Torino

We spent about 4 days in Torino. Unfortunately, Andy had to work most of the time and I was still sick for the first few days. Even though I was playing tourist, I tried to take it easy.

Some of the highlights were our dinners with the SEPA Executives Andy's been working with and my visit to the Pietro Micca Museum. On our first full day in Torino, one of Andy's executives took us out to see some of the sights in Torino. He took us to a Cathedral, Superga, up on a hill that was absolutely beautiful. It took them two years to just level the hill where the Cathedral was to be built.
He then took us out to dinner where we learned that traditional Italian meals consist of about 7 courses. Each dish was extremely fancy, interesting and delicious. My favorite was an asparagus fondue.

The second night, the other executive Andy was working with took us out to a Borolo winery. They took us on a tour of the winery. While we didn't drink anything, it was interesting to learn about the process.

I always thought it was the age of the wine that made it good, but it turns out that "a good year" refers to how much rain and sunshine that winery got during the year.
Our first course that night was a little strange. It was raw hamburger meat (beef tar tar) with garnish and stuff. I wasn't too keen on it, but Andy loved it. I guess I have the green light to just give Andy a handful of raw meat whenever he gets hungry from now on.


The other thing I really enjoyed in Torino was a trip to the Pietro Micca museum. In the early 1700's, the Savoy occupied a much smaller version of what is now Torino. The French were invading and the city was being defended by a small fort. As the French were entering the fort, a soldier named Pietro Micca sacrificed his life in order to save the city by setting off a large bomb. So the museum was there as a tribute to his heroism. The cool thing was that the fort had an underground system of tunnels. So it was really cool to walk through these tunnels and imagine what it must have been like about three hundred years ago.


All-in-all, Torino was very beautiful. There were more Trees and grass there than in Florence and Rome. This is a picture of me by the river Po. Who doesn't love a river named Po!?!?

Milan

So the primary reason we went to Italy was because Andy is doing research for a company in Italy to determine weather they could successfully enter the US market. The company is located in Torino. There was another couple there for the same reason. Andy and I flew in to the Milan Airport and we rented a car to drive to Torino. We had to have a car in Torino because we would need to drive to dinner a couple nights with the executives Andy was working with and to generally get around town.

On our way to Torino, we stopped off in Milan for about an hour and we saw the main Piazza with the famous Duomo (Cathedral). It's absolutely amazing. Not so amazing, however, is the 21st century advertising at the base of the Duomo.

Monty Python Tribute

One of the responsibilities Andy took on when he married me was to entertain me as much as possible. Anyone who has seen Andy dance knows he takes this responsibility quite seriously.

On our trip to Italy, Andy found plenty of ways to entertain me. One way, for example, was when we found an old tower in a town called Vernazza. We climbed to the top to see the amazing view of the coastline. Knowing that my favorite movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Andy reenacted one of the scenes from the movie where a French guard mocks the English knights who are trying to get some information from him. He slaps his head and calls them "English pig dogs". I believe my siblings will thoroughly enjoy the attached pictures.

Ciao!!

Well, Andy and I are in Italy. We arrived on Sunday and have had a wonderful time. I got sick a couple days before leaving home and went to the doctor before we left. I was on antibiotics and am feeling a lot better today. The plane rides were the worst I've ever had because the pressure was absolutely killing my head.

Anyway, we have been in Torino. Andy has been working with SEPA, the company he's doing research for and I have been playing tourist. Torino is absolutely amazing. Everywhere you look there's something cool. Even the old buildings are extremely ornate. We'll post pictures when we get back.

We're on our way to Cinque Terre tomorrow. We'll write more when we get home.

XOXO!!

Football Festivities

So I'm trying to clean out the camera's memory card before taking off to Italy, and decided to post some pictures of our busy day last Saturday. One would have thought it was Andy's Birthday since it was so action packed.

Andy had arranged for about 20 friends and family to have a tailgate party and then go to the UCLA vs. BYU Football game. We all met up at Sam's Club to shop for the food (next time, we know to go to a regular store where you can get hot dogs in packs of 6 or 12 instead of 80). Once we got the shopping figured out, we drove up to the Rose Bowl for the game. We had a great location (all the cars park on a local golf course) under some trees. We set up tables and chairs and had a BBQ grill--Stephen would have been very proud. The food was great, the weather was great and we had a lot of fun just relaxing before the game started.

Once we made it into the stadium and found our seats, we quickly discovered that we were somehow in the middle of some kind of Japanese group of UCLA students. They must have come straight from the airport or something because the guy sitting next to me actually FELL ASLEEP!!!! It was as if he were in church! He was bobbin' and weavin' and knocking into my shoulder. It was an impressive display of REM. Of course I had to get a picture of him. HE WAS OUT!! I'll never understand how you can fall asleep at a BYU football game.

I won't say much about the actual game...suffice it to say that as torn as Andy was over which of his schools should win, the wrong team won.

After the game, we figured that with about 73,000 fans all trying to leave the 'parking lot' (golf course) at the same time, we would be there for quite a while no matter what we did. So we decided to bust out the tables and chairs and some of the leftovers and we watched a BYU football highlight reel (thanks, Dad, for the Christmas present). All-in-all it was a very fun day.

You be the judge...

While we were on our Labor Day weekend road trip, we had a non-Shelley sighting. When we went hiking to see the Nojoqui "waterfall" we saw a girl who looks just like Shelley. Everything from the length and color of her hair to her nose and chin. It was funny because Andy saw the non-Shelley and he looked at me just as I saw her and we were thinking the exact same thing. So you be the judge:



Sorry the picture is blurry...it kinda looks like one of those pictures of the Loch Ness Monster. I had Andy stand as if I were taking his picture and I would zoom in on the non-Shelley. But she kept looking down at her daughter. What was she thinking!?!

817

What's significant about the number 817? That's the number of miles we drove on our weekend road trip!! We set out early Saturday morning to head up to Monterey. One of my former coworkers, Ian Larsen, got married. He has been stationed at the DLI (Defense Language Institute).

As we traveled up the 405 and then on to the 5, I decided to provide some musical entertainment. In an effort to re-create the scene from Tommy Boy, I popped in a Carpenter's CD... "Don't you remember you told me you loved me baby....baby...baby...baby...baby oh baby..." Good stuff. We proceeded to listen to a few other old school CDs of mine including Jock Jams. It was great.

If you've ever been through central California, you know there are a lot of farms and a few cows and that's about it. As we progressed along our journey, I decided that at some point, we ought to stop at a fruit stand along the way and partake of the good of the earth. As we came up on Holliser and Gilroy (the garlic capital of the world) we stopped off at the Casa de Fruita. It's not just a fruit stand, it's an RV Park, restaurant and a mini amusement park. I got a peach and Andy got some dried fruit. Ahhh, the good of the earth.

From there, we went directly to the Navy Lodge (our hotel) and rested before getting ready for the wedding. The wedding started at 4 o'clock and we stopped somewhere so we could split a hamburger to tide us over until the reception because we were starving. Well, had we been 5 seconds later, we would have been IN the wedding. Of course most weddings start a little late (I've heard of some weddings starting up to 2 hours late) but since this was an Air Force environment, it started as close to 16:00 hours as possible. We walked in just before the bridesmaids started walking down the aisle. Heh heh.

The wedding was nice, Ian's sister sang The Rose and it sounded great. It always is amazing to me how quick weddings are compared to how much planning and preparation go into them.

Between the wedding and the reception, we went to check out Monterey Bay. Traffic was really bad since it was a holiday weekend, but we found a great parking space between the Fisherman's Warf and Cannery Row. As we were sitting there taking in the sunshine (in our wedding attire), I heard some seals barking in the distance. Sure enough, as we walked down the pier, there were tons of seals resting on the rocks. We were really close to them and it was cool to see them in their natural habitat. They didn't smell all that great, but it was cool none the less. We also saw an otter and lots of birds like pelicans etc.

We then went to the Navy Postgraduate campus to attend the reception. Since neither Ian nor Amanda are from Monterey, there weren't a lot of people there--which was nice because it was very cozy. It was good to see Ian again and for him to meet Andy. Amanda is cool because she is learning Chinese at the DLI. So the tables were marked with Chinese characters and they had Chinese take-out boxes just like we did at our wedding. We had a great time.

On Sunday morning, we had planned to attend a local ward's sacrament meeting before we set out for the day's activities. Andy would add that the church building was in a great location and looks more like an Elk's Lodge than a traditional LDS chapel. He was quite fascinated by the layout. As I was sitting there, I looked up and to my surprise, I recognized Lisa (Wade) Peery!!! At one point she got up to take one of her kids out to the bathroom, so I got up and went out to talk to her. It was great to see her. She has six kids and is living in Palo Alto. They were in Monterey on vacation so it was all the more fortuitous that I saw her there. It made my day.

After sacrament meeting, we set out on the 17-mile drive in Monterey. The 17-mile drive is basically a 17-mile circle that takes you along some great beaches and golf courses including Spanish Bay, Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Poppy Hills. The area is absolutely beautiful and it looks just the way I had imagined it would....rocky shores and beautiful homes.

We then continued on to Carmel-By-The-Sea. There were a lot of little shops and people. By the time we made it down to the beach (at the bottom of a hill) we had about 5 minutes to eat our lunch before we had to head down the road to make it to our reservations to tour the Hearst Castle.

The drive down the coast was extremely beautiful but kept winding back and forth and we BARELY made it to the Hearst Castle in time for our tour. At one point, Andy looked out across a bay and made the comment that a rock formation was very "bulbous". Indeed, it was, but I couldn't stop laughing at his use of the word--I have no idea where it came from, but it became a big joke from then on.

The Hearst Castle was interesting. William Randolph Hearst certainly had way too much money and crazy ideas. The man had a zoo on his property. What was he thinking? All in all, I'd say it was too ornate for my tastes. It was about 100 degrees and I must admit that the swimming pools (both indoor and out) looked very welcoming. We stayed in San Luis Obisbo Sunday night.

Monday morning we went to Solvang - a small danish village north of Santa Barbara. We ate Aebleskivers - a yummy danish dessert. After walking around for a bit, we picked up some cheese and crackers and went to Nojoqui Falls. It was a short hike and by Jamie's Hawaii standards, it was not much of a waterfall - more of a trickle. After the hike to the falls we continued home by driving through Santa Barbara and luckily had very little traffic through LA back to Orange County.

Andy's Birthday

Please see the link below for pictures and descriptions of Andy's fun trip with his Mom and sister, Melanie, to see Emma for his Birthday in North Carolina.

http://melaniepearson.blogspot.com/

American Gladiators!!!

Question: How awesome are the American Gladiators?!?

Answer: Very.

Andy and I are in Arizona--which means we are away from our DVR. Last night we were forced to watch live TV. This is something we rarely do. We therefore had the joy of watching an episode of American Gladiator on ESPN Classic! It was a lot of fun to reminisce as we watched the likes of Tower, Ice, Lace, Zap, Nitro, Turbo, Diamond, Storm etc. compete in events like the Assault, Powerball, Atlasphere, Gauntlet and THE ELIMINATOR. Good Times and Good Memories. We highly recommend it!!

As a side note, Andy is in Phoenix doing his annual internal audit for William Lyon Homes. He has been traveling for the entire month of August and can't wait to get home tomorrow. I came to Arizona because I can work from just about anywhere (yay for VPNs!!) and I conducted a 2-hour Continuing Education course for the Maricopa County Public Fiduciary's office (one of our clients). I spoke about the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (exciting--I know). I was very nervous in preparing 2-hours worth of information, but the class went well and I am VERY glad it's over!

YW Activities

We've had some pretty fun YW activities the last week or so, and I thought I'd share some pictures. For one of our weekly activities, we went to Ikea and had a photo scavenger hunt. The girls loved it. One of the other advisors went to Ikea on a Saturday and made up a list of things they would have to find like a stuffed frog, their favorite kitchen design, a bath tub, 5 candles in a fireplace, the Ektorp chair etc etc. When they found the item, they had to take a picture of it with someone in their group in the picture.


It just so happened that the priests didn't have enough people show up that night to play the game they were planning on playing, so they joined us. It was boys vs. girls and the girls won...mainly because they made it back on time. I think the guys just about got kicked out a couple times because they really got into it. It reminded me of the time a bunch of my friends drove all the way out to Mililani to play WalMart games. Whoot Whoot!!



We also wanted to get the girls together for a breakfast before school started. So we went around to each girl's house on Saturday morning (we started waking them up at 7:30am) and we brought them over to Sis. Hoke's house for Belgian Waffles.


It was fun, but most of the girls did not appreciate waking up so early on a Saturday. They were good sports about it though.