100 Day Challenge - Day 44

Day 44 - A picture that describes your life.

100 Day Challenge - Day 31

Day 31 - A picture of food you made.

 Sweet potatoes made for "Friendsgiving 2010." Memaw's famous recipe.

100 Day Challenge - Day 29

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile.

 Keegan, wearing his "Despicable Me" minion goggles.

100 Day Challenge - Day 26

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you.

 Ryan and Keegan, my nephews.

Happy Holidays!

It's definitely been awhile.

I've been keeping myself busy. After Thanksgiving I headed down to Orlando for work. After working was over, I got to play at Harry Potter World and Disney World. There's something about Disney World that makes you feel like a kid again. I can't wait to have little stinkers of my own to take down there and meet Mickey and ride the rides.

After my work week, I flew from Orlando to Charlotte. Where I met my friend's from college for the ACC Championship game. It was an amazing weekend. We stayed with my old roommate Avery and it was just like college all over again...from what I remember. It definitely was THAT much fun!

The past few weeks have been filled with Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating and going to see "A Christmas Carol" at Ford's Theater. I've definitely been getting into the Christmas spirit.

Christmas is my favorite holiday of all time. I love the being with my family and close friends, the food, the snow, the decorations and of course I don't mind the gifts either.

I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from my pals Mickey and Minnie :)

Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Edition

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for: (in no particular order)

My Pop. 99 years and 9 months. God-fearing, hardworking, lovable, funny. My inspiration.
My Momma. Best friend. My  hero.
My Dad. My rock.

My boyfriend. My love.

My nephews. Teach me new things every time I'm with them. Let me experience the world through their eyes.
My extended family. Who love me like I'm their own.

My high school friends. My first understanding of true friendship.
My college friends, who have become my "adult" friends. My confidantes. My grounding force.
My Riva friends. My world travelers. No matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, it's always the same.
My faith. My health. My job.

Happy Thanksgiving!

European Tour: Europe with Family - Riva and Bellinzona

After leaving Venice, we got on the train and headed towards Switzerland. I got off at the Riva stop and my parents continued on to Lugano, where they were staying. The next morning, I walked back to the train station to meet them and bring them to Riva.

Lake Lugano in the background

Me and my parents :)

I gave them the tour around Riva itself, showed them the 3 bars, ristorante, pharmacy, bank and stopped at the lake for a photo shoot. The lake is Lake Lugano, where we went during the warmer months to hang out and swim after class. They have a swing set and slide in the little "park" there.

After the park, we headed to the Casa where I showed them around, and we had another photo shoot in the garden. After being at the Casa for awhile, we walked back to the train station.

Bellinzona

This is when my dad had his infamous temper tantrum. He went to go buy the tickets for the train, but it wouldn't accept his credit card. It kept asking for a PIN, and my dad kept screaming at the machine that he didn't have a PIN. Then he didn't have enough Swiss Francs on him to pay for it all in cash, so I had to run back to the Casa (literally, run) and get my debit card to try it. I thought he was going to have a heart attack because his blood pressure was so high. After I bought the tickets, we got on the train and headed to Bellinzona.

With Bellinzona's castle's in the background

Castlegrande

At Castlegrande

Bellinzona is known for it's castles, there are 3 of them. Castlegrande, Sasso Corbaro, and Montebello.  We walked around the castles for a bit, inspecting the outside of the castles and enjoying the view. We then went inside to go through the museum and see the medieval artifacts and learn how Bellinzona has grown. It was cool to learn about how they dug through the Alps (Bellinzona sits at the foot of the Alps) in order to make the tunnel.

After touring the castles, we went down to the village to eat at a local cafe and get some really good pizza and wine.

Train ride back to Lugano

After lunch, we got back on the train to head towards Lugano. There were people smoking weed in the compartment in front of us, and I think we all might have gotten a contact high because we started giggling and could not stop. Uncle Joe went to stick his head out of the window to get a picture of the countryside and almost got in taken off as we whizzed into a tunnel...which set off more giggles.

After our train ride, we got back into Lugano, where we walked around the Casino and the Lake for a little bit and then went to dinner.

After dinner, it was time to say good-bye. My parents and Aunt and Uncle were off to Milan the next day and I had to start classes again. I had an amazing time with them, and got to experience some amazing stuff (thanks Dad for spoiling us!) and was sad to see them go. I just kept in mind that I would be back stateside in a few short weeks...

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: The Casa

European Tour: Europe with Family - Venice

A two hour train ride from Florence, our next stop was Venice. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, which was right off of San Marco's Square, and then headed to San Marco's Square. As I talked about in a previous post, Venice floods sometimes and one of the first places to flood is San Marco's Square. This time, there was evidence of the flooding. The puddles behind them in the picture aren't from rain, but from the standing water that was in the Square earlier.

Uncle Joe, Aunt Sue and parents in San Marco's Square

The first thing my mom wanted to check off her "bucket list" was feeding the pigeons. So she bought feed from the cart and the pigeons went to town. There she is, getting pecked on for food. Fortunately she didn't get pooped on, miraculously.

Mom, feeding the birds

The one-legged pigeon

With San Marco's behind us

As mom was finishing up feeding the pigeons, I noticed one pigeon who only had 1 leg. I felt sorry for it, snapped a picture of it (obviously) and let out an "Aww, look at that one" as I pointed it out to everyone else. As they were turning to see it, it literally dropped dead. We all laughed uncertainly, thinking that it was playing dead or something. But Dad nudged it with his toe and it was really dead. The animal lover in me felt so guilty...like I somehow had managed to kill the pigeon with just my glance. And seeing as how I almost killed someone's relative earlier in the trip (the candle incident as it's referred to in my family), it just wasn't working well for me. So Rest In Peace, you poor little bird :(

Typical scene on our sight-seeing tour

After San Marco's Square, we walked around for a little bit longer. My dad was in charge (as he was the whole time) of telling us what to do and when to do it. As you can see in the picture to the left...Dad is reading the map, the rest of us are waiting for him to tell us what to do and my mom was taking pictures of everything she could think of.

On the taxi boat to Murano

The next plan was to head over to Murano, to see the glass being blown and then made into something cool. We took the little "taxi" boats over to Murano, and walked around for a little bit after getting a demonstration.This is when my parents saw a fishbowl that was all glass and blown by the artists from that shop. I'll give it to them, it's a pretty cool decoration, its very intricate in it's design and looks like all the fish swimming in the bowl are real but they're indeed glass. I FREAKED out when they told me the price (isn't it supposed to be the other way around) and secretly wondered if they just traded the rest of my college education for a fishbowl...

Us, with the shop's cat

While we were waiting for the administrative part of the process to get going, Mom and I decided to walk around some more. We happened to come across the shop's pet cat. As I've explained before, I'm a HUGE animal lover and while both my parents enjoy animals, my mom has a soft spot for them...especially cats. So Mom and I spent a better half of an hour petting and playing with the kitty while my dad negotiated prices and shipping and all the fun stuff.

View from our room

After ordering the fishbowl, we got back on a water taxi and headed back to the main island of Venice. We walked around a little more, taking in the sights and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Our hotel had two entrances/exits. One was from the street and you can access it by foot, the other was from the water. Gondola's or little water taxi's could pull up behind the hotel and deposit you and your belongings. One of the main disadvantage to taking a boat in Venice is you have to know when the tides are changing. If it is high tide, boats can't get under bridges and other things...so you're blocked in until the tide goes down. Just another thing to think about when you travel by water all the time.

Mom, Me, Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe on the gondola

Me at the Doge's Palace

After dinner, we decided to check the "take a ride in a gondola" off our bucket list. Once the gondolier got us all situated according to our weights and balanced the boat...we were off. Dad had to sit in the very front of the boat by himself (the same place I got put when I rode with my friends in the earlier trip), and he's responsible for the pictures that were taken...so needless to say, they're kind of blurry. There are many things my dad is very good at, taking really good pictures is not one of them. I'm trying to train him better...It was getting dark outside so most of the pictures from the ride didn't turn out well, but we did get some with the famous Rialto Bridge in the background. We circled around the whole island of Venice, navigating the canal waters.

Uncle Joe and  Aunt Sue

The next day we made a stop at the Doge's Palace before we had to get on the train to Switzerland. The Doge of Venice was the ruler of Venice at one point in time, and much like you were expect from a royal, his palace was lavish.

After our visit to the Doge's Palace, we went back to the hotel to finish packing and check out so we could head to Switzerland. We found Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe in the hotel bar, cheersing to Venice and Italy in general...a good way to leave the city. We got in a water taxi that would take us back to the "mainland" so we get to the train station. The last picture really shows just how small the water taxis are, Uncle Joe and my dad look super uncomfortable squished into the little boat. And keep in mind, there were 3 others of us, as well as all our luggage. It would've been nice if it wasn't raining, we could've stood out on the deck of the boat, but no such luck. We all crammed into the little inside of the boat...but it was definitely a fitting ending for our trip to Venice.

Crammed into the little water taxi

 To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Europe with Family - Riva and Bellinzona

European Tour: Europe with Family - Florence

As we all know, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe...but seeing as how we were Americans, we got a few days off for "Thanksgiving Break." My family took that opportunity to come visit me.

My mom doesn't handle airplanes and flying very well. And at this point in time, she hadn't gotten on an airplane in a very long time. But this was her motivation to get on one, come see her favorite child...in Europe. It was definitely a no-brainer. So my mom, dad and Aunt Sue and Uncle Joe headed over to Italy for a visit. They flew into Rome and did their touristy thing there while I was still in class.

I met up with them in Florence after my midterm.Which was a journey in itself..it's supposed to be a 3 hour and 15 minute train ride from Riva to Florence. However, a person got hit while standing on the train tracks so we had to divert and it ended up taking 6 hours. Thank God for the nice man on the train who realized I understood none of the what the conductor was saying over the loud speaker and translated for me. After my 6 hour adventure, my dad met me at the train station and took me to our hotel. My parents got a room that had the master suite, a kitchen/dining/living room and then a room with a bathroom for me...definitely a big step up from the way I had been traveling with my group in Riva.

We went to a restaurant that their tour guide had recommended...where some people proceeded to drink the very good wine, and lots of it. After singing and dancing through the streets on our way back to the hotel...in our made up Italian no less, we all headed to bed because it was late.

Dad and Me

The next day we were up bright and early (on my Dad's schedule), ate breakfast in the hotel (traditional European breakfast) and then bundled up to head out. In the picture above, Dad and I are standing right outside of our hotel. The Arno River is right behind the wall we're standing in front of and that's the Ponte Vecchio to the right. We walked across the Ponte Vecchio, shopping and heading into shops that caught our fancy along the way. 

Pointing out the Hotel

With Mom and Aunt Sue

Once we got to the other side, Mom made me do the touristy thing and point out where our hotel was...the things I do to please my mother. We spent most of the day just lollygagging around Florence. They had done all the "touristy" stuff (The David, Il Duomo, etc.) the day before with a tour guide and I had already been to Florence with the group. So, there weren't any particular things we were dying to see...we made our way around Florence, stopping shops and buying things as we saw them.

Us at Lunch

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, I had a really good pizza...hard to mess up pizza when you're in Italy though. After lunch, we headed over to Santa Croce...another church. In every church that Uncle Joe went in during the trip, he would light a candle and pray that Navy would beat Notre Dame. I'm not exaggerating, in all of the 10 churches he went in, he lit one. And Navy ended up winning the next football season and the years since, so something must have worked. I wanted to light a candle, so I took an unused one and went to light it with an existing one (the way you're supposed to), the candle fell out of its holder and extinguished the lit candle. I hurriedly re-lit that candle, but felt guilty for giving someone's grandma a heart attack. But no worries, I re-lit her candle, so she should be good to go, just a minor scare.

Dad and Uncle Joe with Neptune

After lunch, we continued our tour de Florence on foot. Dad and Uncle Joe had to stop at the statue of Neptune...being in the Navy and all, they were really tight with the God of the Sea, at least, I think that was the reasoning they gave me...?

We also stopped by the fountain of the "Porcellino." Which is a statue of a wild boar. Legend has it that if you rub the snout of the boar, you are destined to come back to Florence. We all rubbed the snout, so it looks like Florence is on my places to visit again.

After our afternoon adventures, we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit and get ready to go to dinner...once again the tourist of Europe has a motto of "walk, eat, walk, eat" and we were definitely sticking to that.

Aunt Sue with our wine bottle :)

Ponte Vecchio shop

Dinner that night was at a restaurant that was near our hotel. We were some of the only people in there. I managed to knock my full glass of red wine everywhere (I should learn to talk without my hands) but other than that it was a quiet and awesome meal. After dinner, I showed them the place we went to on our earlier trip for Gelato. Once again, the gelato was delicious.

We walked back across the Ponte Vecchio and went to the hotel to rest up for our trip to Venice the next morning.

To be continued...Next Up: European Tour: Europe with Family - Venice

That's why you play the game...

This weekend was the Navy vs. Notre Dame game at the New Meadowlands in NJ. Navy was the 7 point underdog. Navy ended up winning 35-17. And that my friends, is why you play the game.

We left mid-morning from Arlington. Jen, Susan and I crammed into the backseat of my dad's car. We managed to convince my dad to stop at Chik-fil-a for lunch...which was no easy feat considering my dad is all about convenience on road trips. And the CFA did not include a gas station. But, because he loves, us...he stopped so we could have our favorite meal.

Us, in the backseat. Jen assumes her normal position of not facing the camera.

After arriving at the hotel, we took a little nap and then got ready to go out to eat. After our photo-shoot (since we were dressed up nice), we headed to Panicos. The food there was super good, one of the best caesar salads I've ever had and the Lobster ravioli was delicious.

Our photo shoot in the hotel room

After dinner, we headed to the hotel bar to watch the Yankees lose (sorry Jen) and have a few adult beverages. Calling it a night after my dad and Uncle Joe finished their 2nd drink.

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast as we were all getting ready for the game. We made the 45 minute drive to the stadium and walked from our not-so-good parking spot to the stadium. The New Meadowlands is really nice, puts Fed-Ex to shame. But that also might be the fact that we were in the club section for this game, and the last time I was at Fed-Ex was on my own dollar...so I was in the nose bleed section.

Anyways, after figuring out where our section was, we walked around and looked at all our options for food. My dad was nice and got my mom cotton candy (her favorite) and she shared with with me, Jen and Susan. One of Jen's phobias/dislikes is the way a cotton ball feels. Apparently, cotton candy feels very much like a cotton ball so Jen wanted to eat the cotton candy, but didn't want to touch it. Susan, passing the ultimate friendship test, fed it to her. We got many a looks from our giggling and the actual feeding. After stuffing our faces, we went to our seats to cheer on the Midshipmen. The first quarter was kind of nerve wracking, but then we realized the Navy came to play and Notre Dame not so much...so all in all it wasn't that stressful of a game. Navy ended up winning 35-17.

At the game

After our commute back to the hotel, we took a nap (shocking, I know) and then got ready for dinner. We ate at Tula in downtown Brunswick, next to the Rutgers campus. Once again, it was really good food. I'm always amazed that my dad finds these restaurants in places we've never been before that are actually good. His secret, he says, is Open Table. I'll have to try it the next time I go somewhere and need a dinner recommendation. After our delicious dinner, we once again made our way back to the hotel bar. Things went down hill in the conversation and we (meaning the younger folk) had to explain some nasty terms to the older folk. Kind of awkward, yet hilarious. It definitely made me appreciate my family (blood and extended) and how lucky I am to get along with them and enjoy their company.

All in all, such a great weekend!