Ohio Pictures

The last post had all of the info, here are some pictures from the trip:

The John Johnson Farm in Hiram, OH.  Joseph and Emma Smith stayed with the Johnsons for a while.  It was here that the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants was received and also where Joseph was dragged from his bed, tarred, and feathered.

Kirtland, OH.  We didn't have much time here as we were trying to make it to a play being put on by the local stake so we made sure to stop by the Newell K. Whitney store and the temple.

Cleveland, OH and the Rock and Roll Museum and Hall of Fame.

My car hit 10,000 miles while we were in Ohio.

Cedar Point Amusement park in Sandusky, OH.  We spent two days here enjoying as much as we could.

Nauvoo, IL.  We came mostly for the pageant which was amazing, but we also got to wander the town a bit and also the temple grounds.

St. Louis, MO.  We stopped just long enough to visit the arch as I wanted to go there because of the chapter from Rick Riordan's book The Lightning Thief.  I was amazed at just how little room there was in the tram/elevator to the top, the chapter makes more sense now that I've been there.

After St Louis, we started driving and driving and driving.  We did stop for dinner in the Kansas City, MO area so Sara could spend some time with her brother.

It was a really good trip, I'm glad we were able to go.  We sure do try and pack in the adventures on our trips though.  I'm ready for a vacation from my vacation.  School starts for me in just over two weeks so I better get everything done now that I'm back in town.

Ohio and Back

I've been home for a few days now and am ready to give an overview of our trip east.  This trip took me through ten different states, spending 67 hours in the car, and traveling 4,070 miles.

Things I learned or was reminded of on this trip:
-Nebraska is boring
-Iowa is really pretty compared to Nebraska
-Toll roads are annoying
-Ohio is humid
-Ohio backroads are beautiful
-Skittles are beautiful and tasty things
-Kansas is boring but it's better if driving through it in the dark
-I can only handle three and a half days without my alone time
-The most boring part of a bag of Chex Mix is the pretzels
-I could never live in the east with my family in California just for the time difference
-It is best to have a friend you can randomly text while sitting in the car waiting for the driving to be over
-Not all hotel beds were created equal

The only state license plate we did not see on the trip: Hawaii

Points of interest visited:
-John Johnson Farm in Hiram, OH
-Kirtland, OH
-Cleveland, OH
-Rock and Roll Museum and Hall of Fame
-Cedar Point (amusement park in Sandusky, OH)
-Nauvoo, IL
-St. Louis, MO
-St. Louis Gateway Arch

Other things to mention:
-Spent two days at Cedar Point--rode all of the roller coasters and a few other rides, saw a couple of shows, and ate good food.
-We rode the tallest and fastest rollercoaster at Cedar Point: Top Thrill Dragster--waited in line almost two hours for a 17 second ride, went straight up 420 feet at 120 mph with only a seat belt and lap bar holding you in!



-Got into Nauvoo just as it was closing down so we didn't get to see much but still walked around town and the temple grounds
-Saw two different pagaents/performances: Kirtland and Nauvoo
-The YSA branch in Cleveland is very nice but small in a very small building in a sketchy area downtown
-My car hit 10,000 miles on the trip...we were in Ohio.  It also hit 11,000 and 12,000 miles.

2012 Travels

I have done quite a bit of traveling not just this summer, but since the beginning of the year.  I've been keeping track of the places I've been and the miles I've travelled by car and it's quite impressive.  I've kept you up to date on each trip, but here is a combined record of my 2012 travels so far (really just since the end of February).

States and Countries I've been in/through (in order of entrance):
Utah
California
China
Colorado
New Mexico
Texas
Florida
Mexico
Belize
Honduras
Grand Cayman
Nevada
Wyoming
Nebraska
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Ohio
Missouri
Kansas

Days spent out of town: 45 (that's 21% of the year so far)

Number of hours travelled by car: 120+

Number of miles travelled by car: 7,065

Number of hours travelled by plane: 40+

This trips included a trip to China, driving Aleisha home, a cruise, a family reunion, visiting some friends from college, and a road trip to Ohio and back.

I'm ready to stay home for a while.

Ohio Milestones

Today my car hit 10,000 miles while driving down the 480 in Ohio. We made sure to take a picture but I will have to post it later. In other news, I am enjoying Ohio. The drive has been much better now that we are out of Nebraska. While driving around the Hiram and Kirtland areas yesterday, I had many moments where I wished I had a thesaurus so I could use something other than "quaint" or "picturesque". If I hadn't been driving, I would have taken a lot of pictures of all of the country roads we were driving on. Rolling hills, trees, flowers lining the roads. There was one particular road on the way to the Johnson farm that was exceptionally beautiful as it had a white farm house, green fields, trees hanging over the road and a windmill! I'm pretty sure I squealed when I turned the corner and saw the view.

Good News!

I have two pieces of good news for you today:

1. My blog has reached over 3,000 page views!  I'd like to thank my readers for their support...or their stalkerish tendencies, whatever applies to you I suppose.

2. Every summer I create a to-do list of things that I would like to accomplish before school starts again.    I keep this list on my mirror and erase each item as it is completed.  I have completed several things so far but with today's accomplishments of booking hotels for a trip and buying a spare tire, "boyfriend"is now on the top of the list!  Ok, so maybe I just listed these things as they came to mind, not necessarily according to importance, although having a spare tire is pretty important.

Return from Florida

After being gone on our adventures for so long, Colette and I were really looking forward to heading back to the real world and our own beds.  Nothing too exciting happened, but the day's happenings could be called adventurous.

We checked out of our hotel just before 11:00 but then had a few hours before we needed to be at the airport.  We decided to go check out a town called Celebration as it was originally owned by Disney and made so that no cars were allowed.  We got there and found that it was no longer owned by Disney and was very much like a regular town except with narrow one-way roads.  We saw a few gators in the local ponds and thought the town to be cute.  We found a few indoor flea markets and shops and mostly just browsed.  We eventually made it to the airport and then split ways with Sara as she was flying home on a different airline but would be landing in SLC about the same time as our flight.  I had never been in the Orlando airport and found it quite interesting that there is a hotel in the middle of the airport!  I guess that could be convenient but it was weird!  All of the rooms looked out over a courtyard that was the lines for the security check point.

Colette and I had a layover in Denver.  We had to wait to land due to weather, not too big of a deal as we had time before our next flight and if we couldn't land, that meant no one could take off so we wouldn't miss our flight.  The problem was that the weather didn't go away.  When it came time for our flight to be taking off and we were still sitting in the terminal, the airline people got on the intercom to explain that federal regulations were that there had to be  ten minutes between lightning strikes before any planes could take off, the problem was that we saw lightning outside the window every twenty to thirty seconds as this was being explained.  We knew Sara was on her plane so we couldn't call and explain this to her so we sent a text she would see when she landed.  We were about thirty to forty-five minutes late when we finally boarded which was awesome to finally do, but then we had to wait in line on the tarmac for at least thirty minutes before our turn to take off.

We were about an hour late by the time we finally arrived in SLC and then we had to wait forever for our luggage.  We found Sara, who waited for us (she's an amazing roommate!) and then we were off for home.  It was so nice to be home.  Steven, Randi, and Rowan stayed in our apartment a few days while we were gone as they were moving to California and needed a place for a few days.  It was nice to know they were around to keep an eye on things even if it did confuse my friends and neighbors.  Needless to say, we all went to bed and slept in the next day.

"Cruise" Days 9-11

Day 9 was the last day we were on the ship as it was the day we got back to Tampa.  It was sad to leave a life of no responsibilities and meeting new people, but it was nice to be able to have contact with the outside world as we had our cell phones off all week and didn't have any internet.  It was also nice to be able to buy things and not have them cost at least three times what you'd pay at Target or Wal-Mart.

Our roommate, Sara, had been in Orlando the last few days on business so she drove to Tampa to pick us up.  When we got on the boat, we didn't know what time to tell her to pick us up so we ended up waiting by the aquarium next door for awhile.  It was all well and good as we were able to catch up on voicemails, texts, and facebook, I even attended a church meeting via text while sitting there.  We were heading to Orlando to play for a few days but we couldn't get into our hotel right away so we decided to change into our skirts at a rest stop on the way there and found the local YSA ward so we could attend sacrament meeting.  We still had some time afterwards so we stopped by the Orlando temple and walked around a bit.  After finally checking into the hotel, we all just collapsed, watched TV, read books, and played cards.

Day 10 was our first day playing at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.  We got two-day park hopper passes so we could bounce back and forth based on Sara's ride wait time app.  We started out in Harry Potter world so we could make sure we got to do that.  Apparently everyone else had a similar idea.  It was the only time we waited an hour for a ride.  We passed the time by playing games.  After walking through Hogwarts and enjoying that ride, Colette and I rode the Dragon Challenge.  The rest of the day we enjoyed the following rides: Spiderman, Sneetches, Caroseussal, the Mummy, Cat in the Hat, Men in Black, and The Simpsons.  We ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, I had frozen butterbeer for the first time, it was very delicious.  Colette and Sara were very surprised when I ordered the roasted chicken...it had the most meat (it was half of a chicken) especially for the price and I really needed/wanted protein...it was ok.

That night we went to a dinner show.  Sara and I had both already been to Medieval Times so we decided to try something new called Arabian Nights (sounds cool huh), plus I had a half-off coupon.  It was a good thing we didn't pay full price.  It was a show all based around horses around the world, it turned into a very insensitive cultural show.  We all rolled our eyes when they started playing Enya while a unicorn pranced around with a lady dressed in white dancing all over the place.  The food wasn't very good either.

Day 11 we were back in the parks!  We hit the Incredible Hulk first as we basically walked straight onto the ride and usually there is a very long wait.  It was amazing!  We then headed for the water rides, but there was no wait for Spiderman either so we rode that one again.  We then got really wet on the barges (we rode it twice in a row as there was no one waiting to get on), the log flume (the best log ride I've ever been on, plus it took us to Canada, I didn't know it bordered Florida), and Jurassic Park.  While waiting in line for Jurassic Park, we started talking to a man and his daughter, they were from Great Britain and were amazed that Harry Potter has as much hype here as it does for them back home, they were also a little concerned that they would be getting as wet as we already were on the ride as we were soaked completely through.

We walked through Harry Potter again but decided it was too crowded to stick around.  We then tried to ride the Mummy again but the line was too long for our liking.  We "rode" Disaster which was really more of a audience participation "show" where they had people film short clips and used special effects in a film we all watched at the end, it was entertaining.  We rode Men in Black again and then tried to ride ET but the ride broke down so we went to wait for the animal show to start.  While we were watching the show, it started raining like crazy!  Thunder, lightning, pouring rain, the whole bit!  After the show, no one wanted to leave because of the rain, but we were still wet from before so we went splashing through the puddles to get to some indoor rides as all of the outdoor rides were closed because of the lightning.  We rode The Mummy twice (our favorite ride, plus all of the fire in the ride felt nice since we were so wet).  Afterwards, we left the park to go get something to eat and planned to come back later for a anniversary show.  We ate at a place called Steak n' Shake, it was very good and the waitress was very surprised when she came back to check on us and we were already done eating...we were very hungry and Julie really likes burgers.  We went back to the hotel to hang out before the show, but then it rained some more so we decided to not go back.

Cruise Day 8

This was our last full cruise day.  We spent the entire day at sea.  We thought that since we were going to be on the ship all day that the cruise line would have more activities planned, but they didn't which was kinda boring, but also relaxing.  

We made sure that no alarms would wake us up and that we were going to sleep in and we did until some random banging outside woke us up.  We finally emerged from our rooms to go eat breakfast at the buffet, we also decided to pick up a few items that we could eat while we were in Orlando the next day.  There was a towel folding demonstration that we checked in on, but decided not to stay.  The rest of the day was spent reading interspersed with naps.  We left the room mostly to eat.  At lunch, the ship provided a chocolate buffet...it really wasn't all that grand pretty much just a chocolate fountain and chocolate based desserts at the dessert bar.  At dinner, I had the mango soup for an appetizer.  I really loved their fruit soups, very delicious!

We tried several nights to go see the sunset over the ocean and most nights it was either too windy to go outside, too cloudy to see the sunset, or we were stuck in the middle of dinner.  As this was our last night, we were bound and determined to see it so we planned to go outside right after dinner.  The problem we ran into was that I left my camera in the room so we ran back to capture it as well.

We caught the end of the gender battle on the ship...the girls won.  Immediately following that, we stayed to watch/play/participate in The Liars Club.  They had three people working on the ship tell us stories to define words (like the game Balderdash) and we had to guess who was being truthful.  IT was entertaining.  We packed up our suitcases that night and then went to show time but I don't remember what the show was.

I Completely Understand

I just got home from church and checked the blogs I normally read and I came across a gem that my cousin wrote here about a particular group of friends she has and I completely understand and can relate (we must be related or something).  I'm glad that I'm not the only one and I'm also grateful for these people in my life.  I'm not one who openly attaches myself to many people, but when I do I'm really open but that takes a lot mainly me needing to feel safe and accepted.

Only recently have I realized how much these people mean to me and I usually don't quite understand it or realize what they are to me until they are gone.  So, thank you to my buddies too.

Summer Sundays

I don't like Sundays in the summertime...ok, that's not true, I just don't like them as much...not true either.  I love Sundays!  I guess the best way to put it is that I don't get to enjoy Sundays as much in the summer as I do the rest of the year.  Sundays are definitely my day of rest in the week (after all of my meetings that is, but not really...I'm really not making much sense tonight am I, trust me, I make sense to myself).  When school is in and I have all sorts of responsibilities and worldly things to worry about, Sunday is my day to put it all behind me, to forget it all and just focus on what really matters.  Sunday is a day that I have to myself to ponder, reflect, and bask in the world being put away for a day.  When I'm not in school, every day seems to blend together.  The last two weeks, Sunday has snuck up on me and I have to turn the alarm clock back on and remember to go to church...I don't like that.  I don't want to have to remember to go to church, I want to look forward to going to church.  My roommates hear me say, "Saturday is a special day," quite often as it's the "day we get ready for Sunday", but really I'm thinking to myself, "Sunday is a special day" as it's the day we get ready for everything else.

Family Reunion 2012

Another break from the cruise adventures...

I know I briefly mentioned my trip to California, but nowI have pictures!

Every summer, my mom's side of the family gets together.  This year we went to Lake Tahoe.  We always camp and it's pretty laid back until it's your turn to cook a meal.  On the last full day we're there, we always take family group shots to go with the letters we write to the family filling each other in on the happenings in our lives since the last reunion.  A few years ago, I started writing my own letters as my parents usually didn't say much about me in theirs since I was basically leading my own life.  With my own letter, comes my own photo.  Maybe next year I will take my picture with someone else (at least that's what the family says every year).

So here is a small peek at my immediate family and some of the other happenings of the weekend.  Don't worry, these aren't all the final shots, we just have fun while we're at it:

My parents

Michael
(He is available, so ladies, if you'd like I can give him your contact info)

Diane's family

Me!

Steven's family

Grandpa and Maybelle

A group of us went and found the viking house.  It was quite the hike to get to, but it was interesting to see:

Hanging out around the camp:

 I don't remember what secret I was telling her, it must have been a good one though!

This is one cute kid!  My cousin would have to agree.

Cruise Day 7

I know, you're surprised, two in one night...but I really need to catch up before the next trip...

Our last port was in Grand Cayman.  We had an excursion lined up with a tour company outside of the cruise, but it was a little bit later in the day so we had a bit of time.  We still got up and out pretty early so we would have plenty of time to peruse the local shops.  I liked Grand Cayman the best for just wandering, probably because we had the most time to wander.  I had been looking for a small silver charm the whole trip and I finally found one in a shop, it's a little sting ray.

The view from the tender.

There were lots of pirates here!
(We took these pictures for you, N)

Outside the gated area

When our excursion time came, we met up with the group going including the couple we ate dinner with the first night on the ship.  We were "bussed" to a catamaran that took us out in the middle of "nowhere" so that we could play with the stingrays at Stingray City.  This was on a sandbar so we were just chilling in the middle of the ocean and walking around.

This is where we had to switch to the waterproof camera that wasn't all that amazing once the photos were developed (you saw similar things with the Belize pictures).

We each had the opportunity to hold a stingray and kiss it as kissing a stingray brings seven years of good luck.  Colette kissed two, so that makes fourteen years for her.  As you can see, the tour company took pictures on their camera so that we could have the opportunity to buy them from them.  We were glad our dinner buddies were there and we just traded cameras back and forth.

Getting a back massage from the stingray...they're really squishy. 

After Stingray City, we got back on the boat and went to two other locations along the Barrier Reef to do some snorkeling.  This was my first time and I was a little hesitant at first, but I had a lot of fun.  We saw a lot of coral and quite a few fish.  It was very clear and very salty.

On the way back to Grand Cayman, the wind was in our favor so they put the sail up and we just enjoyed the ride back to shore.

Have I ever mentioned how good I am at the self picture taking?

Once back on the ship, we ate a snack, showered, and then just read as we were both really tired from our swim.  We went to a comedy show that night.  Dinner was pretty good, I had the lasagna...it was a huge piece, I was the only one to completely finish it.  There was a show that night, a guy came and sang a lot of Mo-town music.

The mystery of the evening came with the towel critter.  We have no clue what this is supposed to be.  Any idea?  It has ears (maybe horns) and a beak.  I was thinking maybe an owl, but that might be pushing the creative realms here.