Last day in NYC (Day 10)

Today was going to be a great day!!!

The forecast was for 65! In NYC!! We stepped out and it was cold so we figured it would be best to bring our coats. WRONG!

We we late meeting our friends the Johnsons in Central Park for brunch. But it was all good. It gave us a great table!! We had brunch at The Boathouse. Yes the one from 27 Dresses!!! I love going to places from movies I love. The food was sooooooo good!!!

We made our way to see FAO Schwartz and then onto Chinatown. I shouldn't have worn my black boots... I had anticipated sitting more... It got REALLY warm and humid. We had to haul around our coats ALL day. We did tons of window shopping in Chinatown. I was hoping to find pearl earrings but no luck... We had such a great time visiting with them. It had been nearly 7 yrs since they moved back east. After Chinatown we had to say good buy to the Johnsons. They had to get back to their son's awards night. We headed for Ground Zero. Here's how the night SHOULD have gone...

Ground zero then heading over to the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty in the day light/sunset then catch it at night on the way back seeing some of Staten Island inbetween and Manhattan all lit up. Once back in Manhatten meet up with my friend Phoebe from 4th grade for dinner and then catch a late night show of some sort or dessert somewhere then head back to the hotel.

Here's what really happened. Saw Ground Zero then decided to high tail it up to see Wicked on the lottery. We raced and went the wrong way on 51st then had to turn around and race to get in the lottery in time(all this time in heels) only to find the play just getting out! It was an early show on Sunday! My feet were dead. I was sad we missed both the ferry and the show. My phone died so I couldn't call Phoebe. We had dinner at Heartland which was great!!! We headed home and found a place with yummy cheesecake. We got a piece to go and got on the train and called it a night...

At least now we have a reason to go back to NYC. To redo that night...

Now we are home with wonderful memories!

Sorrento, Rome , the air and NYC (Days 7,8 & 9)

We had free time in Sorrento until 2pm. We walked through the shops on the main street then found our way onto the back streets.

I am SOOOOOOOOO glad we did!!! I found shoe stores!!! Happy shoes stores!!! We also found some last minute gifts for those we had not found the perfect gift for. But mostly it was all about the shoes!!! Well and all teh other things I had found for me. I had done very little shopping for myself. A pair of gloves in Rome and a necklace and bracelet in Capri.

I saw these ADORRABLE boots but at 89 Eruo.. I walked away. We found another store and I found these way cute heels. They were hand made Italian leather and they were half off!! 30 Euro! Since I was sure I wasn't going to find another pair I snagged them. I LOVE them!!!

We continued shopping. I bought a bag of Italian chocolates, earrings, a Christmas ornament, lacy boy shorts and the boots!!!!!!!!!!
Joe made me try them on and that was it. I was in love. They are changeable with cable knit on the inside that can be rolled down to any point or they can be all the way up and be knee highs!

We headed back to the hotel and stopped for lunch. On the way we stumbled upon these old ruins of Sorrento! To look down gave us vertigo! They were way cool!! We got back to the hotel for the group picture and loaded the buses to go back to Rome to head home.

Once in Rome a large group of us decided to go into the little beach town for dinner. We loaded the bus and scared the driver I think... Joe explained to him in his broken Italian that we were looking for a good place to eat. The driver called his son who spoke English and they recommended a place and the driver went out of his way to drop us there. We all tried to tip him but he wouldn't hear of it! We all arrived at the restaurant but it wasn't open for dinner yet so everyone left!!! Joe and I decided to return. We were SOOOOOOOOOO glad we did!!! The atmosphere was great. Very romantic. The food was fantastic! A guy came inside selling roses. Joe bought one! (I saved it) Dessert was the best tiramisu I have had!!! We meandered through the little town and found our way back to the bus stop where others had gathered. We went back to the hotel to repack all our bags so they would fit everything for the international flight.

We woke bright and early then sat in the airport FOREVER. Our plane was an hour late taking off. It wasn't late arriving. It sat there as long as we had sat there... 10 hrs later(and 4 hrs of sleep in flight) we landed in NYC. We got a cab to our hotel and we got ready for a night on the town. I felt great until we sat down to eat. Thats when the jet lag hit me. I felt dizzy and REALLY tired. We ate but went right back to the hotel where I crashed.

Isle of Capri!! (Day 6)

We woke up early for Capri. 5 am to be exact... And NOT because we had to.... Riina had told Paul (my regional manager) of the dinner story and how she wanted to get him back. Paul suggested an early wake up call and proceeded to the desk to ask for one! Thus at 5 am the phone rang.

We sort of went back to sleep. Got up in time to rush up for breakfast and get on the bus to get on the boat. Then we waited around for the boat....

Capri was worth it!!! What a beautiful island!! Our new guide Gino was awesome! He was fun and just great!

We started out on a quick bus tour to the city of Capri. The roads are so narrow that the passing cars nearly touched! We walked through Capri to some beautiful gardens which are part of a monastery there. On the way we saw THE hotel of Capri where the elite suite (which had its own swimming pool) was 2600 Euro PER NIGHT! INSANE!
The view of the cliffs and ocean were amazing (there aren't enough "cool" words to describe Italy)
There was a road that leads to the beach. I was glad I didn't have to make that road. (go see the pic)
We then had some free time to do what we wished. On the way back through the city I found a cat! He was noisy and was happy to be getting some attention.

We got back on the bus and headed up the island to AniCapri (Upper Capri) Where we had more free time. We wandered in and out of shops hoping to still yet find me some shoes. No luck. But I did find a gorgeous knee length leather jacket to die for!! I wish I had bought it but it was 150 Euro... We asked a shop keeper where to have lunch and we were directed to a little place up the hill. We found 2 of our group also there so we sat with them. They had sat with us and Riina and Justin the night before at dinner. We got to know them better and had the most fabulous meal!
It was time to head back down to the pier for those who wanted to go on the boat tours. We chose not to and spent the time wandering the shops along the pier. We wish we had rented a scooter and rode around the island.... it looked ominous so we didn't. It ended up being a beautiful day and a missed opportunity. We ran into Justin and Riina who had found the most wonderful chocolate treat EVER invented! I have no idea what it is but I wanted to buy the whole platter and take it all home.

We all piled on to the dock to await the boat. Then chaos struck. A goods ferry was leaving port and last minute trucks were driving down the dock to get on. This would have been all well and good except there were close to 300-400 PEOPLE standing on the dock at the time!!! We all had to back up against the wall or fear being pushed into the water! It was crazy! I got some good pics of Joe freaking out!

Once we were back in Sorrento we cleaned up and headed to the farewell dinner. It started out simple.... appetizer samplers of cheese stuffed eggplant, fried zucchini straws, potato crochettes, and rice balls. The offered 2nds to those who wanted it. Then came pasta. Ravioli and manicotti. It was all very good too! We were all prepared for dessert when out came sausage and spinach. MORE FOOD!!! Finally dessert arrived. Through all this a poor, sad lived man wandered through and played all the cliche Italian songs us American's associate with Italy. He serenaded a few and finally left.

We headed back to pack to go back to Rome the next day. The staff was ill prepared for my husband as were all in our group... We entered the lobby and headed for the elevator. It was full so I waited. Then the look of shock was on all those in the elevator as I found myself being hurled towards them! Joe had pushed me into the elevator. He then followed me in and the lady at the desk was yelling at us as the doors closed. I heard someone say tilt... The elevator didn't move. The doors wouldn't open. We just sat there. Finally it moved and we went to the basement. Floor -1 Joe got out. Still the elevator didn't move. Justin got out. The elevator didn't move. We all got out and were met by one of the staff and directed on how to get back up. LOL!!! He will never live it down...

More Rome then onto Napoli, Pompeii and Sorrento! (Days 4 & 5)

We have been having SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun we have not had time to update the blog!!!! We only get internet in one room of the ENTIRE hotel so we run out of battery!

Day 4
Rome It was another free day! We saw TONS!!!!!
-The Mouth of Truth
-The area of Trastevere
-The Sistine Chapel
(just to name the highlights)

We began our day with the hopes of me finding shoes as we wandered the streets of Trastevere. We stopped just before the bridge to Trastevere so we could go to the church of Santa Maria where the Bocca della Verita (Mouth of Truth) is home to. And no D - we did not re-enact Roman Holiday... there is a time and photo limit to keep the line moving and a guy there to make sure...
We crossed the river and saw some cool ruins which were part of Tiber Island. We made our way through Trastevere. Beautiful area!! We saw a cool fountain and went to take a picture if it with Katya's horse. We were stopped by some guys who were clearly NOT sober. They were really nice and wanted to talk soccer with Joe as he was wearing the wrong kind of jersey for their liking. They wanted us to come back at 2 to smoke some dope! lol! We told them our religion so they invited us back to have drinks. lol! Yah we didn't find them again. We went into a bunch of stores adn stopped at all the street vendors. No shoes... got some cute tights though! Tried one last store. It was a department type store and found these cute gray heels for 7.50 Euro! We looked around a bit more. Went to check out and the lady rung them up then said oh I'm sorry wrong price and she rung them up full price! Now had the tag been shoved in the shoe I would not have objected but it was attached to the security tag! The manager came out and said the same thing so I left them. Sad huh?! We had lunch (more pizza) one had anchovies hidden by zucchini flowers! GROSS! We got more gelato to take the yuck out of our mouth and bumped into more friends from our group! We left them and made our way to the Vatican. We got off the bus and promptly went the wrong way to the Sistine Chapel. Turned around and went the right way. After an hour or so of wandering the surrounding buildings (not by choice) which were filled with the most amazing art work of paintings, stone ect... we found ourselves inside the Sistine Chapel. It was so much to take in! We starred at all the paintings of the stories from the Bible. It was crazy! To think someone laid on their back to paint all of them... it was... yah.... We made our way through the maze the other way and headed outside. I had wanted to make it to St Peters Bascilla but it was getting late and I wasn't sure we would make it. Plus there was a pyramid to see too! We went to find a bus ticket. No luck. We wandered 2 blocks and finally found one. As we made our way back to the stop our bus passed us. We figured no big. We had been taking the buses and there is always another near by. 30 MINUTES LATER our bus comes again! Needless to say we didn't see the pyramid. We headed back to town to finish the souvenir shopping we had begun the day before. We stopped to have dinner at an outdoor seated restaurant. We were placed next to an older German couple. We had a great time talking about traveling ect.. Dinner was yet again wonderful. We walked slowly back to the hotel to take in more of the sites at night and to delay the packing of the bags... We came to a square where each corner of the buildings on each corner had a huge carving. They were beautiful!

Day 5
We headed south to Sorrento going through Napoli (Naples) and Pompeii. The country side is so beautiful! You see villages far of on the rolling hillsides in the colored stucco everywhere. Our tour guide had a really thick accent and apparently never bothered to find out how English words were really pronounced. She would speak them how they would phonetically sound. So not only did we need to translate that but it was heavily accented too! It was hard to take in what information she was offering. Once in Napoli CRAZY took on a whole new meaning! There were cars and people everywhere you looked just going. Not really watching where they were going but somehow no one was dying! Roads that in the US would be for 2 cars were filled with 6 plus scooters! The lights (we were told) were more like guidelines. You only stopped if you had to. We were headed to the capitol center when we were stopped by a political demonstration! We were redirected and missed capitol center... We climbed the hillside and stopped for a picturesque view of Napoli. It looked just like a travel magazine!

We made our way back down and headed to Pompeii. There we saw the ruins from 79 AD. 79AD!!! It was unreal!*Taken from Wikipedia - Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples. Pompeii was destroyed, and completely buried, during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The volcano collapsed higher roof-lines and buried Pompeii under 60 feet of ash and pumice, and it was lost for nearly 1,700 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1748. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire.*
Go see the pictures! Truely amazing. Actual hollowed out molds of real people were discovered and plaster was poured in to make replicas of how people were when they died.

We finished heading south, got to our hotel and it is amazing! We have an ocean front view!!!!!!!!!! So beautiful!!!!!! Because we filled their hotel they thanked us by a free welcome dinner that night. They served fish... luckily we were sitting with our friends Riina and Justin and he doesn't eat fish either. So they special made us pork! The staff at this hotel were so wonderful and accommodating.

Joe was getting more bold in our friendship with Justin and Riina. Riina was an exchange student from Finland. She returned and married her host brother. They divorced years later and she is now dating Justin. She is 3 yrs older then him. He asked Justin - "So how long have you been interested in older European women Justin?" Riina gasped and immediately threw her napkin then her fork at Joe!!! It was great!!!! We sat and talked with them the rest of the evening. She vowed to get him back at the end of the night.

Italy!!!! (Days 2 & 3 of our trip)

It is SOOOOOOOOOOO amazing here!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even describe how great it is!!!!!
( I have added albums of our days - TONS of pics! Just skim or look at them all if you want!)

I love how Joe has described the first part of our time here.

November 7, 2009
Got up and packed and took the trains to the airport. That was quite a chore. Sat around the airport for like 4 hours. Did a lot of reading and listening to my Italian tapes. Then some old Turkish woman who looked just like an old Russian Babooshka came and asked to use our cell phone. She wanted to make a call to Turkey. She didn’t speak a lick of English. I finally communicated to her that it cost too much money for me to call Turkey on my cell phone, and she went away, lol. The flight to Italy was quite long. Jen slept ok, but I maybe got in 30 minutes of sleep. I mostly read and listened to my Italian tape.

November 8, 2009
Arrived in Italy about 7am local time. We found our tour bus, but they only had 1 bus and were expecting 50 ppl, but we needed 2 busses as we had 90 ppl. So we sat around the airport for like 2 hours waiting for our second group to arrive and the tour ppl to get their stuff straightened out. When we all finally got on the bus we were missing 1 person. Turns out it was someone whose bags got lost, so when we couldn’t find her we just left. Poor Girl. The busses took us to our hotel, but the rooms weren’t ready so we unloaded all our bags into 2 rooms. One of the guys had to argue with the cleaning woman about how she couldn’t clean the room with all our bags in there. Then we got on the bus, with no time for lunch, and headed out. This was about 11am local time. So many ppl were tired and sleeping during the tour. We got out several times. We walked around the coliseum, and walked by a soccer field that was all dirt and mud and pools of water from all the recent rain, but ppl were still playing on it. These adult teams with some pretty old ppl playing too. That was really funny. Then we got out at the Vatican and saw the front of St. Peter’s Basillica. Then got out one last time to look at some square, I forget the name. Then they dropped us off at our hotel, and we took our bags to our room then went out and explored Rome. That was way cool. We went and saw this church down the street, then I bought Jen an orange rose from a roadside florist. On the way to the church we stopped at a bakery and Jen got a truffle. Then we wandered up to this other church but didn’t go in, saw the Laundromat, then back to our hotel. I got in another 30 min nap then we went to dinner. We sat with Paul and Sarah which was fun, and had a great dinner. Bread, soup (minestrone kind of), mashed potatos and meatballs with peas. Then this weird dessert in a shot glass. Some kind of custard. Jen says she thinks that the alcohol wasn’t totally burned off because she felt a little tipsy. I didn’t taste any alcohol in it. After dinner we went back and took a bath. The towels smelled like vinegar, and they weren’t incredibly absorbent. The toilet is like a 5 gallon per flush thing that splashes when you flush. And the beds are about like box springs. But with the windows open we can hear Rome, which is all scooters and crazy European sounding police sirens and cars driving by. It’s so awesome to listen to.

Day 2
The flight was pretty uneventful. I got some decent sleep and felt great when we got to Italy. We got to the airport and had to wait for the other group. We loaded the buses and headed to our hotel in Rome. Once there we dumped all our crap into 2 rooms and headed out to see parts of Rome. We started out on a bus tour of Italy since the rooms weren't ready yet. We saw all the major points(The Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, Santa Maria Maggiore, Altare della Patria, St Angelos Castel, St Peters Square at the Vatican and Piazza Navona) and made notes of what we wanted to make sure we saw better with our free days. Once the hotel was ready for our group we took our stuff to our room and we headed out to see Rome on foot. We saw some beautiful churches and were able to actually witness a baby christening!!! That was pretty cool. Found a yummy bakery and had this great chocolate treat. Have no clue what it was called but I want one again! We had to head back to the hotel for dinner where we stayed till they kicked us out of the dining room.

The next day(Day 3) was a free day in Rome!!! We just wandered all day! Some of the best things were
-Trevi Fountain
-The Spanish Steps
-The Pantheon
-Basilica di San Giovanni
-All the things we saw the day before only at night!!!
-Tons of soccer stores
-Great food
-GELATO!!!!!!!!!!

We bumped into a couple in our group Riina and Junstin. They are from Colorado. We had lunch with them and enjoyed a few of the sites then split into our own directions. I had hoped to find them at the Pantheon so we could get gelato together bit we didn't see them. We did quite a bit of shopping at the shops for soccer jersey's. I think Joe found 5!!! (I'm keeping a tally for my shoe revenge) It rained off and on all day. It wasn't too cold so it was pleasant I guess... We wandered the streets of Rome as night fell. We found our selves in front of the Colosseum with all teh lights glowing. It was breathtaking. We walked around that whole area again seeing all the buildings lit up. We found the restaurant that a student had blogged about. It was perfect!! It reminded me of what JP's would be like if they were in Rome 20 yrs in the future. It felt like home. The food was excellent and we told everyone about it when we came back.

ITALY Here we come!!!!!!!!! (Day 1)

So with all the craziness of getting ready for our trip I completely forgot to do a blog about Cali!! Not to mention the first snow AND Halloween! I will add them on the airplane and post it when we get to Italy.

For now I will update on our trip so far.

We headed out Thursday morning for NYC! We have had a blast!!!!

Thursday we got to our hotel later then we had wanted to and got settled. We decided to stay local and have dinner at the Pine which is adjacent to the hotel. AMAZING FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We then went back to the room to watch the REAL kick Ohio's butt!!! It was an awesome game!!!!

Friday we had a leisurely start and spent the entire morning walking Central Park! What a great way to spend the day! We had lunch from a side walk stand and later on hot chocolate (which I promptly burnt my tongue on...)

After we saw all we wanted to see of Central Park we headed to the 5th Ave area and did some shopping. Got the kids great gifts and I got a new vest! I LOVE it!!!

We headed to Times Square did the whole site seeing thing and had dinner at Chevys. Not fancy but delish!

Now we just finished repacking so we can head to Italy!!! We are SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!

Enjoy the slide show!

Bear Lake

For this years choir tour we decided to make it way low key and way fun. Usually we go somewhere far and exotic (Caribbean cruise, Hawaii, ect...) This year we stayed in a couple homes up at Bear Lake. The original plan was for me and Joe to take the motorcycle up there but when we found out Zi-hyun and Anja would be with us and that Zi-hyun would not be going with us to Cali we decided that the girls should go with me.

We had a BLAST!!!!!!!!!!!

We headed up and stopped at the spring up Logan Canyon. We met the rest of the choir and gang at the Pickleville Playhouse where we had a fantastic dinner and watched an amazing cast put on Annie Get Your Gun. It was awesome!!! One of the leads is my brother Bradley's best friend so my parents and Brad and his wife Janelle met us up there too!




We stayed the night with my family in some of Janelle's families cabins then spent the next morning with them at the lake. At lunch we said goodbye and headed to where the choir had a spot at the North Shore.




We got there just in time to eat and play! Anja and Zi-hyun took the canoes out for a while then we all piled in Shauna and Rusty's boat and had our turn on the 3-man inner tube. THAT was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!!!! I wish someone had gotten pics!



As we were packing up to head back to the cabin to make dinner we decided to make a potty run. The car got stuck in the sand!!! Laron and Jim had to come and help pull me out. Again no pics... :( it was pretty funny though!

Once we were back at the cabin a began to prepare for dinner. I was in charge of that nights dinner to feed ALL of us. As I got the chicken going I went to locate the rest of the ingredients only to find that they had been left behind, at home, in my garage!!!! We all silently prayed as Kathy and Jen ran to the ONLY store that they would have ingredients that would work. The returned triumphant much to everyone's astonishment. The store had exactly what we needed in the exact quantities we needed! Dinner was delicious!


Dessert was cobbler and it was heavenly! While it was busy cooking in the dutch ovens we had bells playing and a mean game of Apples to Apples going.

It was a great night!!!

Sunday we woke and went to the church in the area to sing for their meeting. It was awesome and they were all so impressed that they have asked us to come and perform in the Paris, Id Tabernacle concert series! After church we headed back to clean and pack and head home.

Us girls stopped at a market to get our raspberry shakes. They were way yummy!

WE stopped at the Ut Id border for a photo op when we heard someone on a bullhorn talking to us. We looked around and saw it was a cop! He wanted to know if we wanted him to take our picture!! It was so awesome!!!



We made it home, unpacked, washed and packed again so we could leave in the morning for Cali!