What are YOU Thankful for?

My cat, FAMILY, great friends, a country where I can do what I love.
Oreos, Dr. Pepper, candy, CHOCOLATE,orange chicken.
the power of music, GOD, freedom of EXPRESSION, discovery, COMPASSION
Theatre, LOTS OF LAUGHTER, game night, MY DOG, health, HUGS
Kareoke, POKER NIGHT, fuzzy blankets, UN-BORING CAREER, CSI at two am.
HOT showers, FRANK SINATRA, mashed potatoes and gravy, dollar menus and YOU Seriously.

The long awaited video

Lizzie put this together.

Delphi, Athens and Rome.

The last week of our trip!
(the temple of Athena. Painted Camouflage.)


DELPHI
It was a struggle getting to Delphi because this was our first real experience where NOBODY spoke English and we couldn't even tell what the road signs were saying. So we hopped on a few buses and just crossed our fingers that it was taking us the right place. We even rode for free because we didn't really understand the whole buying a ticket process. (ooopsy)

Delphi was great we took a short pilgrimage up half way to the Sanctuary of Apollo (just like Socrates and many others) but unfortunately the top portion of the ruins is closed because it was built on a giant fault and it may crumble at any moment. We also saw the training grounds of some original Olympic athleates. Lizzie and I even ran a foot race on the track. Guess who won?
We were lucky to just barely miss the rainy day in Delphi and we headed out of town back to Athens.

ATHENS!
(this is the temple of Thesion in Agora)
We saw way too many ruins for me to tell you each one. Ruins were literally around every corner, surrounded by shops and metro stations. The highlights for me were... the Parthenon actually all of the Acropolis. The theater of Dionysus and the Herod Atticus theater. I actually sang a note while standing (almost) on stage. Now I can say I have performed in those theaters :)
While the ruins were mind boggling and spectacular, Athens itself leaves much to be desired. I am glad we waited to the very end to see Athens cause it is much busier and less attractive than the islands. But I did like the bakeries on every corner, and the gyro places that lined the streets. We would order a gyro and before we had even finished, we had bought our selves a second. We watched the changing of the guards for quite a while, because it was very interesting the way they marched and such. (and the boys in uniform didn't hurt keeping our attention)
We stayed the night in the very finest of places. A youth hostel, six girls to a room and a shared bathroom, with a very loud sleeper who was growling in her sleep. Plus the ipod decided to stop working. I never thought I would wish to be sleeping on the beach again.

ROME

I know it seems pretty random to suddenly be in ROME! But we were pretty lucky to have a 14 hour layover in Rome. SO although Rome wasn't built in a day we put in a solid effort to see it all in a day. Unfortunaly the transportation methods getting to Rome weren't really going our way, and resulted in me being extremely cranky and hungry because we we only had a couple more hours of daylight to see EVERYTHING! Once we finally arrived we were very cranky but Lizzie and I can't kill each other now only because we have already made it this far. We caught one of those very touristy hop on hop off buses and within an hour had already seen the Colosseum and other major sites. We even got to the Vatican before it was too dark, but unfortunately couldn't get in. Just another reason we have to go back to Italy.
We then ate an authentic Italian meal and had gellato as the very last thing to eat in Europe. And yes it was fantastic.

Santorini Continued...

Sorry about the short one.. Internet time ran out.

So we spent the first night in Thira and in the morning decided to find a beach! well we walked from our hotel to the city and by the looks of our map, the beach couldn't be much farther in the opposite direction....or so we thought. We ended up walking an hour to the beach, which didn't have anything to offer for snorkeling anyway, so spent maybe 30 min at the beach and walked 1 1/2 hours back to the city. then we went out to the city of Oia. This city is famous for this photo op

. and the sunsets here are better than anywhere else. We casually walked through the streets taking many photos and talking to the very nice shop owners until it was time for the sunset. The streets are built all on top of eachother, and so you could easily hop onto the roof below you, and we saw all sorts of animals hanging out on rooftops. The sunset was quite spectacular, but we haven't had a night with out a beautiful sunset. We crammed into a very crowded bus and had dinner on a very romantic rooftop, dimmly lit with music and a view and couples in love. And then there was Lizzie and I. Awkward....

Food list

Greek salad (I was very disappointed, didn't realize that it didn't have lettuce, only more tomatos and cucumbers which i don't like)
More crepes

Lamb

CRETE!!....Er...Naxos?

So the next day we had our Ferry tickets in hand and went to double check our boat with the local ticket booth. The receptionist causally matter-of-factly told us it was cancelled. So we had a couple of options...stay in Santorini for a few days more or pick another island at random. We picked Naxos. and in less than an hour had to get ourselves on the boat.

Naxos, a town full of octopus and squid, was pretty big compared to the other islands. I am getting pretty good at bargaining for a hotel room and "Nick the Greek" took us to our hotel and was very friendly to tell us about all there was to do on this island. We decided to rent a four-wheeler and concour the island ourselves! We strapped on our bags the next morning and set out find whatever! We visited many little villiages through the very steep mountiany terrain, and stopped at this villiage, pretty much in the middle of no where for dinner. We went exploring through the little streets, as usual but the thing that was different with this city was that it wasn't near the coast. Meaning we had no landmark to find our way to the exit. We ended up wandering through the streets for over and hour, with no people around, just taking wild guesses on which corner to turn. It seems that the stairs up never ended. Fortuantly we found this little lady hanging laundry. YAY! unfortunatly she didn't speak english... she spoke French. So with the very little French I knew this little angel showed us the way to our ATV. We then went to a very remote beach and did some snorkeling and saw some more octopus and fishys. The sun was setting and we still didn't know where to stay the night. It was getting darker and darker and we still didn't have a hotel.. so we could either go back into town......or there was a very cool beach that we could camp on for free......hmm. We chose the adventure! although very cold, it was free and easy.

Santorini...the romantic destination.

So the island of Santorini is all built on a volcano, which means EVERYTHING is stairs. So after a long day of hiking to the beach and ten spending a day going up and down stairs, our legs are feeling it. But it was so worth the energy because the views are out of this world! Sorry i can't talk anymore! love you all!

Hello! Gia!
So continuing on with 10/18
We traveled around town for the rest of the day, getting lost in all of the windy roads with no names, but we didn't mind getting lost because the scenery was so great. I devoured a strawberry and nuttella crepe that was very messy but absolutely heavenly! So good that I almost forgot that I had the chicken pox.
So remember how I mentioned that the bugs were eating me...that night I ended up having more than twenty bugs bites or hives or whatever they are all over my body.. making last nights rest very miserable. This morning there were too many to count, mostly on my arms and my face.. :( So we took the evening easy, strolling along the beach in the sand listening to music and watching the sunset....how romantic for lizzie and I.. haha. It was fun though. We have met alot of really cool people so far. A lot of fellow backpacking students from all over the world and some really nice and sweet locals.
10/19
So first things first! We went out to find a pharmacy. Since yesterday was a sunday we couldn't do anything about the hive situation. A very cute Greek man named Antonio who didn't speak any english at all showed us along the windy tiny roads for a ways to the pharmacy and I spent my whole ration of euros for food for the day on meds.. It was sooo worth it. They are starting to un-swell and are only the size of quarters now. Enough about the pain. It hasn't really affected how wonderful and charming Mykonos was. We spend the morning hanging out at the port and shopping. Then hopped on the Ferry to Santorini!!

Arriving to Santorini, again with no real plan of where to stay, and I had just woke up from my two hour boat ride nap and still was very groggy and confused. We hop off the bus, and like at the other port were bombarded with people trying to get us to come to there hotel. The first woman who walked over to us offered us a hotel that was nicer than any hostels but still out of our price range. I have never really "haggled" prices before but very easily talked her into letting us stay for 10 euro a night. In no time we were in her car getting a ride to the hotel and I was still dazzed and confused on what had really just happened. I guess since it is the off season they are willing to just fill up the rooms at any price! or I just have some nack for haggling. So we dropped off our bags and made it to the main part of Santorini just in time to grab dinner at a cool very local place.. ( I had lamb and Lizzie had pork Slovuki and we shared some Tzitzi) and finished just in time to see the sunset.. Talk about spectactular! you could see all the islands and the clouds. Again. so romantic. Awe.. So we wandered through the very steep (Santorini is a volcano, so EVERYTHING in uphill.) streets that were so cool. If you close your eyes and think about what you imagined Greece like, this is it but so much better in real life. I wish the camera captured it better. Time is about to run out on my computer. Gotta go ! love you!

Travel Journal of Greece! First three days.

Greece!!!
We have arrived and are still alive!!!We started off with what could be expected on a 9 1/2 hour flight to Paris, Meaning crying babies, old men behind us wiggling their toes between our arm rests and of course not getting any sleep. The good news is that Elder Russell M. Nelson was on our flight so we knew the plane was probably not going to crash.
We rushed through the airport so quickly in Paris that we saw nothing but we did have a short talk with the apostle..In Paris. How cool.
From the moment we arrived in the Athens airport I liked this place, specifically because I found a $50 bill on the ground in the airport. I took it to the desk and they told me to keep it! Score. On with Greece! We hopped on a metro and walked through the somewhat ghetto town of Pireaus, which is a little port town where we stayed the night to catch early ferry the next morning. Whew. We were pretty exhausted.


10/18

So we hop on a ferry to Mykonos and from this point on, we have no real plan of what is next. We left at 7:30 in the morning so we got to see an awesome sunrise from the boat with greece in the background. After a 5 hour Ferrie ride we finally were at destination 1. We hopped on a shuttle that took us out to Mykonos Beach. This beach seems to be a spring break college party type of beach during regular season, but it was quiet empty and nice for us since it is October. We got a cute little penthouse for very cheap and after eating headed straight to the ocean (Aegean Sea) We went snorkeling and it was very cool. I have never snorkeled before and we got to see fish and coral and an OCTOPUS! I was right above it until it opened up all eight legs and freaked me out so i swam away quickly. I am pretty satisfied that the first day swimming we saw an octopus.
There are cats everywhere here. Probably 12 or more just living off of dropped food at the resort we are staying at. With a whole family of kittens. We explored the beach the rest of the evening and when 7:30 hit we were both exausted. We forced our selves to stay awake until 8:30 and then we crashed hard of course going to bed so early we were wide awake at 6 am the next morning. We are still working on the whole time difference thing.

10/19
We caught an early bus into the town of Mykonos, where litterally every corner you turn the streets look like that right off of a post card. It is so cute and the shore is absolutley stunning. They say that people cant leave this place once they visit. We actually met a lady who is from... weird....Northampton Mass. The city that we lived for two weeks for foodplay. A bizzare coincidece. But she visited this place and just fell in love and moved here. The streets and scenery are absolutly stunning and I can't stop taking pictures. It is great weather and we are actually very hot and stop at this internet place to take a break and get out of the sun and because the bugs are eating me alive.

The food that I have had so far.... A few Gyros (SO good!)
Lots of pasteries and crossants
Baklava (sp?)
About to go get myself a crepe.

I am OFF!! Love you all and miss you..

From Grease!....... to Greece!

Rizzo and Frenchy

I have just finished a run of four months in the musical production of Grease in Jackson Hole Wyoming. It was a fantastic production with many talented and wonderful people. I will miss the great friends and the Grand Tetons in my backyard. AHHH.... WHAT A GREAT SUMMER!








BUT! now that I have bid GREASE farewell... I say hello to GREECE!

I am crazy excited to tackle the next big adventure with one backpack of luggage and a camera. My friend Lizzie and I will be embarking on a two week VACA! I will be sipping a nice cool beverage and possibly looking out at this....

Or maybe stumble upon a stage where acting was invented!......

or finding some underwater wonders like this!......

and then wandering around some streets like these....

and by the end have a wallet that looks like this.....

(Photos will be much cooler when actually taken in person.)


As you can probably tell, I am stoked.

quick ketchup...er catch up.

No I haven't abandoned the blogging world. I apologize to my four faithful followers that I haven't posted in a while. Two reasons....

A. Not a whole lot has changed in my life

2. My camera basically blows so I have no good pictures.

So let me catch you up.

THEN

• My best friend Aubri came to visit and we got into plenty of mischief as always...(pictures will come when she finally downloads them)


• I went on a girls day shopping spree to Park City on my brother-in-laws budget with my sisters and mom and cousin.


• Had Ry mans mission farewell on Sunday!
  
  NOW
  
• Still having way too much fun at my job that is touring through Utah with these two fools.

Spell it backwards its NAVEL.




• Choreographing "Guys and Dolls" for the Sugar Factory Playhouse. WOOT!


• Enjoying the nice spring days when they decide to pop in.



• Spending all the free time I can with this guy.



• and these guys.
  

SOON!

• Riley leaves for California on his MISH!


• Luke graduates from college. HOLLA!


• I am going to Disneyland/Vegas/St.George (hopefully)


• I leave for the summer to the glorious Jackson Hole, Wyoming for GREASE (I'm frenchy) and also to take over the position of manager at the restaurant.

I WILL TRY NOT TO TAKE A MONTH AND A HALF NEXT TIME>>>

HOME AGAIN.

It was a vacation well needed and I might even say well deserved. After all, I am a college graduate.

I spent the last two weeks of the tour in Georgia and Florida and you can imagine how thrilled I am about coming back to snow.

I have discovered that there are nice people all over the country...... and a couple not so nice ones.(These are some nice ones.)

I was a very good tourist.. I braved snow, cold, aching feet and even nearly wetting my pants just so that I could get to see all that there was to see in each location that we stopped at.

I ate more food then I ever thought I would in my entire life! including....rabbit, quail, kangaroo and alligator

And of course made lots and lots of memories..

And to answer the question you have all been waiting for? ........NO I didn't kill Allan. Even after two months of each other neither of us were strangled. ...........

.......I just left him in Alabama.

And I even got a couple days off to go visit my cutest cousin.

ALL SAID AND DONE....ITS GOOD TO BE HOME!

This is what happens when two girls are bored on their day off. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do, cause I get a kick out of myself.

13 states in 10 days.... the way a road trip oughta be.

Maine, Delaware, New York, Washington D.C, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut. Admittedly we just drove through a couple of these states on our way to Georgia. But we at least stopped for lunch or at a gift shop in each state.

MASSACHUSETTS

Yes we are back to MA again.... But we got to explore a different side of it this time. It was a dark and stormy night on Friday the 13th in Salem......No actually it was just a bit windy. But Salem was the perfect way to spend the superstitious day. The town was just as you would imagine. Lots of weird voodoo style shops, and cool historical sites, like the site where they think the witch hangings took place and monument and of course about twenty fortune tellers trying to get us to pay them money.....

Continuing on the road!.....

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Up to New Hampshire we went for one day. We have eaten so much clam chowder in New England......I mean LOTS. We found this little restaurant right on the port and ate mussels (ew) and more seafood. (yum) I have to admit, the seafood is much better out here.

MAINE

There is a time and a place for everything and Maine is the perfect place to eat Lobster for the first time. I was frightened, even terrified at times, but after I got used to my food having eyeballs, it actually tasted really good.

DELAWARE

I don't who thought up the idea for the place that we stay for the longest time, be the most boring state. I don't have much to say about Delaware except that it comes after Connecticut and before Florida in the alphabet.

PENNSYLVANIA

So instead of twiddling our thumbs in Delaware we hopped in the car and drove across the border to Philly! We visited lots of cool history stuff, liberty bell, the usual and also got to experience a real Philly cheese steak sandwich. Geno himself asked us if we were Mormon. I really think we may have a future convert.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Very cool place to hang out for sushi. I don't recommend driving through it with traffic and parallel parking a minivan.

SOUTH CAROLINA

10 hours of driving later.....we finally landed here for a nice southern style lunch. Never had hush puppies before this and have never been called ma'am so many times in my life.

GEORGIA!

I love Georgia. The people are real nice and the weather is even nicer. Of course I am comparing the weather to the 4 degree weather of New England, but a 55 degree day in Atlanta was awesome! We celebrated black history month by seeing the historical Martin Luther King Jr site, we also celebrated how caffeine blesses our lives by going through the coke museum and ended a typical day by being crowned royal lords and ladies of the Medieval realm. No Big Deal.

As for the other seven states they were all special and wonderful in their own unique way. Just not cool enough to make it on to my blog.

Florida is Next!!!

NYC

WHO KNEW?

Who knew.......

.......that Allan and Elise would be hand picked out of a crowd to be in the front row on the David Letterman show with guest star Martha Stewart.

........that we would hop on 5 or more subways until we would finally figure out where we were headed in Manhattan.

.......that hearing the horns honking during church from the street below you in NY is actually really cool.

....... that performing shows for the poorest schools can be the best kids and show ever!

.....and that performing a show for a rich private Jewish school would be the most outrageously misbehaved school. And that saying the word SEXY would be a bad idea. We then proceeded to get yelled at by the Rabbi......yeah.

......Who knew that driving around Newark, NJ (one of the highest crime rates in the US) after dark, looking for an ice cream shop, would be a very terrifying experience. OK. We probably should have known that one.

.......that such a thing as a frozen hot chocolate even existed!? Serendipity.

......that my favorite childhood puppets would turn out to be so very entertaining....And a little bit racist. (Avenue Q)

....that Lizzie's huge signals that we need to wrap up the show NOW, would mean that Elise would try to segue to the end while Allan would stop and blankly stare at her for a long five seconds.....finally saying "uh.....What?"

.....And lastly, Who knew that it would take a trip across the country for Allan to finally find the woman of his dreams.

HIGH FIVE!!!!

First week on our own

So we are officially done with rehearsal and we have left Northampton (The proud lesbian capitol of the world). We are now touring and staying at each city for only a day or two. Only a week of performances so far and yet some interesting things have occured.

*Allan lost his voice yesterday and was squeaking for the whole afternoon.

*The moment when Elise completely forgot her line and just stood there awkwardly with a look of sheer terror in her eyes, splurting out bits of lines that she can remember from any part of the show. At that moment Allan decides to walk off the stage. We recovered and of course the line all came back to her in the middle of Allans next line.... She yelled it out suddenly. Smooth as sandpaper..

*Allan having yogurt all over his face and Elise and Lizzie end up looking like they have Turrets by trying to signal him to wipe it off.

*We got to perform at Hogwarts. I am pretty sure Harry will be eating less chocolate frogs and jelly slugs. ---->

*We got really excited about the free meal at Denny's for every one in America ad. Until we got there and there was a one hour wait. So we took this picture and found lunch somewhere else. Don't we look happy?

We now know what 2 degrees feels like. With wind.

*We stumbled upon a Candle Pin Bowling Lane (one of the few left in the world) and played a couple games. Its really hard! The pins are skinny and the balls are small. But we had the whole place to ourselves.

Ah we will miss the city of Northampton. And Remember. Give PEAS a chance.