didn’t have to write down that I wanted to excel in school for it to happen I just knew that is what I wanted to do. Other kids might have benefited from a more detailed list though. At this moment I am in a pretty mellow place in life where things are moving along at a nice pace and full of enjoyment so at this point I have to wonder if I am just coasting through life. That same student in me that wanted to be at the top of the class is also the same person that probably can’t be satisfied for a long time just coasting. In some ways it makes me feel like I am not taking advantage of this time and place in my life. I don’t think anyone would say John and I take for granted our new location, we seem to always be on the go, but I am talking about those week nights when I am at home with a couple hours to spare or those weekends when I am just hanging out around the apartment (few and far between as they might be). Am I wasting valuable time where I could be growing in a beneficial way. I know you are on the edge of your seat so here is the list:
• Read 2 hours a week outside of the gym
• Workout 5 days a week
• Make your week full of as many natural healthy foods and veggies as possible
• Stop treating the weekend like a free for all, only splurge one night not all of them
• Spend at least 20 minutes a day in quiet time with the Lord and listen
• Pray daily and for people you have said you will pray for
• Listen to others needs and engage them in prayer
• Engage at work, less internet time
• Cook dinner at least twice a week
• Complete a Pinterest/or creative activity once a month
• Don’t analyze yourself in the mirror
• Call a friend once a week
• Do at least 2 charitable activities this year
• Increase tithing
• Blog about the year, a scrapbook in words
• Not chew more than 4 pieces of gum a day
• No more than 3 diet cokes on the weekend and none during the week
• Memorize 3 verses a week and use the 4th week for repetition
• Be a better listener, even if the subject (sports) doesn’t interest you.
• Travel
• Don’t stress when having guests
• Write more cards to friends and family
So as you can see I am covering several areas with my goals and some are more general than others. Some things are easy and I don’t anticipate trouble fulfilling and some are going to be more challenging. I figured the easy ones would give me things to cross off the list and the hard ones will help me grow.
It occurred to me as I was driving and thinking about setting goals how important it is in life to keep growing. I get that different people like different things. I know a lot of people in KY that love it there and would hate living in CA. And I truly believe there is nothing wrong with that, that is now what I am talking about when I say I want to keep growing. Yes for me part of growing involves wanting to travel and experience the world hands on but it can also mean trying a new restaurant in your home town. When I was in Lexington I look back and think how stagnate I was, I didn’t speak to my neighbors, I didn’t try to make new friends, I ate at only a few of my favorite restaurants, I hung out on my side of town. I wish I could do it over now. Why, since we have been here, has taking a 8 hour road trip for a 2 day adventure been so normal when it would have seemed crazy before. Why was I spending so many weekends on the couch instead of out in the world, probably the weather, just kidding, kind of. I think my goals reflect what I want to do in the next year and that is live life to the fullest (without as much junk food though). I want to feel like I am evolving as a person through experiences and moments. I know some of you cynics out there will say wait until she has kids and then she will just be happy to take a shower each day but for now this is my goal, next year could be a totally different list. Heck, this list could be a total flop but I am going to give it my darndest. I have printed off the list and plan to keep it on the inside of my closet door where I can mark things off each week. Maybe this blog will be a little inspiration to write down your own list or at least give your goals a little more thought than you did in 2011.

Several weekends wrapped in to 1 blog

So I have been a slacker blogger and sometimes toy with the idea of just stopping. This apparently happens a lot based on all the blogs I read that my friends write and then just stop, I won't name any names. But I am just telling myself that this blog is my semi-personal diary and doesn't have to be well executed so I can write a little here and there without worrying about quality. I will pick up where I left off with my last blog. After my mom left town John and I had a weekend alone to relax and celebrate our anniversary before he went to KY for a week. I got a groupon for Catalina Ferry tickets and even though we weren't planning a trip to Catalina Island this year the groupon made it practical for a little day trip. So Friday night we had a nice dinner in San Clemente, I had a certificate for a free bottle of champagne for our anniversary and a nice little Italian restaurant in town so of course we couldn't pass it up. I ended up drinking way to much free champagne instead of enjoying the food but we had a very nice time. Also the leftovers were just as good and it was probably one of the best risottos I have ever had. Sat. morning we had to get up early to catch the ferry to Catalina, this was not very easy due to all the champagne the night before but we rallied. After we got to Catalina we started right off on a hike that take you to a hilltop on the island and you can see the ocean on both sides of the island. It was very pretty and also hot so we got in our first big sweat of the summer. The hike ended at the Wrigley Memorial, the Wrigley family originally owned the island, and there was a large cactus garden. We actually had fun exploring and taking pictures at both. Then we got lunch at the nicest restaurant in town and I have to say food is not the islands strong point. After lunch we didn't not wait the appropriate hour but instead rented some snorkeling gear to check out the kelp beds and fish off the island. I got to use my wetsuit for the second time and actually did really well snorkeling. As someone who prefers not to put my head under water I often toot my own horn whenever I enter the water. By the time we finished snorkeling we had just enough time to get an ice cream cone and then catch the ferry home. We were both so tired from our daytime activities that we just picked up food and relaxed. The next weekend John had to leave to go to KY so after I dropped him off at 6:30 AM at the airport I headed to LA to visit the Lee family. Kristy convinced me to go to the Chivas game that night and I was kind of looking forward to it since there was going to be a big fireworks show at the end. Keeping those kids up until 9 is a difficult situation though. We all know how kids and adults act when they start to get tired and me, Kristy, Braxton, and Bralon were ready for bed by the end of the game. But since we stuck it out that long we decided to watch the fireworks. As soon as the first firework went off Braxton had his own explosion. He went in to full meltdown mode. Kristy informed me that the same thing happened last year when they tried to watch the fireworks, I told her thanks for the warning. So we raced to the valet and had him hurry with the car because we had to get out of ear shot of the fireworks. As we were driving off Braxton started asking about the fireworks and why he couldn't see them anymore. Then he told us he liked fireworks. Kristy and I just laughed considering his meltdown 2 minutes earlier. Then he told us that the fireworks made him cry and he did not like them. After I got the Lee family back in the house I peeled it out of there. Luckily the pier in front of our house does a fireworks show so on Monday I got to sit on the roof and see a good display, without all the crying.
The next Sat. I had to go to LAX to pickup John at 8 PM. I thought I would go up a little early and hang out with the Lee's, Brian had an away game. Kristy informed me that I should be there by 9AM because we were going to get their pictures made. I don't know how she tricks me in to these things. Pictures went relatively smooth, other than a dirty diaper from Bralon and some trouble getting the right smile from Braxton. Both the kids did really well while I was there other than Braxton have a 2 hour temper tantrum but he worked through it. Bralon even let me hold him by his hands and walk him around, big progress for the anti-walker. Braxton is such a hoot to be around because he always has lots of information and instruction for me. I thought he had given up the chasing monsters game for Legos, which is much more relaxing to play, but he insisted on the monster games again. Kristy even fed me both weekends so I can tell she is trying to keep me coming back.
This last weekend was nice to have John back in town. We spent most of the weekend outdoors enjoying the beach and warm weather. We were excited because it was the ocean festival at the pier but found out after we looked at all the shows that basically the beach was so crowded we would have to go to another beach for John to surf and me lay out. What a tough life I know. Luckily there are an abundance of beach areas and we managed to get some sun. It was such a nice weekend it really felt like being on vacation. Next weekend we are heading camping in King's Canyon and Sequoia National Park.