Happy Friday!

Omg, this totally made me laugh today!

Europe 2008--The Highlights!

Paris

Notre Dame

Eiffel Tower

Fall in Paris, beautiful!

At the top of the Eiffel Tower

On to Sicily!

Mondello Beach, Sicily

Mondello Beach

Positano, Italy

Hiking in Positano

The view from our deck!

Adorable Positano (my favorite place of the trip)

Trevi Fountain, Rome

Roman Colosseum

The Roman Forum

St. Peter's Basilica

At the top, in the cupola

St. Peter's Square

Gelato!

Wine tasting in Siena

A market in Tuscany

Siena

Siena

Siena

Cinque Terre

A perfect farewell...

I love to watch Sex & the City when I am laying in bed at night, right before I fall asleep. Last night I turned it on at 10:30 to discover it was the series finale, an episode called "An American Girl in Paris". Thank you TBS! It couldn't have been more fitting for my upcoming travels! (Though I will not be sitting in a fancy hotel room, in a frilly dress, hating it in Paris waiting for Petrovsky to ever come home). Thank you friends, for your emails, comments & well wishes for our trip! I can't wait to explore Europe for the next two weeks!!!

Currently looking out the window at a swamp like area. Not very pretty. Looking foward to the weekend, so I can look at this instead...

image via flyawaycafe

Traveler's Tip!

Traveling internationally soon? Are you addicted to straightening your hair? Have you fried your straightener in the past while traveling abroad and are scared about doing it again? Well, I would answer yes, yes & yes to the above questions. Problem Solved! Via Not Martha I came across the perfect solution, a tiny travel hair straightener made by my same regular straightener (that does not work worldwide). It is a mere 6 inches long, a 1/2 inch wide and has dual voltage for use anywhere in the world. It will pack up quite well in my backpack. Even better news? It's only $25. I trust Babyliss straighteners, they are a dream on your hair. Here is the link on amazon.com. You're welcome.

UPDATE: My travel straightener arrived (in only 3 days!) and it is soooo cute. Not kidding, it fits in the palm of my hand, its about 5 inches long. Cutest little thing ever. Obviously it's not nearly as good as my regular straightener, but it heats up in 60 seconds and does a pretty good job (tested it out this morning)!

New Seattle hot spot: The Aquarium

After attending our friend Erin Coffey's engagement party at the Seattle Aquarium in August, I was really excited to attend Northwest Airlines Worldperks VIP event there last night, since it is such a great party venue! Kris, with extreme "Elite" status on NWA, was invited & asked me to attend with her. We knew there was going to be free drinks, food and trip giveaways...but we had no idea how much fun this night would be! Although we did not win either of the trips to London, we enjoyed endless crabcakes, really yummy meat & cheese platters, incredible chicken skewers and our favorite wine, Pinot Noir!

We also enjoyed some "airline jokes", like the guy walking next to us as we walked with a large mass of people leaving the main room after the drawings: "What does this remind you of? SECURITY!". Only at a Northwest Airlines party... ;)

Kris and I posing in front of the giant fish tank

Okay, funny story. So we had a nice couple who was standing nearby take that photo of Kris and I in front of the tank & we took one of them with their camera...and that was that. Then out of no where appears the older gentleman (pictured above) who offered, "Oh, I can take another one of you guys for you". We said "Oh, okay...sure" & he shot away with my camera (which later I discovered were absolutely terrible photos). The photoshoot continued as he kept instructing Kris and I to "step out 3 feet" as he took them with the flash on, flash off, night setting, etc. As we had just about had enough of the photos, he then proceded to take out his own camera and takes photos of us, to "show us the difference when you use a portrait/night setting rather than just a night setting". I love photography, and by no means consider myself a genius in the field when it comes to cameras, but I was pretty sure my camera was better than his little 5 megapixel point and shoot he was demonstrating on, so I was confused at why he was taking pictures of Kris and I with his own camera. Finally after he snapped probably 10 pictures of us, and we started feeling like the preys of an "Afterschool Special" about to go awry by this total perv. As I was about to put my camera away in my purse he then asked Kris to pose for a "portrait". By this point I was about peeing my pants and took a photo to document this creeper! Kris and I were both laughing so hard I could barely contain myself. After this, he wanted to continue taking more and I finally had to reassure him that we had a keeper and that we would be on our way. Later old man creepster, yikes!

Kris posing in the Jellyfish ring!

We found a station called "What can you do to save the Orcas?" Kris wrote some scientific answer about pollution & chemicals in the ocean, blah blah blah and I just put it flat out Courtney Fuller 7th grade style: "I am going to pray for those Beautiful Giants". They are going to post the best answer in the aquarium. I am SO winning.

Falling into Fall...

Today really feels like fall. My emails now say October, the leaves outside on the trees are starting to change into the most beautiful shades of gold, red & yellow. My car needs the defrost on in the morning and I cannot get enough Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I'm happy to start wearing scarves, and can't wait for the first night it's cold enough to have a fire in the fireplace. SO cozy.

I will probably retract all of the above in about 2 months when I start my "I miss summer" posts.

I took this photo the other day when I was out driving around for work. I am kind of a loser who actually stopped driving and pulled over to take a picture...of a TREE. But I couldn't help it, the sunlight was hitting it perfectly.