Balloons and Wine

Last Saturday night, Brad and I met up with some of my old college friends, Dave and Lacy, at the Nebraska Balloon and Wine Festival in Gretna. I had gone a few years back and wasn't super impressed, but apparently, the popularity of the event has grown, allowing for some expansion, making it pretty awesome this year. For $15, you were admitted to the festival, given a souvenir wine glass and enough tickets for 5 wine tastings per person. There were kids activities, food and alcohol vendors, a live band and of course, the hot air balloons. It was really quite fun! Between 7pm and 7:45pm about 10 balloons took off. They landed elsewhere and then were brought back after the sun set and all lit up for us to see again. They even did a little "light show" that accompanied the music. Pictures are below - and take note that I actually forgot my camera for this event, so all I had was my cell phone. Shockingly, I was quite pleased with how my cell phone's camera worked and how the pictures turned out!

Dave and Lacy

All in all - it was a fun night! I'd do it again, for sure!

I Heart Romania

Well, this summer has been crazy/stressful/fun/rewarding/tiring/etc. I won't recap the whole summer, but I do want to talk a little about the best part. I went to Romania from July 8-19. When I traveled there in 2009, I fell in love with everything about Romania. This year was no different. I had new experiences with old friends and it was great! Below are just some of the reasons why I HEART ROMANIA....

1) They have an IKEA in Bucharest. :)

2) They have what seems like endless fields full of sunflowers!

3) It sort of reminds me of Nebraska.

4) They have ferries to take you from one side of Braila to the next. I got to ride one!

5) They have ruins from an old Greek settlement, dating back to the 13th century.

6) The car of choice there is lovingly called "The Romanian Death Trap." Also known as The Dacia.

7) Although it's slightly annoying while you are there, it's also sort of cute/endearing. Many of the "old" Romanians believe cold air or moving air is bad for your health. So, there is no air conditioning and no fans. This picture is our bus driver. He put on a makeshift hat when we insisted he roll down the windows since there was no AC and it was 97 degrees. When asked why he did that, he said he didn't want to get sick. :)

8) The food is...amazing...to die for...and in abundance.

9) They have really neat trains and train stations.

10) I got to spend time with my two closest friends from church. Lovely ladies.

11) There's a lot of times where you sort of feel like you've traveled into a different century.

12) Kids are kids anywhere you go. Here in Romania, they are cute and spunky and I love them.

13) You can hang out at the beach - and not just any beach. THE BLACK SEA!

14) This little girl is so stinkin' cute. Her name is Lois - just like my mommy. But you can only find THIS Lois in Romania.

15) They have a lot of pretty, brick streets.

16)The church is so loving and kind. Even though I hadn't seen any of them in 2 years, I still felt like I was saying hello to my family!

17) I've never met more prayerful people in my life. It's a quality that I truly admire about the people there.

18) This couple, Costel and Gianina feel like best friends. They are an amazing couple whom I have kept in contact with since meeting them two years ago. When we saw each other again, we all had tears in our eyes - same as when I left to go home. :( Gianina speaks pretty fluent English, so deep conversations with her are easier to have. Costel is a ham - always trying to make you laugh, even though he doesn't speak any English. But they both have hearts of gold and hearts to see change come in Romania.

19) Pastor Costica. He is my favorite person in the entire country of Romania. His gruff exterior fools a lot of people - and don't get me wrong...you shouldn't mess with him. But, he has the biggest heart, full of love and wisdom. If he ever says, "I have a question for you..." (In Romanian, of course!), RUN! He'll have your ear for about 2 hours listening to a "sermon" of sorts about something he's wrestling through. He doesn't speak a lick of English, but somehow he and I communicated and there is a mutual love and respect for each other. He is like a 2nd grandpa. He will be coming to Nebraska in October and I can't wait!

Writing this and looking at all these pictures have brought tears to my eyes. Romania is something I hope to share with my husband, my parents and my children someday. I heart Romania.

The Springs, Days 3 &4

Well, it's been a crazy summer - and I was terrible at keeping up with blogging. When I used to scrapbook, the experts always said, "Don't work backwards." Basically, you'll never catch up if you keep trying to work from months or years back. Keep it recent! I will do that for the most part, but feel I should at least wrap up my "Colorado Springs Vacation Series." Here it is...

Brad and I had a pretty long/productive day on Friday and we wanted to jam pack our Saturday as well. We started with a trip to the very prestigious Air Force Academy. Honestly, it was something that Brad really wanted to see, and I really only obliged to please Brad. But, I was pleasantly surprised when we got there - it was BEAUTIFUL! It was a free, self-guided tour and we got to see the amazing Academy Chapel. I was actually really impressed with and very ignorant about the requirements for admission into the Academy and what is expected of you while you are there. It's not just a regular college. You live there year round for 4 years taking classes and doing basic training, learning to fly, parachute, etc. It's crazy! Pictures are below!

The chapel was so beautiful. The main chapel was the protestant chapel, but they also had a Catholic chapel, a Jewish chapel, and a Buddhist chapel. In the basement, there is a multi-functional room used for other, smaller religious groups to worship. Thought it was pretty cool! 

The inside of the main (Protestant) chapel. There was a wedding scheduled there the afternoon we were there.

(Top Left): Jewish chapel, (Top Right): Organ in the Protestant chapel, (Bottom Left): Catholic chapel, (Bottom right): Buddhist chapel.

After we left the Academy, we ate our usual cooler lunch and then headed to the Cave of the Winds. When you arrive, there is beautiful scenery all around, but if you are brave enough, you can take a tour of the cave. There are several different tours: some for families with kids, some that are "haunted," some that are a little strenuous and hard to maneuver through. We just picked the "non-family" tour that was leaving the soonest. Apparently we ended up on the "strenuous, haunted tour." :) Lovely. Before we went into the cave, they had each of us crawl through a hole in the wall that was 3 1/2 feet wide and 3 feet tall. They needed to know that everyone could do it without being claustrophobic. They warned us that we'd be traveling for several hundred feet through cave walls that were that small. I hesitated, but decided to put my brave face on....and it turned out to be probably my favorite thing we did in Colorado.

Our tour guide was a really charismatic, young guy and a lot of fun. We had some rude, lame-o people on our tour and our guide was just determined to make it fun for everyone else. Everyone was getting really irritated with the handful of "Debbie Downers." He just made fun of them - kept blowing out their lamps, made them go to the back of the line, etc. It made the tour even more entertaining seeing the rude people get put in their place. Again, we were on the haunted tour, and we had to blow out all our lamps at certain points in the pitch black. But it was all in good fun - nothing scary. The guide had a lot of good information about the man that discovered the cave in the 1800's and his passion for it - and apparently how he and his wife haunt it now. :) Pictures below...

Brad looking out at the scenery at Cave of the Winds.

Inside the caves - it was dark and COLD!

Not an amazing picture, but it shows a few of the original supplies used when they first discovered it and our awesome little lamps!

Right after the tour, we headed back out to the veranda. It was such a beautiful view!

I just had to take a picture of the winding road down the mountain and the GPS trying to keep up! It was so funny!

After Cave of the Winds, we headed back to our favorite little spot, Manitou Springs. We found an awesome wine bar that is tucked away behind a few builidings. The entire thing isn't any bigger than the size of my parent's living room, but it was so cool and intimate. We enjoyed a few glasses of wine and then grabbed a quick dinner and went to bed.  

You can see here how the wine bar really is hidden down an alley way behind a few other buildings. :)

On Sunday morning, we woke up, packed our stuff up, and hit the rode to Denver. We had been told about a pretty amazing little breakfast spot there called Snooze. We got there about 7:30am and there was already a 35 minute wait. CRAZY! It was pretty packed inside and it got a little overwhelming for both Brad and I. We considered leaving, but were glad we stayed! I had the most amazing meal - breakfast pot pie (which was basically sausage and vegetable gravy in a puff pastry), scrambled eggs, and delicious hashbrowns. It was very good food - but the craziness was a bit much for us. When we left, the line was out the door and around the entire building.

We arrived home at about 5:30pm that night and started the lovely task of unpacking. :) We really enjoyed our trip to Colorado - it was a good getaway and a nice time of relaxation.

The Springs - Day One & Two

Well, okay. I didn't make good on my promise to update you guys on what was going on as quickly as I'd hoped. But better late than never, huh? :) Brad and I left on Thursday, May 12 for a little mini-vacation. We knew in April that we had a small window of time to get out of town and that we wanted to go somewhere "new." Brad had never seen the mountains and I hadn't been to Colorado in years, so we decided to go to Colorado Springs. It was BEAUTIFUL and a much needed getaway for us. 

DAY ONE:

We left at 7am on Thursday morning and had almost made it to Kearney, Nebraska when Brad got pulled over for going 8 over on the interstate. (Come ON! Everybody speeds on the interstate a little....dang it.)  If you look closely at the ticket, you'll see that the lovely officer circled the damage. That's right folks, $73.00. Barf. He must have been really super bored. Anyways, enough whining.

The drive in was pretty funny - kind of eventful, actually. We had been told that Denver had  been in the 90's all week (weather wise) and that it was supposed to be kind of warm. Having been to Colorado before, I know that it can get pretty cool at night and snow in May...all sorts of crazy weather. So, I packed everything from shorts and t-shirts to jeans and sweatshirts. Unfortunately, while I was worried about my own packing, I neglected my poor husband. I didn't ever tell him about the crazy weather changes, and having never been to the mountains, he was none the wiser. When we hit Castle Rock (between Denver and the Springs), it was snowing. I mean...heavy, wet snow. Needless to say, we stopped and bought Brad a sweatshirt.

We made it to Colorado Springs by about 3pm mountain time, but we were hungry. So, we dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed out to find something to eat. We landed at a little pizza shoppe downtown. By far, the best pizza I have had in a long time.

After dinner, we were pretty tired, so we stopped and got some local beer and went all "white trash" on our vacation. We laid around in our hotel, watched tv and hit the hay pretty early so we'd be up and ready to hit the town on Friday.

We both woke up pretty early (obviously, Brad was up, but even I was up this early!) and were ready to leave the hotel at 7am. We planned on making the most of our day and were ready to get started. We began at Garden of the Gods. It's beautiful - but nothing like I remembered from when I was a kid. So, it was just like a whole new experience. Brad was very excited to be in the mountains!

 

After we left Garden of the Gods, we headed to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. They were built about 700 years ago and inhabited by the Anasazi tribe. (Impressed with my knowledge, eh?) They were pretty cool, just because it wasn't like a normal museum. You could go inside the dwellings and touch the walls.

 

We then went to Seven Falls. It is a natural waterfall and it's pretty. But that's about all I have to say about it. Not too exciting. Oh, but there were about 8 millions stairs you could climb to get to the top. Mixed with the high altitude and lack of gym time lately, I felt like there was an elephant on my chest. Brad, however, is the stair climbing master every morning at the gym, so it was quite a bit easier for him....

After Seven Falls, we stopped and ate our lunch we had packed in the cooler (Deli meat sandwiches, bananas and juice boxes! Note: I'm actually the only one that drank the slightly childish juice boxes - Brad drank vitamin water). We then headed for our tour of Pike's Peak. You can either drive up the mountain (which takes a long time and is slightly dangerous) or you can ride the Cog Railway. It only took about an hour and was actually pretty fun. When we got to the top, it is LITERALLY breath-taking. Obviously, the scenery was beautiful, but there is not an excess of oxygen when you get 14,000 feet in the air. We popped in the gift shop and got one of their world famous donuts. I must also admit that on the way down, I gave away Brad's donut. You know, the one that he was waiting to eat until later....the one that you can ONLY get at the top of Pike's peak and will probably never find another like it. Yeah. That one. I'm an idiot. When the lady across from us was saying she didn't have time to get a donut, I offered to give her our "extra." Moments later, I remembered that it wasn't an extra donut - it was Brad's donut. Luckily, Brad was very gracious and kind about it. Thanks honey. :)

After we got back from Pikes Peak, we stayed in Manitou Springs (the most adorable little town) and hung out, drank some beer, and ate chips and salsa at our favorite place there...The Keg.

 

We also found this cute little outdoor arcade that used nickels and pennies. It had apparently been around since the 1930's and had most of the original games. I unfortunately talked a lot of trash, but got my butt whooped at Skeeball. My husband has a lot more humility when it comes to skeeball. :) 

We left Manitou Springs and went to dinner in downtown Colorado Springs at "The Ritz." I wish I had gotten a picture of my meal, because it was the BEST meal I have ever eaten. Oh my gosh - I could barely walk when we left...which was unfortunate, because we had parked several blocks away. :) That's all for now. I'll be back later with days 3 & 4!