Today is a Special Day!

I might be a little biased about it being a special day, but it's my birthday! More specifically it's my 26th birthday!



Sean and I are going out to dinner tonight, but I already have my presents. He got me a much needed external hard drive to store all my pictures on and the 2nd and 3rd season of Big Love. The third season isn't released yet, but I can't wait to watch the 2nd.

Do you guys have any birthday traditions? Growing up my Mom always made me my cake. I always chose strawberry cake as the base of it though. She also always let me plan my birthday dinner. I loved being able to choose what I wanted to eat for my birthday. That's probably a tradition I'll continue with my own children one of these days.

Oh and FYI, I'm planning a giveaway in honor of my birthday, BUT I need to get a few more things for it, so look for that within the week.

Just a Taste

Here's a few pics from the weekend. More should follow in the next couple of days.

Can I just say I think Italy hates us? Let me explain.

Wherever we go in Italy we always have some sort of trouble. Gas strikes, heavy traffic and this weekend? Train strike. We drove, but in Cinque Terre we overheard some people talking about a train strike. No big deal, we thought it started at midnight. Uh no. It started at 9:00 p.m. By some miracle we caught the last train to La Spezia. I'm so glad we did, because when I heard we might be stuck in the the next to farthest town from where we were staying I almost started to cry. No joke.

First up: The cheesy Pisa picture.



Next up is the non-cheesy picture. I was going for the 50's vintage postcard vibe



This was probably the most Tuscan picture I got. I think the best "typical" Tuscan views were south of Siena and we didn't go that far.



I loved the color of this Vespa



Our first seafood platter of the weekend. It may not look like it, but it was delish!



Monterosso (one of the Cinque Terre towns)

Tote Bag Wanted

Does anyone have any good suggestions for tote bags? I'm looking for one that is sturdy, cute and fairly large. It doesn't have to be monogrammed though. I thought about the standard ones from LL Bean, but I want something cuter. I do however, what something the size of the large LL Bean bag.

Any suggestions?

Tour of Tuscany

Originally Sean and I had planned on leaving for Tuscany this morning, but Italy had other plans for us. Currently there is a gas strike going on in Italy and all gas stations have been shut down since Wednesday night. They are not due to open until Friday at 10a.m. We have about 1/2 tank of gas, which in my careful mind is not enough to get to where we want to go and then search for a hotel if need be.

So....we are leaving early tomorrow morning. We plan on staying in Lucca, which is easy striking distance to Pisa and a few of the Tuscan hill towns we plan on visiting tomorrow. Saturday will be Cinque Terre and I'm finally going to get to swim there too!

Early Sunday morning we're going to drive back to Vicenza so I can work. I'm a little disappointed we aren't leaving today as originally planned, but in reality we are only a couple of hours from Tuscany so I figure this will be one of many visits.

Look for cheesy pics of me holding up the Leaning Tower when I get back!

Ciao!

Austria in Pictures

Here are a lot more of the pics I took while on the trip. I still don't have them all edited, but these are some of my faves.



Boomer enjoying the room



The decorations in our bathroom



The random no camping sign down from our hotel. I thought it was kind of random.



I loved the mountains around us. So beautiful!



This was one of the more famous landmarks in Innsbruck, supposedly the emperor used to sit out underneath it and watch the people below.



Kebabs. Sean and I probably had three of these while in Innsbruck. So delish!



One of the pubs we visited.



Sean modeling the local hats



My baked potato with parmesean, tomatoes and rucola.



No joke that this was five minutes later. I was STARVING!



A bar we passed. I thought it's sign looked like the one in the Cocktail movie.



One of the main streets in the historic center



Lamborghini I spotted from our hotel window



I love the style of the churches



Odd display in one of the windows



My amazing Chicken Shai Korma at the Indian restaurant



I showed you guys a pic of this church the other day, but here's a shot of it with my wide angle lens.



This was the beautiful organ in the back of the church



The interior of the church.



More mountains...couldn't get enough of them



My first attempt at a panorma with this camera. It still needs to be tweaked a bit.

Preview Pics

As I am working open to close today I won't have time to edit large amounts of the pics from this weekend, but here's a few that I chose as a quick preview for you guys.



You could see this view from the terrace at our hotel.



There were tons of fountains all over town. This one was my fave.



I believe this is the oldest church in Innsbruck. It was GORGEOUS inside.



Lovely mountain view from Innsbruck



Look at that ski jump! I could never go down that. I know they've had the Olympics in Innsbruck twice, but I'm not sure if this was built for the last Olympics which were in like 76 or if this is newer. At any rate it's awesome!

Anniversary in Austria

Originally Sean and I had planned on staying in Austria for Friday and driving back late Saturday evening, however, as I mentioned in the previous post, we were stupid American tourists and left our car in a garage that was closed all weekend. It turned out fine though, because we really enjoyed the extra days we stayed in Innsbruck.

Once we got to Innsbruck, we checked into our hotel: The Romantik, which I really liked. The first night we stayed there we had a much nicer room then the second and third nights we stayed there. The hotel had an AWESOME breakfast. In Italy, the breakfast consists of coffee and a something like a crossiant. In Austria it was meats, smoked salmon, cheeses, fresh fruit, assorted rolls and breads, cereal, yogurt, juice, champagne, etc. I was in HEAVEN!

Most of the weekend we walked around the old town, looking at the historic places, popping into shops and eating at restaurants. I ate so much this weekend. So much in fact, that it's not even funny. Sushi, Indian food, two or three kebabs, apple struedel....the list goes on and on. Don't worry, I took pictures of all of it so you guys don't feel like you're missing out on anything.

I LOVED Austria! Now don't get me wrong, Italy is a cool place to live, but Austria is awesome. Everyone was so friendly and food was to die for. I loved the mountains too. Breathtaking!

The only thing we didn't do that I was wanting to go see was the Alpenzoo, which is the highest altitude zoo in Europe if not the world.

Overall it was a wonderful place to celebrate Sean's birthday and our anniversary. I highly recommend it.

Look for pics soon!