Oregon Coast

In October over UEA, Dave and I went to the Oregon Coast. It was so beautiful!! I have always wanted to visit but never have. Dave was skeptical but I am happy to say he loved it as much as I did!!!

We stayed in 2 different cities. We first stayed in Lincoln City. We stayed at a condo on the beach. The condo was beautiful! We even had our own private hot tub on our deck. This is a view from the deck. We just had to walk a few houses down to get to the beach.





I have an obsession with light houses. I think they are so beautiful! We went and saw this lighthouse in Tillamook.


This is a view from the side of the light house. Everywhere we looked it was amazing!


We stopped in a little city called Ocean City. We walked along the beach.








There was a little cave thing you could walk to that would take you to a connecting beach.



The second place we stayed was in Newport. This is a picture of the condo we stayed at here. It wasn't as nice but it was right on the beach and was still really cool.


When we went and saw the second light house there is a place by it to walk down and see the tide pools. We saw seals, star fish, and other fun ocean critters. It was really cool. The only disappointment the whole trip was we didn't see any whales. :(

The lighthouse as we were walking to it.



It was a little windy.

We went up the lighthouse and this is one of the views from it. It is still a working lighthouse.

You can see the lighthouse in the distance.


You could see the lighthouse at night by our condo.

At night it got foggy. I loved it!


It was too cold to get in the water but fine to walk around and enjoy. While we were there there were surfers out, I think they were a little crazy! One of them got attacked by a great white. Not a big fan of sharks!

On the way home my cousin Laura and her family were in Portland (They live in Seattle) so we stopped and had lunch with them. It was a lot of fun seeing them!

I can't wait to go back to Oregon!

Beach and Venice

Our last Italy post! On our drive from Rome to Venice we stopped in Rimini . We went to the beach and Dave and Johnny had a wonderful time!



Sad to say, they think the same which is a little scary.



We got to a town outside of Venice, hurried and got ready and headed into Venice. We ate dinner and enjoyed Venice at night. Venice is so beautiful at night!!
We ate dinner at an outside restaurant by the main canal. Very romantic :)

On the bridge

As we were walking around we saw a bunch of guys singing. Dave and Johnny decided to join them. It was so funny! I tried to upload the video but I can't get it to work.

The next day we walked around. This is the main square in Venice. We were so tired that we took a little nap in an alley....

One of the alleys in Venice. This is what I pictured all of Italy to look like.... it's not ha ha.

It was so beautiful!


We had to splurge and go on a gondola ride! We started as the sun was setting. It was perfect!

A view from our gondola ride.



Waiting to meet up with Johnny and Kim. We were listening to a band playing in the square.

Getting ready to leave Venice. :( One last group picture.


Then we decided we needed one more gelato!
We really enjoyed our visit. We were able to see so much. We really enjoyed being with Johnny and Kim. It was also very nice to go with someone who spoke the language.

As much as we loved Italy we also gained an appreciation for some things we took for granted such as:

• Paved road and side walks. We loved the cobble stone roads and side walks but after awhile it really hurts the feet!
• People who wear deodorant! People are VERY stinky in Italy!
• Americanized Italian food. :) We had some good food while we were there but it is better in America believe it or not!
• Other food beside Italian food.... That is all they have in Italy!!!
  
• Normal roads. A lot of the roads were very windy and very narrow with cliffs. It was very scary at times.
• Clean air. Everyone smokes there. I think we inhaled a pack a day.
  

Things we will miss:

• Gelato!
  
• The beautiful cities
• The atmosphere

This past weekend we had a Italy reunion at Le Nonne.
The Italian food here is better than Italy. If you are ever in Logan you should go check it out. Service isn't always wonderful but the food is always amazing!!

Rome, Italy

We stayed at this hotel outside of Rome for 2 nights. Johnny and Dave booked the hotel one night at an internet cafe and it was so cheap that Kim and I were VERY apprehensive....When we arrived at this hotel we were still unsure but it ended up being really nice. I recommend it to anyone who is going to Rome.



Our rooms were in these outside buildings.

We spent our first day in Rome going to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and Trevie Fountain.

They removed the floor so that you could see all the tunnels under the floor. They would have gladiators or prisoners fight to the death. They would have bears, tigers, and other animals come up from the tunnels and attack the people fighting. They never knew what would appear and where they would come from. I can't imagine how people loved watching this and could sit and cheer for people to be killed. I think it is horrible.



When we would lose Johnny, this is usually what he was doing....meeting and visiting with people. :)



It was neat to see the remains of such an ancient powerful city. It was so interesting to learn more about how things were ran and done. A lot of it was so corrupt and sad. We learned a lot.


Trying to look tough...



I think this is the government building or something. All I know is that is was sooo beautiful!


The Pantheon

Dave at the Spanish steps at night.

Eating!

Trevie Fountain. Hopefully this means we will make it back to Rome one day.



The next day we spent in Vatican City. Vatican City is the smallest state in the world. It has its own zip code and post office. The mail going out of their post office gets places faster than going through a post office in Rome.
This is a picture Kim took from the top of Saint Peter's Basilica (I opted out of this... I was done with stairs at his point in the trip.)

Inside Saint Peter's Basilica. It was very ornate and huge. I couldn't believe how big it is.

We then went to the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel.
This is the map room. The walls were full of maps. They used to have meetings in the Sistine Chapel and then come out and look at the maps. The ceilings throughout were all amazing.

We went with a tour guide through the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. It was so interesting to learn about some of the paintings and statues. Michealagelo was such an interesting person. It took him 4 years to paint the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. He didn't really want to paint it but the Pope at the time made him. He said if he didn't he would kill him. His back fused together from painting the ceiling for so long. He did a lot of things in the paintings to spite the pope.

Judgment day painting in the Sistine Chapel


Some of the paintings on the ceiling are the creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood.


Dave at the Spanish steps

Dave trying to look and talk like an Italian. (The pantheon is in the background)

Rome was very interesting. I wish we came here at the first of the trip so we weren't so tired but we still loved it. It was a lot more touristy and crowded than some of the other places we went. We got lucky our whole trip and didn't have to wait in many lines.