We went to Europe.
We had a lot to celebrate this year (one year of marriage, five years together, and 30 years for Gar!), and in honor of continuing the tradition of a yearly vacation to a place we've never been, we hit the UK, France, and Italy. I have been before, but Garrett had not. It was a fantastic trip, SO tiring, but SO worth the effort to do all the touristy things. Our days were very packed, with give or take, four days in each place, we wanted to get our time and money's worth. We tried to do all the usual things you'd do in these cool cities, plus a few add-on day trips to places that I'd never been, which were so fun.

It's annoying what I'm about to say, but come on, we're all a little vain sometimes!
I look so raggedy and homely in most of these pictures. I didn't wear much make-up and hardly looked put together. I say this because I hate looking like a tourist, and that is exactly what I looked like. When I go to foreign places, I have the insecurity of not blending in; I hate being taken advantage of because I'm a visitor. Even though, ironically, we are the tourists that repeatedly try to pronounce foreign words; much to the annoyance of the locals who speak English anyway. Do as the locals do, right? Though the weather was beautiful everywhere we went (it only rained once our whole trip!) it was cool in London, freezing in France, and scorching in Rome. I brought mostly Summer clothes, so I improvised, hence my appearance. OK, that's all.

I hate to bore you with conventional photos of landmarks that you could Google, but...

Peetah! Cute Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park.

Doesn't this look like the Windows screen saver?!?

Stonehenge was a place I'd never been to and I loved it. Kind of creepy, super awesome and mysterious. Check out those clouds! 

Roman Baths and Bath Abbey in Bath, UK. Bath. Bath. Bath. Silly name. We went to Paris by train via the Chunnel! Sadly, no pictures. Guys, it's just a dark tunnel and you don't even know when you're going through it. Lame.

Very dramatic Notre Dame, Paris

Top of Notre Dame

Not Quasimodo going into the bell tower-- just Gar Bear!

We went on a night cruise on the River Seine. For some reason, Gar and I were in weird moods and willing to take silly pictures (it takes this special mood for Garrett to pose in pictures, so I took advantage). The tour was narrated in your respective language--that's the 90s cell phone-thing we are holding.

So cold, I was wearing Gar's pull-over.

Queen's Hamlet. It was magical.

 Ok, so look at these pumpkins...cute, right?! Well I took this photo and laughed because those workers had containers full of pumpkins and were placing them in the garden. So, no, they didn't grow there. Fakers!

Nice try, guys.

Donkeh!

We went to Mont Saint Michele in Normandy. It was one-of-a-kind. An impromptu side trip, it was a long drive through the French country side that reminded me how awesome I have it to live in modern times. I didn't take that picture, btw.


We took a night train to Rome. I don't recommend it. It's faster, cleaner, and smells better to take a plane. I regret not taking pictures of our train cabin to show everyone how ghetto it was, and I'm not even a picky traveler. Good experience and we met some nice people, but never again. But Rome!





We took a day trip to Naples and Pompeii. It was nice. Naples is really dirty, but the coast is beautiful and the weather amazing most of the year. In Pompeii we went to the Etruscan ruins, which was fascinating. It was the civilization that was preserved in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and then then rediscovered in the 1700s. You can see the volcano behind Gar in the pic on the left.

Dogs were a rampant part of life during Roman times and stray dogs still live in the ruins. They are, however, well kept and fed.

Trevi Fountain