Cross Fit-Day Two

I left my favorite earrings at the gym. Pissed about that. But the workout killed me again, so that's good. I have to take today off or I really won't be able to move.

Sailing-The Music

There were five of us on Seascape; B and I, the instructor (Tim), and Marilyn and John. Jon pretty well made us crazy. He had to have his hands in everything (literally... would actually be trying to tie MY knot for me.) But we dealt with it well given that we were stuck on Seascape with these people for 7 whole days with little reprieve.

Marilyn was a teenager in the 60's in London. I think that automatically makes her awesome. She had so many stories about seeing the classic bands in tiny little pubs and church basements. She is somewhere around 65 and is the #8 most traveled person in the world for her age and gender. She has been to over 120 countries. I think that's fucking amazing.

Each night we took turns cooking. Whoever was the cook that night got to pick the music. I thought we were bad ass when we played Rodrigo Y Gabriela on my cook night. The next night was Marilyn's turn and she totally schooled me. We listened to some really fantastic music!

Marilyn and I got drunk and danced on the bow of the boat in the moonlight. Sailing is freaking rad.

Cross Fit-Day One

I only worked out for about 15 minutes. When I walked out I thought my legs were going to collapse. I could barely drive because I could barely push the gas and brake pedals. 15 minutes. Pray for me.

Sailing-The Problems

Sailing on a chartered boat (or on your own boat for that matter) is not without it's problems.

The first problem we encountered was the instruments not working. Without these we had no depth sensor, thermometer, and no way of knowing how fast we were going. These problems were fixed in about an hour's time by the guys working at the charter company.

We soon realized that the anchor was going to cause of grief. Obviously an anchor is heavy... and when the motor to pull the anchor in stops working, it becomes manual labor. Bummer.

On about day two I was left alone (the boys were snorkeling) to discover a leak under the kitchen sink. What's one of the first things you do when you find a leak? You taste the water. Yep. You taste it. No idea where it's coming from....could be from the toilet. But you taste it to see if it's salt or fresh. In this case it was fresh (which was good for me since the toilet used salt water.) The instructor came back shortly and showed me how to fix it. I was really glad it happened so that I don't panic if it happens again and I know how to respond.

One day the instructor dropped a winch handle in the ocean. :) We looked for it for hours and then he dove into 20 feet of water to fetch it.

Overall nothing that ended the world. I'll never drop a winch in the ocean though. Especially in February.

Sailing-The Living Quarters

B and I spent a week sailing around the Sea of Cortez this month. We have practiced sailing on our little 13 foot sailboat, but getting the experience on the 42 "Seascape" in Mexico was amazing. It was a week long course that allowed us to get the three certifications needed to be able to charter a boat internationally. It was pretty rad.

The living quarters on the boat were similar to that of a camper. There were two "bedrooms," two bathrooms (heads, if we are using correct lingo), and a kitchen area all below deck. In addition, there's an outdoor shower and grill (the latter of which we used frequently.)

Here's some photos!

Laramie... like going home

I love going back to Laramie. I love coming down the Summit and seeing the mountains for the first time. I love to drive around and see the changes; see the student walking where I once walked. I love going through Frat Mall and past Tri Delta, where I spent four very important years of my life. I love going downtown and getting Coal Creek coffee and reading the table that's been scribbled all over. (Personal favorite: Coffee makes you poop. I'll never grow up.)

Going to Laramie is like going home. Part of my heart will always live there.

Top 5 Dream Jobs

Barry: Holy shite. What the fuck is that?
Dick: It's the new Belle and Sebastian...
Rob: It's a record we've been listening to and enjoying, Barry.
Barry: Well, that's unfortunate, because it sucks ass.

My top 5 dream jobs are as follows:
5. Writer
4. Concert Promoter
3. Photographer-the kind that travel everywhere and sell their photos for copious amounts of money
2. Music Supervisor for a really bad ass TV show
1. Vocal Performer

Tell me again why I spent 4 years of undergrad followed by another 2 years of grad school and copious amounts of money on degrees that afford me desk jobs?

So grow tall, Sugarcane. Eat that soil, drink the rain.

I have been trying to become a runner for about a year. It's a battle. I hate running.
People have said "you will hate it for about 2 months and then you will like it." Or told me to give it time and it gets easier, or even more fun.

Liars. All of them. I still fucking hate running. But... run on.

All I wanna do is grow old with you...

Turns out, I’m probably never going to be a famous performer. I got depressed for a while recently thinking about this. I’m too old to make a go at it, and too busy. Might be that the only performing in my future is at weddings. That’s cool, if I was destined to sing only karaoke and weddings, I can handle it.

Brendon, however, is retiring from wedding performing. After our June wedding that is.

Day 11-The coolest part yet

I really loved Turkey. It was my favorite of all the countries we visited. But visiting Pompeii was the coolest thing we did.

On the drive to Pompeii, Mt Vesuvius comes into view. It's a very strange thing to look at something so magnificent and pretty knowing that it destroyed a once thriving empire.

Since its volcanic soil, the plants and trees are crazy beautiful. It's no wonder that people wanted to live there. We walked around the excavation for a few hours. We saw homes, street signs, beware of dog signs, wine bars, communal areas, and art.

Days 10 and 12 were cruising days. We spent our time relaxing at the pool, drinking and playing cards. We found the helicopter pad, where at night time, it's pitch black and a very unreal feeling to stand on. It was located at the very front of the boat, where you can stand and look at the water and feel the ocean spray and breeze.

On our last day, we toasted to the four of us and being able to spend such a long time together and learning to be better people. I couldn't have asked for anything more out of our trip.

We were excited to get back to Layla, the little bugger. She was happy to have us back too. Every time I go somewhere cool, I come back to Cheyenne a little sad. It always seems to me that it's such a waste that I spent my 20's living in this little city that doesn't have much to offer me. But the feeling always passes once I get back to my friends and our great times. Cheyenne will do... for now. :)

Day 9-Santorini, Whitewashed village and bright blue sea

Santorini is beautiful. Just beautiful. Cruising in, you see tiny white villages with the bright blue roofs and doors on top of cliffs. It's stunning.

First we got off the cruise ship onto a pirate boat. The pirate boat dropped us off on the volcano. Hiking the volcano was a bitch. Really. It felt like it was 240 degrees and there was no shade anywhere. But we hiked it. And the view from the top was amazing.

Next the pirate ship dumped us into the "hot" springs. These so called hot springs were not hot at all. They were quit cold. I was very grateful for this because it was such a necessary reprieve from the unbearable heat we had been in all day.

Then we went to Santorini. There are two ways to get to the city of Santorini from where the boats dock. By gondola, or by donkey. We chose gondola.

Once at the top we ate feta, olives, and gyros at a restaurant that overlooked the islands. It was cool and peaceful and I never wanted to leave.

After lunch we explored Santorini, took some great pictures, ate ice cream, and headed back to the boat. What a great day.

Day 8-Took me by surprise

We went to Kusadasi, Turkey. We shopped, ate (twice), drank, and visited a beach. This is one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The people in Turkey were so nice! It was clean, friendly, and beautiful!

Day 7-Athens by Taxi

Day 5 & 6 were cruising days. That pretty much meant we hung out at the pool, drank too much, and ate too much.

Day 7 we arrived in Athens, where the excursion we had purchased was cancelled. They told us it was due to low attendance, but I’m not convinced it wasn’t because of the rioting taking place the day before.

The taxi drivers in Athens wait at the port and then try to get cruise passengers to take a tour by taxi. We weighed our options and decided this was the best way to see a lot of the city. So off we went with our taxi driver, who spoke very good English and drove like a freaking crazy person.

He took us to a gorgeous place where we could overlook the bay, the sailboats, and the city. From there we went to the Acropolis. It was hotter than hell, again, and after we purchased our tickets they closed the gates. Awesome. So we sad around for about half an hour in the heat watching the line get longer and longer and longer…. Eventually they carried some dude away in handcuffs and started letting people in. I was just a little nervous about being in Athens at this time, even though our taxi driver assured us that there was not likely to be any rioting that day, and the whole episode freaked me out just a little.

After that it felt like a race to the top! People were scrambling to get ahead of the crowd, only to get stuck in another group of people. So there we were, halfway up the Acropolis, and stuck. With a million sweaty people who mostly towered over me so that I couldn’t breathe. We never really figured out what was going on and why no one was moving, but after 45 minutes of not moving we pushed our way back down and left. Sad….

From there we went to the Temple of Zeus, which was pretty awesome. Then we went to the palace and watched the Changing of Guards Ceremony. Then we went to the original stadium for modern day Olympics.

By now we were starving, so the taxi driver took us to a place to get gyros. Best gyro ever! Nothing like what we eat in the US. Same ingredients, but somehow so much better. We then said goodbye to our Taxi driver and to Athens and once again headed for the pool.

I liked Athens. It’s really busy, too busy for me, but I really enjoyed our time there, and that freaking gyro. :) The people in some places were not always very nice to us, but in Athens they were great.

Day 4-Rome-La Dolce Vita

Rome… I won’t be going back to Rome. I don’t mean to start on such a negative note, but Rome might have been my least favorite.

We started by taking a bus to the Colesseum, which was really cool. It was awesome to see it and I got some really great photos. The problem is that at 9 a.m. it was about 110 degrees and 4 other cruise ships were also visiting Rome. Too hot… too many people.

After we left the coliseum we drove to the Vatican. On the way we passed the theatre where Julius Caesar was murdered. That was also pretty interesting to see. It’s in ruins, and is surrounded by stores, pizza joints, and apartments.

I was excited about the Vatican because I thought it was going to be a very spiritual place. Instead, it’s jam packed with people, chincy stores, and trash. The line to get into St. Peter’s Basilica was 2.5 hours in the brutal sun. We couldn’t cut it.

Instead we walked around some of the shops, until we got too hot to bear it and found a nice small restaurant to cool off in. It was here that we had the best meal of my life. No kidding. I can say with confidence it’s the best food I have ever had. We had bruschetta and a caprese salad. Then I had gnocchi and B had lasagna with meatballs. I can’t describe how melt in your mouth tasty it was! It did however, come with a $230 bill. Oouch.

We attempted to walk around for about 2 more hours until it was time to catch our bus, but the heat was so extremely unbearable that we sat in an ice-cream store most of that time.

I would have loved to inside the basilica. I would have loved to walk to the Fountain di Trevi… but I am fairly sure one or more of us would have passed out or had heat stroke. When the time came, we loaded the bus as fast as we could. The pool was calling our names.


The ceiling at St. Peter in Chains Church










St. Peter's Basilica


Moses by Michelangelo

Day 3-Tuscany

Next we made our first stop in Italy to go wine tasting in Tuscany. We could have seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but given how the rest of our touristy things went on this cruise, I think opting for wine tasting was a great choice. We did, however, see the Leaning Tower from afar as we were traveling through the Tuscan countryside.

I regret to say that I didn’t love the wine we tasted. I wasn’t feeling well the morning we left, and the hour long drive didn’t help, so that may have had something to do with it. But of all the wines that we tried, I only really enjoyed one of them. I did, however, become a little tipsy and then decided it was a good idea to bring the yummy bottle of wine back for friends and family. So, fast forward two weeks and I’m packing my luggage for the trip home wondering how to pack 5 bottles of wine in my check in. Fortunately, all bottles made it home safely.

Something I really enjoyed about the wine tasting is that we sat around tables with family style tapas in front of us. This gave us the chance to meet some of the people on our cruise that we never would have talked to otherwise. We met a couple from New Jersey, one from Minnesota, and one from England.


This tiny little village built in a line up the mountain was near our vineyard, and is where Pinocchio was created.