Our European Trip: Rome

This is officially the last post about our trip to Europe!  Sad I know but I'm thankful to finally have it all documented and done!  Wowza we did a lot!! So our last day in Italy we made it to Rome with a plan to take another double decker bus to see the sites.  The disappointing part of this was that on that day there were silent strikes and demonstrations so a lot of the sites were closed.  

We left Ostia on the train and made our way into Rome where we first walked around the Colosseum and the old ruins of the town.  The Colosseum was impressive but was closed for the day due to the strikes.  So I could barely see inside of it.  Maybe someday we will make it back to go inside.

We had a little fun doing a "senior pictures" photoshoot!

And then Liz got stuck in the bushes...

Once we finished our pictures and being dorks we found a bus and hopped on!  Of course it was packed and standing room only.  So we rode it until we got to the Vatican.  The Vatican was the only thing open while everything else was closed.  We were starving so we found a cafe to eat at.  Warning- if you go to the Vatican they can charge you $22 for a FROZEN pizza!  It was crazy how expensive everything was but I guess when you're in the Vatican you can do that.

We decided to take a walking tour of the Vatican as it is overwhelming and the lines are sooo long.  So if you pay to take a walking tour with a guide, you skip the lines and likely learn more than the average tourist.

We went into the Vatican City Museum.  Lots and lots of statues and art work.  By the end of the tour it all sort of blurred together.

We made it to the Sistine Chapel...

This place was incredible.  Much much bigger than I expected and full of paintings.  I was in awe!  

Lastly, we went to the new basilica... gorgeous!

After a long day of walking and touring, we got back on the bus and left the Vatican!

We caught the train and headed back for our last night in Italy.  Ryan and I were so full and didn't want a huge dinner so we headed to our favorite little place for wine and appetizers, followed by one last Gelato!  Liz and Dustin decided to try our awesome find restaurant and they loved it just as much as we did!  Once we all got back to the hotel, we played cards, drank wine and beer and packed.  

We had a long day of travel back to the US- including an hour delay on our flight from Rome to Chicago.  Let me say that when your flight it already 10 hours long, an hour delay is just annoying!

But we made it and now we have fantastic memories and stories to share!

I hope you've enjoyed my very slow recap of our European trip.  I assume we won't get back to Europe for 25 years- until we are done having kids and paying for college!  Yikes!  It could be a while!

Ciao,

  

Weekend Shenanigans: How is it already Monday?

Where did the weekend go?!  I finished the Big Ten Diving meet on Saturday night.  What a long week!  I was absolutely exhausted on Sunday and did enjoy a little cat nap.  It was sandwiched with lunch at my mom's with the whole family and then dinner at my in-laws.  Now it's back to real life- working, coaching, and trying to do some laundry!

Happy Week,

Women's Big Ten Swim & Dive Meet

Sorry friends but I will be MIA for the next couple of days as I will be working at the Women's Big Ten Swimming and Diving meet!  I'm the diving coordinator- sounds official right?!  Well I will be at the pool for the next few days, working the table and making sure all scoring is official and such and cheering on my Gophers of course!  So excited to watch some amazing diving!  Hope you have a good rest of your week as well!

Cheers,

Weekend Shenanigans: Double update

So I've been a really bad blogger lately.  We went to Arizona last weekend and then last week just took off and I never really caught my breath!  So here I am trying to catch up.

So last weekend like I said, Ryan and I went to Phoenix last weekend to visit my best friend from college, Allison and her husband Kyle and their sweet baby boy Austin!  We got out of Minneapolis on Friday morning and landed in time for lunch in Phoenix!  Friday night we grilled out at their home and enjoyed delicious burgers!

Saturday we headed to Scottsdale and the ASU campus for some site seeing and yummy lunch!  And Saturday night we went to a steakhouse for dinner.  I'm brief about my details because really the whole weekend, Ryan and I just enjoyed soaking up time with our friends and darling Austin!!  I took so many pictures...

 

 

Sunday our flight got delayed by 4 hours so we enjoyed a leisurely lunch and shopping before heading to the airport.  

This last weekend Ryan and I got some projects done around the house.  I had dinner with Gretchen on Friday night at Blvd. and Saturday evening at Sunsets with Tracy.  Then we had a wine night with Megan later on Saturday.  Have you heard of the Traveling Vineyard.  It's like a tupperware party but with wine.  We did wine tastings and then got to order wine from the collection- super fun!

Sunday, Ryan and I did some more housework and a gym workout before Dustin and Liz came over for dinner and movie night!  Yummy burgers and Aladdin!  Perfect!

I promise to be better about blogging now...

Cheers,

Our European Trip: Ostia

I'm making a strong push to finish up our European trip blog posts!  After this, only one more to go!

After any early train from Florence to Rome we hopped on the train to Lido de Ostia!  It's a beautiful city on the coast.  It reminded me of the Florida Keys.  I didn't take too many pictures here but this was our room and the view.

Cute Dustin right?!

 After we rearranged our beds so that Ryan and I could sleep next to each other- originally the single beds were on each side of the full bed- we went to lunch at a pizza place.  We figured that it was a happening place back in the 60s and 70s but today it is pretty quiet and only a few people around.  We made our way to the beach and soaked up the sun for a while.  The ocean was FREEZING!

Ryan and I took a stroll to get some gelato- yummy!- and then for dinner the Hannays went to a fancy restaurant and I don't remember where the Squires went that night.  Ryan and I found this top rated place online and we thought we would try that however when we got there at 6:30, we were informed the place didn't even open till 8pm.  We are clearly Americans.  So Ryan and I found this incredibly little place that served wine and appetizers for $7 for the two of us!  It was delicious!  Such a fun find!  

After the appetizers and wine we did a little shopping on that little strip and then went over to the restaurant - 8:05pm of course!  We enjoyed a huge meal!  A complimentary drink, a complimentary appetizer, then our first course of wine and bread, then salads, then 1st course of meal, and then a 2nd course of the meal, followed by a complimentary dessert, and finished with our own dessert.  Can you talk about being stuffed!? What we couldn't understand was how Europeans can eat this late and not be tired the next day and overweight?!  Obviously a different way of training your body but I went to bed stuffed and woke still full!

Cheers,