FMM - Vacations!

It's Friend Makin' Monday again and since Kasey is still on her awesome 30 day road trip, Jolanthe over at No Ordinary Moments is hosting today.

The two part topic is: vacations!

First tell us about your best or worst vacation and then list five places you want to go to on vacation at some point in your life.

Ok, you know I haven't really had a horrible vacation. At least not one I can really remember. Growing up, my family would vacation at the best place on Earth the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We always went with this one other family, got a huge house right on the beach and lived it up for a week or two. We always went the first two weeks of August, aka hurricane season. Most years we were lucky, but we did get evacuated by Hurricane Felix one year. I don't actually remember a lot, even though I was like 15 or something. (Guess that goes to show how self absorbed I was as a teenager! lol). I just really remember that we evacuated to this hotel in Greenville, NC and that I was in close quarters with my brothers (ugh!) and that there was literally nothing to do so we walked around Walmart (ugh again!). Fortunately, it was just for a night and then the next day Felix went on its way up the eastern seaboard and we went back to the Banks.

As far as best vacations go, realy some of my favorite vacation memories are from the Outer Banks; boogie-boarding in the great Atlantic waves, sitting the deck of the beach house watching the dolphins frolick in the waves, looking for shells, riding our bikes around Corolla Light. It was the kind of family vacation I hope to take my children on some day.

My other best vacation was our trip to Italy in 2006. My dad had been the highest bidder on this house

at an auction and off we (Alex, me, my brothers, and my parents) went to Perugia, Italy for a week! It was absolutely fabulous. The scenery was breath-taking and the culture amazing. One of the things I loved the most was multitude of artwork in the beautiful old churches that were everywhere! I loved going into those churches and knowing that painting in there were hundreds of years old! We went to Florence, Assisi, and many other small towns and had a great time.

Except for one small detail that really only affected me.

I was 10 weeks pregnant with Melody. And sick. as. a. dog. The whole time. I got sick on the plane when we landed in Rome and was pretty sick the whole time. And tired. So, I missed out on all the great food and wine since basically all I could stomach was bread. I'm planning on going back just so I can eat and drink there!

This was the view from mine and Alex's bedroom

Machiavelli's tomb in Florence
The cathedral in Assisi
Out of all the artwork we saw, this was my favorite painting. Sorry it's so dark, but flash wasn't allowed. It's Adam and Eve blaming the serpent when God confronts them in the Garden of Eden.
Alex in Florence. Yes, that's a Statue of David apron he's wearing. I laughed so hard when we saw the Statue of David (after waiting in line for over two hours, btw) beacuse my brother said, "Wow. David has the biggest hands ever and the smallest penis!"
My brothers and I walking up the road to Assisi.

Anyway, I really could go on and on for hours about how amazing Italy is. It's definitey a place I want to go back to.

Now for my list of where I want to go. It's so hard to narrow it down to just five places, but I'll try.
Ok, in no particular order:
1. Hawaii
2. London
3. Ireland
4. Greece
5. Alaska

Since we're already on the subject of vacations, whenever I need a vacation, I drink of of these;
In my family, our drink of choice, a gin and tonic, is known as a "Vacation" after my mom once said that "drinking a gin and tonic is like going on vacation!"