Italy: Rome

In November I went with a group of five girls to Italy for 10 days. November was a perfect time to go; not too crowded because it wasn't tourist season and the weather was great. We visited 3 main cities with a side day trip to the Amalfi Coast. I loved Italy, it had the stylish and historical feel of Europe that I love but with a much more homey feel. Since this was a big trip I feel like there is more to share so I will be doing a series of posts about the trip; one for each stop. First stop... Rome.

When in Rome...

Getting Around
We used the bus system to get around. We would by bus passes from a small store near our hotel (some bus stops had a place for you to buy tickets but some did not so it was best to be prepared) and depending on how much we thought we would be using the bus that day we would either buy day passes or one day pass. The busses were usually jammed packed and because of this the busses were the only place where I would be extra cautious of pick pocketers. (Side note: The biggest warning I got about Italy from people was to watch out for pick pocketing. I watched out but I  really didn't feel like there was much to worry about. However, it was not tourist season and so there weren't as many people around so maybe that is why there wasn't as much to worry about.)

Because the busses were jammed packed we actually lost one of the girls at a stop. She got off and the rest of us were too packed in to get off; even though we had been trying for quite awhile to squish towards the door. We got off at the next stop and ran back to her.

The Colosseum
We signed up for a special tour at the Colosseum to relive moments of a gladiator's life and we fought lions and tigers and BEARS. Haha, I'm just kidding... I WISH we could have done that! The floor of the Colosseum where gladiators would fight was actually gone but I liked that because you could see down where they used to keep prisoners and the animals for fighting; kind of like the behind the scenes stuff.
We bought out tickets for the Colosseum ahead of time online through ItalyTickets. We got a skip the line pass. The ticket included an audio tour which had some interesting facts but after about 30 minutes I had enough facts and was ready to move on.

The under-workings of the Colosseum and me next to some of the original marble from a fallen over column of the Colosseum.

The Forum and Palatine Hill
Our tickets for the Forum and Palatine Hill were included in our Colosseum ticket but make sure you don't loose your ticket because you will need it in order to enter into each of these places. Let's just say one of the girls in our group would give you this advise out of experience.

Trevi Fountain
Ok, one of the disappointments of the trip. The Trevi Fountain is under renovation! We rounded the corner to the fountain, full of excitement and anticipation and at first didn't understand what we were looking at. It looked like a building being under construction and then... we saw it. The Trevi Fountain covered in scaffolding. One of the fun highlights was that they built a little walkway that went through the fountain up close to the statues so that you could see them, so we can all say we walked THROUGH the Trevi fountain. However, we were still pretty sad about this so we went and got gelato to subdue our remorse.

The Vatican
The smallest "country" in the world, completely walled off, ruled by the bishop of Rome... the Pope. We had booked a skip the line tour online for the Vatican but it took us a lot longer than we expected to get to the Vatican and we missed our tour group. No worries, there were plenty of tour guides and groups around the Vatican that we were able to find another tour to take us around the Vatican. Sadly, our tour guide was really boring and it was hard to stay attentive. That's ok though, the art in the Vatican was incredible and I loved seeing it with or without great commentary.

I may or may not have fallen asleep on a bench during our tour.

St. Peter's Basilica

Drinking Fountains: All of the drinking fountains in Italy were just random pipes out of a wall; this one, at the Vatican, was the fanciest of them all.

Guards at the Vatican

St. Peter's Plaza in front of St. Peter's Bascilica

A bridge across the Fume Tevere just down the street from the Vatican.

Spanish Steps
A grand staircase to a church and they are always covered with people walking and siting on them. The movie Roman Holiday made the steps famous to Americans.

LDS Temple
We went to go and see the Rome LDS temple. The temple was supposed to be completed by the time we went on our trip but as you can see below - it's still under construction. That's ok, we knew that. We took a few busses out to the middle of no where but luckily enough there was a bus stop right in front of the construction site. When we got to the bus stop we were the one's left on the bus and as we got off the bus the driver looked at us like, what on earth could you be doing here. The temple is really going to make the area it is in more beautiful. Even though we took an 45 min bus ride to get to the site it was still neat to see it.

Borghese Villa
The Borghese Villa was one of my most favorite places in Rome. It reminded me of Central Park; a beautiful green park in the middle of a fast paced city. I wish we would have had more time because I would have liked to have explored the park a little more.

We found a "Selfie" statue, so naturally everyone took a selfie in front of it. Who knew selfie's were ancient.

Just another statue with out a head. I decided that someone had a really grumpy year and went around hitting off the heads of the statues and then it became a fad to no longer include the head on a statue. I actually thought this statue/monument was very beautiful. I loved the coloring of the whites in the rock, the elegance of the female statue, the soft flow and lines of the dress and the contrast of the green around it.

I loved these trees while we were in Rome.

Pantheon
A building in Rome in 14 AD and then rebuilt in 126 AD. It was really neat to stand inside and look up at the dome, so perfect, and realize we were standing inside an ancient building that was still perfect in it's structure.

You can see in this picture, as two of the girls were taking a selfie with the Pantheon as their backdrop, I am being harassed by yet another street salesman. Ugh, that was one annoying thing in Rome, there were street salesmen everywhere selling the most annoying and useless toys and always stopping you to sell you something. "Ummm, no, I did not come all the way to Italy to buy a weird glow-in-the-dark toy helicopter... OR A SELFIE STICK."

Our Hotel
We stayed at Hotel Gambrinus in Rome and it was only two blocks away from the Borghese Villa and near several bus stops. When we got to our hotel they were having some problems with some of their double bed bedrooms and so they asked if we would be willing to all take single bedrooms. We said yes, and it was nice to have our own space but I liked sharing a room with the girls the rest of the trip in our other cities.

One highlight was having a bidet in each hotel. I have never seen one in real life and I got REALLY excited about it. I tried it out the first night and on accident turned the water on hot... WOWZER! I learned from my mistake.

Pizza
When you are in Italy you eat pizza and lots of it! Of course it tasted better in Italy than here in the states... we were in Italy.

My first slice of pizza in Italy and certainly not the last. This was just a small hole in the wall place with two standing tables to eat at. You would tell the owner of the shop how much we wanted and then they would cut out a section, weigh it and fold it in half for you to eat. It was super cheap but also super delicious.

Gelato
Gelato, basically Italian ice cream, is everywhere and it is delicious. Why is it so good? It has more whole milk cream than ice cream, it is churned at a slower speed than ice cream thus making it more dense, it has less air in it and it is stored at warmer temperatures than ice cream (ice cream must be cooler to create the "ice") which gives it a more creamier melty sensation while you eat it. We ate A LOT of gelato in Italy; my most favorite flavor I found was from an Italian chocolate: Bacio.

Pasta

Aw, talk about being able to tell the difference between processed pasta and homemade pasta. We ate at a restaurant one night that served both types of pasta. Some of us got one type while the others got the other and you could tell; the home made was by far more delicious. Though, don't get me wrong, even Italian processed was better than American processed.

Italian words/phrases we used a lot:
Ciao - Hello/Bye
Ciao Bella - Hello/Bye for the ladies... ok we didn't use this but it was called out to us quite a lot.
Arrivederci - Goodbye
Grazie - Thank you
Prego - You're welcome
Lei parla inglese - Do you speak English?

Victoria, Canada

I earned a "buddy pass" through my SkyMiles account and when I started thinking of the places I wanted I immediately started thinking of all the places I love to go, Boston, NYC, California, etc., and then I realized that I need to start going to places that I have never been to and have always wanted to go to. Well, I didn't have time for a long trip and so I wanted to go somewhere where only a day or two there would be perfect and a new place to explore. I decided on Victoria Canada.

I asked my mom if she wanted to be my "buddy" for the trip and we split the price of the one ticket. We flew into Seattle and stayed at a hotel right by the airport. The next morning we got up at 4am to get ready for the day and drive the two hours up to Anacortes so that we could catch the 8am Ferry to Victoria. The ticket for the Ferry said that we should be there 60-90 minutes early. When we arrived at the Ferry the lady looked at us like we were crazy for being there so early and even asked if we would like to go into town and get some coffee before lining up. Well, we had already eaten breakfast (hence the 4am wake-up call) so we just lined up and waited to board. Trying to figure out the ferry system wasn't the easiest but we finally went through Washington State Ferries. The views along the way were so beautiful.

When we first arrived on the island we ate lunch in Sidney (about 30 minutes north of Victoria) at a place called Fish on 5th. It was little hipster/ hippie sea food restaurant. Afterwards we walked around the cute little town before making our way down to Victoria.

In Victoria we went right to the Inner Harbor and found a great parking spot behind the parliament building. We spent the afternoon walking around the Inner Harbor hitting highlights like the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Building. There is also a travel information building right at the harbor where the people were super helpful, kind and informative. By the Inner Harbor is also an IMAX theater at the Royal British Columbia Museum. Both nights in Victoria my mom and I went to movies there (mostly because we knew how to find it and so it was easier than taking the time to find other movie theaters).

Our second day in Victoria we visited the famous Butchart Gardens and words can't really describe how beautiful and breathtaking these gardens were. My favorite garden was the "Sunken Garden," but really every garden was amazing. We lucked out and the weather wasn't rainy but it wasn't too hot either and so we were able to really enjoy the gardens.

That afternoon we decided to rent scooters to drive along the coast of the island. Best decision ever. It took us awhile to get used to the scooters and honestly I'm shocked the rental shop let us leave on them because we were so terrible during our "test" but away we went. We first went to a near by park and drove the loop about 7 times and then, still a little nervous, we decided to bite the bullet and we went out to drive on the road along the coast of the southern part of the island.

For dinner that night we ate at a food truck that my brother and his wife had eaten at and highly recommended we go to, Red Fish Blue Fish. It was delicious and just one fish stick was bigger than my face. Travel Tip: Most places in Victoria accepted US Dollars but Red Fish Blue Fish did not so be ready to use a credit card or get Canadian currency.

The next day we took a ferry about 10 minutes north of Sidney and went over to Vancouver. We missed the first ferry because it filled up and so we had to wait about 2 hours for the second one which cut into our day a little bit. When we got to Vancouver we meant to take a freeway that went around the city to Stanley Park but we on accident took one that went into the city and then the next thing we knew, I was driving in big city with crazy traffic... we're talking "mini NYC." It was a little nerve wrecking but a little fun too. We didn't have time to stay at Stanley Park but we at least drove through it and it reminded me of Central Park; it was a beautiful park.

Our big adventure for that day was Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, just 15 minutes past Stanley Park. Talk about a place where adults can let their inner child feel adventurous as you walk across bridges and climb stairs to tree houses and more.

That night we wanted to at least cross the boarded back into the U.S. so that we didn't get held up the next day when we were flying home. Crossing the boarded was easy and the man who questioned my mom and I thought it was so adorable that we were traveling together; he could not get over it and kept bringing it up.

The next day we went to church next to the LDS Seattle temple and then walked through Pikes Place Market in Seattle before catching our flight home. We really lucked out on this trip the weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful and we did just the right amount of things we wanted to do without feeling exhausted by the time we were headed home.

Duck Beach, North Carolina

January through May was a pretty hellish time for me at work. I was working anywhere from 60-80 hour weeks (more of the later), I hadn't had time to make many friends and so I was very lonely, I didn't have time to do the things I loved (reading, running, my church calling, being with friends, sleeping) and... well it goes on. At the end of April my friend called me up with the crazy idea (I'll explain why crazy in a minute) to go to North Carolina for Memorial Day weekend and I didn't feel an ounce of excitement. I rather would have spent the entire weekend curled up in my bed sleeping. Luckily this unheard of reaction to a trip startled me and I let my friend tell me more about the trip and convince me to go and I am so glad I did because this was just what I needed.

Turns out there is this HUGE "unofficial" gathering of LDS Single Adults at Duck Beach, North Carolina every Memorial Day weekend and she wanted to go check it out. She did some research and talked to people she knew and we ended up in a beach house with a group of people from Washington D.C. as well as a few stragglers from New York and Connecticut.

A week before the trip I mentioned to a friend of ours, Paige, what Melinda and I were soon to be off to do and asked if she wanted to come. The next day she had her plane ticket and added to the fun of the trip. Plus it would be her birthday while we were on the trip and what better way to spend it than exploring a new place with friends. I love it when someone is willing to drop everything for an adventure. It gave me an extra exhilarating jump!

After some research and price comparing we decided it was cheaper, and involved less driving, to fly into Norfolk, Virginia Airport. This was a smaller airport but I liked it because it was easy to get in and out of there and again... it was a shorter drive to get to Duck Beach.

Our first night in Duck Beach one of the houses with the "group" threw a dance party. We're talking DJ, colorful lights, glow sticks... the works.... on the beach. We had such a blast! Even though it was late in the evening and back home it would be cold, the night was warm and humid. We danced our little hearts out, which was HARD to do on the sand but every so often we would stop and laugh and say something like, "We're dancing on the BEACH! By the OCEAN! Under the STARS!" It was surreal. We were one of the very last people on the beach dancing.

At the house we read books on the porch swing, swam in the pool, hung out in the hot tub, made up games on the pool table, watched movies, ate big meals with the group and played one of the best games of double's sand volleyball I have every played (ok, this was the ONLY time I have played doubles but it was a blast).

Beach House Sea Calls

The only LDS church in the Outerbanks prepares for this weekend by holding church in the local High School. The ward house is not big enough to hold the Memorial Weekend LDS population. After church the we visited the Write Brother's Exhibit, as it was right across the street from the High School. It was fun to learn about their failures and successes and to see the place where airplanes were tested over and over again until they found success.

"If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance." - Orville Wright

Besides hanging out at our beach house we also spent the other days at the beach and riding wave runners in the bay. The water in the ocean was just the right kind of warm. The sand was ridiculously hot but once you laid down on it with a towel it was perfect with the warm underneath you and the ocean breeze evening out the temperature.

 Pathway to the beach

Watching the sunset and taking pictures with our new friends

Late Night Giggles: Our last night in the Beach House we stayed up late watching movies, talking just as friends and singing Happy Birthday to Paige at Midnight. When we finally decided to go to bed Paige and I went to our room and Melinda went to her room. As Paige and I were getting ready for bed I all of a sudden got the ridiculous idea that we should go run into Melinda's room and jump on her; of course Paige was on board. We sneaked out of our room and went running down the hall, threw open Melinda's door, flipped on her light and went flying onto her bed. She screamed, we laughed... and then we all laughed. We couldn't stop laughing and finally got to a point where, in the middle of shrill giggles and laughter, we were saying things like, "What on earth are we doing, we are 26 years old." The next morning one of the guys told us how he had heard us run down the hall and jump on the bed and then burst into fits of laughter. He was on his way marching up the stairs to pretend yell at us, "You girls get back in bed!" when he realized, "These are grown women. I can't scold them." And then he heard us saying, "We're 26-years-old" and he thought, "Oh good, they realize it themselves." We all had a good laugh about this.

26 and still happily taking jumping pictures... maybe not as well when we were 20

Since we did all of our cooking at the Beach House we didn't really get to experience any North Carolina cooking but we did make one great find, Duck Doughnuts! Just a delicious brand of Doughnuts famous in the area.

Like I said, this trip was needed. I needed the laughter, the break, the sleep, the warmth, the silliness, the adventure and I needed these friends. There is something about travel where it gives you a break from reality but it also gives you time to put it back in perspective.

The Outerbanks (the strip of land of North Carolina where Duck Beach is at) was beautiful and it is now a new favorite. I can't wait to go back and explore more of the beaches and more of North Carolina as a whole.

Connecticut Part 3 (Boston)

Continuation of "Connecticut Part 1" and "Connecticut Part 2"

Boston! Only two hours away from "Old Man House." I went up to Boston twice while we were staying in Connecticut; once with Melinda for a YSA conference one weekend and the other just to meet up with a friend from back home for brunch.

The YSA Conference was fun because we got to meet a lot of people and make new friends while also being in a great city.

The conference was at MIT and so we felt very smart walking around campus and sitting in classrooms listening to speakers.

The evening activity of the conference was a 20s themed dance at the Boston State House. (Yay for connections with Governor Romney) This was by far the best dance I have every been to; most likely for two reasons. 1- Melinda makes an awesome dance buddy and 2- We danced as if we didn't care what people thought and we couldn't have been happier.

Sunday after church we stopped at Walden Pond on our way home to Connecticut. This was a beautiful stop! Walden Pond is famous for the writer Henry Thoreau who lived their for 2 years and wrote a book about his experience. As we walked around the pond we pulled up quotes by him and read them as we walked around the pond; which gave us a laugh but was also fun to do.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the live which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours" - Thoreau

"This world is but a canvas to our imagination" - Thoreau

My second trip up to Boston was a quick day trip to visit a friend, Beth who I danced with growing up, while Melinda was at work (haha, we were such a "married" couple). I met up with her at Boston Commons and we found this great breakfast place, Paramount Restaurant. It was one of those hole in the wall places where they had a way too many tables and people in a place meant for a group half that size but I loved it and the food was great. We ate so much, at such a great price, that we had to walk around Boston Commons and the Public Gardens afterwards to walk the food off a little bit.

After Beth left to head to work, I threw on my running shoes and clothes and went for a run around Boston. Such a great decision. I got to see some fun neighborhoods and it was the perfect fall day that it was not too hot. I wish I made time to go for a run on more of my trips.

What is a "Smoot?" you may ask. Well I will tell you. In the 50s there was a fraternity during rush week that had a pledge who after getting quite drunk they used him to measure the distance of the bridge that connects Harvard and MIT; his name was Oliver Smoot. Basically he lay on the ground and they marked on the bridge where his head was (this equals one Smoot) and then he would get up, put his feet on the mark and lay dow again and they would mark the bridge again. It became a popular thing to refer to things as "smoots" and it stuck because today you will hear people refer to distances in "smoots."

Smoots = Five feet and Seven inches