door county coolness

Ode to Door County... apples and cherries and wines and dunes...yum!
To extend my vacation just a bit, and to get Josh to have a bit of fun, we had signed up for the Door County Half Marathon with some friends...I can blame it all on Tracy, as she was doing it to train for walking her full marathon this summer, so we joined her, her bf James, and Becky. I can't say that Josh and I did a great job of training, however. :)

So Josh was awesome and picked up me and the fam from the airport late on Wednesday night. We dropped off the fam and Josh and I started driving across Wisconsin, so that we didn't have to drive all 6 estimated hours to Door County in one day. We stopped...somewhere in the middle...went to sleep. Ahhh, sleep!

So Door County is a lovely, intensely touristy (in the summer, anyway) area of WI up in the thumb. It has tons of wineries (mainly fruit wines, but others as well), artsy shops and boutiques, and lots of resorts and good food. It was the first time both Josh and I have been there, and I would love to make an annual trip!

We got to DC on Thursday, and the weather was rainy and not conducive to wandering on foot, so we went wine tasting. First stop was Harbor Ridge winery, which was totally my favorite...not only did they have some really tasty (and non fruit based for Josh!) wines, but they also had an artisan cheese portion of the shop, which will actually have its own building on the site in the near future. We tried some amazing things, and bought some garlic onion gouda that was later made into some of the best mac and cheese ever.


We drove to the Whitefish Dunes State Park to take a little walk. That's Josh walking.


We finally got a bit of sun so we took the bikes and wandered up to Newport State Park to find a bike trail. This was the beginning of the trail--quite a scene!

Josh flying through the little archway!

How random is that??

Then we met up with Becky, Trace, and James...went to a fine, fine dinner at the Wild Tomato (that place is amazing) and then finished on the night with dessert from a place called Not Licked Yet Frozen Yogurt. Funny.

Tasty!

Pretty skies on the way home.

And now we have to run...I really wanted to jump on the trolley, but it was full. We had to make due with the school bus. Had to get a picture of Beck with the trolley, though!

Before we ran...the girls!

And everybody! I don't know why I don't have any pictures of everyone after the run...probably 'cause I was too tired to bring it out...

We wandered around town for a bit, seeing marvelous things for ladies, and fabulous hats.


We had tickets for a concert on Saturday night as well. It was a blurry Elephant Revival and blurry Mason Jennings! What a fabulous concert!!

I love Mason Jennings.

And then we had to head home! Sad! It was a great weekend.

Italy

So my mom loves the late John Paul II. When the Vatican announced that JPII was going to be beatified, I got a text from my mom that announced that. Two hours later she sends another one... "I got hotel rooms!"
Who's going to say no to visiting Italy? Not I, said the fly! (I still can't believe that Mike, did indeed, say no, but that's another story). So mom, Mart, Michaela and I headed out on April 26th.

Mom and Mart hanging out on the escalator...we made it!

Mom was thoroughly impressed with the sheer volume of JPII paraphernalia.

Nice knockers!

Trevi fountain!

Here's the Castel Sant'Angel. Pretty. We jumped on on of those fun hop on, hop off buses to get a ride around the sights.

We saw all these cute little trucks filled with plants and flowers, here's one perfectedly situated near the JPII bus...


Look at those hotties.

Went to dinner at a lovely place that we went to back in August--same waiter who threw antipasto plates at us! It was awesome.

Magda even came over from Poland with her bf Niko. It was so good to see her, and meet him!

Niko and Kayla touring the Colosseum.

While Madga, Kayla and Niko were at the Colosseum, mom and Mart and I walked out to the catacombs. This is mom in the Chiesa del Domine Quo Vadis. It is here that St Peter traditionally met Jesus while the former was fleeing persecution in Rome. The story goes that Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, where are you going?" (Latin: Domine, quo vadis?). Jesus answered, "I am going to Rome to be crucified again." And that made Peter realize that he had to go back to Rome, where he was crucified...upside down.

What are you doing??

The Tiber river, looking lovely at twilight.

Visiting the Trevi fountain again.

View of the pillars in St Peter's square.

The Vatican was quite the busy place! The beatification had events planned over the weekend of April 30-May 2. The big ceremony was on Sunday in the Vatican, and they were estimating that over one million people would be there. Saturday evening we were hanging out at the Vatican, and mom's plan was to sleep out so we could be close or in St Peter's Square. So we sat down, thinking we were in for the long haul.

Here's mom getting ready to face the night in her Jesus wear.

There were tons of people with the same idea, so groups singing, and waving flags, and one girl (a self proclaimed 'JPII freak') interviewed mom for her college media class (below, left of mom). Then the police made us all leave. Sad.

So then the plan was to leave our hotel at about 3am to go to the Vatican (they were moving the barricades leading into the Vatican at 5am).

A lovely early morning sky with LOTS of peeps.

We moved, but didn't quite get to St Peter's square. Lucky for us, we were right by one of the big screens so we could see everything. It was amazing how even though the crowd was there for a very good, catholic reason, people were quite pushy and some downright rude (mom saw a lady shove a priest who was trying to give communion so he would turn towards her--she SHOVED A PRIEST!!! Who does that??)
Anyhoo, it got warm. Kayla was getting sunburnt. oops!
It was an awesome experience. And we still had a few days in Rome!

I heart gelato.
I would eat it everyday.
twice a day, actually.

At the Thanksgiving mass that was on Monday. Mom went super early and got a seat waaay up in front, where she SAT. Kayla and I wandered in the back. :)

Wandering the streets.

The Queen Bee's throne.

Piazza Navona--lots of fun street performers and artists.

Salumeria! A place with lots of salami!! Yay for cured meats!

Pretty night views.

Kayla and I headed to Pompeii on Tuesday (the day before we had to go home). It was a beautiful day, perfect for wandering around the ruins.

We got an audio guide. It told us lots of fun information, but doesn't she look like she's on a cell phone? :)

In the oven at the Baker's House, which was one of my favorite things to see.

Poppies, poppies everywhere!


Kayla's camera takes crazy fun fancy pictures.

Stone carvings.

Kayla's favorite things--these stones were in place so that when the city would flood, you could still cross the street!

Where's Kayla?


Bye, bye, Pompeii!


Train picture warnings...don't stick yourself in the doors!

Kayla finally found her sparkling white wine. Yum!

Crazy carbby eater!

More gelato...mmmmm.

Mom's ready to fly out with her little neck pillow. It was her necklace.

Kayla's new hair on the plane. Pretty cute!

Such a wonderful trip with awesome peeps! Thanks mom!!!