explore.

Sometimes you need to just get out & explore! Life is so much more fun when you're seeing, touching, hearing, smelling & living in the outdoors & mingling with the natives.

Whether you're in New York preparing for a new step in your life, backpacking through Europe on your own after college, moving to another country with a one-way ticket or just traveling with your family, make the most of it! Have a little or a lot of fun & get out there & EXPLORE!

This holiday break (this is a bit belated), my parents & I traveled to Peru & the Galapagos. We met the people, we walked the streets, we learned how to make colors out of bugs, we trekked on ancient ruins & cities, we swam with sea lions, we got our hands dirty, we played local bar games, we watched Sally Lightfoot crabs' mating dance, we ate the food (guinea pig & alpaca) & drank the drink, we listened to the music & we (attempted) to talk the talk! It was an experience to remember & something I couldn't even try to forget.

We started off in Peru with our "dear friend," Guido & became engrossed immediately in the city of Lima.  Sometimes it's hard to get out of a geocentric mindset. I visit a city in another country knowing it's not permanent, knowing that in a few weeks, I will be back at home sleeping in my own bed.  I forget that for millions of other people, this is their life. They walk these streets every day, they wear these clothes & they pass those buildings. For me it's travel, for them it's life.

Lima was a bustling city. There were cars everywhere, tall buildings, shopping malls, museums & even a coast line. There were parks & homeless people, bicyclists, stray cats & litter on the streets.  There was graffiti on the walls, street art being sold, bus stops, Starbucks & Subways on the corners & restaurants everywhere. The city I'm describing doesn't sound that different from Chicago or New York, but let me tell you... it was a whole other world.

Something interesting about Lima is that it never rains. EVER. Lima averages less than 1 inch of rain per year & it shows too. The city is dry & the roofs of all the buildings & homes are flat. Who needs a slanting roof when there's no rain? Another different aspect is how Lima itself is broken up into several different areas. When driving in the city, you can cross an invisible line & the city goes from clean & neat to trash piled everywhere with dogs rolling in anything they can muster. That invisible line is the difference between a governor with money & a good following & a governor with no funds on the brink of being booted out. The city was a checker board of safe & sketchy areas.

Once in the country, there was no questioning where you were. The people dressed in the brightest colors, wore the coolest hats & lived the most interesting, yet simple lifestyle. While nothing seemed to be actually going on... everything was happening. Little girls would sing to us for petty change, small snacks or stickers, women would sell everything & anything they could get their hands on & kids would scream in excitement over a small bracelet or trinket. They were a crafty bunch & it was cool seeing different ways people use their skills. Every skill had a purpose.

Now it's time to talk about Machu Picchu... It was crazy. I literally (yes... actually literally) have goosebumbs as I am even thinking about the place. I can't even imagine what Hiram Bingham thought as he pushed aside the overgrown Amazon bushes & saw that he was standing on an ancient Incan city from the 15th century.  How did this society build & sustain a life on the side of a jagged mountain in the middle of nowhere? Seriously... how? It was so incredible that it is hard to explain. I would love to return one day & hike the four-day Inca trail.  I would love to walk up to the Sun Gate once again, but this time from the other side, & see Machu Picchu sneaking out from behind the fog. I know that would just taste so good after four days of hiking & waiting.

We did tons of other stuff in Peru too, but if you've actually made it this far... you're probably about ready for me to quit writing; however, I haven't even talked about the Galapagos yet & you don't want to miss this! It will be quick... I promise!!!

This was our friend, the sea lion... he just wanted to play & luckily he invited us to join him! This little guy had so much personality & it made our adventure awesome! He swam with us in the water, barked like a dog, chewed sticks & practically played fetch.  He is the dog of the sea & for good reasons too!

 
The final most incredible part of this adventure was the group we traveled with. We went on a tour to these amazing places with a company called, Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) & we were lucky enough to have the most dynamic & incredible individuals traveling alongside us. It was great getting to interact with people who have done such amazing things, have lived in incredible places, have traveled to the strangest locations, have been through crazy experiences & in the end, all ended up on a dusty road in the middle of Ollantaytambo with a huge smile on their faces & a taste for adventure.  I know this experience could have been 100% different & 100% less thrilling if the group had been a dud. But the group was awesome & I wouldn't have wanted anything to change; not even 1%.

Anyway, now is the time to explore. Now is the time to go outside. Now is the time to travel. Now is the time to follow the wind. Because there just isn't a better time than now.  Whether you do it now, or do it in 5 years... guess how old you'll be in 5 years? You'll be 5 years older... (good math, I know).

This is cliche, but I love it, because it reminds me of my aunt... so here it goes.  "It's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years!"-Good ole Abe Lincoln. So I'll say it again, get out there & EXPLORE today!

~ciao~

spontaneity.

There is a well-known expression, “not all who wander are lost,” but sometimes you just are.  

This week, my mom & I flew to St. Louis to visit my grandpa after his heart surgery.  We spent the 3 days showing him the much-needed love & hanging out with other family members until returning home to Stuart. 

On the way home, our flight to Chicago was delayed & therefore, our connection home was missed.  If you know the Harvey clan at all than you know we have had zero luck in airports lately, stuck in a land my mom likes to call “airport hell.”  In the past 2 years, every storm across the country & every issue a plane could have left us in another lovely airport hotel.  (Shoutout to AC for providing Marriott love when the going got rough & the airport wasn't able to help a sista out).  

Anyway… here we were, “Mommy & Rachele together at last without those icky boys” stuck in Chicago for the night with a 9:20 am flight.  After the initial disappointment of landing in Chicago after our flight home took off in front of us, I came up with the most brilliant beyond brilliant of plans.  What if we took advantage of this sucky situation & spent the following day exploring the city?  Make lemons out of lemonade, right? 

Now I know everyone approaches their moms differently because moms are known to self-destruct at any time, especially when under unnecessary stress, but for my mom, you just have to work that pros list, mix in a little chutzpah, smile uncontrollably, & make her laugh.  It only took me 4 hours to work my argument until she was calling American Airlines herself to change our flight to 6 pm the following day.  She may have whined along the way in her little exasperated struggle that usually gets me to stop heckling her, but I didn’t budge, & if I hadn’t, this blog wouldn’t exist.  

When moms go rogue take 1.  

Of course when I called AA at first, a woman answered, who could smell my fear & lack of domineering chutzpah, & told me changing our flight to a later departure time would cost us $200 a person.  I hung up feeling defeated after fighting my mom for 4 hours to simply consider the idea of “spontaneity,” but I convinced her to use her feminine wiles to change their minds.  The truth is… my mom’s got talent.  I am pretty sure she could smell the fear on the operator and he had no choice but to give the woman what she wanted.  6 pm flight, no charge, plenty of seats, badabing badaboom.

We ate a deep-dish dinner at Gino’s Eastside to maintain our figures & then woke up to a day in Chicago.  We began our spontaneous adventure with an architecture boat cruise through the city, a trip down memory lane for my mom & a practically brand new memory for me (I had visited Chicago once before circa 1998, but due to recent budget cuts in memory & in iCloud storage, I have very little space in my brain for vacations pre-2001.  They gotta be there somewhere though, right?).  

Anyway, the water cruise was beautiful & the city has buildings like no other.  Apparently after the 1871 fire that Ms. O'Leary's cow started, Chicago created an architecture competition to rebuild the city.  Therefore, it is a relatively new city that grew right alongside Lake Michigan.  The buildings tower alongside the river that snakes through the heart of the city & what is even more special is that a walking path has been preserved all along the river for pedestrians & joggers to enjoy.  

After the end of the tour, we walked along the river walk & up to the street level on Michigan Avenue where we explored.  The eclectic architecture between modern, classical, & impressionism was fun to look at & the size of everything around us was much larger than anything we’d ever see in Stuart, obviously.  Fun Fact: the only hill in Stuart used to be a landfill…  

Once we walked up & down the “Magnificent Mile” a few times, we crossed the river toward Millennium Park to see “The Bean.”  This strange curvaceous structure is fairly new to Chicago, but is an interesting sculpture because it reflects the view of the city & yourself & it is shaped like… you guessed it, A BEAN!

Our walkabout Chicago was short-lived, but definitely a positive compared to being stuck in “airport hell” with a displeased attitude.  We felt like Ferris Bueller for the day… skipping out on reality to a day in the city.  Maybe we didn’t have a random parade to “twist & shout to” or a visit to the impressionist museum to stare at tiny dots for hours, but we did have our spontaneous outing that was 100% out of character… maybe not for Ferris, but for us!  

I have known my mom for a little over 21 years now, & I will admit she is pretty fantastic all-around, but specifically what I can say about her is that she can plan.  Whether it is a safari in Africa, a RV adventure through Alaska, a Spring Break trip to Costa Rica, a ski trip to Colorado, a summer getaway in Europe, a tour through China, a road trip up the east coast, a casual visit with Daniel, or my Bat Mitzvah in Israel, my mom has an itinerary planned out & sent to family, friends, pets, the police station, & any acquaintances in the tri-state area.  She is more organized than most people I know & can plan a trip like a ninja on steroids.  Her keen sense of travel is what has made my childhood such a perfect adventure & has given us all such wonderful lives.  

So… I guess what I am trying to say is that my mom has always been a planner.  This, of course, is not a negative, but is an attribute that I believe highly describes her motivated self.  That is why this spontaneous layover in Chicago was a wonderful surprise to me.  I have to admit I did not think I’d win the argument, but I guess that is what is great about my mom… she always puts myself & Daniel & Scott first because she loves seeing us happy.  

I don’t remember where I heard this story… it may have been a question Daniel asked or just some oral tale passed down among knowing mothers, but I was told that a child turned to his or her mother once on Mother’s Day & said, “why isn’t there a kids day?”  The mother than replied with, “because every day is kids day.”  & it’s true.  How lucky are we kids to have a day devoted to us almost every day of the year?

But today is her day.  Happy Mother’s Day to the most devoted & wonderful MAMA BEAR around.  I know I have written posts before about how lucky I am to have a mom like mine, but sometimes she just goes above & beyond… like all the time really.  I love that you can laugh at yourself & your stupid questions, I love that you call me “Baby Bear,” I love that when you smile your face does too, I love that you listen, I love that you are sensitive like me, I love that you have specified “off duty” times of the day, I love that you recycled that vest that you loved so much (you know what I’m talking about), I love that you like to travel, I love that you can talk to anyone & to walls, I love that you have chutzpah, & I love that you love me (PS: Everyone else out there who is reading this should be SUPER jealous that she is not your mom because she is awesome & you’re missing out!!!).  

I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU LOVE ME! (& it is possible…).

-Ciao

bahama mamas.

Usually during Spring Break I hit the slopes in Colorado with my family, which is always super fun, but as promised, I come back pale & with dry skin, while everyone else is perfectly bronzed & sun kissed.  Not this year ladies & gentlemen... I decided to switch up my tactics a little bit & fall under the spell of the "college spring break."  A vacation to me has always been the opposite of that typical "paradise."  The snow is my happy place, but sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet & cruise with the rest of them.  So I jumped into Spring Break 2014 with a cruise to the Bahamas to become a "Bahama Mama!" 

So my roommates & I set out on an adventure to Miami to set sail on the Norwegian Sky for 4 glorious days with crystal clear oceans, white sand beaches, tropical drinks, & relaxing.  It's like that song... "I like sipping piña coladas... & getting caught in the Bahamas with 368357247254 other college students... blah blah blah... & getting caught in the rain." Those are the lyrics, right?  Well, if not all those things happened anyway.

Well anyway, this week was quite the experience.  Compared to my casual family Spring Breaks, this crazy cruise ship was crawling with college kids drowning the pain of failed midterms in $9 drinks at the bars.  I am not lying when I say the ship had about 90% college students & 10% families.  & boy did I feel bad for that minority group.  The American families were aware of the college cruise phenomenon enough to steer clear of the ships, but the foreign families just looked shell-shocked at all times.  I don't know what they were saying, but the facial expressions said it all.  It's like they have never seen American students fighting over college football while double fisting a beer in one hand & long island ice tea in the other.  Seriously though... 

On our first port of call was an island owned by the cruise line called Great Stirrup Cay, where we took a tender to the island & snorkeled in the water.  There was a ship wreck in the water for us to look at & we took sweet underwater pics with my Gopro.  The only thing that is rough about the Gopro is that you can't view any of the pictures you've taken so it is legitimate torture waiting to see what you captured.  Especially on a cruise since I didn't carry my laptop with me!  But when you do it's comparable to "The Hangover," except with laughs, because of the attractive angles taken with the fish eye lens.  Kerry understands...

So after spending the entire day in the sun & swimming & barely finishing A SINGLE piña colada (really I drank about half & Rebecca jumped in to save me from Spring Break embarrassment), we returned to the tender.  I know... I am pretty crazy.  

Anyway, it was one of the last tender's back to the ship so we got some of the rowdiest leftovers.  At this moment we learned that the 3 main colleges aboard the Norwegian Sky were UCF, FAU, & then the smallest third, UF (Go Gator), which is important because "Drunkie 1," an FAU Owl in the flesh, was stirring up some real fights with his negativity on this past Gator football season.  I forgot how well those Owls did... oh wait. They didn't...  The best part of this encounter was when "Drunkie 2," a UF Gator gal, pushed "Drunkie 1" to the ground & the boat roared with claps.  & this was just day 1. 

Señor Frogs.

I literally don't know how they do it... they drink all day, they drink all night, & I am the one taking naps & falling asleep before the 11:30 pm dance party on Deck 11.  Are they robots?

On day 2 we traveled to Nassau, where we walked around the city for a bit.  We walked up & down the main drag before making the trek to Fat Tuesday right on the beach.  I was all about drinking the Bellini flavored slushee that tasted like smiles & laying out with my favorite roommates.  

By this time, the college students have been drinking for almost 3 days straight.  Still standing, slightly comprehensive, no recollection.  I think I may have been doing Spring Break all wrong... that's okay though because I still had a blast. No rAgrets (not even just one letter?).  If you don't understand, watch "We are the Millers," than you might laugh. Maybe. 

Day 3 on Grand Bahama Island, our last port of call, was a great wrap up of the vacation.  We tanned on that windy day, climbed some trees, played with babies, got flashed, had blue tongues, & danced like no one was watching.  You may or may not have caught the "got flashed" portion of that sentence... everything I say is true.  For real.

Overall the week was a blast!  I am so glad that I succumbed to the cliché college adventure & that I have some great side kicks to keep me going.  A big shout out to my parents for funding my strides, Caitlin's & Michaela's parents for their driving generosity, & for Kerry's family for the welcoming stays! I hope everyone had a fun & safe #sb2014.   

        

-Ciao

iworld.

For the past month or so I have been in Hendersonville, North Carolina acting my age with young campers!  I believe camp is a critical part of a child's growth because not only does it take a child and place them in a situation where they have to make new friends face-to-face, but it creates a completely real environment with no technology to distract them.  Camp is 100% kid, which unfortunately the environment we live in now... is not.

Generations past talk about how different children are from their times.  I know my parents always talk about how much more time they spent outside with other neighborhood children; building forts, playing cops&robbers, learning how to interact with their peers with absolutely zero technology, & watching cartoons only on Saturday mornings.  Kids were described as "better seen, not heard."

My generation has the kids that grew up watching "Hey, Arnold,""Boy Meets World," and "Growing Pains."  The generation where computers were completely up and running in every house hold, video games transitioned from Nintendo64 to Game Cube to X-Box, & texting became the new fad.

However, this generation of kids was born texting & with touch screens.  They live in an "iworld."

Technology is a great thing, but is almost a contagious virus, if you will.  It has spread all across the world & is unstoppable.  There is no cure for it's aggression & people have accepted it as an integral part of their lives.  They go everywhere with their ipads, iphones, Nooks, Kindles, & more... for kids technology has replaced the "baby blanket" that trailed them everywhere.

Camp Pinnacle feeds off the idea of individuals being their "best self."  A time when no one is watching where you just are the epitome of great.  Whether it is helping others, working on something with an incredible amount of determination & endurance, or cleaning up trash that may not even be yours... being your "best self" happens so much at camp.  Kids start depending on others for entertainment rather than technology, they have hands on experience with outdoor activities rather than watching it on the big screen, & spend two whole weeks loving nature & what it has to offer.

Pure joy comes out at camp as well.  Roasting marshmallows & making s'mores by a real campfire, getting dirty but loving it, singing oldies but goodies with some of your favorite people, interacting with different age groups & even adults on a healthy level, learning to conquer some real fears in a reasonable risk kind of way, being able to get back up after you get knocked down, & just looking up at the stars at night or across the reflective lake & just love nature for the very first time brings out the best in everyone.

As an adult (sort of) observer, I can now look back on my camp experience & think how lucky I was to go to camp almost every summer from the time I was eight.  Looking back even further you realize how important the little moments were.  The singing every Sunday at the bluff, the great songs I learned, the overnights I had where we just stared at the stars, the first mountain I climbed.  Somehow, going to camp just makes you feel accomplished & fearless.

Just four weeks at camp I learned all this.  Imagine the impact on a child.

Camp can be the changing factor in a kid's life.  For me, it challenged me to work hard for a beautiful reward, meet new people, & actually love the outdoors.  Wouldn't you want that for your kid?

http://www.camppinnacle.com/?gclid=CMv8q8mf6bgCFTFo7AodV3QAJg

journey.

The top of the Ute Trail

Today was filled with some unexpected surprises.  We knew the trek we were about to take was going to be challenging, because our hiking book told us so, but we didn't know how challenging...

Our plan:
-wake up.
-act casual.
-drive up to the Ute Mountain Trail Head.
-hike for a little over a mile over steep terrain.
-relax at the top.
-eat lunch at the Sundeck.
-take the gondola down.

Except... the gondola & the Sundeck weren't at the top when we got there.

As it turns out, that steep, switchbacky, rocky, & slightly difficult trek to what is known as "the rock" is in fact only part of the hike to the gondola & the local's morning exercise.  They practically run up the thing before their morning coffee. 

When we reached the top of "the rock," we realized quickly there was not enough room anywhere for a popular mountain restaurant or a giant gondola, so we decided that the rest of the trek to the top couldn't be all that hard... right?  WRONG.  We had quite the journey this morning.  A trek that did not go as planned, but was rewarding all the same and probably even more.  The locals described it as a difficult hike, but one that people regularly & actively do.  We decided we couldn't back down from the challenge & started up.  & up... & up.

It was not as simple as it was made out to be.

I lost sight of my parents pretty far back & was on my own for the majority of the trek, which ran up the double black diamonds of Aspen Mountain.  Jackpot is a run that I have never snowboarded down, but I can now say I have trekked all the way up!  I know I have done trails comparable or possibly even more difficult through my experiences with Adventure Treks & with 30+ pounds on my back, but this hike was more of a wake-up call for me, as I have not hiked anything this difficult in years!

I was glad to have my 2 liters of water in my Camelbak because otherwise I would have run out of water.  Speaking of my Camelbak, I did something really stupid the other day.  I pulled it out of it's storage after a year of not using it & it had some mold congregating in the tube & inside the mouthpiece.  I know... YUCK!  Anyway, I was working on this problem endlessly for hours... how do you clean a small, 2 foot long tube?  I washed it with soap, I soaked it in hot water, I massaged it, I did everything, including creating a device from scotch tape.  I rolled up some paper and covered it in tape, creating a tube-like utensil to clean out the inside of the tube.  Everything was going great... it was really working, cleaning out the mold.  Until it didn't.  My device broke in half.  In half!  And guess what?  Not only did I have a mold problem, but now I had a scotch tape problem too.  DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!  Rookie mistake... luckily tubes are replaceable & only $9.99.  The simpler solution.

This picture doesn't do the vertical-ness justice.

Back to business... the trail just seemed to never end.  From the lookout point with "the rock," the distance was only about 2 more miles, but the 2,000 more feet of elevation gain was never mentioned.  I'm serious... the trail was 100% vertical, 99.23% of the time.  Interestingly enough, the portion of the trail that was actually walking up the double black diamond terrain was actually easier for me than the second half on the blue slopes.  Go figure.  Maybe it was because I was tired or maybe because the altitude was higher, but once I got to the rolling blue slope, I was only making about 20 steps before doubling over, completely out of breath.

Luckily there was a nice man behind me who gave me some good advice about my hiking skills.  He told me that hiking is a marathon... it is not as important how fast you get there, but that you get there & that I needed to slow my pace, control my breathing, & not take breaks so I do not confuse my heart rate.  I listened.  I followed his pace & made it up the last 600 vertical feet without dying.  Go Carole (Juno if you are confused by that reference)!

Let me tell you... it was worth the huffing & puffing because that beautiful panorama of Aspen Highlands, some Snowmass, Sopris, & of course our Bells.  There was bluegrass music playing by a live band & families were everywhere... enjoying the afternoons.  It was a pleasant place to be.

I waited up there for a while until my dad came & we ate lunch in the Sundeck.  I was receiving sporadic texts from my mama bear exclaiming how tired & exhausted she was... but where was she?

At one point I walked down a ways to see if she was on her way up... nada.  I asked a couple if they had passed a woman in a blue shirt, maybe in the need of a lift?  They said they had passed no one.  My original thought was "oh oh," but then I decided we must have just missed each other... she entering the restaurant from the other entrance just as I exited from the back.

I walked back up & saw my dad waving to me from a bench & let's just say mama bear was TIRED!  I won't go into any more detail because I will be toast, but this was the. hardest. thing. that. she. has. ever. done. (as I quote from her facebook status).  Proud of both my parents today... facing challenge & conquering like champs!  You guys are awesome! 

Yes... I have 3 arms.  Don't worry, I got it removed.  This is what I looked like before the plastic surgery.  

Peace & Ciaos.

riding in a wine wonderland.

GIORNO DICINOVE

Savannah, Brie, Christina, Tarah, Me!

Whaaat!

Today was awesome, and that my friends, is an understatement!  Christina and I woke up pretty early to meet the Benefields at the train station where Florence for Fun picked us up for our Chianti wine tasting adventure!  On the way we sketched on some gypsies who were scheming plans to attack travelers around the train station.  They even had their little children in on the ploy.  It is an interesting phenomenon, these gypsies.  They walk around wearing raggedy clothes, long skirts, little wedges with socks, and long greasy braids begging for money after planning out their attack while smoking and carrying large gelato bags from the gelato festival that they... paid for?  Wait... I thought they were begging from me? Hmmm... smells fishy. 

Reppin'

Anyway... the driver arrived after Savannah and Tarah raced home because they forgot the trip vouchers (Oops!) and we headed south toward the heart of Chianti for our horseback riding!  The driver was crazy.  Hands down one of the scariest, but probably one of the most fun drives I have ever been on.  Italy practically has no street laws and rules... I actually heard somewhere that traffic lights are discretionary in Naples if you catch my drift.  So, we we driving about 130 km/hr, weaving in and out of traffic in an eight seater van on the highway.  At least we could see on the highway... eventually we turned off toward the hills where the roads turned into winding, practically one-way (except they weren't!!) tiny streets that had blind blind turns every couple of seconds!  And our driver didn't slow down around those bends, no, he sped up!  It got real.

All I can say is I practically jumped out of that van when we got to the winery, happy to be in one of the most beautiful and picturesque locations I have ever seen in my life.  The hills were vibrant shades of green and villas, wineries, and castles dotted the land in the distance.  The sky, although slightly cloudy at this point, was bright blue and wonderful! Unfortunately,  still no sunflowers because of the weather, but on the bright side, today was the hottest it has been so far!  Hopefully this is the end of the cold spell and the start of the growth of sunflowers!  It was also nice just being out of the city for change.  Fiesole was a nice break from the fast pace life in Firenze, but Chianti was something else.  It was beautiful, quiet, and what you expect when you think about the countryside of Toscana.  You know what you pictured!  Isn't this exactly what you thought?  I didn't even know how urban Firenze actually was until I arrived here three weeks ago!  I only picture the rural lands like this when I think of Italy.  Rookie mistake? 

Allora, we first stopped at a beautiful villa to drop off two other ladies who were on our bus with us before heading down the hill to the stables.  We were literally riding in a wine wonderland!  I can't remember my horse's name, but he was a little feisty at times.  Horses have always been a skeptical animal to me.  They have a mind of their own and are huge!  I mean, how can something so big be considered a pet?  Well... at first my horse really liked staying close to the edge of cliffs, making me a little nervous because I heard horror stories about Christina's suicidal horse in North Carolina, but I finally controlled my reins (pun intended), and my horse and I had a nice, leisurely walk through grape vines and through pastures of apparently delicious-looking grass... just the way I like it.  I have seen far too many crazy horses, so I was happy that I actually had the chance to see what was around my during the ride.  I didn't want my horse to sense my fear... apparently they can do that.  For what purpose I will never know.  I am also glad they had the wine tasting after the horse ride because it wouldn't it be considered "Riding Under the Influence" (an RUI) if you drink and ride?  Sounds dangerous.                        

Christina's horse, Luna.  Mine was too feisty to take a picture with me!!

The riding lasted about an hour and a half with Christina trailing with the slowest horse ever named Luna and Savannah leading with a horse that preferred trotting over anything else.  Two adorable puppies followed us the whole way too!  They were so cute!  they just played the entire time, chasing each other through the vineyard, not a care in the world... if I were to be an animal, it would have been those puppies.  There was pure joy radiating off those panting pups.  When we finally got back to the stable, we of course took tons of horsey pictures and got ready to visit the winery called Torciano!

We walked up to this villa attached to the stable to freshen up.  They offered us a complimentary glass of wine (an appetizer for our wine tasting) and some homemade honeys.  The honey was fantastic.  You could even see the bee guy working with the bees right down the hill, wearing absolutely no bee suit.  Apparently he was confident enough that they wouldn't sting him!

Anyway, our driver appeared out of no where (we probably couldn't even see the car because he was driving so fast) and we drove to Torciano for an amazing three course lunch and eight course wine tasting (yes, I said eight.  No joke.  And I can barely do three...).  The owner's son greeted us at the gate and brought us into this great room stacked with wines of all different kinds, vintages, and color and we sat down at a long dining table for our feast.  To start, the wife brought us a plate of Pecorino cheese,  homemade salamis, olive oil coated bread, and a simple salad drizzled with balsamic and we were given four wines to taste with these items in our giant goblets.  Two, Chianti Classicos, one a Brunello, and another the only white wine produced in Toscana, a Vernaccia.  Being in Toscana, the dominant grapes grown in this region are Sangiovese.  It was all so perfect and the owner's son was very funny as he taught us the proper way to test a wine: how to hold the bottom of the stem with your dominant hand, swirl, smell for at least to seconds while looking down at your feet, and taste; taking in each flavor.  It was quite the show.  Of course, the wife then brought out the next course of a vegetable stew.  Again, it was amazing.  I really don't know what was in there (well, what was in there?  That one's for you Tarah!), but the flavors when mixed with the red wines were fantastic!  After this course, the owner told us to finish our glasses or pour them out for our next set of wines (I am ashamed to say I could not finish the wine and had to pour it out... wine ain't cheap y'all).  The wines were given to us, both in order of what foods to pair them with and the vintage.  The white wine was young and was eaten with soft cheeses and light meats, while the later wines were served with a meat lasagne; our next course.  Strangely enough, they sprinkled truffle oil on the lasagne... not my first choice in topping, but it was surprisingly tasty!  Who knew?  The next set of wines were tasty, but one in particular was so good!  It is fun tasting wines and actually learning what flavors you like when paired with food.  I never knew how much those flavors mattered.  Wine is a food.

It was funny because at one point one of the ladies in our group asked the owner which wine he liked the most and he responded with, "they are all my children, how can I pick one?"  There is something very special about wine here in Italy.  There is a certain magic that surrounds it.  You don't know it until you are immersed into the wine culture, but it is really a cool thing.  For a small dessert, tiny biscotti were brought out with an orangey dessert wine, which wasn't my favorite, but was interesting.  I guess you are supposed to dip the cookie into the wine (blah blah blah), but at this point I was so full and done with wine.  I barely drank two glasses and I was feeling warm.  These goblets weren't tastes!  They were practically meals themselves!


The winery had a beautiful garden in front where we hung out for a while after our feast.  Our driver let loose some geese and a chicken(?)... random.  We of course played with them because we are children and love to have fun.  Somehow the chicken ended up on my head, casual.  But it was a lot of fun.  We finally left for our last stop of the day, San Gimignano, which is a walled in city of about 700 people.  Apparently, I didn't know at the time, I visited this cute little medieval hill town back in 1999.  We sure did a lot and I don't remember a thing... *sigh*.

Us kids in 1999... Posting up in San Gimignano. We look really happy!

San Gimignano is a cool town encircled by a giant wall and is famous for all of it's maintained towers from the medieval times.  It was really pretty because of the panoramic views of the Tuscan hills.  Normally the pastures would be full of flowers, but again, it has been too cold.  It was still a sight to see! 

Even better, the whole ride over to the city, our driver blasted music and we were all dancing.  Made the drive even more safe!  He was a very funny guy.  At one point, a truck was stopped on the side of the road and he randomly parked next to him and we all just kept dancing in our seats at the man in the car.  At first he was super confused and kind of looked at us like we were crazy, but no one, not even an elderly perplexed man could not smile at a car full of people dancing to Italian hip-hop music.  it's just not possible, and out cracked a smile!  Then we sped off as quickly as it all happened. 

While walking through the streets of the city we came across this strange museum... literally called the Torture Museum and it is exactly what you think it is about, torture.  It is a museum about the devices used in the medieval times.  Therefore, we had to reenact the scene, our driver joined in as well.  We had a really great day, simply walking through this awesome city.  We watched a wedding procession; the bride beautiful in the warm sun and her groom the happiest person in the square.  It was so nice!  A perfect day for... you guessed, GELATO!  We ate our gelato on some steps, somewhere near some of the scenes where "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed.  Everything was great!

On the drive home we all passed out in the car.  The day was just so long and tiring and perfect and honestly, we were all too scared to watch our driver swerve in and out of traffic at ten million miles an hour for the second time!  All in all the day was average... don't you think?

JOKES!  It was great!  Another early and fun day tomorrow at the Cinque Terre!  How a great evening and I will see you again tomorrow!

Bacci e Abbracci!