I HATE ZOOM AIRLINES

So I went to bed around midnight since we had to be up early to drive to DC early. Nancy woke me up around 1am to tell me that....

Our flights to and from Europe were cancelled because the airline went bankrupt. I didn't know what was going on and I felt sick to my stomach. The email simply said to apply to creditors to get refunds and they were sorry.

Sorry?? Our flights were CANCELLED!!! We didn't know what to do and after some talking with the credit card (nothing can be solved til the morning) and some searching online. We have now booked flights on British Airways to go to London. Problem is, we now need a way back from New York to California. PLus, we still need to get the money refunded from the other flights.

Let's just hope tomorrow goes better because this was not fun.

Encountering the Atlantic!

Mr. Bacon in the AtlanticPlymouth Rock is small and caged.I don't fit on the Mayflower.Still don'tPuritans lived a shitty life but they had a great view!

Downtown Provincetown, MassachusettsLighthouse on the Cape

Nancy and I sitting on the observation deck by the lighthouse. Nancy beat me down the cliff.
Down the cliff of Cliff Walk Newport, RI
Firestation in Jamestown
Playing in the water by a lighthouse in Jamestown

We've been quite busy the last few days. On Tuesday we headed up to Cape Cod. Along the way, we went to Plymouth Rock, The Mayflower II and Plymouth Village. Plymouth rock is interesting. You would think that for being such a famous rock, it would be large. But, its only about 5 feet long and its in a cage. Well right now it is a rock in cage, under scaffolding. behind plexiglass. You can barely see the thing unless you hike down to the shore and then look from there. After seeing this famous stone, we went to climb aboard the Mayflower II. It's not the orginal (obviously) but its replica that was built and sailed in 1957 [hey mom, you're as old as the mayflower!]. There was an attractive pilgrim aboard the mayflower and a really clever one down below deck. Let it be known that I would be one unhappy person if I were sailing on the mayflower because I couldn't stand up below deck. After the mayflower it was only natural that we should head to Plymouth Village and see where the pilgrims lived. The village was a lot like Sturbridge, but set in the 1700s instead of the 1800s. We got to see more people in this village. First, you go to a wompanoag villege and see real life Native Americans performing daily tasks that would have happened at the time. They were cooking and building and such. Then, you walk forever to the pilgrim village and see their houses. There were people there talking about their lives and some of the visitors were being super ignorant and asking them stupid questions. It was kind of annoying, but I liked the experience. After, you could go to a crafts area and see all of the "products" being made. After the village, I was pretty tired and hot. We headed to our hotel in Falmouth, Massachusetts next. The hotel was really cute. We had a balcony that looked out over the harbor and the room had a kitchenette. It would be a cute studio apartment. We found a place to eat dinner (the British Beer Company) and headed out. I got a delicious wrap called The Fireman's Favorite or something. It had thinly sliced steak, blue cheese and grilled onions all wrapped in a wheat tortilla. So good! After dinner, we all went backt o the room and took naps. We got up for ice cream later and then Nancy and I watched TV til really late.

The next morning, we got up to head out to Provincetown, Massachusetts. We were staying in the armpit of the arm of Mass, and Provincetown it on the fist. We walked around for a bit and went in all the shops. Provincetown is a predominantly gay community and so there were fun kid's shirts that said things like "I love my two moms" or "I <3 my dads." We ate at a place called Clem and Ursies. I had a delcious wedge salad and Nancy and I got into a food fight. She somehow dropped part of her bean burger on my foot and I managed to hit her with lettuce and flick blue cheese dressing on her face. Not entirely my fault, I was manuevering a wedge with plastic cutlery. After lunch we walked around for awhile and then headed to a light house. Lighthouses are pretty neat. After going back to the room, we decided we needed snacks, so nancy and I went to Rite Aid to get those and then we relaxed the rest of the evening.

Today we did so much that I don't even know where we were or what we did. We started out in Falmouth and went to a couple shops around there. After, we headed to Newport, Rhode Island to drive down Bellvue Avenue and see the HUGE mansions that the rich from NYC used to Summer in during the 20s. (Think Gatsy-ish) The places are HUGE! After, we went to the Cliff Walk in Newport and climbed down a cliff to the water. It was fun. Then we went to Jamestown Island to see another lighthouse and to walk around some shops. Nancy and I played in the water by the lighthouse a bit. It was cold, but we searched for shells and skipped rocks. After, we went to Warwick to visit Carl and Elaine. We walked to the beach from their cottage and then went to the shops in Warwick. Nancy's Aunt bought us some used books for the flight to London and then I got some new cheap earrings (I lost one of my other cheap ones). We went to Dinner at Gregg's and then headed back to Norwich. Nancy and I ave been preparing for our trek to DC in the morning. We're doing laundry and getting our stuff together now. Should be fun!

Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts

Baby Cows
One of the barns with a garden
Dying Yarn...smells bad!
Trying on shoes from the 1800s
Cute Pig
Chickens in the barn perched on some farm equipment.

Today we went to Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. Its a village that is still stuck in the 1800s pretty much. You can go in all the buildings and see people doing what the people of the time would do and such. It was neat. The 1800s smelled awful though. That was my best memory of there. Haha. I like it though. We got to see yarn being dyed (smelly!), hats being made, tin pots made, a black smith, cows, horses, pigs, chickens, sheep (nothing that much different than menifee) and more. It just made me feel like I never learned anything in school because all of it was new to me! Oh well. We did get some tasty fudge though. On the way home we picked up some really good pizza from Mr. Pizza.

Also, today Nancy's Aunt booked us another timeshare. We are spending a week in the Netherlands! Yay! I'm pretty excited about that.

Roses, Cemeteries and Gorges, Oh my!

So today we went to lunch with Carl & Elaine (Nancy's Grandma's niece and her niece's son...confusing) and then we went driving around Norwich, CT. We went to the house that her grandma used to live in and where her dad and aunt grew up. It was built about a billion years ago, but it still looked really nice. We also went to where her grandma was buried. I actually walked ina cemetery. Like...walked around the graves to look at all of them. I think this is different than ones that I have been to in the past because the graves are mainly from the 1800s and such. Then we went to a park ....I think the Mohegan reservation something or other? But there was a rose garden and then some really pretty trees and then we went to Indian's Leap. Its a really pretty gorge-like thing with a bridge and such. The guy that was standing on the bridge lived at the house overlooking it. I was kinda jealous. He has a sweet view. After, I had the choice between seeing an old covered bridge or going to one of the oldest cemeteries in Norwichtown and I chose the cemetery. Weird, right? Anyway, you can barely read the gravestones there. One said at the bottom "Death is a debt to nature due, we have paid and so will you." Kinda bitter. But its the one that I am pictured with. You might be able to see it if you enlarge it. There was a bunch of babies buried there...lots of toddlers and younger. I'm just surprised that I went trompsing through and effing graveyard in my damn flipflops. One small step for mankind, one HUGE step for Mallory.

Anyway, we ended the evening with delicious ice cream and some romantic comedies. Delightful. Tomorrow we are going to Sturbridge Village (an old place that is still like a working colony) and then going to Massachusetts to head to Cape Cod. Wee!

Connecticut AND NYC

So we have arrived. Well, 2 days ago or so but you get the idea. We have been really busy the whole time but I shall start with connecticut. We left for our first flight at 8am on Wednesday and we flew out at 10:55 to Phoenix. The next flight turned out to take us to Nashville! We were so excited to go to Nashville and really excited when we got there. (Too bad it was too cloudy/dark to see any of it and we never left the plane and only saw the Tarmac...but whatever. Not the point) We then flew in to Hartford. By this time we were kind going nuts and hungry so it was nice that when we arrived at Nancy's aunt Nancy's we had grinders waiting for us. I am in love with grinders now. It IS similar to any sub sandwich and it may have been that I was starving but I ate the whole thing (even though it had lettuce on it).

On Thursday we went to Mystic, CT to go see the historic shipyard but it cost like $20 to go in so we looked from afar and then went shopping in a place that reminded me of seaport village. There was a Swedish store, but I'm waiting for the real thing. ;) It's really pretty out here but look A LOT like Washington on the way to Gail/Christina's...kinda odd. We did a lot of walking around and then picked up Aunt Nancy from work. Then we pretty muich rushed to pack and get to the 7pm train to NYC. It takes about 2 hours to get to the city by train. Not bad at all.

The first night we met Ryan in Grand Central Station...he works at a store there and then took the subway to George's Apartment to drop off all of our bags. We looked like hobos with the amount of small bags we were carrying. We then got dinner (tip: Mexican food in nyc is nothing like socal) and went to Times Square. We saw the M&M place and walked around till we went to someplace called Bourbon Street where Ryan had a friend and then we proceeded to barhop with him. He gets free drinks EVERYWHERE. It was fun. I think we went to The Blarney Stone (this bar had 17 year olds in it and the bartender knew but said he let ryan in when he was 18 so he was going to let them) and then we went to House of Brews and some other place which I have no idea what it was called and I don't think anyone ever told me. We went back to George's after that and woke up in the middle of the night because it was snowing in the apartment. OK, not really but he had his window AC on high and Nancy and I were shivering and sooo cold.

As one might guess we got a slow start the next morning. I'm going to chalk that up to the time difference. So we really were up at 9am Pacific. Ha. Showered and went to get pressed sandwiches. I liked them, Nancy didn't. We took the subway to Central Park and saw the "Imagine" thing. It was sooo pretty there and I felt like I was in about 15 different romantic comedies and I reminded Nancy about each one. I think she was annoyed but I knew that I was in Made of Honor, Enchanted, How to Lose a Guy, Maid in Manhattan, etc. After the park we proceeded to walk all over Manhattan. That was probably not the best idea because we had all day metro cards. Whatever. We saw Radio City Music Hall, then took the subway to The World Trade Center (It may be blashphemous to say but that was a waste of time. It was blocked off and essentially a hole in the ground. Oh well) We then walked by Battery Park to get to the Staten Island Ferry. (free statue of libery harbor cruise!!!) So, we saw the Statue of Liberty, the Brookly Bridge, the skyline AND Staten Island for free!! When we got off the ferry we were pretty much spent so we went back to the apartment to meet George for dinner. We went to Washington Square (where sally drops harry off) and then to a Peanut Butter Store!!! I spent $2 on a peanut butter cookie and if you're will you too can spend $8 for a PB&J. Riiiight. We got drinks across the street from there and George's GF, Alix met us. We ate at and italian place and then went to The Slaughtered Lamb for more drinks. That bar was intense. It was like a pirates lair...so strange but so cool. Our waitress was probably tweaking cos she kept yelling even though it was quiet in there. We went accross the street to a much more crowded and loud bar called "Down the Hatch." It was litterally down a hatch and I almost fell. Probably because I have bad luck with stairs. Oh well. We finished off at some other place called the Town Tavern and then went home.

This morning we got up and met Aunt Nancy in Rockefellar center and then got delicious chocolates. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral (HUGE) and then went to 5th Avenue. I got to go into the American Girl Store! They have doll hairstylists there. Such a cool job. We walked around some more and then headed to the theatre to see "Avenue Q." The play was soooo funny. I loved it. We tried to get wicked tickets for later, but they were $301.75 a piece. It would have been almost a thousand dollars for all of us to go. Crazy. We got dinner in Times Square and then headed back to get our stuff and grab a train to Connecticut.

I don't know what we're doing tomorrow but we've only been here pretty much 3 days and we've done a ton already. It's going to be an action packed 2 months. I just wish everywhere had a subway. SO AMAZING. It's so convenient. Looking forward to tomorrow...whatever it brings. Also, sometimes I wish I weren't so attractive. Especially in those pictures with my beautiful smile. I'm so pretty it hurts sometimes.

Also, that lovely fella up top is named Mr. Bacon...you'll be seeing a lot of him.

PACKING!!!

Normally I love to pack and I am packed weeks before and living out of my suitcase before I go on the trip but for some reason I could not bring myself to pack until last night after midnight while watching Nastia Luikin get robbed of the gold on the uneven bars. Anyway, I finished packing my "packpack" for Europe and now I just need to pack some things for the east coast that I plan on shipping back home before flying across the pond.

So this is my packpack... its a mountainsmith scarlet and is made out of recycled waterbottles! (fancy!!) It weighs more than a small child and has everything I will need (sort of) for 6 weeks in europe and supplements for my 2 weeks on the east coast. It's actually pretty impressive what I have managed to fit in here. Packing list is as follows:

• 2 long sleeve shirts
• 3 short sleeve shirts
• 3 camis
• 2 pairs of jeans
• casual shorts
• leggings (for wearing underneath jeans when its cold)
• rain coat
• hat/gloves/scarf
• bathing suit
• towels
• hoodie
• 8 pairs socks & underpants (more or less...I had a hard time choosing. haha)
• flip flops
• Toiletry kit including but not limited to: brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, showergel, deodorant, laundry soap, face wash, febreeze, toner, makeup, and about a million other products all tiny sized...
  
• sleeping bag
• sleep sheet (for hostel beds)
• waterbottle
• first aid kit
• manicure set
  
• sewing kit
• ductape
• flashlight
• fork/knife/spoon
• maps
• duffel bag (to put the whole thing in for flying)

Something tells me I'm forgetting some of the stuff that's in there but you get the idea...tons of stuff but not really because its for 2 months. I also have a day pack which has my ipod, camera, wallet, etc. I think no matter what I do it will feel like I am forgetting something and since I'm going to be right next to a K-mart when I get to the east coast, I shouldn't worry about it too much. Whatever I'm missing I can buy there.

Ok, well I leave in the morning at 8am for the airport. We're all checked in online and have sort of good places in line for seats on southwest so here's hoping for legroom! 16 more hours! Eek.

2 More Days!

Two more days and there's so much left to get together. I need to decide what to pack and then see if it even fits in my backpack. Yikes. In the meantime, I'm going to go see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with my mom. It's just going to make me want to go to Greece even more than Mama Mia. I suck at seeing "good" movies....or do i?

Countdown!

4 days!