Ahhhh, Europe - Part II: Toscana, Italia

On Saturday, July 3, Travis and I boarded a train bound for Florence. Actually, it was first a train to Arth-Goldau, Switzerland, then a train to Milan, then Florence. The worst part of the trip was the fact that the A/C in our car on the train from Milan to Florence just stopped working. Since the A/C was off, the ventilation was off, too. It was horrible! Somebody finally told a worker and he fixed it, thankfully. I felt like I was suffocating. It was pretty hot the whole time we were in Lucerne and Italy, and they don't do A/C like we do. There was some sweating involved. Oh, Travis actually ordered an espresso on the train to Milan and drank the whole thing! I was proud, but that was, sadly, his last espresso of the trip. Guess he didn't care for it.

Anyway, I put together another collage of our time in Tuscany, shown below. For better views of these pictures and more pictures, check out my Picasa page.



During our time in Tuscany, we stayed at a little farm about 30 km northeast of Florence. It's run by an Italian family and they rent out apartments to people. It was incredible, but it was quite the adventure getting to the farm. After stopping in Florence to get directions from a fellow who only spoke Italian (we understood three things - the loop he made with his hand, "A Uno", and "Firenze Sud"). Somehow we got to the right place. The directions we had gave no indication of how far we were to travel after the last landmark. We kept driving up all of these intense switchbacks (the car, which was a standard, died a few times so we had to let it roll back, re-start it, gain momentum, and try again) until we saw a place with people around. We stopped and asked where we were, and we were at Fattoria Il Poeta (where we were supposed to be)! It's a good thing we kept going. We thought about turning around, especially after we passed a house with a creepy lady who glared at us as we passed. We were shown to our apartment, unpacked, and walked around a little bit. We found some cute ducks and a few other farm animals and, enjoyed the views, and decided we needed showers and naps before dinner.

The dinners were probably my favorite part about staying at this farm. If you're ever in Italy, you should definitely seek out an arrangement like this. The other people staying there were so friendly. It was incredible to sit down every night and share in some great conversation (some in English, some in German, some in Italian, a little in French, and sometimes in all of the languages mentioned above), great wine, and absolutely fantastic home-cooked Italian food in such an incredible outdoor setting in the middle of Tuscany. It was unreal. To give you a snapshot, there were olives (grown and cured at the farm), wine (again, produced there), antipasto platters, incredible pasta with sauces, risotto made with barley, panna cotta, crostada with apricot jam, fantastic cured sausages and meats, delicious roasted vegetables, and a homemade walnut liquor. My absolute favorite activity there was the cooking class, where we made a ragu with handmade pasta, chicken basically stewed with a lot of different vegetables, capers, herbs, etc., and the crostada mentioned above. I'm so excited to try to re-create some of this at home!

On our second day in Tuscany we went into Florence. Finding the train station in the small town close to the farm was an adventure in itself, as was figuring out what train to get on. There, we first went to see David at the Accademia. A word of advice: do whatever you can to get reservations at big attractions like these. We didn't know what day we would be there, but we read the poster outside the entrance that told us where to get tickets. It saved us a 2 hour wait in the heat! David was amazing. Our guidebook series, Rick Steve's, produces free audio tours in the form of podcasts. These were also a fantastic tip. We learned so much from them! After, we found lunch at a grocery store (much cheaper, even with purchasing a package of plastic forks) and sat on the steps of the Duomo for a picnic. The rest of the day was spent exploring Florence and gazing in awe at all of its cultural masterpieces. It's really a beautiful city. We had gelato at some point during one of our walking tours. I know this for a fact because it's on my shirt in all the afternoon pictures from that day. I believe I had Lemoncello with pineapple gelato that day - probably my favorite.

Our next day was spent hanging out at the farm and the surrounding areas. It included a very hot and hilly hike, a dip in the above-ground pool at the farm, a picnic lunch in the nearby town of Dicomano, a visit to a winery, a nap, and the cooking class. It was a nice relaxing day which I certainly was in need of. Driving around the Tuscan hills was incredible. So much scenery! Unfortunately the archeologic site we found was under construction, a fact that we discovered after hiking up to it! Italians aren't much for clear communication of these things, apparently. It was fun, anyway, and we hit up the vineyard we had spotted for a wine tasting on the way back.

The next morning, we arranged for Antoinella (the owner of the farm) to take us on a horseback tour. We arranged to start at 9 to get the horses ready. Of course, as we had already learned, this meant 9:20ish in Italian time. We got the horses all brushed and saddled up, got a quick lesson on English riding (she was worried that we probably knew only Western, but really there wasn't much teaching to be undone here), then set out. Some of the roads were steep and rocky! It was a little scary at times, but the horses know the roads well. We rode up to the top of the nearby hill/mountain and back in a loop that took about two hours. This was really an incredible experience with the views and different vegetation to observe. There were so many different types of flowers, trees, and bushes. I could tell that my horse, Petra, really liked eating this palm-like bush because I had a hard time keeping her going when we passed by those. After the ride, with the skies about to open up and pour, we settled up with Antoinella and Ricardo and said our goodbyes. We hated to leave, but we were off to Roma!

Ahhhh, Europe - Part I: Lucerne, Switzerland

We've returned and settled back into life here after our amazing trip to Europe. The first stop was Lucerne, Switzerland, where I was attending the European Fuel Cell Forum. Lucerne was beautiful. To give you an idea, I created a little collage from our pictures taken there.



The first day was a little rough with the jet lag and all. I flew with a colleague from Denver to Atlanta, then on to Zurich. We took a train from Zurich to Lucerne, which is about 30km south. Adding to the jet lag was the fact that Delta had screwed up our flights so much that we were informed upon landing that our bags would not get to Zurich until 24 hours later and wouldn't make it to our hotel until later that day - and certainly not before the presentation I was giving the next morning. This meant that I needed to go buy clothes suitable for giving a technical presentation in. Oh, well! Shopping was a good way to explore the city, anyway.

Aside from that snag, the conference was great, and the rest of our time in Lucerne was enjoyable. The food in Switzerland is amazing (and not just the chocolate, although that's pretty amazing, too) because they aren't allowed to import any food (with the exception of horse and kangaroo, of course). Everything was so fresh! The city was pretty clean, too, and the lake was gorgeous. I took the opportunity to go swimming in it as I had packed the suit, cap, and goggles in anticipation of the occasion. One day, during some conference sessions I felt I could do without, I wandered down until I found a beach. There were a lot of people out there swimming and sunbathing. The water was a little chilly (probably around 66F or so) but not unbearable. After swimming for a bit I laid my hotel towel out on the grass and enjoyed the sun. I chose to not partake in the European custom of revealing one's chest while at the beach.

That night we had a "Dinner on the Lake" with all the conference people, which might have been my favorite part of the trip. The lake was gorgeous, serene, and enormous! Travis joined me the next day and we walked around Lucerne a bit, had dinner with my advisor, and just enjoyed relishing the fact that we were in Europe!

Summer Activities

Now that summer is in full swing, we've both been preoccupied with our athletic pursuits as well as hanging out with friends (kickball league Tuesday nights!) and cooking on the grill. I love summer!! The only bad part about it is the heat, but we finally broke down and bought a portable A/C unit for the house. It helps so much! Here are some pictures showing what we've been up to lately.

Travis has been doing a lot of this:



I've been doing a lot of this (ignore the poor running form - it was at the very end of a long hot race):



and Wyatt's been doing a lot of this:



Actually, not really on the last one. I just like pictures of my animals. Isn't that golf course that Travis was on beautiful? It's down south of Denver a bit and he was there playing in a tournament for a charity that supports the widows/widowers and children of fallen soldiers. He played on the Air Force team whose entry was paid for by someone else. I think he enjoyed the whole experience. It was a weekend-long event including shows and dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. The Gatlin Brothers headlined it and they brought in a lot of other Nashville song-writing talent. It was a great event to be a part of!

The picture of me was taken yesterday at an Olympic-distance triathlon called Loveland Lake-to-Lake. It was my first Olympic-distance tri and I had a great time, though it was painful at times. The bike ride was pretty hilly and the run was pretty hot and exposed. I ended up 19th out of 54 in my age group - one person shy of qualifying for the USAT national championship!! I was kinda bummed about that. At least now I know what to work on (biking and running form!) and I have another reason (like I needed one) to buy a TT bike that fits me! Mine's a little small and it's definitely not a TT bike. After the race (and after the initial nausea subsided) I did a little of this:



...and it was amazing. Now we're getting ready for our trip to Europe! I leave for Switzerland tomorrow morning for a conference, and Travis will meet me there on Friday to travel to Italy. We're planning on spending a few days in Tuscany, then a few days in Rome where we'll meet up with Jon and Misty Schindler. We're really excited about it. Plenty of pictures to come!!!

Oops.

So, on Sunday I did this event called "Elephant Rock Ride". My friend Danielle and I did the 100-mile ride. It was tough - lots of hills and wind - and of course we were riding against the wind on the entire first half, which climbed at least 1,000 ft. The second half was nice! Riding at above 40 mph sure felt better than climbing at 8 mph. Normally anything above 30-35 mph scares me, but the road was smooth and straight, not much traffic was around, and the thought of boosting my overall ride average made me happy. The worst part of the entire ride, however, was when we turned to go south on the feeder of I-25 (Mom and Christi, feeders here aren't like they are back in Texas, so there was no traffic). We were riding against wind that had to have been blowing steadily at 30 mph. When dealing with these conditions at mile 90, you sort of want to curse everything you see. Luckily that didn't last too long and we headed back north shortly and finished the ride with a total riding time of around 7 hours. We went in and grabbed some of the free food. Pasta salad has never tasted so good!! My chocolate chip cookie even got a little soggy on one edge from the Italian dressing, but I really didn't care. I ate it anyway.

So, I really wasn't too sore the next day. I was really, really tired, though, and had a heck of a sunburn on my back and feet. That's right, I said feet. See, I wore my triathlon shoes, which are designed to be worn without socks. I didn't wear socks. And I didn't even think to put sunscreen on the little square of skin that was exposed on each foot. See picture below. Oops. I'm going to have some pretty tan lines this summer.

Bolder Boulder 2010

Yesterday, Travis and I participated in the 32nd Annual Bolder Boulder 10K race. As Travis pointed out yesterday, the name of the race makes absolutely no sense. I definitely agree, but whatever. The race always takes place on Memorial Day in Boulder (obviously) and serves as a tribute to past and present soldiers, as well. It's America's largest 10K. This year there were 52,000 participants! That's A LOT of people. As I pointed out to Travis on Sunday, that's a little more than the amount of people who attended the almost-sold-out Rockies game that day. Add in all of the spectators and volunteers, and that is a whole big mess of people all over Boulder. The race is so well organized, though, that it runs smoother than most other road races I've participated in. We chose to take advantage of the transportation system run by Denver's RTD. $7 round-trip per person and we didn't have to fight the traffic or the parking!

Travis and I both did well. My goal was to break 50 minutes, which I fell short of by a little less than a minute. However, technically I ran 6.35 miles rather than 6.2 (according to my GPS watch) because of all the weaving between people I did. I think if I had been in one of the beginning waves and wasn't constantly passing people I definitely would have had an official time under 50 minutes. Next time! Travis did fantastic in his first 10K. I think his plan was to just run how he felt like running. He said he could have gone much harder because he had a lot left at the end. It's hard to pace well when you don't know what to expect! Along the course there were bands, people throwing marshmallows for runners to catch, Jell-O shots, bacon, and a lot of other fun nonsense. Dani and Jerad ran, too, and they took advantage of the Slip-n-Slide in someone's front yard. It's definitely a fun race! Travis even sheepishly admitted to me last night that he enjoyed the experience.

After we took full advantage of the freebies at the Expo, we made our way back home to shower and take the traditional post-race nap. Later in the evening Dani, Jerad, and the German post-doc Marco joined us for a Memorial Day BBQ. All in all, a great day. Now it's back to work!

Graduation

I apologize for the delay in my posts. Our camera was in my purse that was stolen out of my car a month or so ago and we have yet to replace it. I'm relying on other people's pictures! My sister Lauren is a much better photographer than I am, anyway.

A few weeks ago Travis and I went back home to attend the graduations of both of my sisters. Lauren graduated from Sam Houston State University with a Master of Science in Forensics Science, and Sarah graduated from Texas A&M with both her B.S. in Accounting and her Master of Science in Management Information Systems (I could be wrong on that). We had a great time visiting back home and hanging out with family. After graduation on Saturday we made a mandatory visit to the Dixie Chicken, of course!

The graduation ceremony for my Master's degree was on the same day as Lauren's graduation. Needless to say, I did not attend. If it would have been my last graduation ceremony, I think I would have attended. Since I did not get a choice in purchasing the cap and gown or not, we decided pictures were necessary :). And yes, my dad is a goof.

Good news!!

I'm clear to finally announce that Travis and I will have our first niece or nephew come December!! My sister Lauren and her husband Jim are expecting their first child. We're all pretty excited about it. Here's a link to her blog where the first ultrasound has just been posted: www.jimandlauren.net.