Rome

Months and months ago, I went through all of my Rome pictures and selected the ones I liked best. These photos have been sitting (bookmarked) for a very long time.

No longer!

I feel a little guilty like maybe these photos think I don't love them anymore. 

So here are a bunch of pictures mostly of the Colosseum (..from June 2013. Eep.)

So the thing about Rome in late June is.. it's really hot with 1000% humidity. Especially when by comparison, I have been living in places my entire life where the high in the summer is 85 with a light breeze. HOT. So if we look hot, tired, and overall pretty grumpy in these pictures, it's really because we are. 

We had a tour of the Colosseum at about 1:00 (underground, thank goodness) so we headed to the Roman forum first thing. Our cruise ship was docked on the coast in Civitvecchia which was an hour train ride away, so I think we ended up in Rome at about 10:00.

It's still really hot in Rome at 10.

We had been to Rome the year before and had already toured the Forum. But the ticket was included with the Colosseum tour and it's right across the street, so we figured why not? I'm glad we did because different parts of the forum were open this time (and some of the parts we saw last time were closed). Seeing anything in Rome is difficult when there are only about 10 hours scheduled in your cruise stop, so I was very glad we had already been and were accustomed to the train system, etc. (validate your train ticket, people!). 

After we sweated our way around the Forum (seriously, the next time we go to Italy, we're going in the fall. Holy humidity, batman!), we headed up the street to find some lunch. We ordered a pizza for five euro and found some shady steps to sit and enjoy our favorite part of Italian culture. Foooood.

Then, off to the Colosseum!

We took the special underground tour of the Colosseum which included access to the lower level tunnels, the rebuilt main floor, and the third level on the very top. A normal ticket only includes the first and second floors. I was somehow under the impression that we were going to be able to walk through the uncovered tunnels in the middle, but I was sorely disappointed. I kept waiting and waiting for the guide to take the ropes down, but she never did. It was still cool though! The tunnels we did get to walk through were very dark. The whole time we were down there, I couldn't help but think how black (and scary!) it would have been when the whole bottom level was covered up and there were no electric lights or big open spaces.

 

All of those people up there were wondering how did they get down there and why are those people so special? I know because that's what I was thinking when we did our ordinary tour the first time.

 

 

The top level was breezy and had wonderful views of the Forum and an even better view of the entire Colosseum. If you ever get a chance to visit Rome, I would definitely recommend booking the more extensive tour. It's not much more than a normal ticket and you get to feel like a VIP going up blocked staircases and things.

P.S. Fun fact: do you see all those holes in the upper right corner? Those are the most apparent ones in this photo, but they're actually all over the entire Colosseum. Those are the spaces left over from where people stole building material and metals. I know.

After our Colosseum adventure, we headed on over to the Appian Way which is one of the oldest roads in Rome. It took us a while to find the part where the traffic-y part ended and the ancient part started, but we had a nice little stroll to end our afternoon.

Here are some things we saw along the road!

 

I would not recommend traversing the Appian Way on foot unless you have an entire day to spare. It's a long walk and the scenery is kind of spread out. There were a lot of people who were much smarter than us on bikes. Next time.

So, once we were too exhausted to continue on, we found a taxi to take us back to the city. And then back on the train we went to the port.. where we bought ourselves another pizza.

Next stop: Genoa!

P.S. to see more pictures from this adventure:

Valencia

Palma de Mallorca

Barcelona 1and 2

Happy Valentine's Day! Love, Pendleton

Pendleton and I wish you a very happy Valentine's Day!

The New Pup

There's a new puppy around here.

His name is Jasper and he tries his best to be a good pup. 

He's a pretty good model when he's a little sleepy but the rest of the time he's a blur.

I'm more than a little obsessed with this tiny baby. Except he's not so tiny because he weighs 17 pounds at 10 weeks. He's a German Shepherd/Border Collie mix and he's perfectly fuzzy, as you can see. He feels like the softest stuffed animal.

Jasper enjoys his daily carrots and apples in the mornings while we juice our breakfast and practice his sitting skills. He's not especially fond of rain, but does enjoy a good mud patch to dig around in. And he likes to eat fir branches (is that bad?).

We've (and by we, I mean my parents) only had him for about a week and a half, but he's probably the smartest puppy I've ever met. He's almost completely potty-trained and he figured out how to get out of his kennel. Have I mentioned he's only 10 weeks old?

I just want to cuddle him all the time.

The Grand Canyon

So, we left England two months ago and I kiiind of feel like it was actually last week. Not much has happened except for Christmas and my sister's engagement and our road trip and an extra lot of sitting around the house waiting for people to call me back and offer me a job.

I had plans to go back to school this month, but I think we all know how well my plans have been working out lately.

So we put that part on hold, and now we live with my parents.

We keep telling anybody who asks that we're staying here forever. I don't know why people keep chuckling when I say that. No rent, free wifi. We've got it made.

Living here has made me really lazy about editing photos. I don't know what it is (no responsibility maybe?) but I've had absolutely no desire to edit anything and, if we're being honest, I probably wouldn't have even edited Megan's engagement photos except that she begged and pleaded with me and who says no to a newly engaged little sister? I still really have a ton of pictures from last year left to sort through (an overwhelming amount) and I'm trying to make an effort to get them up on here so that at least I can go back and look at them. I do this fairly often, really, and it's mostly the reason I even post these silly blogs (also for you, Mom). 

Any time I ask my mom if she wants to look at some of my pictures, she says, oh, that's okay, I'll just look at them when you post them on your blog. Thanks, Mom.

Here are some pictures from last month when we went to the Grand Canyon.

We saw some elk!

Forrest had to pretend to lose his balance.

 

We really loved coming here in the winter. I had been to the North Rim a looong time ago in the summer when I was 13. All I remember was that it was boiling hot and there were too many people around and it was really dusty. 

This could not have been a more opposite experience. We came up the South Rim this time and there was snow everywhere and people almost nowhere. It was Forrest's first time at the Grand Canyon and basically my first time because who appreciates natural wonders when you're 13? I had forgotten how colorful it is.

We stopped and listened,  you know, really listened to hear the Colorado raging down below. We spent all day there and it was such a beautiful day. Not in it's a beautiful day because the sun is shining type of day. I mean it was, but it was more beautiful because of who I was with. 

Do you ever just have moments in your life when you think to yourself this moment right here, it's beautiful and I want to keep this in my mind forever. I have those moments quite often. It makes my heart swell and it makes me stop and remember how magical my life really is. I mean, it's not perfect, but when I take a minute to reflect, it sometimes seems like it is.

And we saw an angry deer. He had unfortunate eyebrows and he was shaking his antlers at us.

 

This one's my favorite.