Way up North

this is love: a few days after surgery

Why would you want to spend your official honeymoon in Minnesota you ask? Well my husband was donating a kidney to his father 11 days after our wedding. What a wonderful man I have chosen. Some background here, in the fall of 2009 my husband found out that he was finally going to be able to help his dad by donating a kidney. And before this was going to happen he said he wanted to get married just in case the worst happened (which has never happened at the Mayo Clinic by the way). 

So after our May 2010 wedding we headed to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for the operation. What a nice little town! We enjoyed all the sights they had there and once his dad was feeling up to it we took a trip to La Cross, Wisconsin where we took a ride on the mighty Mississippi! This ride was a big deal for me; I got to see Bald Eagles in their natural habitat! I had never seen them in the wild before! It was quite nice, we packed a picnic lunch and then found a homemade ice cream shop with homemade everything…even soda (not as good as coca cola). Had lunch and desert on the Mississippi and watched the barges and tug boats go by. And on the drive back to MN I had to drive in this awful storm, honestly some of the most intense driving I have ever had to drive through. While we were there we stayed at The Gift of Life House where you have to be either donating or receiving to stay there. What a place to recover! So peaceful and clean and for only $25 a night. We left about a week after surgery, I was so glad to be home and have my little Lola (dog) back home with us too!

my eagle!

Another Alien on Broadway

Ah….NYC! One of my study abroad mates was doing a semester internship at company in NYC.  So naturally Amanda and I had to plan a trip! The perfect time to go? Labor Day (2009) weekend and Amanda’s birthday. So we book the flights and to save some money we stay at a hostel. Charlotte had taken an internship in the city so we planned a little trip, Lene decided to start her American vacation then too! We got there and made it to our hostel, settled in and headed to Charlotte’s work to have some lunch and wonder around the city (she didn’t get off till later). So we went to Central Park and walked around there a lot and took little breaks to enjoy the view. We thought about going into the zoo but we are glad we didn’t because you know they had in there…cows and horses…we see that stuff all the time here in Texas, not impressed New York. We met up with Charlotte and went to Time Square to see the night life. We went to a hotel that had a spinning restaurant on top so we could see the entire city. We had some drinks and snacks before heading back.

The next day we went to Rockefeller Plaza to go to the “Top of the Rock”, Lene couldn’t come because she was sick (maybe a little hung over but she ended up getting really sick). We walked down to Wall Street and Ground Zero, walked to the harbor to see the view of the Statue of Liberty, and then we took the subway to Hoboken, New Jersey. Hoboken is the home of Carlo’s Bakery (TLC’s Cake Boss) OMG their treats were so good! We each got a little box of goodies and sat outside on a bench to enjoy our treats. We headed back to the city that never sleeps and got ready for dinner. We went to this super cute Norwegian inspired restaurant in SoHo and Lene came too even though she was feeling under the weather. YUM!

And then….we go out on the town! We are literally walking the streets looking for an acceptable bar for us to go to and we run into some guys from Flushing, Queens (yes, like in The Nanny haha). They take us to a club which costs $20 for us to get in, at a discount *rolling my eyes* whatever, discount my ass. Anyway, we go in there and they are buying us drinks and shots but all I do is sit and text my boyfriend at home (you know you’re in love when you’re in a NYC night club and all you do is text your bf :) *romantic sigh*). Amanda ends up making out with one of these guys and gets his number….unfortunately we need to head home because…well someone had a little too much fun. 

We are getting into a cab some other guys start hitting on us and we turn them down so they decide to call us hookers and open the cab door! HOLY SHIT!!!! SO the taxi driver gets out and gets them away and locks our doors and takes us back to our hostel…crazy night!

Sunday night we don’t really have any plans so we walk to Charlotte’s new apartment for the fall and walk around the park some more and walk into the National Museum of History (Night at the Museum).  Grab some lunch and head back to change for dinner. We had planned to go to Serendipity’s for dinner but nobody wanted to leave super early and the line was 2hrs long so we went to this Italian place across the street. Then we went to Dylan’s Candy Bar and had some ice cream and candies. Charlotte, Lene and I decided that we just wanted to stay in tonight since we had a flight back to Houston and Charlotte was moving into her new place; so I bought some magazines on the way home for us to read and gossip about. 

Bon Voyage New York! 

The end of a Roman Holiday

On the drive back to Rome we make a quick stop in Siena for some lunch and to take in some sights. We didn’t venture too far b/c we were only there for an hour or so. I do remember that our meeting point was right next to a mental health facility and I wasn’t too comfortable with that, LOL. This was also the place where we walked into a bathroom to find a toilet and chair! Just in case you need moral support or something??? Then we were back on the bus headed for Rome.

goodbye Rome! goodbye Italy!

We stayed closer the airport this time but drove back into the city for our arrivederci dinner and wine. It was full of fun and laughter. It was also New Years Eve! All of us “younger” people (the 20 somethings) wanted to go back into Rome to a club but since we all had to be at the airport very early to catch our flights and the taxi ride alone was going to cost 50€ a person it was just too much…so we partied in the hotel. And boy did we party :) 

Welcome 2009!

airport...woot!

We didn’t get much sleep but we made it to the airport with PLENTY of spare time and I needed some crackers (I wasn't feeling too good) but we couldn’t find any. So Ashley found me some cookies that read ‘digestive’ I was like, “what the hell?” lol but it was the only thing she could find so I had that and some water.

We got on the plane and headed home to Houston! We met her parents at the airport and hit the closet Whataburger and then made the drive back to Spring Branch/Bulverde….ah what memories!

yum!