Becoming more refined...

This past week we attended TWO cultural events... I think that may be the most Ryan has ever atteneded in one year! It was great! Orange County has a great performing arts center with two facilities. One is for shows and broadway type events, the other is brand new and is for musical events. We actually went to both halls this week! First we went to see the new OC Southern California Mormon Choir performance.

This is a new choir started by two brothers who are extremely musically inclined. They had try-outs through out all of southern California to get members for their choirs - the adult choir, high school age choir, youth choir, chidrens choir and sunbeems choir - plus the orchestra! It was great to see so many people displaying their talents and working to improve them. The music was all Christmas music, and it was really fun to see friends performing in such an amazing place!

Last night we went to see the Radio City Rockettes from New York! It was also a Christmas show and we really enjoyed it! There were about 12 dancing/singing numbers. The Rockettes only danced, but they had another singing and dancing group who would perform in between the Rockettes numbers to give them a chance to change outfits and get ready for the next number.

I told Ryan several weeks ago that I wanted to go see the Rockettes. He had no idea what they were but agreed to purchase the tickets. When we were at the choir performance earlier in the week he saw this picture. He said, "those girls aren't wearing any pants!" I said, "Those are the Rockettes. That is who we are going to see." He got a big smile on his face, and said, "I love you!" What a guy... Well, regardless, the show was pretty amazing, and Ryan's favorite number, ironically, was the one where the girls were wearing pants! It was really fun and now we are totally refined and enjoy attending cultural events. The next is phantom! Coming in March! YIPPEE!

Big BEAR!

We are so behind in our posts, but still wanted to post our adventures! We went to Big Bear for our 2nd anniversay, back in November. We rented a house/cabin, that was big enough for 10 people... There were 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. There was a large family room and kitchen, along with a hot tub on the back yard deck, with a BBQ! We really had a great time!

This is the house. It was right at the base of snow summitt and big bear mountain. There was no snow but the weather was nice and cool. Before we got up to Big Bear we stopped at Tiff and Eric's new place in Redlands! We are so happy they are living closer to us! We still wish we saw them more though... They live in a very cute apartment and I think they like the new adventure. We also stopped through Running Springs to see Ryan's Aunt. This was right after the big fires, and Runnings Springs got burned pretty good. Luckily Ryan's Aunt's house was safe.

Well, we took our bikes thinking we could mountain bike a little, but ALL the National Parks and trails were closed because of the fire hazzard. They didn't want any new fires to start. SO, we found other things to do...

We rode the Alpine Slide! It was so fun! We took the ski lift up the hill and then got these sleds. We each sat on our own sled and then rode down the mountain in these track things - that you can see behind our heads in the picture on the left. It was really fun! We rode twice, although we probably could have gone at least 10 more times and still gone some more!

We had such a fun time! We tried to race, but I think Ryan's weight made it unfair... He always went faster.

We took our bikes out on the bike path and rode around the Big Bear Lake. The water level was very low, but we just kept thinking how much fun this lake would be in the summer! This was our first adult visit to Big Bear for the both of us... Now, we want to go back! Here are a few more pic's of our trip. We had such a fun time. The hot tub back at the house was great! We sat in it every night and enjoyed looking at the stars. We had such a fun time, and can't wait to go back!

Ali's Sweet NEW Ride

So, as we all know, my wife ROCKS. Generally she goes unrewarded and usually doesn't complain. So in payment for years of hard work and dedication at her job, she has got a just reward. A sweet 2008 LR2 which is a Land Rover. Enough said, know that she rocks and this is her sweet new ride. Thanks ED!!!

Anniversary Flowers!

This past weekend Ryan and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. Ryan surprised me with 2 doz. extra long stem roses, 2 doz. orchids and a bunch of huge pink flowers that were really pretty, but we didn't know what they were called! It was amazing! I've never received so many flowers! Guess what Ryan doesn't know is that every year he'll have to out-do himself... Guess he better get saving up for next years flowers... ;)

More flowers...

And the orchids...

Thanks RY!!!

Our Friend Phil

While on our trip we met another couple on our bus tour that turned out to be kindred friends. We had SUCH a fun time with them! Ryan and Phil had a great time teasing our tour director and making fun of the millions of history lessons she tried to give us. We did a lot with Phil and Ros and when the trip ended, we were so sad to say goodbye. Phil and Ros live in Austrailia - obviously far away from our little Huntington Beach. We grew very close to them and it was strange to think that we would probably never see them again. Here are some pictures of our dear friends that REALLY made our trip even that much more exciting.

This little pub was in Dunmore East, outside of Waterford - yes home of the famous Crystal factory, also home of the saying, "by hook or by crook." Phil here is modeling for us in front of the thatched roof Hayes Pub. This pub has been family owned and opperated for over 100 years! The previous owner lived to be 100 years old and was not fond of tourists. She died so we got to go visit... While at the pub we listened to the live music of Richy Roberts. He was so entertaining that we bought his CD. We still listen to it and love every minute of it!

As you can see Phil doesn't look like the kind of guy that would be touring Europe by bus. He looks like he should be touring on a Harley - which in fact he does love to do, and is the reason he and his wife Ros came on this trip.

Ros was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease not too long ago. She, obviously, wasn't too happy about the diagnosis. Phil found her one day crying in their bedroom. He asked her what was wrong and she said, "I am never going to see Paris!" He told her that if that was all she wanted that he would sell his beloved Harley and use the money to finance the trip to Europe.

When sacrafices are made, blessings are given. Just like every previous year Phil purchased a $50 raffle ticket as a donation to the MS research organization. This year was different though, the grand prize was a Harley. Guess who won!!! Phil won the grand prize, a NEW Harley Davidson!!! He procedded to sell his new prize and use that money to go on a trip to Europe. He was able to keep his beloved Harley that he so willingly offered to sell to make his wife Ros happy.

They were a great example to us and we enjoyed the trip so much more with them as our travel buddies. We hope to see them again someday... in Australia 2008!

Coventry and York

OK here we are in Coventry. It is known for two things. Lady Godiva, whose Naked romp on horse back gave birth to Peeping Tom. And second for the church that got blasted during a WWII German bombing run. It was a great time.









These pictures are of the Old Cathedral that was blasted by the Nazi's in WWII. It is quite scenic and they have a memorial there as well . I loved this quote below. I thought that it was moving.




Here is the memorial stone in the floor of the Old cathedral. It is quite beautiful.



Directly across from the old cathedral is the new one. This statute on the wall is over Michael putting Lucifer under his feet, and so you know according to this statute. Satan is Hung!!! I got a picture of it, but I wasn't allowed, Sorry Lynn.

This is the view of the stain glass inside the cathedral over there. It is quite stunning. You were supposed to pay to take pictures inside. Ya right. No way I was going to pay three pounds for pictures. My tourism money is paying for enough. So bugger off. That is more or less how the conversation went.

Here is the round stain glass over the west? entrance in York. This cathedral was awesome. The whole town of York felt like a Charles DIckens landscape. It seemed to be the most pure place that we visited. We wished we would have had more than a couple of hours to stay there. Unfortunately we didn't. What can you do? We enjoyed the time that we did have. Guy Fawkes lived in York and Nov 5 is Guy Fawkes day, as well as our anniversary. It was interesting he tried to blow up parliment.

This christ on the cross stain glass stood out to me. It is interesting how there are items that are so far from our common beliefs and then others that parallels them. The stain glass was awesome. I think we stayed in the cathedral for several hours. It was breath taking and huge. It took sooo long to build that there are several styles of architecture on the outside as well.

I loved the way that the building could stand alone. This little ally shows how unsquare the architecture really is. This river is just on the ouside of the town walls. It was scenic and there is a guy rowing in the back ground. It was very pictureesque.

Galway and the Cliffs of Moher

Galway, is located on a huge bay on the western shore of Ireland. It is very scenic and beautiful. The Stream to the left had some fly fisherman in it, I suppose fishing for trout but we didn't have the chance to ask. Just up the road from this river was the local cathedral.
The stain glass here was quite awesome and, really, only the church in York had prettier stain glass. From Galway we continued south along the coast and every once in while a castle like this is on the side of the road.



















From there we reached the Cliffs of Moher. I think they look like the cliffs of Insanity from the Princess Bride. It was very inspiring the way they had that little look out castle. I loved the vantage point that we had here. Had we enough time I would have enjoyed walking out to the point out in the distance. But still I find that the view of that castle gives good proportion to the size the cliffs actually are. They were awesome. The two pictures below are on the way from Galway heading south. The one below on the right is the infamous Galway Bay.




This castle was on the bay as well, it was real low tide so you could see way out. Then I don't know if you would have figured it out by the photo alone, but Ali had a runny nose. I have (being married to her) seen her at her high points and low points and I think this would fall right there in the middle. (Ryan got sick too, but as you can see he didn't want to include the photos we took of him when he was sick in bed...) The joys of taking a bus tour... When one person gets stick, the entire bus gets sick... one poor soul at a time. All in all, we still had a FABULOUS time!