2007 Wind Rivers Trip

Well, here is my lastest trip. We were gone in July and we got back right before my school started in early August, so this is very delayed. I hope you enjoy, and if there are any misspellings, please, please let me know. And any comments you have. =] Thanks, Elizabeth H.

Afternoon, Saturday, July 27, 2007
Well, I have some down time, so I figure I better at least try to get caught up.
On Wednesday, me and my dad took the 7 (7:30?) flight from Tucson to Salt Lake City. Once we arrived, we grabbed all our luggage and found Art so we could dump our bags in his car and go food shopping with him for the trip. After buying a ton of food, we headed to Art and Becky's house. Oh, first, for those of you who don't know Art and Becky, they're old family friends. They're really great people that live just out of Salt Lake. Anyway, we went to their house for lunch and to prepare our stuff to go on the horses that would be packing everything in to the Wind Rivers for us.
By 2:30 or so we were ready to leave, so we managed to get on the road by 3. We arrived in Pinedale at about 7, I think, and we ate dinner at a nice little restaurant on the main road in Pinedale. After dinner we drove to the camping area near the trail head that we'd be taking the next day. Art, Becky, my dad and I set up camp, and then got ready to go to sleep, because by that time it was getting pretty dark, and it was starting to lightly sprinkle.
The next morning, we got up fairly to eat and pack everything we taken out back up. We drove all our stuff maybe two minutes down the road to Mark. Mark is the owner of the horse-packing business that we were using to get our stuff into the mountains. We've known him for a while, and he's super nice.
Art, Becky, (and Merlin, their dog) and my dad were hiking in; I was riding in with Mark and the pack horses (and mules, it turned out). Mark packed all our stuff (as well as some other people who would be hiking in today) onto 2 horses and 2 mules (Cheyenne, his brother, whose name escapes me, Sarah Sue, and "Hee-Haw" Jim (see picture)) and I got on a horse named Tiggy and Mark got on his horse, and we rode out. About a quarter of the way there it started to dump buckets of rain and hail on us. Mark and I scrambled for our rain gear, and then rode on. It continued to rain pretty much non-stop until we got to camp, though it lightened up to a sprinkle after a while. However, I hadn't brought a very rain proof rain jacket, so I was more concentrated on staying warm than keeping up conversation, so the rest of the ride was a lot more silent than the first quarter had been.
But, despite that, the ride was gorgeous. There were so many beautiful things to look at...
Okay, enough for now...

Nighttime, Saturday, July 27, 2007
Anyway, Mark and I got to camp about 45 minutes to an hour after the hikers. Apparently they were worried. They had expected us to beat them to the camp site, and when we hadn't, they'd started to wonder. To tell you the truth, I'd expected to beat them as well, but the rain slowed us down, so it makes sense that we didn't.
Once we did get there we unloaded the horses and threw everything we could under tarps, trees, or the big boulder that is by our 'kitchen'. All four of us, then, rushed to put up our tents (despite that it was still raining) and throw the important things inside (clothes, sleeping bags, etc.). We hid wherever we could stay dry until the rain let up (by this time Mark was long gone, he was riding back home), and then we changed into dry clothes. We stayed outside for a short time, but when it began to rain again we went to take shelter in our tents. After a little longer, it let up again, and my dad and I ventured out to make pasta for dinner, before getting back into the tent to read until the sun went down. Luckily, Art and Becky volunteered to clean dishes, so after dinner we didn't have to get back out into the rain.
I'm really unused to the sun setting so late, about 9 or 9:30, I'd guess. It doesn't really get dark until 10. It's very different from little Rio Rico.
Okay, the quality of my handwriting is deteriorating the more I write, so I'm going to read. Night. =]

Late morning, Sunday, July 28, 2007
On Friday, everyone got up and just sat around for a while. Eventually we hung a clothesline up and got our wet things out to try and dry them before it rained again. Luckily it didn't rain, but we wanted to go for an easy hike, so we put our things back anyway, just in case. We ate lunch, then headed towards Wall Lake. The elevation (I live at 3900, the camp is about 10,300) makes doing any uphill walking or really any walking really hard, so we only got to the pass before Wall Lake before we decided to turn around after a little break and after we went over to the patch of snow that was nearby. The view was amazing. Sadly, I forgot my camera on the hike, so I don't have any pictures.
After hanging around the pass for a while we headed back, except Art who went to go explore and look at a mountain he and my dad and a friend of his was planning on climbing. We relaxed outside when we could and in the tent when it rained. Art got back, then later we had a coos-coos dinner that Art and Becky made. We hung our and enjoyed being in the Wind Rivers. We had a beautiful sunset that night over Island Lake (see picture).
The next day, Saturday, Art and my dad got up at 5:30 to go climb Mt. Helen. It's about a 2 hour hike or longer to the base of Mt. Helen, so they wanted to get an early start.
Becky and I, however, had a leisurely morning and went for a walk around Island Lake. I forgot to take my camera, again, but it was gorgeous. We ended up at this point across from this beautiful waterfall. We sat there for a while until we turned around to eat lunch.
What was really interesting about that walk was when we stopped this black-and-white butterfly kept landing on Becky and her backpack. We would talk loud and it wouldn't fly away, and once Merlin (the dog) stuck his nose up on it and it flew away, but then came right back. It was really neat.
Anyway, after that, Becky and I went back for lunch and to do whatever until 3.
My hand is getting tired again... Later.

Sunset, Sunday, July 28, 2007
First, let me say that the sunset tonight was gorgeous (see picture). My pictures can't do it justice, but it was amazing. Sigh.. Moments like these are exactly why I come out here.
Anyhow, at 3 on Saturday, Becky and I were supposed to radio this guy named Mike. We had a walkie-talkie that Mike had loaned Art to make sure that he and the people he was hiking in with could find the camp. They got to camp just fine, and they had chosen the best day to hike. There were no clouds in the morning, and only a few clouds in the afternoon. I think we had a very light rain in the evening. The people who joined us are Mike, Mary, Jeff and his dog, J.D. Mike is a search-and-rescue guy, and he and Mary are dating. Jeff is this pro-climber/scientist dude. They're all super nice.
Okay, I wanna read, so goodnight.

Mid-afternoon, Monday, July 29, 2007
On Saturday, after everyone had gotten here and gotten their tents and such things set up, we hung out in the "kitchen" and waited for Art and my dad. After a while Mike and Jeff went out to meet them on their way back, and Becky and I started to make pizza for dinner just as they got back. They were pretty tired. By that time it was 8 or 8:30 and they had summited and managed to get back with a minimal amount of rain, luckily. They stayed up with Jeff, Mike and Mary pretty late that night, though, despite being tired.
Yesterday, when I woke up it was really warm and cloudless. In the late morning everyone except me and my dad headed over to Elephant Head (see picture) because it was supposed to be a pretty easy climb. My dad and my plan was to top rope off some short cliffs that were near out camp so I could get some climbing in a practice rappelling. Since it was so hot out we didn't go until it was cloudy and the wind had picked up, which freaked me out even more than I was from the height, even though it really was that tall. 30 feet, maybe. I managed to get to the top and rappelling off twice, though, so I was proud.
By the time we were done, Jeff and Art had joined us and everyone had gotten back. Some of them had made it top the top and others went as far as they'd wanted. We all hung out in the kitchen and my dad made enchiladas. We stayed up sort of late and had the breathtaking sunset I wrote about in my last entry. Wow, I'm finally on today! Awesomeeee.
So, today, my dad, Art and Jeff got up early again to go climb Ellingwood. About 6 or 6:30, I think, I saw someone (looking back, it was probably Art) walk by Becky and Art's tent. Not really seeing who it was I figured it meant that everyone was up, I got up. I ended up getting up 45 minutes or so before anyone else. Ah, well.
Well, since I'm sort of caught up I'm going to quit for now.

2:57 PM, Thursday, August 2, 2007
Well, we're back in the real world. Right now me and my dad are waiting in the Salt Lake Airport. And I'm falling asleep. We got home really late last night.
It's weird. I was almost caught up with my writing and then all of a sudden I'm more than 3 days behind. Sigh. Let's see if I can get a little caught up.
So, on Monday I got up really early, and once everyone got up and got ready we left for a hike up Titcomb Basin. This was, of course, minus Art, my dad and Jeff, leaving Mike, Mary, Becky and the dogs. And myself. The hike was gorgeous, and fairly flat, so it wasn't that hard. Looking back as I type this, It's really mind boggling how hard it was to walk up even a not very steep hill. So we were lucky that it was pretty flat. It was about a 8 mile round trip hike, and we ate lunch during the hike. At the end of our hike, before we turned around there was this lake that was filled with glacier water (see picture). It was a really pretty shade of blue. We also saw a short llama train, and that was petty awesome. We got back to camp mid-afternoon and we hung out until dinner time. Becky made rice with chicken which we ended up eating well before the climbers got back. After dinner we went out to meet them, but didn't find them, so came back. They got to camp a little while after we looked for them. That night we got to sleep very late partly because the climbers had gotten back late and partly because we stayed up pretty late every night. =]
On Tuesday, everyone who had come in after us was going to hike out. They left around 10, I think, after breakfast and some pictures. =] The rest of us hung out for a little while-The flight's close to boarding. Later.

5:09 PM, Thursday, August 2, 2007
This will be short because the plane has already started its descent.
So, we hung out in camp until after lunch, and then Art, Becky and their dog went down the hill (oh! I haven't written about the hill!) towards Titcomb Basin, and my dad and I went the other direction to read by this pond-thing (see picture) that was in the direction of Wall Lake, where we had headed the first real day there.
So, the hill. We camped by Island Lake, but not right next to it, about a quarter mile away up this pretty steep hill. It wouldn't have been easy to walk up normally, but at high elevation it was so hard to do. By the time I got to camp I was breathing like I'd run a mile.
Okay, well the plane has just... about... okay, it's just hit the runway, so I'm gonna go.

7:29 AM, Saturday, August 4, 2007
Well, I'm home. I'm not sure how ready I am to be home... But I am. =] And I'm still not caught up with my journal. And I still have a couple days to go. Sighhhh.
So, on Tuesday, as me and my dad were walking back to camp, it started to rain. For the first few minutes it was very light sprinkles, but then it started to get harder. And harder. And then it started to hail. So we hid under a boulder, hoping it would let up, but after a few minutes it didn't seem to do so, so we ran over to some trees to see if they would give us better shelter. These trees were only a couple minutes from camp, and they were really not keeping the rain off us at all. So we started to hurry back to camp, where the nice tarp over the kitchen was waiting for us. However, as we walked the rain pretty much stopped. So we got out our cameras and took some wildflower pictures (what we had wanted to do, but then it had rained). There are some gorgeous plants in the Wind Rivers. Well, every thing's gorgeous in the Wind Rivers. =] So eventually we got back and found that Art and Becky had been at camp since it had started raining, and they wondered where we were during the rain. We told them, and talked a little more until dinner time. That night we had this really good pasta dish that Art made. Yummmm.
And that was really the end of our day, I guess. We seem to have done a lot of nothing, really. Of like hanging out and such. It seemed a lot more busy while I was there.... =]

7:49 PM, Sunday, August 5, 2007
Okay, let's see if I can finish this. On Wednesday, the plan was for Mark to meet us at around 10 that morning so he could load all our stuff and the hikers could head out as soon as was possible. He got there, and my dad, Art and Becky left and I stayed because I was going to ride out with Mark. (See picture of me and Tiggy). We left camp about an hour after the hikers and we managed to get about a half hour away from the trail head when, once again, it started to pour. We had to stop riding for a little while at first because the thunder was really loud and the one lightning we could see when we weren't in the trees looked really close. We ended up getting back to the trail head a good half hour or 45 minutes after the hikers. It was lightly sprinkling there, so the ground was muddy as we unloaded the stuff off Mark's horses and mules. Which sort of sucked, but luckily I had a change of clothes and shoes so I could get out of all my wet and muddy stuff.
The plan was to drive back into Pinedale and eat dinner before going back to Art and Becky's. As we drove we passed this strange man walking in the rain and bleeding from his nose where his glasses sat. We tried to offer him help but he obviously didn't want it. It was all very strange... Once we got into Pinedale, the first restaurant we tried was filled with cigarette smoke, so we went to the place that we had eaten at when we had first arrived in Pinedale last Wednesday.
I am very proud to say that I was original and had some sort of pasta with cheese, everyone else ordered cheeseburgers. Sigh. =]
After dinner we left, and Art drove most of the way home. Becky did the last hour or so. It was raining most of the time, and then it got dark, and me and my dad had had previous experience with crashing into the antelope that are common along the road, so it's really quite a feat to drive all that way in the dark in the rain. So congrats you guys. =] By the time we got back it was probably 11:30, but we had to unload the car and we all felt very dirty, so we showered before bed. I'm think it was about half past midnight by the time I went to sleep.
The next morning we got up at 8 so me and my dad could put all our stuff sacks in suitcases so we could be ready when Rachel (my cousin) would pick us at 9 so we could go to brunch at 10. We got ready in time, but, after a few other changes, brunch (now really more like lunch) was scheduled for 11:30. We went over to Abuela's house where my uncle Paul, aunt Chris, uncle Pat, cousin Alice and Abuela were. We talked for a little while before going to lunch and meeting up with my aunt Sylvia's boyfriend, Frank. Sadly, Sylvia couldn't make it, but after lunch we went and visited her at her work for a little while.
After a little while, me and my dad asked Rachel to take us to the Utah airport for our 4:30 flight. The flight was really pretty uneventful, except that it was asking for volunteers to go on a later flight, and that, when they first started boarding, they checked some tickets and then suddenly stopped, saying that the plane actually hadn't arrived yet.
Once we arrived in Tucson, we picked up our bags and met my mom. We ate a some Mexican restaurant and then headed home. And that was the end of our trip.
=]



4:51 PM, Saturday, August 18, 2007

Wow. I finally finished. It always takes me so much longer to type these things up than it feels like it should. But it's always interesting re-remembering things we did. =] What a great experience. The mountains, the ones that are so separated from the cities and all, really are amazing things, amazing places to be. I'm really lucky to have had that experience, and, I think, to have been able to appreciate it. Let's hope that there will always be places like this and people to appreciate them.

A few last minute notes: If there are any typos, please let me know. Also, I was thinking about posting my journal of my Grand Canyon rafting trip I took the summer after 8th grade, so, not last summer but the summer before that. So if you're interested, keep an eye out for that.

Elizabeth Horton

Brussels-Italy 2007

Hey, it's Elizabeth. This is, I suppose, the first real post on our new blog. I used to send out email about our vacations, but for those with dial up this will hopefully be a lot easier.

So, if you didn't know, recently (May, right after I got out of school) we went on trip to Brussels and Italy. I kept a journal, mainly so I can look back 30 years from now and remember what all we did, but also so anyone who is interested can look at it. So here it is. =]

Time in AZ: Thursday, May 24, 2007, 6:15 AM
Time in a plane somewhere over AZ, heading to Chicago: Thursday, May 24, 6:15 AM
I’m tired right now, but I want to write what’s happened now because otherwise I might put it off until I’ve forgotten the details. Not that there are many…
I went to sleep early yesterday, completely packed, so I could wake up and 3 AM to catch a 6 AM flight. I guess that’s all that happened. Except that the Tucson airport took down these thundercloud things they had up because they’re remodeling or something. Sigh…
Yeah, that’s all. Good night. Morning. Whatever. =]

Time in AZ: Thursday, May 24, 2007, 10:20 AM
Time in a plane in Chicago, Illinois: Thursday, May 24, 2007, 12:20 AM
I’m writing not because anything interesting has happened, in fact it’s the opposite, but because we are sitting here on the runway in a plane that is not due for take off for another good 50 minutes, or so the flight attendant (or pilot?) says. Oh, joy.
Really, all that’s happened is we landed in Chicago, made our way to the gate, got some food and then it was time to board. (We had a really short layover.) And then we waited. And waited some more.
Wow, I just sorta drifted off into thought there for a bit. Mainly I was thinking about green and flat Chicago is. I mean, I look out the plane window and I see all this grass, and there’s no mountains in the distance. It’s very odd. =]
Oh my gosh! We’re leaving! Thank the lord for small miracles. =]

Time in AZ: Thursday, May 24, 2007, 7:56 PM
Time over NY in some big airplane: Thursday, May 24, 2007, 10:56 PM
So, we got to New York and took a taxi to the John F. Kennedy airport because we flew into the LaGuardia airport, and our plane to Brussels (but we have to go to London and then change planes again) left from JFK. Wow, driving is different there. When there’s traffic, you don’t just wait for it to move and get there eventually you weave in and out and in and cut in the moving line as quick as you can. And that line seems to change a lot. Very… different. Anyway, then we waited for 5 or so hours for out flight to London. That was the longest 5 hours of my life.I am currently sitting in a updated version of a 747, apparently, and waiting for the in-flight movie to start. =] Here’s all the information they are giving us about our flight. It’s really awesome. Hehe. I get easily excited . =P
Altitude: 35,000 ft (they change between feet and kilometers. Or meters. Or something)
Ground speed: 552 m/hr (they give that in kilometers, too)
Time to London: 5:35
Estimated arrival time: 9:41 AM
Local time at London: 4:06 AM
Local time at New York: 11:06 PM
Local time at present location: 11:06 PM
Temperature: -63 degrees F (they give it in Celsius, also)
Miles to London: 3283 (kilometers, also)
And a BUNCH of maps.
Hehe I just think that’s really cool. =]=]=] But that’s all I had to say… =]

Time in AZ: Friday, May 25, 2007, 5:44 AM
Time in a plane over Europe: Friday, May 25, 2007, 2:44 PM
Yawn. Right now I’m on a plane from London to Brussels. On our last flight we did get to watch a movie, and then I fell asleep. When I woke up they were handing out some roll type thing for breakfast. When the plane landed in the London Heathrow airport we took a bus to another terminal for the last leg of your flight. I slept this first half hour of the flight, which was about half the flight. We got some lunch and I made a goal to stick to Belgian time. Sleep when it’s night time and stay awake when it’s not. =] Which is easier said than done, I’m sure.
I think we’re gonna land pretty soon, so maybe the next time I write something will have actually happened. =]

Time in AZ: Friday, May 25, 1:41 PM
Time at Aunt Chris’ house in Brussels, Belgium: Friday, May 25, 9:41 PM
Plane landed and we got picked up by Uncle Pat. We went to pick up my cousin, Alice, and went to their home to talk, shower and hand out. A little later Chris got home, and we ate. Great food, and we had a birthday cake for Pat. His birthday was a couple days ago.
Belgium is very green and gorgeous. It sorta reminds me of Oregon. So pretty. The house is really nice too. It’s different than what I’m used to, and I guess that makes it cooler. =] It’s a lot thinner than what I’m used to, but it’s like 3 stories tall not including the cellar. (See Pic 1.) It’s cool. I’ll have to take some pictures tomorrow, when it’s light out. Night!

Pic 1

Time in AZ: Saturday, May 26, 2007, 2:40 PM
Time at Chris’ house: Saturday, Maybe 26, 2007, 11:40 PM
Busy day today. But fun. This morning my dad woke me up and I was superrrrrrr tired. And then he told me it was already 11 in the morning. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I was so tired, and I never sleep in very late. That’s what jet lag does to you. =] And now it’s 11 at night and I’m not that tired. So… yeah. Hm. Anyway, we wanted to tourist our way around Brussels, so…
We (my parents, uncle, cousin and I) headed out eventually and took the tram to Chris’ shop. We hung out there, bought a few things, then went to an old style building mall type place thing to eat. The food was very good; I had some sort of quiche. Then we walked over to the Gran Place, where a jazz festival was being held. The Gran Place is the humongous square surrounded by tall, old, gorgeous buildings. Then we walked over to Mannequin Piss which is exactly what it sounds like it should be. It’s this little boy/mannequin/fountain thing that’s (surprise, surprise) pissing. When we went it was in a field hockey uniform. (See Pic 2.) After that we walked over to a cartoon museum that was about to close, so we went into the gift shop instead. Finished there, we headed to the movie theatre to watch a movie with my aunt, who met up with us there. We had a little while before the movie started, though, so we went to some fancy restaurant to wait for my aunt (who hadn’t yet joined us) and to wait for the movie. By the time the movie finished it was probably 10:30 so we headed home, and here I am.
But I’m going to go to bed and hope to get up before 11 tomorrow. =]

Pic 2

Time in AZ: Sunday, May 27, 2007, 1:15 PM
Time in Chris’ house (I really should stop calling it Chris’ house, because it’s really all their house. Hmm…): Sunday, May 27, 2007, 11:15 PM
Well, I got up at about the same time as yesterday. Mis padres and Chris and I went to this market thing that sold all sort of fresh food (fish, fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses) and different stuff. The things that sort of were a problem for me were all the fish that were whole (as in eyes, scales, fins, everything) and all the French. However, it really makes me appreciate how great my Spanish is compared to my horrible French.
Anyway, after that, we walked home and hung out. We had a humongous and delicious lunch. I’m sure I’m gonna gain like 50 pounds here. =]
Towards the evening my parents, Chris and I went for a walk through a gorgeous park and then in a forest. When we got back to the house we hung out a little more, and got hungry again, and here I am. It’s 11 at night and I’m awake. It’s weird. I’m sure it’s partly jet lag, but also it just gets dark so late here. It’s weird. But it’s really sort of nice, too. =] Okay, well I heard we’re going to some castle thing tomorrow, so I’m gonna go to bed. Night.

Time in AZ: Monday, May 28, 2007, 10:30 PM
Time in a plane over Brussels: Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 7:30 AM
Okay, I didn’t write yesterday about what happened because I was packing and doing all that. Let’s see…
I got up (or my parents got me up) an hour earlier than I had been getting up, about 10. We ate breakfast with everyone, then drove around the towns out of Brussels to find this forest/meadowy place that we found with some difficulty. The original plane had been to go on a walk around some castle, but when we drove by there were about 9247032 people, so we changed our mind. =]
The place we ended up going to, though, by a town called Leuven, was gorgeous. There were a bunch of birds, bugs, snails and slugs. Hehe. We took a walk, and after that, we headed into town for the humongous late lunch/early dinner. It was really good.
After that, we all headed to the house, and my parents and I headed home and had to start packing. =/ How sad…
Then, today, we got up at 5:30, I think, and Pat drove us to the airport. Seriously no one was awake. There were no cars on the road, nothing. We caught our flight and here we are. It’s supposed to be a short flight, so…
Oh, yeah, something about Brussels. There is so little trash on the streets. It’s great. Stuff here (there?) is really nice.

Time in AZ: Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 3:07 AM
Time in a rental car driving to the Dolomites: Wednesday, May 30, 2007,12:07 PM
Okay, wow. A lot has happened, but now that I think about it, mostly its little stuff, so I guess this will be sorta short.
We got off the plane and took a bus to the train station in Milan. Wow, compared to Brussels, Milan is really dirty and run down and less… friendly. Anyway, so we got on a train to Venice. And after 3 hours or so-
My parents want me to right this down. It was on a sign before a tunnel we just drove through.
Belluna
a fine tunnel
If you get it, good for you! If not, it’s Italian. It means Belluna is at the end of the tunnel, but my parents wanted me to right it down because it looks like the tunnel is very nice. =]
Anyway, after 3 hours we got to Venice and got on this thing called a vaporetto, a water taxi. It’s more of a water bus. It gave us our first glimpses of Venice. It was all gorgeous, the old buildings, the side 'alley' waterways with little bridges over them, and the houses with water that came right up to their doorway. Sometimes they had boats right in front of their door. (See Pic 3.) It was really neat looking. We took it to the Academia stop, and went to our "hotel". It was a small 6 or so room place that was very nice, called Ca’ San Vio. Then we went around looking for food. We stopped at one place and had pasta, then when to another place and had cicchetti, little slices of bread with stuff on them. Then we went to a church called San Marcos and fed pigeons (their were a freaking billion pigeons there), and then looking at the church and the palace and other beautiful, old buildings there. (See Pic 4.) We also looked at the Bridge of Sighs (see Pic 5), were supposedly prisoners, before going to prison would get one last look at Venice and sigh. Hence the name. When we finished we walked to the Realto bridge to eat some gelato (for those of you who told me I had to get some, there you go. It was really good. =]) and pizza. Then we caught the vaporetto and rode it around for a while, then came back to Academia and ate at this great place all Café di San Stefano. By that time it was late, and we headed home. Or the hotel. Whatever. =]
Lunch time…

Pic 3

Pic 4

Pic 5

Time in AZ: Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 12:41 PM
Time in a hotel in St. Ulrich/Ortesei: Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 9: 41 PM
Okay, right, continuing on. We got to the room and went to sleep. It was pretty late.
The next day, today, we got up at 8 and had breakfast in the room before taking the vaporetto to a bus that then took us to a Hertz car rental station. We got a Panda Fiat that is sooo cute, and we all love it. =]
With our new car we headed to the Dolomites. For those of you that don’t know what they are, they are a mountain range. In Italy. =] We drove, and after some difficulty following directions we got on the highway that would take us there. When I stopped at my last entry we were pulling into this snack/lunch place. It was sort of a... less chain storeish version of a 7-Eleven. Anyhow, we got some chips, sandwiches and candy bars for the drive, and headed out. To somewhere. To wherever the road would take us. =]
We ended up in a nice hotel called Hotel Rodes in a nice little town called St. Ulrich in German and Ortisei in Italian. In Ortisei there are three main languages. Italian, German (because it’s less than 50 miles from the Austrian border) and Ladino (a language spoken mostly in this general area that is a descendant of Latin with some Slavic influence). It is a gorgeous place, as was the way to get here. We had to drive through three passes (Falzargo, Pardoi and Sella), and in one of the passes it was lightly snowing! It was pretty cold and there was snow everywhere in the passes. Down a little lower from them there were a lot of flowers (see Pic 6), and that was pretty too. Everywhere you looked there were these humongous mountains (see Pic 7) with clouds clinging to their tops. (See Pic 8.) It was great.
Tomorrow we are going hiking, so I’m gonna go to bed.

Pic 6

Pic 7

Pic 8

Time in AZ: Friday, June 1, 2007, 3:30 AM
Time in a train temporarily stopped in Brescia, Italy: June 1, 2007, 12:30 PM
It’s raining again. I’ve seen so much rain in Brussels and Italy, and so far I’ve heard maybe 2 thunders… It’s odd.
Okay, so yesterday was my mom’s birthday. We got up 8ish and had breakfast at the hotel before driving a few minutes to this enclosed ski lift/tram thing. (See Pic 9.) It took us to the mountains. (See Pic 10.) It was gorgeous. I took so many pictures. We hiked for most of the late morning and early afternoon. It was beautiful, yes, but very steep. 99% of the time we were going up or down and rarely was it a smooth descent/ascent. We had perfect timing, at the end of the hike, just as we stepped in to a little restaurant place for gelato it began to rain. =]
We got back to the hotel to go swimming and…. sauna-ing. =] It a nice relaxation thing before dinner. Dinner came with renting a room at the hotel. A four-course meal, let me add. Hehe. A buffet for an appetizer, then two meals and then dessert. Yummm. So we ate, went to bed and got up sorta early this morning so we could turn out rental car in by 10:00. We dropped it off in Verona (If you didn’t know, a few Shakespeare plays are set here. =]), then caught a train to the Cinque Terre, where we’re gonna stay for 2 nights. At the moment we are on a train to Milan, where we’ll catch a train to Monterosso, and then a train to Vernazza, one of the five towns in the Cinque Terre. Monterosso is another of the towns. Okay, well that’s it for now, I guess.

Pic 9

Pic 10

Time in AZ: Sunday, June 3, 2007, 2:08 AM
Time in a train to Rome: Sunday, June 3, 2007, 11:08 AM
Sigh. I really do put writing off to much. So, let’s see. We caught our train to Monterosso and then the one from there to Vernazza, though we had to run for that one. We got to Vernazza, and it was gorgeous. And I loved it.
Vernazza is the second (or fourth, depending which way you look at it) town in the line of the five towns in the Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre mean fiver earths, which refers, obviously, to the five, small, costal towns. I’d have to say Vernazza was my favorite, but then again I’m biased because I stayed there and spent the most time there.
By the time we got there it was late afternoon, so we found our room (a really cool place, tucked back up an alley 59 stairs away from the main road), explored and then found a restaurant and had some great food. Then we went down to the water’s edge (see Pic 11) for some gelato and just to be there.
The next day we ate breakfast on the coast again. Let me explain. Vernazza goes right out onto the water except for one small, maybe 20 by 5 foot patch of beach. Most of the towns are built right near the coast, but not all of them are.
After breakfast we hiked to the next town, the one we had rode a train into first, Monterosso. About halfway through the 90 minute hike it began to lightly sprinkle. By the time we arrived in Monterosso it was full out raining and I especially was a little wet because I didn’t really have a rain jacket. Our plan had been to take a train to the farthest town, the fifth, then walk back to Vernazza, but with the rain we were beginning to change our minds. We took a train to the farthest town, Riomaggiore, anyway and ate lunch. After we finished lunch it was sunny and hot so we took the short walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola.
The walk to Manarola was called the Via De’ll Amore which means way of love. It’s called that because a long time ago the only way to get in between the towns was by sea or a few very unsafe trails, so few people left and they usually married within the town. But then kids from Manarola and Riomaggiore began to meet on this train and they would carve their name and stuff. So now the Via De’ll Amore is filled with graffiti of I love this person and stuff. It’s pretty neat.
We got to Manarola and had some gelato and then we explored for a few minutes up a different trail. As we walked back to the trail that would take us to Corniglia, it suddenly began to pour. The clouds had snuck up (see Pic 12) and we didn’t want to walk in that so we took a train to Corniglia instead and explored for a 10 or 20 minutes, then went back to Vernazza for dinner.
One last comment on the Cinque Terre. There were SO many cats and SO many stairs. I guessed we walked about 2200 stairs in the short time we were there.
The next day, today, we got up early-

Pic 11

Pic 12

Time in AZ: Monday, June 2, 2007, 1:29 pm
Time in Vicki's apartment in Rome: Monday, June 4, 2007, 7:29 PM
I'm only gonna write a little cuz I need to go to bed, but I do need to get as caught up as I can.
So, yesterday we got up early (it seems like I say that a lot, but we're just so busy, I guess, so we get up sort of early. I suppose we're not really getting up that early. It depends on what you think is early. I think we got up around 6?) to catch a train to La Spezia and another train to Rome. At Roma Termini, the train station we got off at, Vicki, a family friend who is staying in Rome for a year, picked us up (which we were very grateful for). By the time we got to Rome our train that had picked us up 30 minutes late, was only 10 minutes late, luckily. We are staying with Vicki and her two kids, Emma and Greg. And we're so grateful for that.
Vicki drove us to her apartment. We relaxed until late afternoon and then all six of us went downtown to walk around and look at all the little shops. First, though, we ate at a nice restaurant. It was one of the few that we're open because it was probably only 5 or so, and Italians tend to eat late. Like 9 or 10. After dinner, we went to the Spanish Steps which are somewhat famous, though for no particular reason. They're just steps, and I believe the Spanish embassy used to be above them, hence the name. Also, we saw the Pantheon which is anold Roman building that is also well known. (See Pic 13.) e went to a little square thing that had a bunch of old ruins and cats that lived down in the ruins. (See Pic 14. If you look you might see a couple cats.) The square was neat looking and probably famous for something. I’m not exactly sure for what, though. =] After gelato and more wandering we headed back to Vicki's.
Today we went to the Coliseum. I'll write more later.

Pic 13

Pic 14

Time in AZ: Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 9:33 AM
Time on Vicki's porch: Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 6:33 PM
Okay, yesterday we went to the Coliseum (see Pic 15) and the Forum (see Pic 16). It's hard to imagine that all these famous and amazingly powerful people that walked exactly where we were. And it's a little less hard to imagine that these fallen down stones were once a place of humongous power. For some reason, maybe just that I knew that it was once this majestic place, the area had an air of majesty. I dunno. Maybe I imagined it. =]
Anyway, we didn't go inside the Coliseum because there were long lines and it was expensive (not that that was much of a surprise: most things in Europe were), and the outside was nice enough that we didn't really feel the need to see the inside. However, in the forum we wandered around and we got up pretty close to a lot of the ruins. A few names stick in my mind, the gardens of the Vestal Virgins (a group of ladies that had to stay virgins for a certain amount of time and if they succeeded they got money, husbands and respect and if they failed they were killed) and the Arch of Sevrus Maximus.
After that we had lunch with Vicki on the roof of her work place. It had a great view, it was neat. After we finished we went to an art museum by Durer. Looking at it took a few hours and we didnt feel like doing much after that so we headed over to the Trevi Fountain.
The Trevi Fountain is a large tourist attraction, partly because of the neat statues in it (see Pic 17) of all sorts of sea gods the only one I can remember being Triton, and mainly because the legend that if you throw a coin into the fountain you will return to Rome. We threw our coins in, then went back to Vicki's apartment. After a while we went out to dinner at a good place with an excess of good food, which seems to be pretty common on our trip. =]
Today we went to a church called St. Peter in the Chains because it has these chains that St. Peter was chained in. But the church was nice. (See Pic 18.) The Italian churches are just mind boggling…. So much paintings and gold and statues and.. everything. It was neat. After St. Peter we went to Ostia Antica by the metro and by train. It was on the outskirts of Rome. Or maybe out of Rome… Not sure. Anyhow, it’s an ancient Roman city, much like Pompeii only less of a rich city. Ostia had a lot of intricate and pretty mosaics (see Pic 19) as well as a lot of ruins, and it a was very nice place to have seen.
After that we went to Vatican City. Or rather, a couple buildings in Vatican City, the first being St. Peter’s Basilica. (See Pic 20.) St. Peter’s was a mind boggling, humongous, gorgeous and very religious waste of money. I don’t mean that in a bad way or anything because it was, as I said, absolutely gorgeous and I’m very glad I got too see it. Just, they didn’t really need all that. It was a little excessive, but I wouldn’t have want to have missed seeing it. So, before actually going in St. Peter’s, first we went and looked at the sarcophagi of all the popes. We accidentally stumbled across them, and decided to look at them. After that, we went inside… and it was amazing. The ceiling was at least 80 feet high, and in some places it was probably 100, 120. Or more. There were paintings (well they looked like paintings, they were actually mosaics), statues, ornate floors…. I could have gaped at it for hours. But we didn’t, we just spent a little while before heading to the Vatican post office to mail some postcards before heading back to Vicki’s, and we are currently waiting to go eat dinner, which we should be doing pretty soon.
What we’ve done in these days doesn’t seem like that much, but the travel time involved made for some very busy days. Finding where we were supposed to be and which direction and how to get there and when to be there and why to be there could be very complicating in Rome. =] Okay, later.

Pic 15

Pic 16

Pic 17

Pic 18

Pic 19

Pic 20

Time in AZ: July 1, 2007, 2:30 PM
Oh my gosh! I was just looking through my journal and I realized I never wrote about my last day in Italy or the flight home.
The last day Vicki took work off and we drove to this hill town called Civita. (See Pic 21.) It was a tiny town, population of 13 or 18, I think, but it had once been much larger, with a number of castles, homes, and people. Now it's a small town centered around tourism. A major factor in Civita's decline, I think, is that it's this sort of island that had, over time, been eroded away by rivers that no longer run, and by the wind. This has caused many of the castles and houses to fall off the island, which obviously was not good for Civita's economy. However, it was a beautiful little town, and we wandered around and ate lunch there. A little while after lunch we headed to another hill town.
This next hill town was called Orvieto. It had a much larger population, and an economy not centered around tourism quite as much. We went to the main tourist attraction, a church called the Duomo. It was gorgeous, and the best part was probably the front of the church. (See Pic 22.) The front was exactly that, a front, so the church looked a little more humongous than it really was, but it was still quite large. Anyway, the front of the church had a bunch of carvings on the doors, and there were four panels telling different stories. The first one was about the creation of the world, with Adam and Eve, and one was about Christ. They were very intricate. The top of the church had a bunch of paintings on it. Very pretty. After that we wandered around Orvieto for a while, but it started to look like it might rain, so we headed back to the car and drove back to Vicki's.
The next day we left the house at 7 or so, and were picked up by a driving service with a nice car (=]) that took us to the airport. We flew from Rome to New York, and from NY straight to Tucson. Despite only having one layover, we calculated that from the time we left Vicki's to the time we arrived home it took us about 26 hours. That was one longggg day. But the traveling was well worth it. My trip was absolutely amazing.

Pic 21

Pic 22

Time in AZ: Saturday, June 9, 2007, 12:57 PM
I’m home! It’s hard to believe that the trip is over. I actually got home Thursday night. Or Friday morning, I suppose. We got to our house about 12:30 AM. As in midnight. 26 hours after leaving Vicki’s apartment. We did the math. =] I’m writing now because I didn’t get around to it yesterday. I was just relaxing from all the traveling, and trying to recover from jet lag. I haven’t just yet. =]
There’s all these little things that are different in Europe. Some that I’ll miss, some that I won’t. Just little things like smart cars (tiny little cars that, by being so tiny, conserve gas). Or trams, trains, buses, metros. Or smokers. Or all the people on scooter/motorcycle things. Or the horrible Italian driving. Or not being able to understand all the signs. Or all the old buildings. Or all the food. And so much more. Things I’ve gotten used to. Well, somewhat. Sigh. The end of an amazing trip…

Final Journal Note:
This part isn't very important, I just sort of want to explain a couple things. First, if you noticed the dates on the last two entries, the last entry's date comes before the second to last entry's date. That's because, well, I really did forget to write that down until much later after I wrote the last entry. I typed the last entry up first, not long after we'd gotten back home because I had a computer at hand when I wrote it. =] I hope that made things less confusing rather than more. Also, I wanted to point out that Rome was not as amazing as so many of the littler towns. Maybe I'm just biased because of the little town I live in. =] But, as a tourist, it was hard to find how to get from one place to another, and it just had this feel of... I'm not sure. Feel of big citiness. =] Which is exactly why a bunch of people will love Rome, I'm sure. =]
But, after saying that, everywhere we went, including Rome, was great. I had fun all the time, and it seemed like everywhere I looked there was something gorgeous to look at.
So, lastly, I just want to thank you for taking the time to get all the way to the end. Which, if you're reading this, I assume you have. =] If you have any comments or questions please call 1-800-555-5LIZ. =P But really, if you have something to tell/ask me (whether it's about this trip or not), please email me at petuniamouse123@hotmail.com. Thanks again,
Elizabeth Horton

First Blog

Elizabeth speaking. =] This is the official Horton-Kester travel blog. Welcome to... our travels.