Thanksgiving 2017

This year we did something we haven't done in a few years - we stayed home for Thanksgiving! What with all the traveling I did this fall and the big Europe trip, we decided staying home was probably for the best. (Especially for our bank account!)

We had our good friends the Souths over, and it was just like no time at all had passed since we had seen them last. Our kids played well together and there was never a lag in the conversation. (Especially because Misty and Paul had gone to Italy last spring!)

This year I decided to try the Pioneer Woman's Turkey brine. It did not disappoint - in fact, the whole house smelled heavenly for a few hours after I had brought it to a boil. That recipe is definitely a keeper!

I also made my most favorite stuffing in the world. It's not cooked here, so it looks a little pale, but trust me - it's heavenly. Heavenly enough for me to buy about a 1/4 of $28.99/pound pine nuts! Yikes. (But so worth it.)

I even made a couple of pies. In fact, I made 6 pies, but 4 were for the LUM Thanksgiving dinner. I hate making pies, so you know that was a sacrifice! I made 2 pumpkin and 2 peach for LUM, then pumpkin chiffon and Georgia Peach for us. It was delish, if I say so myself.

We ate downstairs because that's the room that fits us all!

The only hitch to the evening? The very sitcom-worthy fact that the turkey didn't cook in time! What the what?!!? I had been baking the turkey and pulled out and the thermometer said it was done. But about an hour later when I went to carve it? Pinkness.

#$^$%&#%^#%$!!!!

Fortunately, we also made a ham, so we didn't have a vegetarian Thanksgiving. The turkey was only 12 pounds, but it took close to 4 hours to fully cook! I have no idea what happened; this was not my first time making one and I followed the directions. Oh well. It finished about the time the Souths were leaving, go figure.

I will say this, though - that turkey was GOOD. I'm not even that big of a turkey fan, but it was tasty. We enjoyed it all week! *nom*nom*nom*

We had a great time and were glad we could be at home with our friends, but all us agreed that we liked skipping Thanksgiving even more. I like all the one-on-one fun time with my kids and not having to cook. My kids like the water slides and swimming and sleeping at a hotel. I think Lance is pretty much happy anywhere. So next year I suspect we will be celebrating in our bathing suits!

Europe 2017 - Going Home

I had originally thought we'd just take the train to the airport, but after doing a little research and realizing how much time and expense it would be to do that, we took the offer the lady who owned the apartment offered us: a town car to the airport for 50 Euros. (It would have cost over 60 for the train!)

So this Italian guy shows up and puts our luggage into the trunk. He speaks hardly any English at all. And then... the race began. Well, I'm assuming it was a race - he drove like he was trying to win Nascar! Seriously, it was exciting and scary all at once! Honking and breaking and abrupt lane changes and stare-downs with other drivers. Google said it would take 45 minutes to drive there; we got there in just under 35. We certainly got our money's worth!

So then the fun of checking into a foreign airport began. You'd think it would be easy; we've never really had issues before. But there was something about that airport that just didn't make sense. Actually, it wasn't just one thing, it was a ton of little things. Anyways, our tickets said we were flying British Air. So we waited in line for 30 minutes only to be told, sorry, we were actually flying Aer Lingus, under the British Air name. What?

So we got in line for Aer Lingus. And we waited and waited and waited. And I swear our line didn't move at all, while all the other lines for the airline did. Lance thought I was crazy and scoffed at my idea of changing lines. But when I saw someone who got in a different line after us get all checked in and leave, I told Lance he could stay in that line but I was moving.

We were done in 5 minutes.

Then we had to go through the rigamarole of Italian TSA and customs, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but still was not fun. Right after we passed through the customs gate I smelled something. And then I saw something. There was a trail of poop on the floor, leading into the terminal! It went on and on and on. Seriously, SO MUCH POOP. There's no way this was a kid who had had an accident. This was an adult amount of poop. A large adult.

It was gross and amazing all at once. Italian janitors scurried around, trying to clean it up. We tried to wander through the customs shops to get away from it - it was in the shops, too! WHAT?!? The trail finally ended, and I had to agree with Lance who said "Our day may not be going great, but it's better than that guys'." Amen!

We eventually flew from Rome to Dublin, and apparently Aer Lingus is like the Frontier of Europe, because EVERYTHING on that flight cost extra: drinks, food, entertainment, etc. And the prices were crazy. So we opted to wait until we got to Dublin to eat.

Once there we found out that Dublin has American customs there, so that you don't have to do it when you get back to the states. But that meant we had to go through all of that before we could eat. (I was getting hungry - the granola bar I had packed didn't cut it!) It took quite a while to get through customs and show 4-5 different people my passport and prove I am who I say I am.

But we finally got through and then found a place to eat overpriced airport sandwiches and Coke Zeros. Then we spent our last few Euros on vending machine candy bars because it didn't make sense to exchange less than 5 Euros when we got home.

We finally boarded and flew back to Chicago. The flight was long, but at least they didn't charge for food and drinks. (Sheesh!) Only one side of my headphones worked, which was annoying, but I survived and watched several movies. I didn't want to sleep too much so I could get over my jet lag easier.

We landed, got our luggage with little trouble, picked up the car, and were on our way home! US freeways just weren't as fun as the Autobahn. And it was sad to be ending our adventure. But a quick pit stop at Burger King helped us feel welcomed back to the States, and sleeping in our own bed that night never felt so good

People keep asking if this was the trip of a lifetime. And while it's probably the best I've ever taken, I don't want to call it the trip of a lifetime, because I still have a lot more traveling to do!

Europe 2017 - The Baths, The Appian Way, and The Catacombs

Geez Louise, I'm FINALLY on the last day of our trip! Perhaps I've put it off because writing this really means that the trip is over. Or perhaps life and the holidays the responsibilities of being a wife and mother have kicked back in. One of the two.

(**Side Note: It has now been THREE days since I started writing this post! Good heavens!)

Our last day in Rome didn't have any set in stone plans, which is pretty unusual for a trip planned by me. But that's because we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see and lots of things are closed on Sundays. We looked into going to church, but the closest building was an hour bus ride away. No thanks. We decided to check out a bunch of Catholic churches and such and call it good.

The Baths of Diocletian were the first thing on the agenda that lazy morning. To get there we passed by the Piazza Republica, which is so quintessentially Roman that a movie was being filmed there! There were all sorts of 1960/70s cars for the set and we could see all sorts of workers and characters.

It took us a minute to realize what was going on, but then we saw this old smoking grandma and her grandson in the back of a truck, and figured it had to be some sort of film!

We got to the garden at the baths, which were pretty. We decided not to pay to go into the museum because it wasn't very highly rated by Rick and we were pretty done with museums and ruins by then!

As you can see, it was a beautiful morning - no jackets needed!

I declared this to be the worst fountain of our trip. ;) (My dad should be happy to know that sprinkler problems are also universal.)

We also didn't go into the museum because you could go into the Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, a basilica that was built in part of the original Roman Baths. (Those Romans - they sure loved GIANT BATHS.) It was designed by Michelangelo, and it showed - pretty spectacular!

So we wandered the church for a bit and were about to leave when I decided to go check out the organ.

It was pretty impressive. And then this guy started moving stuff around by the organ. See him in the lower right corner of my picture?

And then he sat down at the organ and started messing with it. And we decided it'd probably be a good idea to sit down.

And it was. This man started playing and playing and playing. Song after song, all from memory.

The best was Bach's Toccata in D minor - it was AMAZING. We sat and listened and it was probably one of the coolest things on our trip, really and truly, because it was beautiful and unexpected and free. I'll never forget it! Eventually some man started telling everyone in the church that we had to leave. Maybe they were going to do mass or something.

So we went back out to the piazza and the movie was still being filmed. In fact, we were herded over behind a bus so we wouldn't be in the shot. It was really interesting. For starters, it was fun to watch the scene being filmed. All these old cars and the grandma in the truck would drive around the circle. Then this gaggle of priests, some in black and others in bright purple cassocks, would cross the street. When they got to the circle they encountered a couple of ladies of the evening, and one priest would stop to talk to them. This scene was shot several times and then we were allowed to leave, so I don't know what happened next. So if you ever see an Italian film with that scene in it, Lance and I were stuck behind an orange and white bus on the east side of the piazza!

Next we decided to make a pit stop at home. Partly because we didn't have firm plans for what to do next, but mostly because I really needed a bathroom and Europe does not believe in free public toilets. Here's a pretty door I must have seen on the way.

And here's the door to our apartment. (Climbing three flights of stairs got to be pretty old pretty quick.)

We eventually decided to venture to the outskirts of Rome to see the Appian Way and some catacombs. We took the Metro to the very far south of the city and then took a bus from a semi-sketchy bus stop. When we got to our destination it started to rain. A lot. Fortunately, there was a cafe near by and we got some lunch. (And it didn't cost an arm and a leg!) We ate outside under a canopy, and the hot food tasted all the better because it was chilly!

The rain never let up so we decided to just hoof it down the ancient road. It was really pretty, even in the rain and gloom.

You wouldn't think of cacti in Rome, but these were all over the place, plus palm trees and such.

We walked about a mile down the road to the Catacombs of San Callisto. There were all sorts of ruins to look at on way, as well as old churches, homes, and other soggy tourists. (Although there weren't too many of those!) We stopped by this cute little grotto.

And we walked down this one path lined with olive trees that actually had olives on them!

We got to the catacombs in time to buy the tickets, check out the gift shop, and hit the toilets before the tour. I only have a picture of the toilet because it perfectly represented the majority of Italian toilets on this trip - no seat! The first time it happened I thought I had just picked a bad stall, but nope. Most of the women's restrooms appear to have had seats at some point, but not anymore. It was odd and you had to balance a little more, but I've used worse. (Like holes in the ground in Israel!)

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the catacombs themselves, which was kind of a bummer. Our group was a bit too big and it was sometimes hard to hear the guide, but that's okay. We got the gist of it. There are still lots of little chapels down in the catacombs that still get used - the guide said they average about 1,000 people a day! Probably because there are some popes and saints buried down in there. And in those catacombs alone there are over 500,000 people buried! That's a lot of dead Christians. (This made it seem appropriate for a Sunday!)

We had hoped the rain would let up for the walk back. It did not. Here's our feet on the actual Ancient Appian Way, which is pretty cool and crazy to think about!

Here's where we waited for the bus. Even though it's technically still part of Rome, it felt like the middle of nowhere!

We got back to our apartment and rested and listened to the rain, rain, and more rain. Lance decided he really wanted to eat lasagna while in Italy, which would normally have been fine, but most of the best restaurants in Rome are closed on Sundays. But he found a little place nearby. It was... okay. But there were lots of tourists there.

But after dinner we did have one last gelato, and it was delish. Pistachio and chocolate will always remind me of Italy.

Walking back home was a little depressing, even after running into this weird fountain. The last night of vacation is always hard, because as nice as it will be to sleep in your own bed, it's super hard and not at all fun to get back to reality and all the responsibilities and stresses that brings.

Especially after having an AMAZING trip like ours.

Europe 2017 - Ancient Rome and the Trastevere

One can't go to Rome without seeing a lot of old stuff. Really old stuff.

So on Saturday we set out to see as much of Ancient Rome as we could handle. First stop? The Colosseum. We got there fairly early because we figured it being Saturday and beautiful weather it would probably get pretty crowded. (We were right.)

How to properly describe the Colosseum? It's just... ancient. And impressive. And pretty darn cool!

We of course had a Rick Steve's audio guide, which did a great job of highlighting all of the important and interesting stuff. And the guide kept talking about how busy and crowded the Colosseum would be, but we were some of the very first people there (no line - Roma pass!) and felt pretty self-satisfied and smug. It's a pretty great feeling.

The Colosseum is just so interesting. Yes, that's the word. And photogenic.

I, however, was not quite so photogenic that morning. Oh well.

At one point in its heyday they estimate that there was a killing here every 5 minutes. EVERY 5 MINUTES!!! Can you even imagine?!?

Rick described in detail the whole Bread and Circuses policy of the Romans. Pretty interesting stuff.

You can pay extra for a super fancy tour down "under" the floor where the gladiators and animals and such were kept, but we didn't do that. I kinda wish we had, just so we could be down there, but then again it probably wasn't that great. (I'll just keep telling myself that.)

The Colosseum is amazing for several reasons: 1) It's so dang old. 2) It's so dang big (for being so old and all). 3) So much dang bad stuff went on there. (The killings and all.) 4) It really gives a feel for the grandeur of ancient Rome like nothing else.

I know, all these pictures of old stuff probably aren't that interesting to you - but to me it's fascinating because I was there! (What I'm saying is, sorry for all the boring pictures, but I like them.)

From up on the Colosseum you have a pretty good view of the Arch of Constantine.

And there's what's left of the temple of Roma and Venus. The Romans loved Venus for many reasons, my favorite being that Amor = Roma backwards.

I think that's the temple of Jupiter behind us.

And there's a seagull. I kept forgetting how close Rome is to the sea. I mean, it's a ways away, but it still had noisy, obnoxious seagulls aplenty.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. All these people were going nuts over this seagull, who was just standing there, staring at them like "Dudes. What's your problem?"

See those trees far off on the distance? Those are called umbrella pines. We really liked them.

The outside is pretty spectacular as well. I wish we could have gone back at night.

No clue why there's a picture of our feet. Perhaps some emperor walked here? Probably not. 

This doesn't really show the circus that is outside the Colosseum. Tons of tourists, tons of pushy tour guides, souvenir shops, food carts, obnoxious guys trying to sell selfie-sticks when they see you taking a selfie. 

After the Colosseum we decided to go see the Roman Forum, which was the heart of Ancient Rome. There's those trees we like again! (And the Colosseum and arch.)

Of course we listened to another Rick Steves audioguide.

The Arch of Titus, celebrating the siege of Jerusalem. (Carvings of enslaved Jews and all.) This was pretty interesting because when I went to Jerusalem we learned all about that siege of AD 70, of course from the other, less triumphant side.

The Basilica of Constantine - SO BIG, and yet only 1/3 the size they used to be!

The temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. (Yes, I had to look up these names again.) It was pretty impressive just seeing the ruins; I can only imagine how impressive it would have been originally!

In front of what's left of the Temple of Castor and Pollux. (Taken from in the Vestal temple.) ((Look all this stuff up if you're interested - those Romans had some pretty crazy ideas!))

Looking up to Palatine Hill. We didn't go there because there's only so many ruins you can appreciate in a day.

Lance hanging out in the Vestal Temple.

This is supposedly the exact spot where Caesar was murdered. "Et tu, Brute" and all that. For such a famous event, you'd think there'd be more than a mound of dirt with a tin roof overhead. But nope.

It's all really quite impressive. And it was a beautiful day, which made it all the better.

So after the Forum we decided we'd find a bite to eat and then hit the Capitoline Museum, home of a lot of famous Roman Art. We got a little lost on the way but got to visit Santi Luca e Martina, a church we had seen from the Forum and were curious about. For some reason it had holes with grates like this on the main floor, and we could see people walking around in the basement.

It had a beautiful little white dome.

So we got sidetracked by the church and forgot about lunch until we got to the museum, but decided we'd be okay. (This turned out to be a bad idea. Oops.) But before things went bad, we got to see what was left of an ancient 100 foot statue of Constantine. Who was, apparently, #1.

That's a big foot.

So we wandered the museum for a bit, but it wasn't too long before I realized it was a big mistake skipping lunch. We had walked literal miles that morning and I was all of a sudden STARVING. My blood sugar dropped and it was all I could do not to fall apart like a toddler. I was hungry and exhausted and tired, but felt compelled to at least see some of the more famous statues in the museum.

So we dragged our sorry selves out of the museum in search of something to eat. Only, there was NOTHING near by. Seriously, a food desert. So we Googled cafes and bakeries and such and found there was a really highly rated one fairly close by in the Jewish Ghetto. (Well, it's not really a ghetto anymore, obviously, that's just what the area is known as now.) The bakery turned out to no long exist. By this point I was really dragging, so we plopped ourselves down at the first little cafe we came to, ordered some panini and Cokes, and giggled at the name of the restaurant across the street. (Hah! The Ba'Ghetto! It still makes me laugh.)

This turned out to be the most expensive meal of our trip - for just those few things they charge us 20 Euro! My mouth kind of dropped when the lady told me, but I was in such shock I just handed the money over and left. I'm pretty sure they worked us over because we were tourists. We were the only tourists there! Dang it. We spent the rest of the afternoon grumbling about how that cafe was not helping to quell the stereotypes associated with that sort of neighborhood.

Rejuvenated, we decided it was time to cross the Tiber and see the Trastevere, which is this quaint, awesome neighborhood across the river from Rome. We went across the Ponte Fabricio, which goes to a little island in the middle of the river and then continues to the Trastevere. Very scenic!

The Trastevere is a maze! Even with Rick Steve's audio guide and Google Maps we were still getting lost a lot.

Here's a little church we were supposed to visit, but it was closed. Sad.

So the streets are smaller and windier here and the buildings all seemed squished, but they have plants and balconies and it's just pretty and calm and peaceful compared to metropolitan Rome.

We stopped to get gelato and sat on some steps in a square and people watched and soldier watched. Wherever there was something tourists might see or something politically important, there was a handful of soldiers with really big guns.

The inside of a church - maybe the Basilica di Santa Maria de Trastevere? Probably. The outside was being renovated, but the inside was pretty impressive.

After wandering for quite a bit we made it back to our apartment around 5pm. Too early for dinner, too late for sight seeing. So we basically collapsed. But there was a guy playing the clarinet just outside our window, so that was fun. (I only have video of him and I'm too lazy to upload it. Sorry.) I laughed when he started playing "The Entertainer". So very Italian!

That night we went back to the Trastevere and ate dinner at this little family owned restaurant. Our waitress barely spoke any English. She was the daughter. Grandma and Dad seemed to do all the cooking and Mom helped run the show. The food was SO good, probably the best of our time in Rome. And it was super fun to watch this little Italian family sitting across from us - a mom and dad and two little boys, probably around 9 and 12. The parents talked and the kids played and it was just nice to see them and it made me miss my kids a little.

On the way home the buses weren't running according to schedule, so we just walked. It was only a couple of miles, and we got to see this random fountain.

And the Parthenon at night. It's pretty cool at night! I think we also stopped by Trevi Fountain, too, but it was so dang crowded it wasn't worth trying to get a picture.

We walked A LOT in one day. Probably more than most Ancient Romans used to.