Family vacation: Montana, part IV

The original plan was to leave Montana Saturday morning and drive straight through to Sunday evening, but after the drive out there, part of the party wished to leave earlier. I felt confident I could do the power-through thing again, but conceded to leave Friday after dinner. Josh and his family left early Friday morning, [...]

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Family vacation: Montana, part III

On Wednesday, a small group decided to go to the Tetons. I had been a few times, so I volunteered to babysit Scarlet so Kelli could go. I told her, and Mike and Des, who also went, that if they’re this close, they can’t NOT see the Tetons. So they were up early and off [...]

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Family vacation: Montana, part II

After taking a day to relax and adjust, we spent Monday at Yellowstone. This was kind of an emotional trip for me because I worked at YNP for a few months 10 years ago with my sister. I had always wanted to go back, to revisit all the places I had accumulated so many memories. [...]

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Family vacation: Montana, part I

My dad has been with his company for 30 years, which is something beyond my comprehension, but apparently where he works that means you get $4,000 to put toward a trip. Most people would pick a cruise or tropical getaway, and my dad and his wife did consider a Disney cruise with their two kids, [...]

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Summer = Camping

Last weekend, Mike and I went camping with my family: my mom and her husband Kelly, sister Emily and her husband Drew (they celebrated their first anniversary while we were there!), and my sister Kelli, her husband Kevin and baby Scarlet. It was supposed to the WHOLE family, but my sister Andrea and her family [...]

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Travel by tour: pros and cons

The first time I traveled to Europe (Ireland 2009), I had the benefit of a grad school instructor who had been there several times and helped guide us through some of the unknowns. She booked our flights and took care of lodging and transportation. The second time (France 2010), my friends and I did all [...]

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European Culinary Delights, Volume 6

When in Rome…eat pizza and gelato. In Rome, we were, once again, on our own for meals. For dinner the first night, as Shan mentioned, we got roped into a touristy restaurant. The Italian marketing strategy for food is, apparently, stand in the street with a menu in your hand and forcibly hand it to [...]

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European Culinary Delights, Volume 5

A night in Florence; or, all roads lead to Rome. After a gigantic seafood lunch on the island of Burano, we departed for Florence, our shortest stop of the tour. We arrived at dinnertime, and ate another big meal at our hotel. After that lunch, I didn’t think I was in the mood for a [...]

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Europe Day 11&12: Roma (Rome) to Home

Europe Day 1&2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10 We were sad to end our amazing trip, but as at the end of any good trip, we were ready to get home. Unfortunately we had to get up god awful early to get to the airport. We took the coach, [...]

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Europe Day 10: Roma (Rome)

Europe Day 1&2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9 Ah, our last day in Europe. So sad. We spent it with our trip friends (Ty and Richie again, but also Natalie and Eric) exploring as much of Rome as we could. Actually, we started out on an optional tour with the whole [...]

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