Honeymoon cruise Days 3: Cinque Terre, Italia!

The next two days we were in Italy! This is what I was most looking forward to! The first day in Italy we were at a port approximately 2 hours from Pisa and Florence. Many people take the train into Pisa and see the Leaning Tower or head into Florence. We had thought about doing this as well, but when I had read reviews online most people said it wasn't worth the long ride to those cities. There was somewhere else that many people online were recommending to go to instead: Cinque Terre. This is what we decided to do and I am so glad! Cinque Terre was probably my favorite place on the entire trip. I'm really not even sure why... It was a series of small fishing villages on the water. Very traditional, "Old Italy" type villages. And absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Have you ever seen the postcards or pictures of the colorful houses on the water in Italy?? That is Cinque Terre.

We were able to find an excursion in port that had a shuttle bus that took you to three of the five villages for only about 30 euros each (WAY cheaper than the excursion provided by the cruiseline). There was a shuttle bus that transported you to three of the five villages and let you wander around for about an hour before taking you to the next one.

One thing we did not realize in Europe however, is that most vehicles are standard. I'm sure you're thinking "okay, so what?!" Well, let's just say we were driving through the winding (and very narrow) roads on the Italian hillside in a stick shift shuttle bus! And when I say narrow that is not an exaggeration. Most roads are single lane roads. Our bus driver would beep his horn as we were coming up on a corner to signal to other drivers that we were coming (sounds like a head on collision waiting to happen). There were a few times when we would have to stop and back up enough for another car to get through and then continue on. Slightly nerve-wracking, but well worth it!

The pictures really don't do it justice! It was so nice and relaxing. And all of the people we met there were super nice. I would definitely recommend you going there if you ever are in Italy and have the chance. You won't regret it!

One thing we had both said we wanted to do while it Italy was eat! We both wanted to try true Italian pizza, and I really wanted to try gelato! We tried both while in Cinque Terre! The pizza was so good, but surprisingly reminded us of a place from home (Aniello's.. if you're ever in Corning, NY you MUST try)...which would make sense since the original owner was from Italy. The gelato was also amazing and very refreshing since it was about 90 degrees out the day we were there. I also, despite the heat had an amazing cappuccino at a local coffee shop! Coffee, ice cream (sort of), and pizza! All of my favorites in one day!

Honeymoon Day 2: Cannes, France (Can we borrow a towel??)

The first stop on the cruise was to Cannes, France. Some people chose to go to Monte Carlo or to take a tour where they do the Cannes Film Festival; we chose to go to the beach! Prior to going on the cruise we had decided to not spend a whole lot of money on excursions (since we didn't have a whole lot of money anyways). We had also heard that there was a beautiful beach right off the port. I had agreed that a couple relaxing days at the beach throughout the vacation would be a good trade off for Mike, since he had originally wanted to do an all-inclusive resort.

Cannes is one of the ports where people have to "tender" in to port. So basically, the cruise ship anchors and then you go in to port on smaller ferry-like boats because it is too shallow for the cruise ship to pull up to the land. So we got a bag with our swim suits and some water and headed to the 2nd deck where we would tender in to shore. Once we got to shore we quickly realized we had forgotten our towels! It was very hot so drying off wouldn't necessarily be a problem; but it wouldn't be very comfortable lying on the beach without a towel. So we started walking around. We thought maybe we would find a little shop along the beach selling towels that we could purchase to lay on. No luck! But we did spot a Radisson Hotel. Jokingly, I had said that maybe they would let us borrow towels. In the US, this would never happen, but Mike said, "it's worth a shot". We walked over to the hotel and into the front desk and just commonly asked if we could borrow a towel. I thought for sure they would ask our room number (that's what they do on the ship and at hotels in the US in case you don't bring them back). Nope! Without hesitation the woman looks at us says ok and asks another man working there to grab us towels. So we took the towels and enjoyed a beautiful day laying on the beach! Before we got back on the ship we returned the towels and saw a sign outside the door that we had missed earlier. The sign was directed at cruise ship guests (us..) and stated that the hotel was for hotel guests only, not cruise ship passengers. Oops! Thanks for letting us use your towels anyway!

Honeymoon Day 1 (and a half?): Barcelona in 36 hours!

Let me start by saying that we knew going into this vacation that there was no way that we would be able to see and do everything that we want to do in the short amount of time that we would be in each city. Barcelona was the city that we had the most time in. We flew directly to Barcelona from NYC and had a day and a half before we needed to board our cruise. As much as we knew when we got there that we should have dove right in and starting checking things off our must see list, we were SO tired from traveling. Our flight was over night and there was a 6 hour time change. When we got to Barcelona it was 10am. By the time we 1. figured out how to get to our hotel, and 2. checked in and unpacked it was probably noon. We found some food and just kind of headed off on foot with no real plan. BIG MISTAKE! Not that we didn't enjoy ourselves, but we didn't know where anything was since it was our first time there, so we weren't able to just stumble upon the big attractions (La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell, etc). The plan then changed. We decided we would get up early and go see those things first thing the next morning.

The rest of the first day, we continued to walk around with no real plan (which was really relaxing). We were able to find a NBA bar, which made Mike happy since he was missing the NBA finals while we were gone. The bar had the game from the night before playing on a big screen with no commercials, so we were able to catch the whole game in about an hour.

From there we decided to find something to eat, which is kind of difficult when you don't speak much Spanish. I had done some research, as far as, what foods to try in Barcelona, so we decided to try to find some Paella. We found a small restaurant in an alley and enjoyed a HUGE (the word huge doesn't even do it justice) dish of paella. It was AMAZING! One of my favorite things we ate while in Europe. The waiter also brought us a shot of I'm not sure what, and told us to enjoy Spain!

After dinner, we decided that we were already a little tipsy from trying different drinks while walking around so we were not really going to explore the night life of Barcelona. Depending on who you are, this may also seem like a travel fail, but I don't think so. We got a bottle of wine for me and some beer for Mike and relaxed just the two of us on the rooftop terrace of our hotel.

The next day again did not really go as planned. We slept in longer than we probably should have, but hey we're on vacation! Once we got up and around we figured we should probably pack up our things from our hotel room and get something to eat. By the time we figured out how to get to Park Guell, we realized it was quite a ways away. The park itself would take a few hours to explore (based on what I had read)... so we weren't able to go to it. This left me a little upset since it was one of the things I REALLY wanted to do and had read a lot about.

We had then wasted so much time figuring out how to get to Park Guell (and actually wasting a lot of time going the wrong way.. oops) we were both a little annoyed/frustrated, so we decided to skip La Sagrada Familia as well and head right to the ship. Luckily, there was a free cruise shuttle that picked up near not far from our hotel so we got our bags and off the ship we went.

Now I know to some it may seem that we completely wasted our time in Barcelona. After all, we didn't see really anything we had planned on seeing. I was a little disappointed, but decided not to let it ruin my vacation. After all, we were in Europe.. and this was our honeymoon! And even though we didn't make it to the big attractions we had a great time together, just wandering around. And now we have an excuse to go back!

Rough start to the honeymoon

Let's just say that our honeymoon got off to a rocky start. Our original plan was to take a local bus to NYC and fly directly to NYC. One of our good friends was nice enough to pick us up bright and early and take us about an hour and a half to the bus station. When we get there, we are informed that our bus is running 2 hours late! Due to traffic in NYC and increased security for international flights, we would be cutting it pretty close.. or possibly even miss our flight. So, Ainsley being the great friend that she is offers to drive us to NYC.

Thank God she did! Traffic even early that morning was awful. Half of the George Washington Bridge was closed. We were in bumper to bumper traffic for about an hour. On top of that, Ainsley in not used to driving a standard car in stop and go traffic so her clutch was not exactly liking it. There was a point when I wasn't sure we were ever going to make it to the airport.

Finally, we got there... about 8 hours early! But I guess it's better to be early than late!

Once we got to the airport, we got through security and got our luggage taken care of. As the flight grew closer Mike got more and more anxious. He hates to fly. This was going to be an 8 hour flight... over the ocean.

On the flight, he did SO good! A little nervous during take off, but other than that he did good. Fortunately, it was a very smooth flight with very little turbulence. It was also an overnight flight. So even though he couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep (mostly because he's so tall), he also couldn't look outside and see the ocean.

Nonexistent sleep

Sleep is literally non-existent in this house on Saturdays. This could pose a real problem in a couple weeks when I start a permanent weekend (night) position at work. Between Mike and Evan, I can't get more than 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I would expect that from Evan since he's only nine, but Mike?! Seriously.. let's hope this improves.. and quickly!

Seriously, could this week get any worse??

**Originally wrote in May... didn't realize it didn't post!


Of course since we are leaving for our honeymoon in a couple weeks everything would break and we would have to spend a ton of money. We started out the week by noticing we had a good two inches of water in our basement. Mike had to go to Home Depot and get a sub pump. Fortunately, the sub pump cleared out most of the water. From there, we borrowed my grandfathers' dehumidifier to help dry it out some more. I'm really trying to get it dried out as soon as possible to prevent mold for forming. However, it's kind of difficult when there is only ONE outlet in our entire basement!

As if that wasn't bad enough, Mike called me Tuesday while I was at school and his car broke down.. in the middle of the road! Apparently, his brake lines blew. Fortunately, this happened as he was driving through town and not on the highway! He had to have his car towed... which was $170 (and it wasn't even going very far). Luckily, Evan's dad works on cars at the local Honda so he does a lot of the work on our cars (saving us a TON of money). Ugh.. hopefully this isn't something coming in 3's because I don't think I can handle anything else right now!

There's no emergency landing site over the ocean

Our honeymoon had to be put on hold due to the fact that I'm in school. This turned out to be a good thing, as well as, a bad thing... Bad because we had to wait to go. I really would have loved to just run away for a week right after the wedding. But good because we had more time to save! Now we get to go on a much bigger vacation (my dream vacation) to Europe!

June 4, we leave out of NYC and fly to Barcelona, Spain. From there we're taking a Mediterranean cruise to Italy and France. I am beyond excited. Mike, not so much...

First of all, let me start by saying he DID agree to this vacation. Although, I guess I didn't really give him much of an option. It's seriously my DREAM vacation! I've been to the Caribbean... I've done beaches. And let's be honest, we can go to a beach anytime. We may never get the chance to go to Europe again. Especially once we have more kids.

As soon as I put the deposit down on the cruise Mike googled what types of sharks are in the Mediterranean Sea (seriously?!) He also wanted to know how far we would be from land and if it's possible for him to swim to shore if something were to happen. So when all of this worry started I reminded him that he did in fact agree to this. His response? "It was a battle I wasn't going to win." Smart man (happy wife, happy life).

His latest thing is that he's terrified to fly over the ocean.. "there's no emergency landing site over the ocean, Rachael." He has also never taken a flight longer than 2 hours... there's a good chance I might have to drug him.. or at least get him drunk. I'm hoping that since our flight there is an over night flight he will sleep.

143 more days! Wish me luck!

Go home and make a baby!

Evan really wants a baby brother or sister. We've known this for some time now. The Friday before the wedding Evan was telling people that we could have a baby Sunday since we were getting married on Saturday. Now that we are married, he pretty frequently asks when he will have a new baby brother or sister, and as much as I really want a baby we just aren't trying right now. I'm in the middle of my Master's degree and we're going to Europe for our honeymoon in June... so maybe after that.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago Evan, Mike, and myself had gone to dinner. On our way home Evan got on the subject of a baby again. He then out of nowhere says, "Mom will be pregnant next month! So go home and do whatever you have to do to make a baby!" Mike and I instantly burst out laughing! To which Evan replies, "What is so funny?!?! Go home and make a baby!!"

Seriously?? So funny! I was in tears... Kids say some pretty hilarious things sometimes!

Whole30 challenge

Two years ago I joined a Whole 30 challenge group with a couple of friends. Not as a "diet" but to cleanse my body from all the crap I had been eating. The idea behind Whole 30 is not weight loss (although most people do lose some weight), but to stop eating the things that are common irritants to the body for 30 days and then slowly readmit them into your diet to see how each item affects you personally.  Sounds easy, right?! I thought so too until I found out what exactly had to be left out of your diet for 30 days...

No added sugar
No processed foods
No alcohol
No grains
No legumes
No dairy

So basically you eat: Meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit and nuts. But it's only for 30 days!

It was hard. Really hard. The first day (of course) seems easy.. but it's only the first day. By day two or three most people go through the "hangover" stage. You literally feel hungover. Your body doesn't know what to do without all those foods you had been eating. Hangover then turns angry (hangry?)... and by day 6 or 7 you just want to SLEEP! Day 8 and 9 I thought I was doing something wrong because my clothes actually felt TIGHTER (apparently that's common at this stage).

The rest of that second week is usually the hardest. That's when you really start to crave junkfood. Even if you don't usually eat a lot of junk food. Something about knowing you can't have it makes you want it that much more!

By the third and fourth week you have more energy and you start to see changes in the mirror. You feel great! And just like that it's over. You have this immense feeling of accomplishment. And what's even better is that your body feels great.

So why am I bringing this up now, two years later? Because I'm doing it AGAIN!

I'm currently on day 4 and not nearly as hangry as I was the first time around. I think it's really because I didn't have as much to omit this time. I really don't drink milk. I cook with it occasionally and I do like cheese but not to the point that it bothers me to get rid of it. Same with grains and legumes... I eat them but not daily.  And I only drink occasionally.

The hard part for me is SUGAR!! I have such a sweet tooth. There are still Christmas cookies at my house... and I love icecream! Some people would just get all these things out of their house so the temptation isn't there but since Mike and Evan are NOT on board with this little challenge, that's nearly impossible! But so far I'm doing good! I have yet to slip up.. which you may be thinking: slip up? it's only day 4? Well it's easier than you'd think to screw this thing up. There's added sugar in pretty much everything.

The other part that's hard is getting the amount of calories your body needs. Most people don't have this problem. In general, we eat too many calories. So why would calorie intake be a problem? Well, fruits and vegetables have hardly any calories.. so you have to eat a lot of them to make up for all the bread and processed foods you aren't eating. For this reason, I use the MyFitnessPal app and put in all the foods I eat. The app will tell you if you're eating enough to maintain a healthy weight. It works really nice for a challenge like this. The app also allows you to put exercise in too.

Stay tuned to hear how the rest of my Whole 30 challenge goes this month. And for more whole 30 questions go to whole30.com

Toy review: Cosmo robot

For Christmas, Evan wanted this toy robot named Cosmo. Fortunately, I bought it right away since it was quickly sold out everywhere! He opened it up and started playing with it right away. Cosmo is pretty neat. It works with an app that you download on a phone or tablet. Through the app you can play various games with Cosmo and the more you play with him, the more personality he has. However, there is one thing with Cosmo that is just a little bit creepy. It has a facial recognition feature. When you open up the screen on the app you type in the person's name and then look at Cosmo. Cosmo then scans the persons face and says the name. From then on Cosmo will recognize that person by name! Weird!

Christmas

Christmas in the Stevenson/McPherson house was great. Very busy, as it usually is. I was supposed to work 11-7 Christmas eve night but got called off, which was nice. Christmas Eve, Evan went to his dads house since they do Arctic League in the morning on Christmas. This allowed Mike and I to sleep in on Christmas morning. Evan came home around 11am and we opened gifts at our house. I got a remote car starter from Mike (pretty much the best gift ever), Mike got tools, and Evan got a lot of things but was most happy about a little robot named Cosmo!

Next, we went up the road to my parents house to meet the rest of my family for Christmas. My sister, brother, and nephews were there also. Finally, we headed up to my grandfathers' house for dinner. We headed home early from dinner so I could take a nap and then head to work at 11pm!

The following day, we were able to go to Mike's dads' house to have Christmas with them! Even though Christmas is always so busy, it's always nice to have family time!

We didn't even dance.. update

Evan went to a wedding with Mike and I in December. We made sure that he was able to dance with me this time. However, Evan's idea of dancing and mine were not quite the same. Here I thought Evan wanted to slow dance with me... NOPE! He wanted to fast dance.. which I don't usually do! So we did, and he was happy again.