Traveling Halfway Around the World

Soooo....a month and a half has gone by since I last visited this space. But, for once, I've actually got a good reason - Ez and I traveled 14,741 miles in three weeks. 14,741 miles by plane, bus, train, u bahn, s bahn, taxi, and even boat. Three time zones, three countries, two brand new passport stamps (in our brand new passports), five sisters, one wedding, and my trusty travel partners, Ez and Anna (Aunt Anna, if you will).

I should rewind a bit and mention that prior to this trip Ez and I had never traveled further than the east coast, and I think our longest vacation was a week. Top that off with the fact that Joe and Decky stayed home and we were way outside our comfort zone. They do say that life begins at the end of your comfort zone, but I'm not really sure who "they" are, and, to be honest, a lot of life also happens within your comfort zone. While I'm no expert at travel or comfort zones, I can let you in on a few things I did find outside of my comfort zone (in no particular order):

• the best pretzels EVER
• that I can carry a fifty pound kid for miles and miles in the sweltering heat
• deep and meaningful conversations with all of my sisters
• black birds that eat right out of your hands at the very top of the Alps
• the random kindness of strangers
• overwhelming homesickness (times a million when Ez and I both got the stomach flu)
• reserves of patience when I thought I had none
• brand new friends and family
• that Ez is a party animal and a dancing machine
• Radlers
• castles
• a heart attack at the price of iced tea in Switzerland
• wasps. Lots and lots of wasps.
• also, that lemon juice makes wasp stings all better
• lifelong memories that I'll cherish forever.

So, lots of good stuff outside my comfort zone, and a few things I could have done without. We've been home three weeks now and it still feels like a surreal, magical, fairy tale dream. The beauty and history were amazing. The food was too. But as a homebody through and through, it was really the draw of family that made this such an unforgettable trip. Walking into a foreign country and feeling right at home was one hundred percent thanks to my sisters (and you too, Timm and Christian!) who organized so much for us and literally guided us from airport to AirBnB to train station and back to the airport (and nursed Ez and I back to health when we got sick). We got so lucky with the best guides and insider information and the best all around company. 

I intend to revisit each destination in depth (Maine, Munich, Berlin, and Boston) in their own posts, but life just got insanely busy with fall schedules, so you all know how that goes. For now I'll just leave you with some pretty pictures and my advice that if you ever find yourself outside your comfort zone enjoy it for everything it's worth. I don't personally want to live my whole life being uncomfortable, and I think there's plenty of beauty within your comfort zone as well (that's what makes it comfortable) - but I did learn and grow so much, I witnessed the beautiful marriage of my sister and brother in law, and I found some of my favorite experiences out there. And, for what it's worth, Ez has officially gotten the travel bug and asks daily when we're getting back on an airplane. 

Visiting With Family

While we were down in Southern California for our Disney trip we wanted to make sure to visit with our family that lives down there so we headed down several days early and my aunt was kind enough to let us stay at her house for a few days. It was so much fun catching up, watching the cousins play, and having a little breather between our long road trip and our Disney days. 

We went to a petting zoo where Ez was most excited to see a rooster. Untillll....he actually saw the rooster. Between the peacocks, the turkey, and the roosters it sounded like an angry bird riot and he pretty much melted to the floor in a terrified puddle for a few moments until we quickly moved on to the goats and the cows. Right before he left he bravely asked to see the rooster again, and after a quick glance to redeem his brave big boy status he was ready to go. Afterward he kept bringing it up: "I was scared of those loud roosters" with a little laugh, like it was an inside joke between us. I love that brave little boy so much. 

We had a pizza party, went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, complete with a margarita the size of my head, were fortunate enough to be around for garbage day, and capped it all off with a cousins' trip to a local indoor playground that was so much fun we had to drag the boys away kicking and screaming. 

Our vacation was off to the best possible start and the boys were so sad when it came time to leave. Little did they know all the fun we had in store for them ;)

Honeymoon Pt. 2, Sacramento

Considering how close Sacramento is to my hometown I really haven't spent too much time there. Joe on the other hand went to Sac State and he loves the town. It's one of those places that isn't too far away, but it's just far enough that we never seem to want to make the drive with two toddlers. But since we were toddler free and going that way anyway we decided to take advantage and make a little pit stop in Sacramento on our way to Tahoe. Joe found this great pub that had the "best scones in the entire galaxy" according to our server. That's a lot to live up to but I'm inclined to agree. I'm not a huge scone fan and I didn't order one but as soon as I tasted a bite of Joe's he knew he was going to have to share with me. And he gave me the better half too. The top half. That's love right there.

After breakfast it was raining pretty hard but we decided to put our hoodies to use and do a little sightseeing anyway. We walked over to the capitol building, yet another place I should have visited by now, but for some reason haven't. This is actually mine and Joe's second time visiting, but we couldn't go inside last time. They have a really nice rose garden and a firefighter memorial outside, so we explored the grounds last time and this time we got to check out the inside. 

In my head I was thinking it would just be a bunch of closed office doors. Not exactly exciting. It's actually set up like a museum. You can walk all over the place and there are several replica rooms of the vaults and offices from the past. There are also some statues, paintings of all the governors, and really amazing architecture. 

I was surprised that you can actually walk into the Senate and Assembly rooms. I was also surprised at the gaudy pink and green walls. I'm not sure I could concentrate in a room like that. As soon as I walked in there was so much color, it was a little overwhelming. Despite our differences in decor, it was really interesting to be in the same room that so many important decisions and laws are made. 

My favorite part of the building was the domed ceiling (also pink). It's so ornate, with these crazy, angry little golden bear head statues sticking out, and tons of intricate lights surrounding all the windows. I think Joe liked checking out the governor's portraits. He made sure to get a picture of Arnold. 

We wandered for over an hour and when we got back outside it was raining harder than ever. We debated getting ourselves an umbrella but instead we made a break for the car, with a quick stop for coffee along the way. On the way back from Tahoe we stopped by again for lunch, and to pick up a few little gifts for the boys. After that it was back to reality, and our short but sweet little honeymoon came to an end. I'm still dreaming of all that yummy food, gorgeous scenery, and one on one time with Joe. I'm thinking honeymoons should be a yearly thing from here on out ;)

Honeymoon in Tahoe

I can't believe it's been over a month since we got married. We decided to wait a little bit and let the wedding excitement die down before going on our honeymoon. That way we could drag the celebration out a bit. Plus fall just seemed like a good time for a getaway. So this past weekend Joe and I headed to Tahoe for a three day weekend. I went there for my bachelorette party a few months ago and I immediately wanted to bring Joe back with me. There are so many outdoorsy things to do and I knew we'd have a ton of fun. 

Cue the weather:

Notice how it was sunny every single day except the three days we were there? We're lucky like that ;) 

We weren't about to let a little bit of rain ruin our fun though. We started out bright and early on Friday morning with breakfast and sightseeing in Sacramento which I'll save for another post. 

Around noon we hit the road again and even though it was raining pretty much the whole way the scenery was so amazingly beautiful. I made Joe stop about a dozen times so I could get out and take pictures. I couldn't get over all the colorful trees lined up next to the river, the yellow meadows, the scent of pines, the gray clouds rising up out of the trees... I don't think words or photos really do it justice, but that didn't stop me from snapping a few hundred.

Even though we stopped at pretty much every single scenic turnout along the way we still made decent time and got to our hotel a little after 3:00. The hotel was cute and cozy with a fire burning right when you walked through the doors, a giant pine tree in the middle of the lobby, a pond with super friendly turtles, and a huge skylight ceiling so it felt like we were outside, even though we were nice and warm and dry indoors. 

After we were settled we got ourselves some delicious Mexican food, then we wandered around all the shops in the rain. First purchase? An umbrella and gloves. Somehow I managed to forget my jacket at home. I distinctly remember it not fitting in my suitcase, so I took it out thinking I'd carry it along with me. Nope. It stayed home on the bed. Thankfully Joe brought an extra hoodie or I would've froze.

Since it was gloomy and dark we decided to hit up the casinos. We were staying right on the stateline so all we had to do was walk across the street and we were in Nevada. We visited three of the casinos and I made sure to play at the same slots that I was lucky at last time I was here. Somehow I got lucky again and won a hundred dollars. A very nice way to end our first day in Tahoe.

The next morning we woke up to...sunshine! We ate at the hotel breakfast buffet and then hit the road for some sightseeing. I had a few things on my list that I wanted to do while we were there: hike to a waterfall, wander around the lake, and see some colorful fall foliage. We figured we'd head over to Emerald Bay for all of that...but then we found out the road was closed due to a fire :( 

Our Plan B was to wing it, and that turned out to be the absolute best thing. I typed waterfall into Yelp and we went to the closest one not affected by the fire. A tiny windy road led us directly to the waterfall. We were able to park and walk close enough to actually touch the water. We made sure to take a ton of photos and walked around a bit, but then were like, "now what?" 

We decided we'd just keep driving up the road and see where it led us. Turns out it dead ended in a parking lot near a small lake. We got out and I immediately spotted some beautiful red trees. I rarely get to see fall trees in all their colorful glory, so I was like a moth to the flame with those trees. I was just flitting along from one tree to the next with Joe gamely following along. The trees wound up leading us to a gravelly pathway, which was perfect because it wasn't all slippery and muddy from the rain, and we just walked along snapping photos and exclaiming how beautiful it all was. 

I'm not exactly sure how long or how far we walked, but we were lucky that it stayed nice and sunny for a long time. The path was relatively flat, and it was right alongside a little stream, and some marshes, and off in the distance we could see the lake. Then all of a sudden the path started climbing up and the clouds got very dark and stormy looking. We decided we'd hike up just a bit to see the view from up higher.

Turns out there was another waterfall up there! It was beautiful. We could also see snow up on the mountains, and so many different colored trees. I wish I could live right along that path every fall because it was the most gorgeous place I've ever been. There were actually a couple houses along the way and Joe and I kept trying to guess what they did for work, or how they were able to live out there in such seclusion. 

Our timing wound up being perfect (for once) because right as we turned around to go back down we felt a few drops of rain. And then all of a sudden a ton of people were walking up the path. We literally didn't see a single person the whole way up, and we kind of thought we were on a lost forgotten path. Turns out we were just ahead of the crowd. The seclusion added to the charm.

We walked back down to the little lake and wandered around there for a bit until the weather got cooler and the skies looked even gloomier than before. Then we drove back down to a bigger lake called Falling Leaf Lake. It was pretty deserted since everything was closed for the season but we walked out onto a dock to check it out and snap a few pictures before we started feeling more rain drops and decided to head back toward civilization.

After all that walking we were ready for some lunch. We found a sushi restaurant along the way, and went a little crazy ordering four rolls. We wound up eating every last bite. So delicious. And we followed it up with dessert. It's not everyday you're on your honeymoon, right??

The next order of business was coffee and some relaxation. We settled into our room and got sucked into this morbid show on the Weather Channel called Why Planes Crash. It was so sickly addictive. I guess after watching Mickey Mouse on repeat day in and day out we went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum with a show all about death and destruction. We finally pulled ourselves away and decided to try our luck at the casinos again. Spoiler alert, I said goodbye to that hundred I won the day before. Well played, slot machine. Well played. Joe thankfully won, but then we lost some more, so I think we were right about even when we left. It was a pizza, wine, and netflix kind of evening, since the rain had kicked in full force again. We watched Big Short, which I highly recommend. A movie about mortgages and bankers doesn't sound interesting, but it actually was. 

We took it easy the next morning, slowly packed up our stuff, and hit the road (in the rain) again. We stopped in Sacramento for lunch and entertained ourselves in the car by trying to answer all the trivia questions on The Chase. We are Game Show Network addicts over here. Even Ez and Declan can agree that Steve Harvey takes precedence over Mickey Mouse. 

In the end the rainy weather actually worked out well for us. Just enough sunshine to get out and explore, and enough rain to feel ok being lazy and staying in. It was the best of both worlds.

Two kid free days were amazing, but I think all parents can agree that the best part of a break is being reunited at the end. Mommy got all the snuggles, Daddy got climbed on like a jungle gym. Balance was restored ;)

If you somehow made it past the overload of pictures, thank you for following along!