Åsa and the Ice Cube

First Pictures of Åsa

1. Åsa arrived home safe and sound Wednesday afternoon– crying and missing home but not too ornery. Here she is, howling… I would later come to know that sound very, very well as for the next two night she didn’t sleep a wink and howled away.

2. Giving Max kisses. Åsa is quickly learning to love to bite… everything. I think at this point she is actually biting his beard. We are constantly taking away whatever it is she is chewing on,–drawer nob, the carpet, my toes– and trying to give her a rawhide, rope bone or tennis ball instead. We’ll see how well this works.

3. A sweet little girl!

I’ll try to take more soon, and maybe even some videos!

Training Trip to Hawaii

Back from 10 days in paradise, I figured it was time to throw some pictures up here to (potentially) prove that I did something other than tan

1. Our hotel was only about 6 blocks from the ocean so we headed down to Waikiki almost every day between our two practices. Here are a few of our boys doing pilates in the sand– very picturesque with Diamond Head in the background. Logger swimming, always working out?

2. Everyday we had two two-hour practices, but we got a couple mornings off– for one of them we headed to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. Nothing but more swimming! It was really great though to do something fun, give our bodies a break, and we even saw sea turtles! We headed over from 8 to 10 am, which worked really well because the park wasn’t as busy as I know it gets every day.

3. Here are three of my good friends at Hanauma Bay– Whitney, Sarah and Kelsey.

4. Two of my friends from college are from Hawaii and were home for Christmas break so they offered to come pick me up for one of my other afternoons off. Andrew and Kainoa took me hiking and then I went swimming and out to dinner with Kainoa’s family. Here we are at Manoa falls with Andrew and, my housemate at school, Kainoa.

5. Here I am at the top of Makapu’u, one of the other places we went hiking. It was EXTREMELY windy, so I am just about blowing away, but the view was amazing view up the coast of Oahu and we could also see whales out at sea which was spectacular.

6. Here is a somewhat tragic team photo at the University of Hawaii pool. If you can’t find me, I’m in the front wearing navy blue cap, making a bizarre face. The boy on the way right is this poor boy Casey who got kicked in the face by our best breastroker earlier that day. The result was a concussion, black and blue nose and two cuts on each side of his nose from his goggles.

7.  Trying to soak up every ounce of sun possible!

8. Here is a picture of my fellow seniors at our last home meet the weekend after we got back. The two our coaches are our head coach Chris and our old assistant coach who moved over to be head coach at another school in our conference. It worked out nicely that we swam his school for our last home meet so we got to celebrate our senior day with him.

Back at School

I am back from abroad, finished with camp for the year and back in Washington– senior year. Mom and I drove out with me again, it is starting to become such a routine it is sad to thing that it is really the last time. We stay at the same hotels, stop at the same restaurants, etc.

So Mom and I made it to school, got to my house around 5 or 6 and immediately started making our plans to redo my room. The paint was gross, nail holes in the walls, grease stains from sticky tack… shocking. Mom and I went to Home Depot and got paint, taped and spackled the room and hit the sack. That next morning we got up early and started painting. I really wanted dark wood furniture so Mom and I thought a green would look nice with it. After we painted we got cleaned up and headed off to Ikea! Furniture all unassembled I put the boys to work and made them help me assemble everything– and of course Mom too!

1. My dirty room– initially

2. Paint and spackle

3.  Our massive Ikea trip

4. Putting everything together

5. Pretty much the final view (sans a few posters)

It was great to have Mom there to help, but also sad to see her leave on Friday.  Labor Day weekend was nice, a great chance to catch up with friends I hadn’t seen for a long time– some since the end of sophomore year!  Of course then back to school…

This semester I am taking:

*Asian Business: A study of the international business environment addressing the cultural, economic, historical, and political impacts of business in the nations of East Asia.

*German 101

*Financial Markets: This course covers the operation and structure of financial markets, financial instruments, and the major financial and nonfinancial participants in the financial markets. Topics include market efficiency, the role of the Federal Reserve System, the determination and significance of interest rates, and the financial futures markets.

*Mars Exploration: A survey of the history, science, and technology of Mars exploration. Topics include the discovery of Mars by ancient civilizations, the first telescopic observations of Mars, the economics and politics of the U.S. and Russian Mars exploration programs, spacecraft design and the technologies needed for planetary exploration, and the future of Mars exploration including a possible manned mission to Mars. The scientific component of this course focuses on the planetary evolution of Mars and the question of whether life might have arisen on Mars. The class also takes a brief look at Mars in popular culture including literature, radio, and film.

Hope it’s a great semester!

May 10-18, 2007

As school finally wound up I had mixed feelings about leaving the city. On one hand I was very excited to see mom and get back home, but on the other, I have really enjoyed the city and the adventure of London.

1. On our final day, here I am with my 5 best friends in the program outside our school in London.

2. Mom landed Friday afternoon and we headed straight to the Isle of Wight. A bus, a cab,  a ferry,  and two bus transfers later and we were home in our cute little bed and breakfast. It was pretty late so we got our ducks in a row and planned for the next day. Our first stop was to head out to Alum Bay, home of the famous Needles. There was also supposed to be multi-colored sand but I didn’t really see it. Maybe it was the whipping wind and unfriendly temperatures that got me… Here are the Needles.

3. We saw on the map that there was a castle on our bus route so we jumped off and gave it a tour. Here is Mom outside Carisbrooke Castle.

4. True to form– Cream tea for two?

5. The next morning we woke up to rain so we headed indoors. The Osborne House was highly recommended by everyone, including Grandma Mirick so we headed there. It was a favorite home of Queen Victoria and her family through the years and was much more intimate than a large castle so that was very interesting.

6. Here Mom is in front of The Osborne House and their lovely gardens.

7. Small island, small bus route and yet, Mom and I somehow got on the wrong one. We ended up in kind of a dive town but we did see a chip shop called “The Cod Father” which was pretty funny.

8. When I pictured the Isle of Wight I really though of summer dresses and picnics, however weather being as it was… we didn’t quite have that. The beaches and cliff views were still amazing, just not in a swimsuit.

9. The moment Mom and I spied some sun we took the first chance we could to get to the water and get to do some light hiking. I took Mother on her first trip through cow filled fields and we got some amazing views. Here I am overlooking Freshwater Bay, a cute little area on the southern side of Wight.

10. Mom and I really loved the flowers all around. The long growing season on the southern half of the island is extremely long just because of its location so everything possible was in bloom. Here are some waterlilies at the Ventnor Botanical Gardens where Mom and I spent the morning.

11. On our last day in the city we came back to London sooner because Mom and I were sick of carrying suitcases and just wanted to have fun. That gave us more time to shop around and see everything it had to offer. We shopped through the day and then went to see the play “Fame” that night. It was great to have Mom come to the city and see some of my favorite places– the shops! Here is Liberty where Mom and I spent about 2 hours picking out fabric.

As a final note, I’ve had a great time studying abroad and I’ve really enjoyed maybe sharing a little bit of it with everyone of you!

May 2-9, 2007

Time is sure wrapping up here quickly. Fortunately I have lots of papers to write, finals to study for and a million things on my to-do list. I haven’t spent too much time doing homework, but I have been enjoying myself and that is important too. Stratford was our last school excursion so lately it has been all free-time for me… or not really, but I have been trying to squeeze in some more visits.

1. Clearly, number one of my list from the beginning has been making to it to Abbey Road. Thankfully I have some good friends a who are good sports and dressed up in quality Beatles attire to make the recreation complete. My friend Kate was George Harrison– all denim, crazy brown hair, Cori was Paul McCartney– barefoot, Caitlin was Richard Starkey– wearing all black and I was John Lennon– all white. We did it a couple more times but this was definitely the best one.

2. We also had our going away picnic with school at Kew Gardens. We all met up, had a picnic, played around outside and toured the gardens. We were even serenaded by a group of singers in my class who practiced and sang us some beautiful harmonies– very cute setting and lovely to be around all of our friends. Afterwards I headed over to the Palm House to experience some tropical air and see the palms. We’d been there before when I first visited in 7th grade but it was cool to go back again.

3. Here is my roommate Annie inside the palm house. It is really amazing the stuff they have in there! The world’s oldest potted plant, the worlds biggest seed, etc. Really bizarre but cool to see.

4. A crucial thing I saw in the gift shop: Hedgehog Niblets.

5. This weekend I also went to Cardiff to have a grand meet-up with friends from Camp Lake Hubert. We walked around the city, toured Cardiff Castle during the day and enjoyed the wonderful weather. Here Kyle and I are at the top of Cardiff Castle.

6. One of the things I was really looking forward to was seeing all my Brit friends from the summer. So many of them live in England that a reunion was actually not too hard! While I had met up with a few separately over the semester this was the biggest and best of all.

April 20-May 1, 2007

Wow– have I got a lot of time to cover! Well, the semester is beginning to wind up and therefore I am left trying to squeeze in as much activity as possible. I’ve been all around England and even into Spain, but at least I’m making the most of my time! Gudrun was also visiting for a short week in there so I got to have some new adventures with her as well.

I started by heading up to Bristol with my school. It was nice to get out of the city, but Bristol was definitely not my favorite of all of our visits. We took a boat cruise of the river that winds through town, and while we saw some nice boats, I was hoping to get more of a perspective of the slave trade/triangle trade that came through back in the day, but no such luck. We did tour the SS Great Britain which was the first of something– neither me or my roommate can remember exactly what it was, but we know that it was something related to like the first steel hull or first propeller driven steam ship or something like that. It was pretty memorable as you can see. Ha!

1. The next day my friend and I made our way over to our first English football game (soccer for all you duds out there). My host dad really likes the team Queens Park, so he suggested we go over and see them. It was really cool to see how excited the crowds get for soccer over here. Waaaay more intense that football, baseball, hockey, you name it. These are all lifetime fans, which is pretty cool. They won against Cardiff, their big rivals, so I think the stadium was even more pumped because of that.

2. Monday the 24th was the actual date, but my program director, Martin, had the whole school over to his house for a BBQ to celebrate St. George’s Day– the patron saint of England– on Saturday. Here he is dressed for the occasion.

3. Gudrun arrived VERY EARLY Sunday morning so I came in all ready to see the world, but instead we went shopping. There is a Burberry outlet– what could we do?? Don’t worry, in her week here I also dragged her to some important sights such as the British Library aaaaaand platform 9 and 3/4 (Harry Potter fans out there). They have a mock luggage cart going half into the wall there so that all the tourists (us) can have a picture, very cute.

4. I also made her go on a little shorty boat tour so we could see the main sights without having to trek through those awful tourist packs. Here we are in front of the London Eye.

5. While Gudrun was here we booked some cheapy tickets to Seville, Spain for the DAY. I don’t even want to hear anyone’s comments about traveling somewhere for a day because when you can get tickets for £25, you go for it. Granted the RyanAir seats don’t recline, they do get you there in one piece. Here is a particularly Spanish looking courtyard I liked. You can see how bright and tropical everything is! Unfortunately we didn’t have amazing weather, but we didn’t get poured on either, so can’t complain too much.

6. We got there pretty late the night before so it was right to bed, but when we woke up we wanted to get a jump start on everything there was to see so we headed to the place that opened earliest! It was the Real Alcazar (the royal palace of Seville, where the royal family would stay if they popped in for a visit)– also home to Ferdinand and Isabella! Here I am in a little Spanish doorway… and some lost lady trying to find the bathroom behind me.

7. Here is one of the many pots you could find around the palace. They had some fabulous gardens out back (which were very well spoken of in all the guide info we had) and they had flowers blooming out of everything– including these Real Alcazar pots.

8. Here are some of the lovely blooms with Gudrun peaking out behind them in the distance.

9. Here Gudge is standing in front of these large palace windows that looked out over the gardens. There was once a strong Muslim influence in Spain and so lots of the architecture represents that through rectangular shapes, beautiful tile work, etc. Stunning.

10. It was also recommended that we go to the Cathedral of Seville and its bell tower. The Cathedral was enormous and in honesty, we just buzzed through it, but we did see the tomb of Christopher Columbus which was cool. We spent the most time climbing the bell tower, which actually used to be the tower they called prayer from back when the cathedral was a mosque.

11. While we were in Seville their grand festival was going on, which was pretty cool timing. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go across the river to it, but there were ladies walking around in Flamenco dresses all day, which was what was really amazing. Here a cluster of these Spanish ladies are talking in the park. Most of them would later take horse drawn carts across the bridge and into the festival– so authentic Spain, no?

12. This is one of the horse drawn carts I was talking about in front of the Plaza de Espania. Neither Gudrun nor I really knew what it was, but I think I remember something about immigrants having to line up here to try and get in, so I imagine it is some kind of town hall.

13. Seville is home to lots of bull fighting, so we made sure to make our way down to the arena. We probably could have seen one if we’d been so inclined, but it wasn’t at the top of either of our lists to actually see them stab a bull so we settled for walking around the grounds.

14. So one quick trip to Spain down, our next stop was to get back into London and see the last things Gudrun had missed. Oh, and for me to go to school. Gudrun did all of her last bits and then that night we went to a show. We saw Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap, a show that has been running for 55 years in the same theater. That Agatha knew what she was doing.

15. Life a little back to normal? Not here. Gudrun left on Friday and Friday I got on the train with school to go to Stratford upon Avon. It was so precious! Here is the cute little B+B we stayed in.

16. Straford, of course, is the home to old Will Shakespeare who turned another year older not too long ago… I think the Monday before we got there? Something like that anyway. Our first stop was to the church where he was buried. Here is his grave site with a birthday wreath on it.

17. Beyond all the Shakespeare nonsense, which there was a lot due to his birthday celebration, I really did like the town of Stratford. It was just so picturesque! Here are some cute little boats you could rent to go out and paddle around the Avon on. Apparently a bunch of kids from my program did this however I was napping in the park and missed it. No worries, still saw the boats! It was cute, they were all named after heroines from WS’s plays: the Rosalind, Viola, Vergilla, Beatrice, Juliet, etc.

18. Our next stop was to Anne Hathaway’s cottage, Shakespeare’s wife. They had a nice garden, maze, sculpture garden and… willow hutch! Here are 4 of my friends inside. The light through the green was so nice.

19. In said sculpture garden they had a piece that was a cut out of the UK with the cut outs laying behind it as if they had fallen out, which was perfect for a picture with some of the girls from my program

20. One of the last places we all went was to Shakespeare’s childhood home. Here it is in all its glory. It was pretty cool to see how things would have been kept back then.

21. In celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday there was a parade that went on through town. It was nothing compared to American parades– don’t know what got lost in the concept over here, but we did get to see lots of people dressed up in cute outfits, including this little tiny boy.

Besides all of the nonsense that we did in Stratford (including sleeping for long periods of time in the sun, getting my ears double pierced and wandering around town) I did see some legitimate things. I mean, I did see all those random houses, but none of that is actually Shakespeare’s since he moved to London when he got famous and people lived in Anne Hathaway’s house for generations after her, but the tipping point was seeing King Lear starring SIR IAN MCKELLAN. It was absolutely flawless and I loved it. And it was looong, and I still loved it (even though I did potentially squirm the entire time)!

I am beginning to realize the end is in sight and I am doing all I can to get finished with my school work in time! This week I have numerous papers due but then I am free and traveling to Cardiff this weekend to meet up with a lot of friends from camp, which should be amazing. I am going to try and squeak out a trip to Tintern Abbey while we’re there (Wordsworth wrote a lot about it), but mostly I am excited just to see old friends! Then I have one more week of finals and Friday the 11th I’m out of here… orrrrr Mom gets here and I’m out of London for a few days. We are going to head down to Southampton, the Isle of Wight and the New Forest which are supposed to be spectacular!

April 13-19, 2007

It has been on my mind a lot lately that my time here really is starting to come to an end. To drive that nail right in, today officially marks only a month left of abroad time. It is my goal to keep busy and see everything I can so I have made a lot of plans for the weekends as well as for Gudrun’s upcoming visit.

I started the weekend off with a show called “Whipping it up!” It was a satirical play on political whips here in Westminster and it was… HILARIOUS. I really had a good time seeing it and even more because I got free tickets through school. Being a political themed play it was right up my British Politics class curriculum so school bought us tickets!

Friday morning began my journey to Venice. I was supposed to have tickets directly from London to Venice however I’m an idiot and didn’t leave quite enough time for all the delays I would eventually encounter and missed the check in time for my flight by about 2 minutes. Frustrating but over and done with. My next option was to get a flight into Verona. I wasn’t even sure I would be able to get from Verona to Venice easily however the map told me they were close so I went for it and frantically called M+D from the concourse asking Dad to look up my options. He faithfully did and I made it… eventually. I didn’t even have it the worst! My friend Dassi and her family were taking the train from Rome which was supposed to get them into Venice around 5:30 pm… oh but wait, the Roman train workers were on strike until 5:20 that evening so they couldn’t even get on a train until 7 something which didn’t put them into Venice until about 1:30 am. Thank you, Friday the 13th!

1. Despite no one getting much sleep on Friday night, Dassi and I powered forward on Saturday because in reality it was our only day to see the city. I would have a little time Sunday morning before I had to leave for the airport, but we’re talking only like 2 hours. We got up, had breakfast and hit the city. Just wandering around and seeing the picturesque canals was absolutely amazing.

2. Here is another shot of the canals but with a few more actual gondolas this time. I have to admit I actually didn’t take one while I was there, but I did see them and that is half the fun… I was in the spirit!

3. Dassi had just comeback from her spring break in Israel so she was quite a bit more tan than I was, but the weather was absolutely lovely and after the morning we both had to go switch in to sleeveless numbers before we melted! Here we are on one of the hundreds of little bridges crossing the canals.

4. As I said, we didn’t take gondolas at all, so besides the expensive water taxis the only other real option is these water buses. They were great! We got a 36 hour pass for 20 euros that let you on and off at any stop around the island of Venice as well as around the surrounding islands. While it wasn’t a cruise boat or anything it was easy and efficient and really let us see a lot in a quick amount of time. Here I am with Dassi’s mom, and Dassi on one of the water buses.

5. This is just a random house we saw along the way around town, but I really loved it! The idea of living right on the water like this seems unreal! There were some really beautiful places, like this one.

6. I had read before we left that the island of Lido had a nice beach and numerous places to rent bikes so we took the water bus over there and did so. It was really nice to ride around and see a lot of territory more quickly than walking. Here we are all buzzing down the road.

7. As I said, Lido is famous for its beach so we biked over and stopped for a little while to pick shells and wade around. Here Dassi is, enjoying the beautiful weather.

8. While Lido is famous for its beaches, the Island of Murano is famous for the Venetian glass so we stopped over there after and made some very crucial purchases. This was towards the end of our day so we had to sit down and grab a few breaks here and there!

The next day was time for me to hit the plane and head back to school. I was sad to have lost a lot of time in Venice due to the plane fiasco, but I really did have an amazing time. The scene was absolutely breath taking but it was also really nice to travel with some familiar company!

9. Back in London, everything is in bloom. The sun has been shining and we’ve been enjoying high 60s+ for the past week. A couple of classes have taken us outside to see things around us such as statues, memorials, etc. Too bad the entire class is too distracted by green grass and blooming bulbs to care!

10. After one of our walks we ended in Trafalgar Square and couldn’t resist capturing the amazing weather. Here I am with friends from my program, Caitlin and Scott.

11. Here we all are posing with the signature Trafalgar Square lions.

London is really getting into Spring and I am loving wearing flip flops and dresses! I am getting excited for the weekend though, Friday school is heading to Bristol and then Sunday Gudrun arrives for a little less than a week. Bristol should be nice. I hear it is a beautiful area so I am excited to get out and see for myself. We’ve been studying a lot of information about the empire and the slave trade so Bristol is a great place to see the things we’ve been reading. Bristol was one of the biggest ports for goods coming in from all over the empire but especially from the triangle trade. However, Gudrun coming on Sunday is what I am really looking forward to. I have a lot of activities planned for us! I saved up some exhibits and things I’ve really wanted to do/see so I am excited to do them with her. We were really adventurous and we purchased some insanely cheap tickets (£25 including taxes!) to Seville, Spain. We are only going for one night and one day but it should be really fun! I feel like I learned from Venice that you can see a lot in one day!

Keeping myself busy and seeing as much as I can!

April 4- 12, 2007

Living up to all my expectation, I really did have a great time in Scotland. It was nice to get away and do my own thing, however it was also nice to talk to the family on Easter. I was really proud of myself that I went and saw something I wanted to see on my own as well as refrained from being lonely. Growing up… huh? Well, maybe not quite yet.

1. I took a sleeper train up from London to Inverness, Scotland and then had to catch another train over to Kyle of Lochalsh. Kyle is the main stopping point (and actually, maybe the only point?) to catch a bus over to the Isle of Skye. Here is the Skye Bridge, which replaced the ferry that had been there before, and the Cullin Mountains of Skye behind.

2. I eventually got to Skye around 1:30 pm the day after I left (ah!) and checked into my hotel to drop my junk and change into my hiking clothes. I really wanted to use all my time wisely so I set off on a hike that afternoon to a shoreline walk. So picturesque.

3. Here is another view of my first hike. It was so weird for me to grasp that most paths cut through sheep fields with no bother! You can see a waterfall heading down to the ocean in the middle of the field.

4. The second day was my biggest day of hikes. Dad and I had been looking at a web site that showed tons of hikes on the islands so I picked out a couple that I was really interested in and headed off. Here is a little stone path headed up the mountain.

5. Aaaaand I was traveling on my own. Either way, I had to grad a seat and take in the view for a few minutes, what I was trying to illustrate is that I was basically sitting on the edge of nothing, but it ended up looking like I’m sitting in some calm cow field. Well either way– it was steep!

6. The area that I chose to hike looked like a flat butte on top, however, it was really beautiful to see it opening up into more than that when I got up near the top.

7. Just amazing.

8. After my first hike I had planned on a second one– a summit of the famous Old Man of Storr. I changed my mind when my bus approached the packed car park. There were RVs everywhere, cars parked on the shoulder and people meandering all up in everything. I had envisioned a little bit more a of a peaceful hike but being Easter weekend that was hard to come by at times. I skipped it and headed back to town to see what was going on there. I stayed in Portree, the biggest city on the island. It was very small, to say the least. Here are some of the cute buildings.

9. Being an island, there was a lot of activity in and out of the harbour. You can’t see it in this photo but they were also trapping wild salmon!

10. I had planned on a path on the outskirts of “town” and headed out on this in the afternoon. I wandered upon this cute little waterfall. That is one of the things I really enjoyed about the island and Scotland in general is that they have just about everything! Sheep, waterfalls, ponds, cliffs, mountains, rolling hills, highland cattle… the works.

11. I left the island on Sunday and headed back to Kyle to spend the night there. I chose to go a little bit earlier and see a castle not far outside of town. Here is the Eilean Donan Castle. The weather LOOKS decent however it was quite windy and even a little misty so after I’d gotten my tour in I headed back into the visitor cafe and read my book while Mother Nature did her thing outside.

12. I had a flight home on Monday out of Inverness so I had to work my way back there on Monday morning. I had some time between when my train got in and when my plane left so I scheduled a boat tour of Loch Ness. Can’t come all that way without at least paying a little homage to Old Nessie. Didn’t see her however I was constantly scanning. I had a little heart attack about how to get to the harbour where my boat left but I eventually worked it out (after a quick call to Mom for some support) and was really glad I’d made it. Again, the weather was a little iffy (at best) but I actually kind of enjoyed it. Loch Ness looked as dark and mysterious as ever so that was kind of neat.

Had a great weekend in Scotland, but being busy never stops. This weekend I am flying to Venice to meet up with my friend from college, Dassi. She is studying in Rome and is going to be traveling with her visiting family there for the weekend. What a perfect way for me to see her and do all the touristy things!

March 23-April 3, 2007

I feel like it has been a long time since I’ve thrown anything new up here, however I don’t have too much to tell. Nora and I went on a 5 day adventure to the Canary Islands and then spent a few days in London for the duration of her visit and my spring break. Other than that, it has been back to school post mid-term and the preparation for some great travel coming up.

1. Nora and I stayed at this cultural compound in Gran Canaria so unfortunately I did not venture much into Spanish culture however I had a great time. It was really nice to have some de-stress time away from London. Just being such a big city things are always on the go so not having much to do besides go to the spa was much enjoyed. Here is a view of one of the pools at our hotel. Not really the most pleasant one to go to since it was high up in the hills and breezy but very picturesque. You can see the pool, these beds that you could nap in or lay out in and then the ocean far behind that.

2. The first day we were there we were worried about getting burnt since we hadn’t purchased any sunscreen yet so we didn’t lay out too long. Too bad it was sunny and we should have soaked up as much as possible. It never really rained or was gray-cloudy but every day we would wake up to sun and then around noon the fluffy SUN BLOCKING clouds would roll on in. Here Nora is with the obviously ominous clouds behind her.

3.While our hotel wasn’t right on the beach/in town, there was a free shuttle into the hotel’s beach house numerous times through out the day. Nora and I went down a couple times and saw what there was to see (not too much) and I even ventured to splash my feet in the water… NOT WARM.

4. Here Nora and I are down at the beach… and people say we look alike! Haha

5. Apparently Gran Canaria was very photogenic but London was not so this is the only true artifact that says we were there. Well… maybe the shopping receipts too but we’ll leave them out of this. Here Nora and I are heading to the airport to send my lady home!

It was great to travel with someone familiar who wasn’t afraid to tell me when I am being annoying. This weekend I’ll have a complete 360 from that as I am taking myself on a big hiking trip to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I am really looking forward to time on my own and some self-reflection time or what not. I think getting outside and being on my own will be really nice, especially after sharing a king bed with Nora!