Lucky

Have I ever mentioned how lucky I am to have married such a great guy? I really am. And he really is. (a great guy. I don't know how lucky he feels)  I have had a life long dream of going to Europe and we did it! We spent 3 amazing weeks with backpacks and cameras, and a whole lot o' excitement. We flew from Charlotte directly into London and flew from Rome back to Charlotte. I really wanted to edit some of the pictures before posting them here, but I know some of you aren't facebook users so I'll put a few of the pics up now.

We had such an awesome time, and even though it was a little more stressful not having every detail planned ahead of time, we actually really enjoyed being able to be flexible and change things up whenever/however we wanted. We used Expedia to book hotels/B&B's from night to night and actually got some really great deals! We got to stay at a Hilton one night. I decided we should be Hilton people:) I like the sound of that!

In London, we got there just as the Changing of the Guard was happening, which was neat since it was raining the rest of the time we were there... Thus, no changing of the Guard. We Loved all the gardens in London, especially the Queen's Gardens, and we even went to check out the London Business School... Just in case Alan decides to go in that direction;) We got to tour the inside of Buckingham Palace, as well as see the Royal Mews, and the Queen's Gallery which had an exhibit of original, recently acquired Leonardo DaVinci drawings of the human body. These drawings were incredibly detailed and accurate, and would have transformed medicine had they been seen at the time they were done. However, Because they were not, we waited 400 years to "rediscover" what he had already known. Pretty amazing stuff.

                         

                       

If you look close, you can even see he knew all about the numbers of/types of teeth!

 We went from London to Paris and stayed in Paris for a few days. We did it all in Paris. The Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Pantheon, a boatride on the River, La Chapelle (LOVE!), the Arc de Triumph, walked Champ d'elysse, mass at Notre Dame(I kept crying and Alan kept telling me I was weird. But when the organ started and you looked around where we were, I just couldn't stop...) We took a day trip to Versailles, which we loved, and I basically lived on croissants and ham n' cheese crepes.  We then took an overnight train from Paris to Venice. That was quite the experience. I liked it. Alan...not so much. Venice was beautiful, but my heart belongs to Florence. Ahhhh Florence. I LOVE Florence. I am torn between Paris and Florence being my favorite places on Earth!
Florence is absolutely gorgeous. I love the Tuscan feel, the food is just a little different but delicious, and I found my favorite gelato place off one of the bridges. Not the Ponte Vecchio. It was one off from that.They had beautiful streets full of jewelry and leather, and the Duomo was pretty amazing. We went to see "the David" and wow... Talk about spectacular. I couldn't stop staring up at it. Alan says it looks just like him. :) Keep in mind the pics I am putting up aren't edited, so hopefully they aren't too dark or anything.

There really is nothing quite like when the tower started sparkling...

Mass started at Notre Dame. There was such a sense of reverence. Such a neat experience

 Alan said he tried to take the picture so it looked like I was about to be hit by the bus. Awww!:/

 Future home?

 Future bedroom!

  My favorite picture of them all. Not edited at all, and it captured exactly what I was seeing. I love it! This is why Florence stole my heart. Just look at how beautiful it is.

OK, OK...LET'S TALK GELATO. 
So. I love Pistachio. But not as much as coco. And I can't decide if Stracciatella is equal to coco or above it. The mint was pretty tasty. As was the banana. Alan liked the crema, and he tried a really nasty burnt sesame. The blackberry was tasty, but not really creamy, and overall, if you gave me a scoop of just about anything at all, I would be totally happy! I LOVE GELATO!!!! :)

Gelato...

                         

 Gelato again... 

So romantic, no?:)

 Every day at 6pm, they light a ceremonial flame for the 'unknown fallen soldier'. This burns at the base of the Arc de Triumph. 

We were going to go to Prague and/or Switzerland, but vastly underestimated how tiring travelling would be (walking 10-12 hrs a day is tough!), so we kept it simple. I'm so glad we did. We got a chance to really spend time in where we were and experience so many new things. We went from Florence to Pisa (you know.. with the leaning tower?:), then on to the Cinque Terre. There are five 'cities,' if you will, that are on the coast of Italy and look like fairy tale lands. They have been largely untouched by modern upgrades and have such a charm about them. You can take a boat ride to the furthest one, and then hike down through each town and explore the different areas. The hiking path was closed when we got there, and it poured rain for a few hours, so we just hung out and ate some of the best focaccia I could have imagined. It was so good. As was the pesto. We went back and from there we went down to Rome. We spent the last few days exploring Rome and laughing at ourselves for getting lost so often. We went to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum, St somebody's castle (I can't remember now), Piazza Navona (and other Piazzas while we were somewhat lost), and basically just had a blast. I just can't believe all the history behind such incredible places and it truly inspires one to look back on civilization and how much progress we have...and haven't made.There is so much out there to remind us of where we have come from. So many wars have been fought, freedoms won and lost, pain and joy experienced, and art/buildings/cities left behind to express all of it!  

 "It looked like he was...Leaning." - movie?! (While You Were Sleeping)

We took this pic for Dad and mom. If they really want to live in the middle of nowhere, we found the spot!! Plenty of land for ya! :) hahaha

Trevi Fountain

 The Roman Forum

 Look carefully. Isn't this beautiful?! This is a record of a marriage between these people a REALLY long time ago...

 The Sistine Chapel. pretty amazing. Although surprisingly, not my favorite place.

Vatican Square

I'm sure I missed some things that we did, and I will have to add a post later with a bunch of pictures from Alan's phone. (There are some really cool ones.) For now, that is basically how we spent our time as backpackers in a new land. We thought the showers were a little odd, but it just added to the experience I suppose. Alan really liked the bidets (sp?), and kept watching tutorials on how to use them, though I'm not sure he ever did. There were many nights we slept on separate twin beds, and it felt a little like being on a campout or something with my best friend. We could stay up late laughing at how we couldn't sleep because it was a 6 hr time change, and we got a chance to kind of get to know each other even more. I am so grateful we had a chance to do this and even more grateful to have somebody in my life who shares the same interest/passion for traveling and for other cultures. It was so much fun and I just can't thank him enough.

Jalapeno Kettle Cooked chips

I blame mom for my unproductive ways. She introduced me to jalapeno chips. I don't eat chips really. Well, I didn't. Now I do. And they are delicious. I spend my day creating new reasons why I should be eating more of them instead of being productive. Then I run out and need to go buy more....

Haha.

Anyhow, I am also currently obsessed with this delicious mediterranean salad mix of cucumber, chicken, tomato, avocado (my add-in) and a balsamic vinegrette-stuffed into a pita. I love it. Plus jalapeno chips.

IT's good.

So, I have purposely not posted pictures of our new/first house, and promise I will, but I actually just don't want those online for anyone to find. So, I will figure out how I want to take pictures so you get a glimpse of our home without  me having to worry about creepers finding us. Paranoid much? Here are a few, but we are remodeling the kitchen so I will post more of the before and after upon completion of that project.

 First meal in our house... 

Because we are high rollers...

 Before Alan redid the floors... It was all carpeted. (We love our big windows)

Torn up carpet to put in hardwood floors. Love. More to come! Promise. 

Road Trippin' with Mom and Dad

When mom and dad came up for Graduation, we had the awesome opportunity to hang out together 24/7 for like a week! It was really fun and, actually, a chance to see what dad is like when he is for real vacationing...you know, Vacating Life. He's pretty fun:) I feel like I've really only ever known him working, and even at Christmas or something, life didn't stop going just because we were there. He's always had so much on his plate. BUT not this time! We Loved getting a chance to talk/eat/talk/explore/eat/eat/eat/eat.... You get it.

We went into Downtown Chicago and took a double decker tour bus (awesome), and basically just had a blast. We wanted to stay one more night on Saturday so we could see the last fireworks of the summer on Navy Pier that night, but when we woke up, it was raining and gloomy, so we went to lunch and took off toward Charlotte. STOP. When I say we went to lunch, I mean I wish I had a picture! We went to Honey Jam Cafe and our table was completely covered in Food! Mom and Dad had four entrees between them and every last bite was delish!!! I got my bananas foster french toast and it certainly did not disappoint. LOVE.  Here are some pics from our trip into the city.

 The tour included a free goodie bag from CandyLicious and although the bag only included a lemon drop and tootsie roll(true story), we thought the store was Incredible! Dad was so stinking excited to find all sorts of candies from when he was a kid, and we all walked out with massive bags of sugar...

 How can you not love a face like that?! He was in candy heaven.

 This is probably my favorite thing Ever! If you can't see it, it says "Girth Control" on the box and is labeled exactly like birth control and is pure chocolate....So funny!

 aaah, the bean. How could we not?!

 I adore this picture. We had such a great water taxi ride back on the river, and such a fun evening all together. It was such a perfect day.

We began our drive to NC only after jetting back to the hotel because Somebody forgot her wedding ring....dundundun. That was me. No worries, we got it and all was well with the world. We drove off and the fun began! We got a little nervous on some of the detours dad wanted to take to check out the areas in places like Kentucky or Tennessee... and a new rule was made. Wherever we went needed to be paved:) I was sure we were going to get stuck in the middle of the woods and some gypsy clan was going to cook us up for dinner. But alas, we made it. It was a really fun trip and mom got me super addicted to slushies. I mean, like at every stop! We could not have had a better time with them and it was seriously so much fun to get to hang out with no obligations. Still, I think all of us were ready to stop living out of suitcases and when the time came to say goodbye, we were ready to get back to normal life. Especially since we'll all be together again at Christmas! Yeah! Thanks for such a wonderful trip mom and dad! We love you!