Yellowstone

A couple of weeks ago Collin had a 4 day weekend. We decided to take a spur of the moment trip up to Yellowstone National Park since neither of us have had a chance to visit there before. I was extremely excited!! We left later on Saturday night so, by the time we got up to West Yellowstone it was around 12 am. We decided to sleep in the trunk of my car since we knew there would be no camp sites open for the night. That was an experience! Collin is so tall I felt so bad he had to be squished in the trunk of my RAV so I kept trying to give him as much space as possible. Needless to say neither of us got much sleep last night. Not to mention we were parked right next to these crazy woods where bears and who knows what else were lurking in. 

When arriving at Yellowstone we quickly had to find a camping spot because the first come first serve spots are in such high demand. We had been waiting for almost two hours for one camp ground to be told we might not even get in. So we went up the road a little ways and found a less populated camp ground. However that campground filled up just an hour or two after we had gotten there. Moral of the story get to the campgrounds extremely early if you don’t have a reservation. 

Yellowstone itself was beautiful. We camped at the Indian Creek camp ground and spent a lot of our days there driving the loop. I wish we had more time to hike and slow down but it was a quick fun trip! I cannot believe the beautiful colors some of those hot springs were radiating!! 

Obviously we saw old faithful. She was not faithful and exploded a few minutes late. I was thinking that Old Faithful would be a bit more epic. It was cool to see one of the larger geysers explode. However, we were able to see the largest exploding geyser in the world smoking. It went off just a couple days before our visit and shoots over 300 ft in the air. So seeing old faithful and knowing that there is a geyser that explodes double the size was blowing my mind

We decided that Yellowstone is America’s most American National Park. People come from all over the world to see this beautiful place!! It’s amazing how Yellowstone is a volcano!! It literally has a certain area that is the crater of this super volcano!!! 

Collin and I both wish we had seen a bear or a wolf. But I guess we will just have to go again. 

I don’t know what it is about little old ladies always wanting to take our picture for us. 


The short hike to the overlook of lower falls was so worth it. It is so crazy how powerful water is! 

Grand prismatic spring had to be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen!! 

Dublin

Truth is, I put off writing this post for the longest time because I don’t want to cope with reality of being home. Or technically, in the middle of homes. We’ve got a lot of changes going on and it’s a bit stressful at the moment, but we just keep moving along. I am also going through the withdrawals of not starting my day with a chocolate croissant and a coffee! 😫

Anyways, we spent the last few days of our trip in Dublin. I think our bodies were just tired of traveling every 2 days that we struggled to want to do much in Dublin. I was blessed to be able to see the Long Room at Trinity College, as well as the Book of Kels. I am planning on going back to school to get a masters in Library Science so seeing all of those old books, lined  floor to ceiling, took my breath away. We also went and saw the Temple Bar, and the spire. We really wanted to go into the Leprechaun museum but things in Dublin are ridiculously expensive. We ate some of the best pasta while we were there. To the point where we went back to the restaurant again the next night because it was so good. Just thinking about it is making me crave it. 🤤 

Obviously we had trouble with getting into our AirBnb...again... I don’t understand why these hosts don’t explain that you have to turn the key a certain way, push down with half your body weight, stand on your head while singing the abc’s to get into the apartment. Our last host didn’t explain the way the door worked even after I asked him if there was anything special we needed to know. So there we were stuck outside our place with no service...yet again. We had to go find WiFi so I could message him for him to tell us that you had to push down on the key in order for it to move. Why he couldn’t have just said that when I asked I have no idea. Regardless, the AirBnb was really nice. One day we will conquer all those doors. 

I’m so grateful we were able to spend all that time in Europe seeing so many different countries. We experienced so many different cultures. We loved our time away and can’t wait to pick our next destination! Until next time Europe!! 😘💕

The Next Chapter

Happy Summer time everyone! Collin and I decided to move down to Ogden for a few months! We are very excited to have a cute little apartment and to be in a new place for a bit. We are so excited to explore Ogden and all the different things we can do down here! It’s also nice knowing that we are that much closer to Salt Lake!! ☺️ We can’t wait to enjoy the summer together!! 

Happy Father’s Day to all those dads out there!!! 💕 

Belfast

I’m not going to lie, the only reason we added Belfast to our travel list was for Game of Thrones purposes. We were not disappointed!!! I booked us a Game of Thrones Tour before we left. So today we spent all day adventuring around the coast of Northern Ireland seeing all these places where GOT was filmed. 80% of GOT was filmed here in Northern Ireland so there are soooo many places and people that are involved in its production. Our tour guide is an extra for GOT as well as for the show Vikings. He was the absolute typical Irishman, expect for the fact that he looked homeless from his contract with HBO stating he cannot cut any part of his hair! His accent was awesome and extremely colorful! 😉 As well as seeing all these different GOT scenes come to life, we also got to see the Giants Causeway. This is a part of the coast that was formed from volcanic rock that pushed itself up and somehow formed these amazing beehive type shaped pillars. 

Anyways, back to game of thrones.... we learned that every one of the actors are complete gentlemen and fantastic. Kit Harrington’s hair (according to our tour guide) smells like peaches. The actor who plays Hodor is a DJ, who now travels the world doing the Rave of Thrones, which is now on my bucket list. Many of the actors came from the streets of Belfast. The woman who plays Mellisandra is a scary beautiful woman. The man who created the Iron Throne is a HUGE lord of the rings fan and put a replica sword of Gandalf into the Iron Throne. Look for it next time you watch and episode! The people of Belfast and Northern Ireland are extremely proud of Game of Thrones. Belfast has the biggest export green screen studio in the world. 

We started out going to this little tiny coastal town where they filmed Arya getting out of the water after she gets stabbed by the waif. Then we went to the caves where Mellisandra gives birth to that demon spawn thing that kills Renly. After that we went to the Iron Islands where we got to dress up in Iron Islands gear. We passed Castle Black. We ate at the Fullerton Arms which is this little pub/bnb where many of the characters stayed while filming Iron Islands scenes. We saw the ruins of Dunluce castle which was the inspiration for Harrenhal. (Fun fact, these ruins are also thought to be the inspiration for Cair Paravel in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicals of Narnia.) (Another fun fact C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast) We also saw Stannis’ camp where Breanne of Tarth fought for a place in the kings guard. And last we saw the dark hedges. A few years ago a huge storm came through Northern Ireland knocking a few of these huge trees from the dark hedges down. The creators of GOT asked to keep the wood from these trees and created these intricate doors that depict scenes from GOT and gave them to different places that helped in GOT production. So the Fullerton Arms has one of these doors which was super cool. 

Northern Ireland is also known for their fabric weaving. So people created this HUGE tapestry depicting all of seasons 1-7 that is on display for free at the Ulster museum. It was so beautiful! 

We absolutely loved nerding out. Even if you don’t watch GOT this tour allows you to see some truly splendid coastal sites that took my breath away! 

Valar Morghulis! Winter is coming! 

Edinburgh

Collin and I got to stay a couple days in Edinburgh! On our way up from London we met some very nice girls our age named Georgia and Georgie! They were so kind to give us suggestions on what to do in Scotland and told us multiple times how lucky we were for the weather we would be having! They were absolutely correct. Although it was windy and got chilly at night the days were nice and sunny! 

Our first day we didn’t have much time since our train arrived later. So we ate some delicious Indian food down the street and proceeded to go to this hole in the wall crazy bar!! I think I found my new favorite drink and I wish I could drink it forever. Jack Daniels, lemon, and Carmel!!!!! YUMMMM!!! Scotland is known for its whiskey so I have no idea why they put Jack in the drink instead of some local whiskey but whatever, it was AMAZING. This bar was literally so nuts! It had all these insane things on the wall, like a toilet seat, a chuckie-cheeze mouse mask, and to top it all off it had all these games you could play! We had so much fun there! 

The next day was our only full day in Edinburgh, so we went up to Arthur’s seat since the weather was good. From the top you can see all of Edinburgh down to the sea and it was so gorgeous. If it wasn’t so dang cold 99% of the year, I’d love to visit for a long period of time, just to wander the country side. But I need sunshine and warmth to cope so props to the natives for being so thick skinned and tuff! One of the girls on the train says it fluctuates at about 30-60 degrees all year long. So we were lucky that it hit the low 60’s while we were there. 

We of course, went to the Elephant House. I was hoping some of JK Rowling’s creative energy would rub off on me, along with other authors. But I’m still waiting for that to kick in. 😉 

We spent a good chunk of time wandering the streets. It was so medieval and magical!! Edinburgh definitely has a lot of history and magic in its streets! Scotland in general is so full of magic and folklore, I understand how it can be such an inspirational place for all these creative people! 

London

We lucked out and experienced some great weather in London! It was perfect for wandering around! 

We arrived at about 930 at night and our AirBnb was a disaster!! The woman running the apartment put the wrong address on the AirBnb site so, when we arrived at what we thought was the right place, was a dark alley with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! Neither of us have any sort of data plan so we had to wander around London at 10 at night trying to find free WiFi to figure out where the heck this apartment was! When we finally got WiFi the woman didn’t even give us instructions to the apartment just sent the SAME picture that was listed in her original listing!! Needless to say I was so stressed and so mad! Finally, we found the apartment. Besides telling us where the key was, the lady had said nothing about which building or how the doors worked or anything. We had to talk to the receptionist about how to get to the building and he was about as mad as I was that she hadn’t explained anything. 

We had a quick trip in London. We saw Phantom of the Opera in the West End. And visited this beautiful bombed out church hidden in downtown London. 

We absolutely loved china town near Piccadilly. There was this amazing buffet and was pretty cheap compared to everything else around. Collin stuffed the container chuck full of Chinese food, to the point where the lid wouldn’t even shut! Also in china town they had these amazing bubble wrap waffles which you could get filled with whatever ice cream and toppings you wanted and oh man, I could have eaten thousands of them. 

When we went to the London Bridge, we were lucky enough to be walking across when they had to lift the bridge for a boat to pass! It was super cool seeing how all that worked! 

We also experienced a United Peace Keeper ceremony, which honored men and women who have died trying to help bring peace to different nations. 

It’s nice being back in an area that speaks English, however, sometimes I don’t believe that it’s even English! I can’t believe we only have a few days left here in Europe! It has gone by way too fast! 

Paris

Ah Paris!! It’s crazy to know that our trip is almost over! I don’t want it to end! We spent a lot of time walking around this beautiful city, enjoying all the sites. We went into the Notre-Dame during a session of Mass.  It was extremely beautiful! I cannot believe that the preacher was able to give a sermon with all the tourists being so disruptive! The Notre-Dame houses one of the most important Catholic relics, the crown of thrones. Once a month they bring this relic out for believers to view. The crown of thrones is encased in a golden case, which apparently was opened back in 1930’s ish where people claim, the branches are still a bit green. It was on display when we were there, which was interesting to see! 

There was a lot of construction going on around Paris, as well as a lot of security. You could not even go under the Effiel Tower without going through security. Since we arrived on a Sunday, a lot of things were closed. And since France is a bit special, Monday a lot of things were closed too. This made things a bit difficult for site seeing! The bread shop across from our AirBnb wasn’t even open until our last day! 

Our bus arrived at 630 in the morning on Sunday. We couldn’t check into our place until 11 so we walked around Paris! It was so beautiful with the sun barely coming up, and very few people on the street. It’s almost like a whole other city!! After taking a nap at our studio we ventured out into Paris again. We both loved just walking around taking in all the surroundings.  Of course we also put a lock on the love bridge! 💕

Monday we went to Versailles! Versailles is one of my all time favorite places. Since it was Monday we could not go into the palace but we could still walk the grounds. So, we rented some bikes and went around the beautiful gardens.  I could spend hours at the palace!! It’s so fun imaginaing how all the old kings and queens would live in such a immense beautiful place.  We decided to follow the example of Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris and walked miles Monday night enjoying Paris nightlife. 

For our last few hours we went to the cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, and Chopin are buried. The cemetery was just a 15 minute walk from our studio. We didn’t have a large amount of time so we couldn’t explore as much as I would have liked, but the graves were amazing! There were a few artists out trying to sketch some of these elaborate graves. 

I’m so grateful I was able to share one of my favorite places with my all time favorite person. La vie est belle! 💕 

Como

Como is an absolute dream. There really isn’t another way to describe it. It is so gorgeous. This massive lake is completely surrounded by mountains that are completely covered in trees! I completely understand why multiple celebrities have homes here. We decided to get on a bus from Como and head to one of the smaller villages. The bus ride was completely insane! The roads are so narrow and so high up the mountain! At one point the bus driver had to slam on his breaks because another car was coming around literally centimeters from the bus. When we got off at our stop it took a long hike to get back down the mountain to the lake. We decided to rent kayaks and go out on the lake for a bit! We loved being out there! Thankfully we decided to get off of the lake when we did because a HUGE storm blew in. The bus only runs every hour so we were stuck in the pouring rain for way longer than what we would have originally wanted! It was a fun adventure regardless. Apparently there are trails that connect all the little cities together, if the bus hadn’t have arrived when it did we were going to start a long strenuous journey either up the mountain or try to hitch hike! 

Again, we have eaten our weight in ice cream, pizza, and pasta. If I only had to eat that for the rest of my life I’d be perfectly content. 💕