Brief Travels Abroad

In my work I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel quite a bit, mostly in Germany. I've been there a total of 16 weeks over 8 different trips. I've been able to visit quite a bit of the country in my travels.

Some of my favorites:

-Munich

-Berlin

-Heidelberg

-Frankfurt Temple and Christmas Market

-Neuschwanstein (the castle Walt Disney modeled the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland after)

-Bayreuth (during the festival celebrating the operas of Richard Wagner)

In general I have really enjoyed my trips to Germany (sometimes despite work!).

Recently I again had the chance to travel to Germany. Unfortunately this trip was super short (I flew in on Wednesday night and flew out Monday morning) and not very fun (lots of work politics, multiple flight cancellations, and a very interesting bus trip). But...I did get the chance to visit the Freiberg Temple, which means I have now been to all the temples in Germany (there are only 2). And I spent some time on Sunday walking around the historic downtown of Erlangen.

The temple was beautiful. I arrived there quite early for the session and took some time to walk around outside and take pictures. It looked beautiful enrobed in clean white snow and there was a wonderful quiet stillness about the temple.

I love that the House of the Lord is His house no matter where on Earth you are and his spirit is always there.

I spent most of Sunday relaxing in my hotel room. But in the afternoon I decided to venture out to the historic downtown area of Erlangen (about a 10 minute walk from my hotel). I got some great shots of Schloss Erlangen (including the spot where books were burned in 1933), the fountain facing the "schloss" and some other general historic sights.

All in all, not my best trip, but I'm still grateful for the opportunities I have and have had through my work. Sometimes I can't believe some of the things I've been able to do that I would never have dreamed would be part of my everyday life.

Thoughts on 2011

As 2011 came to a close and 2012 began I took a few minutes to pause and think about the year that has passed and what I might want to do in the year to come.

I make it a point not to make New Year's Resolutions. They never work for me and I feel like they're basically a recipe for failure. I have had some success making Birthday Resolutions, but I neglected to make any this year. So perhaps instead I'll focus on some of the things I did in 2011 and some of the things I'd like to accomplish in 2012.

Here goes...

2011 - my personal year in review (including some items which I've elaborated on in this blog...)

Jan – My first cruise...to the Caribbean with an amazing and hilarious bunch of friends (Katy, Emily, Aaron, Jon)

Feb – Fabulous trip to Disneyland with Carly, Jessica, and Lisa (my now roommate!)

March – Impromptu day trip to the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco

April – The wedding of two of my favorite people: Jamie and Jason AND a long awaited work trip to Heidelberg - beautiful weather, fun companions, and I finally got to meet in person some colleagues I've been working with for several years

May – Had a fantastic time at the Mid-Singles Conference in Huntington Beach with Natalie, Melissa and Hillary (plus a bonus day at Disneyland!)

June –Everyone's gotta take a month off now and then right?

July – Made the tour of SF with Katy and one of her friends and took an awesome day trip to Sonoma/Napa with Allison including free tasting tours (olive oil, cheese, and chocolate)

August – The aforementioned Lisa moved in as our fantastic new roommate and Justin and I threw a Settlers of Catan Extravaganza

September – Amazing Labor Day weekend trip to San Diego with Amanda and Delphine

October – Trick-or-Treating at Disneyland with Katy, Jeff, and Daniel

November – Awesome birthday trip to Bodega Bay with Mom and developing my sewing skills with my very talented friends.

December – Christmastime at Disneyland with the roommates (Katy and Lisa) and CA Academy of Sciences with Katy and Hillary

Ok, reading over that is a little more like a travel log than anything else. Which actually kind of makes me pretty happy.

So, here are some aspirations for 2012.

Places I'd like to travel this year:

-England (for work and maybe some family history?)

-Washington DC

-Salt Lake City

-Seattle

-Alaskan cruise (I hope!)

-Alcatraz

Things I'd like to do:

-establish and stick to a regular exercise plan

-attend the temple at least twice a month

-visit 2 new temples

-complete Project Management certification

-take some formal training in genealogy and attend at least 1 conference

-purge the storage in my room and get the rest of my stuff out of my parents' house

-continue learning how to sew

-explore new cooking adventures

I'm sure I could go on...and I certainly hope I get to do more travelling that that (at least day trips), but that's probably more than enough "aspirations" for the time being. Maybe I'll check-in in a few months and see how I'm doing.

An Adventure through the Amazon and Beyond...

Over the holidays I was fortunate to have quite a bit of time off (11 days to be exact!). I was really looking forward to some time away from the office.

I didn't have any big plans, just some relaxing holiday activities with the family and chill time at home.

Of course things never quite go according to plan. I did manage to have some great holiday time with family. But unfortunately I spent quite a bit of my vacation fighting off (and finally succumbing to) a cold.

By the last Friday of my vacation I was finally feeling better and ready to get out of the house. In fact I tried to find something fun to do on Thursday, but without success. So by Friday it was definitely time for an adventure!

I rounded up some friends (Katy and Hillary) and we decided to take a quick day trip around the world. On our travels we visited the rainforest of the Amazon, met some reindeer, went sightseeing under the sea in the Philippines and wandered through the wildlife of Africa. In other words, we made a visit to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

I had heard wonderful things about it ever since the renovation a few years ago, and it definitely lived up to all my expectations. In fact my only disappointment with the trip was that I brought the wrong camera battery and didn't get to use my favorite toy very much. Nevertheless, I still managed to get some great photos with my limited battery and the help of my iPhone.

Now...what should my next adventure be?

Craftiness and Super Sewing Saturday

I have always been inclined towards crafty pursuits; however, I'm also a bit of a perfectionist and since it's not generally possible to be perfect at a new undertaking on the first try, I tend to become frustrated or lose interest quickly.

But in my *ahem* advanced *ahem* age, I think I'm getting more comfortable with my fumbling first efforts. Either that or I'm just more comfortable looking like a fool in front of my close friends. I mean, really, who better (and safer) to look like a fool in front of?

Whether it be age, a new-found sense of self-confidence, or purely the inspiration of the wonderful and talented women I'm blessed to associate with, recently I have re-discovered my love of all things domestic and crafty.

Christmas has provided an excellent jumping in point for my new crafty explorations. And our recent "Super Sewing Saturday" was the perfect opportunity to start and finish some projects:

1) My very own apron (I had to take some liberties with the pattern when I got stuck, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

2) Happy little stuffed tree

3) Christmas pillow

I still have a lot to learn about sewing (A LOT), but I'm happy to see progress being made. And I just keep reminding myself, it doesn't have to be perfect!

Thanks girls for supporting and inspiring me!

Birthday by the Bay

To commemorate another successful trip around the sun, my mom and I made a somewhat spontaneous, really relaxing and completely awesome trip up to Bodega Bay.

On the way up we stopped in Santa Rosa to visit my grandparents and uncle and cousins. We had a great time visiting and a tasty dinner before heading over to Bodega Bay.

I'm proud to say that my mom handled the ride to Bodega Bay remarkably well. It was dark (but not stormy) night and I don't know that I've ever driven on such a twisty, unfamiliar road, at least not in this country*. Mom was a great navigator and kept calm through all the twists and turns.

We arrived around 10 at night and checked in at the Bodega Bay Lodge. The room was spacious, but still cozy. And unbeknownst to me, my mom had arranged for a little surprise to be waiting for us: a bottle of sparkling pear cider and happy birthday wishes from the hotel staff! We quickly got the fire going, and made ourselves comfortable in our luxurious room.

I fell asleep early and slept great in the comfy bed. We both spontaneously woke up around 8:30...just minutes before the anniversary of my birth (8:36am) and continued the celebration with more sparkling pear cider and presents! I got the coolest camera ever! A Canon SX230HS. It's compact, slim, with a bunch of features (both automatic and manual), plenty of megapixels and a 14x optical zoom. I think I'm in love! Now I can run around and pretend I'm a photographer like everyone else is these days.

And by the way...when we woke up in the morning, we discovered we had a pretty sweet view.

After spending far too long lounging in the hotel, we checked out, ready to begin a roundabout, detour filled drive home. The first detour - a mini photography session in the lobby of the hotel...and outside the hotel...and next to the sign for the hotel...well, you get

the idea.

Our next stop - the beach! Where I got to play with the zoom capabilities on my camera.

By the way, any beach with a sign like this one, should probably be avoided:

Then we moved on to the harbor (with more pictures, a little shopping, and some lunch).

We had planned to drive up to Armstrong National park and spend some time with the redwoods, but time got away from us a little, so instead we just drove past on our way back to Santa Rosa. We saw some beautiful trees (and again, my mom did great as a passenger on some very twisty roads).

We made a brief stop at Duncans Mills - I couldn't resist this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. I had take a few pictures!

We made it home to Walnut Creek just in time for a delicious steak dinner from Tahoe Joe's and a few more surprises.

All in all...not a bad way to celebrate another year.

*I had a particularly harrowing trip from Bayreuth to Erlangen on a very dark, very twisty German road. If I can survive that...I can survive anything...