Last April I was in Minnesota for nearly 1.5 months. I was able to enjoy time with family as well as photograph a few weddings. In June I returned back to Oklahoma and I have recently started working at the local hospital on the med/surg floor for nursing. It is a very casual job to keep me busy when time is slow! In the middle of August I returned to Minnesota for three weddings! I also took advantage of the time off during the week and spent it at my cabin. It was a much needed retreat! Tonight I am packing up and getting ready for the long drive back to Oklahoma. But not without a trip to the great Minnesota Get-Together (the State Fair). I will have to drag myself to spinning class after eating all the fried food on a stick!

In just a couple days I will be back in Oklahoma getting back into my nursing job and cooking dinner for Matt (I miss my hubby)!! I will be back in Minnesota for a week at the end of the month and then the travel slows down again for a bit! I have LOVED my time at home, but it is time to go back and live life! I will leave you with a preview from the three weddings I did during this last trip to Minnesota!

Love you Matt!

It took me a while to figure out that these boats were actually taxis!

It ended up being pretty easy to find our hotel and get checked in. We wanted to get out and explore right away. I felt like I didn’t really know where to start first since I had not done a lot of research beforehand on the city. I said lets just go look at postcards and find out what sites there are to see.

We found out that there was this big piazza called Piazza San Marco. We tried to follow a map to get there and we also asked for directions, but it started to get dark and we didn’t know our way back to the hotel.

We thought we would follow the sun since we knew it was setting in the west, but once the sun set we still had not found our way back. At last we found someplace familiar and got back towards our hotel. We were sad that we never made it to Piazza San Marco.

We found a small restaurant to have dinner close to our hotel and decided we better not go too far or we might get lost again. Thinking back this was the best salad I ever had! Fresh salami, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, and topped off with fresh olive oil!

The food was just amazing! I had to take pictures!

Our last day in Italy! We took a little walk not far from our hotel to just take in a little more of Venice.

Italy you will be missed!!!! This was our last trip to Europe during Matt’s time at Delta. I don’t know when we will ever be back and I am sad to know that most likely it won’t be while traveling first class! I am going to have to just get used to it.

The Gates of Paradise on the Battistero di San Giovanni.

This is the Florence Duomo. A truly magnificent structure with so much history. Since we were literally stopping through Florence we did not have time to explore the interior of any of the places we visited. I can just image how amazing it looks inside.

This the the Baptism of Christ above the Gates of Paradise of the Battistero di San Giovanni.

I miss having all the great wine with our meals.

And I REALLY miss the salads in Italy. There is just nothing compared to their freshness of the veggies and cheeses. Also using the fresh olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper is better than our thick, creamy ranch. MMmm!

And off to our last city … Venice, Italy!

We never got a chance to visit all five little villages in the Cinque Terre, but Vernazza was so beautiful I was happy enough there. We decided to take one of the hiking paths over to Monterosso on our first afternoon. We ended up taking the hardest path of the entire area. Let me tell you, for me, it was hard. It reminded me how out of shape I am. BUT it was sssooo worth it! The views from the top are unbelievable!! It still takes my breathe away. And we had a great reward waiting for us at the end!

Some of the path was literally 12 inches wide. And this was a one way path with people coming from both ways. It was tough to share the path when you needed to. At one point I lost my footing when I stepped on what looked like a bunch of leaves, but it was branches and my leg gave way. It didn’t go down much, but is shows that this path was not for the faint at heart.

We could see Monterosso from here. It wouldn’t be long now!

Ahh our much deserved reward! We climbed out to these rocks and swam in the crystal clear blue Mediterranean Sea! I even cliff jumped for the first time!

We wandered the streets of Monterossos and had some lunch before catching the train back to Vernazza. This is one of my favorite pictures! I just love the angles, textures, and colors of everything!

Our first night we went to a place that was recommended to us, but I still don’t think I ever got the name. We found it just by how the location was described. I had their homemade pasta with pesto sauce. This was to die for! The food here was just amazing!

On our last day we just enjoyed the town and did some shopping. Our last night we sat out on the pier, had dinner, and watched a beautiful sunset go down.

I hope that I can someday come back to this amazing area of Italy! Tomorrow Matt and I split off from his parents and finish our trip alone.

Our first activity for the day was to head out and see the leaning tower!

You know we had to do it!

Matt had a moped and one of his dreams was to ride one around in Italy!! So we found a shop where we could rent some and we road them out to Lucca, Italy.

The lunch wasn’t amazing compared to other places I had been in Italy, but it filled my tummy! Most shops were closed this day since it was Sunday so we didn’t get to much but walk around.

The mopeds were a blast to ride around! It was a little scary trying to read the road signs, but so so fun!

This is a view of Pisa from a hill we road the mopeds on. It is hard to see, but you could see the leaning tower from up here. It was so beautiful!

Since flying stand-by we started to get used to our first class treatment. I am sad to know that is over! It was fun to be able to bring family along to enjoy the experience. There is just nothing like traveling first class to another country. The service, food, entertainment, and room to stretch your feet was amazing. Good thing we were able to take advantage of the opportunity to sleep since little did we know we were in for a long first day.

We arrived in Milan, Italy around 9AM (1AM at home). We were able to find a restaurant open around 10AM so were could have some lunch before heading out on our travels. We have been traveling for over 8 hours now.

One of my favorite pizza’s in Italy!

This was our first experience using the trains in Italy. It took a while to figure out the routes and read the signs, but we were masters by the end of the trip. Our first train was heading for La Spezia but we were stopping in the Cinque Terre to find rooms for a couple nights. We didn’t have any hotel’s booked (you will find out later we regretted that decision).

AAhh we arrived in Vernazza, Cinque Terre to find a hotel. Matt and his dad went on foot to find a place for us to stay while Mary and I enjoyed a little gelato and time to relax.

We were all very disappointed to find out that there were no rooms in Vernazza and we were probably not going to find a room in any of the other small towns nearby. Our next best chance was to continue to La Spezia to find a place there. At this point we still had our luggage (carry-ons thankfully) and we had been traveling for nearly 14 hours. So we said good-bye to the Cinque Terre for now with plans to head back tomorrow.

After walking around in La Spezia until dark we ended up not finding a hotel there either. We tried getting online and the closest hotel we could find was in Pisa. So we booked it online, went back to the train station, and of course had to get some McDonald’s. Nothing else was open. Shortly after we ate they closed and kicked us out. It was about 11PM when we found out the train was canceled because of a strike and we would have to wait until after midnight.

Finally we arrive in Pisa, Italy! We trekked on foot to our hotel and came to find the town was surprisingly busy at 1AM.

As we were wandering the streets to find our hotel we came around the back side of the park that the Leaning Tower is in. We had not expected to see it while we were walking. It was a magnificent sight to see in the light of the moon! How amazing to think that not many people see the tower at nearly 2:00 in the morning! At this point I could only laugh … and take some pictures!

After a long day and a little frustration we finally made it to our first hotel. Got to bed right away and planned to figure out the rest of our trip in the morning!

If I could have just one wish,
I would wish to wake up everyday
to the sound of your breath on my neck,
the warmth of your lips on my cheek,
the touch of your fingers on my skin,
and the feel of your heart beating with mine…
Knowing that I could never find that feeling
with anyone other than you.

- Courtney Kuchta -