London and Zurich, 2010

Okay, so this is really late, but I went to London, twice this past year. Once in October and again 2 weeks later in November. The second trip my mom tagged along and did her old routine in London town. We had amazing weather (it didn't rain one day) and London as true to it's traditions, was all ready for Christmas.

We had dinner to celebrate my friend Sylvia's birthday in this cute little Italian place in Wimbleton, went to Maytavale and Oxford Circus. Ate at the Mexican resturant in Covant Gardens and then hit the good old Camden Town for some treasures.

We ended the trip in Zurich, and this time it was freezing cold and they were in full swing for the holidays! However, they were being little Swiss stinkers and refused to light the lights until THE DAY WE HAD TO LEAVE! Such a bummer as the tree in the train square was decorated with Swavarski Crystals. Um...yeah?!

Mulled Wine is NOT good, and the weiner schnitzle we finally had. They serve it with this amazing hot mustard that I think mom wanted to buy in bulk and take home with her. Fresh pretzels and lovely chocolate. All in all.. great times.

Hawaii, 2010

As in true tradition of the Page-Thompsons, we decided this year instead of buying lots and lots of presents for each other, we would take a vacation. So, 2 weeks before Christmas, we packed our bags for 10 glorious days in Hawaii! The trip started off with a bang in Honolulu where we joined 40,000 other runners (60% of which were Japanese...go figure) to run the Honolulu marathon. 6 hours later...we were ready to start our vacation!

Honolulu was for 3 days in Waikiki Beach and from there we headed to Maui to finish our last 7 days in a condo down on Waleleau Bay. Minus the condo with no air (who does that in Hawaii?!) and the friendly geekos we boarded with, we had such fun doing absolutely nothing. We did half the road to Hana (the half where you drive up a mountain and for 20 miles do the chicken fight game with other cars on a one lane highway...next to a cliff), sun tanned on beaches (yes, I even got a tan) and drank lots of Kona coffee! We finished our trip with a journey to Waileia and did the traditional Luau. We fell asleep every night to the sound of the ocean (as we were right next to it in our condo) and our last morning we watched the sun rise while a momma and baby whale jumped in the harbor. Almost too good to be true.

Vienna, 2010

Even though this is about a month late, I hit Vienna on my last half of the trip to Zurich. Although it rained pretty much the whole time I was there, I did see some pretty cool things. I now understand why everyone that goes to Vienna falls in love with it.

Beethovan, Mozart, classical and modern artists. I went to the summer palace and hit some of the great musuems. Klepmt was all over the place and so were the nazi security guards with my purse. Kinda freaked me out leaving it with some lady behind a counter with a ticket stub. But in the end it worked out just fine!

The food wasn't exemplary per se, but the company was much appreciated. My dad's friend lived in Vienna and was nice enough to join me with his wife for lunch and a tour of the city and their home. It was a holiday in Vienna so parades were everywhere and pettit fors were in bulk! They are, by the way, amazing fresh. Some champagne to celebrate the day along with a visit to the summer palace finished off the last day. I was lucky and bought my wine glasses the day before the holiday...as the whole city pretty much shut down. Fun times.

Vienna- I will come back when it's sunny and gorgeous and see you for your real beauty.

Zurich 2010

Amazing Chocolate, Beautiful lake, Clock tower and Germans. I went to Zurich this past week (mainly for work) and had an amazing time! I walked the Bahndestrat (major shopping district), saw a local antique market- with way overpriced cow bells and lots of weiner schnitzel.

Zurich is a quite town with lots of fun history. I stayed by the opera house and close to the shopping areas, so it wasn't too hard to stay entertained! My hotel had a lovely balcony (fresh breeze was always welcomed) and the bath tub was perfect. Just the right size for a normal person! I must have one of those some day in my house.

It only rained a few days while I was there, off and on, but the sun came out and the lake was surrounded by lunchoners and duckies. I had some amazing truffles.. I can see why people pay extra for premium chocolate! I did see the swiss alps from town, briefly one day, and on my flight out of town. They are definately amazing.

I'd like to go to Geneva next time- I hear you come out of the airport you can go to either France or Switzerland. 2 stamps for the price of one!!!

Santa Barbara, 2010

I had a trip for work planned to SB this past week and I decided since David was off it would be great if we went together and he could visit his friend Heather. We had such a fun time. We stayed at the Hotel Mar-Monte, right next to the beach. The sound of the open air and ocean when the door was open on our patio just made you wish you had your own ocean to listen to!

We hung out and went to a great little place for breakfast one morning (awesome pancakes and waffles) and then went to the farmers market that evening and bought some amazing strawberries. We ate great mexican food, hung out with dear friends and met the cat that talked. We went for a run on the beach, went to Trader Joe's and ate pastacios.

The coffee was amazing, the local farmers fare fantastic and the friendship, priceless. I can't wait to go back to SB.

Moab 2010

We decided for our anniversary this year to head out to Moab, UT. We really had to go see the arches!

It's a really small town, with not a lot to do. But we were okay with that as the hiking was amazing and the arches really great. We had a ton of fun, and will probably be back this year. The 3 hour drive wasn't that bad!

Race day photos

To illustrate how cold it was on race day check out the photo with the garbage bags. Ha! You can see we had a great time taking photos with raf-i-ki and donkeys all along the way.

Honestly, Disney made the marathon fun with all the great things to see and do along the way. This time 26.2 miles didn't seem so bad!