We made it through our summer apart. Ray kicked trash as a pest control sales rep, and I... didn't pull
all my hair out from complete boredom.
I spent July and August working like crazy, and then catching up on my favorite TV shows when I got home late at night. Once Upon A Time, anyone?
In August, I did make one final trip by my lonesome. My best friend was travelling through Switzerland and Italy, so I booked a ticket and met up with her and her travel companions in Rome for 3 days. It was everything a trip should be: fun friends, delicious food, laid back, sunny weather, and amazing sights.
On my first night in Rome, we went to a woman's house that I had connected with on the site EatWith.com. It's probably my new favorite travel site. You enter your destination, and it provides you with locals who have opened their homes to you to provide a home cooked, authentically local meal. The event that Barbara held was a market tour, cooking class, and dinner all in one. I did the market tour solo as my friend's train arrived several hours after my flight. But in the evening we went to her adorable, eclectic, thoroughly Italian home where we met fellow travelers and made and ate delicious dishes like putanesca, stuffed tomatoes, gnocchi and orange chicken.
On day two we went to the Colosseum and then explored the Roman forum. We went to the Parthenon, Trevi Fountain (which was sadly drained and covered in scaffolding), and the Spanish Steps. Pretty much any big landmark in Rome we did this day except the Vatican, we saved that for day three.
We started day three by sleeping in (yay!) and then walking just a couple of blocks to the Santa Maria della Vittoria church where we saw the Bernini statue, the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. We then took the metro out to the Vatican. We explored the plaza area in front of the Basilica, but did not wait the hour plus in the heat to get inside. My friend and I had both been in years past, so we didn't feel too sad not going on again. Instead we walked through the city finding some amazing gelato to snack on. I think I'm convinced that the point of any trip to Italy should just be to eat yourself silly. We laughed hysterically as our gelato melted down our hands from atop its precarious tower of goodness on a cone. For our last evening we went to a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves where we had some out of this world bruschetta, followed by the most amazing brick oven pizza I've ever had.
It ended all too soon as I took the bus to the airport the next morning at 0600. This trip was so fun, and perfectly timed. The perfect crossroads with my bestie, and the perfect distraction with only two weeks before Ray was supposed to come home.
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| Appetizers at Barbara's |
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| Making gnocchi |
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| The Parthenon |
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| Inside the Parthenon |
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| Sitting on the Spanish Steps |
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| Bernini |
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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| I got pear gelato which lived up to the 11 years I've been dreaming of having it again. |
Ray also of course had a plethora of stories to tell from his summer. You don't knock doors all day every day and not meet some characters along the way. Like for instance...
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| ... the man who does voice over work (think Reptar and Aquaman) and had a home full of vintage Disney paraphernalia. Including an actual Mr. Toad's Wild Ride car from the ride. |
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| Ray informs me this is called a "Fat Burger." The challenge is to eat the whole thing. No time limit, you just have to eat it. Ray, being the bottomless pit he is, did. |
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| Here is Ray and his younger brother. They went to Carlsbad to visit their childhood memories like square ice cream scoops from Thrifty's, which is now a Rite-Aid still selling the same ice cream. When I came to visit Ray took me here so I could enjoy some ice cream too. |
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| Here we are on our 3rd wedding anniversary about to go have dinner at Mastro's Ocean Club. Delicious! |
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| Here's Ray and Dan again! "You just won the Alterra Cup! What are you gonna do next?" |
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| And he got to go to Car's Land. So jealous. But really, he worked harder than anyone else I know all summer, so he and his teammates deserved it. |
Now that Ray has been home, he has shifted gears and is working hard on his game designs again. He goes in October to Essen for a world wide board game conference where he plans on doing a Kickstarter campaign to produce his first game. It's very exciting for us with just a dash of stress from trying to find the right people to accomplish everything he needs.
I couldn't be happier to be reunited with Ray. Our future looks very exciting with a lot of potential for growth and change right now. So in the mean time we're going to enjoy every second of living in Europe. Next Sunday we leave for a week in Dublin, Edinburgh and London! Clearly, more updates to come.
