Just another day, working in the ghetto

Car window smashed in. Camera stolen. Not that i had been blogging for awhile, but i had a bunch of pics I was ready to put up. But they are all gone now! Hopefully it won't be too long until I get another camera and have something to post. Thanks for checking in!

TRIPS TRIPS TRIPS

PART III: West Virginia Motorcycle Trip

Peter, Todd and I set out for our 2nd annual weekend motorcycle trip this year before the sun. Rise and shine at Todd's house at 4:45 for an anticipated 5 a.m. start. The weather was cool and crisp, and we were super excited for another trip. The destination this year was West Virginia and the plan was to head south way past Harper's ferry to hit a route that would take us West, over the Blue Ridge mountains and into West Virginia.


The bikes getting a shine to wash off the morning dew...

Crossing into Virginia as the sun popped up. I was seriously needing some sun, the air was quite cool, even in my heavy leather jacket!

Going through the Blue Ridge mountains we stumbled upon Seneca Rocks. There were lots of cars parked by a tourist center and when we looked closely we could see people on the top. A hike for another trip...


Just a cool shot Peter took of an old Ford tractor center right across from the rocks.


Peter, Todd and I are great traveling partners for this kind of a trip because we all want the same thing: to be on the bike as many hours as possible and to see as many back roads as possible! But biking is tiring! (And I wasn't even driving!) So after a long search for the best possible spot to take a nap, we stumbled upon this field where we took our siesta...there's pete, in his slumber :)


Two shots of the kinds of roads we like to travel. Shout out to Todd, the best motorcycle driver a girl could want to ride with!....i never feel anything but 100% comfortable with him driving, so thanks todd!


All in all Saturday was full of some AMAZING roads. We ended up in Deep Creek Lake for some amazing grub at a brick oven pizza place there before crashing at a hotel...We took the liberty of sleeping in a bit and then we were off again, to explore some waterfalls in the area.


We found a cool, unpopulated recreational lake just outside of Deep Creek just into West Virginia that made us seriously long for a boat! Love my boys! Overall, another great trip! Cannot wait until our next adventure...

TRIPS TRIPS TRIPS...

PART II: Equinox, PA

Dan's parents have owned a rustic cabin on the Delaware river for years. it has a great view, right on the river. once and awhile we make the trip up to Equinox, PA, right on the border of PA and NY for some canoeing, grilling and an overall relaxing time; no phone service, no tv, no stove. Its a little piece of heaven.


As my friend Todd said, the river is like glass.

A few beers or not, this mud was damn slippery! thats our lil canoe!

Dan's dad landing a bird in his palm after it fed...

TRIPS TRIPS TRIPS...

PART I: ITALY

There are so many phrases that Liz and I could probably come up with to describe this trip to Italy, among them, "We walk where no one else walks", "The quest for honeysuckle" and "Eat. Eat. Drink. Eat." All in all we had an AMAZING whirlwind of a trip that included ten destinations, six hostels/hotels, one overnight train ride, one encounter with the transit police, several not so friendly encounters with older Italian women and multiple bottles of wine! Here are some of my fav pics...



First meal/glass of wine in Rome at the Mozzarella Bar. So far so good!


Just one of the many amazing visuals you see during a day at the Vatican. This is the ceiling of the hallway leading to the Sistine Chapel. Pretty much everything you see on this tour is unbelievable, even though you are witnessing it with your own eyes. Just unbelievable.


Um. This is like my heaven. Can it get any fresher than that?!


The Colosseum at dusk.


PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA! Thanks to a very friendly train conductor who couldn't have been prouder of his beloved hometown, Naples, we were able to find the "best" pizza place in the city, Pizzeria da Michele. The fresh mozz was sweet and very wet and the crust very very thin. We put down two pies easily!


Venice. We loved Venice. The crowds could be overwhelming at times, but we mostly managed to navigate ourselves away from the mad rush. Although i use the term "navigate" lightly. I don't think anyone can actually really navigate around Venice, its a serious maze! They try to be helpful with signs and arrows, but I swear you follow an arrow one way only to find another arrow pointing back where you just came from!


Surrounding Venice are other little islands, accessible only by boat. We were lucky enough to spend a day and night on the quaint San Erasmo Island, where we laid on the beach, walked around pretty much the entire island, fell in love with the fresh scent of honeysuckle and made an "out of the suitcase" dinner from pistachios, almonds, some canned tuna and two bottles of wine!


Ah Bologna. Liz had been dreaming of the food in Bologna since she first thought of going to Italy. And it did not disappoint.


I couldn't even guess what half these meats are.


One of my absolute favorite things about the cities in Italy? The very cold and very refreshing water fountains! I got excited every time I saw one. Really. (Maybe, however, this was because Italy was hot as hell and I am a water junky who couldn't for the life of me stay hydrated because of the copious amounts of sweat that my body was producing on an hourly basis! But I'm guessing no one really wanted to know that :) )


The David. Probably the coolest thing Florence had to offer (we were otherwise not the biggest fans of the city). Liz kinda twisted my arm to get me to go in but i was super happy I waited the hour in line with her. It is impressive to say the least. This is my illegally taken photo!

We were under the Tuscan sun! Walking ten plus miles this day (done while singing duets of random songs such as Whitney's "We believe the Children are our Future") allowed us to see some beautiful countryside, buy a few bottles of wine and get a brief but informative tour of a vineyard.

The streets of Siena. Siena was by far our favorite place. The vibe was chill, the people friendly, our hostel/hotel fabulous, the food amazing and the stores wonderful. It was a perfect place for our last night.

And finally, this shot that I took through the window of a cafe in San Gimignano, a Tuscan hill town. I just thought it was beautiful. All in all we had such a great time! Shout out to Lizzy for taking me with her, I couldn't have asked for a better traveling companion!

Stay tuned for Part II....

only in the Ghetto

i think this should be a new regular segment. seeing as i spend a lot of my time in the ghetto, seeing truly ghetto things. this one, however, comes from good ol Bmore. a classic.

backstreet's back, alright!

ok that was kinda gay. but i was thinkin, i'm back (to blogging that is) and thats the first song that came to my mind. oh man, sad. anyhow, hello! just got back from florida, tanned and relaxed, so i thought i would share some stuff. it was perfect weather in tampa. cool in the morning, (embracing the weather i actually got up and ran every morning) and then by afternoon it was 80 and breezy. forida at its best. went to see some family. they are into vintage cars and its kinda cool actually, the cars are awesome to look at, and there is something to be said about older people looking back, and appreciating a simpler time...to be honest, its really heartwarming to me somehow. so, didn't get to get a new pickup truck after totaling my tacoma (this time round), but i was thinking maybe this would be my next!
was playing with my camera and thought this was a cool pic...



we went to the hard rock cafe and casino (yes there is actually one in tampa) and my aunt gave me a free coupon for twenty dollars worth of "gameing" (does that word have an e or no e. i don't know and am too lazy to consult a dictionary) if i signed up for a hard rock card. so i signed up and had to take my twenty dollars to one and only one machine. my aunt and i settled on a 2 cent slot machine and on the second button push, yes beginner's luck set in and i won 66 bucks!!! sweet! here's me with my lucky slot.

come to think of it i don't think its legal to take pics in casinos! oh well. no one threw me out. i took my winnings and left, for the first time ever, without losing it all! but then i went shopping and spent it all.

ok so i don't know where this idea came from, but as soon as i saw it, i knew i needed one.



a cooler on wheels?! i. love. this.

anyhow, all in all it was a great time away. just a few days makes a big difference. but now back to the drama of my life. i'll leave you with this shot of my aunt's pool...this guy has the life.

sunday funday

always a big fan of getting out on sundays to do whatever! and this last sunday was no exception. can't remember the last time i went ice skating, but i am going to say it was probably in high school! a friend up here has a large pond outside of his house and these past few weeks have brought cold enough weather to freeze it over...not frozen enough to skate on, but pretty close! we were out walking on it for the most part. so in anticipation of the frozen pond, thought i'd better get back in the groove of skating. after an early morning movie, Bedtime Stories (very cute), we headed to the red bank armory. i am pleased to say, i didn't fall once! in fact, i think i kinda got the hang of it. good times!

The Pros:



Me:

TA-DAHHHHH!!!

new camera. finally some pics up in here! well first of all, happy new year to all! this year's new years was pretty quiet but we enjoyed new year's day immensely. headed down to asbury park and went to the Brick Wall where we had amazing bloody marys and good times with friends. that would be dan trying to shove one of the very same into my mouth! our waitress was clearly on crack, but the bloody marys made up for it!

last night we went out to The Quay in Sea Bright for what was described as a lobster buffet. it included different types of pasta, shrimp cocktail, crab legs and yes, as many lobsters as you could eat. i can't say however, that i am the biggest fan of lobster, so this was mostly for dan. i had shrimp cocktail and this salad...greens with golden raisins, toasted pecans, cucs, tomatoes and that big ol hunk of goat cheese, with a raspberry vinagrette. delicious.


but this place was otherwise all around just ok and isn't making it to my "places to eat" list. the vibe was totally weird. and altho he had three, dan said the lobsters were just ok. i dunno what it was about the place, but def will NOT be headed back. you should have seen the mound of ice they served under my shrimp cocktail. it was ridic. anyhow, can't believe there are still two more days of this weekend!