Mexico City

I had the Wonderful Opportunity to go to Mexico City in November to Visit my friend Roberto from my mission. I had wanted to go for a long time. The great part about this vacation is that I had a readymade tour guide and a free place to stay! As we flew into the City I had the feeling as if we were going to land on the houses. The urban sprawl was something to incredible. I thought Vegas was bad. Anyway just as midway airport in Chicago just when you think that you are going touch the roof tops the sea of buildings part making way for the airport. My friend Roberto met me out front and we started off on our grand adventure. The day was mostly gone but we had a few things to do before we called it a day. We first headed out to Azcapotzalco, the city that is part of Mexico City where he grew up. He then took me to an ice cream shop. He said that Ice cream was a little different here and I had to have some. It was wonderful. The kind that I had was called Chongos Zamoranos, which is a sort of creamed cottage cheese. We don't have it in the states. It was kind of weird and hard because it was frozen but tasted good and really rich. next on the agenda for the evening was off Salsa Dancing. We met Roberto's friend Shasllely and headed off to Mama Rumba's. Her driver dropped us off and some guys opened a gate to let us in. I felt kind of important. Anyway we went in and upstairs in a little area to watch the band play, people dance and we ordered Taquitos, which are more like little soft shell taco's there and virgin Pina Colada's. We soon cleared the chairs and started dancing. I didn't fare so well as they did. But it was a great place to try Salsa dancing in Mexico. On The Drive home that night we were taken home through downtown Mexico City, so I was given a little taste of what I would get to see in the morning, but in the beautiful colors of the lights at night. The next morning we started off early headed downtown Mexico. The first place we went was The LDS Mexico City Temple. It was so beautiful and a lot bigger than I had pictured it in pictures I'd seen. The color was such a brilliant white and the Aztec archetechture made it hard for me to take my eyes off of it. We went into the visitors center and met one of Roberto's friends, who was on a mission there. We even got to sit and listen to a message in German. You can here it in the language you know, so they played it for us in German. We soon went out and walked around the temple and took many pictures. So many people were around. I was amazed it was so busy. Next we parked the car and jumped on a micro bus which is an adventure in itself. These little buses are one of the cities main transport. The buses only have about 5rows of seats that fill up very quickly. Getting on and off is another experiance. The doors of the bus are usually left open, which I think is rather dangerous. If you don't know where they are going you are kind of out of luck. The drivers don't yell out where you are. If you are lucky enough to get to your destination you have to jump off very quickly or the bus will be going again. The same thing about getting on the bus. They were usually moving again as you stepped on. I can see why they only cost about 2 pesos Anyway after that adventure we caught the metro downtown to Casa de los Azulejos or The House of Tiles. It was an amazing building. We of course were there to eat. The inside as well as the outside walls were all tiled and painted. In the center of the building where the restaurant was opened to a big courtyard type area where a little fountain was on one wall and beautiful arches were on all sides. The food was splendid. I had enchiladas and Roberto had Chilaquiles, which is basically chips with some salsa and cheese, but so much better. We also had fruit juice. I could write an entire section on the fruit juices there. They are so much better than in the states. They mix lots of juices together and it is thick and fresh, more like nectar. It spoiled me to fruit juices in the states. Next we walked around downtown and looked at some of the buildings like the Torre Latinoamericana or Latin America Tower, National Post office as well as Palacio de Bellas Artes or Palace of Fine Arts, which was magnificent. The roof is a beautiful orange dome and the inside was eligant. We then went to Zócalo or the Main Square in Mexico city. The square was huge. This was the place to shop for souvenirs. Almost every street vender you could think of was here. They also had very reasonable priced stuff. Pesos are a lot less than Dollars. I was a little nervous at first when they said things were as much as 35 pesos. I had forgotten its only about $3.50 in Dollars. Anyway back to the main square at Zócalo. National buildings surrounded the Plaza de la Constitución and in the center of it all was a gigantic Mexican flag. To the north the Metropolitan Cathedral stands. It is said to be the oldest and biggest Catholic Cathedral in the America's. On the east stands the Grand National Palace or Palacio Nacional. This is where the federal executive is seated. They are a beautiful sight and well worth a visit. The Temple Mayor sits just to the north of the square. The Templo Mayor was the one of the main temples of the Aztecs in their capital city of Tenochtitlan which is now Mexico City. We only looked inside and watched some Aztec dancers perform outside, but instead of roaming the ruins we took a trip over to the National Museum of Anthropology to see all of the artifacts that were found in the ruins, which were not a few. It cost around 50 Peso's to get in and was worth every one. This museum was full of artifacts. It houses the Aztec Calendar, Many giant statues and Sacrificial alters. Tons of quetzalcoatl artifacts, the snake was everywhere as well as head dress figures and tablets of their writing. There was also housed many artifacts from the Mayan and Olmec cultures, Some including giant heads and recreations of pyramids. We were also able to one night of our stay go to the square at Zócalo and Celebrate Día de la Revolución. It is every November 20th. Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the Plaza de la Constitución to watch a light show. It was a little bit of a letdown to me. I thought there should be more fireworks and power and that the people should have been cheering more than they were. The light show was on the actual National Palace itself. This was quite impressive. They transformed the facade of it with lights and colors and optical illusions.
It was quite beautiful and stunning, but lasted a bit too long. It was worth it though. The crowd getting out was a different story. You need to plan on not being in a hurry to leave. The best thing to do is to enjoy the very slow walk through all the people and stop at one of the vendors, for some elote, a type of corn, tamales or some cotton candy. The cotton candy was a sight to see.
it would fly up into the air and catch on street poles or just fly up into the night. We even stopped to watch some street performs where you could draw your Destiny from a box. Kinda creepy, but interesting.

Masquerade Ball and Halloween!!

This year Halloween was so much fun. My friends had a couple of different parties going on. I've always wanted to go to a Masquerade Ball and this year I got my wish. My friend Alie hosted a Ball. We all were able to dress up in our best, wear masks and dance like crazy. I was working a flight down to New Orleans the day before the party and was able to Purchase a mask down there which was so much fun! I loved seeing everyone get into it. The best part about it is we are going to do it every year! I'm so excited! For Halloween we Changed it up and Me and Alan Decided to be Johnny Cash and June Carter since Johnny Cash is his idol. It took awhile for me to find an outfit that would work, but we pulled it together. Of course we had to tell everyone who we were but they all loved it! We even got to sing a few times to our audiances :) I can't believe I dared do it, but I loved getting into character. It was an exciting night!!

Oregon Visit and Corn Maze

Me and Alan had the chance a couple weeks ago to go up to Lisa’s house and help out around and play up on the farm in Oregon.

I wanted to introduce him to Lisa as well as show Alan the farm. He loves farms and animals and the country, but hasn’t been around it much so this weekend he was in heaven! It was like seeing a kid in a Candy store. I was able to take him over to feed the baby calves, combine corn and even help Lisa break down a wall in their basement.

That was one of the hardest things I’ve done. It was like trying to break down a wall of concrete with a hammer. The wall was stucco with reinforced with Chicken wire. Kind of frustrating but it made you feel really accomplished when you actually got one down.

I also loved the chance I had to play with my nephews. They are growing up so fast. I loved talking to Chase. He seems so much more grown up now that he is in school.

Trey was so cute. He walked around everywhere with his Cowboy hat and boots.

Keegan well He is just cute little smiley man, with lots of cranky stints between the smiles, but I loved it.

The next week my friend Chelsea came to Utah from Chicago. She had to be here for Flight Attendant Training. We had tons of fun after training was over. It was my roommate Nettie’s birthdays so we all went out to a corn maze at Thanksgiving point.

This corn maze was amazing!! There was so much extra stuff besides the corn maze there.

They had slides, a big jumping bubble thing, food, a mechanical bull and lots of little booths.

It kind of ruined me for any other corn maze. I will only bring people to this one from now on. Anyway we had tons of fun.

After we all went back home for cake and ice cream. The funny thing was we forgot candles for the cake so we were really ghetto and used matches for the candles. Yup it was a little redneck but fun.

Ireland

My mom and I had a wonderful trip to Ireland a couple of months ago. I took lots of pictures and had tons of fun. I'll share a couple of pictures and tell a little about some of the places.

The first place we went to was Dublin. The city reminded me of Germany a lot. We landed on a rainy morning and it was beautiful. Some of my favorite places in the city was the Dublin Castle.

We were able to take a tour of it and take pictures inside. It reminded me of a 1700palace. Really pretty.

The Library at Trinity College was amazing!! The buildings around the college are beautiful, but the Library is so pretty.

It costs maybe 9 euro, so if you like old books and history it is a wonderful place to visit!!

I also loved the Ha Penny Bridge. That is the nick name for the Liffey Bridge which is a pedestrian only bridge because it used to cost that much to cross it.

The Cathedrals were also very beautiful. I loved being able to see the outside of these buildings, but sadly I wasn’t able to go in either of them.

I was able to see two. St Patrick’s Cathedral and Christ’s Church Cathedral.

We also got to go to the Gaeity theater and watch Riverdance. It was amazing! I’m so glad I got to watch it over there. The only thing I would have done different is Not to watch it on the first night I got there. I was so tired from jetlag.
We also were able to go to a place called Glendalough.

There was an old monastery built in this area with a big Round tower, Cathedrals and churches.

The Cathedral was in ruins and surrounding it was an old cemetery.
Glendalough was set up in some mountains in a valley with two lakes.

The lakes were a nice little walk away from the main buildings. It didn’t take very long and was worth it. There were some more ruins, but there wasn’t much left of them. The upper lake was really pretty in itself. I’m glad we went.
I think my favorite place to visit was The Cliffs of Moher. We took a tour bus through Barrett tours. We took a train to Limerick where we caught the tour bus. They took us first to Leamenagh Castle.

It was one of many little stone castles that cover the Irish Country side. Most of the buildings there are made of the Limestone that covers the landscape.

Caherconnell Stone Fort the next stop on our tour is one of these buildings. It is a Dry Stone fort dating from 400 A.D. and made from the limestone from the Burren.
That is what the countryside is called that is covered in the stuff.

We were able to take a drive through the stuff and enjoy the many stone walls and houses.

The next thing that we went to was Poulnabrone Tomb, which is an ancient burial site thought to date back to 3800BC. There are many tombs like this around Ireland. They are large rocks standing up on end with a very large cap rock on top. I was just amazed that they have stayed together so long. I would think weather would have made them fall years ago. It was fun to see.

We then went to eat at a little town called Doolin. I had a stew and soda bread. We had soda bread lots of places we went. It was like a staple there, but the best thing that I had to eat there was the Fudge. It was the best fudge ever, with a layer of fudge, Carmel type stuff and a crust that was amazing. I wish we would have gotten more.

After that we were able to go to the Cliffs of Moher and see those beautiful dark cliffs. It was so peaceful there. We didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to go run and explore.

It was really windy by the cliffs. My mom was not happy when we went out in this area that told us not to. She was mad when I got close to the cliffs. It was so beautiful and worth the trip to Ireland.

If this was the only thing I saw I would have been glad to see it. We saw many other things but these were my favorites. I would love to go back to Ireland and see so much more. Maybe next time I’ll have more than three days.