These are going to get long. Spain Day 2

Second day started off well. We decided to pay the insanely high price for the tourist bus and not worry about trying to walk everywhere. It was the best decision and possibly my favorite part of the trip (sitting with the breeze in my face, taking in the sites while listening to commentary, getting on and off the bus right in front of the sites we wanted to see, and NOT HAVING TO WALK). We decided to do all the Gaudi stuff in the morning then the museums in the afternoon. First stop was the Casa Mila the apartment building Guadi designed. Picture below.


Second stop was the Sagrada Familia the cathedral Gaudi designed which has been under construction for 100 years and will probably be under construction for 100 more. I didn't know if I would really like this cathedral because it looks kinda funky but it was really cool and learning more about all the symbolism made it even more interesting.

The Nativity Facade
(only part finished in Gaudi's lifetime)

The Passion Facade


Interior
(its suppose to look like your standing under trees. Gaudi's religious vision was a love of nature)

Next stop Parc Guell which we almost didn't go to (Rick Steves only gave it one star) but it was my favorite thing we saw this day! Parc Guell was a luxury gated community with a big park Gaudi designed but the idea never caught on. Today it is a public park. Gaudi's house which is a musuem can be found at the park as well. Very cool. I give it 3 stars.

Danny in front of the frog/lizard fountain and market place

Danny on the frog/lizard fountain

Liz in front of Gaudi's house

Top of the market place

The Gate Houses to Parc Guell

We had lunch at the park consisting of focaccia pizzas. Yummy! We decided to take a rest and ride the bus around for the rest of its route before deciding on our next stop.

Bus Buddies!

Olympic torch and stadium

Barcelona at its best....by bus!

We finally decided to get off at the harbor to visit a museum which had the city's roman ruins in its basement. Well it ended up being the wrong museum but we got to take these fun pictures (I think they explain themselves).



After learning lots at the Cataluyna History Museum we walked down to the beach.

So pretty!!!

The Mediterranean!

We got back on the bus, finished the route, and had dinner at Burger King because we were too tired to decide to go anywhere else. It was an excellent day!

Exhausted Danny at Burger King

Oh where to begin? Spain Days 0-1

Before I begin I should give a shout out to my new niece (no name yet..hurry up already!). You can see cute pics of her at the Maxfield Family link to the right.

So our trip started out with a panic. I'll admit Danny and I were not the most prepared people for this trip (lessoned learned believe me!). We didn't start booking hotels or looking up train schedules until a week before. We didn't finish until...well we didn't finish. The night before our departure we were up until all hours of the night trying to reserve all sorts of stuff and pack. We made about 4 trips to Walmart within 2 hours trying to get everything we needed. Finally I just went to bed.

In the morning it was a mad rush to get everything done. In the process I discovered my credit card Danny had been using to book everything with was missing. Major problem. We searched high and low, under every doll and stuff animal and to no avail could find the card. Finally 30 mins before our plane was to depart we left for the airport (good thing its only a 10 min drive away). With no card in hand, I was frantically calling the credit card company who offered very little help. I of course was so panicked about everything that the minute we got through security I had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Danny was waiting outside with 7up in hand. We walked on the plane hoping for the best.

We made it to Salt Lake and to Atlanta, where we had a 12 minute lay over to change planes and of course we had to take a bus to a different terminal (what airline does that to someone??), and finally to Barcelona. Once we got our packs we tried to find the metro station which was not as obvious as we thought it was going to be. We opened up Rick Steves to read the directions and there it was...the credit card! Thank goodness!! However, Rick Steves still didn't help us find the metro (ahem...better description please Rick Steves!). Danny's big moment came to ask the native information desk lady for directions and he spoke English to her! I couldn't believe it. I was in for an adventure.

Finally we found the metro station. We bought our T-10 sharable ticket and got on the train feeling quite good about ourselves. (Picture below).

While riding the metro I was trying to compare our google map of the hotel and the map of the metro to see what stop we should take. I finally figure that we need to change lines to the purple and get off at the University stop. I was telling Danny the instructions when a nice lady next to him asked if we needed help. He showed her the map of where our hotel was and she told us just to get off at the last stop and it would be a short walk. So I figured I wasn't reading the map right and she would know more so we followed her directions. Below are the pictures from our hours of wandering the streets trying to find our hotel because the lady was wrong (and I was right).

What we later discovered is the Block of Discord


Ramblas
(not my favorite...lots of pick pockets and street performers trying to scare tourists)

Finally after my wonderful deduction that "well our hotel is off the ramblas which is towards the harbour. And since I can't see any moutains or ocean I'm going to guess that we should walk downhill because wouldn't the land slop down towards the ocean?" We found the ramblas and I proved to be the superior navigator. A half hour later I was lying on the street cursing and admitting defeat to the city planners after having walked for a total of 2 hours with my pack in 100 degrees and been pooped on by a bird. Danny provided emotional support and got me off the sidewalk and encouraged me to look upon the map once more. We made it to the hotel, Pension Miami, dripping in sweat. For some reason after leaving our packs at the hotel we decided we would try to walk to the Picasso Museum which ended up being rather far (Danny was trying to make up for the 18 hours we spent sitting on the plane and not walking). I was really excited for the museum because I know a fair bit about Picasso and because the museum is housed in a couple of old palaces. It was alright. I still maintain the exhibit I saw 10 years ago at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in SF was better. That night we ate at Pan and Co. which was a bit of a disappointment but much welcomed normal food. I passed out at 6:30 pm.

Nightmares

So for graduation Danny and I are going to Spain. We leave in less than a week and up until today all we have done to plan for the trip is buy plane tickets. Today we planned our train travel and started booking "hotels". I was under the impression that we were staying in hostels but apparently for Danny and I it would cost the same to get a cheap hotel room. I gave Danny a hotel buget and he has been doing an excellent job in booking us places that are Liz friendly and within budget. However, our major cities are proving a little difficult. Our first stop in Spain is Barcelona where we will be staying in Pensian Miami (1 star out of 5)... reminds me of Just Married when they stay in the Pensian in Venice...I wish I'd never seen that movie now. And it recieved only 6 out of 10 stars for cleanliness. I'm a little scared. What does 6 stars mean? Neutral? Bad but they don't want to say so? I'm bringing my own sleeping bag thingy for sure! I also have nightmares from Ocean's 13 and the 5 diamond guy....eeeeewwww. I hope I make it through the beginning of our trip!

Stats

Palo Alto

• Spanish for Tall Tree
• Population 58,598
• 5th most expensive place to live in the US
• Average home sales price $1,677,000
• Home to Stanford University
• Companies headquartered in Palo Alto include HP, Facebook, Accenture, VMware, and Photobucket
• Noteworthy residents: founders of Google, founder of SunMicroSystems, founder of Yahoo, Herbert Hoover, Teri Hatcher, Steve Jobs, Shirley Temple, Steve Young, and founders of Facebook
• Home to the garage where HP started
• Home to the apartment Liz and Danny will live in until they retire

Thanks to the many friends who came to help us pack!! Thanks to danny's family as well for helping us move! We could not have done it without you!

Thanks to wikipedia for the stats

It has begun

Everyone is finding love and/or jobs and moving (including us). It is the end of an era in Provo. This last week Danny's good friend Brian got married and it was one of the last times to see all the "boys" before we move. So sad. We also started our moving project. Hate it. I hate everything about it. Especially the fact that I packed all Saturday by myself. Danny conveniently found an excuse to miss out on it all..."my car needs an oil change and it might take all day." Riiiiggghhhttt.

I packed 17 boxes. Only about 1/4 of our stuff. Darn.

Where did all this crap come from??? AHHH!! Garage Sale...Saturday 24th 9am at the "boys' house". Let me know if you need directions.

Too bad we have yet to book a mover or an apartment. This might be interesting.

Right Back Where I Started From....CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME!

So as many of you might already know we are moving to California in a month. Right back were I started from literally...Palo Alto, CA. Danny has a new job with a consulting firm there and we are excited to start our new adventure. We are sad to leave all our friends but hope we will have lots of visitors!



The past 2 weeks have been filled with lots of activities. First Danny graduated! Finally!!! I am so proud of him and all his accomplishments! Both our families came into town and we had lots of celebrating and eating cake!

Danny didn't want to walk at graduation so my mom had to bribe him with a special cake. Its the same kind as our wedding cake. Yummy!


I don't know why our faces are so white. We look like ghosts! Happy Graduation!

After Graduation we headed to California to look at housing. It was fun seeing my aunt and uncle and cousins but it was not fun seeing the expensive housing! On our way to California we stopped for gas in Wendover and hit the jackpot...in dolls. My sister's favorite dolls are discontinued and near impossible to find. We had to buy her used dolls off ebay for christmas! I found a whole wall full at the gas station. Needless to say...we bought one of every kind.


Danny was kind enough to let me take a picture of him with the doll wall. Enjoy Becca!

After our short trip to California we drove to Vegas for Danny's sister's wedding. Everything about the wedding was beautiful and it was lots of fun hanging out with the family. Congrats Lindsey and Pike!

The bride and groom

BFFs

Girls

All in all it was a fun break before our month filled with packing and moving!

I'm in love with a car

After searching for more than a year I have found the car I love. Unfortunately this car is out of the price range and goes against all logical reasoning. So I will just have to stare at the pretty picture. Enjoy the 2008 Land Rover LR2.