The Highlands

For a long time, I feared we wouldn't be able to travel again. Or at least that we wouldn't be able to travel while in England and so close to mainland Europe. Thankfully, we seem to be in the traveling bug in 2022. I'm trying to soak up all the summer travel before going back to teaching this Fall. The Scottish Highlands have been at the top of my "Must-See" list for a long time. I reveled in the lochs and the mass of green mountains. I rented an adorable little cottage by the sea. It was as lovely as you're picturing (except for the spring coil beds, why must British beds be so uncomfortable?). We drove from our home in England all the way up to Inverness. It was a brutal nine-hour drive. Although a lot better on the way there than on the way back considering I was quite sick on our drive home. We explored the little city of Inverness, visited Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle (a beautiful ruinous castle on the shore of Loch Ness), and took the breath-taking drive to Isle of Skye to do all the outdoorsy Highland stuff. It was absolutely as amazing as I pictured it to be. 

Italia Memorial Weekend: Venezia & Firenze

We took a long weekend over Memorial Day weekend to travel to Italy. I love how quick trips to mainland Europe are from England. It was chaotic and stressful (we almost missed our flight and parking in Florence is a nightmare), but after the initial craziness of day one, we had a really lovely weekend. Strolling through the city of bridges and canals while delighting in looking through every single Venetian mask shop I could I find will always be Venice. Florence, the birthplace of the renaissance, was full of beautiful architecture and renaissance art. We went to the Uffizi and saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus, pieces of work by Michaelangelo, Dante, and many others. It was beautiful. I sipped on limoncello and indulged in a lot of pizza and gelato. Italy was dreamy.

2021 in Pictures

 I forgot about his blog. Life got hard, weird, and lonely. But it was also a really interesting year. I started teaching. First a Host Nation position and then a very difficult first-grade position. They both changed me in ways I can't quite process yet. Little travels and explorations. Brandon was deployed for most of the year which was one of the hardest things I've experienced. I got a new tattoo. A beautiful matryoshka doll on my arm. She represents the multitudes in all of us. I went to the theater a lot. Explored the Jurassic Coast and the Cotswolds. Took a summer-long pottery course that I absolutely loved. We spent New Year's Eve in London. It wasn't an easy year, but I tried to find the little joys in 2021.