Things I've Learned...

As promised, an update! Here's a short list of just of few of the things I've come to learn in these 3 short months of pregnancy...

•Believe your doctor when he tells you that you should be careful when taking antibiotics and your birth control pill…I'll leave it at that

•Morning sickness lasts all day…that's really nothing new. I'd heard that from many people, but I didn't quite understand the weight of those words until I experienced it myself. I felt sick from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning until the moment I closed them at night. It has not been pleasant...

•It's very common to actually lose weight during your first trimester…see above reasoning. I guess Mother Nature decides to throw you the smallest of bones in the midst of all your misery

•You will get very excited when your doctor tells you that you can continue with your daily cup o' joe, until you realize that your unborn child has made you hate coffee. Now, the smell that you once loved waking up to makes you want to run to the toilet. In fact, early pregnancy makes you hate pretty much all the things that you once loved, like Mexican food, which is truly a tragedy

•Top Ramen ranks high on the list of the absolute worst foods to throw up. I had a noodle stuck in my throat for what seemed liked days

•Even the simple act of brushing your teeth can trigger a puke attack. My mornings typically go like this: Wake up. Brush teeth. Gag from said teeth brushing. Barf or dry heave for about 10 min. Repeat. Plan on going through a lot of toothpaste.

•Thinking about starting a family? Take a nice satisfying poop, 'cause it will be the last one for a while!

•Your first ultrasound isn't anything like the movies. That cute little wand doesn't go on your belly. This will traumatized your poor, unsuspecting husband for a short while

•Of all the mumbo jumbo people tell you you can't do while pregnant, the one thing that is actually legitimate is that you can't scoop up cat litter. I can have caffeine, wine, sleeping pills (helps w/ the nausea), and some varieties of sushi, but I can't clean up the cat poop…a small victory! (Oh, and I may or may not have paid my Doctor Father in Law to share that bit of information with my husband)

Despite all the misery that goes along with the early stages of incubating a child, we are very excited about this little thing. All the sickness just reassures us that everything is moving along nicely in there. Last week, the doc wasn't able to pick up a heart beat b/c of where the baby was positioned, so I got a little bonus ultrasound. I got confirmation that this child is certainly John's. It was spazzing out and wiggling like crazy in there, shaking its little arms and legs. It was so crazy to see it moving around so much, while not being able to feel a thing from the outside. In two weeks, we get a chance to find out the gender, if it cooperates, so finger's crossed!!

In Other News

Jeez! It's already August, and in my book that means it's the end of summer. Now's when I start getting excited for cold weather, fall feasts, pumpkins, pumpkin spiced lattes and peppermint hot chocs, Christmas, rain, etc...takes a little bit of imagination when it's 100+ degrees out, but I manage.

Some crazy stuff has happened over the summer. Mainly, we discovered that we'll be adding another Hall to the mix. Our little surprise is scheduled to arrive the beginning of March, just in time for St Paddy's Day. Something tells me this may alter our annual all-day drinking fest, but maybe only for one of us!

Junior has been brewing for about 12 weeks, and let me tell you, he/she is already showing me who's boss. I haven't exactly been the happy go lucky pregnant lady, that's for sure. When I can drag myself off the couch, it's usually to go stick my head in a toilet. I'm slowly starting to have better days mixed in with my not so good days, and I'm hoping that I'll be back to my happy go lucky, food lovin' self in a few more weeks. On that note, I suppose the one plus to all this nausea and food aversion is that the numbers on the scale are going down instead of up...but I know that will be short lived.

For now, I leave you with our first glimpse into my uterus:


I was very early in this pic-just under 7 weeks, so it hardly looks like anything at all. One annoying thing that I noticed after it was over was that the U/S Tech listed my name as Hall, Ruth. Hmmmm....Oh well!

I'll keep this little blog updated much more frequently now that I have something to write about...

Happenings

Things have been busy over in the Hall household. Spring is almost over and summer is fast approaching! Here’s what we've been up to over the last several weeks:

-St Paddy's Day: we celebrated in style, as usual. Our annual tradition of taking the entire day off to really "celebrate" was slightly different this year. We finally got smarter and decided to only take 1/2 of St. P's day off, and then the whole day after. We made our way to the bar just after noon. There was quite a group of us this year (our wise idea of taking the day off has started to spread). Even my FIL joined the fun, and later, my dad made an appearance. It was definitely a fun day! Now the countdown to next year's festivities begins again…





-Mountain Bike Riding: you may remember my last attempt at mountain bike riding. Well, once I was all healed up, we decided to try it again, this time sans clip in shoes. We met some friends at the Fullerton Loop and set off on our 12 mile bike ride. It was soo much fun, and we all escaped without major injury. I can't wait to go back.

-Weddings, Weddings, Weddings: although this year can't possibly compete with last year in terms of how many weddings and wedding related events we went to, wedding season 2011 has definitely begun. My dear friend Ashlee is getting hitched in July, so we have been showering and in two weeks, I will be laying on a lounge chair in Palm Springs for her bachelorette weekend. It can't get here soon enough. While on the subject of weddings, how can I not mention the Royal Wedding Party that we hosted in honor off the new Mr and Mrs?! My mom did a fab job of preparing all sorts of traditional British goodies. We munched on scones, empire biscuits (thank you grandma!), tea sandwiches, sausage rolls, and much more. Oh, and we enjoyed a cocktail or two as well. Loved everything about the royal wedding-especially the hats. And thanks to Miss Ashlee, we sported our own lovely hats.

-Pet News: it's always something with our pets. Over the last few weeks, one of our cats managed to tear all of the paw pads on his rear legs, catch his tail on fire, and eat copious amounts of Easter grass…clearly we aren't ready to be parents just yet! Our other cat managed to gain the attention of the neighborhood ally cat, who likes to scale our balcony and taunt our cat in the middle of the night. The latest trend is that this ally cat, who I've named Thomas, now comes and marks his territory on our balcony by spraying piss everywhere. I love animals, but I can only take so much!
This pic really has nothing to do with anything I mentioned, but in addition to all of our other pet expenses, I think we are going to have a diabetic cat on our hands...Ringo now tips the scale at 21 lbs. He is on diet food, but I think he secretly breaks into our pantry and binge eats at night. It's really the only explanation I can come up with...

-Coming Up: we have a quieter summer than years past. No big trips planned, but we are both looking forward to the upcoming bachelor/bachelorette weekends for Ash and Joe. John and his lil brother David will be skipping out to Boston for a boys weekend. I find that I am simultaneously bitter that I won't be going, and relieved that I won't have to deal with the antics that are sure to transpire when those two are set loose in beantown for the weekend. We are also planning a friend-cation with our awesome pals. We will be going to Cabo for a few days in Sep and I can.not.wait! It's been 3 years since our last real vacation with friends, and that is too long! We also have our big 1 year anniversary in July. I can't believe how fast it's gone. It really feels like we were just bbq'ing and celebrating with all my Scottish family, counting down to the big day. We haven't decided how we are going to spend our anniversary weekend yet, but whatever we come up with will be something worth looking forward to. Also, John will finally get to dig into the cake top that has been in our freezer since last July. There have been many nights where he's come home after a "long" night, and wanted to devour it, so in just a few short months he can finally enjoy it.

Well, that about does it for now. I'll try to update more regularly from here on out ; )

The Story of Us

It's the title of my blog, but I don't think I've ever told the entire story of how we came to be… It all started nearly 8 years ago. I was 19, and my sophomore year of college was coming to an end. There was a lot of impending excitement-the old TGIO fraternity parties, summer break with nothing to do but lounge by the pool with my roomies, bonfires at the beach, d-land trips, country concerts, oh and occasionally tutor at Sylvan a few hours a week-I was livin' the easy life! But first, I had to get through finals week. My two bestest friends and I all lived together. Brooke and I were attempting to cram for finals in our apartment. Megan had already taken her last final, and was a free woman. So obviously, she decided to try and "entertain" us while we were studying. When B and I decided that we just weren't able to concentrate at our apartment, we headed to the TSU (Titan Student Union) to study. This proved to not be an original idea. The entire Greek system seemed to be there "studying" as well. Needless to say, we didn't get much accomplished. I didn't expect to see anyone important, so I was wearing my sorority letters and pj bottoms. I was quizzing myself for a history final using notecards that I had made. Megan was entertaining herself by drawing inappropriate doodles on my notecards and in my textbooks. I'm sure whoever bought that book after me was pretty amused. I was chatting with some friends I knew in between my quizzing sessions when all of a sudden this guy walks in the TSU and over to our table. He was wearing a skin tight wifebeater-type tanktop and gym shorts, and was carrying an 80's style boom box on his shoulder. He announced that he was rehearsing for his Dance 101 final (it was a boy-band dance routine that he offered to show us). Apparently this was John Hall. I had heard about him before. He was Brett's (my roommate Megan's bf now husband) big bro in fraternity. I had also heard that he was insane. I was introduced to him. He asked what I was studying for. I told him it was a history final. He then explained that he knew EVERYTHING there is to know about history and offered to quiz me. I passed. A few weeks went by and I didn't think anything of that guy I met in the TSU. I had a boyfriend. He later told me that he thought I seemed stuck up. Sparks definitely didn’t fly. Early in the summer, I found myself single for the first time since I was 14. I had the same bf all through highschool and the first two years of college. I thought that I needed to be single and experience life on my own for a while, since I had always had a boyfriend. I was a little down and feeling bad about how everything w/ my bf ended so my roommates thought it would be fun to take me out country line dancing at the Crazy Horse in Irvine. There ended up being a big group of fraternity guys that we knew at the Crazy Horse. Apparently Wed nights were college nights. I walked in and before I could even put my purse down, J came up to me and asked if I wanted to "two-step". I agreed and we chatted and danced for a song or two. Later that night, John asked Brett if he could get my phone number. Brett gave it to him, but told him that I had just broken up with a long term bf and probably wouldn’t be interested in anything serious. Over the next few weeks, we would have people over to our apartment, and Megan would invite John, or Brett would suggest we see what John was up to…they were matchmaking right under my nose. We got to know each other over the next several weeks. We would have people over, and John would show up and we would sit on the couch and just talk, sometimes all night. Really-we were just talking…and I learned that this crazy guy with a tongue ring and leopard spotted hair was actually really great. He def had his crazy moments, but we both had a lot in common. We grew up in similar households. He was very close with his fam, and adored his little brothers. Our first few dates actually included babysitting his little bros. He loved cats (and has since let me fill our house with them), and he could recite almost every line to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (just like me!). He also had the Moulin Rouge soundtrack in his car, and we would sing the duet on every drive together. One day, after a bad fight with my parents, he commanded that I get into his car. I had been crying, and was a hot mess. He drove silently to a park in Fullerton. He told me to walk with him along the grass and to leave my phone and shoes in the car. After a couple of minutes of wondering what the heck we were doing there, the sprinklers came on. He told me to run like I did when I was a little kid playing in the sprinklers. It was like a movie. That sealed it for me-I had fallen! Later that summer, he invited me to meet his family at a mini-reunion at Paradise Point San Diego. He asked me to be his girlfriend there. 6 years later, he asked me to be his wife there. A year after that, we got married there. I joke with him now that I married my rebound guy. I thought I wanted to be single and the first guy I dated I ended up marrying. Funny how life works that way. Here's a look at us over the years…

Clutter

I was rummaging through my closet a few weeks ago when it dawned on my how much crap I have. Every last bit of drawer space, hanging space, and storage space is filled, perhaps overflowing. I started going through my stuff and soon found myself on a trip down memory lane. I save everything. I mean everything. It's not so bad now, but when I was younger, every little note passed, memento, ticket stub, etc held some sort of significance to me, so I kept them. First in a little tin box from Sanrio (I was 12, ok?!), then I upgraded to a shoe box, and finally to a large plastic crate which rests in the top shelf of my closet. I read some notes that my BFF Lauren and I passed throughout Jr High and High School and man, first of all, we were dorks, and second of all, I can hardly decipher the code of abbreviations, nick-names given to classmates that I have long forgotten, and inside jokes that riddle the pages of these notes. It's like reading gibberish written by a stranger. This brings something to mind...note passing is probably a thing of the past. Almost every elementary, jr high, and certainly high school kid has a cell phone, and texting is surely the new note passing. But, you can include illustrations in texts, and boy did we like to illustrate all over our notes!
I also found ticket stubs to Austin Powers that we saw in New Jersey, plane ticket stubs and subway ticket stubs from our trip to NY and DC after 8th grade graduation, a brochure for Gaylord Lighthouse Tours from a Martha's Vineyard trip when I was 13 (we couldn't get over the Gaylord part). I kept virtually every plane ticket stub and subway/train/bus/museum ticket for every trip I had ever been on (which is a lot!), and even my old retainer-ew!. I kept every card, love note, print out of IM chats, movie ticket stub, plane ticket stub, graduation flyer, prom invitations, (and even my corsage from my 1st prom) from my first (and only) high school boyfriend.
More digging discovered zebra-printed keys (anyone else get designs printed on their house keys?) and a lease contract for my first apartment. In case you were wondering, Megan and Brooke, our move-in date for "Scamdon" was 12/14/2002.
I have another tub full of all my sorority things. Greek week costumes, about a dozen different letters, John's pin that he gave me during a pinning ceremony his last year in college, and a bunch of pictures that never made it to albums due to their content...hehehe
I have a bunch of notes from John from back in college (again, pre-texting) that include several racy comics that he would draw when he was bored in class. I should scan one and post it one of these days-they are quite entertaining!
My goal was to get rid of the "crap" in my closet to make more room. After a couple of hours of sifting, my toss pile contained a few coins and some gum wrappers that had accidentally made it into my tubs, and a giant keep pile that contained everything I started with. I just couldn't part with any of it. The fact that I had saved it all for all these years makes it even harder to part with it all. I think I tend to form attachments to inanimate objects. When I was a younger, I could never get rid of my stuffed animals, even when I outgrew them, because I didn't want to hurt their feelings or make them sad. As ridiculous as it sounds, I am the exact same way today.
So, after my trip down memory lane came to an end, I carefully packed it all back up and put it back on my top shelf. Maybe next time I "clean out" my closet, I'll start with the clothes and shoes. In the meantime, I suppose I'll just continue to be a crazy hoarder!

Updates

Well, there has not been much to blog about these days...life has been busy, but not overly exciting-which is exactly what I needed. We have passed the time by buying mountain bikes and getting prepared for our new hobby-which was quickly cut short by this clumsy gal injuring herself on her first ride (may or may not have happened right in front of my house within 5 minutes of getting on the bike-damn clip in shoes!!), and I suffered from a broken elbow and a fractured ego. Since then, I have learned to love the stationary bikes at the gym-I can read a good book, which I never have time to do, and I can burn calories at the same time. Plus, I have yet to fall off it. Win-Win. We've tried out some delish new restaurants in our area, caught up with good friends, done some home imrovements, and finally spent the last of our wedding gift cards.

Last week, though, there was some fun to be had. My company took its sales team to Cabo for the weekend as a reward for exceeding its agressive sales sales goal in 2010. It was a perfect 4 day getaway and the resort was awesome-I'd highly recommend it (and I'm a snob when it comes to these things). My only complaint is that the food wasn't great...not bad, but not delicious either. But, it was about standard for an all-inclusive. Here are some pics from our weekend.

View of one of the pools at our resort



Infinity pool overlooking the ocean

J and I

Mamacita and I

Arrrrr...on a pirate ship

I saw a whale breach about 100 feet away...pretty incredible

I was the *lucky* audience member who got terrorized a rogue pirate during their show...and in case you are wondering-that is a real sword with a real blade, and he was really pushing it against my neck. Oh, Mexico


But, clearly I survived

Fun stuff!

Honeymoon, A Novel

A fellow blogger friend posted all about her h-moon this week and it reminded me that I never got around to writing about ours! Well, go ahead and take care of your business now and then get comfy 'cause this gonna be a loooong one! ; )
I believe I mentioned here what our big plans were, and man did we make the right decision. I was a little skeptical about this trip, seeings as many of the stops the ol' ship made weren't exactly virgin territory to me (Waaaaa, I know!). I have been to the UK more times than I can count, and I have done plenty of the touristy necessities. But, on the flip side, I have never been without mom and dad, and the last time I did anything touristy I was younger and failed to appreciate the beauty and history that exists across the pond. John and I made a quick trip over to Dublin during one of our UK journeys, but we were 19 and ran outta cash quick (Dublin has to be one of the most expensive cities in Europe). Furthermore, a lot of time had passed since my last visit to Gay Pari, and I was excited to practice my French skills once again. So, on Aug 9th we took off for Southampton and on Aug 10th we set sail!



Side Note: My mom was actually born in Southampton and spent the first 10 (give or take) years of her life there. If we get technical here, she's a blimey Englishwoman. My grandparents relocated to England from Scotland while my grandpa worked as a sailor for the Queen Mary. In it's hay day, the old QM docked in Southampton. It was cool leaving out of the same harbour that my gramps used to frequent.

Our first stop was Guernsey/St Peter's Port. Where is Guernsey, do you ask? Well, it's this little treat of an island city (think Catalina, CA peeps, but better). It's located in the English Channel, and is one of the Channel Islands located just a hop, skip, and a jump (or rather a swim) from Normandy. In fact, many Guernsey residents take a 45 min ferry over to France for dinner. How cool would that be? The coolest place 45 min from where I live is downtown LA, which is not that cool. Not that cool at all. But, I will save my utter detest for LA for another post. A few more fun facts about Guernsey:

-It is not part of the UK or the European Union

-It's nearly impossible to buy property there...you pretty much have to have been born there, share residence with someone who lives there, or qualify for a housing license, which is only valid for a fixed amount of time. It's quite the exclusive little island, and once you travel there, you'll understand why. It's gorgeous!

-People there are very superstitious. Almost every house has a little stoop mounted somewhere around the roof on on the outer walls. This stoop is for witches to sit on and rest. This polite gesture keeps them from tormenting the people inside the house. How thoughtful.

-The book "The Guernsey Literary and and Potato Peel Pie Society" really painted a great picture of Guernsey and by coincidence I read it about a year before we made this trip. It's a really great book and it made me excited to visit this quaint little town.

OK, now that the history lesson is over, I'll tell you about our stop. We rented bikes and did a bike tour around the whole island. For a part of the world that has sunshine about 3 days a year, we got incredibly lucky the entire trip. We had perfect weather. Blue skies, sunshine, not too hot, not too cold. We got to tour the amazing homes, churches, and landscape, but since we were on our bikes most of the time, I wasn't able to get too many pictures...I'm not that well-coordinated.

Here's what Guernsey looks like:

Docking at St Peter's Port


Taking a break from our bikes for a photo opp


Our second stop was Cork, Cobh, Ireland. Amazing. Even though I didn't think it would be possible, each place we went topped the place before. Cobh (pronounced Cove) is a great little seaside town.

Here are some fun facts about Cobh:

-Cobh port was the departure point for the 6 million + Irish emigrants who came to North America during the famine.

-Cobh Harbour was the last port of call for the Titanic on it's Maiden Voyage. Unfortunately, as we all know, it never made it there.

-The Titanic weighed it's anchor at Cobh for the last time, and set sail towards icy waters. 123 passengers boarded the ship in Cobh.

-Not far from Cork is the city of Blarney, where the Blarney Castle stands. It is here where you can stand in line for 2 hours to kiss a stone that 23904823908239058239058490584 people have kissed before you.

-Legend has it that kissing the blarney stone will give you "blarney", which is the "ability to coax with fair words and soft speech without giving offense" otherwise known as the ability to bullshit.

We quickly ventured outside the walls of Cobh and into the medieval stronghold of Blarney. We weren't intimidated by the mile long line around the castle and up the narrow stairs of the tower-we were kissing that stone! We laughed afterwards because the workers at Blarney Castle really have that process down to a science. They are very militant about it, and you can't really spend time getting to know the stone. It's very slam, bam, thank-you ma'am. No time for formalities. It's also very awkward to reach, and it involves lying on your back, and have some old toothless character drag you off the side of the tower's edge and under a ledge where you have to practice your yoga inversions in order to peck the stone. But, it's one of things that you just have to do if you find yourself in Blarney. I do have to say that my ability to "speak softly without giving offense" does not seem to improved.

Blarney Castle-I swear, anytime we visit anything of historical importance, it's under construction- and despite what you may think, scaffolding doesn't make for a framer...

Couldn't Resist!


Climbing the tower of Blarney Castle


Kissing the stone-note the giant wet spot...gross


John getting his Blarney on


Next stop, Dublin, which was basically the reason for the trip. We planned an excursion to the Guinness Factory aka Guinness Storehouse aka St. James's Gate (Gotta love the Catholics' appreciation for booze). Here are some fun facts about the "Storehouse"

-was once the largest brewery in the world, but still holds the title of the largest brewer of stout in the world.

-The Storehouse is not the brewery-that's across the street. The Storehouse is a museum dedicated to all things Guinness. It's 7 stories high and is shaped like a pint glass. An effect you can only see from a distance. The "rim" of the pint glass is the circular viewing tower at the top which is 360 degrees of windows and overlooks the entire city of Dublin. In the center of this circular room is a circular bar.

-Their main product is Guinness Draught and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide.

-There is a bar inside the museum that has little tables affixed with their very own taps. All you thirsty patrons have to do is put in 20 Euro and you can fill up your mug until you fall over or until closing time-whatever comes first. This is a real bargain considering the cocktail I purchased at a bar in Dublin cost about 15 buckeroos!

After our tour of the museum, we decided to bail from our tour group and see Dublin on our own. We befriended a cabbie who knew the lay of the land and took us to all the best bars. We went to the Clarence Hotel, which is owned by U2. We then ventured to O'Donoghue's, which is the local bar where the Dubliner's got their start. We sat and drank there for most of the afternoon before O'Cabbie (I can't for the life of me remember his name) picked us up. We had just enough time to get an authentic fish and chip supper, and made it back to our ship with about 30 min to spare before it pulled away.

There She Is!


Having a drink at the top of the storehouse, enjoying a view over Dublin


Cheers!


We spent a fair amount of our day here


Our next stop was Liverpool. Since I have already written over 1,300 words, I'll keep this one short. All in all, Liverpool was cool, yo. I had heard that it wasn't that nice, but let me tell you, I heard wrong. The Fab Four should be proud to call Liverpool home. We toured the city, and also visited some of the must see Beatles stops.

A necessary stop when in Liverpool


Next on the list was one of the absolute highlights of the trip. Belfast-Northern Ireland. Antrim Coast to be specific. This place is like a frickin post card. We docked in Belfast and quickly scooted out and began the long trek to the coast (about 3 hours) to see Giant's Causeway. Here are some facts:

-The causeway is the result of a volcanic eruption
-It was named the 4th natural wonder of the UK
-Legend has it that Irish warrior (and giant) built the "steps" to use as stepping stone to cross the water over to Scotland. It's actually a much longer story than that, but I've run outta steam!

This place is amazing. See for yourself.














I have about 100 more pics of this and they all look like postcards or screensavers.

Our next several stops were to Scotland. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Inverness to be exact. I'd been to all three stops many, many times before, but we did get to do one thing I had never done and that was attend the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Every year in August, the military tattoo is held in the Edinburgh castle. I somehow have managed to never see this before, despite making several trips to Scotland in Aug. It was take-your-breath-away incredible. I would tell you to check out footage on youtube, but it won't do it justice. Pipe and drum bands perform from all over the world, including the Citadel Military College from South Carolina-reppin' the USA. It is a MUST do if you ever find yourself in Scotland in August.

We paid a visit to the Highlands of Scotland, which are breathtakingly beautiful. We were a tad under the weather on this day due to befriending the cruise director the night before and drinking for free until the wee hours of the morning. However, we managed to rally and we had a nice little day.

Yay! We got to meet up for a night on the town with my Auntie Carol and Nic!


A little hungover the next day after said night on the town


Urquhart Castle in the Scottish Highlands


Searching for the Loch Ness Monster...never did get a glimpse of old Nessie-she must have been feeling shy!


After 10 days w/out my coffee fix, I was a happy camper...so Ammmericann of me ; )


Getting seated for the Edinburgh Tattoo-that's the castle in case you were wondering


All lit up for the Tattoo


Our final stop was Paris. Actually, La Havre to be exact. Paris was a couple of hours away. La Havre is the port right near Normandy. John wanted to do some WW2 Normandy beach tours, but what's more romantic for a honeymoon, touring the beach where tens of thousands of people died, or strolling around Paris for the day?? John and I had been to the south of France together a few years back, and I have been to Paris before, but not w/ J. Many things were different in Paris this time round. 1. I was not with French peeps like the last time I was there. 2. I seem to have been quite out of practice in the language that I was once so proficient in. But, some things remained the same-the Eiffel Tower is just as glorious, Notre Dame is just as spectacular, and the crepes are just as amazing as I remember.

Monsieur Eiffel Tower


A little self-portrait action




Yummm! Finally getting my crepes!


After we docked back in Southampton, our great friend Chris picked us up and took us back to his house for the weekend. We spent the day touring his local town in the countryside of England, and we got to have a drink at a bar frequented by Phil Collins. OK, that's the grand summary of our trip. We had a day or two at sea in between all these stops, and we had nights to explore the ship. It was a big joke the entire time that John and I were the youngest cruisers by about 30 years. Seriously, there were probably more oxygen tanks than 20-somethings on this cruise. This def affected the night life on the ship. For lack of anything better to do, we racked up quite the bar tab every night. That's where the cruise ships get ya! But, we had an amazing time and I wish I could close my eyes and click my heels and be back on that ship. It was a glorious escape from reality. We are planning our next trip back for this summer to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. I can’t wait!