New York City

I realize I have gotta way behind on blogging, so I'm going to catch up over the next few days. Last month I went back to the US for a family reunion. My flight from Italy took me into NYC...and it just so happens Brian and Steph live there! :) So I stayed a while! It's funny coming back to the US. Most people I know want to go eat "American" food...but I want to go back to America to eat other countries foods...just no more Italian please.

One of the first things I wanted to do was go to a Korean BBQ place. I know for all my friends from Korea this may be strange, but after you've been gone a while, you actually do miss that food...even the kimchi:) So here is a shot of me at the Korean place. The food was amazingly authentic. They had the exact same spicy tofu soup, and egg soup as we had in Korea and they even cut the meat with scissor and had tiny cups for the water. It was great! Oh, and we walked there in the rain, so that's why I'm looking a little like a mess:)



We also took one night and went to a Yankee's game. You can do everything in NYC on the train, it was great. Brian met us straight from work and we had great seats. Here's Brian and Steph before the start of the game.



That tall building on the left is Brian's office building. I just think it's cool that he works in Manhattan.



We also had to stop at Steph's favorite gelato place (Grom's)...and I needed a little taste of Italy:) We have a family friend (Mr Rob) who we would always go get snow cones with when we were kids. The snow cone place hat tons of fun flavors, but Mr Rob would always get grape. Nothing new, nothing crazy, just grape! Well, Mom and Dad went to see them the week before coming to NY and they went to get snow cones again. Mr Rob took his picture in front of the menu there pointing at his flavor choice...grape...even 20 years later. So, we took this photo and sent it to him. The favor of the month at Grom's was "Ricotta and Mandrole"...I don't even know what that is, but it's surely not as exciting as grape:)



We took one day and just walked around the city. This was an interesting spot in Riverside park. There are soccer fields and baseball fields along the river. I guess it's not really that interesting, but I just can't imaging growing up there...I feel like all those kids are just going to be cool...just for growing up riding the subway and going to theater. They probably don't even do that, but in my mind they do:)



It was great to see Brian and Steph, and finally see where they live.

Cherry Picking

Another Italian adventure thanks to our friend Giorgio. Yesterday Giorgio took Kevin and I to get cherries from his friend Mario's cherry trees. It was just this guys house, with two trees, but he and his wife could never eat all the cherries, so they told Giorgio to come pick them. Giorgio is 70 years old, so he took Kevin and I to get on the ladder...and as thanks, we got half of what we picked. I'm pretty sure we got about 20 pounds of cherries, and then we split them in half, so Kevin and I got about 10 pounds!

Here are some photos of the picking at Mario's house.


Kevin up the ladder while Giorgio gets the lower ones. Mario makes his own honey too, those colorful boxes are bee hives...I'm hoping we will get some in September! (I'm told that's when the honey is good...who knew)


The view of the valley from Mario's house.


Look at all those cherries!! This is about half of what we got!!


Still hard at work.


This is on the opposite side of Mario's property. This is not his land, but it's just so amazingly Italian we had to take a picture of it.

There was no way we could eat all those cherries without getting sick, so I decided I would make cherry preserves. I've never actually done that, so I just googled it and went for it. Turns out it's really easy! The worst part was pitting the cherries, and that's only because I couldn't find a cherry pitter here. I got five 16oz jars of preserves, and we still have half the bucket full of cherries!! The preserves are still cooling, so I haven't tasked it yet, but straight out of the pot it was great! Here's the process...


Here's the bucket we started with.


Then I had to pit them all. I couldn't find a cherry pitter, so I just had to cut them all in half and pull the pit out...as you can see, it was a very messy process.



Then I had to boil and steralize all the jars and lids and put the preserves in. I make two batches and I still have half a bucket of cherries. I think I'm going to have to take them into work and give them away, or else they are going to go bad!

Another great Italian moment...thanks to Giorgio!

Giro di Italia

This morning Kevin and I had the chance to watch the Giro di Italia! This is basically the Tour di France of Italy. It is a 22 day race and the riders go about 200km each day...it's crazy! Today was day 15 and the riders had to go into the mountains. They road rights past our town and then up the main road to Piancavallo. They then continued into the Dolomites and ended near Belluno. Kevin and I decided to get a stop in one of the switchbacks on the road up to Piancavallo. It was such a festival:) There were people everywhere, and I love Italy because I would say over half of them road up to watch the race! We hung out for about an hour before the riders got there (but they close the road early so we had to get our spot).

Some of the coolest things were seeing all the team cars with the spare bikes on top. The bikes are super nice, and cost way more than the car they are riding on, which is funny:) We had a great time, we really felt like we were taking advantage of Italy today! Here are some shots of the racers passing us. They were going about 20mph up this road...it was crazy!

Here is our spot, waiting for the racers:)




This is a shot over the side of the mountain, you can see the team cars coming up the road past our town.


This guys was awesome! As I said, most people road their bikes up to watch the race...well he didn't want to get tan lines, so this guys hiked up those spandex shorts and rocked it all day!


And finally the racers came through!

Paragliding

There is a group of Italians that go paragliding from Piancavallo. Some of our friends have joined the group and had their first big flight the other day. I did not fly, I just took the photos, but it was still a great time seeing them all launch. Kevin and I are thinking about trying it out...we'll see, we already have too many hobbies and not enough weekends! Here are some shots of the guys launching.

Family Reunion in Venice

We were lucky enough to meet up with Brian and Courtney for a day in Venice. They were on a week long tour of Italy, and sadly didn't have enough vacation time to hang out with us longer. We met up and saw the sites of Venice, and also took in Murano. After a week long trip in Italy they were happy to just hang out at a cafe and have a glass of Italian wine. I also got to introduce them to the Italian Spritz (my favorite summer cocktail).




I wish we had more time with them, they are such a fun couple...not to mention part of our family!

"Best Idea Ever"

I have a great friend here in Italy named Larissa. She is my running buddy, and a great friend I know I can talk to about anything. Well, this past Sunday we went out to dinner for her Birthday. At dinner I asked her what we should do Monday (her actual birthday) and she suggested we go on a run. That was normal, we went on a run on my birthday a few weeks ago, so I said sure, where should we go? Her answer almost made me fall off the chair. She says "well I know we've been talking about it, so I say we just do it...let's run to Piancavallo" WHAT?? First of all, WE have never talked about it! Piancavallo is a 30-45 minute drive UP the mountain, there is no way we are going to make it! But, it was her 30th birthday wish...what is a friend to do?

So, Monday morning we start out on the back road (we had intel that it was not as steep as the main road). Well, as soon as we lock the car and get going up some very steep terrain it starts to pour down rain! It is not super warm, probably in the 60s, and we are in shorts and long sleaves...we are now soaked and freezing...and the hill is so steep we can only run about 30 ft at a time. We huddle under a tree for a few minutes, and have the first of a series of discussions that could have lead to us freezing to death. We conclude that we are already wet, so we might as well push up to the church and reassess. At the church, I feel my heart might explode and it's still raining...so the only logical choice was to keep going. The road did level out a lot and we were able to push about 3 more miles uphill. At this point we were feeling really good. We decided that this was not going to be impossible afterall. But, we were not prepared to push on that day. We needed more water, and more food if we were going to get all the way to the top.

Yesterday (Thursday) we went for it again. We pushed all the way up to the antennas. For those who don't know Aviano that was 9 miles up hill, with an elevation gain of about 3,000ft. We then went down the main road (more direct, but steeper) and got back to the base 6.5 miles later. It was not fast, it was not pretty, but we finished it and it was awesome. The entire run, as things got really ugly, Larissa kept reminding me that this was the "best idea ever"...best idea ever:)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/83673803

We did not bring a camera, but here is the link from my GPS watch...we had to prove we actually did it!

Buona Pasqua!

Happy Easter everyone:) Well, I'm a day late, but in Italy the Holiday is celebrated on the Monday...so today! We have a great Italian friend named Giorgio...anyone who has come to visit knows him well. For those who haven't, he is in his 70s and speaks NO english at all! I speak very little Italian, but understand a lot, so I can usually put together enough words to limp through conversation. Today however, I did not have the skills:)

Giorgio is very hard to talk to over the phone. When he is with you, you can use his facial expressions, hand gestures etc to figure out what he is talking about, and over the phone you don't have that. Also, being in his 70s, he's not very technologically savy...so he has a tendency to yell into the phone...which makes it muffled and hard to understand. I try to avoid to phone with Giorgio if I can, but sometimes it's not possible.

He came over the other day and invited Kevin and me to eat Easter lunch with his family today. I gladly excepted, but Kevin had to work, so I would be going solo. Well, this morning, I went on a run with the girls. Giorgio had said to meet at his house at 12 and we would drive out to his other house (in the country) and have lunch with his family. I was literally running when my phone rang (I had it in the little pocket of my shorts). I saw it was Giorgio so I answered it, thinking there would be some kind of change to the plans for the day. He just wanted to confirm I was still coming, which I said I was and I would be at his house at 1200. About 10 minutes later he calls again...I am still running... He asks to meet at "undici e mezzo". Well, I am totally out of breath and trying to keep up with the girls who are still running, so I say "si, si, no problema" and I hang up. I finish my run (7 miles by the way) at around 1100 and head home. I get home around 1130 and check my email, thinking I have until 130 to meet Giorgio...well at 1140 he calls to ask where I am. It occurs to me then (an only then) that undici e mezzo means 1130!! NOT 1:30!! I am totally late, and I smell awful from the run!

So, I tell him I'm so sorry, and I will be there in 10 minutes. I run upstairs and take the fastest shower of my life and start drying my hair. I get my hair mostly dry, throw on some clothes and run downstairs. As I'm putting my shoes on, Giorgio rings my doorbell. He says it's no problem and we head out to meet his family...I officially got totally ready in 16 minutes!!

Lunch was fabulous and huge! I love hanging out with Giorgio's family, we are very lucky to have Italian friends to teach us about the culture and feed us awesome food:) I ran out so fast I didn't have time to grab the camera, so there are not photos of our Easter, but it was still great!

Spring in Italia

It is possible I am the worst blogger ever. It has been forever, but I guess that's just because I feel like there hasn't really been anything exciting going on. We have just been hanging out enjoying the wonderful spring weather, taking walks around the neighborhood and exploring the mountains. Here are some photos from the past few weeks.

The first one is our favorite neighbor:) This goat is on my running loop, and he is always standing up on these rocks. He climbs down and head butts the fence if you stop and try to talk to him:)



This is on an evening stroll Kevin and I took around our house. This old church was built in the 1400s. It one of my favorite things.



Bo is also enjoying the warmer weather. He and Rocky are getting along much better, I think the winter just made them both stir crazy in the house.



This is a flower on a shrub in our front yard. I think it's a tulip magnolia, but I'm not really sure. I love the colors!



One weekend we took as hike up at Lake Barcis. It was still a little chilly that day, and we thought it might rain on us, but there was some cool mist over the lake, and there were lots of wild flowers on the trail (though none of my photos of them came out that great).



This is the plum tree in our front yard. This was a few weeks ago, the flowers are all gone now, and it is totally covered with leaves, but when it was blooming it was COVERED in bees! It was so cool, and it smelled amazing!



I was trying to get Rocky to smell the flowers too, but I'm not sure he gets it:)



Yesterday we took a hike up into Dardago and went rock climbing with some friends from the squadron. The weather was great, and we had a much bigger group show up than we usually do, so it was fun to spend the day outdoors!



So, while I don't really have anything particularly exciting going on, we have been enjoying a beautiful Italian spring:)

My first macro photographs...and learning to edit them

Now that we have a nice new camera, I feel it is my duty to learn to use it. I signed up for photography classes at the base arts and crafts center, and last week was the class on macro photography. For those who don't know, macro is taking very close up photos, usually of totally normal things. It's very strange how you start to look at the world in an entirely new way even after just a few days of focusing on macro photos.

Sunday the weather here was gorgeous...you can feel spring trying to sneak in, but it just can't quit make it yet. To enjoy the sunny weather I went out into the front yard and starting messing around with the camera looking for macro subject matter...and here is what I came up with.

We have a pear tree in the front yard that is just starting to get buds. There was one bud that had already bloomed into a flower. It was random because it was just this single bud growing straight out of the trunk. Here is the original photo...




The I played with it in photoshop and got these two...






Nothing spectacular, but it was really fun to manipulate them, and I think they look pretty good:)

Then I found this random shell in our yard. We are nowhere near the ocean, but for some reason there are little shells all over our yard. I have this theory that the kids that lived in the house before us had some shell collection that just migrated outside at some point...I have no other explanation for it. So here is the original shot of the shell sitting on one of the big rocks in the yard...



And then the photoshopped version. This one looks a little grainy to me, but I think I just compressed it too far to download to the blog because it doesn't look like that on the original.



And just for fun, here's Bo caught mid yawn...he looks like a ferocious beast:)...well maybe not...

Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii

Over the past few weeks Kevin has been doing so much work that we new he couldn't hold out much longer...he needed a serious vacation! So, when the Naylor's told us they were going to Sorrento and Pompeii to celebrate their son Ray-Ray's 7th birthday we jumped at the chance to join them. We had a three day weekend, so it was easy to hope a cheap flight down to Naples. From Naples we took the train to Sorrento were we stayed in a great hotel. From Sorrento we took day trips to the Island of Capri and to Pompeii. From our hotel we walked down to the port Saturday morning to catch a boat out to Capri for the day. It was only about a 5 minute walk, but there were some great views from the rocky cliffs out over the port. Here is the view on the way down.



We had about 40 minutes until our boat left, so we had time to wonder around the port and check it out...and play with our new camera! Here is a shot of a boat that was tethered out out in the port. You can see how high the cliffs were where the main town of Sorrento is situated. There were these cool umbrella trees that Kevin really liked, so he got one in this picture:)



There was a small beach near the port and this was one of the old buildings there. It's amazing how things in Italy look old and cool when anywhere else they would just look junky. I'm sure in the summer this place is packed with people, but we were the only ones on the beach, and the boats were all pulled up onto the beach.



This is the other side of the port. We will be taking the boat out this way to get to Capri. It was about a 30 minute boat ride out to the island.



This is not the boat we took out to Capri, but I just liked the way the shadows fell across the ropes, and the colors...I don't know, I just liked it and I think it turned out pretty cool.



When we got to Capri we took a tiny little orange bus up a crazy windy road to the town of Capri. From there we hiked up to the west side of the island. This is a view from that walk. On this side of the island is a natural stone archway and some ancient ruins called Villa Jovis.



There are lemon and orange trees literally everywhere in Sorrento and also on Capri. It makes the area smell amazing, so I took some photos of the lemons growing over the wall of a Villa along the route up to the ruins.



This is the path out to the arch. There are houses all along this route, and the people can't drive cars up there are all. There were tons of locals with their little pull carts of grocceries walking up hill...and we wonder why Americans are overweight!



We made it to the arch, and it was awesome. It was so huge it was hard to capture in a photograph. When you look over the rail it's about 800 feet down to the ocean which is bright blue and amazing!



After a day of hiking we took the boat back to Sorrento for dinner with friends. This is the coast of Capri from the boat. Our friends the Naylor's (and their kids) and the Hudson's (and their kids) all made the trip down. They took a later flight, so we meet up when they got there Saturday night.



After dinner we all walked back to the hotel so the kids could watch a movie/sleep and the adults could sit out on the porch and drink some local wine! Corby's son Gavin and Janna's daughter Olivia have a budding romance. They would not be separated the entire trip, it was so cute! We will be using these photos as blackmail for them later in life I'm sure:)



The next morning we all got up and took the train over to Pompeii. Ray-Ray (who is turning 7 and is probably the smartest kid I know) wanted to see the ruined city before they leave Italy in a few months. Gavin and Olivia did some coloring on the train on the way there.



When Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD it totally covered the ancient city of Pompeii. From the time it erupted the people of Pompeii only had about 10 minutes before their entire city was covered in volcanic ash. As a result it killed 2,000 people, most of them were preserved in the ash exactly how they died. Some were hiding under things, or just laying down covering their heads from the falling ash. When they found the city 1600-ish years later they found voids in the ash. The people's bodies had decomposed leaving a mold of themselves in the ash. The excavators filled these voids with plaster and got exact molds of what the people of the ancient city looked like. Well, Ray-Ray knew this story (he's mega smart like I said) so Kevin told the boys that anytime though out the day when he said "Pompeii Pose" they had to freeze and strike a pose like one of the casts of the corpses. Yes, it's a little morbid, but it was a fun game. Here they are in their Pompeii pose before we went through the main gate. Olivia isn't too sure about this game:)



Inside the walls of the city there are huge areas. Some are residential, there are restaurants, bakeries, government buildings etc. This was the main city square where they would have done government business and had markets. That is Mt Vesuvius in the background. If you can see the two peaks (on the right and left) with the crater in the middle, then draw a triangle up from those two points. That is how large the mountain was prior to the eruption. It just shows how huge the eruption was and how much earth was moved and covered Pompeii.



Here's me and Gavin:) He was my buddy this day. He's sitting on top of one of the broken columns that surround the main piazza.



This is one of the ancient bakeries in Pompeii. They had huge stone funnel things (we're sitting in front of one) that they would put the whole wheat into. There would have been long wooded poles coming out from the stone and they would turn in to grind the wheat into flower. They would then make bread and bake it in the ovens (to the left of the photo).



This is in the courtyard of the largest house in Pompeii. The house took up a whole city block and had 40 rooms!



The people of Pompeii did some amazing things! They new that sanitation was important, so they would clean the streets when they got dirty. They had running water in the homes and businesses (with lead pipes and everything). So, when the streets got dirty they would flood them with sea water and wash away the nastiness. Well, while the streets were flooded they thought of making these stepping stones so you could still cross the street without getting wet! Olivia is showing us how it's done. They were also a standard distance apart so that all the chariots in the city could be able to drive through them without a problem...these people were crazy smart!



Most people did not cook in their homes. They went for ancient take out! This is one of the old fast food places. You can see the round areas were they would put the pots of food, and it even had a place underneath that would have a fire to keep it all warm. People would just walk up, order what they wanted and take it with them!



Just another shot in the main piazza.



We were in Pompeii all day, there is so much to see! Eventually we all took the train back to Sorrento...here is a look at the entire group. We were kind of a circus, but we had such a great time!! It was so fun to go with this group of amazing people!



We got back to Sorrento in time for a nice evening gelato and stroll. We stopped at a hotel on the coast that had a great balcony to take some photos at sunset.





The next morning we only had half a day. We had to get back to Naples and catch our flight, so we decided to stay in Sorrento and explore the town. We had stayed there the past two nights, but had left all day to see other sites. So, we walked back down to the port area, and just took the road that went up the coast. It's a great city! There was a rain shower while we were in a cafe, so we got this great shot of some of the lemons after the rain.






It was a great trip and a much needed vacation for Kevin!